Getting to Know God

GETTING TO KNOW GOD Matthew 28:16-20; 2 Corinthians 13:11-14Â Theme of the Month Intimacy and Family

Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Sharp

Lead Pastor, English Congregation Vancouver Chinese Baptist Church, Vancouver, British Columbia

Sunday Sermon for 30 March 2010

Scripture Passage Matthew 28:16-20

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."Â 16

2 Corinthians 13:11-14

Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13 All God's people here send their greetings. 14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

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Charles Schultz, the Peanuts cartoonist, contributed a cartoon to a church magazine years ago.

The scene is a church youth meeting. Standing in front of the group is a teenager wearing a huge, primitive, multicolored, witchdoctor’s ritual mask. The caption beneath the cartoon read: “My program tonight is entitled, ‘It matters not what you believe, only whether you are sincere or not.’”

Most of us understand that it really does matter what a person believes. Sincerity is important, but it isn’t enough. You can be sincerely wrong. At the same time, few of us would consider ourselves sophisticated theologians. In fact, most of us are really not very interested in theology or church doctrines. Maybe we aren’t as bad as the man who boasted that he could write all the theology he knew on the back of a postage stamp…in capital letters! All he needed was “the simple gospel.” But the reality is that “theology” -- thinking and speaking about God and what God means in our lives is important.

And all people who think and speak about God and God’s meaning for this world and our lives are doing theology. We are in some ways “defining” God. The real temptation is that we will have a defective theology. That we our understanding and experience of God will be too small or too subjective or too prejudiced or too biased and bear no relation to the God who is the source of life.

And this morning on this Trinity Sunday, we need to consider one of the most confusing doctrines/convictions/theological claims of our faith--the Trinity—God revealed as One, but known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Not three gods, but one. The Trinity is a part of the historic faith that we treasure, even if we wish it was a bit easier to comprehend.

Several years back Cardinal Richard Cushing was a Catholic priest serving in New York City. He was walking through Macy’s Department store. The manager of the store recognized him from his appearances on television and his picture in the newspaper and ran up to him saying: “Cardinal Cushing, thank God you are here! Come quickly! A man has passed out over here. He may have had a heart attack! He may be dying!.”

It turns out that the man had only fainted and in a few minutes would be fine, but the Cardinal, not knowing that, rushed over to the collapsed man as any caring priest would do, he knelt next to him, took his hand, and began to administer the last rites. Cardinal Cushing said to the man, “My friend, do you believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?” The man roused a little, opened one eye, looked at the people standing around, pointed to Cardinal Cushing, and said, “Can you believe this guy? Here I am dying and he asks me a riddle!”

Let’s admit it. For many people, the doctrine of the Trinity seems like a riddle: Father-Son-Spirit.

One plus one plus one equals one. One God in three persons. It does sound confusing and complex. What does it mean? How does it affect your life and mine?

Recently I read about a high school English teacher who asked his class of sophomores to write their definition of love. The teacher said some of the answers weren’t so much definitions as they were ‘daffynitions.” For example, one student wrote: “Love is the feeling in your stomach… of

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butterflies wearing roller skates.” Another said, “Life is one thing after another! Love is two things after each other.” Another wrote: “Love is the feeling you feel when you feel you are going to have a feeling like you have never felt before.”

The point is that love is difficult to define. We think we know what it is. We think we have experienced it. But we realize that something that wonderful and powerful defies complete description. We try, but we find that our words aren’t big enough. The experience is so deep, so awesome, so overwhelming, so powerful that it’s hard to put into words.

Now in the same way it is also true of the Trinity. It is hard to define, but we can experience it.

We try to explain it, because in many ways we are creatures who seek explanations and understanding. But we are also people who realize that there are some issues, some realities in life too big to fully understand. There are some things in life too big for us to get into our little skulls.

Now that may be easier for us to deal with than some, maybe most who lived in earlier generations. No one has to convince us that there are many things which we will never comprehend. That’s one of the joys (and challenges) of living in the so-called “information age”: we realize that there is so much we don’t and can’t know. Knowledge is exploding all around us.

Go back with me to the year 1292. The Sorbonne Library in Paris, one of the best libraries in Europe at the time, housed 1,338 books, most handwritten, representing nearly all of the humankind’s accumulated knowledge spanning a few thousand years. In contrast, today, worldwide, about that many books are published every day. Feeling a little overwhelmed? You have a right to be. Or fast forward to just about a hundred years ago. It is said that one edition of the Sunday New York Times contains more information items than the typical adult one hundred years ago was exposed to during his/her entire life. Where will it all end? Information is exploding all around us. It is a challenge just to keep up.

In the April 1989 issue of Cook’s magazine, Christopher Kimball, publisher and editorial director, unveiled a theory he calls the Ascending Organ Thesis. “During the ‘40s,” Kimball explains, “you had to have guts.” People in those days were judged by their courage and drive. The war hero and the self-made person were the models. “Then came the ‘60s, when you had to have heart,” Kimball continues. People began to value softness, sensitivity, and self-expression. They looked beneath surface behavior and considered intentions. They sought charisma and sincerity in their leaders.

The ‘90s, Kimball predicted, would belong to the brain. Kimball called it an “age of cerebral enlightenment.” The focus would be on “smarts,” the ability to simplify complex problems.1 And we have moved even further down that world of complex problems. I’m not sure what Kimble would say about these opening decades of the 21st century, but it is clear that we live in a complex world, and we are constantly reminded of how much we don’t know. Well-educated 1

Marcia B. Cherney and Susan A. Tynan, Communicoding, (New York: Donald I. Fine; Inc., 1989), p. 21.

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brains are a necessity for such a world. But the most sophisticated brain is not enough for the really big issues/questions of life. Issues such as life…death…love…fear…hate... emptiness… immortality. We can’t turn to a computer to deal with such issues.

Albert Einstein once made this interesting observation. “My ideas,” said Einstein, “caused people to reexamine Newtonian physics. It is inevitable that my own ideas will be reexamined and supplanted. If they are not, there will have been a gross failure somewhere.” 2 Did you catch what he was saying? Here was one of the most brilliant minds who ever lived and he was saying that his ideas will one day be obsolete. And he was just talking about mathematics. He wasn’t even talking about the truly big questions of life.

But Einstein also realized that science and mathematics weren’t the only truth. There was a sign in Einstein’s office at Princeton University which read: “Not everything that counts can be counted.”

The first thing the doctrine of the Trinity says to us is that there are some issues too big for us to fully understand.

But here’s a second thing this complicated doctrine says to us: No matter what we say about God, we can always say more. No word about God is adequate to express who God is. In the words of one of the songs we sang earlier: You are beautiful beyond description/Too marvelous for words/Too wonderful for comprehension/Like nothing ever seen or heard/Who can grasp Your infinite wisdom/ Who can fathom the depth of Your love/You are beautiful beyond description/Majesty enthroned above.

The prophet Isaiah records these words of God, centuries ago: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9). And the Apostle Paul says that we know only in part (1 Corinthians 13:12).

The early church was nurtured in the cradle of Jewish monotheism. They experienced and believed and knew that there is but one God. And yet they needed to express the truth that God is more than remote and distant. They wanted us to know that God loves this world he created and cares for and visited this planet in the person of Jesus, and that God is at work in our world today through the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit, who continues Jesus’ ministry in our midst. The church was trying to say to us that the word “God” was limiting if it didn’t convey to us a God who has come to us and a God who is with us. And it was in this attempt to communicate a profound and important reality, that the doctrine of the Trinity was born. But, we also have to admit that even the word “Trinity” is limiting. If we could confine God to a formula--any formula--God wouldn’t be God. We say God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit--but those three manifestations/expressions are not enough. God is also Creator, Sustainer, Provider, Comforter, Guide. God is Judge, Savior and Deliverer. God is Light and Love. There are historical and theological reasons for emphasizing the persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit that we won’t go into today, but only the most naive person would say that the Trinity is an adequate 2

Norman Cousins, Human Options, (New York: Berkley Books, 1981), p. 24.

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way to describe God in all of God’s fullness. How can we ever hope to express One who is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent?

A French bishop was questioning a young boy about religion. The boy gave very good and quick responses. Much impressed, the bishop told the boy, “I will give you an orange if you will tell me where God is.” “My Lord,” replied the boy, “I will give you two oranges if you will tell me where God is not.”

The boy was far more perceptive than the bishop. God can’t be confined to a place or an ideology, or even a gender. Let’s set the record straight for those who worry about such things. Of course, God is not a man. . . or a woman. God is God. God transcends everything we can say about God--including gender. But having said that, we should think carefully before we discard traditional images of God. There is danger when we ignore the historic faith to create a god in our own image--a god who fits our particular situation and needs, our prejudices and wants.

The value of a doctrine/teaching like the Trinity is that it gives us a universal concept of God that is not tainted by our personal, subjective experience. Still, we have to be sensitive to the fact that when we say something like God is Father, we may be hurtful to people who have been hurt by their fathers. And sometimes that hurt is so deep and damaging that people can’t get past the word “Father” to the reality of who God is. It is a complicated issue. The Trinity says to us that there are some issues too big for us to fully understand. It also says that no matter what you say about God you can always say more.

But here is the Good News for the day: No matter what our need is, God can supply it.

This Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – can meet our deepest needs. That is the real glory of the Trinity. In the words of another of the songs we sang earlier: All of You is more than enough for all of me/For ev'ry thirst and ev'ry need/You satisfy me with Your love/And all I have in You is more than enough/More than all I want, more than all I need/You are more than enough for me.

We needed more than a distant Father-God and so God came into our world in the person of Jesus. But when Jesus’ time was ended, God didn’t want us to walk alone, to feel abandoned, and so God’s Spirit came to comfort, strengthen, encourage and guide us. That is the astounding thing about the Trinity. Whatever our need is, God will supply. I have found that true in my own life. Have you? I believe every person of faith should be able to look over his or her life and see times where God’s hand was present supplying his or her need. When you take God’s person and presence and compassion seriously, you do sense God’s hand in all of life.

Amy Carmichael was a devout and dedicated missionary to India. She often told how as a child she very much wanted to have blue eyes like many of her friends. One night she earnestly prayed that her brown eyes might change to blue. But the next morning, when she got up, she discovered that they were still brown. She was very disappointed as she thought, “Why, God?” “I prayed. I believed. Why are my eyes still brown?”

Years later, Amy Carmichael was called to be a missionary to India. Through her experiences in her new adopted land, she learned the answer to her childhood question. Since her eyes were

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brown, and not blue, she was not recognized as a foreigner and was able to minister much more effectively to the people of India. The bottom line is that God’s ways are often beyond our knowing and understanding. If they weren’t, God would not be God. Still, we can rest in this great truth: God is big enough and caring enough and ready enough to meet our every need.

And God often does that in community. The Trinity is a community of Love and here is a model for the church. That just as the Trinity – Father-Son and Spirit love each other, care for each other, cooperate with each other, are there for each other, so are we to be. And often God meets our needs through one another.

But let me come back to something I said at the beginning; one of the questions I raised. What does the Trinity mean for me? How does it affect your life and mine?

The Trinity, though it is an imperfect, inadequate formula, is an attempt for us to better understand the nature of God and how God relates to us. It says to us that there are some issues in this world too big for us to understand. It reminds us that no matter what you say about God, you can always say more. And it affirms that God is a loving Parent, who has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ to redeem us from our sins. And this same God is with us. . . here. . . today.

And God is willing and able to supply our every need.

But the Trinity also has some very practical implications for our lives in this world as believers. To live in the fellowship of a Triune God affects the totality of our lives. Let me just list a few areas.

Living in the fellowship of the Triune God will change the way you love others—your spouse, your friends, your neighbors, your fellow pilgrims in Christ because as you live in God, God’s love permeates and transforms your relationships.

Living in the fellowship of the Triune God will change the way you view God. The Trinity deepens our sense of the depth and mystery of God's nature. There is beauty and wonder and awe in the depths of God. God is not boring, and he is not bored. And as you come to know God, you begin to realize and experience that. Only those who don’t know God think God is boring.

Living in the fellowship of the Triune God will change the way you worship. We often put all kinds of pressure on ourselves and on others for our worship services. We have to get it right. We have to have some kind of "experience." We have to get fed. We have to get intellectually stimulated.

We have to offer something to God. We do our thing; we watch the pastor and worship leaders do their thing. But did you know that there was already worship going on before we arrived this morning? Worship is the gift of participating in Jesus the Son's offering to the Father in the power of the Spirit. Or to use less precise language, God is a party of praise and honor and glory. God is a worship service. Jesus offers his life to the Father. The Father gives glory to the Son. The Spirit leads the Son and gives glory to the Son. So whenever we gather together in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, we are invited into that eternal service of praise and worship.

Living in the fellowship of the Triune God will change the way you pray. Again, we often approach God with all kinds of pressure. I have to get it right. I have to say the right words, feel GETTINGTOKNOWGOD 6

the right things—and if I don't, I can't approach God. The truth is that the Trinity is already praying for you? The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus the Son is interceding for you (Hebrews 7:24–25). Sometimes we don't have the right words; sometimes we're hurting so badly that all we can do is groan and sigh. The Apostle Paul tells us in that beautiful eight chapter of the book of Romans that the Holy Spirit takes our groanings and brings them to God the Father, and God the Father listens to the deep groanings in our hearts (Romans 8:26–27). Do you see how powerful this is? Do you see the resources that are available to you—even when you feel completely inaequate? The living God, the triune God, wants to come in all God’s power and majesty and grace and love into your life and home. There is great peace in that.

Living in the fellowship of the Triune God will change the way you receive love. Because God is triune, followers of Jesus believe and live their lives in the love of God. The Bible tells us that "God is love" (1 John 4:18). The Trinity tells us that God was and is love from all eternity, because God was a community of love. That love then spills over into our world—actually, it spills over into our hearts (Romans 5:5; Romans 8:15). Certainly, God's love is a holy love, but the triune God has opened the way for you to know him. So, come. At the end of this day you may consider yourself broken and insignificant, wounded and needy yet you are deeply loved. You may feel at the end of your rope. You may feel small, dirty, and ashamed. You may feel lost and empty. But you are loved by a three-fold cord of love. For God so loved that he gave his Son. Jesus the Son came into this world—living, dying, and rising again for our sake. The Spirit has been poured out in the earth and into your heart. You are invited into the presence of God. Living in the fellowship of the Triune God will change YOU. God is bursting with life and love and activity. God is the most holy, loving, living, creative, and fascinating being and he wants to be a part of your life. And when you let him in, he will change you.

My friends, don’t get lost in the questions and complexities of trying to figure out the Trinity. You will never get it all worked out. But that isn’t necessary.

Every doctrine, every belief was first experience. The experience then gave rise to song/doxology.

Then it was confessed in the community as belief/doctrine/conviction. But the most important thing is that it is lived out in rough and tumble, ups and downs, the pains and joys of life.

Someone has written that God is a party of love—and that party has been going on for all eternity. And here is the good news – you an I are invited into the party. Jesus the Son has opened the door, the Father stands ready to embrace you, and the Spirit is there to guide you. Have you fallen in love with the God who loves you? You can. And when you do, like songs and good poetry, it will stir your deepest soul. But even better than poetry and song, you are reborn to a new, deeper and more satisfying life. This is what it means to get to know God.

Reflection Questions 1. As you reflect on today’s passages, what impressions, thoughts, questions, issues do you see/have?

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2. Do you agree that The Trinity is a difficult subject to understand and discuss?

Why? 3. What relevance is it to you personally that God is a Trinity of Father, Son and Spirit?

4. Would you agree that experience and believe often come before understanding?

5. What experiences can you point to in your life where God has met you needs?

6. Six items/areas where listed where living in the fellowship with the Triune God has practical implications. Which of these speak most powerfully or personally to you. Can you think of other implications that living in fellowship with the Triune God might have?

7. What questions, thoughts, reaction, ideas o you have about today’s topic?

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