“IN JESUS”
Saint John 3: 1-16
The Feast of The Holy Trinity: 30 May Anno Domini 2021
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Saint Philip Melancthon was correct of course; better to worship and adore the Trinity then seek to explain it.
The Introit is correct: “Blessed be The Holy Trinity and The undivided Unity.” The Church is correct to always insert the “Gloria Patri” into the weekly historic Introits (entrance hymns) from the Holy Psalter.
Saint Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, and the Church Fathers (Bishops) who followed him were correct to confess The Truth of The Godhead and Christ in the words of The Creed you just confessed. The Athanasian Creed though not written by that Pillar of The Church, so called by Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, does well in expanded form to teach the faith of Nicaea—a council in 325 at which Athanasius was present.
And yes, even the famous pictorial chart, attributed to Saint Augustine is correct from a didactic point-of-view in showing the individual personhoods of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit while maintain the confession of but ONE OUSIA—i.e. Essence—ONE GOD.
Thus, the mystery.
God is not a chart or depiction. The art on the worship folder cover probably is more artistic than helpful.
And although most ways that well-meaning people use to describe The Trinity are not correct: Water; being found in three forms (liquid, solid, and gas) is heretical Modalism (Sabellianism)! The Sun in the sky (where you have the Star, the light, and the heat) is heretical Arianism! Even the famed 3-leaf clover (probably wrongly attributed to Saint Patrick) is heretical Partialism (each only composing 1/3 of the divine)! So too with the triangle.
It isn’t that analogies are always wrong. When God gives us an analogy, IN SCRIPTURE, we use it. But the mystery of The Godhead does not come by rational or scientific descriptions. Rather as Fr. Hans Fiene paraphrases:
“The Trinity is a mystery which cannot be comprehended by human reason but is understood only by Faith and is best confessed in the words of The Athanasian Creed which states that we worship One God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing The Persons or dividing the Substance, that we are compelled by the Christian Truth to confess that each distinct Person IS God and Lord, and that The Deity of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, is One, equal in Glory, co-equal in Majesty!”
As faith is a pure gift, undeserved, that is, by Grace. So too, faith in the mysteries of The Godhead, is a gift worked by The Holy Spirit—with The Word—Who + always does the Work of The Father. That was prayed this morning in our historic Western Collect (going back more than thousand years in the West) “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…”
All Theology is Christology. All talk about God must ultimately be talk about The Christ.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee by religious affiliation and education. You are a Pharisee (hypocrite) by fallen nature and daily trespass. He was where he was supposed to be that night. You are where you are supposed to be this day. He was in the presence of Jesus, looking into the very eyes and face of God.
Likewise!
He understood the power of God (“these miracles that Thou doest”) but not quite the way one is brought into the kingdom. All of us, likewise, struggle with how one is saved; how one comes to faith; how The Christ creates faith in our hearts and thus Redeems us—so that we cling to Him and His Works alone to justify us before God.
Nicodemus, and sadly many today, who call themselves Christians do not understand the WAY, not so much the power, but the WAY one is saved by being “born again,”—Baptized. “The Wind bloweth where it listeth.” The Lord saves who He saves. The Lord saves the way He chooses. “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you” [Jn 15. 16a]. “Jesus saith unto him, I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life: no man cometh unto The Father, but by Me” [Jn. 14.6]. “No man can come to Me, except The Father which hath sent Me draw him” [Jn. 6. 44].
Blessed Saint Paul gives you Gospel in Epistle form: “for in Him (Jesus) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” [Col. 2.9]. John gives you the Gospel in the 14th chapter: “Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen The Father” [Jn 14. 8-9-].
And now you too have the same Good News. You like Nicodemus, and Philip and the others, have the same Blessed and Holy Trinity in the presence of Jesus—The Word made Flesh.
Are you beaten down? Do you or a loved one struggle with sickness, sadness, and uncertainties? Are you frightened about the future—about this coming week? Are you weary? Do you need The Lord and the New Birth of The Spirit? Are you not Baptized? Into what + Name?
The Father did not die for you—He is Spirit only. The Holy Ghost did not die for you—He is Spirit only. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” He was! And the fruit of That Sacrifice is here now to refresh, fortify, and forgive.
The Word of The Holy Spirit (3) in the words of Saint Paul: “For God (1), Who commanded The Light (2) to shine out of darkness, hath shined in (y)our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge (3) of the glory of God in the face of Jesus (2) Christ” [2 Cor. 4.6]
Not only the face of Christ, but His precious and true Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Not in intellectual and rational control and comprehension, but in humble and faith-worked devotion and confession. You confessed The Athanasian Creed.
And thus, you say:
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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