God's Last Words

God: Three for the Price of One
Focus Scripture: Deuteronomy 6: 4 and John 3: 11-17

Now I’m going to tell a joke that our ancestors in the Reformed Church would have recognized and much appreciated. Today we’d consider it intolerant and politically incorrect. It might even be “hate speech.” But I will tell it as an illustration about the Holy Trinity.

The Holy Trinity, (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) decide to go on a vacation and visit earth. The Son proposes to go to San Francisco, but the Father finds that place too full of sin. So the Father proposes a visit to Jerusalem. “I can’t go on vacation there!” says the Son, “That’s where I got killed! Besides, it’s on my schedule for next week!”

A discussion breaks out, and the Holy Spirit walks out. “If y’all can’t come up with something when I come back, we’re not going anywhere!”

An hour later the Holy Spirit walks back into the room, and the Father and the Son excitedly say they want to go to Rome. “Rome?” says the Holy Spirit, “Great idea! I’ve never been there before!”

Now imagine, while parking at Wal-Mart you slightly scrape the side of a brand new Escalade. You are certain no one else is aware of what happened. The damage is minor and would be covered by the other driver’s insurance, which the driver of an expensive SUV surely has. Would you leave a note?

I read not long ago about a person who did just that, except people were watching. So he took out a piece of paper and he wrote on it, “A number of people around me think I’m leaving you a note that includes my name, address, and phone number. But I’m not. Fix it yourself.”

In our Reformed tradition, what you would do in that circumstance is a matter of who you are, who you are becoming, and your conscience. I would suggest that each, for a Christian, is a function of what we call the Holy Trinity.

We know that a Christian doesn’t say one thing and mean another. A Christian’s creed and conduct are supposed to correspond. After all, to walk in the truth means to apply that truth to your behavior. As Jesus said, “Let your “yes” mean “yes” and your “no” mean “no.” We are to speak the truth, live the truth, and celebrate the truth.

God is truth. And God’s truth claims every aspect of our lives, whether we want it to or not.

Let’s hear our Gospel Lesson for today:

‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you^* do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.^* And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.^*

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

’Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (John 3: 11-17, NRSV)

The Christian Church has taught that there is only one God – who is supreme over the universe. Everything that exists, everything that occurs is because of this One omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God.

BUT The Christian Church has taught that this One God is Three persons or has three personalities, that the One God is a Triune being or a Trinity or Tri-unity.

Yes it is a mystery. It goes beyond the limits of our understanding, but it is given to us by the facts of God’s word. I cannot and will not pretend to understand how this works. I cannot and will not prove anything.

John Wesley once said, “Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God.”

There is a great deal recorded in the scriptures that I don’t get. But why should I expect it to be otherwise. If I understood it all that would mean that I am as smart, and wise as the one who authored it.

Since the bible is an infinite revelation from God it does bring me beyond the limits of my intelligence. Isaiah 55: 8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

The idea of the trinity is discerned throughout the scriptures from the very beginning of Genesis to the final glorious end of Revelation.

Yet there are still some who reject the Trinity.

There was a Jewish man who was a very militant atheist. But he sent his son to Trinity Christian School in New York because, despite its denominational roots, it was a great school and didn’t push a creed on non-Christian students.

After a month, the boy came home and said casually, "By the way, Dad, I learned what Trinity means! It means 'The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.'"

The father could barely control his rage. He seized his son by the shoulders and declared, "I'm going to tell you something now and I want you never to forget it. Forget this Trinity business. There is only one God... and we don't believe in him!"

Our expression of the Trinity is “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit.”

Though it says a lot, it leaves much unexplained and can make us sound confused.

St. Augustine used the term “3 persons” in his writings, though he was unsatisfied with it. He used it, “in order to not remain silent.” The Trinity is the word, though not perfect, and it is better than not saying anything at all.

Saying that there are three persons in the Godhead leads to the idea that there are three gods who sometimes relate, but only in a loose association. But we do not worship three gods who work together as one. We worship only one God.

The one God who is consistently revealed through the scriptures as the One and the Only One.

Listen to the SHEMA from Deuteronomy 6 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Hear, O Israel: YaHWeH, our Elohim, YaHWeH is One.

He is One and he is indivisible. YaHWeH is the active and self-existent One.

YaHWeH says “I am that I am” or “I will be what I will be” or “I cause to be what I cause to be” He is the creator, preserver, and governor of the universe and everything that exists. There is no other god.” 

But this proclamation “Hear, O Israel: YaHWeH, our Elohim, YaHWeH is One.” does not completely exclude the plurality of the Oneness of God.

The word for God, “Elohim” (el-o-heem) is the plural form of the word for God, “El” and is used this way through the Old Testament to refer to God. This plural word for God is often used with singular forms of the verbs.

It points towards a plurality within Oneness. It is interesting that this form is used for the word for water (“mayim”) and heaven (“shamayim.”) The words are grammatically plural – but singular in thought and in meaning.

The word for “One” here is the Hebrew word for one that means the oneness of a group as in One cluster of many grapes. It comes from a root word meaning to unify or bring together. It is the same word used in Genesis when Adam and Eve are made one flesh. It is plurality in singularity, if that makes sense.

Within the New Testament, God the Father is affirmed as The One God, and Jesus Christ is affirmed as the One God, as is the Holy Spirit affirmed as the One God.

Yet the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. “God is what happens between Jesus and his Father in their Spirit.” (Robert W. Jensen)”

What the Father is, the Son and Spirit are also. The Son, born of the Father, and the Spirit, proceeding from Him, share the divine nature with God, being “of one essence” with him.

God is three in one without any contradiction, without conflict or disagreement. God is three in one without any rift or division. Our joke at the beginning of this message, can’t happen!

We worship the Father as God. We worship Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, as God. And we worship the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Son of God, as God. We worship only One God.

God the Father, the Creator, has been revealed to us by His Son, Jesus. And Jesus has been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been revealed to us by the Son and by the Father.

 It is the secret of God’s most intimate life and being, into which, in his infinite love and generosity, he has shown to us; and it is therefore to be accepted with amazed and joyous gratitude. It is Holy Mystery yet makes perfect sense.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, and is now, and evermore shall be. Amen.