Jesus said to his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And his disciples answered,
"Some say John the Baptist; some Elijah; others
Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” And Jesus answered and said, “But who
do you say that I am?
Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the
living God, the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by
an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions
by which God is related to his creation, but only on the fact that Scripture
speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity
being coequal with every other member, and each acting inseparably with and
interpenetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within
God, but causing no division which would make the substance no longer
simple."
And Jesus looked at Peter and said, "What?"
A little Trinitarian humor for today when we look at the idea of the trinity, and we do so for several different reasons. The first is that today is Trinity Sunday, and so it seems appropriate for that reason alone. The second is that I have had some people ask me to explain the trinity, and so rather than explaining it to a few, I can explain it to all of you at the same time, and I won’t tell you who asked for their protection, and the third is that as our faith development team has been working they have been talking about how a knowledge of Christianity and it’s beliefs, or knowledge about Methodism, is no longer a given and so what do people who are new to the faith or to Methodism need to know. So I thought that we should put together on our website a series of sort of doctrinal sermons, things that we believe either as Christians or as Methodists, that tell people about who we are and what we believe. And if we are to do that, the Trinity has to be a key part of that because the trinity is at the heart of Christianity. It is not something we can believe in or not depending on our opinion; it is the orthodox position of the church. It is the basis upon how we decide if people are Christian or not, is their belief in the trinity. Indeed the entire reason why the eastern side of the church is called the Orthodox Church, whether they are Greek, Russian, Arminian, or whatever, is because they separated from the western church as it reinterpreted the structure of the trinity. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the
living God, the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by
an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions
by which God is related to his creation, but only on the fact that Scripture
speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity
being coequal with every other member, and each acting inseparably with and
interpenetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within
God, but causing no division which would make the substance no longer
simple."And Jesus looked at Peter and said, "What?"
A little Trinitarian humor for today when we look at the idea of the trinity, and we do so for several different reasons. The first is that today is Trinity Sunday, and so it seems appropriate for that reason alone. The second is that I have had some people ask me to explain the trinity, and so rather than explaining it to a few, I can explain it to all of you at the same time, and I won’t tell you who asked for their protection, and the third is that as our faith development team has been working they have been talking about how a knowledge of Christianity and it’s beliefs, or knowledge about Methodism, is no longer a given and so what do people who are new to the faith or to Methodism need to know. So I thought that we should put together on our website a series of sort of doctrinal sermons, things that we believe either as Christians or as Methodists, that tell people about who we are and what we believe. And if we are to do that, the Trinity has to be a key part of that because the trinity is at the heart of Christianity. It is not something we can believe in or not depending on our opinion; it is the orthodox position of the church. It is the basis upon how we decide if people are Christian or not, is their belief in the trinity. Indeed the entire reason why the eastern side of the church is called the Orthodox Church, whether they are Greek, Russian, Arminian, or whatever, is because they separated from the western church as it reinterpreted the structure of the trinity. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
