Trinity Sunday

Matthew 28: 16-20 “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Today is the most notoriously difficult sermon to preach in the whole year, because today is of course, trinity Sunday. And the Trinity is by nature a mystery beyond words, it is beyond our full understanding. We will never fully understand it. People try to teach about the trinity with metaphors based in our world and it never quite works, in fact most of these end up being one heresy or another. Whether it’s something about how the Trinity is like water that can only appear in one state at a time, water, ice or gas, which is wrong because God appears as all three throughout the Bible at the same time, or whether it’s something about different faces of a pyramid… no human metaphor is right to explain the trinity. We will never fully understand, but we can trust in it.

What we know is this, that throughout the bible God appears as the trinity: in the beginning of creation, throughout Jesus’ life, in the early days of the Church in the book of Acts, and in the end of time in the book of revelation. The word the Trinity never appears in the bible, but the Father Son and Holy Spirit are all present together at lots of different points. And our Gospel reading today is one of those exact readings.

This is the great commission. This is the charge that Jesus leaves to the Church, this is the task that they are left to complete that we are to go out and baptise people in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Our Christian lives at baptism are to start with the proclamation of God’s name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in whom we are to live and breathe as Christians. Everything starts with the Trinity, into whom we are baptised, and can never fully understand it.  

The Athanasian creed is a statement made by the Church in around the 500s to tell us what we ought to believe about the Trinity and it puts it like this:

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.

If you weren’t confused before then you should be now. It’s a mystery that we grasp for and we can perhaps understand what we don’t understand, but we can never fully know for ourselves how it works. It’s not for us to fully know, it’s for us to trust in. I don’t understand about cars at all, but I can trust that it’ll get me from A to B. If we can have that much faith in our vehicles then how much farther can our faith take us when we rest in and trust our God?

So today, brothers and sisters, maybe all I have done is draw your attention to what you don’t know of the Trinity, but instead of relying on what you know, instead, make today about faith. Make today about trusting in Him who is three in one and step out in trust. Perhaps you could make a decision today about something you don’t fully understand in your own life; maybe something is going wrong that has left you feeling stranded and lost, or perhaps things are going well and you don’t know what to do next? Either way, put your trust in the God who is Holy Trinity, not in your own understanding, and see how far the Father, Son and Holy Spirit can take you. Amen.