What a joy and blessing it was to spend the last seven Sundays thinking about missions and celebrating 50 Days Ablaze! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Although I must say, our congregation spent much of those 50 days concentrating on another form of ministry—care to those with health problems. As you know, our prayer list has been long. We’ve had many illnesses and injuries among our members.

Working on missions, caring for the sick—we easily recognize these as important functions of the church. Today we lift up another important function, teaching sound theology. That’s what we see Jesus doing in today’s Gospel reading. He is teaching… one might even say arguing… with the people of his day about a right understanding of who he is and what he has come to do. You can feel the tension in the air as Jesus and the Jews debate with one another. The Jews say Jesus has a demon. Jesus says they are liars. It sounds like one of those shouting-match news programs on TV.

Most us, when we hear this kind of arguing, simply want to change the channel. "Who needs this kind of debate?" we feel like saying. Indeed, most people in our day and age are tired of religious debate. Arguing politics is one thing – as it affects our common life together—but religion? It’s much easier to say: "you have your beliefs, I have mine, let’s just be done with it."

But doctrinal questions are not so easy to push aside. As he did when he walked visibly on this earth, Jesus is still calling men to repentance, and healing them with his power. He is still teaching about God, how to praise Him and how to best gather together. As a result, men say to him, as the Jews said to him in today’s text: "Who do you make yourself out to be?" Jesus responds by saying: "Before Abraham was, I am." Meaning, of course, that Jesus is the great "I am" – Yahweh, the one who identified himself to Moses as "I am" and the one who creates, saves and rules over all, God Himself. Jesus gave a definite answer as to his identify. And so the Church does too.

Yes, Jesus is God, we say. And so is the Father, and also the Holy Spirit. There are three persons who are God, and yet there are not three Gods but one. We will soon confess this teaching together, in great detail, as we say the Athanasian Creed. But before we do this, let’s delve into a particular question related to our teaching. Some say that the Creedal definitions of the Trinity are more a product of Greek philosophy than of Hebrew and Scriptural thought. They say that our teachings are unnecessarily particularistic. What do we say in reply?

The Christian Church acknowledges that in some ways its teachings are a Greek and Hebrew synthesis. After all, the Old Testament is written in Hebrew and the New Testament is written in Greek. But to say that our teaching is "philosophy-influenced" is really a slur, or a half-truth at best. And yet this charge is made with some frequency. It’s used by theologians such as Robert Millet, a contemporary Mormon theologian who has written quite extensively about his church. He says: "Latter-day Saints do not subscribe to the traditional doctrine of the Trinity because we believe it represents a superimposition of Hellenistic philosophy on the Bible."

It sounds like an impressive argument. But it doesn’t hold weight. Read further and you’ll see that he offers such "facts" on his side as: "strict monotheism is more a Greek idea than a Hebrew one." Really? I can’t imagine something much more false than that.

In reality, the New Testament itself, not just Christian theology of later centuries, is already introducing a synthesis of Greek and Hebrew thought. The Divine Word, or Logos, of the book of John is a key concept in identifying the Son of God, Jesus Christ, as true God in essence and not just purpose. Just because this concept was very popular among Greek theologians does not mean that it is somehow tainting a more pure Hebrew teaching. Rather, it is evidence of God’s more universal revelation in the giving of Himself through Jesus, the Christ.

We know that Paul and other Christian writers sometimes contrasted philosophy – the love of wisdom – with the revealed Word of God. And rightfully so. But in other ways the Scriptures lift up the beauty and holiness of wisdom. An example of this is found in today’s Old Testament reading (Proverbs 8) where wisdom is personified and identified as being of God since the beginning. The Christian Church has rightfully identified this holy wisdom as being God in essence and has always seen it, along with the Word (logos), as a manifestation of the second person of the Trinity.

It is important to remember that the Church’s teaching on the Trinity did not come from ivory towers where men of privilege spent their days over-thinking the concepts of God. Rather, the Church’s theology arose out of the need for people to worship, and be baptized, and be taught. "Go and make disciples of all nations," Christ taught his followers, "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that I have commended." With that commission the Church went forward to turn men’s hearts to the Lord. And when their hearts were turned they asked, "Who is this God?" They searched the Scriptures, and found there the Father who creates, defends and preserves, the Son who redeems and saves, and the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies. And yet they also found one God—a God who is one in essence and purpose, who reigns over all with truth and grace.

Yes, the Christians ended up borrowing some terms from non-scriptural sources. They started to use the word "Trinity" – a word that comes from both Latin and Greek sources, a word that had no philosophical history, but was simply used to describe the three-ness and the oneness of God. Christians also started using words such as homoousious – "of one substance" – to clarify its position. These words were very carefully chosen, as we shall see, to help the Church make its teachings clear.

Rather than capitulating to Greek philosophy, as the accusation goes, the Church in reality carefully worked to guard itself from the many false teachers who tried to use philosophy to take the church in different directions. As noted theologian Robert Jensen says: "the whole developed doctrine of the Trinity was the church’s effort to resist [the Hellenistic efforts to make Jesus a God only, at the expense of his humanity]. During the period before massive confrontation with Hellenic theology, there was not even incipient conflict between Trinitarian and Hebrew interpretations of God. On the contrary, this immediate trinitarianism was the only possible fulfillment of the Hebrew scriptures."

Likewise, it is inaccurate to state, as many do, that the Creedal definitions of the church are overly particularistic. The doctrine of the Trinity is not the particular doctrine of the Roman church, nor of Antioch or Alexandria or Constantinople or any of the great centers of Christian growth and influence. The doctrine of the Trinity arose from within many places within the Church.

It is commonly said that Tertullian, in Carthage, N. Africa, was the first Christian to write extensively on the doctrine of the Trinity. Indeed, Tertullian, in AD 190 or so, first started using the term "Trinity." And he wrote quite a bit on the subject, in Latin. Though an educated man, he was no Greek philosopher. He was a Christian layman who sought to explain and defend the Biblical faith.

Tertullian, however, was but one writer of his day who articulated the Trinitarian doctrine. About the same time, across the Mediterranean, in Greek-speaking Antioch, the bishop there, Theophilus, used the Greek word "Trias" to refer to the three-fold nature of God. Likewise, during these same years, Justin Martyr in Rome was recording early Creedal statements that were Trinitarian, as was Irenaeus of Lyons, France. Baptismal formulas throughout the church of that time were consistently Trinitarian. Everywhere Christ’s followers were gathered the Triune name was used.

As the Church grew, it became increasingly necessary to clarify the relationship of the three persons of the Trinity and explain that Christians did indeed worship only one God—the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New. It was not a Greek philosopher but another layman, Constantine, the first Roman Emperor to become Christian, who moved the Church to clarify its teachings on God. He gathered the Church’s leaders in a great Council at Nicea to decide upon the best wording to be used. The wording was very important, as there were some teachers of the time who denied the divinity of Christ, and some who denied his humanity. Likewise, some word choices would leave open the possibility of a three-God teaching, while others would squash the fullness of the Trinitarian nature of God. Out of this Council came the form and language that would eventually be known as the Nicene Creed. Yes, the Church did not uniformly accept this language right away. Popular leaders such as Arius continued to hold sway over their flocks despite condemnation. Fifty years later the Church met again in Council, this time at Constantinople, and re-affirmed the Trinitarian doctrine. It would do so again fifty years following this at the Council of Chalcedon. By this time the language of the Creeds was settled, as was the doctrine of God. The most detailed and definitive Creed of all, the Athanasian Creed, soon arose to give full expression to the Church’s teaching, and was so-named in order to honor a long-serving defender of the faith who endured great persecution for his stand.

It’s important to note that the consensus of the Church on the teaching of the Trinity did not come from coercion. There were no armies marshaled against others. There were certainly trials and pressures and isolated outbursts of violence, but no great war. The doctrine of the Trinity arose out of the Church’s desire for unity. And it brought unity. It arose peacefully, from many corners of the world. Its fullest forms of explanation came about after extensive debate, yes, but the doctrine was always there. It was there in the very first sermons of the Church, as we see in Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost. We read a part of it as our second reading today, from Acts chapter 2. There we hear Peter say of Jesus: "Therefore being exalted at the right hand of God, having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing." The pouring out of God described here still happens in our world, as God makes His truth and presence known.

He does so as Father, Son and Holy Spirit—one God, expressing the wonder of His essence and the goodness of His ways.

Trinity Sunday reminds us each year of the importance of articulating fully and clearly our theology. This is of utmost importance not as an academic exercise but because we as human people beg for answers to our questions. We want to know if God is good. We want to know if and how our sins may be forgiven. We want--yeah, need—to know if God is active and present among us or not. The Christian doctrine of God gives definitive answers of "yes" to each of these questions, and many more. Where false theology is found it will lead people to lives that are less than fully realized, with fears that are unnecessary, and confidence that is misplaced. But with theology that is true and sound we can live lives that are directed on the path of righteousness toward the promise of heaven.