Before the recent demise of our television, I was watching a film in which Samuel L Jackson asked, "What's that thing the Catholics do?" Bruce Willis responded, "North, South, East, West." Jackson crossed himself. It is those whom these 'compass points' represent who we are today here to honour: God as Creator, as Son and as Holy Spirit, whom we collectively refer to as the Trinity. But what, exactly, is "the Trinity"?
A Brief History
Contrary to popular opinion, the doctrine of the Trinity was not actually settled until the Fourth Century, and even then, only after much debate within the early Church, when it was decided that the three persons of the Trinity were to be regarded as equally divine and of equal status. The co-equality of God the Creator and the Son had been established in debates leading up to the Council of Nicaea (in 325), with the divinity of the Holy Spirit becoming recognised later, especially through the writings of Athanasius and Basil of Caesarea. Without boring you too much with the intricacies of the details, the doctrine of the Trinity as we now understand and believe it, had to be settled by the leaders of the early Church to eliminate and to overcome some of the many heresies that were being expounded, including those of Modalism and Tritheism. Of these, Tritheism is the easiest to explain, for through this heresy, people were led to believe that God the Creator, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit were each independent and autonomous beings, each of whom was divine. The obvious problem here is that we would have not One God, but three, each utterly self-sufficient, with each neither requiring nor necessarily being a part of the others. Had this heresy not been dispelled, we might today have four or more inter-related churches, each of which would worship at least one God of the Trinity, without automatically giving due equality to either or both of the others. This is tantamount to the polytheistic paganism of the Romans at the time of Jesus, and is entirely contrary to Christian belief.
I Know That My Redeemer Liveth...
As mere mortals, the nearest model that we have to understanding this on a personal level is to examine the relationship between our own physical lives and our very essence, which we call the soul. As believers, we cannot imagine the separation of body from soul whilst the body lives. If that part of us that is soul were to become autonomous from our physical aspect, would we truly be capable of 'living' in any spiritual way? There exist many published stories about people or creatures that have no soul. These people or creatures are almost always portrayed as being incredibly sad, incredibly evil, or both. The story of Frankenstein (1) was not meant to be horrific primarily because any killing, mayhem, or a 'monster' running amok: this was nothing more than the preamble to the true messages of the work. Mary Shelley's proper intention was that the reader would be horrified for two reasons: the first reason was because Frankenstein's monster was created by a man, and therefore this man was playing at being a 'god'; secondly - and just as importantly - we are meant to be horrified because this monster had no soul. In the type of role-reversing twist that only good authors are capable of producing, we become moved from hatred of the monster, to the most intense and heartfelt pity for it.
Whilst we might believe that, at our physical death, the soul goes on to Paradise, we tend to forget that we are promised, through our faith, also the physical resurrection that Jesus himself assured us of, and which he proved to us was not only possible, but which is the ultimate reward of the faithful: "Yet in my flesh shall I see God". For us, the concept of permanent separation of soul and body cannot righteously be entertained. When we 'witness' it in literature, we are truly horrified at the mere concept.
The Insoluble Nature of The Trinity.... and How We Fit In
Now that we have looked at the insoluble nature of the human spirit and human flesh, we may be slightly better able to understand more fully the messages of Jesus, in the Reading that Darren brought us a little while ago.
As always, Jesus is completely unambiguous in his message. The significance and importance of us keeping his commandments, is explicit. His central commandment was and remains, "love one another as I have loved you". Paul's (2) expression of this is one of the most beautiful and haunting New Testament passages: "In the end, there are three things that abide: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love." Saint Augustine has a threefold model for Paul's words:
I. God's greatest
gift is love;
II. God's greatest gift is the Holy Spirit;
III. therefore the Holy Spirit is love. (3)
Jesus' words to the disciples are filled with the love that he pours out for all of humanity. But the Reading tells us more than just this. It tells us also of the absolute, indivisible unity of God as Creator, Son and Spirit. Using the words of Jesus and Augustine's model, it therefore follows that, the Holy Spirit, personified as Love, was working through Jesus. It also tells us that, if we love one another as we have been loved, we are brought into communion with the three persons of the Trinity, through the intervention of Christ.
In the Reading, Jesus makes no fewer than eight references to the nature of true unity that is shared in the Godhead and how we fit into the pattern. He speaks of the Father dwelling in him; of he being in the Father; of the Spirit being in those who keep his commandments; of us being in him; of him being in us, and of the Father being in us through the very nature that he and the Spirit share with the Creator.
Phrased like that, this sounds a little complex, so we might better understand it if, to begin with, we think of God the Creator and Jesus the Christ being inextricably linked. Add to this the Advocate that Jesus tells us will be given, and we have the Trinity, as we know it: we now have the three persons of the Trinity inextricably linked. Next we need to add ourselves. This is no proud boast: Jesus plainly tells us that we are a part of this Eternal Unity: the Spirit, Jesus clearly tells us, abides and is in us through love; Jesus himself is in the Father; we are in Jesus, and he is in us.
We Should Cross Ourselves Because...
It isn't just Catholics, Samuel L Jackson and Bruce Willis who ought to bless themselves with the symbol of the Cross. Whenever anyone does this, they are not only acknowledging the horror that Christ endured, in absolute love, for our sake, but are also declaring their faith in the three persons of the Trinity. As important as these things are, equally so is the fact that, whenever we cross ourselves, we are also acknowledging the immense significance of the power of love that is present through and in the workings of our Trinitarian Godhead: we align ourselves to the supremacy and the authority of this Divine Love, and we are actively seeking our own share in that Greatest of Loves, whilst declaring our desire to share this most supreme gift with others.
If we choose not to cross ourselves simply because 'that's the thing that Catholics do', we are possibly allowing ourselves to be blinkered by prejudice or ignorance. The symbol of the Cross, the Unity of God the Creator, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit do not belong to, are not exclusive to, and are not copyright to the Roman Catholic Church: let all Christians reclaim their heritage and display their faith with the power, the symbol, and the love of the Cross in blessing.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: Amen.
(John Stanway)
1 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, 1818.
2 1 Corinthians, 13:13.
3 Reproduced from Alister E McGrath's, Christian Theology: An Introduction,
Blackwell, 1997, p. 305.
This
sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester.
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