Psalm 8:1-9

O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore 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 that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Is God one or is God three?

Theology is talk about God. And the problem with talk about God is that it’s conceptual. It’s thinking. And it’s the thinking mind. When we get into talking about God it throws us into our thinking mind, but we can’t experience God through talking and thinking. You would be better off, if you really wanted to experience God, to go down to the water and watch the seagulls. So, experiencing God is not the same as talking about God. That is one of the problems of theology.

The Trinitarian Doctrine

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

I begin with this Trinitarian statement for a reason, and I’d like you to take a look at your immediate response. How do you feel when I make this gesture and say these words, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” It’s worth considering, how do you respond? Do you find it offensive? Or is it confusing? Or do you like it? Is it somehow comforting to you? I’m guessing that right here in our congregation, all of these responses are present.

So today is Trinity Sunday and we’re talking about the Trinity. The Church Doctrine of the Trinity has been a divisive subject. The Trinitarian Doctrine of God has been, over the long history of the church, one of the most divisive issues in Christianity.

You know, we are an independent church. We are a congregational church in Midcoast Maine, you know, a small-town church, a family church, with a long history of local leadership and participation, right here in Searsport. And this is a church in the Christian tradition. We are Christians. And so, it’s important to know what that means. If you want to be a Christian in a mainline Protestant sense, it’s going to be impossible to ignore the Trinitarian doctrine. Even though, as Congregationalists, we don’t read the church creeds and doctrines. But, at least, for me, it’s important to be an educated Christian. And I would hope that you, too, want to be an educated Christian, that is, to know your history, to know what this is all about, and so, to be connected to the entire world of Christians. Because we are not alone, here in Searsport, but we are part of the worldwide church, even as an independent church. So, if it makes you uncomfortable to think about “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” that’s ok. That is perfectly fine. But I want you to know why. Why do you feel that way, if you do?

Perhaps you think of the Catholic Church when you hear “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” And I know many of you grew up in the Catholic Church. And, at the same time, I know that many Protestants have negative feelings about the Catholic Church. After all, that is the basis of Protestantism. But you know, that was a long time ago. As a Congregational Church in the Puritan tradition, we are actually more closely connected to the English Anglican church and the Methodist Church. Congregationalists broke away from the Church of England. And our theology is very similar to mainline Methodism. Interestingly, we are also closely connected to the Unitarians as well. And so there is a whole history here. And it would be really good to be familiar with this history. There is enough material here for an ongoing class in church history.

Trinity Sunday

Today is Trinity Sunday, and you may wonder why today? Why are we even talking about this. Well, because we follow the lectionary of readings, for one thing. But why, out of all the possible Sundays in the year, is today considered “Trinity Sunday?” And the answer is, today is the high point in the church year according to the lectionary of readings. In other words, we have come through all of the major church holidays, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, and today, on the first Sunday after Pentecost, we can stand on this summit and look back at the road we have travelled this past year together. Beginning with Advent, all the way through Pentecost, we have worshiped God together, and we have thought about God in various ways. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, celebrated at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. So today, we stand on this summit, and we look back at the path we have climbed together.

I’m reminded of my time in Colorado, hiking. When I was a teenager, going to summer camp in Colorado, as I’ve mentioned before, you know, we hiked some very big mountains. The most stunning was the climb up Mt. Elbert. Mt. Elbert is the highest peak in Colorado. And from the top of that peak, we were able to look out and see for miles. We could look down into the valley below and see all the way down to Buena Vista and the little town of Twin Lakes, and we could see the way that we had come, climbing so slowly up the steep mountainside, step by step, all the way up to the summit of the mountain, the top of Mt. Elbert.

And so, that is what Trinity Sunday is like. We are at the top of the year today, and we look back, and we look forward, and we are here right now. From here on out, we have the long descent, so to speak, walking together for the rest of the year, across the summer months in “ordinary time” when there are no major church holidays, and in ordinary time, we will continue to study Matthew’s Gospel together, until we reach the new church year at Advent this November, and the cycle begins all over again.

The Great Commission

In our reading from Matthew today we have the great commission. Jesus tells his disciples to go and “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This is the only place in the Bible where these words are found together, “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Furthermore, the word “Trinity” is not in the Bible. So, actually, we have very little scriptural foundation for this thing called the “Trinity.” And yet, it is such an important term in the tradition. So here we have evidence of the way Christianity has developed as a rich and complex combination based in both scripture and church tradition.

History of the Trinity

The Trinity originated in the early fourth century when the Roman Emperor Constantine legitimized Christianity, recognizing it and elevating it to an incredibly new and high status as the official state religion of the Roman Empire. Suddenly, all the church bishops scattered around the Mediterranean region gained political power. And in this context, a big argument broke out between two bishops named Arius and Athanasius. They were arguing about the nature of God and Jesus, that is, the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. They argued via mail. They wrote letters back and forth to each other, arguing their points in writing. Eventually, this caused such a disruption that Emperor Constantine called for an ecumenical council to settle the issue once and for all, and so it happened, the first council of Nicaea.

First Council of Nicaea

Bishops from all over the world arrived in Nicaea and hammered out a solution to the debate. Athenasius’s won the argument, and the result was the Nicene Creed. Without getting into the weeds here, let’s just say that it was complicated document. As Congregationalists, we do not read the Nicene Creed as a devotional text, but many of you come from church backgrounds where you did read it and so you are familiar with it. And you may have wondered what it was all about. Well, it was about this argument between Arius and Athanasius, and Constantine’s desire to unify Christian doctrine so that the church would be unified worldwide. And of course, a unified church doctrine would be a much more politically stable and powerful platform, a great benefit for the Roman ruler.

Who is God to you?

Now, so much for church history. I want to turn now to a more devotional topic, namely, who is God to you? What is God to you? You see, no matter what is written in the Nicene Creed, or any other creed for that matter, the question really comes down to you. Who is God for you? Only you can answer that question for yourself. And here, I think, is the strength of the Congregational Way. No one here in our church is going to attempt to define your spirituality. We don’t do that here. Spirituality is a very personal thing. It belongs to each person. It is each one’s responsibility and privilege to work this out for oneself. As your pastor, I can help. I can be a guide. But it would be wrong of me to tell anyone what to think or believe about God. That is the Congregational Way.

I will say this. It is very difficult to talk our way to God. What I mean is, having a direct experience of the mystery that is God is not an intellectual experience. Experiencing the mystery that is God is not a theory or an idea. And here we find the wisdom of the mystics in contemplative spirituality. And so, I will close with this quote from the anonymous 14^thcentury monk who expressed it so well in his text, “The Cloud of Unknowing. He writes,

“But now you ask me, “How am I to think of God himself, and what is he?” And to this I can only answer, “I do not know.” For with your question you have brought me into that very darkness and that very cloud of unknowing that I want you to be in yourself. By grace it is possible to have full knowledge of all other created things and their works, and indeed of the works of God himself, and to think clearly about them, but of God himself no one can think. And so I wish to give up everything that I can think and choose as my love that one thing that I cannot think. For he can well be loved, but he cannot be thought.[1]

And so it is for us today. We do not know God through the thinking mind, but we love God through the devotional heart.

May it be so for you.

Amen. Amen.

[1] A. C. Spearing, trans., The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works (London: Penguin Books, 2001), 27-28