Harmonies of Faith, a sermon series for the Summer on the core beliefs of harmonious faith, week 2 of 14, preached June 9, 2024
Children
Question
Scripture Matt 28:18-20
8 Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”
Prayer
Sermon
Context
We believe different things. Different beliefs can complement one another, or clash, create conflict… inside us, in our relationships, in the church.
Conflict is not the point of faith, or the will of God. God calls us to a faith that is belief we can be at peace, trust that a better community of God is possible, and where we embodyGod’s justice and love in all we say and do. It's not easy, this kind of faith, and when we do it poorly, we feel the dissonance, the discord.
Some try to make the discord go away by getting everyone to believe the exactly the same thing. But I don’t think our goal is to all believe exactly the same things. I do believe our goal is to tune all our different beliefs to God, to put all our different beliefs, our faiths into harmony with God’s faithfulness.
So we are calling this summer series, Harmonies of Faith. Each week, we are talking about one theological belief, using the book "Presbyterian Beliefs (the latest Revised Edition, from 2017)" by Donald McKim as a resource.
Each week, we are introducing a song that expresses each belief, with each song of a different style or artist, as examples of how differences can harmonize.
And each week, we are starting with a Question. Today’s question is…
Question of the Day
"We believe this God is triune, one God in three personas. Some say Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Others say Creator, Christ, and Comforter. Maybe you have some other names you like for the three persons of God. The question is… Is there a persona of God you like or lean toward or believe in more than the others, and if so, why?” Ready? Go!
Okay, show of hands… who leans toward God? What word or name do yall use for this person of God? Father, sure. God, yep. Creator, okay. Others? Lord, Jehovah, YHWH?
And who leans toward Jesus, the human God? What word or name do you use there? Jesus, YESHUA, Christ, savior, redeemer? Others?
And then who leans toward Spirit? And what word or name do you use there? Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost? Breath, Fire, Wind? RUACH… Heart, Passion, Mother?
Prayer for Illumination
Before we read and preach from God’s word, let’s pray… God as we open your word, may it open us. As we read your word, may it read us. Amen? Amen.
Scripture Romans 5:1-10
5 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we (can) boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a (really) good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves God’s love for us in that while we still were sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more surely, therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of God’s Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
This is the word of the Lord… (Thanks be to God)
Sermon
That my friends is part of the theological dilemma for Christians. We are committed monotheists… mono meaning ONE, theist meaning God. We don’t imagine a mount Olympus of gods with different stories, names, abilities or powers. Whoever God is, this God is one.
And we have a sense, a belief that this God is not an abstract concept, but personal, a person. For us, God is not nature or creation but the imaginer and creator of all things. God is not just a force or a feeling, but a being who knows and loves and can be known and loved, who does relationships. Christians, like Israel and Islam, trust and believe this God is one, and this God is personal.
Then, Jesus comes along. In Jesus, we meet God in a new way. Well, it isn’t really new, it just felt really new to us. Jesus both points to God and is God, Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus teaches us about God and is different from God, like when Jesus prays to God, and relies on God. AND yet, at the same time, Jesus IS God. What Jesus says and does embodies God will, and Jesus has access to powers and knowledge that could only be of God. So somehow, Jesus is God yet also distinct from God?
Then the math problem gets more complicated. We also remember the God we’ve met in Spirit, Holy Spirit. Spirit blew over or breathed all creation into existence, and gives the gift of life itself. Spirit came from God, yet was God. Spirit freed the people at Passover, and led the people with wind and fire from slavery under Egypt toward Promised Land. Jesus calls on Spirit, and promises Spirit, and Spirit comes as tongues of fire, and mighty rushing wind, and redirects us from danger or sin, and steers us toward holiness and justice. This Spirit, Holy Spirit, is also somehow a distinct expression from God and from Jesus, yet, also God?
Christians have struggled and still struggle with this. Is God one or three? And we have tried to find different metaphors or explanations that help us understand this one in three, three as one God.
For example, some have tried to say God is like water. Water is one thing, yet we know water in three modes… it can be liquid, like water to drink, or solid, like ice, or gas, like steam or water vapor or clouds. The essence of water is always the same, the same composition, but we know water in three different modes… solid, liquid, and gas. Is that what God is like?
The church dubbed this misunderstanding of God a heresy, with one name for it being Modalism. Water is only one mode at any given time. It switches from one mode to another depending. Water never exists as all three modes at the same time, but this God does. From scripture and experience this God is always and forever each of the personas of God and ALL of the persons of God, always all at the same time, never one without the others. So no, God is NOT like water and doesn’t have three modes of the same substance.
Well, maybe if we say God is more like a family. Some have tried to understand God as God the Father, head of the family, then Spirit and Son both part of the one family of God, each connected to the father, and to one another. They are three, but one, as in one family. This metaphor seems to help maintain the oneness of God and the three-ness.
The church judged this misunderstanding or misrepresentation of God as two heresies, tritheism and subordinationism. If the three are all fully divine, then its tri-theism because it imagines three Gods really, not one, one family maybe, but three different identities in one family. Then, if the three aren’t all fully divine, it makes the Spirit and the Son subordinates to God the Father. In the ancient world, the ancient viewpoint was the male is head of the household, and the females (plural) and children from the male and females are supposed to defer to the one male. That culture of patriarchy imposed itself on this theology. In this way of imagining God, only God the father is truly God, fully divine. The other expressions of God in mother Spirit or Son Christ are less than God, and not fully divine themselves.
Or maybe, could we say that God takes on three different roles, kind of like I am a husband, a father, and a pastor. I am one person, but I am known by others through the different roles I am in their lives. Maybe God is like that?
The church named this heresy Partialism, because each expression of God is only a part of God. Like I am a husband to one, a father to three, a pastor to many, but no one is in relationship with ALL of me, only part of me. We don’t believe God’s relationship with us is restricted by some unique role God plays with us. We believe we have access to ALL of God in our relationships with God. In knowing Christ, I know God and Spirit, not just a part of God.
Scripture doesn’t say Christ’s life and teachings only looked and sounded like God, but that they were God. Scripture does not suggest Christ’s sacrifice, and death, and resurrection were just a sign God did through a lesser creature we know as Jesus, but were God’s sacrifice of God’s own self, God’s own son on behalf of all creation. Scripture doesn’t say Holy Spirit is a messenger of God, a delivery mechanism of God, but that Holy Spirit IS God, all of God, God’s will AND God’s self.
So God is not the Father at the head of a family with two obedient subordinate family members in Spirit and Son. Nor is God sometimes just a part of God for some, and another part of God for others. Somehow, Spirit and Son are not less than, but coequal with, of the same substance and essence as the God we sometimes know as Father or creator. And God isn’t ever sending only part of God’s self, but always sending all of God’s self. There is no hierarchy or partiality in God, only unity.
In the Romans reading, you can hear Paul trying to find a way to talk about this Triune God without falling into these traps. “we all are justified by faith (and) we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus the Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we (can) boast in our hope (and our sufferings) … because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through Holy Spirit.” That’s Paul trying to say God is doing something in Christ, and Christ is doing something in Holy Spirit, and Holy Spirit keeps on doing something by God. They are one, and were never different beings, but are distinct for lack of a better word persons of the same being, never one without all of the others, always all three even if we only perceive one.
Paul didn’t always talk like this. But in Christ, he was so convinced, he changed the way he thought, talked, and acted, and he spent the rest of his life trying to help others recognize one God they know in three personas. As odd or abstract as the doctrine of the Trinity might seem, Paul knew one God in three personas helps us make sense of our life and world.
For example, we already imagine, if there is a God, this God was there before the beginning when all things were created. We confess, we also see evil, and we have to admit, for some reason we can't seem to end the cycle of sin and death, so we hope for a God who breaks the cycle for us. And we sense this God is not just far away in space, NOR far away in the past, but we sense, hope, trust somehow God is alive and with us even now. A Triune God affirms what we sense and hope about God, that God is behind and before all things. God has redeemed all things. And God is even now bending all things toward peace, justice, and love.
Another way it helps… once we see this one God, inside God’s own self, as relational, we can trust this God’s ability and expectation to love. Love is not just an internal feeling, but also words and actions done for others through committed relationships. With this one God being triune, we see love in relationship, and we can trust this God knows real love, because this God does not just love privately inside the oneness of a self. That would be egoism or narcissism. This God knows real true love and practices it perfectly in relationship and community. In a triune God, we can trust this one God knows and IS love.
And what if… once we see the coequal loving relationship inside God’s own self, with no person of God being under or having power over, we have a blueprint for lives of equality and justice between us. Imagine if in our communities and relationships, there were no overs or unders, no haves or have nots, no powerful and powerless, no masters or slaves, no wealthy and poor. Imagine if in our human relationships and communities, we recreated just, coequal connections like what we trust are inside God’s triune self. That would be the kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven.
We believe in a triune God, one God in three persons. We might differ on which person of God we understand the best, or resonate with the best, and that kind of difference is okay. But let’s tune all our faiths to harmonize with the faithfulness of this God, the one in three, three in one, Triune God.
Will you pray with me…
Prayer
Amen? Amen.
Charge
.
Benediction
Now blessing, laughter, and loving be yours, and may the love of a great God who names you and holds you as the earth turns and the flowers grow be with you this day, this night, this moment, and forever more. Amen? Amen.
Comments