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“Holy 2014” Matthew 28:16-20 Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Virginia Beach, VA Holy Trinity June 15, 2014

The Holy from St. Matthew, the 28th Chapter.

16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the , 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

The Gospel of our Lord.

So today is Holy Trinity Sunday and I’d like to first share about the man who was a significant teacher on the subject. His name was

Saint Augustine, or Augustine of Hippo (from Hippo, not an actual hippo). He was (senior Priest) of Hippo Regius located in the Roman province of Africa. He lived from 354CE – 430CE. He was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings were very influential in the Church and philosophy. He has been

A.DeBenedetto 1 2 called the greatest mind has ever known. He was definitely the last before the dark ages when hordes of Vandals ransacked Rome and Northern Africa. Antiquity died with him.

And let me tell you some history about him. This is the soap opera drama church history that I was telling you about, the juicy stuff. Let me read to you an excerpt from the book “The History of Christian Thought”, by Jonathan Hill.

The man who would stamp his character and mind indelibly across Western thought was born in Tagaste, a small town in North Africa, in 354. Although his father was a pagan, his mother, Monica, was a devout Christian and had her son educated in Christianity from cradle on. Augustine accepted the faith unquestioningly. He excelled at school in every subject except Greek, a language he hated and was unable to master. Augustine’s parents decided to send their precocious son to the great city of Carthage to complete his education. Since they were not well off, they had to save up for this, and Augustine found himself hanging around with little to do while he waited for the money to be found. Augustine was now 16, with all the psychological and physical pressures of a typical adolescent. As he later put it, “The thorns of lust rose over my head, and there was no one to root them out” (Confessions 2.2.6). He and his friends

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spent their time comparing their sexual excesses, and Augustine—again like most teenagers—soon found himself having to invent experiences just to keep up with the others (80).

Augustine’s life of craziness continued and got even more crazy.

He called Carthage “a hissing caldron of illicit love.” He continued to be educated and became known in philosophical circles. As he grew he became more and more disturbed by the barbarous violence in the Bible (see, it’s not just us); he was convinced by this that religious truth must be found somewhere else. He tried other religions that were popular at the time and dabbled in pagan philosophy and science. But, because Augustine was so smart, he eventually realized that even the smartest of these other religious men couldn’t provide the answers he sought. So he left for Rome, and while there decided to listen to the great speaker and Christian teacher Ambrose. Through listening to

Ambrose Augustine’s faith began to grow. But, he still struggled with how he could be so sinful and yet be loved by . His

A.DeBenedetto 3 4 struggle came to a head when he was sitting in his garden torturing himself with guilt and longing when he heard a child’s voice saying, “Take up and read.” Augustine took it as a sign and picked up the Bible, opened to a page, and read from Romans

Chapter 13: “Not in riots and drunken parties, not in eroticism and indecencies, not in strife and rivalry, but put on the Lord Jesus

Christ and make no provision for the flesh in its lusts.” He was overjoyed, filled with emotion, broke down, and committed himself to Christ. His first act as a Christian was to go tell his mother.

Augustine continued to grow and become a brilliant mind and writer in the Church. He moved back to Hippo in Africa where the people shortly thereafter called him to be their priest. He became popular with all the people and began to write ceaselessly about the things of God.

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One of his more brilliant works was called, “On The Trinity.” He was the first man to put into words what the Biblical witness declares, that God is three persons, one substance undivided, co- equal, all divine. He was the man that helped articulate how the

Trinity is understood today (to the best of our ability). All this from the guy whom interestingly also gave us the doctrine of grace, the guy who struggled deeply with his sexual exploits and other sins.

You see, church history can be scandalous and exciting!

So how did Augustine make sense of the Trinity? How can we?

Here’s the conclusion that Augustine finally came to. And it’s best understood in a story about him. One day, while taking a break from writing, Augustine went on a walk on the African seashore.

While on his walk he encountered a little child who had made a pit in the sand near the water’s edge. In his hand was a spoon.

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The child was painstakingly taking the water from the sea and bringing it back to the pit, where it inevitably soaked into the sand and disappeared. Parents, have you ever done this with your kids? Of course Augustine scoffed at the child, saying, “It’s impossible. How can you do that? The sea is so great and large and your spoon is so small!” “Yes,” said the boy. “I will no sooner bring the sea into this pit than you shall bring the mystery of the

Trinity and His Divinity into your little understanding” (Basically, the kid said, “You dummy.”). The child continued saying, “The mystery of the Trinity is far greater and larger compared to your brain just as this pit will never carry the sea.” And with that the child disappeared. With this miracle Augustine learned that no man could presume to muse on the high things of the Godhead.

Faith alone is sufficient.

To understand the Trinity, first it takes faith. The Trinity is a holy mystery. It’s still one that theologians have been trying to explain

A.DeBenedetto 6 7 for centuries. But, how do we non-theologians make any sense of it? Again, faith…but, then we can also look to some simple (I mean really simple) illustrations. I’m about to show you the best I have, but remember, no illustration can capture a holy mystery.

When I first came back in 2010 or 2011 I remember doing a

Children’s message about the Trinity and I think we’ll reenact that this morning. First, I need a person to volunteer to be God the

Father. Anyone ever wanted to play God? Then I need someone to volunteer to be the Son, Jesus. Then I need someone to be the

Holy Spirit. Ideally this person should be invisible J. Then I will go ahead and wrap the three distinct persons with a white sheet to communicate their unity and one-ness. They are three distinct persons (not personalities like a schizophrenic God or bodies like a three-headed monster). Then I’m going to wrap them with a cincture, what we wear around our /robes. Cincture is the fancy word for rope. The Cincture represents the relationship of

A.DeBenedetto 7 8 love between them. Love is what binds the persons of the Trinity together and their relationship is defined by that love. Love isn’t just an attribute of God, it’s who God is. God is love.

We have creeds that define more so the Trinity for us. A reminder that a creed is simply a statement of what we believe. The creeds were assembled over centuries based on the corporate beliefs of

Christians. We have the Apostles’ Creed, which is the simplest and the earliest, dating back to Rome in the first century. Then we have the that came about through Emperor

Constantine wanting a one defining statement for the faith that all Christians could agree upon; this was in year 325CE. Then later we received the , which is the most specific in regards to the Trinity, but it’s also the longest and most confusing so we usually don’t use it. Creeds were used to rally

Christians around common beliefs and against heresies. The creeds were summaries of the basic building blocks of Christianity.

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Everyone can agree on these basic tenants of the faith. So, what do the creeds say about the Trinity? Well, did you notice that the

Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed are split into three sections? Hmmm, I wonder why?

So, what about the Trinity today? How do we talk about it? What does it have to do with my life today? Well, we believe that is in heaven and is the creator that sustains all things.

Jesus is the Son who existed from the beginning of time, who took on human nature and became a living person. He lived, taught, died, was raised from the dead by God, and then ascended into heaven. We say he sits at the right hand of God in heaven and mediates/is an advocate of ours to God the Father. But, the one that makes Jesus and God the Father present with us here is the

Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is much like the wind in the trees. You can’t see it, but you can see how it affects the world. You see the evidence of God’s presence through the Holy Spirit. The pronoun

A.DeBenedetto 9 10 we use for the Holy Spirit is still “He”, which throws some people, but He’s still a person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit connects all things, sustains all things, and makes us part of the living Trinity through Jesus’ grace. What Jesus did on the cross somehow connects us with all persons of the Trinity all the time. If you want an image, we say that the Holy Spirit allows us to sit in on the eternal feast with the persons of the Trinity. There is an old and very beautiful icon, one of those gold leafed paintings, of the three persons of the Trinity sitting around the banquet table leaving a place open towards you and me. The message, that through Jesus’ action on the cross for you and me, we are welcomed into the very Trinity itself. We are welcomed at the banquet table of God.

And why celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday. Well, I’m glad you asked.

I found this very good description from the Roman Catholic website fisheaters:

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We have thus far lived out the drama of Christ's earthly life -

- His Nativity at , His revealing Himself as God at

the , His time in the desert at , His Passion and

Resurrection at and . We recalled His

glorious Ascension, and at last week's , the Holy

Ghost has descended upon the Church, sent by the Father

and the Son.

God's Triune Nature has been fully revealed, and now we

celebrate the Most Holy Trinity on this day, hearing in

today's Gospel, "All power is given to Me in heaven and on

earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them

in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy

Ghost. Teaching them to observe all the things whatsoever I

have commanded you; and behold I am with you all days

even to the consummation of the world" (this is known as

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the "Great Commission").

And with this (worship service), the Time After

Pentecost, the season that represents the Church Age,

begins. today will be white. Symbols for the day

are the natural symbols of the Trinity -- the shamrock used

by St. Patrick to explain the Trinity to the ancient Irish, the

pansy -- viola tricolor -- called the "Trinity Flower," a candle

with 3 flames, the triangle, the trefoil, 3 interlocking circles,

etc.

All throughout Scripture we don’t necessarily hear any reference to the Trinity. But, from Scripture we do read a lot of reference to the different persons acting, from the very beginning in Genesis like we read today, to the very end of Revelation. We may not understand the Trinity, but with our God, if we understood everything it would make God a lot smaller. And for me, I find

A.DeBenedetto 12 13 comfort in not knowing everything, because that means God probably has things figured out so we don’t have to. After all, filling our little sand pit spoonful by spoonful can be exhausting.

So, do you understand the Trinity a little more today after my message? Maybe a little. But, like Augustine, the important thing is that we will never understand the Trinity, but that does not make is any less real. It just takes our faith to comprehend. And one day, when we are welcomed into the eternal kingdom, we can all ask the questions like, “What’s the deal with the Trinity?

Draw me a diagram please.”

Prayer.

Amen

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