All posts tagged Trinity

  • October 23, 2006

    The Joy of Football

    I just watched (via the Internet) my beloved Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Diego Chargers 30-27. Damon Huard was 15-27 for 232 yards and two touchdowns. LJ ran for two touchdowns of his own for 132 yards. The Chiefs “D” – which has returned – had four sacks, two by Jared Allen. In the post game interview, Coach Herm Edwards said that he preached a lot of a sermons to his team after the lost to the Steerlers and obviously it paid off, because they played well enough to win today. I love football.

    I was also the only Chiefs fan at Doak Campbell Stadium at Florida State in Tallahassee yesterday. I went to my first FSU game. They lost to Boston College, but I loved being in there, in a football environment. I love football.

    I was preaching today on the joy of the Lord, which is the joy that God himself experiences. Jonathan Edwards opens his Unpublished Essay on the Trinity with these words: “IT IS COMMON when speaking of the Divine happiness to say that God is infinitely happy in the enjoyment of Himself, in perfectly beholding and infinitely loving, and rejoicing in, His own essence and perfection…” The joy of the Lord is the joy expressed between the Father Son and Spirit. It is the joy that God himself experiences within himself. In the message, I pointed out that joy and happiness (which I believe are inseparable) are morally neutral. What makes joy/happiness good or bad is the source of the joy/happiness and how that joy/happiness is expressed.

    For example, if puppy dogs and rainbows makes you happy–this is good. If other people’s pain and suffering makes you happy–this is bad. I ended my message this morning talking about the meaninglessness of rooting your happiness in earthly things, which is true. This does not mean that you cannot receive joy from things like football. I love it. And yes, I get down when my team loses…but only for about an hour…after that I am good to go. This is because the true source of my joy and happiness comes from God’s joy. It is much more lasting and deeper than the joy of football.

    No Comments / Life, Theology /

  • June 22, 2006

    Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Trinity

    My brother asked me to write a response to an article in the Birmingham News about the Presbyterian Church USA’s acceptance of a report that would allow PCUSA churches to refer to the Trinity as “Compassionate mother, beloved child and lifegiving womb.” He posted my response on his blog, but I thought it would be good to post it here too…

    The Presbyterian Church (USA) has recently validated a report entitled “The Trinity: God’s Love Overflowing” which explores alternative terms for the persons of the trinity. Traditional the Church in its various forms (Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant) have nearly all professed the triune God in terms of Father, Son and Spirit. The report from the PCUSA, which has been accepted by the denomination, gives churches within that tradition the freedom to describe the trinity as “Rainbow of Promise, Ark of Salvation and Dove of Peace” or “compassionate mother, beloved child and lif-giving womb” in their teaching and their liturgy.

    Such an exploration into new terms for the members of the Trinity constitutes a stark theological turn for the PCUSA. The Church from its inception has used the formula – “Father, Son & Spirit” to describe the one, true living God. In the face of heresy in the fourth century, the Church created a creed in 325 AD—the Nicene Creed, which established a tradition and rule of faith regarding the triune nature of God. Specifically, the rule became that the members of the trinity are Father, Son & Spirit. The question to consider in reference to the recent action in the PCUSA is whether or not a reformulation is necessary or harmful.

    The nature of the theological enterprise is such that requires Christian thinkers and leaders to constantly reword doctrinal statements in order to remain faithful to the missional call of the church to proclaim the truth of God through Christ to the world. The truth of the trinity does not change, but the cultural context does change. The challenge for theologians is to reword theological statements so that the words use communicate the meaning that they are intended to point back to without changing the truth itself.

    The problem’s with the PCUSA exploration of new terms for the trinity, especially feminine terms does more than meet cultural expectation—it messes with the theology. Nothing is more sacred and more central to Christian theology than the Trinity. Any terms used to describe the persons outside of the biblical and creedal terms—Father, Son and Spirit—change the theology. For example, terms like “Rainbow of Promise and “Ark of Salvation” tend to reify the members of the trinity, making them things, instead of persons.

    The most controversial of terms, that is, calling God the Father, “compassionate mother” also changes historical, orthodox theology in an unnecessary way. God is not a mother. Furthermore, God does not have a gender, so any attempt to make him more feminine (or masculine) is unnecessary. God does not have a gender, but God is a person and person’s have genders. So Jesus revealed God as Father, as a person with a personality. If Jesus had revealed God as Mother, then I would jump on the sacred feminine bandwagon, but he did not. God as revealed as “Father” does not imply that masculinity is of more value than femininity, but it is the manner in which Jesus revealed him to us and for me, I am sticking with Jesus.

    No Comments / Theology /
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