Ok, I promised 8 o’clockers I would trust them and preach a bit longer. Why do we read the first creation story today? If you get it correct, you can head to the Parish Hall for coffee until we partake of the Eucharist. Don’t laugh too much, the real sermon is short. We read it, in part, because we have finished reminding ourselves about the great works of the Gospel. We intentionally reminded ourselves that Christ has come and will come again in Advent; we celebrate the Incarnation, we remind ourselves intentional that God manifested Christ to the Gentiles during Epiphany; we remind ourselves of our need for a Savior during Lent; we remember the Passion and Death of our Lord Christ during Holy Week; we celebrate His Resurrection and its consequences on Easter; we remember the Ascension on the Thursday service everyone skips during Easter; and we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. The rest of the year will be spent on learning what it means to grow in discipleship, what those events we intentionally remind ourselves each year mean to our lives in this world, in this place, and at this time. It means I could skip Trinity Sunday and jump right into that, if I preferred.
On this day, Trinity Sunday, it could be fun to preach on the promise we have that we will one glorious Day be a part of that intimate relationship that we know as the Trinity. Part of what we celebrated on Ascension was the fact that a part of us has ascended with Jesus back to the Godhead. Right?
Paul shares a wonderful blessing in Second Corinthians. Certainly it would be good for us to be mindful of those things of which he writes the Church in Corinth.
And the Gospel lesson is Jesus’ reminder that He has been given authority over all things in heaven and on earth and that we have been sent to baptize in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. You would think there’d be little disagreement with that part, but you would be admitting you do not pay much attention to what is happening outside these walls. Nowadays, when I have to certify that someone was baptized at Advent, I have to certify that no one used anything other than the Trinitarian formula for the baptism. Anything else is considered invalid by the wider Church, and rightfully so.
In truth, I knew I would be preaching on the Trinity before I picked up the readings. I have shared how clergy often pass off preaching this day to assistants or seminarians. The problem is that we are speaking of a Holy Mystery when we talk about the Trinity. Often, no matter how well intended when we start, we begin quickly to drift off into anathemas or outright heresies as we try to explain the Trinity. Worse, we can preach a wonderful doctrinal statement that goes on and on and on, but seems to have no practical purpose. But as I worked my way through study this week, I was drawn back to a passion of one of my colleagues. So I am plagiarizing her. Well, I am giving her credit, so I am not really plagiarising. But you get the idea.
Before I begin, everyone turn in your prayer books to page 864. Yes. I am serious. I am encouraging us all to turn to the historical documents. Like I said, I have to stretch this out a bit. At the bottom of the page is the Anathansian Creed. Take your time and start reading it for comprehension. I’ll be quiet for a few moments to let you get into it. . . .
Is anybody bored yet? You are bored with God? Lol I am only teasing. A number of our brothers and sisters will say this creed today, and a few of my colleagues will likely preach on it. There will be wringing of hands because, gasp, it may not have been written by Athanasius. In fact, our oldest copy is from the 6th Century, which means that one was not written by Athanasius. Because you have a classicist for a priest and he makes you learn about obscure things like copyright and marketing in the ANE, you all understand that a disciple of Athanasius could have written the creed and attributed it to his master. As long as Athanasius, or most of his disciples, agreed, it would be accepted as expressing the teachings of Athanasius.
Athanasius is famous in the Church, sainted to be more precise, for His defense of the faith against Arius, who argued that there was a time when Christ was not. Arius believed that Jesus was subordinate to the Father, that Jesus was created by the Father. It was his teachings that caused the bishops to council to settle matters like this at Nicea. The end result of that gathering was the Nicene Creed. To be fair, the end result was that the Church accepted the Nicene and Apostles’ Creed as distillations of the Christians faith. To be a Christian, one had to accept those creeds. Interestingly, most of the Church accepts the Athanasian Creed as on equal footing with the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. But that is why I am not making you recite that creed today. Principal worship is meant to be ecumenical. Since some in our church hold that the Athanasian Creed is not on the same level as the other two creeds, we do not honor their discernment by acting as if it is. We want to be good hosts, if other Christians are joining us for this celebration, right?
Look again at the length of that creed. See how long it is. Do you have an idea how long it would take us to recite it? Would we really comprehend everything we said, or have you found some challenging spots? Ok, in lieu of that, I was reminded of a passionate conversation led by the Rev. Dr. Kara Slade, the head of the Anglican House at Princeton. Most of you know Timothy Kimbrough is the head of the Anglican House at Duke, right? Same work, different college.
If her name tickles your mind a bit, she has been one of our colloquium lecturers since the pandemic. In fact, the year I missed because I had COVID, she came and taught the clergy about time being a forgotten creation. We forget that time is made by God and, so, is something we can and should offer and not be too surprised when He gives us more. I would describe Kara as being among those esteemed clergy who believe that the Holy Spirit can give a charism of sarcasm at one’s ordination and might think she received a double measure. Bishop John, of course, disagrees, but he did invite her to teach the clergy of the diocese.
Kara’s charge at Princeton is to make sure that anyone in the Anglican world of denominations who graduates from Princeton, understands the theologies of Anglicanism, both the thought and the liturgical practice, much like Dean Kimbrough at Duke. We learned some time ago that Trinity Sunday drives her nuts. The seminarians, far too often, were called upon to preach and rightfully stressed about it. She is their pastor in a sense, so it makes sense that it agitated her. This is a hard enough job without people, especially clergy, setting us up to fail. So she asked if we assigned the preaching to anyone but ourselves for this day. Thankfully, in that very specific community, most of us did not.
But Kara has to engage with the wider Church, not just those blessed with a love of the Gospel and a double portion of sarcasm given at their ordination. She refused to tell us who set her off. In fact, I think she had a disclaimer that this was not directed at anyone in particular. But one year, on all her social media platforms, she posted the quintessential sermon for Trinity Sunday. This was the 8am sermon, so you can write this down in the event someone questions you about the Trinity. The identity of God is shown to us in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit! Yes, I can repeat it. The identity of God is shown to us in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit! Later, when you get home, read that Athanasian Creed in your BCP and compare it against Kara’s sermon. You will quickly see why she is a professor at Princeton. It is an 18-word sermon. It describes a Holy Mystery. Does it forget anything?
Because 8am fussed a bit, think of the Holy Spirit. How do we know Jesus is the beloved of God, the Anointed? Right, at His baptism the Spirit descends like a dove. Anointing Him. How do we perceive He is the Messiah, the Christ? That’s right, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Her short sermon picks up the instruction that the Holy Spirit is present at His Anointing and our perceiving. It makes more sense to us Adventers because we look back to the Nativity, reminding ourselves He came down from heaven and became fully human, and we look forward to His Second Coming, when He will come to complete the task of Re-Creation. So now you have a great sermon to share, if anyone ever asks you about the Trinity.
Oh, I almost forgot. Kara shared our sermon illustrations. Again, she is making sure Anglicans graduating from Princeton can preach and teach, and we do have a reputation to uphold, right? She ended her posts withDon’t try and explain the doctrine, just preach the ding dang Gospel! Us being us, you know, given a double portion of sarcasm, focused hard on ding dang that week. Most of us assumed it was a theological term that came from an ancient language that none of us knew. Good, you know what Princeton academics are like. I see some of you were given that same charism as some of us clergy by the Holy Spirit by your chuckling. Remember that when Bishop John comes, especially if you hear him arguing with me that sarcasm is NOT a gift of the Holy Spirit.
But to the depth of her sermon, think on this: Who gives you what to say? That’s right, the Holy Spirit. Her sermon was so spot on, so full of Good News, that she reminded you, even though you had forgotten it, that the Holy Spirit empowers you to do the work that God has given you to do. If someone asks you about the Trinity, you are being asked to share the Gospel, not a doctrine. You are being asked to tell how you heard the Gospel, why you chose to believe the Gospel, and the impact the Gospel has on you as you live in this world. People are not interested in doctrine. When people ask, they want to know why we believe. All we have to do is answer their question and their follow-up’s. That’s it. Because Christ has ascended and the Holy Spirit has come, you and I are fit ambassadors of God. And all we need do is to tell people why we believe and live as we live and believe. The rest is, as they say, up to God, just as it always has been!
In His peace and power,
Brian+
