The Feast of the Holy Trinity
In the Name of Christ. Amen. How do we know what God is really like? The work of God isn’t just the blood-and-guts stuff of the Old Testament. Too many people think that’s all there is to God our Father and because of that misunderstanding, they don’t see God as Father.

A careful reading of Jesus’ words shows something else, though. They show a God that deeply loves His creation, even though that same creation turns on Him at every opportunity.

Jesus points Nicodemus to a story he knew well: the bronze snake that saved the lives of the complaining Israelites. In the midst of the exodus to the Promised Land, God’s people just didn’t care anymore. “Why are we in the desert dying? God doesn’t care anymore! I want to go back to Egypt!”

Snakes swarmed through the camp and bit tens of thousands of the Jews and they began to die with no cure, until God gave Moses the cure in a bronze snake on a pole. Looking to that image of what caused their pain and believing that it could cure them, they were cured and saved from death.

Jesus tells Nicodemus that just like those griping children of God were saved by believing that a bronze snake would save them from death by snake venom, He also would be lifted up on the pole of the Cross so that the whole world would be able to look to His death to be saved from the venom of sin coursing through their veins.

And that is how we are saved. Faith that the bloody sacrifice of the Son of God takes away our sin does save us from the eternal death that would surely come otherwise. Amen.

“Almighty and everlasting God, who has given to us, Your servants, grace, by the confession of a truth faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity, we implore You that You would keep us steadfast in this faith and evermore defend us from all adversities; who lives and reigns, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.” (Collect for the Feast of the Holy Trinity)

Daily Lectionary
Job 38:1-11, 42:1-5
Revelation 19:4-16
John 1:29-34

Once each year, on Trinity Sunday, we read and confess the Athanasian Creed, the longest and most comprehensive of the ancient church creeds. The Athanasian Creed, also know as the "Quicumque vult", was formerly recited at the office of Prime on Sundays. This creed expresses the mystery of the Holy Trinity in a nearly mystical manner. In trying to get your mind around it and understand it rationally you find you can do nothing but stand back and worship the Holy Triune God.

Here is the creed:

Athanasian Creed-Quicumque vult

Whoever will be saved shall, above all else,
hold the catholic faith.
Which faith, except everyone keeps whole and undefiled,
without doubt he will perish eternally.
And the catholic faith is this,
that we worship one God in three persons
and three persons in one God,
neither confusing the persons
nor dividing the substance.
For there is one person of the Father,
another of the Son,
and another of the Holy Spirit.
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one:
the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.
The Father uncreated,
the Son uncreated,
and the Holy Spirit uncreated.
The Father incomprehensible,
the Son incomprehensible,
and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
The Father eternal,
the Son eternal,
and the Holy Spirit eternal.
And yet there are not three eternals
but one eternal.
As there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensibles
but one uncreated and one incomprehensible.
So likewise the Father is almighty,
the Son almighty,
and the Holy Spirit almighty.
And yet they are not three almighties
but one almighty.
So the Father is God,
the Son is God,
and the Holy Spirit is God.
And yet there are not three gods;
but one God.
So likewise the Father is Lord,
the Son Lord,
and the Holy Spirit Lord.
And yet they are not three lords
but one Lord.
For as we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge every person by himself
to be both God and Lord,
So we cannot by the catholic faith
say that there are three Gods or three Lords.
The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created;
but begotten.
The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor created nor begotten
but proceeding.
So there is one Father, not three Fathers;
one Son, not three Sons;
one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
And in this trinity none is before or after another;
none is greater or less than another;
But the whole three persons
are coeternal together and coequal,
so that in all things, as is aforesaid,
the Unity in Trinity
and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshiped..
He, therefore, that will be saved is compelled thus to think of the Trinity.
Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation
that he also believe faithfully the incarnation
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For the right faith is
that we believe and confess
that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
is God and man;
God of the substance of the Father,
begotten before the worlds;
and man of the substance of his mother,
born in the world;
Perfect God and perfect man,
of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.
Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead,
and inferior to the Father as touching his manhood;
Who, although he is God and man,
yet he is not two but one Christ.
One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh,
but by taking the manhood into God;.
One altogether,
not by confusion of substance,
but by unity of person.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man,
so God and man is one Christ;
Who suffered for our salvation;
descended into hell;
rose again the third day from the dead.
He ascended into heaven;
he sits at the right hand of the Father, God Almighty,
from whence he will come to judge the living and the dead.
At whose coming all men will rise again with their bodies
and will give an account of their own works.
And they that have done good will go into life everlasting;
and they that have done evil,
into everlasting fire.
This is the catholic faith which
except a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.  ¶ 6/11/2006 06:04:00 AM 0 Comments