Lectionary Reflection—07 January 2018
4-6John the Baptizer appeared in the wild, preaching a baptism of life-change that leads to forgiveness of sins. People thronged to him from Judea and Jerusalem and, as they confessed their sins, were baptized by him in the Jordan River into a changed life. John wore a camel-hair habit, tied at the waist with a leather belt. He ate locusts and wild field honey.
7-8As he preached John said, “The real action comes next: The star in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will change your life. I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. His baptism — a holy baptism by the Holy Spirit — will change you from the inside out.”
9-11At this time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. The moment Jesus came out of the water, he saw the sky split open and God’s Spirit, looking like a dove, come down on him. Along with the Spirit, a voice: “You’re my Child, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life.”
Other Readings: Genesis 1:1-5; Psalm 29; Acts 19:1-7
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Today marks one the great Feast Days of the church. In the Orthodox tradition of the East it’s called The Feast of the Theophany of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.2 The word theophany comes from the Greek word θεοφάνεια (Theofáneia) meaning “appearance of God.” In our story about Jesus’ baptism we’re given the revelation that God is known (or revealed) as Trinity (Three in One; One in Three).
The baptism of Jesus is recorded in the first three Gospels — Matthew 3.13-17; Mark 1.9-11; Luke 3.21-22.3 In all three accounts, the specifics are almost identical — Jesus was baptised; the sky (or “heaven”) opened; the Spirit descended like a dove; and God’s voice was heard claiming Jesus to be God’s Child whom is “dearly loved” and in whom God is “pleased.”4 Only Matthew and Mark depict Jesus “coming up out of the water,” while Luke’s account is the only one which has Jesus praying.
Those are the details as we know them. And it’s within those elements that we catch a glimpse of the Trinity; of God (somehow) being Three in One and One in Three.
I like the way those three things — the Voice of God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus as God’s Son — are expressed so nonchalauntly. What I find fascinating about this is that this idea of the Holy Trinity doesn’t appear to be an issue throughout the rest of the New Testament. That is, we never read that it was a debated issue. Some of the debates of the New Testament were the inclusion of non-Jews (Gentiles), the end of the Mosaic Law, the resurrection of Jesus, and Jesus being the world’s true king. I mean, think about this for a minute. In all of the documents we have (both canonical and non-canonical), not one time do we find something like, “With regard to your questions about there being one God in three persons…” While we have some very clear statements that God is One,5 we never read a debate explaining how Jesus can be viewed as God or the Holy Spirit can be God. In other words, it seems that the ancient world of the first century didn’t have such a problem as how “one God” could be understood “three persons” but still only be “one God.” This debate came a lot later.
Certainly, the Nicene Creed6 speaks to the teaching of the Church regarding this issue. It states in part —
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible;
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, Begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made:
…
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke by the Prophets;7
The Nicene Creed came about (as most creeds do) because of controversy. This creed addressed the disputation surrounding the divinity of Jesus. Arius, a priest from Baucalis in Alexandria, Egypt, taught that there was a time when only God the Father existed and, therefore, God the Father was over or above Jesus as in rank. The First Ecuminical Council met in Nicea in 325 CE to address this issue and bring about a unity in the Faith. The irony here is that, contrary to the wishes of Constantine, the church was divided over the nature of Jesus even though the Trinitarian view became the majority view. This division came to a head in 1054 when the Eastern church split away from the Western church over the addition of the filioque to the Nicene Creed (see note 7 below).
So, enough with the very brief (and potentially boring) history lesson, what all does this mean? How can God be One and Three at the same time? Isn’t that contradictory? Well … no. Let me try and explain.
As we see from the Lesson this morning, there is a clear distinction between the three — God the “Father” speaking, the Holy Spirit descending “like a dove,” and Jesus, God’s “Son.” Three distinct “persons.” This, however, doesn’t make God out to be three separate, distinct gods (polytheism). As we’ve already noted, the Bible is quite clear that God is “one.” The great Jewish prayer begins with, “Listen, Israel: Yahweh is our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6.4; NET8; adapted). And when Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment, he said, “The most important is: ‘Listen, Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength’” (Mark 12.29-30; NET; adapted). So, again, what do we mean by God is three “persons”?
When Christians speak of the Trinity — of God being Three “persons” — we’re talking about hypostasis and prosopon. In Greek the word hypostasis (υπόσταση) means “substance” and the word prosopon (προσώπων) means “person.” While proposon eventually became to mean “person” it originally referred to the different masks an actor would wear. So, in speaking about the Trinity, it’s like one actor putting on three different masks and playing three different characters — one actor (hypostasis, substance), three characters or parts (prosopon, persons).9
I really like this metaphor when speaking about God as Trinity. And this is very important. When speaking about God as Trinity, we must use metaphors because, as Gregory the Theologian explains, “To try to comprehend unbegottenness (Father), begottenness (Son), or procession (Holy Spirit) leads to insanity.”
Equally important is the idea, then, that the three characters or parts are not the same. They’re completely different. However, the actor (the substance) is the same. This diagram may help:
Here we see that the substance is “God” and the Three Persons are “The Father,” “The Son,” and “The Holy Spirit.” While the Three Persons share the same substance, they’re not the same person. Or, to use our metaphor, the actor is “God” and the three characters are “The Father,” “The Son,” and “The Holy Spirit.”
As we know, the ancient Celtic Christians didn’t have a problem with the idea of God being Trinity. As noted in his book, Water from an Ancient Well: Celtic Spirituality for Modern Life, Kenneth McIntosh points out:
The Celts sought to love God with all their being, and likewise, to love all of the Being that was God. As a result, they loved the Threefold God, the Divine Trinity. In theory, all Christians of the time were Trinitarian, yet the Celts took God’s triune nature even more to heart. They filled their ordinary lives with patterns of three that reminded them of God’s immanent presence in all life. Prayers like this one from nineteenth-century rural Scots reinforced their awareness of the Holy Trinity:
I am bending my knee
in the eye of the Father who created me,
in the eye of the Son who purchased me,
in the eye of the Spirit who cleansed me,
in friendship and affection.10
in the eye of the Father who created me,
in the eye of the Son who purchased me,
in the eye of the Spirit who cleansed me,
in friendship and affection.10
So, on this The Feast of the Theophany of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, let us remember that God is truly outside human comprehension. That when speaking about God, the best we can do is speak in metaphors knowing that, even those, will fall short of the complete picture. With this in mind, I leave you with this quote from Ray Simpson’s book, Celtic Christianity: Deep Roots for a Modern Faith:
According to tradition, Patrick put this revolutionary teaching (i.e., the Trinity) at the center of his mission. “St Patrick’s Breastplate” makes this clear: “I bind unto myself the name, the strong name of The Trinity; by invocation of the same, the Three in One, and One in Three, of whom all nature has creation: Eternal Father, Spirit, Word.” Later tradition suggests that Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to teach that the one God was also Three.11
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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1. Scripture quotations marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
3. Also known as the Synoptic Gospels. “These gospels are called synoptic, from the Greek, συν (syn), together, and όψις (opsis), seeing or appearance. These gospels often relate the same parables and accounts about Jesus, generally follow the same order of events, and use similar wording.”
4. The Greek word is εὐδοκέω (eudokeō) and means “what seems good (pleasingly acceptable)”; HELPS Word-studies.
5. Click here for the four passages that express “God is One.” Click here for the passages that state there is “one God.”
6. Also known as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed or simply the Creed. Click here, and here for more information.
7. I’ve quoted the version used by Orthodox churches. The version used by the West (both Catholic and Protestant) adds the filioque, “Who proceeds from the Father and the Son…”
8. Scripture quotations marked (NET) are taken from the New English Translation. Copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.
10. McIntosh, K., (2011). Water from an Ancient Well: Celtic Spirituality for Modern Life [Kindle version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com.
11. Simpson, R, (2014). Celtic Christianity: Deep Roots for a Modern Faith [Kindle Version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com.
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