Sermon - 2013-05-29

The Holy Trinity is one of the hardest concepts to understand. Any math teacher will tell you that 1 + 1 + 1 does not equal 1.  If only the disciples had asked Jesus, now wait, how does this all work out?  How are you and Father one? And who is this Holy Spirit going to look like, do and even help us?  Unfortunately, the disciples were more often focused on other things like not getting killed for their beliefs and trying to understand what it was that they were suppose to do to wrestle with the questions that plague some of us.

Throughout the centuries, people have tried and struggled with understanding what and how it was that we have this Trinity, yet one God.  It is a story filled with people proclaiming their faith, name calling, trials and a number of killings.  Today we are going to talk about this concept that the church has developed over the years.  Of how we should understand and why understanding God is important.  To determine what was good or right and understanding this concept, a bunch of Bishops got together and decided how does all of this work together and how does some of this fall short.

So today, we are going to talk about four of the most common heresies that are within our world today.

Subordinationism - This is a concept that the Son or Holy Spirit are below the Father. Now with this understanding God creates everything including the Son and the Holy Spirit. They fulfill the work that they were designed to do.  However, this leads to great problems within the fullness of Jesus and the Holy Spirit being God himself.  It would be like going up to a tree, because it gives you food, shade and shelter, you would call it god.  But this is simply the way in which God provides for your needs and is not God himself.  

Modalism - one God who reveals himself within three ways but only in one way at a time.  This is rather similar to the way water can be frozen, liquid or vapor.  We can see and encounter this God, but only one at a time.  This becomes very problematic when you need God to sustain you, but also to redeem you. Or when you want something as a cold drink like water with ice cubes.  Nope, can’t be done here, you either have a solid block of ice or warm water.

Partialism - This is a concept that there are only partial ways of experiencing God.  This is similar to Modalism, but different in regards that we shall never fully understand and view God’s fullness.  This becomes problematic when you need and receive the fullness of God within your life.  For you receive all that you need and the gifts that you shall use to share in the Kingdom of God here within the world.   

Tritheism - This is a concept that there are three gods ruling over us and their names are Father, JEsus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Each of these gods rule over the creation and are revealed fully.  However, this completely gets rid of the notion that we are monotheist but instead are pantheistic (many gods).  This begs the question of equality among the gods and the fullness of each god.  

Ok, so now that you may be sitting going, huh?  What is it that we do believe?  Early within the Christian faith, people got together and wanted to help other people better understand the Trinity and keep people from falling into similar misunderstandings.  So these early Christians got together and created the Apostle’s Creed.  This creed was clear and necessary for anyone who wanted to be Baptized within the church.  Keep in mind this was before we baptized infants.  That did not come around until a few hundred years later. The Apostle’s Creed allowed people to understand how God did reveal himself to us, but is all one.  Truly three persons, but one being.  Ok, so how is that different than what was talked about above and how do you avoid being a heretic?  Within the Trinity, there is equality among the three persons.  Three persons are revealed at the same time and there is order among all three.

Now even the Apostle’s Creed did not help everyone.  So people began to continue to explain things in other ways, but were still not helpful to other people in understanding God.  The church got back together and decided that another creed would be necessary, and that was the Nicene Creed.  A creed that explained the Apostle’s Creed even more and helped people understand who God was and what exactly God was doing within each person of the being of God.  

But today we still have the creeds, but we don’t often hear about heresies or people on trial for what they believe.  This is both good and bad.  It is bad because there is no real means of correcting people and their understanding of God, but it is good because it truly places the Trinity as the final judge as to what it is on your heart, mind, and actions.  Within the church, we strive for you to continue this relationship and understanding of God throughout your whole life.  Once you are Confirmed, you are not done with your faith but you are encouraged to continue to wrestle with your faith and that relationship with God.  So where are you?  What is your understanding of God?  I hope that you are able to have conversations with one another, that you find someone who challenges your beliefs so that they grow but also someone who supports and encourages you.  That is what we strive for here within the church.  Yet you welcome the Pastor into your congregation to help each and everyone of you to do just that; to bring in that outside perspective, to challenge you, to support and encourage you so that ultimately you will have that closer and stronger relationship with God. Amen.