I Believe
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
by Rev. Randy Quinn

I’m going to break one of the first rules I learned about public speaking: I’m going to begin with an apology.

Today is Trinity Sunday. There are only a couple of days in the church calendar set aside for doctrinal issues, and this is one of them. It’s a day set aside to discuss and explore what it means to worship a three-in-one, one-in-three God.

While the doctrine of the Trinity is alluded to in scripture, it is never addressed directly. Rather, there are Biblical stories that raise questions, questions the church found could best be answered with the concept of the Trinity. It answers a question, however, that I’m afraid we’re no longer asking.

And just so you know – even though today is Trinity Sunday I am not obligated to speak about it. As I told the people who attend our Tuesday night Bible Study, I could easily preach without addressing the Trinity in my sermon.

So my apology is that I am choosing to speak about it anyway; knowing that the Trinity is a doctrine of theology that few, if any of us, are wondering about. But it is a core belief of the Christian faith, something that makes us unique among the world’s religions, and I believe it should be discussed openly at least once in a while. So I decided to launch into it today, even if it isn’t the most pressing issue on your minds – or mine, for that matter! (And I do so, knowing that my weakest area of study in seminary and my least enjoyable reading has always been in the field of theology.)

Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
2 Cor. 13:11-13

Let me pose a question to begin, a question to ponder, one you may not have thought to ask and may not care what the answer might be: What does it mean to believe in the Trinity? What does it mean to believe in the Trinity?

We occasionally use creeds in our church, but we are not what you might call a “creedal church.” In other words, we do not require people to believe every word of the creeds we recite. We have several different creeds in our hymnal, some of which we have used often enough that people might remember the words. You can turn in your hymnals and find them there, beginning with The Nicene Creed (# 880). Then there are two versions of The Apostles’ Creed (# 881-882), Statements of Faith of the United Church of Canada and the Korean Methodist Church (# 883-884), followed by A Modern Affirmation (# 885) and The World Methodist Social Affirmation (# 886). Then there are a few affirmations based on scriptural references (# 887-889).

Each of these creeds has their own history; each answers their own questions. And each draws a line between those who are “believers” and those who are not. (It’s part of the reason we are not a “creedal church.” We don’t like to draw those lines too heavily because we believe everyone is capable of changing and growing in their faith.)

Other than the scriptural passages, however, the creeds all begins with the phrase, “we believe” or “I believe.”1

So before attempting to answer my question about believing in the Trinity we should probably begin with what it means to believe. You may never have thought about what it means to believe something. We usually use it to refer to our opinions, though:
I believe I’ll have a sandwich for lunch.
I believe the flooding on the Missouri River is due in part to mis-management by the Corps of Engineers.
I believe President Obama is an American citizen by birth.

Those are opinions that some of us may hold. But holding any of them will make little difference in the way we live, and even less of a difference in our relationships with others. The Biblical word for “believe,” however, is related to the word for “faith.” It is more than an “opinion;” it’s something we have made a commitment to or built our life around.

Martin Thielen is a pastor who tells the story of a friendship he developed with Danny, a man who claimed to be an atheist2. As they spent time with each other, however, their friendship grew and their conversations occasionally turned to religious matters. One day Danny told him he thought he was no longer an atheist – one who believes there is no God – but had become an agnostic – one who believes there may be a God but it doesn’t matter because there is no implied relationship. It had simply become an opinion about God rather than a rejection of God.

More time passed before his friend told Thielen he was thinking about becoming a Christian. So Danny asked what was the least he could believe and still be a Christian. That became the title of a book Thielen wrote, a book that will form the basic outline of a sermon series I intend to preach next fall. (I’m already excited about the series for a variety of reasons. One of which is that I will be working with the pastor at the First United Methodist Church in Falls City as we develop sermon outlines and promotional pieces together; I am also hoping we will create some discussion groups who will read the book for more and deeper insights.)

But the question of “the least we can believe” suggests there is more to the idea of “belief” than simply having an opinion. Thielen’s friend had opinions about God before he made the step toward belief. So what is the difference?

When the early church began to write their creeds, they worked for the most part from the Latin word, credo. One of the speakers I heard at the Festival of Homiletics, the preaching conference I attended last month, was Diana Butler Bass. She explained to us the dilemma the church had when it translated the word credo into English.

They needed an English word that included a sense of relationship, not just intellectual assent. It was more than an opinion, but a commitment. The relationship also changed the way a person who professed it would live. The word they found was “believe” from the Old English word, “belove”.

I belove God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth;
I belove Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord . . .
I belove the Holy Spirit . . .3

That changes the question, doesn’t it? Now we find ourselves asking, what is the least we can love about God and still be a Christian? Or, more on topic for today, what is it about the Trinity that implies a relationship of love, of being beloved – while holding God in our heart as our beloved?

Some theologians make a distinction in their discussions about theology between the outward appearance of the Trinity and the inward workings of the Trinity. (For those who want to know more about it or who have heard the words before, there are fancy words for that distinction – economical and ontological. It is not my intent, however, to swim too deeply into the scholarly oceans of conversation; I’ll let experts use those words.)

But I would like to speak about the common understanding of the relationship between “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” as the traditional language has referred to them. That understanding is that their relationship between one another is summarized by John when he writes, “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8b). It is love that binds the three in one together so closely that they are indeed only one God. It is how the Father is related to the Son, and how the Son is related to the Spirit, and how the Spirit is related to the Father. Their love emanates to the world that God creates, redeems, and sustains4.

Since we are created in the image of God, it can be argued that their relationship with each other defines the nature of our relationships with one another as well as with God, creating a unique form of the Trinity in the church that binds us into one body with love, a love that encompasses you, me, and God.

To think of God as our beloved, however, inspires poets and song writers as much as it does theologians and philosophers. And I’m much more at home among that crowd of people. And their conversations lead me to think of songs like I Believe in Jesus by Marc Nelson5. How many of you know that song?

(I’ll sing it as a solo):

I believe in Jesus
I believe He is the Son of God
I believe He died and rose again
I believe He paid for us all

And I believe He is here now
Standing in our midst
Here with the power to heal now
And the grace to forgive

I believe in You, Lord
I believe You are the Son of God
I believe You died and rose again
I believe You paid for us all.

And I believe You're here now
Standing in our midst
Here with the power to heal now
And the grace to forgive

Of course that song only speaks about one part of the Trinity. Other songs can be sung – and have been sung – about the other persons of the Trinity. But my point in singing is to suggest that the concept of the Trinity need not be understood intellectually – and maybe cannot be fully understood that way. But it can inform and inspire our hearts and our lives as we respond to the story of God’s love and grace and communion (2 Cor. 13:13) – with God and with each other.

That is what I believe.

Amen.