by Rev. Canon David B. Tabo-oy
v16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
(Read: John 3:1-16)
This is the first Sunday after Pentecost. It is also called Trinity Sunday. This Sunday the Church put central focus to the mysterious character(s) of God called Holy Trinity. Through the years that I have been writing in this paper, I have shared some if not all the following ideas again and again on the same topic. It cannot be helped because the doctrine of the Holy Trinity remains unchanged as gleaned from the Holy Scriptures.
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What is the Holy Trinity? As mentioned earlier, this maybe the most mysterious and most difficult to explain in simple terms about the God, of His attributes, or characters.
The Holy Trinity refers to the Christian understanding of God as a unity of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All are equally God and so is one, each sharing in the divine attributes of ultimacy, eternity, and changelessness; YET they are distinguishable in their relations to one another and in their roles within creaturely and human life and destiny.
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The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a post-scriptural attempt to bring to coherent expression diverse affirmations about God, all of which seemed necessary to a full statement of Christian experience and belief. First, from Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and the clear tradition of Jesus teaching, the church affirmed that not only is God one, but God is also the CREATIVE and SOVEREIGN Father. He is transcendent of finite limits, time, and change and all that characterize God s creatures (supreme, surpassing others); Second, it was affirmed that Jesus Christ was more than a great prophet adopted by God; rather, he was the SON of GOD, the Word made FLESH, saving the world from sins; Third, the Holy Spirit from whose presence the community of believers received their faith, their confidence in the truth of faith, and holiness. God appeared in what they called a threefold economy in, so to speak, three forms, or modes. We believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and Earth&.
We believe in Jesus Christ, the Only Son of God, for our sake, he was crucified, for us and for our salvation& We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life& (The Nicene Creed)
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Three Gods? No, rather three persons in One God. He revealed himself as God the Creator, Savior and Sustainer.
The doctrine of Trinity does not attempt to explain God. It only explains to us in a very elemental way what God has revealed to us about himself so far. To describe the tip of the iceberg above the water is not to describe the entire iceberg. So we Christians affirm the Trinity, not as an explanation of God, but simply as a way of describing what we know about Him.
The idea of the Trinity is not emphatically stated as a doctrine in the scriptures. Yet, by implication, it is stated many times. The early Christians soon discovered that they simply could not speak of God without speaking of the three ways in which he had revealed himself to them. This does not mean that there are three Gods. It means that there is one God who has shown himself in three ways: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
THE HOLY TRINITY IS NOT SO MUCH WHO GOD IS BUT HOW GOD LOVES THE CREATION. He created it; Redeemed it, and is Sustaining it. There is no other clearer and comprehensive proclamation of this Christian doctrine than the Nicene Creed.
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The Gospel reading this morning tells us in concrete ways of the attributes of the Triune God in John 3:1-16. After the story of Nicodemus is the most popular verse in the whole Bible and the most translated verse in more than a hundred of language. This will reveal to us that the common denominator of the three persons of God in the Holy Trinity is LOVE. For God so loved the world&.God, the Creator of this world loved it so much, that even if we do not reciprocate that love He loves us still and the whole world. For He give is Only Begotten Son& Jesus Christ, God the Redeemer concretely showed us Gods love through his passion, death and resurrection. He bought us back by his very own life. That whoever believes in Him&The descent or the coming of the Holy Spirit to the world enables us to believe. By the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier and Divine Counselor, we come to believe in Gods love and discern the right path. God showed His love through the working of the Holy Spirit in us.
And the common end-result of this divine love revealed in Holy Triune God:&we will not perish, but will have eternal life&
The Holy Trinity then explains to us how God through this revelation of himself – love us and the whole creation.
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Lesson from Nicodemus: Making things right
v5Jesus answered:
I tell you for certain that before you can get into God’s kingdom, you must be born not only by water, but by the Spirit. v6Humans give life to their children. Yet only God’s Spirit can change you into a child of God. v7Don’t be surprised when I say that you must be born from above. v8Only God’s Spirit gives new life. The Spirit is like the wind that blows wherever it wants to. You can hear the wind, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. (John 3:5-8)
One rainy Sunday afternoon, a little boy was bored and his father was sleepy. The father decided to create an activity to keep the kid busy. So, he found in the morning newspaper a large map of the world. He took scissors and cut it into a good many irregular shapes like a jigsaw puzzle. Then he said to his son, “See if you can put this puzzle together. And don’t disturb me until you’re finished.” He turned over on the couch, thinking this would occupy the boy for at least an hour. To his amazement, the boy was tapping his shoulder ten minutes later telling him that the job was done. The father saw that every piece of the map had been fitted together perfectly. “How did you do that?” he asked. “It was easy, Dad. There was a picture of a man on the other side. When I got him together right, the world was right.”
A person’s world can never be right until the person is right, and that requires the miracle of new birth. Don’t you dare stop asking God for the experience of new birth until you can shout from the housetops, “Through Jesus Christ, God has fundamentally changed my life!” (Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com)
Let us pray.
Holy God, today we come face to face with you in the incomprehensible mystery of the God who is one, but three. You alone are God, yet we name you as Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. You are three persons, yet undivided. We behold your marvelous works in the majesty and power of creation. Through the created world, we know you as the Father, as creator. We live because of your unfathomable gift, who walked this earth and lived among us, your only Son Jesus Christ. Through his cross and resurrection, we know you are redeemer. We live from day to day, as those released from the grasp of sin, because of your sustaining power conveyed through the Holy Spirit. One in three, three in one: God who is sovereign over the visible and invisible, God who lived among us as Jesus Christ, God who remains with us in the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit; God, we worship you. Our hearts yearn to know you more clearly. Through you, holy Trinity, we encounter mystery; we stand before you in awe and wonder. Trusting in your grace, we are ever in need of your mercy and protection. Amen. **
