Sermon preached on Saturday, June 6, 2020 (Trinity Sunday) via Zoom at Church of the Savior in Wheaton, IL. Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20.
Greetings, everybody. I’m coming to you from the basement of All Souls Anglican Church. It was pointed out to me in our practice session that these books are all tagged according to the Dewey Decimal System, so I just wanted to clarify that this is not my personal library, although that is a goal of mine.
Our topic tonight is the doctrine of the Trinity, and of course, Christians believe that there is one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or as my daughter Eva recently put it after seeing an illustration of the Trinity in her book, Father, Son, and Bird. We’re working on that, but I think it illustrates the difficulties of illustrating the Trinity.
We Christians have been taught that the Trinity is important. Trinity is good. We don’t want to be Trinitarian heretics. Modalism is bad, but, you know, quite frankly, who really cares about the Trinity in 2020?
What difference does divine mathematics make when the world is on fire, when leaders are failing us, when black people are dying? Don’t we Christians have more important things to worry about right now than the doctrine of the Trinity? I mean, I’m tempted after the weeks that we’ve had recently to just sit here in silence for a few minutes and then skip to the creed.
I mean, at least that wouldn’t be the worst Trinitarian sermon I’ve ever heard, so I readily confess tonight my inadequacy, my anger at what’s going on in the world. I even confess the inadequacy of my anger about what’s going on in the world, but it falls to me, a young white priest, to talk about the doctrine of the Trinity on Trinity Saturday 2020. So preach I will, but please bear with me because my sermon has changed just a bit in recent days.
Originally, the whole thing was going to be about how the Trinity is not an abstract list of thoughts to be thunk about God. Instead, the Trinity is how the church reads the Bible. That was going to be my whole sermon, but I still want to say a little bit more about that because I think it’s really important.
The church developed the doctrine of the Trinity in order to make sense of the Bible as a single story of how the one true God creates the world, refuses to let it fall into nothingness due to sin, redeems it through Jesus Christ, and brings it to perfection through the Holy Spirit. Without the doctrine of the Trinity, friends, the Bible falls apart into fragments.
What do we do with Yahweh? What do we do with God’s Spirit? What do we do with God’s Son, Jesus Christ? I mean, are these three different gods? Is just one of them God? Are none of them God? And maybe they’re just three different masks that God wears?
Without the doctrine of the Trinity, at best, we’re either polytheists who worship more than one God, we’re idolaters who worship things that God made, or we’re completely unsure of who God truly is. That’s where we’re left without the doctrine of the Trinity.
But with the doctrine of the Trinity, however, we can trust that God is who he has revealed himself to be in Scripture and in the worshiping life of the Church, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is God’s proper name.
With the doctrine of the Trinity, we can trust, especially in difficult times like today, that we worship the same God who called the world into existence and order out of nothing. We worship the same God who rescued his people from slavery in Egypt, who brought his people back from exile by going into exile for them on the cross. We worship the same God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead, who exalted Jesus to his right hand, where he now sits enthroned over the universe. We worship the same God who poured out his Holy Spirit upon the church at Pentecost and just like that could break through social, linguistic, and racial barriers. The doctrine of the Trinity reminds us that we worship the same God who ever since the day of Pentecost has always equipped and empowered his church throughout every generation through persecutions, plagues, and prejudices to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus commanded.
So friends, yes, I think we should care about the doctrine of the Trinity, especially now in 2020, because some Christians, and let’s be honest, especially some white Christians like me, seem to have forgotten that all human beings are created in the image of the triune God. All human beings are therefore worthy of dignity, respect, and self-sacrifice for their well-being. We’re supposed to, as God’s image bearers, extend God’s rule and reign throughout the world as good stewards instead of exploiting creation and other human beings for our own gain.
We should care about the Trinity today in 2020 because some of us seem to have forgotten that the triune God is always and everywhere in control, so we do not need to be driven by fear. Some of us seem to have forgotten that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth, so we don’t need to curry favor with Caesar or King Henry VIII or Donald Trump in order to accomplish our great commission as Christians. We Christians should care about the Trinity in 2020 because we are image bearers of the triune God who have been commissioned to make disciples of Jesus Christ in all the diverse people groups of the world.
Now, let’s hit pause and ask ourselves, how is that mission going? I don’t have time, obviously, to even list everything that’s going wrong in the world right now, but I think we need to let judgment begin with the household of God. I wonder how much of the chaos around us is due to the church’s failure to make obedient disciples of Jesus Christ. I think we need to ask ourselves that question.
After all, Jesus didn’t commission us to make disciples of Fox News or MSNBC or, this is close to home, even NPR. Jesus didn’t command us to baptize our greed or nationalism or our racism in the unholy water of civil religion. Jesus didn’t tell us that we only had to obey certain things that he said. He didn’t say it was okay for liberals to ignore his sexual ethic, and he didn’t say it was okay for conservatives to ignore his social ethic. Instead, speaking with the full authority of the triune God, Jesus told us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And now, honestly, I don’t think the church has ever completely failed at the Great Commission. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a church today to preach to. But brothers and sisters, as we rightly come together and lament the current state of things, I think we need to ask ourselves if the church has failed to make disciples.
Disciples of Jesus are people who look, think, and act like Jesus. Do we look, think, and act like Jesus? Are we helping other people look, think, and act like Jesus? Or do we think that Jesus looks, thinks, and acts like us?
Now, let me take a deep breath like I just did and say that up to now, I’ve been preaching at a much broader target, if you will, than just Church of the Savior in Wheaton, Illinois. I thank God for how he has blessed our church with godly leaders and lay people who are willing to consider the gospel’s implications for all of life. I wouldn’t call our local church a nationalist church or a racist church. And I thank God for that.
Nevertheless, it’s not enough to just congratulate ourselves that we’re not as bad as other churches. There is always room for growth.
So how, then, should we live? Well, between the doctrine of the Trinity and the Great Commission, I mean, basically everything’s on the table. But here’s what I think we need to focus on tonight.
As image bearers of the triune God in 2020, we need to ask ourselves what it would look like to be and make disciples of Jesus who take a stand for biblical justice against the systemic sin of racism. I don’t have all the answers of what that would look like, but I do have three suggestions that I think we should consider.
First, in order to do that, we need to read our Bibles. We need to be so thoroughly familiar with the Bible that we can explain our biblical and theological reasons for taking a stand against systemic racism. We need to let it be so much for taking a stand. We need to let it be known that as Christians, we are not against racism because we’re trying to impress our liberal friends. We’re not against racism because Karl Marx told us that we should be. We are against racism because we’ve read our Bibles and we are convinced that the triune God is against racism.
At minimum, the doctrine of the Trinity reminds us that God’s oneness has never meant sameness. When we read the narrative of Scripture, it becomes clear that God is not colorblind. And neither should we be colorblind as we make disciples of all the ethne, all the people groups of the world. We have an opportunity today to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to a world that desperately needs hope. So we need to read our Bibles so that we don’t miss that opportunity.
Secondly, we Christians, and especially we white Anglican Christians in the USA, need to familiarize ourselves with the history of racism in this country. We can’t understand the current state of things if we’re ignorant of America’s racist history and white Anglican’s complicity in that racist history. We played a pretty big role over the years. And frankly, and this is real hard for me to admit as a person who prides himself on being a good student, I do not know enough about this myself. I’ve not done all the reading that I need to do.
So in addition to reading our Bibles, I invite you to join me in reading books such as Jamar Tisby’s The Color of Compromise. And I think we all need to read Esau Macaulay’s Reading While Black when it comes out in a few months. Can’t come out soon enough, in my opinion. We need to familiarize ourselves with the history of racism in this country.
Third, we need to take action. Reading our Bibles and learning more about the history of racism in America are very good starts. But they’re not enough. We need to listen and learn from the example of the black church about what it means and what it looks like to take a biblical stand against injustice.
We need to develop diverse relationships as individuals and as a church. We white Christians need to listen to our brothers and sisters of color without expecting them to solve all our problems or do all the difficult work for us. We need to raise up leaders of color within the church. We need to give money to leaders of color within the church and to the ministries that they’re already leading. We need to let our bishops know that we want the Anglican Church in North America to look more like the North America we’re called to serve. We need to speak up and call out racism, even when it’s costly or risky to do so. And especially when it’s always coming from an elected or an ordained leader.
Now, I wonder, is anyone else feeling a little bit overwhelmed at this point? Because I sure am. I mean, does our church, does our church here in Wheaton or does the church, capital C, have the strength to fulfill the Great Commission when so many things are going wrong? No. No, she doesn’t. And she never has.
But perhaps you’ve noticed in this sermon that I’ve not quoted the entire Great Commission. I’ve left out the last part. But we need to hear it, though, because it’s the most important part of the whole thing. Jesus said, and surely I am with you always to the end, to the very end of the age.
Without that promise, the Great Commission is an unbearable burden. It’s an impossible command. But with that promise, the Great Commission is good news, even and especially in 2020.
Friends, it might not feel like it some days, but the end of the age has not yet arrived. Jesus didn’t promise to be with us until COVID-19 forced us to meet online. Jesus didn’t promise to be with us until George Floyd and countless others were murdered. Jesus didn’t promise to be with us until the president used the Bible as a prop in a photo op. No, Jesus promised to be with us until the very end.
Until God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, his people from every tribe and tongue and nation. And God himself will be with them and be their God. Until he will wipe away every tear, every tear-gassed tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. That’s when the end arrives.
Friends, this is why we should care about the doctrine of the Trinity. If Jesus Christ is with us, then the triune God is with us. And if the triune God is with us, then we can make disciples and not be afraid, no matter how bad things get. For no one, nothing, not even the gates of hell, will prevail against Christ’s church. Amen, amen, amen, amen.