Brothers and sisters in Christ, I pray you and yours are well.
Question #112 from Luther’s Small Catechism asks, “What unites the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as one God?”
Answer: In their relationship to one another, the three Persons find their unity as one Divine being called God. The Father, Son, and Spirit are alike almighty, alike Creator, alike Redeemer. “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6).
The weekend of June 12 will be a very important teaching time. Christians have always believed and taught that God exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yet, we do not worship three gods, but one. Because each Person of the Trinity is God, we can pray to any or all of them, and we also worship each. Jesus teaches us to Baptize new believers in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). St. Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, also uses trinitarian language: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
God is a mystery not fully understood by us; we walk by faith, not by sight. The mystery of the Trinity is the most central and fundamental mystery of all mysteries in the Christian faith. The mystery of the Trinity is not a mathematical issue nor one fully explained with metaphors such as a three leafed clover.
In Exodus 34:5 we have a foreshadowing of the Holy Trinity being revealed. “The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.” In Scripture, a cloud is often associated with the Holy Spirit; for example, on the Mount of Transfiguration. Also, in Exodus 34:5, we see God standing with Moses; in Christ we will see God walk with man; and we hear God speak in Exodus 34:5, even as we hear the Father speak at Jesus’ Baptism.
At Pentecost, the Church will be empowered to proclaim the great mystery of the Holy Trinity to all the world; and so these two Sundays follow each other in the calendar of the Church in the hope of teaching us to keep this central mystery of the Holy Trinity front and center in our proclamation of the Gospel to all the world.
V/r,
Pastor Jim