Restful, Fruitful, and Joyous

It’s been a busy time, ecclesiastically speaking, but for now, the rush is over. We are now entering into the longest season of the Church year, Trinity. Last week we celebrated the next to the last of the major feast days of the church year, Whitsunday and today we celebrate the last major feast day for the Christian year, Trinity Sunday.

Today we celebrate one of the key mysteries of the Christian faith, the Trinity, or the makeup of the eternal Godhead itself. I think it is no accident that we cherish the coming of the Holy Ghost first, and then contemplate the mystery of the Holy Trinity. After all, the Holy Ghost, or sanctifier of the faithful, leads us into greater knowledge of God through the Holy Scriptures and through our prayerful interaction with Him.

As such, recall that the Trinity is one of the core beliefs of orthodox Christians, as we affirm the both the trinity in unity (three Persons, one God) and the unity in trinity (One God in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost). This is one of the oldest beliefs in Christendom, having been developed and agreed upon at the Council of Nicaea in a.d. 325, during a Council of the undivided Church. It is central to a Christian’s view of God and it is a key indicator of a Christian’s “right thinking” about God. On the other hand, if a person will not or cannot affirm the Trinity, there is a defect somewhere in their Christology or their belief in God. They may believe something (and they probably do), but it is not orthodox Christianity. Let me remind you that every major cult, Christian or not, always denies or fails to affirm the Trinity. That is because those groups always have a problem with Christ’s divinity, or His humanity, or His equality with the Father, or some other key point.

Thus as we just mentioned, virtually every heresy and error in the Church always “boils down” to a defective view of Christ in some way or another.

What is even more fascinating is that every one of the modernday cults is some expression of an ancient heresy, be it Gnosticism, Apollonarianism, Sabellianism, Arianism, or some other Satanic lie. You see, as you have heard me say many times, Satan is never creative, just repetitive. He trots out the same old lies, in different guises, to see whom he may capture. In those wonderful words of 1 Peter 5:8: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking those whom he may devour.” Unfortunately, those who are not in the historic church and/or who have abandoned the historic creeds are especially vulnerable to Satanic lies and Satanic wiles. For example, it is interesting to note that after the Nicene Creed came into common usage in the fourth century, the spread of Arianism virtually stopped “dead in its tracks” across the Christian world. Recall that while Arianism had several different “flavors,” it is basically the heresy that Christ was a created being and thus not equal to God the Father as regarding his divinity. The cry of the early Arians was, “There was a time when Christ was not.”

That is why the Creed of Nicaea was so important, because it affirmed that we Christians believe in One God, the Father Almighty, not three Gods, and that we believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, not three Lords. We affirm that Christ is the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, thus destroying the rallying cry of the Arians. Furthermore, we affirm that Christ is begotten of the Father. He is not made or created, and He is indeed “of one substance with the Father,” in Greek, homousious. Christ is God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God. That is, Christ in his divinity is made of the same “stuff,” if you will, as the Father. Sometimes we just rattle these words off our tongues without really considering what they mean.

I humbly suggest that sometime when you are in a contemplative mood, sit down with your Book of Common Prayer and read the Nicene Creed slowly. Savor the words and think about them. I think that after reflection, you will perceive the brilliance of the Holy Spirit behind them. It is truly a Spirit-inspired work.

The Creed goes on to affirm the other nature of Christ, that of His humanity, that which He received from his human mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Thus, the other half of the miracle is that Christ, the second member of the Trinity, took our nature upon Himself, to live and to die among us. Incidentally, this is the other area with which all heresies have a problem: namely, that God could (or would) become man. All Christological heresies want to “water down” Christ’s Divinity or deny his Humanity or “tinker” with the divine formula of one Person, two natures.

Next, the Nicene Creed affirms the divinity of the Holy Ghost, who is the Lord, the Giver of life. This is Him whom we worship and glorify with God the Father and God the Son together. Thus, in the Creed, we have a succinct statement of orthodox Christianity in about one or two paragraphs.

The reason I mention all this basic but important theology concerning the Trinity is that it is the first great lesson we encounter in this great season of the Church. Although we cannot truly understand this mystery until we arrive in Heaven, it is critical to us Christians that we have the best understanding of the Holy Trinity that we can. Then, when our Muslim or Mormon friends make a statement that we know is incorrect, we can either confront them, or at least make a mental note and pray for their conversion. With the great mystery of the Holy Trinity in our minds, let us briefly consider the nature of the Trinity season itself. As we said, it is the longest season of the church year and the last, taking us up to Advent, where we begin the glorious cycle of faith over again.

Both the length of Trinity and its relative “calm” are intentional because Trinity presents itself as a “season of sanctification.” In other words, the Trinity season is to be a long, restful season of reflection, learning and growth in the Christian faith. Purposefully, it echoes the time of year where both growth (summer) and harvest (fall) occur. Thus, the implications are clear. We are to grow in the faith and harvest some spiritual fruit during this church season.

As we grow as a church, we will engage in more and more communal learning opportunities; which are excellent, especially if they begin to fill the spiritual “void” that exists in all of us, in greater or lesser degrees. The amazing thing about God is that although we can literally spend our lifetime learning about Him, it is never enough. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ continues to fill our needy “begging bowls” with Himself, now and for eternity. Since God is eternal, and since we are now in stage one of eternity, our earthly pilgrimage, we have only just begun.

That is very OK, for this is the glory of our ever-loving and ever-giving God: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. As baffling as it is to us, our eternal Father wants to have fellowship with you and me, forever. There we will learn about and fellowship with Him forever.

We clearly see this principle of spiritual growth in the Gospel for today from John 3. Here we see Nicodemus, a Pharisee, and, as the KJV terms it, “a ruler of the Jews” coming to Jesus by night to receive instruction. Of course, we know that he was afraid to associate openly with Jesus during the daylight hours, for fear of jeopardizing his lofty position in the community. While it is easy to criticize him and the other Pharisees in general, I believe that we should be cautious here. We know that there were many Pharisees who believed on Jesus, several of whom tried to save him from crucifixion.

In the mystery and majesty of God’s Mind, all of these played a role somehow in our salvation, positively or negatively.

What is fascinating about this passage is that Nicodemus attempts to use flattery with Jesus, saying to Him, “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” Jesus will have none of it as He short circuits Nicodemus by telling him that unless a man be born again, he will not see the Kingdom of God. This elicits a degree of scorn from the Pharisee, who uses the old Hebraic method of questions to stop or change discussion. He says, "How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter the womb a second time and re-enter the world?" Here is where Christ’s patience as a teacher comes to the fore, for he ignores Nicodemus’ almost flippant answer to give us one of the great Christian truths in John 3:5: “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

Christ continues as He tells us that to enjoy eternal life, we must be born anew, spiritual creatures of God and members of His Household. A modern translation says in John 3:8 ”The Spirit breathes where He desires, and you hear His voice, but you do not know from where He comes, and where He goes; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” There is a mysterious quality to the conversion process, as well as the way God speaks to us in the still, quiet chambers of our souls.

Once again, Nicodemus is incredulous. He says, “How can these things be?” Here, in an amazing but gentle reproof, and where I really cherish the KJV language, Christ answers him and says, “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” In other words, “You call yourself a spiritual master and you don’t know this?”

Christ goes on and says, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” Christ now draws the conclusion to His lesson by telling Nicodemus about God’s ultimate revelation to mankind, Himself. From John 3:13-15: “And no one has ascended up to Heaven except He who came down from Heaven, the Son of Man who is in Heaven. But even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

If we Christians grasped only the two major facts communicated on this day, first, that God is One in Three and Three in One; and second that “even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” we would be ahead in the game. We are still spiritually light-years ahead of those poor souls either who have not heard the Gospel or who have chosen to reject it.

Thank God, we have not chosen to reject it. Thank God that He, in His all-merciful and all-powerful Grace has chosen to call us into His Kingdom. It is that calling and that growth in God’s Love that we celebrate today on Trinity Sunday. You see, being “born again” doesn’t necessarily involve a “boom-crash” spiritual experience.

I warrant you that for most Christians, it doesn’t happen that way. God in His Mercy has provided a way for us to be born again through the wonderful waters of Holy Baptism. Here, we enjoy not only the mystical washing away of sin, but also the fact that we are re-born, “regenerate” in Christ. In the Rite of Holy Baptism, the priest says, “Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this child (this Person) is regenerate and grafted into the body of Christ’s Church, let us give thanks for these benefits.”

Now, once we are regenerated in Holy Baptism, does that mean that we are “done” with our Christian growth? Are we to “let well enough alone?” Two words should suffice for that: God forbid. Our lives are to reflect the qualities of Trinity in this regard, green, growing and bountiful. In this regard, let us take direction from Nicodemus. Although he was a learned and godly man, he still had to learn the most fundamental truth, that of Jesus Christ.

This Trinity season, let us all work, pray and hope for our spiritual development, our green growth that will be transformed into a harvest of spiritual fruit. We have the tools at hand: the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Sacraments, our Church and each other.

Pray, dearly beloved, that this Trinity season is both restful and fruitful for all of us.

John 3:7: "Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again."