On this Trinity Sunday, the Gospel reading is taken from John 3:1-17,
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
I once met an elderly western Canadian man who was a devout Christian and belonged to a church that seemed to be very Biblical. He taught Sunday school for decades. As we were talking, the subject of the Trinity came up. After learning that I was from an Anglican tradition, he asked if we pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I said yes, and he responded by saying that the Trinity was "nowhere in the Bible." I tried to explain that the Doctrine of the Trinity is based on everything the Bible says about the three Persons. I tried to explain that the Nicene Creed and the Doctrine of the Trinity protect us from the common heresies that we are subject to fall for when reading the Bible and finding in there all three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
He remained unconvinced.
We parted amicably, he probably thinking I was the heretic, and I thinking he was being misled.
Will Jesus care who was right in the end?
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Oh, I think Jesus cares about right teaching. What I hope is that, when we see him face to face, he will lovingly correct us rather than rejecting us for our errors and failings. I don't worry too much about your devout Canadian friend who had not been properly taught and couldn't, in his old age, change. I do worry about people whose deviance from right teaching causes them to lead others away from following Jesus and his commandments -- most especially about false prophets and false church leaders.
ReplyDeleteWent to the early service this morning. We're still in semi-pandemic mode, slowly emerging, and this is the first Trinity Sunday I can remember in this parish when I didn't recite the Athanasian Creed, as is the parish custom.
Jesus cares very much about wrong teaching that is for sure.
DeleteWe used it in place of the Nicene Creed.
ReplyDeleteMy old parish did on Trinity Sunday.
DeleteWatt
ReplyDeleteYour question at the end is interesting. The Athanasian Creed is such that if you don't get the doctrine precisely correct, you are damned. The thing is, it took awhile for the formal doctrine to develop, so many early Christians may not have believed it, or been aware of it, as precisely as later formulated. Cf. "Today you will be with me in Paradise" (an extreme example at the other end of the spectrum).
If "right belief" is the criterion in ALL areas, either all the Calvinists or all the Arminians, or all the infant baptists or all the adult baptists, or all the transubstantiationists or all the consubstantiationists or all the memorialists, or all the xxx vs. yyy and on and on ad infinitum, are lost. The probability that I have all of these decision trees correct is small...
When I was interested in the Charismatic Movement, The statement in the Athanasian Creed that all persons of the Trinity were Co-equal allowed me to put increased emphasis on the Holy Spirit.
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