Pastoral Letter 14
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Last Sunday on Pentecost, we celebrated the 1990th birthday of the Church and gave thanks to God that the Church has survived 20 centuries with His grace and the moving power of the Holy Spirit, which descended on the disciples when they were gathered in the Upper Room ten days after Jesus’ ascension. With today’s worship, we come before God to pray and sing that God be with us and to prepare us for the coming week.
It’s Trinity Sunday, and sadly we are still unable to worship together and our doors are closed, but our hearts are open. We were all hoping that Pentecost Sunday would have been a good time to recommence our Sunday Services in our beautiful Sanctuary. The document sent from the Synod details many complex requirements, but gives us more hope that we are almost at the end. So, all we can do now is to pray more and seek God’s love, wisdom and guidance to plan the coming weeks.
Based on the letter received from the Synod during the week and the possibility of re-opening soon, I have invited the members of the Church Council and the Elders for a meeting to be held Tuesday morning, on 9 June. I have asked the Church Council and the Elders to prepare prayerfully for this important and necessary meeting, where we will consider all the details of the latest COVID-19 correspondence to plan the coming weeks, and prepare all the necessary documentation for our reopening.
So, let us be a little bit more patient and look forward to when we will be ready to re-commence our Sunday Services. At the moment, though the limit of the Sunday Worship attendance should not exceed 50, we have to be careful before making our final decision. During the Lower North Shore Ministers’ Zoom meeting, which was held on Wednesday, almost all the ministers expressed that it is not wise to rush into reopening our church doors for public worship. Here at St. Andrew’s, we do not seem to have any problems with the limited number of worshipers on Sunday, but we should carefully consider the age range of our congregation.
In any case we will inform and notify each member of our congregation about the decision and how we will implement the requirements.
I believe we need a little bit more time before making a decision.
We should be grateful to the Synod and Presbytery leadership for regularly updating us with the decisions that help plan our re-opening process.
Let’s continue to pray for the plans that we are putting in place and assure you that we will inform everyone, once things are decided.
Until then, I ask you to be well and safe.
Keep on praying and leave everything in the hands of our great God, who is our refuge and strength and join the others tomorrow morning in worship, following the Order of Service. This week all the hymns have been chosen by Mark. Please do not forget to light a candle, if you wish, but most importantly, a small roll and a small cup of wine or juice to share together the Lord’s Supper.
Prayer points:
- Continue to pray for those countries who are still in the midst of the pandemic, where the number of cases of COVID-19 is growing. Include in your prayers Armenia, because in the last week the number of infections has gone up
- Please pray and contribute to the Exodus Foundation June appeal. Help is needed. For details refer to our Newsletter, which will be sent soon.
- Pray and if you can, contribute to the COVID-19 fundraising efforts of the Armenian Missionary Association of Australia.
If you have any prayer points, please let me know and I will include them in the next week’s letter.
Krikor
Your Minister
Message Summary
The Triune God
A little boy came home from Vacation Bible School and told his mum that the pastor had said that God was everywhere. “That is true“, his mother responded. “Is He in the oven when it’s hot?” “Yes“, replied the mother. “How about in the cupboard?” “Yes“, said the mother. “How about in the fridge when the door is closed and the light is off?” “Oh yes“, replied angrily the mother. “How about in the sugar bowl“, asked the boy, as he took the lid off the bowl. “Well, I suppose He is“, answered the mother. The boy slammed the bowl shut and announced triumphantly: “Got Him!”
Of course, the mother had a lot more explaining to do.
As humorous as this story may be, there is some truth in it applicable to how people view God. Often, people view God in similar ways as did this boy. They think that God is small enough for them to put into a small package, which they are able to control and understand completely. They want a God of their own making, on their own conditional terms, who shall provide to their needs at their every demand or appeal.
God is not a measurable, computable and comprehendible being. On the contrary He is an immeasurable, incomputable and incomprehensible being. God is that reality which the mind cannot conceive.
Those who want God to be their own making rather than accepting the fact that we humans are created in God’s image, want to be God and master over their God.
This temptation to create the One, true God into our own image is the oldest and most dangerous one known to humankind. It’s associated with the story of the Fall in the Bible, and it has devastating consequences for both God and humankind. When God created man and woman in His image with His everlasting love and wisdom, He gave them the power to dominate on the earth and set certain boundaries. But they disobeyed Him and fell from their ruling position. It resulted in a sinful human condition, which distorted our relationship with God and, along with this, our view of God.
This could be one of the reasons why Christians did not celebrate the festival of the Holy Trinity in the liturgical year until the eleventh century.
According to our knowledge, in the eleventh century churches observed the Trinity celebration. In the twelfth century Pope Alexander II discouraged the observance of the day; he believed it was unnecessary, because each day of the church’s worship was an occasion to proclaim the Holy Trinity. In 1332, however, Pope John XXII ordered the celebration to be observed universally on this Sunday. It has been observed annually ever since.
This celebration is unique in the church year in that it is the only celebration to be based on a doctrine, rather than a specific historical event. The Bible does refer to God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but in no place in the Bible is the word Trinity mentioned.
What does this teach us?
It teaches us this: That when we speak of God as the Holy Trinity; when we formulate doctrines of the Trinity; when we worship God as Trinity; when we greet, bless, and baptise people in the name of the Triune God; we do this all with great humility and meekness, realizing our God is so much more than all of this. Our God is sovereign and greater than all comprehension and conception.
We shall never be able to capture God; to put God in a small package of our own making. God shall always remain more than our words and doctrines, our beliefs and expressions of worship, even our purest intentions and actions. God is the Holy/Wholly God. That means there is a mystery about God, which is tremendous in the sense that it is so awesome and overwhelming, we are unable to grasp this. The mysterious Holy/Wholly God is greater than our capacities to adequately explain or understand God.
Theologian Hans Kung in his book, “Does God Exist?” makes this point quite well by relating the following incident:
“There is a story about a Bavarian parish priest who announced to his congregation on the Feast of the Trinity that this was so great a mystery, of which he understood nothing, that there would unfortunately be no sermon given on the day.”
Having affirmed the deep mystery of God, we as Christians are able to, on the other hand, affirm an exact opposite truth, which seems to contradict the idea of Holy/Wholly God: Namely, that God has come close to us in the human person of Jesus of Nazareth. When we see and know Jesus Christ, we see and know God. The Holy Spirit, working in and through the Word and Sacraments, helps us to know and see this Jesus.
How one plus one plus one equals one, still largely remains a mystery. The relationships that exist between the three persons, yet one Godhead, are not spelled out in great detail in the Bible. Thus, the Triune God is best known in and through a life of worship and service, rather than in mysterious doctrines. Although our God-language is very important, ultimately, all of our analogies to comprehend One God in Three Persons shall remain limited, distorted by our sinful condition, hence incomplete.
Many today within the Christian circle do not accept the doctrine of the trinity, some for the simplest of reasons that: “The bible doesn’t use the word trinity” and others reject it because of its profound difficulty in understanding. Either way it is still rejection and that of the worst kind, to reject the doctrine of the trinity is to reject the deity of Christ and the ability of salvation from the cross.
There are different explanations and interpretations about the concept of the Trinity. One of those is clearly put in the following quotation from a great Pastor, preacher and author Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897–1963):
“A popular belief among Christians divides the work of God between the three Persons, giving a specific part to each: creation to the Father, redemption to the Son, and regeneration to the Holy Spirit. This is partly true but not wholly so, for God cannot so divide himself that one Person works while another is inactive. In the Scriptures the three Persons are shown to act in harmonious unity in all the mighty works that are wrought (shaped) throughout the universe.”
Quote:
“If you try to understand the doctrine of the trinity, you may lose your mind, and if you deny it you will lose your soul.”
The term “trinity” has its origin in the Latin and Greek language and comes in two parts:
- Tri or three
and 2. Unity
So, the best way to completely define the term is “Three in unity”
This term is compiled to describe the nature of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
- What does the Old Testament say about the “Trinity”?
The triune Godhead is expressed from the opening of creation, and so states that God is triune in nature and substance
The Plurality of God, Elohim (El-o-heem).
The name given unto God by the Hebrews “Elohim” is a plural noun and is best defined this way:
Divine Ones
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness: and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Genesis 1:26)
- What does the New Testament say about the Trinity?
In John 1:1-3 we read:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made that have been made”.
- The plurality of God has eternally existed from before the creation of time
A Baptist Evangelist Dr. Ed DeVries gives the following theological explanation of the plurality of God:
“The members of the Trinity work together in complete unity, totally dependent and yet totally interdependent of each other. God the Father is the sovereign ruler of the entire universe, everything operates because of Him and to fulfil His eternal plan. God the Son takes this plan out of eternity and brings it into time, administering the various aspects of the plan. God the Holy Spirit makes this eternal plan, the will of God, real to men”
- Co-equality of the Godhead
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. (Matthew 28:19)
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen”. (2 Corinthians 13:13)
“Who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled by his blood. Grace and peace be yours in abundance”. (1 Peter 1:2)
All three aspects of the Godhead are clearly seen in these three passages of scripture. Not one is more important than the other each has equal value.
- All are equal
- Each are distinctive
- All are unified
III. Can we fully understand the deep things of God
No, we don’t have to fully understand the notions of God, but by faith we can accept things we cannot explain. The doctrine of the Trinity even after two thousand years still remains somewhat a mystery to the wisest of the wise.
- Must we accept the trinity as absolute?
Anything that scripture confirms as truth, whether in essence or in material reality must be accepted by faith as truth.
So, the next time someone asks you to explain God the Holy Trinity to them, remember the following story, as related by Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican cleric and theologian, in his book, Hope and Suffering: “Anthony Bloom, the Orthodox master of the spiritual life told the story of a simple Russian country priest who was confronted by an eminent scientist. This man brought out apparently devastating arguments against the existence of God and declared: “I don’t believe in God.” The priest replied: “Oh, it doesn’t matter–God believes in you.” That is what Jesus says to us–God believes in us.
God believes in us all. And because God believes in us all, we are able to worship and serve God the Holy Trinity, even if we do not wholly understand and explain the concept of the Trinity.
If we are able to define God fully, then it means that it is not the God who is worthy of our praise.
Therefore, let us put our complete trust and faith in the One God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, especially during these times, when the whole world is still facing the danger of the pandemic and seek help, healing, comfort and most of all peace, for whom be the glory now and forever.
Amen!