Stephen F. Whaley
John 16.5 - 15
August 19, 2008
A Note to the Reader: Sermons are best received when they are delivered audibly and from the pulpit, because they are written with their ultimate delivery in mind. With this in mind please be merciful in the critique of the writing style and grammatical errors.
- Today will be a ‘They told me in seminary’ sermons
- The reasons—well there are a number of reasons
- This being Trinity Sunday is that the focus of the preacher’s sermon is on the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
- Because this doctrine’s complexity, many clergy including those in academia find it easy to either pass off or abandon completely.
- For this same reason some in their ignorance reject the doctrine outright as an archaic and primitive product of ancient superstition.
- This is not the case among your clergy at Christ Church.
- It is a blessing for me to unfold the depth of mystery of the Triune Godhead for you.
- Still there are many who are resistant to Doctrine and Dogma
- C.S. Lewis recalls a dispute he had during a lecture on theology. (_Doctrine_)
- Lewis goes on to agree with the man.
- Sympathizing with how when one experiences God—turning around to a doctrine to express that “feeling” might feel empty.
- Lewis likens that experience to a man standing on the beach; looking out over the Atlantic Ocean.
- What about the man who sails from Great Britain to the Bahamas is his experience of the Atlantic Ocean any less?
- From Great Britain to South Africa
- From Great Britain to Iceland or Greenland
- What is needed is something to compile the best of our experiences of that Ocean
- What is needed is a map. Lewis writes (_Map_)
- In these terms the Doctrine becomes a priceless family heirloom
- Representing generations of understanding and rediscovery of a treasure.
- Passed down from one generation to the next.
- It is a map, chronicling the first 300 years and beyond of the experience testified to in Scripture and by our Christian brothers and sisters, telling of
- A Father who wants to make us His children
- A Son who wishes to be our Brother
- And a Spirit who wishes to bind us together for eternity.
- In these terms the Doctrine becomes a priceless family heirloom
- Representing generations of understanding and rediscovery of a treasure.
- Passed down from one generation to the next.
- It is a map, chronicling the first 300 years and beyond of the experience testified to in Scripture and by our Christian brothers and sisters, telling of
- A Father who wants to make us His children
- A Son who wishes to be our Brother
- And a Spirit who wishes to bind us together for eternity.
- Camp Allen Conference
- Key Note speaker—Jerry Root—Theology and Ethics at Wheaton College – he posed 2 questions. (An apologetic for other ‘monotheists’)
- 1st Is God a contingent or non-contingent Being? And what he meant was…is God’s existence— dependent on anything else.
- The Christian would say our God is a non-contingent Being.
- 2nd Is God Love? (_Love_) (_I John_)
- Love is action between at least two persons, as Lewis says it is dynamic, and John says God sent His Son
- The conclusion for a Christian then is that in order for God to be a non-contingent Being, and to also be love—then God must have relationship between at least two persons.
- But our Faith testifies to a single God of three persons.
- Again I turn to my friend C.S. Lewis.
- Have you been a part of a group of people?
- A family reunion, a union, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts a VFW?
- You can say that when you gather there is a certain “Spirit” for good of for ill about that Group.
- The group has a personality of its own.
- Lewis suggests that this is the Spirit of Love, which emanates between Father and Son. (_Holy Spirit_)
- A bond that is so powerful, so real, that it transcends personality and is Person.
- Existing for all eternity with Father and Son. (Why is it eternal existence?)
- Eternal existence of Father, and Son, and binding Spirit.
- (If God is eternally Father)…Son…Spirit
- Then by definition a father must have an eternal child
- Likewise if a son is eternally a son, he must have an eternal parent
- And relationship itself which binds the two together is an eternal relationship (the bond or spirit of love…the Holy Spirit)
- But our Faith testifies to a single God of three persons.
- If we are created in the image of God—if we are created in this image—you and I are persons.
- We are invited into the dynamism that is God.
- And as the Persons of Father and Son love one another we also reflect that perfection being bound together by the Holy Spirit in love,
- Not just kindness and caring //// but a true eternal and dynamic relationship that is perfect in every way.
- To be examples of the very perfection given to us in this Doctrine
- (in faithful response to this gift let us now stand together and reaffirm our faith as our brothers’ and sisters’ have passed it down to us in the Nicene Creed.
John
5But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. 7Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
I John 4
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
On doctrine
“I remember once when I had been giving a talk to the [Royal. Air. Force.], an old, hard-bitten officer got up and said, ‘I’ve no use for all that stuff. But mind you, I’m a religious man too. I know there’s a God. I’ve felt Him: out alone in the desert at night: the tremendous mystery. And that’s just why I don’t believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about Him. To anyone who’s met the real thing they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal!’”
The Map
“The map is admittedly only coloured paper, but there are two things you have to remember about it. In the first place, it is based on what hundreds and thousands of people have found out by sailing the real Atlantic. In that way it has behind it masses of experience just as real as the one you could have from the beach…” “In the second place, if you want to go anywhere, the map is absolutely necessary. As long as you are content with walks on the beach, your own glimpses are far more fun than looking at a map. But the map is going to be more use than walks on the beach if you want to get to America.”
On Love
“All sorts of people are fond of repeating the Christian statement that ‘God is Love’. But they seem not to notice that the words ‘God is love’ have no real meaning unless God contains at least two Persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, HE was not love. Of course, what these people mean when they say that God is love is often something quite different: they really mean ‘Love is God’. They really mean that our feelings of love, however and wherever they arise, and whatever results they produce, are to be treated with great respect. Perhaps they are: but that is something quite different from what Christians mean by the statement ‘God is love’. They believe that the living, dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever and has created everything else.”
The Holy Spirit
“What grows out of the joint life of the Father and Son is a real Person, is in fact the Third of the three Persons who are God.”
Trinity for us
“If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.”
If you have comments or clarifying questions please contact me via
email at fr.stephensfa@sbcglobal.net
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