Holy Trinity—5/30/2010
Emmanuel Lutheran Church—Dwight, IL
River of Life Lutheran Church—Channahon, IL
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“The rule of three,” according to wikipedia.org, “is a principle in English writing that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things.”1 You just heard the rule of three in the definition itself: funnier, more satisfying, or more effective. And so there are three little pigs, three blind mice, three musketeers, Goldilocks and the three bears, and my personal favorite, the Three Stooges.
Holy Scripture has a rule of three as well, but it’s more than just a literary device. Triplets are everywhere in Holy Writ. In today’s Old Testament Reading, the angels cry out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Is. 6:3). In the Epistle, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!...For from him and through him and to him are all things” (vv 33a, 36a).
It’s a bit of a mystery why things that come in triplets are so inherently satisfying. It’s an even greater mystery that our one God comes in three.
THE TRINITARIAN MYSTERY IS UNSEARCHABLE AND INSCRUTABLE, YET IS REVEALED TO US IN HOLY BAPTISM
I.
The Trinitarian mystery is something that cannot be grasped by logic and reason. St. Paul was well aware of this fact, so he didn’t even bother trying to explain it. He simply extolled it. “Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (v 33).
Recently, the motion picture Avatar became one of the highest grossing films of all time, aided in part by premium prices for its 3-D technology. But for all of the hype surrounding its three-dimensional effects, the story and characters were surprisingly one-dimensional, as one reviewer put it.
With our God it’s precisely the opposite. All of our presuppositions about God are one-dimensional. We think of Him as this all-powerful sovereign sitting somewhere in the sky. But God has a height and a breadth and a depth to Him that we could never presuppose in our finite human mind. God is a God of fullness, and to fill anything, you need three-dimensions.
Yet your nature would really prefer a one-dimensional God. Because that kind of God is easy to get your mind around. Your nature always desires to know the mind of God. You are not content with rejoicing in what He reveals to you, but you lust after the secrets of His hidden mind. When you suffer, you want to know why. When you eat His body and blood, you want to know how. When you pray for something, you want to know when.
The nature of sin is to desire to dissect God and put Him under our microscopes, to deconstruct God and submit Him to our analyses. All of this is an attempt to know His mind so that we can give Him counsel, to tell Him how He can do a better job at being God.
But St. Paul writes, “For who has known the minds of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?” (v 34). The answer is none.
II.
“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” (v. 35). The mystery of the Holy Trinity is really wrapped up in the mystery of grace. The Holy Trinity is not a God to whom gifts must be given, but who gives gifts to you. Even though you will never be able to search out the depth of the mystery of the nature of God, He gives the mystery to you through the gift of Holy Baptism. The economy of the Holy Trinity defies all human reason in that He gives gifts to us without any desire to be repaid. Reason suggests that any benefit from God must be provoked by a gift sacrificed to Him. But the Incarnation of Jesus Christ shatters this expectation.
O love, how deep, how broad, how high,
Beyond all thought and fantasy,
That God, the Son of God, should take
Our mortal form for mortals’ sake! (LSB 544.1)
There was nothing to gain for the Son of God to take on human flesh and its mortality. There was nothing to gain for Him to die. Except our salvation. In the Man who hangs from the cross, you see the depth of the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God dies to give us life.
This death is our gift in Holy Baptism, as is His life. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:5).
Holy Baptism places the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit on you. God’s name is washed over you. You are born again as a child of God’s kingdom with an inheritance of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In Holy Baptism, the depth of the person and nature of God is revealed. Though His judgments remain unsearchable and His ways inscrutable, you are now an owner of this mystery. And rather than try to understand Him, simply praise God for who He is. “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
Holy Father, holy Son, Holy Spirit,
Three we name Thee;
Though in essence only one,
Undivided God we claim Thee
And, adoring, bend the knee
While we own the mystery.
In the + name of the Holy and Blessed Trintiy. Amen.
Rev. Jacob Ehrhard
VD+MA
