Matthew 28:16-20, Ephesians 4:1-6

 

I.        On an autumN day in September of 2000,  I paused for half a day on my bicycle ride around Northern Ireland.  I was in the town of Downpatrick , 20 miles from Belfast on the hill of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. The bones of Saint patrick are said to be  buried there.

A.       A legend says that when Saint Patrick died in 553, his body was placed in an oxcart pulled by untamed oxen. The oxen wandered from place to place, guided by the Holy Spirit. Where they finally stopped was to be his final resting place and a church would be erected in honor of his body. They stopped on Cathedral Hill in County Down.

1.       The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity was erected in 1932 for the 1500th anniversary of Patrick’s arrival on the Emerald Isle. Yet that hill has been one of the oldest continuous locations of Christian worship in Ireland.

2.       This place is called the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity because of the three bodies buried there, saints of Ireland and the Catholic Church:

a.       Thus a well-known couplet which is quoted:                                   

        “In Down, three saints one grave do fill, Patrick, Brigid and Columcille.”

b.       I could not help but notice that the Cathedral also carries a name from the Temple of the Winds. Nearby the winds from the Mourne Mountains on the peninsula blow down across from the “lough” (“lock”) or bay, a reminder also of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

 

B.       Patrick used a shamrock, to explain what God is like. The shamrock, which looks like clover, has three leaves on each stem.

1.       Saint Patrick said the shamrock is like the Trinity:  that in the one God there are three divine beings: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The shamrock was sacred to the Druids, so Patrick’s use of it in explaining the idea of the Trinity was an ingenious idea. [PAUSE]

 

II.       You and I are Trinitarian Christians. When we join a Presbyterian Church, we belong to the Trinity. (But so do Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists and Episcopalians.)

A.       20 years ago when I was in Alamogordo, New Mexico, we invited the head Protestant Chaplain from Holloman Air Force Base to speak at our Maunday Thursday Communion service.

1.       Chaplain Robert Hadley is now retired from the Air Force. He is pastor at Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church in Fairfield Bay.

2.       That evening my good friend, Bob Hadley, told our gathering about being out in the front lines in Vietnam, and serving the Lord’s Supper to all the troops, from a variety of Christian persuasions. He had to be their chaplain without regard to denomination or doctrine.

a.       That experience, he said, taught him that there is a difference between those of us who are Trinitarian Christians and those whose Christian focus is primarily on one person of the Trinity: Jesus. 

b.       The first Chapter of our oldest Confession, the Scots Confession of 1560, written by 6 Presbyterian clergymen in 4 days, declares:

c.       “We confess and acknowledge one God alone, to whom we must cleave, whom alone we must serve, whom only we must worship, and in whom alone we put our trust...one in substance and yet distinct in three persons.”

d.       “We confess...cleave...serve...trust.” That says, we belong to God, “distinct in three persons.” God does not belong to us.

e.       Back to Bob Hadley: As Trinitarian Christians, then, our idea of God is different, more mysterious, more of a puzzle.

(1)      Does it affect how we serve and worship our God?

(2)      Well, as Trinitarians we have a Creed - two creeds.

 

B.       Nowhere does the New Testament state this idea of the oneness to which we belong in the church and in God better than in the 4^th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesian Church.

1.       The first part of Ephesians is a prayer for the young congregation, Paul’s thanksgiving for the faith and love of this church, his prayer for them to discern the mystery of God and his will.

2.       In the second part of his letter, Paul lays out his idea of how those in the church shall live out their faith, how their lives will be shaped by organizational considerations.

3.       At the very heart of this, is Paul’s insistence that when we become a part of Christ’s church, there is a oneness about us.

a.       It is not that the oneness belongs to us, but we instead belong to the oneness of the church–

b.       Says Paul, he becomes a “prisoner” of that oneness.

4.       The oneness is expressed in two statements, two ways:

a.       First, how you lead your daily life, what you find worthwhile:

(1)      ”I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling...with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

b.       Later on in Ephesians, he says in all we do in marriage, in service, in raising children, “we speak the truth in love and we grow up... into him who is the head, into Christ,”

(1)      into Christ’s oneness and fullness.

c.       Second, the essence, the “stuff” of the church:

(1)      “There is one body and one Spirit, ... one hope..one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all...”

(2)      Seven times he uses the word “one,” a complete number.

d.       Here is where church doctrine comes into the picture

(1)      the essential beliefs.

 

C.       The second place where this unity of the Godhead is expressed so clearly is the Great Commission at the end of Matthew.

1.       There Christ claims all the authority in heaven and on earth is his now as Risen Lord and Savior. Here he gives marching orders to the new church–to the 12 apostles.

a.       He sets the vision or mission statement.

                                                          b.       He uses 4 verbs: “‘go, make disciples, baptize, teach.’”

                                                          c.       all under his total authority in the Trinitarian formula.

                                                          d.       Then finally, because of the gift of this “distinct Three-in-one-God,” he is “‘... with (us) always, to the close of the age.’”

 

                                      2.       John 16, Jesus’ farewell speech, sets the parameters for the sending of the

                                                Spirit as the Comforter or Counselor, to carry on without interruption the

                                                presence of God         

                                                          a.       so that we will not be alone or sad,

                                                          b.       to convince the world concerning sin,

                                                          c.       to guide us into all truth,

                                                          d.       to speak on the Spirit’s own authority,        

                                                          e.       and to grant what we ask in Christ’s name-our prayer.

         

                                      3.       Do I have a choice in this matter?... To belong in the church is to be initiated into this plan, this identity, this strategy.

                                                          a.       or as John says, to be engrafted like a branch on a grapevine;

                                                          b.       so that our nature becomes the same as the mother plant.         

                                      4.       If you want to really learn about the Spirit, read through our “Book of Confessions.” That is how I learned to appreciate  the richness, the power, the presence of the Spirit.    [PAUSE]

 

III.      In the early 4^th century, the year 312, Constantine became emperor of the Roman Empire. Constantine was a new Christian, influenced by his mother Helena’s faith.

A.       We do not know whether Constantine’s conversion happened gradually from his youth or momentarily followed a decisive battle that he won.

1.       As Constantine looked at Christianity all around him in his new Christian empire, he saw churches quarreling and feuding...

a.       over doctrine,

b.       over which bishops’ teachings were authoritative,

c.       which books they would include in their Bible,

d.       who were the heretics.

2.       He thought, I will call a gathering of all the churches in one place, Nicaea, and have them work together to hammer out one set of agreed-upon beliefs so the whole church could live in peace.

a.       A bold vision, but a naive hope.

3.       After 4 church councils over the next 55 years, from 325 to 381, the result was not what Constantine had wanted. He was disappointed.

4.       But something good grew out of these Nicene councils.

 

B.       First, the churches could agree on one central truth:

1.       Jesus Christ, they said, is at the center of our faith.

2.       We are united in him, we become one when we confess him as Savior.

3.       And that one confession is greater than all our differences.

 

C.       The second great agreement which came from the Nicene Councils was the doctrine of the Trinity.

1.       Author Eugene Peterson, in his recent publication, Eat This Book, writes, “Trinitarian thinking developed out of two or three hundred years of our mothers and fathers patiently, prayerfully, intelligently reading these two Testaments and gradually realizing that the differences weren’t all that different.”

2.       The churches of the East and West did not agree on just how the Trinity is One–its “sameness of substance”– only that the 3 persons are truly One.

3.       Peterson believes this doctrine of the Trinity has kept Christianity basically together and it preserved our Holy Scripture intact as we have it today.

(page 3)

D.       Dr. Peterson suggests that the “Trinity is an imaginative construct,” “an incredible work of genius.”    (page 3)

1.       It enables us to maintain all the differences of how God speaks to us and reveals himself to us; yet embedded in it is “a single voice of God.”

a.       So that God has a stable and coherent identity 

(1)      in his work of Creation,

(2)      as the Son and his work of salvation,

(3)      and the experience of God’s presence in human history.

2.       Second, the Trinity affirms that in every part of God’s revelation, every aspect, God is person, personal–“God is relational at the core.”

                                                          a.       God loves, God cares, God is present, God pulls me into participation.

                  

                    3.       Peterson says, “The corollary to that is that I, because I am a person, am personally involved in the revelation,”

                                                          a.       in this story, in this church, with you.                          

                                                          b.       God addresses me personally, holds me accountable in relationship.

 

IV.      When I become a part of Christ’s body, his church, Central Presbyterian, or any Presbyterian Church, when I make that public confession in Jesus as “my Lord and my Savior,” do I then have a choice about belonging to the Trinity?

                   A.       My answer, and Eugene Peterson’s answer, is, “No,” when you become a member of the body of Christ, from that moment on you belong to the Trinity, to the Trinitarian Church, to God’s oneness.

                                      1.       Allen Boesak, a South African Dutch Reformed minister, became President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in 1982. He visited one Reformed church in this country, and someone approached him after worship, “We recite the Creed in each service, but  there is something in the Nicene Creed I do not believe, so I do not say the Creed. Dr. Boesak replied something like this:

                                                          a.       It is not about you, it is about the faith of your church. If you are a member of the church, the church’s faith is your faith. So you recite the Creed until it becomes a part of your faith.

 

                                      2.       In our Trinitarian unity, says Peterson, you and I become capable of loving, belonging, capable of purpose, freedom, and obeying.

 

                                      3.       More than that, it becomes our duty, a part of who we are in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

 

                                      4.       Part of what I have tried to do over the last 20 months among you, is to show you what it means to belong to our Presbyterian Church USA,

 

                                                          a.       to re-acquaint you with our great heritage and history,

 

                                      5.       But to also demonstrate that this is not one choice among several choices.

                                                          a.       It is not ultimately about what we think our church should be or not be, it more than that,

                                                          c.       It is who we are at heart, Reformed and always Reforming, what our essence, our nature, our calling, which determines how we look at our mission and our world.

                                                          d.       It is a matter of belonging, confessing, obeying, becoming,

 

                                      6.       it is about relating personally and corporately to other churches who share a Trinitarian faith with us, as well as the central belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, without whom there is no salvation, no hope.

 

                                      7.       “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth...And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God...And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life... “

                                                                                                                   (Let all of God’s Trinitarian Christians now say: “Amen!”)       (page 4)