Father Gary’s Sermon

Inspired from John 16:(5-11) 12-15

Proclaimed on June 6, 2004

When a certain Rabbi Menachem Mendel was a small child, his grandfather, Rabbi Zalman, held him in his lap and playfully asked him, “Where is Zeide?” Zeide is the Hebrew word for “grandfather.” The child reached up and touched his grandfather’s nose. But his grandfather said, “No, that is Zeide’s nose. But where is Zeide?” Then the child touched his grandfather’s beard. Again, his grandfather said, “No, that is Zeide’s beard. But where is Zeide?” Then the child jumped down out of his grandfather’s lap and scurried into the next room and shouted, “Zeide! Oh, Zeide!” Rabbi Zalman then got to his feet and went to the next room. Gleefully, the child pointed at him and said, “There is Zeide!”

How profound a story for what the boy was saying was simple: “Zeide is the one who responds when called.” This too is the simple, but profound truth about the Holy Trinity. God as Three In One is God who responds to us when we call.

This is the point that Jesus was attempting to make with his disciples in our Gospel reading this morning. In this setting Jesus was sharing his last meal with them and preparing them for his leaving. He makes with them a new covenant that is a simple contract with only one command: that they love one another as he loved them. Following this he declared that he would soon be going to the Father and would no longer be physically among them. But he promised as well that he would not leave them alone, but would send to them the Holy Spirit. This Spirit would manifest the mystery and power of God not only in the midst of their community, but within their very beings, as well.

What did this mean? It meant that in talking about God, Jesus was a lot like Rabbi Mendel’s grandfather. When asking his grandson to locate him, he did not allow him to get hung up on particular attributes, such as his nose or his beard. Rather, the focus was best placed on the relationship in which grandfather was identified by his loving response. This too was true of Jesus with his disciples. He did not get them all hung up on discussions regarding the Persons of the Trinity. Rather, his focus was on God’s relationship with the disciples, as he carefully responded to their needs even before they could call upon him.

But this is the manner by which the Hebrew people had always discussed God. Not permitted to make any graven image of God, they spoke instead of how this mysterious God always responded to them. They believed that God was One and that the manner in which God responded to them was through a special covenant. This covenant not only bound the Hebrew people to God, but it also bound God to them. They were bound together through a contract that took the form of an international treaty--a type common among the ancient nations.

The parties involved in these contracts had official titles. The stronger of the parties involved--the suzerain--was called “Father,” while the weaker party--the vassal--was referred to as “Son.” Therefore, in their covenant with God, they knew God as their “Father,” while the Hebrew leaders were referred to as “Sons of God.” These various leaders of the Hebrew people were also referred to as “Messiahs.” This is a term describing their basic duty--the duty of serving as a covenant mediator between God and the people of God. This made them the “Children of God.” To accomplish this these messiahs or leaders were believed to be filled with God’s Spirit. This special covenant relationship was made official when God recorded this treaty on tables of stone that were kept within the Temple. Therefore, the terms “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” were not a Christian invention, but terms deeply rooted in a Hebrew covenant.

What made Jesus’ departing words to the disciples so radical was not God in Three Persons, but rather the making of a new covenant. In this New Covenant Jesus specified the new way by which God would respond to the children of God. In this new relationship God the Father--the suzerain head of the covenant--reveals God’s self through the Son. However, this Son is not merely a legally adopted human being. This Son was begotten directly from the Father, making this Son very God himself.

The legal proof of this relationship was also new? This time it was not written on tables of stone stored in a Temple building; this time the legal proof is written on fleshy human hearts through the being of the Holy Spirit. This literally makes the disciples of Christ into the new Temple of the Living God. In this Temple God responds to the Church with great familiarity. So familiar is this new relationship that Jesus changed the formal covenant title “Father” the Son to the more intimate term “Daddy.”

The Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity, while being difficult to define philosophically, is really easy to understand relationally. The Holy Trinity is no less to us then Rabbi Menachem Mendel’s grandfather was to him. For him Zeide is the one who responds when called. For us God as Three In One is God who responds to us when we call. The Holy Trinity is quite simply the covenant manner in which our loving God responds to each of us intimately.

Today the Trinitarian understanding of God is under tremendous assault. Many of our own church leaders now following behind Bishop Spong’s lead are attacking this pillar of the Christian faith. Claiming the doctrine of the Trinity to be utter nonsense to the modern mind, these people are pursuing different understandings of God. In so doing they are making the same mistake as the boy on his grandfather’s lap by defining his grandfather in terms of the grandfather’s nose and beard and not in his grandfather’s response to him. But in so doing they are resurrecting all of the ancient heresies or beliefs that almost destroyed the ancient Church.

For us the ancient Church is like one who is passing on a house to us and we are the ones who will occupy it. As this one shows us through the house, the beauty of one of the rooms strikes us. This particular room is one we wish to use for a very special purpose, but we find a cupboard in one of the corners to be cumbersome and quite objectionable. On viewing this cupboard we say simply, “We can remove that!” But the ancients respond immediately saying, “No you won’t!” But say we with insistence, “We can do whatever we want when the house is ours!” To which the ancient church responds, “Not with that cupboard, you can’t!” “Why not? Is it protected by some sort of legal clause?” we ask. “Yes,” say our forebears, “it is not only legally understood as the new covenant: but it is like the central pillar in the plan. We cannot take away the cupboard without taking down the whole house for it is part of the main structure.”

The cumbersome and objectionable cupboard is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It cannot be removed without destroying the Church! Three in One, One in Three, this is the God of the New Covenant. It is how God relates to us. It is at the very foundation of Christian experience. The supreme truth of the Holy Trinity, God as Three In One, is about God responding to the Church when we call.