THE HOLY TRINITY AS THE SHIELD OF OUR LIVES

Trinity Sunday

7 June, AD 2009

TEXT:  St. John 3:1f and St. Matthew 28:18-20.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

“18And Jesus came and said unto them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.’”  (St. Matthew 28:18-20).

Although the word “Trinity” is not used in Holy Scripture, it is quite evident, from the words of Genesis when God’s Holy Spirit moved across the face of the waters making order out of that which God the Father had created, all the way through to the record of the Revelation of St. John on the isle of Patmos, that God has revealed Himself to humanity in three distinct personalities.  I say personalities because we, as Christians, do not worship three distinct gods, as the critics of Christianity often like to point out, but the one True God – the Almighty Creator of Heaven and earth; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God who created everything that is, both visible and invisible.  It is on this day, the Feast of the Most Holy and Blessed Trinity, that we remember that fact and come to worship Almighty God in His fulness.  Even though this particular Feast was slow in being established by the Church, both as a purely theological feast and, in the right opinion of the Church that every celebration of the Eucharist is a celebration of the Triune Godhead, the Church, through the influence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Becket, in 1162 and our Roman brethren a couple of hundred years later designated this Sunday upon which particular emphasis was placed on God’s Triune nature.  The Western Church chose this Sunday above all others for the Feast of the Holy Trinity because it concludes the sequence of events during which God has disclosed Himself to humanity.  The major festivals of the Christian Year before Trinity Sunday focus on the 1) Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity – His taking of our human nature and flesh as His own – at Christmas and Epiphany, 2)  The sacrificial and atoning Death of God the Son; His Resurrection at Easter and subsequent Ascension, and 3) His sending of the Holy Ghost to His Church so that the Paraclete of the Incarnate Son, our Counselor and Comforter, would be with us until the end of the age.  These actions have made plain to us God’s redemptive purposes in our time, our history, and has given us the ultimate revelation of who He is throughout all eternity – Three Persons in One God!  It is only natural that, after the sequence of these great festivals of the our Faith, that there should one more Feast pointing to the identity of the One Lord our God; the God of Creation, Redemption, and Revelation!  This is why we count the remaining Sundays of the Christian Year after Trinity Sunday and not Pentecost; because the time we have left, not only during the Christian Year until Advent rolls around again, but the time that is left before Our Lord’s return, His Parousia, is a time of teaching and historic commemoration in which the revelation of God as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are studied and applied to each of our lives and both to the Church’s inner life and outer witness!

As a doctrine, the Holy Trinity is considered a holy mystery.  Indeed, human reason cannot adequately explain how God as Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity operates and, because, of the limits of human language, the great Trinitarian debates and heresies arose.  But finally, by answering the questions against those who views differed from Catholic Faith and Practice as it developed over the centuries, the Church finally said that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are all of the same identical substance, essence, and being with each other while maintaining fully their independence and unique distinctness.  This is why, in history, we often see what seems to be three interconnected rings, denoting the Holy Trinity, which can be unfolded into one great ring or the Shamrock, the famous symbol used by St. Patrick to convert the heathen, or a candle with its solid wax, liquid wax, and flame; or even Neapolitan ice cream with its flavors of strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla – though, in reality, that’s very modalistic and heretical; but for a ten year old boy who came up with that idea all on his own and who still likes Neapolitan ice cream, I thought it was a pretty good analogy at the time.

Be that as it may, we turn now to what God the Holy Trinity means for us in our own lives.  The Collect for Trinity Sunday reads,

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity; We beseech thee that thou wouldest keep us steadfast in the this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities, who livest and reignest, one God, world without end.  Amen.

It was translated from the original Latin into English by Archbishop Cranmer and put into the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549.  It asks that by steadfastness in the Faith (of the One, Holy, Blessed, and Undivided Trinity) we would be safe from evil.  In other words, faith in the Holy and Blessed Trinity is to be the shield of each and every true Christian believer!  As the late Dr. Peter Toon wrote, who has preached in this very Church,

“Baptized into Christ Jesus in the One Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, confessing this One Name in the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, and being blessed in Church by this same Name, the baptized children of God worship the Father through the Incarnate Son and by the Holy Ghost.  Thus they are, as it were, enclosed by the Name; they inhabit the Name, and they are protected by the Name against the wiles and attacks of all spiritual and physical foes.  And, in biblical terms, to be protected by the Name is to be protected by the TRINITY, by the Father, through the Son, and with the Holy Ghost.”

So we really find, in Dr. Toon’s words, that the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity does not have its essence in a Dogma, but rather in a Person or should I say three Persons in one Substance, whom we call God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, within whom lies our life and our salvation.  

Therefore, taking the Most Holy and Blessed Trinity as the shield of our lives, I would like for each of us, at both the beginning and ending of our day, to reverently make the sign of the Cross and say, “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.”  This will set for you the whole context of your sleeping at night and your activity during the day to know that you, as a child of God, are under the protection of the Love of the Father, the Grace and Redemption of the Son, and in the fellowship of the Holy Ghost and can because of your baptism in that Holy Name can set aside the works of the world, the flesh, and the devil when, not if, but when they assault you and can devoutly serve the LORD your GOD all the days of your life.   Let us pray.

Blessed and Glorious Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, thanks be to Thee, very and one Trinity, one and perfect Godhead.  Thee, God the Father Unbegotten; Thee, the Only-begotten Son; Thee the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete; the Only and Undivided Trinity, do we confess and praise Thee with heart and mind and mouth; to Thee be glory forever and ever.  Alleluia.  Amen.

And now, unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all might, majesty, power, and dominion as is most justly due this day both now and forever; world without end.  Amen.

SOLI DEO GLORIA – JEU+