Sunday's Message - The Trinity: More Than Nice to Know Information

Here's the message I offered during the celebration service in the Presbyterian Church of Hopedale on Trinity Sunday, June 7.

Matthew 28:16-20

And the eleven disciples went up into Galilee on to the mountain which Jesus directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. And after Jesus came, he spoke to them saying, “All authority is given to me in heaven and upon earth. When you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to obey everything which I have commanded you. And behold, I myself am with you all the days, until the consummation of the age.

The Trinity: More Than Nice to Know Information

When I was in high school, I had teacher named Bill Russell, but don’t get the wrong idea; he didn’t play for the Celtics. No, this Bill Russell taught U.S. History. Now understand, this was in the early seventies, and Mr. Russell was, well, he had sort of a hippie vibe. In other words, although I wouldn’t call him “way out” or “out of sight,” I would say he was kind of groovy. I mean, he must have been about fifty years younger than Mr. Emmett, and his hair was certainly longer than Mr. Gwaltney, and his style was a whole lot more laid back than Mr. Hinshaw. I guess you could say, Mr. Russell was pretty cool. 

Anyway, Mr. Russell had a phrase he’d use fairly often, you know, during his history lectures. Every now and then he’d be talking about something and then he’d say, “And this is ‘nice to know’ information.’” Now, in his class, we all knew what that meant; the stuff he was about to say, well, it wasn’t going to be on the test. You see, him saying that was the cue to close your notebooks and just listen. Of course for a lot of my classmates, it was more like a “get out of jail free” card. In other words, it was the signal that they could start staring out the window or writing personal notes or doing homework for another class. But I’ll tell you, some of us really listened, because usually what Mr. Russell said made you think. And you know, as I recall, some of the best discussions we had as a class were connected to this kind of stuff. You see, generally it was pretty interesting, but not something you needed to really worry about seeing on the next test. It was nice to know information.

And you know, it seems to me that we kind of have that same attitude as we approach the Trinity, you know, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I mean, on one hand, I think we’d all say that we believe it, right; you know, we all believe in the Trinity. And I think we’d also all say that it’s important. In fact, a few years ago, when I was leading a study of world religions over at Cove, we talked about how the Trinity actually separates Christianity from the other two great monotheistic religions. You see, although we’d all claim to worship one God, Christians have a God in the form of three persons, something that neither a good Jew nor good Moslem can understand. For them, one means one. But for us, one means three. And so, on one hand, I think we’ve all bought into the Trinity.

But you know, on the other hand, I also think most Christians are really clueless about what they’re buying. For example, again in that study I was talking about, during the same discussion, I asked the participants to tell me what it meant to say that God was a Trinity, and at least a half dozen of them said, “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” and of course, they were right. But when I followed it up by asking what that meant, man, you could have heard crickets chirp, that is until one person said, with a lot of confidence and a little bit of pride, “Oh, that means God is a Trinity.” You see, those who came to my study believed it; they just didn’t understand it. But you know, it’s interesting, even when we do, I mean, even when we’ve convinced ourselves that the Trinity is like an egg (you know, shell, white, yolk) or it’s like water (solid, liquid, steam) or my favorite, it’s like a sentence (subject, object, verb), my gosh, even when we’ve kind of gotten our minds around it, I don’t think a lot of us see the Trinity as crucial to our personal faith. I mean, even though it may be interesting and lead to all kinds of discussions in a seminary classroom, I’m guessing most of us would agree that our understanding of the Trinity isn’t going to determine our ultimate destinies. In other words, it’s good to know, but I don’t think any of us expect God to test us on it later. And that’s why I guess you could say the Trinity nice to know information, but not a whole lot more.

At least that’s what I think a lot of Christians seem to assume, but you know, in my opinion, that’s a real shame, because I honestly believe Jesus saw it as more than that and I’ll tell you why. Just think about the passage read a little while ago. Now, this was his very last conversation with his followers. And when he was giving them their final instructions, he told them this: “when you go, make disciples of all nations,” right. But then I want you to notice that, to accomplish this task, his disciples should be “baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit...” And remember, he told them this before he even mentioned that they should be teaching anything. Now I think that’s really important. Not only does it say something about baptism, I think it also shows that the Trinity was a pretty big deal to Christ. 

And I’ll tell you, for that reason, it probably should be for us too, and here’s why. Not only does the Trinity remind us of some pretty important things about God, I believe it also can help us deal with a lot of the emotional mess we all feel from time to time. Let me explain what I’m talking about. 

First, when we call God “Father,” I think that identification can remind us that God is free, that God is free from all those things that limit us, that God is free to be everything we need him to be. I mean, just think about some of the words we use to describe God, the Father. For example, we say the Father is omnipotent, in other words, free from that which limits our power. And we say the Father is omniscient, free from that which limits our knowledge. And of course, we say the Father is eternal, free from that which limits our lives. God the Father is simply free, and that’s something we can see when we read The Apostles Creed and say, “I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” The Father is free. And I’ll tell you why that’s important. Sometimes I think we all feel like things are a little bit out of control. My gosh, together, we’ve just gone through a pandemic and now we’ve got protests all over the country. And personally, some of us may have lost our job or dealt with the death of a family member or felt helpless as one of our children faced some kind of trauma. I’m telling you, sometimes it feels like life is either unraveling or coming apart at the seams. Well, when those things happen, and they will because they do, I think remembering that God is our Father and that he’s free from all those things which limit us, his creatures and because of that, God is always, and I mean, always in control, well, I think that can give us some real hope as we look into the future. Now let me be clear, I’m not talking about that Polly Anna jazz, you know what I mean, “I have one month to live. My house just burned down. And a greyhound bus just ran over my dog. But Jesus just makes me ‘inside, outside happy all the time.’” No, I’m not talking about that nonsense. Instead, I believe knowing that beyond all the confusion, beyond all the disappointment, beyond all the pain stands God the Father and although he may not be making life easier nor is he explaining why life has gotten so tough, we can be sure that he’s greater than all those things that weigh us down and that in the end he will lead us home. Why, because the Father is free from all the stuff that bind us. That’s one thing we can see when we look at the Trinity.

And second, when we call God “the Son,” I think that can remind us that God is not only free, he’s also loving, and he loves us with a love that’s so deep and profound that it took on human flesh and entered our time and space, a love that we don’t have to find because it’s already found us. And that’s something we see when we read about Jesus Christ, the one who was with those disciples up there on that mountain in Galilee. I mean, whether you’re talking about healing a man born blind or feeding a hungry crowd or dying on a cross to save the very folks who drove the nails, Jesus demonstrated God's love over and over again, didn’t he?  But you know, he also shows his love for us right now in another, more immediate way. You see, because Jesus became like us and because he felt what we feel and because as he hung on the cross he said something that I think every human has thought, in fact, someone may be thinking it right now, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, in other words, because he’s walked in our shoes, we have a God who knows exactly what we’re feeling on our worst day. And I’ll tell you why that’s important. You know, during the thirty-five years I’ve been a minster, I’ve heard a lot problems, many of which I’ve never faced in my life, you things like poverty or physical abuse or frankly, discrimination. Let’s just say that growing up white in the South had it’s advantages. And so, people would talk to me, and even though I think that I could understand what they’re going through, I just wasn’t able to experience their feelings,  because unlike them, praise the Lord, I never endured what they endured. But I’ll tell you, if someone wants to sit down and talk to me about getting laid-off and worrying about how to face the future without a job or health insurance, man, I have a pretty good idea what that person is going through. In other words, given my experiences, I really could feel his pain, because I’ve been right there myself. Well, brothers and sisters, no matter how down we may feel, no matter how heavy our burden becomes, and no matter how overwhelming life seems, God can actually feel our pain because, through Jesus Christ, his son and our savior, as the Indians say, he’s walked in our moccasins. And if that’s not a sign of love, I don’t know what is. And that’s something else we can see in the Trinity.

And third, when we call him “the Holy Spirit,” I think that can remind us that God is not only free and loving, but he’s also present with us right this minute, resting on our church and inspiring our lives and empowering our work. Remember the passage we read a little while ago; at the end of his talk with the eleven, Jesus said, “And behold, I myself am with you all the days, until the consummation of the age.” Now that’s what he said, and you know something, this was exactly what he came to be. You see, before we was even born, Jesus was called Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” And brothers and sisters, he still is. I’m telling you, through the Holy Spirit, he’s present with us every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year of our lives. God is with us. And I think that’s something we need to remember when we’re lonely and when we feel isolated and when we think that we’ve been cut off from everybody. We need to remember that we are never alone, not so long as we have brothers and sisters in the holy catholic and apostolic church and not as long as believers can gather together, inspired and empowered by that Spirit, to do the work that God has called and equipped us to do, like obeying the words of Christ himself when he said: “when you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to obey everything which I have commanded you.” Man, we are not alone, that’s something else we can trust, when we remember the Trinity.

You know, as we pass through life, probably most of what we hear just isn’t essential to daily living. And that percentage might actually go up depending on how much time we spend on the internet. Now don’t get me wrong; it may be interesting but not important. But I’ll tell you, I hope that’s not the case this morning, not on a day we focus on the Trinity, because I hope remembering that God is Father and Son and Holy Spirit will remind us that God is free and loving and present with us right here and right now, a reality that, in my book, is certainly more than just nice to know information.