| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
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| TRINITY SUNDAY 22 May, 2005 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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Okay…, today is Trinity Sunday. So let’s get it over with right at the top; let’s go over it, one
time.
The doctrine of the trinity says that there is one God who exists in three persons, but only
one substance; that the Father is God, the Word is God, the Holy Spirit is God – but there is
only one God. That the Father generates the Word; that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the
Father; but that the Word and the Spirit are eternal with the Father, that all three coexist,
and no one of them precedes the others; that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the
Holy Spirit is God; And yet they are not three Gods, but one God, and the whole three
persons are co-eternal together and co-equal.
So, you all got that, right? It’s clear, now? We all understand exactly what the Doctrine of
the Trinity is all about, right? Or maybe not.
This is that day, again, when the one, great disadvantage of being Rector of a small church
really stands out – when there’s no curate or Associate to stick with preaching about the
Trinity. Because this last of the year’s major Sunday feasts is, by far, the toughest – and
was, in fact, the subject of much joking at last Wednesdays monthly meeting of the Clergy
of this deanery.
So… I’ve done it! I’ve explained the Doctrine of the Trinity, and we all understand it, now,
right?
Actually, you may recognize what I just said about the Trinity from other years – because it
pretty much comes straight from pages 864 and 865 of the Book of Common Prayer – the
document known as the quicunque vult, or the Athanasian Creed.
And, of course, I don’t really expect you to get it. My intention, this morning, is NOT to teach
you what the doctrine of the trinity really means. Some of you, I suspect, may already have a
fairly good grasp of the doctrine, difficult as it is. It is, rather, to emphasize to you the
importance of doctrine, itself, as the core of that hard work I talked about a couple of
weeks ago – the hard work of understanding and learning to live in this world!
Most of the year the Church looks at events in its calendar: from the coming of the Christ,
at Christmas, to the birth of the Church at Pentecost, most of what we celebrate are the
events of the Christian Story.
Christianity, like the Judaism it grows out of, is a dynamic religion, a religion based on
concrete events in the history of the world. It’s a faith based on the Story, celebrating a
God who is not aloof from the world, but can be perceived in it and through it.
But our annual rehearsal of the events of salvation history culminates in a completely
different kind of observance – the commemoration of a doctrine, an idea, an
understanding. And it does so as a way of emphasizing to us that, as dynamic as our faith
is, as “reality-based” as it is, as concrete and as actual – it is not complete until it reaches
inside our minds, and forms itself into idea and concepts – until it has given birth to the
DOCTRINES that are capable of guiding and directing our lives, and the understandings
that can carry us through what St. Paul calls, “the sufferings of this present time.
That we believe is important. But what we believe is even more important – the Content of
our faith is what will determine what kind of persons we strive to become, the direction of
our lives, the quality of our relationships. If that content is raw, unformed, unreflected
upon, then so must our lives be.
A doctrine may be a principal, an ideal, an idea. In the original sense, coming from the Latin
word, docere, meaning “to teach,” it means “a teaching,” and that is the sense in which we
mean it in the Church. A doctrine of the Church is a “teaching” of the Church. And we need
to know and to understand, as best we can, the teachings of the Church
And the time in life when our failure to develop an understanding, when our failure to form
our Christian experience into ideas of substance and meaning matters most is in those
times of challenge and tragedy that come to everyone.
The most difficult time – the most difficult task – for any priest is when we are called at
times of injury, sickness, disability, death – and are asked – usually over and over and over
again – why did this happen, what does it mean, why did God do this? Questions our
tradition, our faith has answers for – but questions asked at a time when we cannot give
those answers, because those who are asking can’t hear them.
The most important questions in human life are inevitably asked at a time when the
answers are least meaningful, least helpful.
Why do tragedies happen? What does it all mean? The two most universal questions of
human experience; the two most important questions. And most often asked when it’s too
late for the answers. Asked by Christians who have no more than a Sunday School
understanding of their own faith, to whom it has never occurred that the understandings
delivered in Sundays School might fall short of mature, adult understanding – to whom it
has never occurred to look more deeply into their own faith.
Our tradition does have answers. Our faith does offer meaning – even in the face of the
greatest tragedy, the greatest loss, the greatest suffering, the greatest challenges. But
they are not easy answers; not answers that are simply come by. They’re answers that
require knowledge, work, patience, understanding; answers that arise out of our story –
the Christian story – as it has been encountered, analyzed, grasped, taught and lived for
thousands of years.
Answers that can only be arrived at when we take the time, expend the energy, do the work
it takes to learn and to understand – as adults – the doctrines that define our faith. This is
the WORK I said a couple of weeks ago waits for us to do – challenges us to do.
Today we celebrate, observe, commemorate, take note of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It
is the fundamental teaching about God in the Christian tradition. In our tradition it is the
beginning of wisdom – and the end, with, in between beginning and end a wealth of
understanding that is key to the fullness of Christian life, and the key to forming an
understanding of this world we live in.
Knowing the Christian STORY, in all its richness, is a wonderful thing – but it’s incomplete
without the learning that leads to understanding. It is for each of us to do the learning, and
to do it before it’s too late.
There is so much to learn of the Christian faith. We need to be about the learning.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
time.
The doctrine of the trinity says that there is one God who exists in three persons, but only
one substance; that the Father is God, the Word is God, the Holy Spirit is God – but there is
only one God. That the Father generates the Word; that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the
Father; but that the Word and the Spirit are eternal with the Father, that all three coexist,
and no one of them precedes the others; that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the
Holy Spirit is God; And yet they are not three Gods, but one God, and the whole three
persons are co-eternal together and co-equal.
So, you all got that, right? It’s clear, now? We all understand exactly what the Doctrine of
the Trinity is all about, right? Or maybe not.
This is that day, again, when the one, great disadvantage of being Rector of a small church
really stands out – when there’s no curate or Associate to stick with preaching about the
Trinity. Because this last of the year’s major Sunday feasts is, by far, the toughest – and
was, in fact, the subject of much joking at last Wednesdays monthly meeting of the Clergy
of this deanery.
So… I’ve done it! I’ve explained the Doctrine of the Trinity, and we all understand it, now,
right?
Actually, you may recognize what I just said about the Trinity from other years – because it
pretty much comes straight from pages 864 and 865 of the Book of Common Prayer – the
document known as the quicunque vult, or the Athanasian Creed.
And, of course, I don’t really expect you to get it. My intention, this morning, is NOT to teach
you what the doctrine of the trinity really means. Some of you, I suspect, may already have a
fairly good grasp of the doctrine, difficult as it is. It is, rather, to emphasize to you the
importance of doctrine, itself, as the core of that hard work I talked about a couple of
weeks ago – the hard work of understanding and learning to live in this world!
Most of the year the Church looks at events in its calendar: from the coming of the Christ,
at Christmas, to the birth of the Church at Pentecost, most of what we celebrate are the
events of the Christian Story.
Christianity, like the Judaism it grows out of, is a dynamic religion, a religion based on
concrete events in the history of the world. It’s a faith based on the Story, celebrating a
God who is not aloof from the world, but can be perceived in it and through it.
But our annual rehearsal of the events of salvation history culminates in a completely
different kind of observance – the commemoration of a doctrine, an idea, an
understanding. And it does so as a way of emphasizing to us that, as dynamic as our faith
is, as “reality-based” as it is, as concrete and as actual – it is not complete until it reaches
inside our minds, and forms itself into idea and concepts – until it has given birth to the
DOCTRINES that are capable of guiding and directing our lives, and the understandings
that can carry us through what St. Paul calls, “the sufferings of this present time.
That we believe is important. But what we believe is even more important – the Content of
our faith is what will determine what kind of persons we strive to become, the direction of
our lives, the quality of our relationships. If that content is raw, unformed, unreflected
upon, then so must our lives be.
A doctrine may be a principal, an ideal, an idea. In the original sense, coming from the Latin
word, docere, meaning “to teach,” it means “a teaching,” and that is the sense in which we
mean it in the Church. A doctrine of the Church is a “teaching” of the Church. And we need
to know and to understand, as best we can, the teachings of the Church
And the time in life when our failure to develop an understanding, when our failure to form
our Christian experience into ideas of substance and meaning matters most is in those
times of challenge and tragedy that come to everyone.
The most difficult time – the most difficult task – for any priest is when we are called at
times of injury, sickness, disability, death – and are asked – usually over and over and over
again – why did this happen, what does it mean, why did God do this? Questions our
tradition, our faith has answers for – but questions asked at a time when we cannot give
those answers, because those who are asking can’t hear them.
The most important questions in human life are inevitably asked at a time when the
answers are least meaningful, least helpful.
Why do tragedies happen? What does it all mean? The two most universal questions of
human experience; the two most important questions. And most often asked when it’s too
late for the answers. Asked by Christians who have no more than a Sunday School
understanding of their own faith, to whom it has never occurred that the understandings
delivered in Sundays School might fall short of mature, adult understanding – to whom it
has never occurred to look more deeply into their own faith.
Our tradition does have answers. Our faith does offer meaning – even in the face of the
greatest tragedy, the greatest loss, the greatest suffering, the greatest challenges. But
they are not easy answers; not answers that are simply come by. They’re answers that
require knowledge, work, patience, understanding; answers that arise out of our story –
the Christian story – as it has been encountered, analyzed, grasped, taught and lived for
thousands of years.
Answers that can only be arrived at when we take the time, expend the energy, do the work
it takes to learn and to understand – as adults – the doctrines that define our faith. This is
the WORK I said a couple of weeks ago waits for us to do – challenges us to do.
Today we celebrate, observe, commemorate, take note of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It
is the fundamental teaching about God in the Christian tradition. In our tradition it is the
beginning of wisdom – and the end, with, in between beginning and end a wealth of
understanding that is key to the fullness of Christian life, and the key to forming an
understanding of this world we live in.
Knowing the Christian STORY, in all its richness, is a wonderful thing – but it’s incomplete
without the learning that leads to understanding. It is for each of us to do the learning, and
to do it before it’s too late.
There is so much to learn of the Christian faith. We need to be about the learning.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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