August 4, 2025 • 37 mins
What if the most profound theological concept in Christianity was actually an invitation to the most beautiful relationship in existence? When a community member asked "What is the Trinity?", it opened the door to exploring not just a doctrine, but a divine dance that has existed since before time began.
The Trinity finds its roots in the tension between ancient Israel's monotheism (expressed in the Shema prayer: "The Lord our God, the Lord is one") and Jesus's revolutionary claims about himself. When Jesus declared "Before Abraham was, I am" and "I and the Father are one," he wasn't just speaking poetically—he was making claims that would fundamentally reshape how we understand God's nature.
After four centuries of theological reflection, the church articulated what we now call the Trinity: one God existing eternally as three distinct but equal persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each reveals something profound about God's character. The Father represents protection, provision, and personal care—the one who takes responsibility for our wellbeing. The Son bridges the cosmic gap between humanity and divinity; as C.S. Lewis observed, just as Shakespeare could only meet Hamlet by writing himself into the story, God entered our world in Jesus to make himself known. The Spirit brings divine life, power, and presence—like breath giving vitality to everything it touches.
What makes this mystery truly transformative is understanding that from eternity past, God has existed as a perfect communion of love. The Father, Son, and Spirit were complete in their relationship—lacking nothing, needing nothing. Yet love by nature creates and shares. The Trinity didn't create humans because of some cosmic loneliness or need for worship. Rather, the best things in life are meant to be shared, which is why God created us and invites us into this divine relationship.
Perhaps Augustine said it best: "The Trinity is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be adored." May you discover what it means to participate in the beautiful, vibrant life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—not just in some distant future, but in your everyday existence right now.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Amen.
Thank you, richard.
Let's pray this morning.
God, we give you thanks foryour presence here and we thank
you for your light and your lifeand your love, and thank you
for these beautiful scriptures.
And we ask God that by yourHoly Spirit, you would come and
awaken us and enliven us andinspire us and that, yeah, we'd
have just a deeper sense of thelove of God that was in Jesus on
(00:27):
the cross, and this love of theFather.
And pray you bless us thismorning as we unpack these
ancient ideas and help us to becreative in our thinking.
And, as always, god, may wetake these things that we
learned this morning, may wegive them away to others.
And, as always, god, may wetake these things that we
learned this morning, may wegive them away to others, and
(00:47):
may we be a blessing to all whomwe encounter this morning and
everywhere we go in our lives,and bless us in Jesus' name.
Amen, amen.
You can be seated.
Good morning everyone.
How are we doing?
Good to see you all?
We are beginning a new sermonseries this morning.
Can everyone see my board, bythe way?
Okay, we're going to add to it,so you've got to be able to see
it.
(01:07):
We don't have any slides thismorning.
We're going strictly old schoolanalog.
This morning.
You're welcome and we'rebeginning a new series called
you Pick, and we're allowing you.
Guys.
We've actually got a number ofquestions and ideas and
scriptures and thoughts aboutwhat to preach upon, and so we
do this at the end of everysummer.
We take about six, seven, eightweeks and just preach through
ideas and questions that youmight have, and so we've got a
(01:30):
lot already.
The ones that we don't havetime for.
All of them, we try to carrythem over to the next summer, or
we'll just turn them into apodcast or an awakened email, or
just grab me for coffee andI'll try to respond.
I always say they're notanswers, they're responses Cause
I don't know.
I mean, I don't know if I haveall the answers.
I can respond, though, in someways, and hopefully it'd be
something interesting.
And this morning the personasked Michelle who was at the
(01:51):
eight 30 gathering.
She asked what is the Trinity?
Can you explain it to me?
How does it work?
Who are all the persons of theTrinity?
And I must warn you at the 830,man, we got a lot in there, so
you got to pay attention, buckleup, take notes and we're going
to have a crash course on theTrinity.
(02:13):
Are you ready?
Excellent.
And it reminded me, like my son,my son Gavin, who's here?
I think he's here.
Is he here?
Oh, he's here somewhere.
Oh, he's out there.
I'm driving him to school inabout two hours.
So we're driving to Chicago ina couple hours.
But when he was younger, he wasabout five years old.
He's ever been the sort ofphilosophically minded of my
kids.
I'm putting him to bed and hisbrother's above in the bunk bed
(02:35):
above him, and he's like fiveyears old.
And he's like hey, dad.
So I kiss him, I hug himfive-year-old, and he's like
okay, but also Jesus is the son,and then there's the father and
then there's the Holy Spirit.
Right, I go, yeah, he goes.
Well, that sounds like threegods to me.
I'm like okay, he goes.
(03:04):
Can you explain it to me?
I'm like buddy it, it wouldsuck me right in.
I knew he was trying to juststay awake longer, but I
couldn't resist, I had to.
And his mom leans no, we're notdoing that tonight.
Go to bed.
So this one's for Gavin, forthat sermon I couldn't give to
you years ago because your momwouldn't let me.
So this is for you.
Now, gavin.
I'm going to unpack this2,000-year tradition of this
(03:26):
talk of the Trinity, the Father,the Son and the Spirit, this
mysterious sort of unexplainable, profoundly foundational piece
of Christian history.
I'm going to do it in 30minutes or less.
That's my goal, and some of youI know like to have an idea of
where we're going before I gothere.
So I'm like we're doingwhiteboard.
We're going to go analog.
I'm going to tell of wherewe're going before I go there.
So I'm going to.
I'm like we're doing whiteboard, we're going to go analog.
I'm going to tell you wherewe're going ahead of time.
Would that be okay?
(03:46):
Make a couple of you moresecure.
We're going to talk this morningfirst about the Shema and we
know what the Shema is Great.
I'm going to explain what theShema is and then I'll unpack
the Shema a little bit for youguys.
And then later on I'm going totalk about a couple of
near-death experiences.
Yeah, get ready for that.
(04:10):
By the way, chris is back there.
Good to see you, chris Up,right?
Yeah, oh, man.
If you weren't here last weekyou missed out man.
But in all seriousness, we'reglad you're feeling better.
He's doing well, as you can see, and just needed a break.
He just needed some time away.
No, he's doing really well,though you can go and give him a
(04:31):
high five and we're glad to seehim.
I know he hates the spotlighton him right now, so I'm going
to get it back up here on thememe, but near-death experiences
.
We're going to talk about acouple of issues you know which
issues I'm talking about andthen I'm going to talk about 400
(04:58):
years later yeah, oh boy andthen I'm going to talk about
mysteries and problems, and thenI'm going to end by talking
about the Father, the Son andthe Holy Spirit.
Sound good?
Here's the point ahead of time,though, before I get any
(05:19):
further.
You got to know this because Iwant to give you the answer to
the test.
I don't know if we canunderstand the complexity of the
Trinity.
I'm going to try, but what Ineed you to know is that what we
see in the relationship betweenthe Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit is this incredible,vibrant relationship, and the
(05:39):
point of all of this is thatsomehow, in some way, you and I
have been invited into thatrelationship of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spiritthat's been around since the
beginning of all time.
The Father and the Son and theSpirit have existed in this
beautiful communal relationshiptogether and they lacked nothing
(06:01):
and they needed nothing.
And yet somehow you and I all,this time later, are invited to
be a part of that beautifulrelationship of the Trinity.
Fair enough.
So if you leave with nothingelse, hear that.
But I want you to notice then,as I unpack this, what is that
relationship like between theFather and the Son and the
(06:23):
Spirit, and what does it meanfor us to be invited into that
kind of a life?
And of course, this begins withthe Shema.
The Shema is this ancient Jewishprayer.
You can find it in Deuteronomyand it's this prayer that was
this foundational declaration offaith for the Jewish people.
And it goes like this theopening line is this beautiful
line.
It says, by the way, the wordShema literally means to listen
(06:43):
or hear.
It's a command, so hear orlisten.
And so the prayer which theysaid by the Jews said it twice a
day.
To this day, many Jews recitethis prayer two times a day.
They'll say it at festivals andholy days, and they say it as a
reminder to themselves of whothey are and who God has called
them to be, the promises thatGod had made to them, the
(07:05):
promises that God will come tofulfill in the future.
It was this beautiful fabric, apart of the fabric of their
existence as Jewish people.
And the Shema opens like thisHear, listen O Israel, shema
Yisrael in the Hebrew, listen OIsrael, the Lord, our God.
The Lord is one.
And it says love the Lord, yourGod, with all your heart and
(07:28):
with all your soul and with allyour might.
Now you might recognize that,because Jesus, years and years
later, is asked hey, what's thegreatest of all commandments?
And he quotes the Shema.
And he quotes a couple otherOld Testament passages, but he
quotes the Shema love the Lord,your God, with all your heart
and soul and mind.
Of course he would have saidthat prayer as a young boy,
probably his whole life.
(07:49):
He said the Shema.
So he knew the Shema, but theLord, our God, is one.
It was his declaration of whatit meant to be a person of the
family of Israel, of the nationof Israel, the people of Israel,
and so God had made thiscovenant with them.
He was like, hey, worship meand worship me alone.
So in this prayer, the Shema,which is part of the fabric, the
central part of their Jewishlife.
(08:10):
It was this prayer the Lord,our God, is one.
It declared the singularity,the oneness of God.
Because for the Jewish people,especially early on, the big
problem for them is that theyworshiped all kinds of gods.
In fact, that was the way thatthings worked back then.
Problem for them is that theyworshiped all kinds of gods.
In fact, that was the way thatthings worked back then.
In the ancient world, therewere many gods.
It was a polytheistic is thefancy $5 word for the people
that lived back then.
(08:30):
When God comes to Abram andSarai, this is the father and
mother of the people of Israel.
You know, father Abraham hadmany sons, right?
So Abraham was a real characterin the Bible.
And God comes to him seeminglyout of nowhere.
He's like hey, I want to fixthe brokenness.
That sort of starts with Adamand Eve.
You have Adam and Eve and thenall heck breaks loose and then
(08:54):
Cain kills Abel, and then by thetime Noah comes along,
everything's wicked and it'sjust terrible.
And God's like okay, we'regoing to start over.
I'm going to choose Abram andSarai.
I'm going to have a partnershipwith you, abraham and Sarah,
I'm going to bless you, make youinto this great nation.
It'll be so big you'lloutnumber the stars in the sky.
And so he builds this greatnation.
And now Abram was probably,undoubtedly.
(09:15):
He worshipped many gods.
That's what they did in thatpart of Mesopotamia, in this
land called Ur.
They worshipped many gods.
So he's like, okay, sure, I'llworship this one.
And then God begins to dial in,like, no, but I'm the only one
I want you to worship.
And so he wants them to becomelike worshipers of one God, and
they, over time, they try to dothis, but they don't do a very
good job.
They worship lots of foreigngods, pagan gods, and it's a
(09:37):
mess.
For a long time, it becomes aproblem for them.
Finally, though, in around 587bc, the people of israel they're
huge now, a big, huge peoplegroup they're taken into
captivity, into babylon andbabylon, and they're still
undoubtedly saying this prayerthey finally get it.
Oh, we should stop worshipingother gods, because the lord,
(10:01):
our god, is one.
Worship and love the lord, yourheart, soul, might.
Your heart, soul, might andstrength.
That's the prayer of the Shema.
Okay, so they begin like okay,we are now what we call not
polytheists, we're monotheists.
We will worship one God.
As my son, gavin, has stillpointed out, we will worship one
God.
No, that was great, all goodand fair.
So around that time and fair.
(10:21):
So around that time, and then upto the time of Jesus, the Jews
were strictly monotheists andthey doubled down no, we'll
worship no other gods.
It leads to chaos, it leads todisruption, it leads to all
kinds of brokenness.
We're going to worship only Godalone.
Then Jesus shows up and startsto say things that cause an
uproar.
(10:41):
Now we read it like oh, not abit Like back then.
Imagine being a Jew who was amonotheist.
You'd seen your people'shistory and the brokenness that
came out of worshiping othergods.
Like, we only worship God aloneand the God of the.
You know of the covenant ofAbraham and Sarah.
And Jesus begins to say thingsthat make you think that he
thinks he's God.
Well, he can't be God, becauseYahweh is God and we don't
(11:03):
worship two gods.
So, for example, there's thistime where Jesus is arguing with
these Jewish leaders I lovethis story and they talk they
bring up.
They bring up Abraham becausehe's the father of our people
and he's this great man ofcovenant faith he's, he's, he's
venerated.
We love Abraham and Sarah.
And so Jesus like, brings upAbraham and like you, you, how
do you know Abraham?
(11:23):
I mean, you think you'regreater than Abraham Because
Abraham was the greatest.
You don't dare shake the throneof Abraham.
He's the man.
And you think you're greaterthan Abraham Because he's
talking like he is and Jesusgoes.
I'll tell you something, I'lltell you what.
Before Abraham existed, I am.
Jesus says.
This is like an unbelievablemic drop in this day and age.
(11:46):
He said before Abraham was evenborn, I was hanging around and
I am.
I am is the language that Goduses to describe himself to
Moses.
So like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,listen, homie, before you
didn't exist before You're like30 years old, how can you say
you existed before Abraham?
You're barely that old.
And he's like no, but not onlythat, not only did I exist
before Abraham, but I am the Iam.
(12:07):
So he's saying I was aroundbefore Abraham and I'm also, I'm
God.
Like, no, you're not.
And they pick up stones to killhim.
Now, this is his first neardeath experience of Jesus and
this is in the text.
I love it.
But then he slipped away intheir midst.
What he slips away and he justdisappears in their midst.
(12:28):
Later Jesus is talking to moreJewish leaders and he says
something.
He goes hey, just so you know,if you want to see the Father
God, if you want to know whatGod is like, look at me.
I and the Father, me and Godare one.
Like uh no, you're not.
There's only one God, asingular God, and he's this
ineffable, the unexplainable,the transcendent God who is
(12:49):
occasionally here and imminent,but you're not God.
There's only one God and we'renot going to worship you and God
.
So how dare you?
This is blasphemy.
They pick up stones to kill himagain.
This is his second near-deathexperience and the text tells us
that he disappears in theirmidst and sort of slips between
them and disappears.
So we learn two things.
One, in this part of Jewishhistory, you never would declare
(13:11):
yourself as equal to God orgreater than Abraham.
You don't do that.
And number two, we learned thatJesus was, in addition to being
a Messiah, was also a ninja.
He just would slip between thestealthy like how does he do
that?
I love those stories, likewhere did he go?
It's like those old cartoonsthey all dive on the bad guy and
then they come up and he's gone.
(13:32):
That was Jesus.
Well, this raises all kinds ofissues.
Jesus begins to be like this.
He starts saying all kinds ofscandalous things You're not God
.
How can you say that?
And then, when he dies, he'sresurrected and the disciples,
his closest followers, begin toworship him as God.
No, no, no, no, no.
(13:52):
The Lord, our God, is one.
There's not two gods.
What are you talking about?
And the language Jesus usedhimself caused all kinds of
issues.
Then, not long after Paul, theapostle who had this divine
revelation of Jesus, he beginsto write about Jesus as the
ruler and authority over all theworld, and that God has put his
(14:12):
uh, put all things under hisfeet.
Like he's the authority overthe whole cosmos.
What Jesus is?
Just Jesus the Christ.
He writes about it Like hey,he's the image of the invisible
God.
In him All things were created,all things hold together.
In him was all, all things werein him.
What he's like?
This cosmic gloom that'severywhere and has existed for
all of time?
(14:32):
What Jesus the Christ?
How can you say so?
Paul even writes that Jesus isalso God.
Well, how can that be?
There's all these problems, allthese issues begin to arise for
the people of this Jewish faithand these Jewish Christians are
like well, we worship him as God.
He sort of says he is God, herepresents God.
What does this mean?
Well, it takes the church about400 years to kind of wrestle
(14:57):
this out.
So if you don't know yourchurch history, about 400 years
after Jesus they begin to likereally kind of dial in language
to use about this God who seemsto have like a plurality to God,
even though God is one.
This is the Shema, the onenessof God.
There's also a plurality to God, even though God is one.
This is the Shema, the onenessof God.
There's also a plurality to God.
He's one, but he's also gotlike multifacets.
There's like this plurality.
(15:18):
How does this work?
And they come up with thislanguage called the Trinity, and
it took them about 400 years.
By the way, the next time yourkid comes to you with a, a math
problem like I've been workingon this problem for forever, for
like 10 minutes, I don't knowhow to do it oh, keep going, you
can call me when you've reached400 years and we'll talk.
You know, that's sort of a joke, but I thought it was funny.
(15:40):
400 years, and at this councilit's a.
You know, you can google it,they.
They come up with actually twocouncils.
Later they come with this ideaof the Trinity and like, hey
look, god is one, he's one inhis essence.
His essence is like this one.
He's one essence, one God, butwithin his essence there are
three persons there's the Father, there's the Son and there's
(16:01):
the Holy Spirit.
And that's kind of how theyexplain it, not the greatest
metaphysical description,because how can you explain God?
It's really difficult.
But we know it's one God.
There's three persons.
They're co-equal, they're allequal.
There's no hierarchy of valueand one isn't more important
than the other.
They're all present all thetime.
They're always both activetogether, but they have their
(16:22):
unique kind of personhood androle and they're all God.
And so they have thisincredible declaration and the
creeds which we have are thesedeclarations of what it is that
we worship the Father, the Sonand the Spirit.
One God, but three persons.
400 years it took them.
Now we can unpack this mysteryfor a couple of hours if we have
(16:43):
time.
We don't have time, so here'swhat I'll say.
The great thinker, st Augustine,said it this way.
He says the Trinity is not amystery to be solved.
Excuse me, let me start over.
Augustine said the Trinity isnot a problem to be solved,
rather, it's a mystery to beadored.
So we've spent centuries tryingto figure out what is this
(17:06):
problem of the Trinity?
How do we solve it?
How do we talk about three inone?
And he says the Trinity is nota problem to be solved, but it's
this mystery to be adored, tolook at with wonder and awe,
because it's hard talking aboutGod.
How do you do it?
It's like a three-dimensionalobject talking about a
10-dimensional object.
We don't even know, we don'thave language for that and
(17:35):
language is all we have.
Language falls short and God iscomplex.
He's God and actually in theOld Testament, you see, like
this incredibly complex pictureof God and there's.
You know, how do we as humanstalk about God?
We'll do the best we can and weuse words and we use, but it's
ultimately it's a mystery and wejust don't know in fullness.
But here's what I would saythen, as opposed to sort of
unpacking you know how does thiswork and who is?
We're going to start.
I want to talk about therelationship of the father and
(17:57):
the son and the spirit and whatit means for you and for me Fair
enough.
So what does this mean, thisdynamic relationship of the
father and the son and thespirit?
What does it mean that you andI have been invited into this
relationship?
Well, first of all, when Jesusshows up and begins to talk
about God, he calls him father.
He calls him father Many times.
(18:18):
He calls him father.
I mean, right there, it'sincredibly profound.
He doesn't call him a CEO, amanager.
He calls him father.
He's not the supreme manager ofall the souls.
He's not, like you know, theverified Lord and content
(18:39):
creator.
That's for you, young ones outthere.
No, he's not the secretary ofeternal security.
He's God, the father, and Jesustalks about him as though he's
his father.
I love it.
In John 17, jesus says hey, thefather has loved me since the
beginning of all creation.
What so?
(19:06):
Somehow, before all things,jesus, or something about Jesus,
existed back here with thefather, and the father loved him
from the beginning of all ofcreation.
So, right from the jump, okay.
In this dynamic relationshipwith the father and the father
loved him from the beginning ofall of creation.
So, right from the jump, okay.
In this dynamic relationshipwith the father of the son of
spirit, there's like this,there's love, there's uh,
existence before anything elsewas created.
So jesus, though he was a human, uh was around before, some
part of jesus, so anyway.
So there's this dynamic flow oflove in this relationship and
(19:30):
it's called the Father.
For many reasons, god the Father.
Now, for many of us today it'skind of a hurdle.
Does that mean God is a man?
And you have these images of awhite-haired, long beard kind of
floating around on a cloud, apicture of God?
Well, no, of course God isn't amale, any more than God is a
female.
God is not a human, god doesn'thave biological body parts, and
so God is none of those things.
But the image of a father isbeautiful, and here's why, in
(19:54):
the ancient world, a father,well, let me say this First of
all, in the ancient world theydidn't really know how biology
worked, and so when someone hada baby, they're like, oh, they
kind of looked at everything andlike, oh, back then they didn't
really understand, understandgenetics or the ovum yes, I just
said ovum and we're going to beokay and when they saw how
(20:15):
babies were made, they said, oh,the man has life within him and
the man puts that life into thefemale, and then the life you
can Google this later and thenthe female kind of houses or
holds that life as like anincubator, and that was how
babies were made.
They didn't understand it Like,oh so the man has the life
within him and the female isthis protective.
(20:36):
You know, housing unit of thebaby, one was not more valuable
than the other, but they neededboth.
But the man had the life.
So in the ancient world afather was the giver of life,
the generator of all things thatwere living Fathers.
Also in the ancient world theywere protectors.
They were the ones that oversawthe whole tribe and the whole
village.
This was in the days of thepatriarch, not the modern
(20:58):
patriarch, which gets a bad rap,but in the ancient world the
patriarch was like an incrediblyimportant role.
The father oversaw the wholehousehold, the whole village,
the whole neighborhood.
His job was to protect and toprovide for the whole household.
Everybody's safety, security,well-being was his
responsibility.
So his job was to provide or,if you will, to give bread to
(21:20):
everybody.
That was the role of the father.
This is a piece of bread, thankyou, thank you.
And Jesus calls God a father,meaning he's the protector, he's
the one overseeing this wholetribal, this cosmic village.
He's the one who'll provideyour wellbeing, is his
(21:41):
responsibility.
There's someone watching outfor us, someone will provide for
us, someone that has their eyeson us.
It's a deeply relational andpersonal name for this otherwise
transcendent God.
Can you already see like, oh,this is like.
This is not some distant Godwho's far away, he's a father.
(22:01):
Now, many of us might have abad relationship with our father
, but this is a good father, whoprovides for cares for, has
eyes.
By the way, in the ancient world, to be fatherless was a tragedy
Because no one watched out foryou.
No one looked out for you, noone provided for you, no one
took care of your well-being.
You had no one to watch out for.
So that's why, in Israel'sethics, to take care of the
(22:23):
fatherless was extremelyimportant, and it should be ours
today.
Today, we should look out forthose who don't have a father,
because without a father and, ofcourse, a mother, they're often
left to fend for themselves.
And so God is saying that he'sa father, and deeply embedded in
Israel's ethics was this ideaof taking care of the fatherless
.
So what does it mean that God'sa father?
(22:46):
Well, it means, no matter whereyou come from, what kind of
family you have your upbringing.
You are not fatherless.
There's somebody who knows yourname, who knows everything
about you and who promises toprovide for you, to care for you
, to be with you.
Your well-being is hisresponsibility.
(23:07):
You belong, you belong to afamily.
Now, you might have days whereyou feel like I just don't know
if I do, and I've had those dayswhere I'm just telling you you
belong to the family of God andyou have a father.
Jesus calls God the father, thisgiver of life, this provider,
protector, the one who sustains,the one, who is the one who's
(23:32):
your.
It's his responsibility, yourwell-being is his responsibility
, and Jesus calls him father.
I love it, too, that Jesus usesthis, this old Hebrew word for
for father.
He calls him Abba, and we don'treally have a similar word.
Maybe the closest in English islike dad or papa.
It's a deeply intimate namethat a young kid would call
(23:52):
their dad.
He calls him Abba and, by theway, I'll just say this now,
it's not because God the Fathergave birth to Jesus, it's not
that at all.
It's a relational name.
But he calls him Abba becausehe views him as a father.
I love it when my kids call medad.
When they were younger they'dcall me daddy and they don't
anymore, and I'm still angryabout it, but I love it.
(24:15):
They're like dad, dad, I lovehearing that sound because they
need my help and I'm the fatherI will help them.
So when I hear Dad, I'm likeyes, yes, what do you need?
In fact, just two years ago, mydaughters were at home it was
(24:40):
me and the girls and they'relike Dad, dad, we need you.
I'm here, what can I do for you?
I'm like can we go to Culver'sto get some ice cream?
I go yes, of course you have mypermission.
I grant you permission to go.
You're welcome.
They're like oh, awkwardly.
They're like oh, we don't needyour permission.
We needed your money.
(25:03):
Of course I will give you somemoney.
How much do you need?
No, I don't need anything andyou don't have to invite me.
It's fine, there's no problem,have fun.
Girls, and I cried on my pillowthat night Because I'm their
father.
I'm their dad and theirwell-being is my responsibility.
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I want to look after them, takecare of them Mothers, too.
I'm a father, I'm not a mother.
I'm sure you mothers have thesame kind of heart, because
they're my kids and they call medad.
I love nothing more than havingthem call me dad.
Jesus calls him Abba.
Then you have the son.
The son is in this story.
It's Jesus who calls him fatherand the son Jesus says a number
of times hey, if you want toknow what God is like, if you
(25:47):
want to see the father, look atme.
So he's like saying to thepeople hey, if you want to know
what the father is like, justwatch what I do, what I say.
This is radically a new idea inthe ancient world, because in
the ancient world you didn'tknow what the gods were like.
They worshipped many gods.
Gods were normal.
No one knew what they were likebecause the gods lived far away
.
They didn't really care aboutyou.
They were capricious.
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They would kind of show up onoccasion or their activities
would sort of pour out overflowinto our world and all hell
would break loose and be justchaos.
Read the ancient Greek storiesor Roman mythology.
It's wild, like you didn't knowif you could trust the gods, if
they were good or if they wereangry at you and you didn't know
.
And so always embedded in mostancient people like this low
(26:27):
grade or high grade anxiety Likewhat do the gods want of us?
We don't even know what they'relike.
And this God sort of comes inJesus like hey, if you want what
I'm like, look at me Now.
In this day in Israel there wasa lot of Greek thinking
happening.
So the Greeks had come intothis part of Israel and their
influence was everywhere and theGreeks saw the gods as distant.
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They were spirit beings.
They were not material beings,they were spirit beings and they
never came into contact withthe material world.
They didn't really care aboutthe material.
And for a spirit being like theGreeks thought a God, to touch
the material world was like itwas gross.
They would never touch thematerial creator world.
So for a God to say, hey, I'm aGod in the flesh and I'm going
(27:13):
to show you what the father islike, so there's no more mystery
, you can look at me and seewhat the father is like
Unbelievable in this day and age.
The Greeks could know about Godor the gods.
You could never know Godintimately.
How could you ever know God,he's God, or the gods?
They're gods, they're powerful,they're doing other things.
The great thinker CS Lewis saysit this way.
I love it.
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He says, hey, how could Hamletand Shakespeare ever meet?
How could they ever meet?
You guys know who Shakespeareand Hamlet is.
Okay, in case you don't, I'llsay it this way Maybe, how could
Harry Potter and JK Rowlingever meet?
Okay, how could Scarlett O'Hara, one of the greatest literary
(27:54):
characters of all time, evermeet Margaret Mitchell?
How could they ever meet?
Okay, fellas characters of alltime ever meet margaret mitchell
, how could they ever meet?
Okay, fellas.
Uh, how could, uh.
How could uh jason bourne evermeet robert ludlum?
Okay, or superman jerry siegelor katniss everdeen meet?
Uh, what's her name?
Collins, suzanne collins.
(28:14):
How could the author of a bookever meet one of its characters
unless the author did somethingto initiate the contact?
So Lewis like, the only waythat Shakespeare could ever meet
Hamlet is if Shakespeare wrotehimself into the story as one of
the characters of Hamlet, andthen Hamlet and Shakespeare
(28:35):
could meet in the story.
How could humans ever know God,the transcendent, the entirely
other, this being non-being,unless that God came into our
story as one of us to bridgethis gap?
Also, how could God ever knowwhat it's like to be a human
(28:56):
Unless God becomes a human?
How could these gods everrelate to your pain, your
heartbreak, your heartache, yourdiscomfort, your loss, your
grief, your sorrow.
How could God ever know thatunless this God became a human,
who also suffered and washeartbroken and experienced loss
and sadness and grief andrejection?
Oh, now we're cooking with somegas.
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This God of the Christian knowswhat human suffering is like
because this God became a human.
John 1 says it this way.
We heard it read by Richard Inthe beginning was the word.
So, by the way, in John'sgospel, the son is called the
logos or the word.
So in the beginning was theword and the word was with God.
So here's Jesus In thebeginning, though back here was
(29:39):
the word.
So in the beginning was theword and the word was with God.
So here's Jesus in thebeginning, though back here was
the word the logos.
This is what we call the son ofGod.
Now the word was with God andthe word was God.
This is mind bending.
It says, uh, and through himall things came into being.
Nothing that was made has beenmade apart from the logos of God
(30:00):
.
So this logos of God created.
So God created, through thelogos of God, all the things
that you see around him.
And then John says this logosof God, this word of God comes
into humanity as a person and isborn as Jesus of Nazareth.
So the logos, the word of God,has has been around forever,
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along with the Father and, aswe'll see, into the Spirit.
But then this part of God, thispart that wants to know what
it's like to be a human and tobridge the gap between humanity
and divinity, this part of Godbecomes a human in Jesus.
So Jesus of Nazareth and by theway, is resurrected as a human
and is now at the right hand ofGod, the Father.
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So you have the Father and theSon and the Spirit kind of again
in this beautiful vision of theTrinity.
And in the Trinity now exists ahuman being.
So the Logos takes on flesh.
And when the Logos goes back tobe with God, he doesn't leave
the body of Jesus.
No, the body goes with him.
He's the incarnate Son.
The Logos goes back to be withGod.
He doesn't leave the body ofJesus.
No, the body goes with him.
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He's the incarnate son, theLogos of God.
And now you have a human beingin the person of the Trinity.
It's beautiful.
So the father now and thespirit know what it's like to be
a human being to suffer and todie On the cross?
Was God suffering In thebeginning?
Was the Logos creating?
By the way, the Old Testamentdoesn't have a whole bunch of
(31:23):
like explicit language about theTrinity, but you see hints of
it.
You see like glimmers ofTrinitarian kinds of ideas and
the plurality of God in complexways.
I don't have time to unpack itnow, but there's all kinds of
images and it's as though, like,the lights are kind of dim and
then in Jesus you're like, oh,maybe that's what's going on
back here.
There's all kinds of images ofGod.
God is called Elohim, it's likea plural name for God.
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Abraham has a visitor, godvisits him.
It's three people.
It's like, oh, that'sinteresting.
There's all kinds of beautifulimagery about God being this
plurality in the Old Testament.
But yeah, you can see it kindof in Jesus, and this logos
enters into humanity as the son,as Jesus, and so Jesus says,
hey, I'm the father of one.
If you want to see God, look atme, the father, look at me.
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No one has seen God, johnwrites, except through Jesus.
So Jesus, the sheerest, purest,deepest, most vivid image and
window into the heart of God,which means this most vivid
image and window into the heartof God, which means this your
vision of God should be at leastas good and as beautiful and as
kind as Jesus.
There's no God hiding behind inJesus's back.
(32:28):
God is fully embodied in Jesus.
So you're like, what does Godlike?
Read Jesus stories, and howdoes he talk, how does he treat
people, how does he relate tothe poor and the broken and the
women and these kinds of things?
Okay, I got a boogie.
Okay, so this is the son, bythe way, the crucified and
(32:51):
resurrected son too, by the way.
And then the spirit whichhovers over the waters in
Genesis 1, the spirit of God.
Why does it say in Genesis one,the spirit of God?
Why doesn't it say that God isthe spirit of God?
And in the Hebrew story, it'sthe personal presence of God in
the Hebrew story, and it's thething that brings life and
vibrance to the whole thing.
So the word for uh, the wordfor spirit, by the way, is the
(33:12):
word Ruach.
Everyone say Ruach.
Yeah, ruach means spirit, orwind, or breath.
Everyone take a big, deepbreath.
Yeah, the breath, it's thisinvisible thing you breathe in,
but it's empowering, it givesyou life, it gives you energy,
vitality, vibrance, but it'sinvisible, but it's powerful.
Wind is the same way.
Wind blows through the treesand you can see it.
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It's powerful and strong, butit's invisible.
And it's the spirit, this wind,this breath of God that
enlivens and it sort of bringslife and vibrancy, electricity
to all things.
The thing that happens when ababy is first born.
What's the first thing a babydoes when it's born?
And when you die, what's thelast thing you do before you die
?
And this breath, this spirit,this wind goes back to God.
(34:00):
Yeah, the spirit in Ezekielhovers over this valley of dry
bones and they're dead andthey're dried, and then the
spirit comes over them andbrings them back to life and it
resurrects this valley of drybones.
It's incredible.
In Acts, chapter two, thespirit shows up as a fire and
empowers the disciples to do allthe things that Jesus did, and
(34:22):
even greater things, andempowers them.
And then Paul Paul writes itwas the spirit of God that
resurrects Jesus.
So there you have it, god.
And the Bible is called love.
John says God is love and Ilost my eraser.
That's okay.
(34:44):
So here's the most importantthing about this whole thing
that we call a trinity.
This stuff is fine, but it'sthis that God is love.
From the beginning of time thetrinity has existed.
This beautiful dance they callit perichoresis, many of these
ancient writers this beautifuldance of the Trinity, the Father
, son, spirit.
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It's relational, it's intimate,they know each other.
There's vibrant life, there'sbeautiful, other-centered giving
and receiving.
All before anything was created, the Trinity existed.
And if dancing is a weird imagefor you, think about like I
don't know.
I think about like I don't know.
I think of like these threepersons around this campfire,
roasting marshmallows orsomething, beautiful and deep,
(35:30):
intimate conversation.
They all know each other.
There's no hierarchy, there'sno, you know, they share
everything.
There's no insecurity, theylack nothing.
It's this beautiful, vibrantgiving and taking and receiving,
this beautiful relationship,and they all know each other so
deeply and intimately well,which makes you think and wonder
why did God create anythingthen?
If, before all of time, godexists in this beautiful
father-son spirit relationship,it's lacking nothing, they don't
(35:52):
need anything, they don't needyou, they don't need me, they
don't need us to worship them,they're not missing anything,
they're fine.
Why create?
Well, I think it's because lovealways creates.
Going back to how babies areborn, by the way, love always
creates, but the best things inlife are always shared.
So I feel like the father sonsort of have this beautiful
(36:17):
dynamic relationship that theyjust had to share, and so they
create the cosmos and you and me.
Which means that the point ofChristian faith is not so much
affirming all these doctrines orbelieving all the right things
those are fine.
It isn't even about saying theright prayers or the right words
(36:38):
.
It's sharing in thisbeautifully vivid, vibrant
Trinitarian life of the Fatherand the Son and the Spirit.
They lack nothing and they'refull of life, which means that
your job, your day-to-day nineto five, whatever it is you do
raising kids, teaching, being alawyer, being an accountant,
(36:58):
being a pastor, being a studentall of these can be filled with
the vibrant life of the Trinity.
This life matters.
We can have this life righthere and right now, because you
and I have been invited into thebeautiful relationship of the
Father and the Son and theSpirit.
Central Lutheran Church.
May you know the love of theFather, who takes responsibility
(37:21):
for you, who calls you by name,who wants to provide for you
and will make all things rightagain.
May you know that beautifullove through the presence of the
Son, jesus, on the cross, herefused to give up on humanity
Like no, I'm not going to giveup on this thing.
I will dive into the sufferingof humanity to save it.
So may you know that love ofthe Father in Jesus, who then
(37:44):
sends the Spirit to guide us, toshare wisdom with us and to
give us life and to resurrectthe dead parts of us.
May you know the beautiful loveand the dance and the
relationship of the Father andthe Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen.
Thank you, richard.
Let's pray this morning.
God, we give you thanks foryour presence here and we thank
you for your light and your lifeand your love, and thank you
for these beautiful scriptures.
And we ask God that by yourHoly Spirit, you would come and
awaken us and enliven us andinspire us and that, yeah, we'd
have just a deeper sense of thelove of God that was in Jesus on
(00:27):
the cross, and this love of theFather.
And pray you bless us thismorning as we unpack these
ancient ideas and help us to becreative in our thinking.
And, as always, god, may wetake these things that we
learned this morning, may wegive them away to others.
And, as always, god, may wetake these things that we
learned this morning, may wegive them away to others, and
(00:47):
may we be a blessing to all whomwe encounter this morning and
everywhere we go in our lives,and bless us in Jesus' name.
Amen, amen.
You can be seated.
Good morning everyone.
How are we doing?
Good to see you all?
We are beginning a new sermonseries this morning.
Can everyone see my board, bythe way?
Okay, we're going to add to it,so you've got to be able to see
it.
(01:07):
We don't have any slides thismorning.
We're going strictly old schoolanalog.
This morning.
You're welcome and we'rebeginning a new series called
you Pick, and we're allowing you.
Guys.
We've actually got a number ofquestions and ideas and
scriptures and thoughts aboutwhat to preach upon, and so we
do this at the end of everysummer.
We take about six, seven, eightweeks and just preach through
ideas and questions that youmight have, and so we've got a
(01:30):
lot already.
The ones that we don't havetime for.
All of them, we try to carrythem over to the next summer, or
we'll just turn them into apodcast or an awakened email, or
just grab me for coffee andI'll try to respond.
I always say they're notanswers, they're responses Cause
I don't know.
I mean, I don't know if I haveall the answers.
I can respond, though, in someways, and hopefully it'd be
something interesting.
And this morning the personasked Michelle who was at the
(01:51):
eight 30 gathering.
She asked what is the Trinity?
Can you explain it to me?
How does it work?
Who are all the persons of theTrinity?
And I must warn you at the 830,man, we got a lot in there, so
you got to pay attention, buckleup, take notes and we're going
to have a crash course on theTrinity.
(02:13):
Are you ready?
Excellent.
And it reminded me, like my son,my son Gavin, who's here?
I think he's here.
Is he here?
Oh, he's here somewhere.
Oh, he's out there.
I'm driving him to school inabout two hours.
So we're driving to Chicago ina couple hours.
But when he was younger, he wasabout five years old.
He's ever been the sort ofphilosophically minded of my
kids.
I'm putting him to bed and hisbrother's above in the bunk bed
(02:35):
above him, and he's like fiveyears old.
And he's like hey, dad.
So I kiss him, I hug himfive-year-old, and he's like
okay, but also Jesus is the son,and then there's the father and
then there's the Holy Spirit.
Right, I go, yeah, he goes.
Well, that sounds like threegods to me.
I'm like okay, he goes.
(03:04):
Can you explain it to me?
I'm like buddy it, it wouldsuck me right in.
I knew he was trying to juststay awake longer, but I
couldn't resist, I had to.
And his mom leans no, we're notdoing that tonight.
Go to bed.
So this one's for Gavin, forthat sermon I couldn't give to
you years ago because your momwouldn't let me.
So this is for you.
Now, gavin.
I'm going to unpack this2,000-year tradition of this
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talk of the Trinity, the Father,the Son and the Spirit, this
mysterious sort of unexplainable, profoundly foundational piece
of Christian history.
I'm going to do it in 30minutes or less.
That's my goal, and some of youI know like to have an idea of
where we're going before I gothere.
So I'm like we're doingwhiteboard.
We're going to go analog.
I'm going to tell of wherewe're going before I go there.
So I'm going to.
I'm like we're doing whiteboard, we're going to go analog.
I'm going to tell you wherewe're going ahead of time.
Would that be okay?
(03:46):
Make a couple of you moresecure.
We're going to talk this morningfirst about the Shema and we
know what the Shema is Great.
I'm going to explain what theShema is and then I'll unpack
the Shema a little bit for youguys.
And then later on I'm going totalk about a couple of
near-death experiences.
Yeah, get ready for that.
(04:10):
By the way, chris is back there.
Good to see you, chris Up,right?
Yeah, oh, man.
If you weren't here last weekyou missed out man.
But in all seriousness, we'reglad you're feeling better.
He's doing well, as you can see, and just needed a break.
He just needed some time away.
No, he's doing really well,though you can go and give him a
(04:31):
high five and we're glad to seehim.
I know he hates the spotlighton him right now, so I'm going
to get it back up here on thememe, but near-death experiences
.
We're going to talk about acouple of issues you know which
issues I'm talking about andthen I'm going to talk about 400
(04:58):
years later yeah, oh boy andthen I'm going to talk about
mysteries and problems, and thenI'm going to end by talking
about the Father, the Son andthe Holy Spirit.
Sound good?
Here's the point ahead of time,though, before I get any
(05:19):
further.
You got to know this because Iwant to give you the answer to
the test.
I don't know if we canunderstand the complexity of the
Trinity.
I'm going to try, but what Ineed you to know is that what we
see in the relationship betweenthe Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit is this incredible,vibrant relationship, and the
(05:39):
point of all of this is thatsomehow, in some way, you and I
have been invited into thatrelationship of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spiritthat's been around since the
beginning of all time.
The Father and the Son and theSpirit have existed in this
beautiful communal relationshiptogether and they lacked nothing
(06:01):
and they needed nothing.
And yet somehow you and I all,this time later, are invited to
be a part of that beautifulrelationship of the Trinity.
Fair enough.
So if you leave with nothingelse, hear that.
But I want you to notice then,as I unpack this, what is that
relationship like between theFather and the Son and the
(06:23):
Spirit, and what does it meanfor us to be invited into that
kind of a life?
And of course, this begins withthe Shema.
The Shema is this ancient Jewishprayer.
You can find it in Deuteronomyand it's this prayer that was
this foundational declaration offaith for the Jewish people.
And it goes like this theopening line is this beautiful
line.
It says, by the way, the wordShema literally means to listen
(06:43):
or hear.
It's a command, so hear orlisten.
And so the prayer which theysaid by the Jews said it twice a
day.
To this day, many Jews recitethis prayer two times a day.
They'll say it at festivals andholy days, and they say it as a
reminder to themselves of whothey are and who God has called
them to be, the promises thatGod had made to them, the
(07:05):
promises that God will come tofulfill in the future.
It was this beautiful fabric, apart of the fabric of their
existence as Jewish people.
And the Shema opens like thisHear, listen O Israel, shema
Yisrael in the Hebrew, listen OIsrael, the Lord, our God.
The Lord is one.
And it says love the Lord, yourGod, with all your heart and
(07:28):
with all your soul and with allyour might.
Now you might recognize that,because Jesus, years and years
later, is asked hey, what's thegreatest of all commandments?
And he quotes the Shema.
And he quotes a couple otherOld Testament passages, but he
quotes the Shema love the Lord,your God, with all your heart
and soul and mind.
Of course he would have saidthat prayer as a young boy,
probably his whole life.
(07:49):
He said the Shema.
So he knew the Shema, but theLord, our God, is one.
It was his declaration of whatit meant to be a person of the
family of Israel, of the nationof Israel, the people of Israel,
and so God had made thiscovenant with them.
He was like, hey, worship meand worship me alone.
So in this prayer, the Shema,which is part of the fabric, the
central part of their Jewishlife.
(08:10):
It was this prayer the Lord,our God, is one.
It declared the singularity,the oneness of God.
Because for the Jewish people,especially early on, the big
problem for them is that theyworshiped all kinds of gods.
In fact, that was the way thatthings worked back then.
Problem for them is that theyworshiped all kinds of gods.
In fact, that was the way thatthings worked back then.
In the ancient world, therewere many gods.
It was a polytheistic is thefancy $5 word for the people
that lived back then.
(08:30):
When God comes to Abram andSarai, this is the father and
mother of the people of Israel.
You know, father Abraham hadmany sons, right?
So Abraham was a real characterin the Bible.
And God comes to him seeminglyout of nowhere.
He's like hey, I want to fixthe brokenness.
That sort of starts with Adamand Eve.
You have Adam and Eve and thenall heck breaks loose and then
(08:54):
Cain kills Abel, and then by thetime Noah comes along,
everything's wicked and it'sjust terrible.
And God's like okay, we'regoing to start over.
I'm going to choose Abram andSarai.
I'm going to have a partnershipwith you, abraham and Sarah,
I'm going to bless you, make youinto this great nation.
It'll be so big you'lloutnumber the stars in the sky.
And so he builds this greatnation.
And now Abram was probably,undoubtedly.
(09:15):
He worshipped many gods.
That's what they did in thatpart of Mesopotamia, in this
land called Ur.
They worshipped many gods.
So he's like, okay, sure, I'llworship this one.
And then God begins to dial in,like, no, but I'm the only one
I want you to worship.
And so he wants them to becomelike worshipers of one God, and
they, over time, they try to dothis, but they don't do a very
good job.
They worship lots of foreigngods, pagan gods, and it's a
(09:37):
mess.
For a long time, it becomes aproblem for them.
Finally, though, in around 587bc, the people of israel they're
huge now, a big, huge peoplegroup they're taken into
captivity, into babylon andbabylon, and they're still
undoubtedly saying this prayerthey finally get it.
Oh, we should stop worshipingother gods, because the lord,
(10:01):
our god, is one.
Worship and love the lord, yourheart, soul, might.
Your heart, soul, might andstrength.
That's the prayer of the Shema.
Okay, so they begin like okay,we are now what we call not
polytheists, we're monotheists.
We will worship one God.
As my son, gavin, has stillpointed out, we will worship one
God.
No, that was great, all goodand fair.
So around that time and fair.
(10:21):
So around that time, and then upto the time of Jesus, the Jews
were strictly monotheists andthey doubled down no, we'll
worship no other gods.
It leads to chaos, it leads todisruption, it leads to all
kinds of brokenness.
We're going to worship only Godalone.
Then Jesus shows up and startsto say things that cause an
uproar.
(10:41):
Now we read it like oh, not abit Like back then.
Imagine being a Jew who was amonotheist.
You'd seen your people'shistory and the brokenness that
came out of worshiping othergods.
Like, we only worship God aloneand the God of the.
You know of the covenant ofAbraham and Sarah.
And Jesus begins to say thingsthat make you think that he
thinks he's God.
Well, he can't be God, becauseYahweh is God and we don't
(11:03):
worship two gods.
So, for example, there's thistime where Jesus is arguing with
these Jewish leaders I lovethis story and they talk they
bring up.
They bring up Abraham becausehe's the father of our people
and he's this great man ofcovenant faith he's, he's, he's
venerated.
We love Abraham and Sarah.
And so Jesus like, brings upAbraham and like you, you, how
do you know Abraham?
(11:23):
I mean, you think you'regreater than Abraham Because
Abraham was the greatest.
You don't dare shake the throneof Abraham.
He's the man.
And you think you're greaterthan Abraham Because he's
talking like he is and Jesusgoes.
I'll tell you something, I'lltell you what.
Before Abraham existed, I am.
Jesus says.
This is like an unbelievablemic drop in this day and age.
(11:46):
He said before Abraham was evenborn, I was hanging around and
I am.
I am is the language that Goduses to describe himself to
Moses.
So like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,listen, homie, before you
didn't exist before You're like30 years old, how can you say
you existed before Abraham?
You're barely that old.
And he's like no, but not onlythat, not only did I exist
before Abraham, but I am the Iam.
(12:07):
So he's saying I was aroundbefore Abraham and I'm also, I'm
God.
Like, no, you're not.
And they pick up stones to killhim.
Now, this is his first neardeath experience of Jesus and
this is in the text.
I love it.
But then he slipped away intheir midst.
What he slips away and he justdisappears in their midst.
(12:28):
Later Jesus is talking to moreJewish leaders and he says
something.
He goes hey, just so you know,if you want to see the Father
God, if you want to know whatGod is like, look at me.
I and the Father, me and Godare one.
Like uh no, you're not.
There's only one God, asingular God, and he's this
ineffable, the unexplainable,the transcendent God who is
(12:49):
occasionally here and imminent,but you're not God.
There's only one God and we'renot going to worship you and God
.
So how dare you?
This is blasphemy.
They pick up stones to kill himagain.
This is his second near-deathexperience and the text tells us
that he disappears in theirmidst and sort of slips between
them and disappears.
So we learn two things.
One, in this part of Jewishhistory, you never would declare
(13:11):
yourself as equal to God orgreater than Abraham.
You don't do that.
And number two, we learned thatJesus was, in addition to being
a Messiah, was also a ninja.
He just would slip between thestealthy like how does he do
that?
I love those stories, likewhere did he go?
It's like those old cartoonsthey all dive on the bad guy and
then they come up and he's gone.
(13:32):
That was Jesus.
Well, this raises all kinds ofissues.
Jesus begins to be like this.
He starts saying all kinds ofscandalous things You're not God
.
How can you say that?
And then, when he dies, he'sresurrected and the disciples,
his closest followers, begin toworship him as God.
No, no, no, no, no.
(13:52):
The Lord, our God, is one.
There's not two gods.
What are you talking about?
And the language Jesus usedhimself caused all kinds of
issues.
Then, not long after Paul, theapostle who had this divine
revelation of Jesus, he beginsto write about Jesus as the
ruler and authority over all theworld, and that God has put his
(14:12):
uh, put all things under hisfeet.
Like he's the authority overthe whole cosmos.
What Jesus is?
Just Jesus the Christ.
He writes about it Like hey,he's the image of the invisible
God.
In him All things were created,all things hold together.
In him was all, all things werein him.
What he's like?
This cosmic gloom that'severywhere and has existed for
all of time?
(14:32):
What Jesus the Christ?
How can you say so?
Paul even writes that Jesus isalso God.
Well, how can that be?
There's all these problems, allthese issues begin to arise for
the people of this Jewish faithand these Jewish Christians are
like well, we worship him as God.
He sort of says he is God, herepresents God.
What does this mean?
Well, it takes the church about400 years to kind of wrestle
(14:57):
this out.
So if you don't know yourchurch history, about 400 years
after Jesus they begin to likereally kind of dial in language
to use about this God who seemsto have like a plurality to God,
even though God is one.
This is the Shema, the onenessof God.
There's also a plurality to God, even though God is one.
This is the Shema, the onenessof God.
There's also a plurality to God.
He's one, but he's also gotlike multifacets.
There's like this plurality.
(15:18):
How does this work?
And they come up with thislanguage called the Trinity, and
it took them about 400 years.
By the way, the next time yourkid comes to you with a, a math
problem like I've been workingon this problem for forever, for
like 10 minutes, I don't knowhow to do it oh, keep going, you
can call me when you've reached400 years and we'll talk.
You know, that's sort of a joke, but I thought it was funny.
(15:40):
400 years, and at this councilit's a.
You know, you can google it,they.
They come up with actually twocouncils.
Later they come with this ideaof the Trinity and like, hey
look, god is one, he's one inhis essence.
His essence is like this one.
He's one essence, one God, butwithin his essence there are
three persons there's the Father, there's the Son and there's
(16:01):
the Holy Spirit.
And that's kind of how theyexplain it, not the greatest
metaphysical description,because how can you explain God?
It's really difficult.
But we know it's one God.
There's three persons.
They're co-equal, they're allequal.
There's no hierarchy of valueand one isn't more important
than the other.
They're all present all thetime.
They're always both activetogether, but they have their
(16:22):
unique kind of personhood androle and they're all God.
And so they have thisincredible declaration and the
creeds which we have are thesedeclarations of what it is that
we worship the Father, the Sonand the Spirit.
One God, but three persons.
400 years it took them.
Now we can unpack this mysteryfor a couple of hours if we have
(16:43):
time.
We don't have time, so here'swhat I'll say.
The great thinker, st Augustine,said it this way.
He says the Trinity is not amystery to be solved.
Excuse me, let me start over.
Augustine said the Trinity isnot a problem to be solved,
rather, it's a mystery to beadored.
So we've spent centuries tryingto figure out what is this
(17:06):
problem of the Trinity?
How do we solve it?
How do we talk about three inone?
And he says the Trinity is nota problem to be solved, but it's
this mystery to be adored, tolook at with wonder and awe,
because it's hard talking aboutGod.
How do you do it?
It's like a three-dimensionalobject talking about a
10-dimensional object.
We don't even know, we don'thave language for that and
(17:35):
language is all we have.
Language falls short and God iscomplex.
He's God and actually in theOld Testament, you see, like
this incredibly complex pictureof God and there's.
You know, how do we as humanstalk about God?
We'll do the best we can and weuse words and we use, but it's
ultimately it's a mystery and wejust don't know in fullness.
But here's what I would saythen, as opposed to sort of
unpacking you know how does thiswork and who is?
We're going to start.
I want to talk about therelationship of the father and
(17:57):
the son and the spirit and whatit means for you and for me Fair
enough.
So what does this mean, thisdynamic relationship of the
father and the son and thespirit?
What does it mean that you andI have been invited into this
relationship?
Well, first of all, when Jesusshows up and begins to talk
about God, he calls him father.
He calls him father Many times.
(18:18):
He calls him father.
I mean, right there, it'sincredibly profound.
He doesn't call him a CEO, amanager.
He calls him father.
He's not the supreme manager ofall the souls.
He's not, like you know, theverified Lord and content
(18:39):
creator.
That's for you, young ones outthere.
No, he's not the secretary ofeternal security.
He's God, the father, and Jesustalks about him as though he's
his father.
I love it.
In John 17, jesus says hey, thefather has loved me since the
beginning of all creation.
What so?
(19:06):
Somehow, before all things,jesus, or something about Jesus,
existed back here with thefather, and the father loved him
from the beginning of all ofcreation.
So, right from the jump, okay.
In this dynamic relationshipwith the father and the father
loved him from the beginning ofall of creation.
So, right from the jump, okay.
In this dynamic relationshipwith the father of the son of
spirit, there's like this,there's love, there's uh,
existence before anything elsewas created.
So jesus, though he was a human, uh was around before, some
part of jesus, so anyway.
So there's this dynamic flow oflove in this relationship and
(19:30):
it's called the Father.
For many reasons, god the Father.
Now, for many of us today it'skind of a hurdle.
Does that mean God is a man?
And you have these images of awhite-haired, long beard kind of
floating around on a cloud, apicture of God?
Well, no, of course God isn't amale, any more than God is a
female.
God is not a human, god doesn'thave biological body parts, and
so God is none of those things.
But the image of a father isbeautiful, and here's why, in
(19:54):
the ancient world, a father,well, let me say this First of
all, in the ancient world theydidn't really know how biology
worked, and so when someone hada baby, they're like, oh, they
kind of looked at everything andlike, oh, back then they didn't
really understand, understandgenetics or the ovum yes, I just
said ovum and we're going to beokay and when they saw how
(20:15):
babies were made, they said, oh,the man has life within him and
the man puts that life into thefemale, and then the life you
can Google this later and thenthe female kind of houses or
holds that life as like anincubator, and that was how
babies were made.
They didn't understand it Like,oh so the man has the life
within him and the female isthis protective.
(20:36):
You know, housing unit of thebaby, one was not more valuable
than the other, but they neededboth.
But the man had the life.
So in the ancient world afather was the giver of life,
the generator of all things thatwere living Fathers.
Also in the ancient world theywere protectors.
They were the ones that oversawthe whole tribe and the whole
village.
This was in the days of thepatriarch, not the modern
(20:58):
patriarch, which gets a bad rap,but in the ancient world the
patriarch was like an incrediblyimportant role.
The father oversaw the wholehousehold, the whole village,
the whole neighborhood.
His job was to protect and toprovide for the whole household.
Everybody's safety, security,well-being was his
responsibility.
So his job was to provide or,if you will, to give bread to
(21:20):
everybody.
That was the role of the father.
This is a piece of bread, thankyou, thank you.
And Jesus calls God a father,meaning he's the protector, he's
the one overseeing this wholetribal, this cosmic village.
He's the one who'll provideyour wellbeing, is his
(21:41):
responsibility.
There's someone watching outfor us, someone will provide for
us, someone that has their eyeson us.
It's a deeply relational andpersonal name for this otherwise
transcendent God.
Can you already see like, oh,this is like.
This is not some distant Godwho's far away, he's a father.
(22:01):
Now, many of us might have abad relationship with our father
, but this is a good father, whoprovides for cares for, has
eyes.
By the way, in the ancient world, to be fatherless was a tragedy
Because no one watched out foryou.
No one looked out for you, noone provided for you, no one
took care of your well-being.
You had no one to watch out for.
So that's why, in Israel'sethics, to take care of the
(22:23):
fatherless was extremelyimportant, and it should be ours
today.
Today, we should look out forthose who don't have a father,
because without a father and, ofcourse, a mother, they're often
left to fend for themselves.
And so God is saying that he'sa father, and deeply embedded in
Israel's ethics was this ideaof taking care of the fatherless
.
So what does it mean that God'sa father?
(22:46):
Well, it means, no matter whereyou come from, what kind of
family you have your upbringing.
You are not fatherless.
There's somebody who knows yourname, who knows everything
about you and who promises toprovide for you, to care for you
, to be with you.
Your well-being is hisresponsibility.
(23:07):
You belong, you belong to afamily.
Now, you might have days whereyou feel like I just don't know
if I do, and I've had those dayswhere I'm just telling you you
belong to the family of God andyou have a father.
Jesus calls God the father, thisgiver of life, this provider,
protector, the one who sustains,the one, who is the one who's
(23:32):
your.
It's his responsibility, yourwell-being is his responsibility
, and Jesus calls him father.
I love it, too, that Jesus usesthis, this old Hebrew word for
for father.
He calls him Abba, and we don'treally have a similar word.
Maybe the closest in English islike dad or papa.
It's a deeply intimate namethat a young kid would call
(23:52):
their dad.
He calls him Abba and, by theway, I'll just say this now,
it's not because God the Fathergave birth to Jesus, it's not
that at all.
It's a relational name.
But he calls him Abba becausehe views him as a father.
I love it when my kids call medad.
When they were younger they'dcall me daddy and they don't
anymore, and I'm still angryabout it, but I love it.
(24:15):
They're like dad, dad, I lovehearing that sound because they
need my help and I'm the fatherI will help them.
So when I hear Dad, I'm likeyes, yes, what do you need?
In fact, just two years ago, mydaughters were at home it was
(24:40):
me and the girls and they'relike Dad, dad, we need you.
I'm here, what can I do for you?
I'm like can we go to Culver'sto get some ice cream?
I go yes, of course you have mypermission.
I grant you permission to go.
You're welcome.
They're like oh, awkwardly.
They're like oh, we don't needyour permission.
We needed your money.
(25:03):
Of course I will give you somemoney.
How much do you need?
No, I don't need anything andyou don't have to invite me.
It's fine, there's no problem,have fun.
Girls, and I cried on my pillowthat night Because I'm their
father.
I'm their dad and theirwell-being is my responsibility.
(25:24):
I want to look after them, takecare of them Mothers, too.
I'm a father, I'm not a mother.
I'm sure you mothers have thesame kind of heart, because
they're my kids and they call medad.
I love nothing more than havingthem call me dad.
Jesus calls him Abba.
Then you have the son.
The son is in this story.
It's Jesus who calls him fatherand the son Jesus says a number
of times hey, if you want toknow what God is like, if you
(25:47):
want to see the father, look atme.
So he's like saying to thepeople hey, if you want to know
what the father is like, justwatch what I do, what I say.
This is radically a new idea inthe ancient world, because in
the ancient world you didn'tknow what the gods were like.
They worshipped many gods.
Gods were normal.
No one knew what they were likebecause the gods lived far away
.
They didn't really care aboutyou.
They were capricious.
(26:07):
They would kind of show up onoccasion or their activities
would sort of pour out overflowinto our world and all hell
would break loose and be justchaos.
Read the ancient Greek storiesor Roman mythology.
It's wild, like you didn't knowif you could trust the gods, if
they were good or if they wereangry at you and you didn't know
.
And so always embedded in mostancient people like this low
(26:27):
grade or high grade anxiety Likewhat do the gods want of us?
We don't even know what they'relike.
And this God sort of comes inJesus like hey, if you want what
I'm like, look at me Now.
In this day in Israel there wasa lot of Greek thinking
happening.
So the Greeks had come intothis part of Israel and their
influence was everywhere and theGreeks saw the gods as distant.
(26:50):
They were spirit beings.
They were not material beings,they were spirit beings and they
never came into contact withthe material world.
They didn't really care aboutthe material.
And for a spirit being like theGreeks thought a God, to touch
the material world was like itwas gross.
They would never touch thematerial creator world.
So for a God to say, hey, I'm aGod in the flesh and I'm going
(27:13):
to show you what the father islike, so there's no more mystery
, you can look at me and seewhat the father is like
Unbelievable in this day and age.
The Greeks could know about Godor the gods.
You could never know Godintimately.
How could you ever know God,he's God, or the gods?
They're gods, they're powerful,they're doing other things.
The great thinker CS Lewis saysit this way.
I love it.
(27:33):
He says, hey, how could Hamletand Shakespeare ever meet?
How could they ever meet?
You guys know who Shakespeareand Hamlet is.
Okay, in case you don't, I'llsay it this way Maybe, how could
Harry Potter and JK Rowlingever meet?
Okay, how could Scarlett O'Hara, one of the greatest literary
(27:54):
characters of all time, evermeet Margaret Mitchell?
How could they ever meet?
Okay, fellas characters of alltime ever meet margaret mitchell
, how could they ever meet?
Okay, fellas.
Uh, how could, uh.
How could uh jason bourne evermeet robert ludlum?
Okay, or superman jerry siegelor katniss everdeen meet?
Uh, what's her name?
Collins, suzanne collins.
(28:14):
How could the author of a bookever meet one of its characters
unless the author did somethingto initiate the contact?
So Lewis like, the only waythat Shakespeare could ever meet
Hamlet is if Shakespeare wrotehimself into the story as one of
the characters of Hamlet, andthen Hamlet and Shakespeare
(28:35):
could meet in the story.
How could humans ever know God,the transcendent, the entirely
other, this being non-being,unless that God came into our
story as one of us to bridgethis gap?
Also, how could God ever knowwhat it's like to be a human
(28:56):
Unless God becomes a human?
How could these gods everrelate to your pain, your
heartbreak, your heartache, yourdiscomfort, your loss, your
grief, your sorrow.
How could God ever know thatunless this God became a human,
who also suffered and washeartbroken and experienced loss
and sadness and grief andrejection?
Oh, now we're cooking with somegas.
(29:18):
This God of the Christian knowswhat human suffering is like
because this God became a human.
John 1 says it this way.
We heard it read by Richard Inthe beginning was the word.
So, by the way, in John'sgospel, the son is called the
logos or the word.
So in the beginning was theword and the word was with God.
So here's Jesus In thebeginning, though back here was
(29:39):
the word.
So in the beginning was theword and the word was with God.
So here's Jesus in thebeginning, though back here was
the word the logos.
This is what we call the son ofGod.
Now the word was with God andthe word was God.
This is mind bending.
It says, uh, and through himall things came into being.
Nothing that was made has beenmade apart from the logos of God
(30:00):
.
So this logos of God created.
So God created, through thelogos of God, all the things
that you see around him.
And then John says this logosof God, this word of God comes
into humanity as a person and isborn as Jesus of Nazareth.
So the logos, the word of God,has has been around forever,
(30:20):
along with the Father and, aswe'll see, into the Spirit.
But then this part of God, thispart that wants to know what
it's like to be a human and tobridge the gap between humanity
and divinity, this part of Godbecomes a human in Jesus.
So Jesus of Nazareth and by theway, is resurrected as a human
and is now at the right hand ofGod, the Father.
(30:40):
So you have the Father and theSon and the Spirit kind of again
in this beautiful vision of theTrinity.
And in the Trinity now exists ahuman being.
So the Logos takes on flesh.
And when the Logos goes back tobe with God, he doesn't leave
the body of Jesus.
No, the body goes with him.
He's the incarnate Son.
The Logos goes back to be withGod.
He doesn't leave the body ofJesus.
No, the body goes with him.
(31:01):
He's the incarnate son, theLogos of God.
And now you have a human beingin the person of the Trinity.
It's beautiful.
So the father now and thespirit know what it's like to be
a human being to suffer and todie On the cross?
Was God suffering In thebeginning?
Was the Logos creating?
By the way, the Old Testamentdoesn't have a whole bunch of
(31:23):
like explicit language about theTrinity, but you see hints of
it.
You see like glimmers ofTrinitarian kinds of ideas and
the plurality of God in complexways.
I don't have time to unpack itnow, but there's all kinds of
images and it's as though, like,the lights are kind of dim and
then in Jesus you're like, oh,maybe that's what's going on
back here.
There's all kinds of images ofGod.
God is called Elohim, it's likea plural name for God.
(31:45):
Abraham has a visitor, godvisits him.
It's three people.
It's like, oh, that'sinteresting.
There's all kinds of beautifulimagery about God being this
plurality in the Old Testament.
But yeah, you can see it kindof in Jesus, and this logos
enters into humanity as the son,as Jesus, and so Jesus says,
hey, I'm the father of one.
If you want to see God, look atme, the father, look at me.
(32:06):
No one has seen God, johnwrites, except through Jesus.
So Jesus, the sheerest, purest,deepest, most vivid image and
window into the heart of God,which means this most vivid
image and window into the heartof God, which means this your
vision of God should be at leastas good and as beautiful and as
kind as Jesus.
There's no God hiding behind inJesus's back.
(32:28):
God is fully embodied in Jesus.
So you're like, what does Godlike?
Read Jesus stories, and howdoes he talk, how does he treat
people, how does he relate tothe poor and the broken and the
women and these kinds of things?
Okay, I got a boogie.
Okay, so this is the son, bythe way, the crucified and
(32:51):
resurrected son too, by the way.
And then the spirit whichhovers over the waters in
Genesis 1, the spirit of God.
Why does it say in Genesis one,the spirit of God?
Why doesn't it say that God isthe spirit of God?
And in the Hebrew story, it'sthe personal presence of God in
the Hebrew story, and it's thething that brings life and
vibrance to the whole thing.
So the word for uh, the wordfor spirit, by the way, is the
(33:12):
word Ruach.
Everyone say Ruach.
Yeah, ruach means spirit, orwind, or breath.
Everyone take a big, deepbreath.
Yeah, the breath, it's thisinvisible thing you breathe in,
but it's empowering, it givesyou life, it gives you energy,
vitality, vibrance, but it'sinvisible, but it's powerful.
Wind is the same way.
Wind blows through the treesand you can see it.
(33:34):
It's powerful and strong, butit's invisible.
And it's the spirit, this wind,this breath of God that
enlivens and it sort of bringslife and vibrancy, electricity
to all things.
The thing that happens when ababy is first born.
What's the first thing a babydoes when it's born?
And when you die, what's thelast thing you do before you die
?
And this breath, this spirit,this wind goes back to God.
(34:00):
Yeah, the spirit in Ezekielhovers over this valley of dry
bones and they're dead andthey're dried, and then the
spirit comes over them andbrings them back to life and it
resurrects this valley of drybones.
It's incredible.
In Acts, chapter two, thespirit shows up as a fire and
empowers the disciples to do allthe things that Jesus did, and
(34:22):
even greater things, andempowers them.
And then Paul Paul writes itwas the spirit of God that
resurrects Jesus.
So there you have it, god.
And the Bible is called love.
John says God is love and Ilost my eraser.
That's okay.
(34:44):
So here's the most importantthing about this whole thing
that we call a trinity.
This stuff is fine, but it'sthis that God is love.
From the beginning of time thetrinity has existed.
This beautiful dance they callit perichoresis, many of these
ancient writers this beautifuldance of the Trinity, the Father
, son, spirit.
(35:04):
It's relational, it's intimate,they know each other.
There's vibrant life, there'sbeautiful, other-centered giving
and receiving.
All before anything was created, the Trinity existed.
And if dancing is a weird imagefor you, think about like I
don't know.
I think about like I don't know.
I think of like these threepersons around this campfire,
roasting marshmallows orsomething, beautiful and deep,
(35:30):
intimate conversation.
They all know each other.
There's no hierarchy, there'sno, you know, they share
everything.
There's no insecurity, theylack nothing.
It's this beautiful, vibrantgiving and taking and receiving,
this beautiful relationship,and they all know each other so
deeply and intimately well,which makes you think and wonder
why did God create anythingthen?
If, before all of time, godexists in this beautiful
father-son spirit relationship,it's lacking nothing, they don't
(35:52):
need anything, they don't needyou, they don't need me, they
don't need us to worship them,they're not missing anything,
they're fine.
Why create?
Well, I think it's because lovealways creates.
Going back to how babies areborn, by the way, love always
creates, but the best things inlife are always shared.
So I feel like the father sonsort of have this beautiful
(36:17):
dynamic relationship that theyjust had to share, and so they
create the cosmos and you and me.
Which means that the point ofChristian faith is not so much
affirming all these doctrines orbelieving all the right things
those are fine.
It isn't even about saying theright prayers or the right words
(36:38):
.
It's sharing in thisbeautifully vivid, vibrant
Trinitarian life of the Fatherand the Son and the Spirit.
They lack nothing and they'refull of life, which means that
your job, your day-to-day nineto five, whatever it is you do
raising kids, teaching, being alawyer, being an accountant,
(36:58):
being a pastor, being a studentall of these can be filled with
the vibrant life of the Trinity.
This life matters.
We can have this life righthere and right now, because you
and I have been invited into thebeautiful relationship of the
Father and the Son and theSpirit.
Central Lutheran Church.
May you know the love of theFather, who takes responsibility
(37:21):
for you, who calls you by name,who wants to provide for you
and will make all things rightagain.
May you know that beautifullove through the presence of the
Son, jesus, on the cross, herefused to give up on humanity
Like no, I'm not going to giveup on this thing.
I will dive into the sufferingof humanity to save it.
So may you know that love ofthe Father in Jesus, who then
(37:44):
sends the Spirit to guide us, toshare wisdom with us and to
give us life and to resurrectthe dead parts of us.
May you know the beautiful loveand the dance and the
relationship of the Father andthe Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.