Today is Trinity Sunday, a special day in the liturgical calendar where we celebrate that our God is trinitarian: God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Last year, we started celebrating Pentecost Sunday, which is about the coming of the Holy Spirit, which we celebrated again last Sunday. This year we decided to include the following Sunday, Trinity Sunday as well, to make our celebration of the liturgical calendar more complete.
On this special day, it is also a Christian tradition to recite the Athanasian Creed, which explains the doctrine of the Trinity fully. It is long, so we will do just a recitation of the shortened version today. Just a note that when we read the word “catholic”, we don’t mean Roman Catholic, we mean catholic in the sense of the entire universal church.
The Athanasian Creed:
Now this is the catholic faith:
That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity,
neither blending their persons
nor dividing their essence.
For the person of the Father is a distinct person,
the person of the Son is another,
and that of the Holy Spirit still another.
But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one,
their glory equal, their majesty coeternal.
What quality the Father has, the Son has, and the Holy Spirit has.
The Father is uncreated,
the Son is uncreated,
the Holy Spirit is uncreated.
The Father is immeasurable,
the Son is immeasurable,
the Holy Spirit is immeasurable.
The Father is eternal,
the Son is eternal,
the Holy Spirit is eternal.
And yet there are not three eternal beings;
there is but one eternal being.
So too there are not three uncreated or immeasurable beings;
there is but one uncreated and immeasurable being.
Similarly, the Father is almighty,
the Son is almighty,
the Holy Spirit is almighty.
Yet there are not three almighty beings;
there is but one almighty being.
Thus the Father is God,
the Son is God,
the Holy Spirit is God.
Yet there are not three gods;
there is but one God.
Thus the Father is Lord,
the Son is Lord,
the Holy Spirit is Lord.
Yet there are not three lords;
there is but one Lord.
Just as Christian truth compels us
to confess each person individually
as both God and Lord,
so catholic religion forbids us
to say that there are three gods or lords.
The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten from anyone.
The Son was neither made nor created;
he was begotten from the Father alone.
The Holy Spirit was neither made nor created nor begotten;
he proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Accordingly there is one Father, not three fathers;
there is one Son, not three sons;
there is one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits.
Nothing in this trinity is before or after,
nothing is greater or smaller;
in their entirety the three persons
are coeternal and coequal with each other.
So in everything, as was said earlier,
we must worship their trinity in their unity
and their unity in their trinity.
You might wonder why the creed needs to be so long-winded and repetitive. That’s because in the first few centuries, as a creed, it needs to be absolute and unambiguous in proclaiming the orthodox understanding of the Trinity. For every line that is in there, you must imagine there was another heretic out there in the past preaching something somewhat different, so allowing any deviation would have compromised the truth of our faith. If the early church fathers had been ambivalent, “like this also can, like that also can”, then we would not have known the exact truth about our God as revealed in history in the first century. So today, whenever you wonder if someone out there is preaching something strange, which is especially common for many of the cults, you must refer to our ancient creeds to identify those strange teachings as heresy.
Besides reciting the creed, this year, we are also using the lectionary for the sermon bible passages during the special periods of the liturgical year. In doing so, the rich traditions of our Christian faith can enhance our theological understanding. Tradition is especially important for the doctrine of trinity because this doctrine is not something explicitly stated in the bible. You will not find a specific bible passage as prooftext, that states God is trinitarian because of arguments “A, B, C, D, E”. You can think of tradition as the collective wisdom of the early church. The apostles and Church Fathers experienced the divine revelations of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And through their theological processing of these revelations, the tradition that we inherit, such as the lectionary, is the fruit of their labor.
We have focused on the Holy Spirit of the Trinity during Pentecost Sunday last week. So, today we will focus more on the Son in the holy trinity. In what way is Jesus Christ divine? One such revelation was the Son as co-creator in creation. As stated in John 1: 3 Through him all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made. You can also find something similar in Colossians 1:15-20. This biblical understanding is also reflected in the Athanasian Creed we have recited: The Son was neither made nor created; he was begotten from the Father alone. Since the Son is uncreated, then he must have been involved in creation. However, do we have evidence of this co-creation in the Old Testament? The lectionary guides us to look at Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 for the Old Testament reading.
Proverbs 8 talks about Wisdom as if it were a person who was there during the creation of the world. This suggests that Wisdom existed before anything was made and was there to celebrate when God created heaven and earth. Because of the similarities between Wisdom in Proverbs 8 and how the Son of God is described as being involved in creation, some Christian traditions such as our lectionary use this to support the doctrine of the Trinity, especially on Trinity Sunday.
But can we say for sure that the Wisdom in Proverbs 8 is actually the Son of God? I don’t think so. While the similarities are interesting and suggest a connection, they don’t definitively prove that the ancient Wisdom is the pre-existent Word of God. Proverbs 8 seems to describe Wisdom more as an observer of creation rather than a co-creator.
In summary, Proverbs 8 shows that God wasn’t alone in creation, but it’s only in the New Testament that we clearly see the role of the Son in creation. So, while Wisdom was there at creation, she may or may not be the pre-existent Jesus. It’s only when Jesus came into the world and completed his work of salvation that we fully understand the Son’s role as the co-creator, because we now see the new creation of the new heaven and new earth.
Another revelation about the divine Son is Jesus’ declaration in opening line of the Great Commission in Matthew 28 that 18 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Again, we must wonder, is there any Old Testament evidence that Jesus who is fully divine, but may I remind you, also fully human, can inherit such authority? This time, the lectionary guides us to look at Psalm 8 for the psalm reading. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet. The “him” in verse 6 refers to the “son of man” in verse 4 which has a double meaning, which could mean either humanity, or a specific person called “Son of Man”. Unlike Wisdom in Proverbs 8, we have full confidence that this “son of man” in Psalm 8 can refer to Jesus, because it is directly quoted 3 times in Hebrews 2:6–8, 1 Corinthians 15:27, and Ephesians 1:22, in reference to Jesus. When everything is under Jesus’ feet, he has authority over all things, even including sin and death. This is why the early church worshipped Jesus, for they realized that God is indeed trinitarian. And in the creed, we also declare: Nothing in this trinity is before or after,
nothing is greater or smaller;
in their entirety the three persons
are coeternal and coequal with each other.
We have covered the nature of Trinity so far, as well as its implication on the identity of Jesus: as co-creator in creation and having full authority in heaven and on earth. Last week, we learned about the Holy Spirit. Today, we understand why Jesus is the holy Son.
Lastly, I will talk about the purpose of Trinity for us. This time, the lectionary leads us to this New Testament reading.
Romans 5: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also boast in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
In the New Testament reading, God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit were all mentioned. And they each contribute to seal our relationship with God. Think about it: how would a relationship between God and Man work? God has supplied the actual answer: because of Jesus Christ, whenever we respond in faith, we know for sure our relationship status with God: we have peace with God.
That’s it? It almost sounds too good to be true, right? The reality of this amazing grace always sounds incredulous in itself. Sinful humanity is like a child who is always scolded and punished. What do you mean you have always loved me? It is never good enough with you. The Jews would even say, I still remember the day you kicked me out of the house. You even let me get caned by the school principal. You are never around when I needed you.
If this is a Korean drama, maybe you can guess the critical turning point in the plot. In the fit of an argument with the father, the child stormed across the road. But he failed to notice a car speeding towards him. The father noticed the danger and pushed the son away and sacrificed his life. And that’s the moment the child realized that the father really loved him. Sometimes in a communication breakdown in a relationship, words and action are often misunderstood. And only an act of true grace can breakdown all doubts and defences, to reveal that the love was actually there all along. That’s a moment of paradigm shift, and then the relationship can start anew.
The passage today is the critical turning point. It is the moment of realization that from the act of pure grace through the willing sacrifice of the holy Son, Jesus Christ, we can have absolute faith in our relationship with God. This is a biblical declaration: We are loved by God. We have peace with God. No more struggling and grievances. No more attention seeking and futile attempts to gain divine favour through self-righteousness. This peace with God is not just a feeling which disappears when the situation changes or when we get paranoid. This peace is an official relationship status. The peace is a confirmation we have in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. This is the Trinity at work. The Father loves, the Son restores, and the Spirit confirms.
If this passage is a turning point, it not only turns us away from all the misgivings in the past about God, it also turns us towards the new relationship we have with God. And Paul’s idea of a response to this new life is quite interesting. Paul said that we should “boast”. The boasting here doesn’t mean bragging or showing off; boasting here means to express confidence. And we should express confidence in God. We should express confidence in our hope. We should even express confidence during our sufferings for God. Because we now know that our efforts will never be in vain.
God in trinity has revealed what was done to transform his relationship with you. When Paul says you should boast, it means you should face and shape the future with pride. You should express confidence, because you are moving forward and running the race with God as your backing. Be proud and confident. Sometimes people describe Christians as idealistic. I disagree. We are not idealistic; we just have more faith. The world needs more people with a strong faith. To believe that God can always transform things for the better, using the people he loves.
