This week we come to the heart of the Christian Faith – God. You may be wondering why it has taken me three weeks to deal with the very core belief of the Christian Faith. What I wanted to do, however, was say something first about how we come into contact with the Christian Faith: the Christian life, Baptism and the Church. However, without God none of these things make sense, of course.
So now let me speak a little about God. Many people throughout the world profess belief in God. There are many religions that profess a belief in something ‘other’ and beyond us, and many people, who would not say they are religious, still believe in a God in some form. Christianity shares with Judaism and Islam the belief in one God as revealed to us through the Old Testament of the Bible. Christianity, though, has a unique take on this. We proclaim that this God is Trinity, that is, God is one but also three. There is one God who is in three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
To the Father is attributed the ministry of creation. To the Son is attributed the ministry of salvation, and to the Holy Spirit is attributed the ministry of sanctification. This is reflected in the Nicene Creed, which we recite together at our Sunday morning services.
For many people the Trinity just doesn’t make sense. How can three be one? There is always a danger when trying to explain the Trinity that we will either make people more confused, or we will explain it in such a way that makes God into three Gods (tritheism) or one God who appears to us in three ways (modalism). It is best, I think, and inadequate as it is, to say that the Trinity is a mystery that we will never fully understand in a purely logical way. The New Testament Christians experienced God in this three-personed way, and quite wisely, I think, left it unexplained (Matt 2: 19; 1 John 4: 3-14).
As you are thinking about these things, you might like to pay close attention to the words that we use at our Sunday morning services (the greetings, creed, prayers, Eucharistic prayers and blessing). They are all thoroughly Trinitarian. You may also like to look up the ‘Athanasian Creed’, as it is called, and the Catechism. These can be found at the back of the prayer book. At our catch-up time we will spend more time talking about what I have said here.
Some things to think about until then:
Do we need to believe in the Trinity to be Christians?
Do I believe in a God that is one but three?
What questions do I need to ask about the Trinity?
Please feel free to post your thoughts about the Trinity on this ‘blog’
. Chris
3 comments:
God is everything , He is you, me and the person in the street because we are made in gods image . But why does god give us tests through life that we have to go through , Is it to make us a beter person than we were before or is it to teach us a lesson that we have to learn through life, And if it is does it make us a beter christian like Job! I think it is the latter that we are to learn a lesson . am still to know what lesson i am to learn.
Hi anonymous. Thanks for the post. I would say that God is 'in' everything rather than God is everything. Otherwise, we make God equal to you & me & the trees etc. God is not the same as God's creation though God is present in it. But, I sense you might have meant that anyway.
Tests and suffering, and their relation and meaning to faith, are difficult to grasp. I suspect, and this is just me thinking 'out loud', that they do make us stronger in faith, they do make us more empathetic with others who suffer too, they do make us more human and therefore more vulnerable, they do make us more Jesus like, who suffered too, and they do make us more intolerant of injustices and inspire us to seek to live more justly. Most of all, they can lead us to prayer and draw closer to our 'suffering God'.
That is what i meant but did not how to put in to words.You are right it does make faith stronger and make you awear of the suffering that is around you. I have seen it and it is hard to believe that things can happen. But that is because there are people out there that do not care and have no faith in God and in mankind. I am glad that i am not one of these people. I was a good person with a kind heart etc., but now because my faith in the Holy trinity i am a better mother person and friend.And it has made a strong person that will stand up for anyone.
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