Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Holy Trinity Sunday

Pastor Sherry’s message for June 15, 2025

Scriptures: Pro 8:1-4, 22-31; Ps 8; Ro 5:1-5; Jn 14:15-29

The following two stories illustrate the fact that the Trinity is just too big and too deep for us to get our mortal minds around:

In the first, a young American woman is traveling in France.  She goes into a bookstore and asks the small, elderly Frenchman who waits on her for a map of France.  He spends some moments in the back of the store and then he proudly presents her with an armload of maps, including one for Paris, a 2nd one of Marseilles, and a 3rd one of Lyons. 

The young woman is dismayed and says to the Frenchman, “But I just want a single map of the whole of France.” The older gentleman pulls himself up to his full height and proudly responds, “But Mademoiselle, France is too big to be captured in just one map.”

(Fairless & Chilton, The Lectionary Lab Commentary, Yr. C, 2015, p.195.)

The second concerns a family from India who visited with friends in California.  While there, the parents left their 11 year old daughter with their Christian friends, as they participated in a professional conference.  The family invited the girl to attend church with them on Sunday.  She went along and  quietly took in all she saw and heard.  

When they got back home, the host asked the girl for her impressions.  She then told him, “I don’t understand why the West Coast isn’t included too,” she replied. When they inquired what she meant, she added, “You know, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the whole East Coast.”

(Contributed by Ann Spivack, Reader’s Digest, as shared on www.sermon illustrations.com, 6/10/25.)

Today is both Father’s Day and Trinity Sunday.  Happy Father’s Day to all our fathers, and especially to God our Father!  We know that God the Father has both created all creatures on earth and has provided for them.  As our Proverbs lesson tells us (Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31), He also created wisdom.  We can, like King Solomon, ask God to give us wisdom.  Initially, wisdom is personified as a woman, but as we see in verses 22-31, if you examine these proverbs carefully, it’s clear that Jesus, the architect of Creation, is God’s wisdom (“I am the way, the Truth [wisdom], and the life.”  John 14:6).  The Son has redeemed us and reconciled us to His Father.  In our Psalm today (Psalm 8), King David both celebrates the 

Father’s creation and the Son’s second coming in power, when He will put all things into subjection under His feet (Hebrews 2:5-8).   And the Holy Spirit, according to our Gospel passage today (John 14:15-29), is our Advocate, like our defense attorney.  He reminds us of all that Jesus taught, leads us into all truth [wisdom; Jesus], and guides us and sanctifies us (helps us or heals us to) become like Jesus. .

That’s roughly how the three persons of the Trinity separate out their work.  However, we want to bear in mind that St. Augustine of Hippo once wrote,  

“WHOEVER DENIES THE TRINITY IS IN DANGER OF LOSING HIS SALVATION :”  “ YET ON THE OTHER THE SIDE OF THE COIN.”  HE SAID, “WHOEVER TRIES TO UNDERSTAND THE TRINITY IS IN DANGER OF LOSING HIS MIND.”

(As quoted in www.sermoncentral.com, 6/10/2025.)\

Any analogy or metaphor we might use to try to explain the Trinity is probably too simplistic.

So, let’s instead focus today on our passage from Romans 5:1-5.  Paul wants us to be sure we understand all of the benefits we derive from having been saved by Jesus Christ.  He lays it out for us in just 5 pithy verses:

(1) First, (v.1) we have Peace with God the Father.  We all know of folks—and perhaps have experienced ourselves—being cut off emotionally from some family members.  We are related by blood, but for a myriad of reasons do not have any real or meaningful contact with each other.  Maybe they were abusive.  Perhaps their addictive behaviors or their cruelty were just too dangerous for us to be around.  Maybe they lied about us or believed the lies about us told to them by others.  Perhaps every time we are around them, they wound us again.  We or they have decided that spending time together is emotionally dangerous and damaging.  We or they have decided to act like the other person is dead to us to avoid additional pain.  It’s not what God would want from us, but it is a way to keep ourselves emotionally–and perhaps even physically–safe.

But we don’t want to, or have to, live that way with God the Father. Whether we knew it or not, we were cut off from Him, due to our sinfulness, until we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. In other words,  God loved us but was against us until then. However, now, as believers in Jesus, we are justified by our faith. Jesus effected for us a complete and total reconciliation with God the Father.  Remember, God cannot abide sin. Our sin cuts us off from God as though we are the toxic relatives.  But through Jesus’ atoning death on the Cross, He paid the penalty for our sins, past, present, and future.  Our redemption by Jesus saves us from hell, but even better enables us to have an intimate and loving relationship with the Father. This peace with God is a huge blessing!

(2) Next (verse 2), Paul says we now have access to God the Father through prayer.  This is also a tremendous blessing! This is so big that many non-believers mock it. They say things like, “For real!  You really think Almighty God would care about the fact you are worried about your grandchild or that you have an ear ache?”  But we know that He is “the God of the Big Picture” but also “the God of the Details.” He loves hearing from us and wants to share in our lives, even down to the minutia.  If something bothers us and we bring it to Him, He listens.  And if we ask for His help, He responds.

(3) Third (verse 2), we have hope.  I love the way retired Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright puts it: 

“As a result of being justified by faith, we are, in the old phrase, ‘in a state of grace,’ a status, a positon where we are surrounded by God’s love and generosity, invited to breathe it in as our native air.  As we do so, we realize that this is what we were made for; that it is the beginning of something so big, so massive, so unimaginably beautiful and powerful, that we almost burst as we think of it.  When we stand there in God’s own presence, not trembling but deeply grateful, and begin to inhale His goodness, His wisdom, His power and His joy, we sense that we’re being invited to go all the way, to become the true reflections of God, the true image-bearers, that we were made to be.  Paul puts it like this:  we celebrate the hope of the glory of God.”

(N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone, Romans, Westminister John Know Press, 2004, p.83.)

Later in Romans (8:25), Paul will write, And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.  Since we can trust that God works all things together for our good, we can always have hope, despite our circumstances.   After all, we worship “the God of all hope!”

(4) Fourth (verses 3-4), we have Triumph in times of trouble (i.e., we can celebrate in our suffering!). YIKES! This is a hard one to understand! The point Paul is making is that our God uses our suffering—which we will endure in this broken world—to prune us, to transform us, to mold and shape us into the best version of ourselves. The process helps us develop patience or endurance, as we hold on to our faith and hang in.  Patience/endurance, in turn, toughens our character.  And strong character fortifies our ability to hope, even against hope. 

Think about it, we live in a world that wants everything instantly: TV reception, microwaved dinners, and immediate answers to texts!  But God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and God the Holy Spirit call to us to swim against this cultural current. Patience is both a virtue and a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Our God wants us to develop patience, to strengthen our character, and to always have hope.

(5) And lastly (verse 5), our salvation proves how much God the Father loves us.  He sacrificed His only Son to save us.  We suffer when one of our children or other loved ones have to endure painful medical procedures—imagine how the Father suffered as He watched His only Son endure excruciating pain through His beatings and his crucifixion.  And now, while the Father and His Son dwell in Heaven, He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.

Thanks be to God for the creative love of our Heavenly Father, the redeeming love of His Son Jesus, and the sanctifying love of the Holy Spirit.  Amen!

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams 

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Trinity Sunday

Pastor Sherry’s message for June 4, 2023

Scriptures: Gen 1:1-31, 2:1-4; Ps 8; 2 Cor 13:11-13; Matt 28:16-20

Today is Trinity Sunday, traditionally the first Sunday after Pentecost. Many people have come up with metaphors to explain the Trinity—one God in three separate persons—but each of these images falls short somehow. Explaining the Trinity proves to be very difficult. Consider this true story from St. Augustine (396 to 430), Bishop of Hippo or present day Algeria. Many experts today still consider him to be one of the premier theologians of the Christian Church. It is said that,

“One day when St. Augustine was at his wits’ end to understand and explain the Trinity, he went out for a walk. He kept turning over in his mind, “One God, but three Persons. Three Persons–not three Gods but one God. What does it mean? How can it be explained? How can my mind take it in?”

“And so he was torturing his mind and beating his brains out, when he saw a little boy on the beach. He approached him to see what he was doing. The child had dug a small hole in the sand. With his hands he was carrying water from the ocean and was dumping it in the little hole. St. Augustine asked, “What are you doing, my child?”

“The child replied, “I want to put all of the water of the ocean into this hole.”

“St. Augustine asked, “But is it possible for all of the water of this great ocean to be contained in this little hole?”

“And then it dawned on Augustine, “If the water of the ocean cannot be contained in this little hole, then how can the Infinite Trinitarian God be contained in your mind?”

(Borrowed from a sermon by Rev. Gordon Curley, dated November 29, 2010, archived on http://www.Sermoncentral.com).

Again, it is very difficult to explain the Trinity using images like a three-leaf clover (one plant, three leaves), an egg (shell, liquid, solid), or water (ice, fluid, steam) because while these speak to the separateness of the three, they do not adequately describe the unity, the relationships among the persons, or their cooperative work together.

John Wesley (1703-1791), the Anglican pastor who founded our Methodist Church, may have come close. He once used the following analogy to explain the doctrine of the Trinity: He said,

“Tell me how it is that in this room there are three candles and one light, and I will explain to you the mode of the triune God.” “Although each of the three persons of the Holy Community has his own distinct identity, all work together harmoniously as one God to accomplish salvation.”

(Borrowed from Pastor Glen Key from his March 2, 2011 sermon; archived on website http://www.sermoncentral.com)

As it turns out, you won’t find the word Trinity in the Bible. People only began to use this term toward the end of the 2nd century. Theophilos, the Bishop of Antioch in 180 AD, used the term Trias to describe our one God in three persons. Later, the theologian Tertullian (155-220AD) who challenged many developing heresies in the early Church, changed the word to Trinitas. The church leaders who met in Nicea in 325 AD, and later in Constantinople in 381, set this reality as doctrine in the Nicene Creed. It’s a way of describing what the Bible tells us about the reality of God—in essence, One God, but formed of 3 distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

But you will find citations of the three persons of the Trinity:

In John 10:30, Jesus says–>I and the Father are One. Later, in an epistle (1 John 5:7), John says For there are three that testify, the Father, the Word [Jesus], and the Spirit, and these three are one.

The Old Testament also mentions or implies the Triune nature of our God:

Job 33:6 refers to the Holy Spirit The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? [implying more than one person]. The Hebrews never adopted the custom exhibited by later European monarchs of referring to themselves in the plural. If the Hebrew passage said us, it meant literally more than one.

Isaiah also predicts the 1st Advent of Jesus, within Whom will reside many gifts of the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 11:1-2) A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse [lineage of King David]; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit [Holy Spirit] of the Lord [God the Father] will rest on Him [Jesus]—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

Our Scriptures today all shine further light on the cooperative functions of the members of the Trinity:

A. In our Genesis 1:1-31, 2:1-4 lesson, two members of the Trinity are mentioned: (1) Verse 1 In the beginning God [the Father planned and directed it] created the heavens and the earth.

(2) Verse 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God [Holy Spirit] was hovering over the waters. Hovering here evokes such a lovely image. In the Hebrew it conveys the sense of a mother hen hovering over/covering with her wings her chicks. It’s a protective and a loving action.

(3) Verses 3-26 reveal the orderly mind of God and His attention to detail. The 1st day (v.3), He—John the Gospeler says this He is Jesus, who speaks creation into existence. In John 1:1,3, he tells us In the beginning was the Word [God’s Word made flesh, Jesus, the Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…Through Him [Jesus] all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. That first day, Jesus spoke light into existence. Remember, Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world.”

The 2nd day (v.6), He created the sky, separating the waters above (rain, dew) from the waters below (oceans, lakes, rivers, etc.).

The 3rd day (vv.9-11), He separated out dry ground from the waters and made vegetation.

The 4th day (v.14), He formed lights in the sky, the sun, the moon, and the stars. (Notice, light itself was produced before these celestial bodies were placed in the heavens).

The 5th day (vv.20-24), He produced marine life and birds.

On the 6th day (26), He crafted land-dwelling animals and humankind, the pinnacle of His creation. He said Let us [plural, more than one] make man in our image, in our likeness. Adam, Eve, and the animals were to be fruitful and multiply; and Adam was to serve as a steward or overseer of over the rest of creation, as God’s agents.

So, according to the first chapters of Genesis and of John, all three persons of the Trinity were present at creation. God the Father devised the plan; God the Son spoke it into existence; and God the Spirit was both the power source and the breath (The Hebrew word for the Holy Spirit is ruach which means both breath, wind, and spirit).

B. Psalm 8, written by King David, is a hymn of praise to God for creation. It begins and ends with those wonderful words, O LORD, our LORD, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! Then it goes on to celebrate God’s formation of the cosmos, from planets and stars to humans and infants. We could call this a Messianic psalm because it speaks to a time when all persons will revere our Lord. As we know, the names of God and of Jesus are not everywhere honored today; some use them as curse words. But at Jesus’ 2nd Coming, all will know that God is real, that He exists, and that He rules in power and might. They will then either revere Him or be gone.

C. Both 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 and Matthew 28:16-20 are farewell addresses that include references to the Trinity. As Paul says goodbye to the Church in Corinth, he exhorts them to… (v.11) aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, and live in peace.

None of us is perfect, so what he means by this is grow up! In the first chapters of 1 Corinthians, he takes the believers there to task for being infantile in their faith (preferring milk to meat) and acting out of their carnal rather than spiritual nature. So, he is saying, essentially, “Don’t act like entitled children; learn to live a spirit-filled, disciplined life.”

Additionally, he wants them to pay attention to what he has taught them. He encourages them to try to maintain unity in doctrine and beliefs—which we know presently and personally is difficult. And he wants them to live in peace….We can’t create peace—only Jesus can—but we can conduct ourselves in a way that demonstrates we know Jesus can supply us with the peace that passes all understanding. Then he encourages them to greet each other with appropriate affection—no icky or invasive hugs or kisses.

Finally, he blesses them with a benediction that includes each member of the Trinity (v.14) May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God [the Father], and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. What a wonderful sendoff!

Jesus’s parting words in Matthew 28 are strikingly similar. We call His final instructions the Great Commission:

(1) We are to go! Through our neighborhoods, our county, our state, our country, to the entire world.

(2) We are to make disciples for Christ.

(3) We are to teach them about Jesus and that they and we are to be obedient to Him.

(4) And we are to baptize them (v.19) …in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Paul died but Jesus promises us to be present with us (through the Holy Spirit) (v.20)…to the very end of the age.

So what does this mean to us on this Trinity Sunday of 2023?

The story is told of a seminary professor who asked his students to close their eyes and see if they could summon up for themselves an image of God.

“After a few moments he had them open their eyes and, if comfortable, share what they saw. Most of them said the same thing: “An old man with a white beard floating in the clouds, looking down at us.” [The professor] then said, “If what you imagine God to be like is anything other than Jesus, then you have the wrong image of God.” Jesus is beautiful, and so are the Father and the Spirit: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14 KJV).”.

(Borrowed from The Magnificent Story by James Bryan Smith, InterVarsity Press, 2018.).

We want to remember that God the Father and the Spirit are spirits. Jesus shows us the loving, grace-filled face of the Father, as well as the powerful, healing and sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The truth is that our God exists in 3 persons—all the same God but taking on three personalities or different expressions—all of which is difficult for our finite minds to take in. I don’t understand gravity. I can’t see it, but I know it is real and I don’t plan to test it by jumping off a tall building. I think, until we reach heaven, we probably have to agree with St. Augustine and take the same stance with the Trinity.

©️2023 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

The Relationship of the Trinity to Each Other and to Us

Pastor Sherry’s message for 6/12/2022

Scriptures: Prov 8:1-4, 22-36; Ps 8; Ro 5:1-5; Jn 16:12-16

Today is Trinity Sunday, a day the Christian Church celebrates the fact that we worship one God in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Lots of folks have tried to come up with illustrations that make this truth easier to understand:

1. An egg consists of an eggshell, egg white, and yolk, but remains one egg.

2. Water takes 3 forms—ice, liquid, and gas/steam—but all three are made up of water.

3. The shamrock, which St. Patrick used as he evangelized Ireland, has one plant stem, but three leaves.

4. Two new ones I came across this week include the following:

(1) You may have three different Bibles, an NIV, an ESV, and an NRSV, but all are God’s Word.

(2) Or let’s say Boris Johnson of England negotiated a Peace Treaty between Ukraine and Russia—wouldn’t that be wonderful!

(a.) One version would be printed in Russian;

(b.) Another version in Ukrainian;

(c.) And the third version in English, but all would say the same thing.

(Blogger BK -January 04, 2012, christiancadre@yahoo.com.)

Now the foregoing help explain the one-ness of the Trinity, but not the relationship between the three persons. Perhaps a good way to clarify or describe their relationship with each other is to look at ”…two wonderful Greek words that the early church theologians used to describe the Trinity: kenōsis and perichōrēsis. Kenosis is the act of self-giving for the good of another. It is found in the early Christian hymn in Philippians 2: 6-7 [Jesus], though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. The word emptied translates the verb form of kenōsis. Jesus gave of himself for the good of others [us!] ….They used the word perichōrēsis, meaning “mutual submission,” to explain it. So the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are living in mutual submission to one another. This is the heart of the Trinity: giving oneself for the good of the other. (Taken from The Magnificent Story, James Bryan Smith, InterVarsity Press, 2018, www.ivpress.com).

Let me say that again: The relationship among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are characterized by each giving of Himself for the benefit of the other, with Son and Spirit each submitted to the will of the Father. They exhibit absolute cooperation with each other. They exist together in a dance of steadfast, unfailing, loyal love toward each other. The wonder is that they invited us into their dance, and model for us how to live with each other.

Let’s examine how our Scripture lessons for the day point to both the kenosis and the perichorisis of the Trinity.

A. Our Proverbs lesson (8:1-4, 22-36) speaks of wisdom as a person; i.e., the wisdom of God is demonstrated in the person of Jesus. Remember, Jesus called Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Real truth is wisdom. I remember sitting in my class on Isaiah in seminary, and realizing that tears were sliding down my face as my spirit responded to the truth I was hearing read and explained.

In verse 4 the line reads, To you, O men, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind. Isn’t that exactly what Jesus has done? He has called all men and women to Himself. He came to give of Himself for our benefit (kenosis). Everything He has said is worthy, right, true, and just. Read the red words written in read in your Bible (Gospels and Acts); these are the words of Jesus and they are all truth. If we could trust in His wisdom, we would be secure, at peace, and filled with love and hope.

Verse 22 tells us that Jesus possessed wisdom…as the first of His works, before His deeds of old. Wisdom was with Jesus as He spoke creation into existence. The very beginning of John’s Gospel (1:1-3) reports that In the beginning was the Word [Jesus; God’s word made flesh], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Though Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.

As verses 35-36 warn, however …whoever finds Me finds life and receives favor from the LORD [perichoresis]. But whoever fails to find Me harms himself; all who hate Me love death. YIKES!

B. Psalm 8 is a messianic psalm, written by King David, in praise of God’s creative power (the Holy Spirit). Portions of this psalm are quoted in the New Testament 3 times:

(1) Jesus, quotes verse 2 in Matthew 21:16 From the lips of children and infants You have ordained praise. The context is that Jesus has just cleared the Temple of money lenders and those who sold animals for sacrifice. He was angry that His Father’s house had been made into a den of thieves. The Pharisees were furious, however, as they had not authorized His actions, nor had they sanctioned children running about praising Jesus. As Peterson relates it in his paraphrase, The Message, (NavPress, 2002,p.1786)

When the religious leaders saw the outrageous things He was doing, and heard all the children running and shouting through the Temple, ‘Hosanna to David’s Son!’ they were up in arms and took Him to task. ‘Do You hear what these children are saying?” Jesus said, ‘Yes, I hear them. And haven’t you read in God’s Word, ‘From the mouths of children and babies I’ll furnish a place of praise?’ This was not a popular thing that Jesus had done; but since we know He only did what His Father told Him to do, He was submitted to the Father’s will (perichoresis).

(2) Similarly, Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:27, quotes verse 6 [For He—God the Father–has] put everything under His feet. Paul goes on to interpret this as meaning that God the Father put all of creation under the authority of Jesus, His Son. All of creation– but not the Father Himself—so that Jesus might glorify the Father (perichoresis).

(3) The writer to the Hebrews also quotes verses 4b-8 (in 2:5-8) It is not to angels that He has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is man [humankind] that you are mindful of him, the Son of Man [Jesus] that you care for Him? You made Him [Jesus, when He came to earth] a little lower than the angels; you crowned Him [Jesus] with glory and honor and put everything under His feet.

The author of Hebrews, like Paul, asserts that God the Father has put all of creation under the authority of His Son. Furthermore, He has done this because of Jesus’ sacrificial death (kenosis) in submission to the will and plan of God the Father (perichoresis). Because Jesus died in submission to the Father’s will, the Father has…crowned [Him] so much higher than any angel, with a glory ’bright with Eden’s dawn light.’ (Peterson, The Message, p.2182.) In this great hymn of creation, Psalm 8, we discover that King David was prophesying the rule and reign of Jesus Christ—probably without realizing it.

C. In our Gospel lesson, John 16:12-16, Jesus further describes the work of the Holy Spirit. In verse 13, He calls Him the Spirit of Truth, who will guide you [meaning us] into all truth. [Sounds like wisdom to me.] He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. Do you notice that the Spirit is submitted to Jesus (perichoresis)? And that one of His jobs is to steer us in the right direction, both now and in the future (kenosis)?

Jesus also asserts that (v.15) All that belongs to the Father is mine. The three persons of the Trinity share power. They also give of themselves for the good of the other (kenosis and perichoresis) .

D. This comes home for us in Paul’s letter to the Romans (5:15). Among the benefits to us of Jesus’ saving work on the Cross are the following:

First, we are at peace with God (we have tranquility of soul). I remember meeting two women at my new church (pre-seminary, back in 1986) who were clearly filled with peace. I could see it on their faces; I could sense it in their spirits. I wanted that peace and asked them where it came from. Their answer was “Jesus.” I now have that peace and you can too. We just have to say “yes” to Him. Those who have not said “yes” to Jesus are not at peace with God. Instead of being sinners saved by grace, they are just plain sinners. Their sin separates them from God and makes them enemies of God. I have a pastor friend whose church asked her not to preach on sin. They wanted to come to church only to be uplifted. Well, if we are not made aware of our sinfulness, we will not be uplifted. Warning people about the consequences of their sins is actually a loving thing to do. It has been said that a Christian pastor is to comfort the afflicted while afflicting the comfortable. Thank God we believers are at peace with the Father.

Second, we can then rightfully, accurately, say that God is for us.

Third, we have direct access to the Father, through the Son, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus died on the Cross, He opened the way to the Father for us. In the final hours He hung on the Cross, the curtain that kept us out of the “holy of holies” was miraculously torn in two—from the top to the bottom so no one could claim a mere person had done it. As a result, like Adam and Eve before the Fall, we can walk with God through our prayer life.

Fourth, because we know the Trinity loves us, we have hope, or blessed assurance.

Fifth, we also experience meaning and purpose to our suffering. While being a Christ-follower does not protect us from suffering, we know that God is present with us in our suffering, and that He uses our suffering to produce in us perseverance and character.

The word “Trinity” is never found in Scripture, but the reality of it is. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit model for us how to live: Giving of oneself out of love for one another (kenosis), while being submitted to the will of God (perichoresis). When we choose to model our lives on the example of the Trinity, we experience peace, access to God, God’s favor, and blessed assurance, or hope. In these days of failed governmental policies, widespread corruption, increased inflation and economic hardship, unpredictable violence, and injustice, it is important to remember the hope we have in our Trinitarian God.

Chuck Swindoll tells the story of a missionary woman, watching passersby from the window of her second story apartment:

“…She was handed a letter from home. As she opened the letter, a crisp, new 10-dollar bill fell out. She was pleasantly surprised, but as she read the letter her eyes were distracted by the movement of a shabbily dressed stranger down below, leaning against a post in front of the building. She couldn’t get him off her mind. Thinking that he might be in greater financial stress than she, she slipped the bill into an envelope on which she quickly penned, “Don’t despair.” She then threw it out the window. The stranger below picked it up, read it, looked, up, and smiled as he tipped his hat and went on his way.

The next day she was about to leave the house when a knock came at the door. She found the same shabbily dressed man smiling as he handed her a roll of bills. When she asked what they were for, he replied: That’s the 60 bucks you won, lady. Don’t Despair paid five to one.” (Chuck Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart, Word Press, 1998, p.274).

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ—and the help of the Holy Spirit. Alleluia, alleluia!

©️2022 Rev Dr Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

God is on His Throne

Pastor Sherry’s message for May 30, 2021

Scriptures: Isaiah 6:1-8; Ps 29; Rom 8:12-17; John 3:1-17

Today is Trinity Sunday. Nowhere in Scripture is the word Trinity used, nor is the concept explained. It is simply assumed as “a given.” However, there are a number of direct and indirect references to the Trinity in today’s lessons:1.) Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” (“Us” means “more than one.” The ancient Hebrews never used the royal prerogative of later European kings and queens, whereby they referred to themselves in the plural.) So this means there is more than one person in the Godhead.

2.) Romans 8:12-17 (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.) In verses 13-14, we are to be led by the Holy Spirit; and in verses 16-17, we are sons [and daughters] of God the Father, thus…heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

3.) John 3:1-17contains Jesus’ conversation with the Pharisee, Nicodemus. In verse 5, Jesus tells Nicodemus that…no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. In verse 16, He instructs the Pharisee that…God [the Father] so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Thus, Jesus mentions His Father, Himself, and the Holy Spirit.So we have these references to the Trinity, but what is it and how does it work?

Our passages today do not explain how God is 3 in 1. Since Easter, we have been studying the roles of the 3 persons of the Trinity, and especially, since Pentecost, the function of the Holy Spirit. To get any clearer, we would have to borrow a line from my Aunt Vona: She was a dear heart who would talk on the phone with her friends for hours. When it came time to end the call, she would invariably end the conversation by saying, “I would tell you more, but I already told you more than I heard myself.” It’s certainly OK to do so in human discourse, but we have to take care with God and not say more than we know. How the Trinity operates is what the Roman Catholics would call a “Holy Mystery.”Mystery.”

Since I cannot really explain the Trinity, what I want to focus on today is Isaiah’s encounter with it, especially with God the Father (or perhaps the pre-incarnate Jesus).

Isaiah 6:1-8 contains Isaiah’s call to be a prophet.

Jewish tradition tells us Isaiah’s father, Amoz, was a brother to King Amaziah (a.k.a., King Ussiah). This would make Isaiah Uzziah’snephew. Isaiah appears to have loved and respected his uncle. Uzziah had assumed the throne in Jerusalem at age 16 and reigned for 52 econd, when we are years! Under him, Judea became very prosperous. He is particularly remembered for having defeated and subjugated several long-term enemies of Israel: the Philistines, the Ammonites, and the Arabians! In fact, he was considered the last of the great kings of the Southern Kingdom–until he became proud and took it upon himself to offer a sacrifice in the Temple (a task God had ordained only priests to perform). He had usurped a prerogative of the religious officials, so God disciplined him with leprosy. This made him ritually unclean; therefore, he could no longer enter the Temple. Ultimately he died of leprosy.[1]

No doubt Isaiah was grieved both by Uzziah’s grave sin and by his punishment and death. No doubt he thought, “He was a great king! What will become of us now?” Perhaps he feared for the nation and for himself. Nevertheless, because Isaiah was first of all a priest, he goes to the Temple to pray and he actually sees the Lord, the True King of Israel.

The Temple is filled with smoke and the building trembles—signs of God’s presence. Back in Exodus 19:18-19 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently…. The smoke was a sign Isaiah and others could see.

The trembling, like an earthquake, could be felt and heard. This was a theophany (a God-sighting), with fanfare. Biblical scholars don’t believe Isaiah really saw God the Father because no one can see God the Father and live—but what he did see was awe inspiring. He probably saw the Pre-incarnate Christ, seated on the throne, surrounded with bright light much like what St. John saw in the throne room of heaven and described in Revelation 4.

Isaiah saw the train of God’s robe fill the Temple, indicating the vastness, the immensity of God. And he saw and heard the seraphim, greatliving creatures (a type of angel) with 6 wings. He heard their loud voices proclaiming God’s holiness. The word seraphim comes from the root word meaning to burn. Their job appears to be to search out–and call out–sin. They are accompanied in the throne-room by cherubim—another form of angelic being—whose job it is to protect the holiness of God.

Since he is in the presence of the sin-seeking seraphim, Isaiah is immediately made aware of his sinfulness: Verse 5 Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord almighty!

He is both grieved and afraid. He fears he is in mortal danger. He knew that (Exodus 3:6) Moses hid his face from God, and that God’s presence filled Job with self-contempt and repentance (Job 42:6). Later saints like Peter and Paul are similarly struck with their unworthiness in the presence of God: In Luke 5:8, Peter asks Jesus to …depart from me for I am a sinful man. In Romans 7:24, Paul says, What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? We can assume from these examples that all those who stand in God’s presence are immediately made aware of their sinfulness.

But, thanks be to God for His great grace! The Lord provides a way for Isaiah to become cleansed from his sin. A seraph brings a burning coal from the altar and touches it to his lips. His sins appear to be what comes out of his mouth as he is made aware—as though he sees his soul as in a spiritual mirror—For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…. He’s not burned, but is cleaned up! (Verse7)…See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. The coal cleanses him spiritually. Remember how I have often told you, the Old Testament predicts, or points to the New Testament? Thus the coal is seen by Biblical scholars as a symbol of both the purifying power of the Holy Spirit and the redeeming work of Jesus Christ as He took our sins upon Himself on the Cross.

Then Isaiah hears God ask, (v.8) Whom shall I send? Who shall go for us? God presents Isaiah with a call beyond being a priest. He is to be a prophet; He is to serve the Trinity, the “Us.” Isaiah obediently agrees…Here I am. Send me!

In Psalm 29, King David praises God’s voice, likening it to what we perceive in a fierce thunder storm (maybe a hurricane):

1.) Verse 3 The voice of God thunders;

2.) Verse 4 The voice of God is powerful and majestic;

3.) Verse 5 The voice of the Lord breaks mighty trees (Apparently the Cedars of Lebanon then were like the Sequoias of today);

4.) Verse 7 The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightening;

5). Verse 8 The voice of the Lord shakes the desert;

6.) Verse 9 The voice of the Lord twists the great oaks.

What King David is saying poetically is that God is great! God is powerful!

Who can contend against Him? No one who is smart! Who can overcome Him? No one at all!

So what do these 2 passages mean for us today?

First, our God is still present to us in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In fact, when we pray, we pray to the Father, through the intercession of His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us in Romans that even when we lack the words to say, the Holy Spirit interprets our very groans to God in heaven.

Second, when we are upset by either national or personal events, we—like Isaiah—should pray! Isaiah provides us with the perfect example of a response to grief or fear: Seek the Lord! We can and should put our confidence in God. Governments, human beings, family feuds, all come and go. But our God is on His throne eternally.

Finally, our God is strong and able. He can manage anything we are struggling with: My spouse is unfaithful; my spouse has died; my child has tuned against me, our family, and/or God; my job is killing me! My job has been eliminated! My body is failing me; my mind (or my memory) has gone off somewhere and I can’t find it. We can put our trust in God with regard to all of these concerns. Give to Him each one. Trust in Him to be present with you and to act in your very best interests.

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ! Alleluia! Alleluia!

[1] He reigned for 52 years (792-740);

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©️2021 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Trinity Sunday

Pastor Sherry’s message for June 7, 2020

Scriptures: Gen 1:1—2:4a; Ps 8; 2 Cor 13:11-14; Matt 28:16-20

The story is told of a Jewish father who was concerned about his son’s lack of a spiritual life.  The father had never demonstrated what it was to be a practicing Jew.  So, he felt guilty.  As a result, he sent his son to Israel to experience his Jewish heritage, and hopefully to help him develop a lively faith.  The son returned after a year.  He thanked his father for the opportunity to visit the Holy Land and he reported that living in Israel had been both wonderful and enlightening. Then he confessed that while there, he had encountered some Christ-followers and had decided to become a Christian.

The Jewish father was terribly upset, and in the tradition of the patriarchs, he sought advice and comfort from his best friend. “It is amazing that you should come to me,” said his best friend. “I too sent my son to Israel and he returned a Christian!”  So, again according to long standing tradition, the two friends sought out the wisdom and counsel of a rabbi.  “It is amazing that you should come to me,” stated the rabbi.  ”I also sent my son to Israel and he too developed faith in Jesus of Nazareth.  “What is happening to our sons?”

All three lifted their hands to God and began to wail and pour out their grief.  As they prayed, the heavens opened and a mighty voice exclaimed, Amazing that you should come to Me.  I, too, sent My son to Israel….

 Today is Trinity Sunday, the day the Christian Church celebrates one of its most central beliefs.  We believe in One God in Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  You may recall having sung the hymn, “Come Thou Almighty King” (c.1757), which extols all three persons of the Trinity:

Come thou Almighty King, help us Thy name to sing,

Help us to praise, Father whose love unknown

All things created own,

Build in our hearts Thy throne, Ancient of Days.

 

Come thou Incarnate Word, by heaven & earth adored;

Our prayer attend:  Come, and Thy people bless;

Come, give Thy Word success;

Stablish Thy righteousness, Savior and Friend.

 

Come, Holy Comforter, Thy sacred witness bear

In this glad hour:  Thou, who almighty art,

Now rule in every heart,

And ne’re from us depart, Spirit of Power.

 

To Thee, great One in Three, the highest praises be,

Hence evermore;

Thy sovereign majesty may we in glory see,

And to eternity love and adore.

 

We believe the Trinity is One Divine God with 3 personalities or 3 roles.  This foundational truth is hard to explain.  We call it a “holy mystery.”

We know that St. Augustine of Hippo took nearly 30 years to write 15 volumes called About the Trinity.  He continued for years to update and revise it.  It is said that he was walking the beach one day, struggling to understand this profound mystery, when he saw a little boy digging a hole in

the sand with a seashell.  The boy would run to the ocean, fill his shell, and rush back to pour the contents into the hole.  St. Augustine said to him, “What are you doing, my little man?”  The boy replied, “I am trying to put the ocean into this hole.”  Augustine later wrote that this experience helped him to see that this was what he had been trying to do with his 15 volumes:  fit the vastness of the Trinity into the limited container of his mind.

The word Trinity appears nowhere in the Bible, but it is implied:  In our Old Testament lessonàGenesis 1:1-2:4–We read the Creation Account:  Verses 1-2, In the beginning [time], God created the heavens [space] and the earth [matter]...and the Spirit of God [creative force] was hovering/moved/brooded [in motion] over the waters.   John 1 further informs us: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.   All 3 members of the Trinity were involved in Creation.  Notice, the Bible doesn’t try to prove the existence of God.  It just states that HE IS.  Psalm 14:1 declares–The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”  Psalm 19:1–The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. 

 

Our Psalm for today, 8, is a creation hymn.  It is quoted 3 times in the New Testament, including once by Jesus (v.6–You made Him [Jesus] ruler over the works of Your hands; You put everything under His feet.)  These words testify to God’s great creative power and His accomplishments.  King David asserts (v.1)–O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth.  In other words, God the Father is the creator of all the earth.  In the 1st chapter of Genesis, God the Father says, Let there be…10 times, and whatever He has envisioned or planned comes into being.  Even more fantastic than speaking creation into existence, He creates it out of nothing. The Hebrew word for this is bara; in the Latin, it is called ex nihilo.  Only God can create something out of nothing. The rest of us must start with raw materials.

 

Chapter 1 of Genesis also reveals that He is a God of order:

Day 1, He creates light; Day 2, He creates “air spaces” between the waters on earth and the waters in the sky (vertical division); Day 3, He separates dry ground from the seas (horizontal division); Day 4, He creates vegetation, plant life; Day 5, He creates living creatures in the seas and birds of all kinds; Day 6, (vv.24-25), He creates livestock & wild animals;

Then in verses 26-31, He creates humans. Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.  This means we have personality; that we are conscious of ourselves (metacognition) and of our actions; and that we are free moral agents.  In other words, we get to decide things for ourselves. Notice how God the Father references the other members of the Trinity in this creative act (let us…our), implying there are more than one divine person involved.

 

Continuing, in Chapter 2, God establishes the Sabbath principle our need for rest following work.  This is also evidence that our God is a  God of compassion.  John Wesley reportedly summarized God’s creative acts in Genesis 1 & 2 by stating, “God created the heavens and the earth and didn’t half try.”

 

Paul provides us with a Trinitarian blessing in our New Testament lesson today (2 Corinthians 13:11-14)—May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ [the Son] and the love of God [the Father], and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  Without calling it the Trinity, Paul presumes its existence.  Like a good pastor, he wants believers to experience the blessings of the entire Godhead: grace, love, and communion.

 

Jesus, in our Gospel, sends us out to do the work of the Church in the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20)à…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus invokes the names of all three divine persons.

 

So what do we learn about the Trinity from our passages this morning?  Again, All 3 members of the Trinity existed prior to and were active in the Creation of the world.  They are distinct entities but eternally connected in love and communion with each other.

 

God the Father is Immortal, Invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible hid from our eyes….Creation appears to have been His idea.

He is spirit, completely transcendent, wholly other; enthroned in Heaven; compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love, forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin.  Clearly the Father is in command but never dominates or abuses the other two persons. We pray to Him, in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  My earthly father was killed when I was 5 years old.  My mother remarried 3 years later.  My step-father, unfortunately was verbally and physically abusive to me.  Because of this, I initially had difficulty seeing God the Father as anything other than a remote, critical, punishing, and disapproving God.  It is only as I have developed further in my faith that I have come to realize He is instead the loving, accepting Father I always wished I had known growing up.

 

God the Son, Jesus, is our Brother, Savior, Redeemer, and Friend.

He came to earth, God-in-the-flesh, as a vulnerable baby.  He demonstrated God’s love by teaching, healing, forgiving, modeling how to live, and by dying for our sins.  He demonstrated God’s power by performing miracles, rising from the dead, and ascending into heaven.  He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  We sing, What a friend we have in Jesus…and it is the truth, isn’t it!

 

God the Holy Spirit is the immanence (everywhere-ness) of God, the “with us” God who is always available to us.  He is how we experience the Trinity today.  He leads, guides, and directs us now; He intercedes for us when all we can do is groan; He sanctifies us and empowers us for ministry.

 

To echo the hymn, To Thee, great One in Three, the highest praises be, hence evermore; Thy sovereign majesty may we in glory see, and to eternity love and adore!

©2020 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams