“A STUDY IN CONTRASTS”
The Holy Trinity
May 22, 2016
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and
the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are
mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him?
Psalm 8:3, 4 (ESV)
What we are celebrating today in the Church is a little different
than what we’re used to celebrating. Unlike most of the special days
in the calendar of the church year, Trinity Sunday doesn’t commemorate
any particular event; it commemorates a doctrine. The Trinity is one
of the most fundamental doctrines of Christianity and also one of the
most confusing. It can’t really be explained or even understood
(every analogy and illustration always falls short); it can only be
believed and proclaimed by the power of the Holy Spirit (as we just
did with the Athanasian Creed, which is quite confusing in itself!).
In a nutshell what this doctrine states is that there is only One God
and that this One God has revealed Himself in three distinct Persons
who we know as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Furthermore,
we believe and confess on the basis of Scripture that this Triune God
is the only true God--that all other “gods” are counterfeits. I
suppose the greatest mystery to be appreciated by us in all of this is
that even though God is far too great for us to comprehend, in His
infinite love He is nevertheless willing to have a meaningful
relationship with us.
The psalmist is well aware of the great difference between man and
his Maker. “What is man that You are mindful of him?” he asks the
Lord rhetorically, or “the son of man that You care for him?" David
knows all too well that God is so far superior to us that He would be
totally justified in having nothing whatsoever to do with us.
Probably the most mysterious thing about this mysterious God of ours
is that He actually cares about every big and little thing that goes
on in our lives. In particular He cares about our sinful condition
that alienates us from Him and renders us unfit to have a share in His
kingdom of glory or even to survive in His presence. What’s more, He
cares enough to do something about it, having become human in the
Person of His Son Jesus Christ and righted all of our wrongs by His
life, death, and resurrection. On this Trinity Sunday let’s focus our
attention on these things by spending a few minutes meditating on the
greatness of His nature and the greatness of His grace.
God is great simply because of who He is. While His works certainly
do proclaim His greatness, He would be great even if He had never done
anything. This is clear from the way the Scriptures talk about Him.
The story of creation, for example, begins with the words “In the
beginning God . . . ” (Genesis 1:1). There is no attempt here to
explain who God is or how He came to be. Such questions amount to
nothing more than idle speculation. The assumption of the Scriptures
from the very beginning is simply: GOD IS. It is not for us to
question the why or wherefore of that simple and profound statement,
but simply to accept it in humble faith. What’s more, God is perfect
in every way. All of this, of course, is unacceptable to the
so-called intelligent person of our day. To accept anything as being
absolutely true is not what rational people do these days, or at least
that’s what we are led to believe. But whether anyone wants to admit
it or not, every belief system and every philosophy has its starting
point and its basic assumptions. Ours is that God exists and that He
is eternal and righteous and that He cares about us.
If the fact that GOD IS is not enough to convince of us of His
greatness, we can clearly see His greatness in the things that He has
made. We shouldn’t need to be reminded of the power of God as we
think, for example, of the brutal force of the weather: hurricanes,
tornadoes, blizzards, and heat waves. As great as that these extremes
in weather are, God is infinitely greater, because He is the One who
created weather and all of its components in the first place. We can
see His greatness also in the stars of the sky, the creatures of the
deep, the beauty of the vegetation with which He has clothed His
earth, and in the fact that the world that He made is self-sustaining:
Every living thing finds on this planet whatever is needed to sustain
life. The air that we breathe, the food that we eat, the beauty that
we enjoy with our senses, the love and fellowship that we crave--all
of these things are provided for us by the Creator and Preserver of
all, and He provides them for no other reason than that He loves us.
That’s greatness!
What is so remarkable--so mysterious about this great God--is that He
actually cares about creatures such as us. When you consider how
insignificant we are in comparison to the greatness and glory of God
and how undeserving we are in comparison to Hi perfects righteousness,
it is truly amazing that He pays any attention to us at all. His
providing for our material needs in creation, His justification and
forgiveness of sinners through His Son Jesus Christ, His life-giving
Gift of the Holy Spirit--all this is nothing more or less than the
greatness of His grace. God is God whether we believe in Him or not
and God is great whether we acknowledge His greatness or not. He
doesn’t need us; it is we who need Him. And yet He in His mercy and
grace looks upon us and has compassion on us, providing us with
everything that we need whether or not we appreciate His kindness or
are even aware of it. It takes a God of great grace to provide for us
as He has.
But the greatest revelation of God’s grace by far is the Gospel of
His Son Jesus Christ. Our physical needs are met regardless of
whether we acknowledge God or not, but our spiritual needs are met in
Christ precisely because we don’t acknowledge Him. Because we have
willfully disobeyed God’s Law, our Savior has willingly obeyed it for
us. And because we have earned the righteous anger of God, our Savior
has endured that righteous anger of God in our place. The extent of
His grace in Christ is so great that we humans cannot comprehend it,
because we simply don’t deal with people in that way. We never
exhibit pure love and grace toward another person, so how can we even
begin to understand our great God’s gracious dealings with us?
Indeed, we cannot. Like al ofl the mysteries of God, we can only, by
the power of the Holy Spirit, believe them and give thanks for them as
we receive from the Lord’s hand the blessings of His grace.
The mysterious greatness of our God has been clearly revealed, but it
cannot be clearly understood--at least not by humans like us--at least
not in this life. Nevertheless, in His infinite love and mercy the
Lord Himself has given us His Holy Spirit to make it possible for us
to know who He is and what He is all about, to believe in Him, and to
receive the benefits of all that He has given us and done for us,
especially in the life and ministry of His incarnate Son, our Savior
Jesus Christ. Through His means of grace His Spirit continues to
supply us with the wisdom, the strength, and the faith that we need to
accept even those things that we cannot understand, to believe them,
and to benefit from them.
Amen.
May the King of Ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, make you wise
for salvation through His Word, revealing Himself to you as Creator,
Redeemer, and Sanctifier, that you may grow in grace and knowledge,
equipped to serve Him in all things. He who calls you is faithful,
and He will do it. Amen.