Trinity Sunday 2024
Ephesians 5:22-33 and 6:1-9
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+5%3A21-6%3A9&version=NLT
Head/Mind – Useful Information
The most real thing in existence is an eternal relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. From the overflow of God’ abundance, God brings everything else into being. He does not create because he is lonely or lacks anything. He creates out of abundance and generosity. That is what we mean by the Trinity. And while it took the church about four centuries to articulate what it meant by the Trinity, the building blocks, all the components can be found in the New Testament. Take the book of Ephesians for example.
Right out of the gate, Paul begins his letter to the Ephesians by talking about the Trinity. Paul begins his letter to the Ephesians by talking about the love of the Father, who before he created even one thing chose his Son to be way that he would bring salvation to the world. Before even a molecule was formed, he had decided that everyone who gave their life to Jesus, would become an adopted son or daughter of God. He also decided to give the gift of the Holy Spirit to every adopted son and daughter of God, so that they would have Divine down-payment on their inheritance.
And throughout the letter, he continues to build on the trinitarian understanding of God. When he gets to our chapter on the Christian family, he imagines what that family might look like if it were modeled upon the life of God, who is a perfect relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He imagines a family of mutual love and respect, built on service and care for each member. For Paul, the Trinity is not some abstract idea to be pondered, but a spiritual reality to be experienced. It is central to the life and practice of Christian people, and that is why I want to explore some of what we said when we recited the creed together this morning. And this brings us to the heart of the matter.
Heart – The Personal Connection
First, we said, “Whoever desires to be saved should cling to this faith. And anyone who does not, will undoubtedly perish.” Why did we say that? Because we Christians know of no other hope beyond God rescuing our world.
Christianity is not about our search for God. It is about God’s search for us. Neither is it about us trying to overcome the barriers between us and God. It is about God bridging the gap to make contact with us.
We believe that the impact of sin and death are so profound that if God were to leave us to our own devices, we would all be eternally lost. Now, I know that some atheists think that our hope in Christ fosters a mentality in Christians that keeps us from working to improve our world. My response to this would be two-fold. First, if you are a Christian and you are sitting back doing nothing, Christ himself condemns your attitude. He has charged us with the task of doing the work he did while we wait for his return. But, second, my experience has been that most Christian care deeply about the world and that our belief in his return actually galvanizes us to work more, because, unlike unbelievers, we do not believe that our work is in vain. And, we believe that every good work, even should it be swallowed up by evil, will count in the light of eternity. We have the courage to work for the betterment of the world because we do not work alone.
Whoever desires to be saved should above all hold to the Christian/catholic faith.
Second, we said,
Just as Christian truth compels us
to confess each person individually
as both God and Lord,
so the Christian/catholic religion forbids us
to say that there are three gods or lords.
In other words, we said, in a bunch of different ways, that while there are three distinct persons, there is only One God. Why the big fuss?
Well, have you ever spent the day on the phone trying to get through an automated answering service? Have you ever had to push every single button and option before getting a real person? Have you ever gone somewhere to talk to the boss only to end up getting to talk to the assistant to the regional manager? This is what some people think Christianity is.
Without a robust understanding of Jesus’ divinity, he is simply the junior partner in the work of salvation. Or worse, he is just a much better version of us
Jesus is just one of us, except that he is like the straight-A student, the star athlete, and the head cheerleader all rolled into one. He is the paramount over-achiever who is supposed to be the example for us? Jesus is the best kid in the class that the teacher keeps judging all the other kids by. And now we, the C+-student, the clumsy, somewhat ugly kid, if we can just do what Jesus did, we might be able to bridge the gap that stands between us and God. So we end up thinking that Christianity is just about trying to do what Jesus was able to do.
When we turn our attention to the Holy Spirit, the story gets worse. He is like the watered-down, dimmer, more vague version of Jesus. He is turkey bacon. Is like a less tasty substitute. So, the big guy can’t be bothered, so he sends in the c-team. We go into the car dealership, hoping to talk to the general manger, but instead, we get to talk to the assistant janitor who cleans the secretary’s office.
We spent all of that time affirming that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are, with the Father, fully God, in order to say that Jesus does for us what we could never do for ourselves, and the Holy Spirit applies to our hearts to perfect, finished work of Jesus. Talk about Jesus and the Holy Spirit is to talk about the lengths to which God will go to redeem us.
Third, we said, “Anyone then who desires to be saved
should think thus about the trinity.”
Does that mean we have to understand the Trinity in order to go to heaven? No it does not. What it does mean, what you must understand is that our only hope is in the God who did everything necessary for our salvation. He is our only hope.
It is the same about the last two lines:
Those who have done good will enter eternal life,
and those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.
This is the Christian/catholic faith:
one cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully
Wait a minute. Doesn’t the Bible say that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? Yes. And that means the human race is real trouble. We are headed toward a disaster of our own making. But what about doing good so that we may have eternal life? How does that work? Jesus, who was fully God, was also fully human, and he came to live the life we should have lived, and by doing so offers us the gift of eternal life. And so, we are back to where we started. God has done all that is necessary for our salvation. That is the Church’s message and there is no other. We have nothing else to offer and nothing else can take the place of that message.
Hands – The Practical Application
We end where we began, with an eternal relationship. And, a part of what it means to be created in the image of God is that we, too, were meant to live in community. It takes relationships with others to be fully human. A part of what that means is that we bear one another’s burdens.
This morning we will conclude our message with a service of prayer and anointing. In the Bible, oil was a symbol of the Holy Spirit, and it was used for all kinds of purposes. Whenever a new leader, such as a priest, prophet, or king was raised up, that person was anointed with oil as a way of asking the Holy Spirit to equip that person for their new work.
When something was dedicated for God’s use, oil was a symbol that the object would now be looked upon as special because it would be used in to honor God.
Sometimes, oil was used as symbol of friendship and love, and oil symbolized an invitation to God to be a part of that relationship.
When people were sick, the elders of the church would gather, lay hands upon the sick, they would anoint the sick with oil, and pray for their healing. This was a way of asking God to enter into a part of a person’s life where there was pain. And by praying, the church was asking for God’s grace to be at work in that person’s life. That work of grace might be manifested in a physical healing, or, it may be manifested in strength and hope for that person, as they faced an uncertain future.
This morning, you may want to have that done as a way dedicating a new chapter of your life to God, such as beginning school or starting a new career. You might want to be prayed for an anointed as a way of asking God to do a deeper work of grace in your life. You might have it done as a way of inviting God into area of your life where you have put limitations on God. Or, you might have a physical or mental illness that you want God’s grace to attend. This does not take the place of medical care. In fact, the church makes no distinction between the work of grace and the work of medicine. It also does not see them as being in competition with each other. Each is a way in which God’s grace is at work in our world.
You may also want to be anointed and prayed for on behalf of another. You come as you are led.