Jesus Still Has Many Things To Say To Us
A Sermon for The First Sunday after Pentecost, Trinity Sunday
June 12, 2022
The Rev. Robin Teasley
Jesus said to the disciples, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When 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. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you." John 16:12-15
One of my favorite professors in seminary spent a great amount of time teaching about the historical events in the early Church that resulted in the doctrine of the Trinity. You might think everyone in class nodded off during these lectures. Thankfully, she had a great sense of humor that kept us engaged. After teaching about the Trinity she would always say, “If you ever preach only that the Trinity is a mystery, I will come back and haunt you from my grave!” Of course, she knew the Trinity is indeed a mystery, but she also knew that telling the story of how this doctrine came to be is really important.
So, I could tell you, as many have said, that the Trinity is a mystery, but it’s more than that, and I am trying to avoid being haunted by my beloved professor! It’s important to know that this doctrine evolved out of historical, theological, scriptural, and political intricacies for over a hundred years. It’s also one of the best examples of how the Church is led by the Holy Spirit into all the truth, a truth which God continues to reveal to us today as we worship and pray in community.
The early Christians needed a way to explain who God was to each other and to those outside of the Church. The God of the Hebrew people is one God. The children of Israel had Deuteronomy 6:4 memorized, it’s called the Shema and it goes like this: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. The difficulty became how to explain Jesus, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit, if indeed the Lord our God is one – which we do believe. So, those good first and second century Christians got busy attempting to explain the three in one God, which resulted in a great deal of heresy. They had different ideas, they did not agree, and they began to argue with one another, causing much division in the Church. Hmm, that sounds familiar!
Important questions were being asked, like “Just how divine is the Son? Which member of the Trinity was first, or most important? And what do we do with the Holy Spirit?” The discussions were filled with words we can hardly pronounce and don’t understand like hypostasis, homoousios, consubstantial, and perichoresis. The first ecumenical council was called in the year 325 at Nicaea. Of interest is that this council was not called by the Church, but by the Emperor Constantine. This is where the politics comes in! You see, Constantine was sure God had given him this huge empire, and he was determined to keep this generous God happy. He wanted to end the arguments that were beginning to cause division in his empire. This first council, and a number of others which followed it, resulted in the Nicene Creed, a doctrine on the two natures of Christ, and a doctrine of the Trinity. It took many emperors and bishops over a century to decide on the final version of the Nicene Creed and a better, not complete but better, understanding of the Trinity.
All that we say about God applies to Father, Son, and Spirit - equally. We can describe God to some degree with our words but words can never fully describe God’s nature – who God is. We can use art, stained glass, music, and icons as examples, but we still cannot fully explain the Trinity. We can say what we believe God is like or is not like, but in the end, God is ineffable, indescribable with our vocabulary. This means that we must not only talk about but also experienceGod to better understand who God is and what God is doing in the world. The more we experience of God, the more we begin to understand, and the easier it becomes for us to recognize God at work among us.
In the Gospel reading for today Jesus said to his disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth… he will declare to you the things that are to come… he will glorify me…” Jesus knew he would return to the Father; that he would no longer be able to speak directly to the disciples. His work of declaring truth and of guiding the disciples would now be done through the power of the Spirit.
The astounding revelation in this passage is that Jesus still has many things to say to us! We have a tendency to forget this. We think that if Jesus has not said it as recorded in scripture, then it must not be truth. We can become complacent; we close our ears and do not bother to listen to what the Spirit is saying to God’s people today. Jesus still has many things to say to us! Jesus knows that we cannot bear to hear it all at once. I would offer that sometimes the truth is just too hard for us to hear, and we must experience it in our lives to comprehend it.
How do we experience God as Trinity? How do we participate in this relationship? Perhaps we have no better example than we have seen recently in the places where unspeakable violence or uncontrollable weather have caused so much destruction. The truth is that God is very present in those places, and God is being glorified there. The Spirit is reminding so many about the words of Jesus, the actions of Jesus, and entire communities are being empowered to persevere, to help one another, to give and to receive from one another, and to make known the truth of the love and presence of God in those places.
We see the Trinity made visible as we experience life in community here at Immanuel, caring for and listening to one another, as we worship, pray, sing, and serve together. Can we explain it? Not very well. Do we fully understand it? Not really. To confess true faith, we are simply called to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity; we don’t have to be able to explain it. It is a mystery and it is so much more! It is a mystery and we are invited to experience it. Look for the work of God in the world as the Spirit reminds us of the truths Jesus taught us, then experience it by becoming the hands and feet of Christ in the world.
Jesus does not say if the Spirit of truth comes. He says, “when the Spirit of truth comes.” May we remain steadfast in our faith and worship in this community as we move through our time of discernment, because Jesus still has many things to say to us.
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