Sermon Sunday, June 11, 2006 +------------------+ | The Holy Trinity | +------------------+ [10]John 3:1-17* Entering the reign of God through water and the Spirit -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Athanasian Creed If you*ve looked at your bulletin, then you*ve probably noticed something of a change in the program a bit later on in the service. After the sermon, following the hymn of the day comes the creed, not just any old creed though, but the [11]Athanasian Creed*. If you know anything about the Athanasian Creed or if you were a bit curious and looked it up before the service started today then you know that it*s a doozy, not just in terms of its length, but in its agonizing and at times almost painful repetition. *The Father is infinite; the Son is infinite, the Holy Spirit is infinite. Eternal is the Father; eternal is the Son; eternal is the Spirit.* Right now, I*m sure that more than just a few of you are wondering what*s gotten into the pastor today? Its summer time, things are slow around here and we certainly don*t need anything that is going to make things drag on and on and on! Talk about a sure fire way to scare off the visitors! What*s say we ditch old Athanasius and fall back on what we know, like the Apostles* Creed? Hey, at least that one is short and to the point. Or maybe one of us could work on an abridged version for next year. Any takers? A [12]link on the ELCA website* notes that *this creed is of uncertain origin. It was supposedly prepared in the time of Athanasius, the great theologian of the fourth century, although it seems more likely that it dates from the fifth or sixth centuries and is Western in character. It assists the Church in combating two errors that undermined Bible teaching: the denial that God's Son and the Holy Spirit are of one being with the Father; the other a denial that Jesus Christ is true God and true man in one person. It declares that whoever rejects the doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of Christ is without the saving faith. Traditionally it is considered the "Trinitarian Creed" and read aloud in corporate worship on Trinity Sunday.*[13][1] So why in the year 2006 do we bother with something that seems so mystifying, so befuddling, so outdated? Don*t we already struggle with enough of a credibility gap these days? Why go and make matters worse? Maybe the time has come to offer up a polite nod to Athanasius and company and putting them all to rest for good. But then again, there seems to be a lot of confusion out there these days about just who God is and what God is up to in the world. Who or rather just what is a person to believe, even those of us who call ourselves Christian? Witness the controversy stirred up by the latest Hollywood blockbuster, the Da Vinci Code. Friday evening a trinity of an entirely different sort gathered at Tinseltown Theater in Pflugerville to take in the film. Noshing on our popcorn and swilling Coca Cola, Carol Crader, Jenny and I sat front and center for two hours and twenty nine minutes of intrigue, action and ecclesiastical drama. (Could somebody please check to see if those two words can be used together?) If you haven*t seen the film or read the book you probably haven*t missed the greatest movie of all time, but in my mind, it does manage to raise some interesting issues about the whole notion of the Holy Trinity, particularly with regard to the divinity and the humanity of Jesus. Of course the issues raised by the Da Vinci Code are by no means new. Throughout history, the church has had to deal with all kinds of misunderstandings about Jesus* identity and his relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit or Advocate as the writer of John*s calls it. At the same time, we need to remember that while there are a few texts that seem to support it, the actual doctrine of the Trinity wasn*t officially sanctioned until the third century or fourth century AD. I*ve heard it said before that the creeds serve as a kind of framework that supports faith. Without it, all we have is a confusing pile of ideas, feelings and misconceptions that can lead us in two very different directions*a kind of relativism that says *it really doesn*t matter what you believe* but really says, *it doesn*t matter if you believe*, that or the kind of relativism that enables the kind of religious extremism we know so very well these days. And by the way, we Christians are in no way immune to this kind of stuff. Let*s quit kidding ourselves. The creeds, including the one we use today help us to sort things out, to understand what is important, what is essential, what it is that we have to share with world, not as a club to beat others into submission, but as a gift. A very wise leader in the church these days is a fellow named Brian McLaren. Brian was the presenter at our tri-synod theological conference in January of 2005 and in his fascinating book, A Generous Orthodoxy, has this to say about the Holy Trinity. *The experience of God in Jesus was so powerful that it forever transformed what followers of Jesus meant when they said the word God. What was God like? What was God about? When they thought about what they had learned, seen and experienced in Jesus, their understanding was revolutionized. Eventually, after a few centuries of reflecting on God as revealed and experienced through Jesus (in the context of some major controversies with varied forms of Greek philosophy), the church began to describe God as Father-Son-Holy Spirit in Tri-unity or the Trinity. For them, God could no longer be conceived of merely as *God A*, a single, solitary, dominant Power, Mind our Will, but as *God B,* a unified, eternal, mysterious, relational community/ family/ society/ entity of saving Love.* McLaren invites us to consider further *the kind of universe you*d expect if *God A* created it: a universe of dominance, control, limitation, submission, uniformity and coercion. Then think of the kind of universe you would expect if *God B* created it: a universe of interdependence, relationship, possibility, responsibility, becoming, novelty, mutuality, freedom. I*m not sure which comes first*the kind of universe you see or the kind of God you believe in, but as a Christian who believes in Jesus as the Son of God, I find myself in universe B getting to know God B.*[14][2] I wonder what it would mean for us and for our world if we as the church were to begin to see ourselves living in sway of God B, of the One whose deep desire is to make known His creating, redeeming, saving love not only to the likes us, but through us to all creation? I suspect that life would look a whole differently. Maybe we wouldn*t have to worry about having all the answers, but could find ways to live with the mystery that is life with God and with one another. Maybe we as the church can finally begin to get past the issues that sideline us to what is really important, to what is really essential. Maybe we can get beyond the idea that faith has to be a matter of the head or the heart, but that it could actually involve both the way we think and feel. Maybe we can get over our need to look down, to dismiss or condemn those who don*t see things from our point of view. A six hundred and twenty six word long statement of faith*not what we have to believe, but what we get to believe, the gift of faith that God*Father, Son and Holy Spirit has handed on to us through the lives of others, the Church that God himself makes holy and one with Him. Now may the gift of faith that we have received, become the gift we share that all may know God*s love. Amen. Pastor Brian Peterson ------------------------ References Visible links [15][1] [16]Quote taken from the website of the Evangelical Lutheran Church* [17][2] A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian D. McLaren, Youth Specialties Books and Zondervan Press, El Cajon, CA, 2004, pg. 76. 10. http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=16423687 11. http://www.elca.org/communication/creeds/athanasian.html 12. http://www.elca.org/communication/creeds/creeds.html 16. http://www.elca.org/communication/creeds/creeds.html

[ Fri, 16 Jun 2006 04:24:01 -0500 ]

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