Sermon for June 19, 2011 (Trinity Sunday)

“The Name of God” (Psalm 8; Matthew 28:16-20)
June 19, 2011 (Trinity Sunday)
Rev. John B. Erthein

We worship a great God. His power and majesty are attested to throughout creation, and even more so in the Word of God. Psalm 8 is a song of praise to our great God. God has created the heavens, the moon and the stars. And yet God has placed us, mere human beings, at the pinnacle of his creation. We have been crowned with glory and honor, and God has given us dominion over the works of his hands, such as the animals.

God honors us and wants to have a relationship with us. The Psalm begins with the name “Lord” for God. This is important because it is the personal, or covenantal, name of God that he revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Ex 3). This title could also be translated as “governor” or “master.” Further, God is called “our” Lord because of the covenant he established with Israel. There is something intimate about this relationship. While it is true that God created the whole world, he set aside a specific people which he called Israel, a people simultaneously set apart but also to a light to all nations. God's gracious plan is at the heart of what we call the Old Testament.

I want to pause for a moment and speak briefly about two kinds of grace we experience from God. The first is common grace. These are the benefits that God gives to all people, regardless of their conscious relationship with him. These include the beauty of nature; the provisions of this world, including food and shelter; and the comfort we receive from human relations. Common grace is quite indiscriminate; it's like the very localized weather patterns we have around here … welcome rain falls at David and Rebecca Green's property while it remains dry in downtown DeFuniak Springs. You can spiritually alive or spiritually dead: it doesn't matter when it comes to God's provision of common grace.

The second kind of grace comes from faith. We are saved by grace through faith. This means the Holy Spirit awakens us to our spiritual condition. We realize we are lost in our sins and cannot enjoy eternal life without salvation in Jesus Christ. And so we turn away from our sins. We abhor them. We regard them with horror and shame and grief. And we ask Jesus Christ to come into our hearts and lead us as Lord and Savior. That is the special grace that God bestows on his elect.

The whole Bible, including the Old Testament, shows how God's grace operated. God revealed more of his gracious plan in what we call the New Testament, which was again a personal relationship between God and his people. The New Testament, of course, centers on Jesus Christ, who the Scriptures affirm as being fully God and fully man. And this brings me to the reading from Matthew's Gospel. Jesus has risen from the dead and has appeared to many of his followers. He is giving them, in a sense, final instructions before he leaves them to ascend into heaven. And he tells them to spread the news about his ministry and his offer of eternal life to all who repent and believe in him. And here he tells them to baptize people in the “Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Here the full name of God is unveiled.

What does this name mean? If you want the perfect theological explanation, you won't get it from me, because I am but a simple country preacher. But in fact, even the very best theologians in church history have struggled to perfectly explain the mystery of the Trinity. Our minds are too limited to comprehend the vastness of this doctrine. But I think Charles Hodge had the best explanation. He wrote that the Bible affirms over and over again that there is one God. But then the Bible also affirms that there are three distinct Persons who all are known as God … the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. One God in three Persons … three Persons in one God. That was good enough for me.

But what I think is truly important about the Trinity is not doctrinal precision, at least not for the purposes of this message. The fact that God is three Persons, and has always been so and always will be, means that at his deepest level, God is relational. Even before he created the universe, our world, and us, God was in a state of intimate relationship. And God decided, purely out of his overflowing love and grace, to extend this relationship to his creation.

And what a relationship that can be. How can it be described? It is sublime. Many of you know what it is to be deeply in love with someone, to always think about the other person, to want to be with them and share everything with them. You feel as if you are connected at a cellular level, or that your souls merge into one. That is the kind of relationship God offers you with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. As Jesus was preparing to depart this earth, he promised that the Holy Spirit would remain to guide them. It was the same Holy Spirit that was present at the Creation; the same Spirit that guided the Israelites; and the same Spirit that brought back from the dead Jesus Christ. It is by that same Spirit that you also may have this incredible, intimate, beautiful relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

And, empowered by this relationship that overflows with love and grace, you will indeed by able to go forth and minister to others with courage and compassion. That is the best thing to remember on this Trinity Sunday.

In the name of our wonderful God who loves us beyond our imagining, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.