28^th June 2011

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Trinity Sunday 19 June 2011

Lessons -- Psalm 33:1-11; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20

Jesus said to them, 'Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And
remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.' (Matthew 28:19,20 NRSV)

This is the day on which Christian faith is most clearly expressed and most sorely tested! Christian worship is marked by adoration, confession and intercession to the triune God. The Church's teaching about the Trinity -- its doctrine -- sets out the Christian faith in God. It gives a distinctive shape to belief in God in contrast to the monotheistic faith of Jews, Muslims and Deists ('God is One') and the pluralistic faiths like Hinduism ('God is many').

Trinitarian language is puzzling. We may wonder if sense can be made of 'One in three' and 'three in One' in speaking of God. We may think that belief in the Trinity is optional or that it obscures 'simple' faith in God. Let's leave it to the theologians who, like the White Queen in Alice through the Looking Glass, take a certain perverse pleasure in 'believing impossible things each day before breakfast'. We long for God to be simple and easily understood without us having to make too much effort!

To many people the Trinity seems incomprehensible. Scepticism abounds.
Atheists, rationalists, Mormons and Unitarians who believe in a Supreme Being and Jehovah's Witnesses are highly critical. They complain that it is idolatrous, either because it believes in three gods or because it deifies the man Jesus. Others say that they prefer the concrete, personal figure of Jesus to what they regard as an abstract, impersonal deity.
Strangely, both liberal and evangelical Christians squirm at what they think is dry doctrine that is unrelated to life and puts limits on God.

Bishop Spong is typical, arguing that 'we should not be interested in preserving the doctrine of the Trinity (because) the ultimate truth about God has not been captured in the Trinitarian formula'. Others regard it as an outdated 'faith explanation', not 'an actual reality' (e.g. M Morwood, Is Jesus God? p81ff).

It is a pity that the Trinity is dismissed in such an off-hand, ignorant and irresponsible manner. Far from being a dry, outdated view, the doctrine of the Trinity is a positive affirmation of God's love for all and a warning against making God in our own image.

It is not a mathematical conundrum designed to bewilder simple Christians.
Nor is it the product of abstract Greek thinking that distorts the personal message of the Gospel. It is the result of profound thinking by Christians across the ages who have been moved, enthralled and enchanted by the inexhaustible 'mystery' of God's self-revelation in Christ. It developed from the necessity to give fuller expression to the encounter with the Jesus in whom they sensed the very presence of God. Simple confessions of faith in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit 'cried out for fuller expression'. (B Lohse, A Short History of Christian Doctrine, p41.)

Rather than being an 'invention' to 'explain' God and 'capture the ultimate truth about God' (as critics say), it 'uncovered' what is implicit in all Christian thinking and experience of God's self-revelation in Christ's life, death, resurrection and ascension. 'Faced with the choice between an invented God who could be understood without the slightest difficulty, and the real God, who could not, the Church unhesitatingly chose the latter.' (A McGrath, Understanding the Trinity,
p151.)

As they thought about their faith in the 'otherness of God' (Father), their experience as disciples of Jesus (Son) and the presence of God with them (Holy Spirit), they were compelled by inner necessity to express their faith in the triune love of God. The logic of faith in Christ led them to believe in the 'unity of God' (God is One) and the relations between Father, Son and Holy Spirit (God exists in communion). Both things had to be said together. Otherwise, the fullness of God's love for the world would be misrepresented.

Having experienced the fullness of God's presence in Jesus they had to speak of Christ as 'God incarnate'. And because Jesus and the Father shared a relationship of deepest communion, they had to speak of distinct 'persons' within the being of God. Likewise with the Holy Spirit, they had to speak of the Spirit that was present at creation and revealed Jesus as the Son of God at his baptism and sustained the Church as the Lord, the giver of life.

It is not easy to express something of 'the mystery of God's being with us' in words. But that is as it should be if God is God and not the projection of our desire for a simple, easily understood deity! The doctrine of the Trinity does not 'limit' God but points to the profound mystery of God's presence in the world in and through Christ. Thus we can say that the being of the triune God is characterised by the deepest communion of love for which there is no parallel in our human relationships and thinking. God is One, existing in communion!

Far from being irrelevant, optional or a barrier to simple faith, the doctrine of the Trinity is necessary to express the unparalleled breadth and depth of God's free, costly and victorious love for humanity. 'It expresses the basic Christian conviction that in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit we have the Being of God, and though we have to distinguish between God in himself (Father) , God incarnate (Son) and God working in us (Holy Spirit), it is always the One God with whom we have to do.' (G Hendry, The Westminster Confession for Today, p45ff.)

While it is necessary to put into words as best we can the mystery of the Trinity, our primary task is to worship and glorify the triune God.

This is magnificently done in Australian Hymn Book 454. Legend has it that St Patrick (389-461) said these words whenever he put on his C4th 'bullet- proof vest' before going out to preach. He expected to meet stiff resistance from worshippers of pagan, animistic gods. Everything he says is enclosed within his prayer for the presence of 'the strong name of the Trinity' (vv 1,8). He prays for protection, comfort and refreshment (vv
4,7) and for courage to withstand temptations from within and threats to his life and mission from people enslaved to idolatry, vice, lust, heresy, superstition and torture (vv 5,6).

From start to finish he glorifies the triune love of God and commits himself to the inexhaustible mystery of God's self-revelation in Christ.
The hymn shows us how faith in the 'strong name of the Trinity' arises from and is consistent with faith in Christ. Faith in Jesus is not separated from faith in the triune God! He is so moved, enthralled and enchanted by what God has done, is doing and shall do in and through Christ's incarnation, baptism, death, resurrection, ascension and return (magnificently affirmed in v2) that in v8 he can confidently pray that Christ will strengthen him in any situation with which he is confronted.

It is a serious matter to reject the Trinity. To disbelieve the triune love of God is to turn away from Christ! It means that we think that simple faith and having different beliefs about God, as so many people think in our relativistic world, are more important than being enchanted by the One God who cannot be understood in simple terms or captured by our limited minds.

The doctrine of the Trinity is not an abstract, outdated theory. It is an assault on the domestication of God. It stretches our minds and hearts to make us dissatisfied with gods that suit our purposes. And it makes us glad to worship the 'marvellous incomprehensibility and inexhaustible mystery of God's self-revelation in Christ'.

May we all take pleasure in worshipping the One God, who is known to us in the communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and bind ourselves to him and to each other in proclaiming the wonder of God's grace, no matter what temptations and threats may confront us. May we also confidently pray that Christ, who embodies the love of the Father and is known through the presence of the Holy Spirit, will encourage us in all things.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.