101: God in Three Persons (Sunday, July 31st, 2022)

OT Lesson: Genesis 1:26-27 (NLT)

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

NT Lesson: Matthew 28:16-20 (NRSV)

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

Sermon

Introduction

Good morning. I bet you have noticed that a lot of things have changed in our worship today. The worship team met and discussed a week ago, and now we are exploring the options how we can improve our worship so that we can experience and encounter God more fully. You can join the worship team or you can tell us your ideas and suggestions to one of the worship team members: Lisa Hutcheson, Janet Landon, Margi McConnaha, Amy Morrison, Leanne Piper, Bess Wilkes, Jennifer Woods and me. Together let us make it better. For now, we are going to sing the Lord’s Prayer and we will recite the Apostles’ Creed on most Sundays. Speaking of the Apostles’ Creed, someone many years ago, asked me “Why do we say that we believe in the Catholic church? We are Presbyterians. We came out of the Catholic church because we didn’t like it.” I understand that Catholic is a very confusing word. When I was learning English, I thought I was a Catholic. My reasoning was this: Workaholics are people who are addicted to work. Shopaholics are those who are addicted to shopping. Alcoholics are people who are addicted to Alcohol. And I thought Catholics (Cat-holic) are those people who are addicted to cats. And I love cats. I go to YouTube to watch cat videos. So I told my British friend that I am a Catholic and she got confused, which I didn’t understand but now I understand. Catholic in capital C is one of the biggest Christian denominations headquartered in Vatican. But catholic with lower c, as in the Apostles’ Creed, means the church universal. I just wanted to make it clear to you that the catholic is not a specific denomination from Italy nor the cat lovers. But in that way, I am totally a Catholic.

Hebrew Knowledge

Let me begin now. You may have also noticed that today’s OT lesson is actually a portion of last Sunday’s OT lesson. Last Sunday, it was verses from 24–31 and today is 26–27, which is part of the creation story. But I am not recycling last Sunday’s sermon. Last Sunday was more about the male and female. But today, it is more focused on the divinity, which you can tell from the sermon titles. We will talk about some Hebrew today.

For your information, in many of my future sermons including today’s, I am going to use a lot of Hebrew and Greek languages. Every time, I will do my best to explain the necessary background knowledge concerning the Hebrew or Greek languages. But I need to know how much knowledge you have about those languages. For Latin, I am pretty sure that you know quite a lot because the writing looks exactly same as English Alphabet. And previously you all read the Pontius Pilate’s stone

inscription without problem. Right? For Greek, I guess you may not be fluent but I assume that you all know everything about the Greek language from Alpha to Omega. But for Hebrew, it looks so weird and I am not sure. So let me test you today. I bet you know more Hebrew than you think you do.

First of all, who does not know ‘Hallelujah? (הַלְלוּ־יָּהּ)’ That means ‘Praise the Lord.’ How about ‘Hosanna? (הושיעה־נא)’ That means, ‘Please, save us.’ Second of all, most names—place names and personal names—in the Bible, especially OT are in Hebrew. For example, David (דָוִד) is Hebrew of course. That means ‘the beloved.’ The name Daniel (דָּנִיֵּאל) who was thrown into a lion’s den is in Hebrew. His name means ‘God is my judgement.’ How about Abraham (אָבְרָהָם)? That means ‘the father of many nations.’ Well, these are like words or simple phrases. Can you say a full and complex sentence in Hebrew? Something like, ‘I will create just as I have spoken.’ Who can say that in Hebrew? Actually all of you can say it, even most preschoolers in America can say it as well. That is in Hebrew אבראכדברא (Abracadabra). Hebrew reads from right to left. The letter looks like X is called Aleph and is the first alphabet in Hebrew. Here it indicates the first person singular future or imperfect tense when it comes before a verb. The next three letters are actual main body of a verb, meaning to create. It is used in Genesis 1:1, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃).’ The one in the centre which looks like flipped C means ‘like, as.’ The next three on the left is a verb whose meaning is to say or to speak. And finally the last one on the left which again looks like X is a suffix, which in this case indicates first person singular past or perfect tense. So it is a legitimate Hebrew complex sentence which means ‘I will create just as I have spoken.’ So you all know quite a bit of Hebrew. Who knew you can speak a fluent Hebrew complex sentence? Shall we say it together? Abracadabra. Aren’t you proud of yourself? I think you should.‎

Elohim

With all your knowledge on Hebrew, let us have a close look at today’s OT lesson. In the middle, it says in English, ‘So God created.’ In Hebrew it is וַיִּבְרָ֙א אֱלֹהִ֤ים (va-yee-bda Elohim). Those three familiar letters in the middle is the same one from Abracadabra, meaning to create. The first letter all the way on the right is ‘and, but, so.’ The next small one is third person, masculine, singular, past tense. The important thing to notice is not the masculine but singular. So this sentence means ‘So he created, who is he? Elohim.’ Elohim is obviously God. You might have heard it before. But the interesting thing is that the ending –IM in Elohim, which is plural suffix, precisely masculine plural. It is much like s in English: car—cars, boy—boys, girl—girls. The first hymn we sang today is Holy, Holy, Holy, one of my favourites. The second verse sings in the middle, ‘cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee.’ If there is one angelic being, that is cherub (כְּרוּב). If there are more than two, they are cherub-IM (כְּרוּבִים). If there is one burning being, that is seraph (שָׂרָף). If there are more than two, they are seraph-IM (שְׂרָפִים). So Elohim is of course plural which should be translated as Gods all the time.

But the weird thing is that Elohim takes singular verbs. So when the Hebrew Bible says ‘God is good,’ it actually reads ‘Gods is good.’ Weird. Isn’t it? Hebrew language is very strict and accurate in number and gender. And yet, we have this. Well, then you may think it must be given in the language as an irregular or exception. It is very natural to think that way because English is a language of exceptions and irregularity, having millions of exceptions. We say ‘children,’ instead of ‘childs.’ We say ‘I went,’ instead of ‘I goed.’ But I can say that it is not given in the language. When Elohim is referring to foreign and gentile gods, it takes plural verbs. For example, the Hebrew Bible says ‘Canaanite Elohim are evil.’ The plural noun Elohim takes singular verbs only when it is referring to THE God, יהוה (Yahweh) or some of you may say Jehovah. So it is not given in the language but conditional depending on which divinity it is referring. This weird Hebrew grammar indicates that God is both singular and plural at the same time. In English we may say, One God in Three Persons.

Let Us

Let us go to the monologue of God in today’s OT lesson. God says, ‘let us make.’ As we can see, ‘let us’ is plural in both English and Hebrew. When you talk to yourself, you say either ‘Let me do this’ or ‘I will do this.’ You do not say ‘Let us do this.’ In the Hebrew Bible whenever God declares something, God says ‘I’ like “I” will bless you, “I” will love you, “I” will provide you, etc. But when God is talking to himself, God says, ‘Let us.’ This sentence clearly shows us that God is once again, plural. To recycle what I said earlier, One God in Three Persons.

Great Commission

Well, I guess we had enough Hebrew and OT today. Let us go to today’s NT lesson. This is from the very last paragraph of the gospel of Matthew, which is commonly called the Great Commission. This is the final words of Jesus according to the gospel of Matthew. Each church has its own mission statement, but this is THE mission statement for the Church universal or the catholic church. We must go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us. And we also must remember that Jesus is with us always, to the end of the age. But my point here is that Jesus mentions God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit side by side like equal peers or partners. Jesus has never said that there are three gods. Jesus made it very clear that God is one. There is one God. There is one Lord. There is one Creator. And yet Jesus declared in John 10:30 that he and the Father are one. Here at the end of the gospel of Matthew he listed three Persons in Godhead—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So again, One God in Three Persons.

Nature of God

God in Three person, or in Latin, Trinity is one of the most debated topic throughout history. Most brilliant and genius theologians for over two thousand years have been arguing on this issue. If those genius people cannot conclude and figure it out in two millennia, there is no way someone like me can fully understand this divine mystery. Even though we may not comprehend the essence of Trinity, there is one thing we can tell about the divine nature of One God in Three Persons.

That is, God is in his own nature a community. Three Divine Persons come together and form One God, and they discuss within themselves and said, “Let us make humanity in our image and in our likeness.” Being the community and being in the community is the divine nature. And because we are created in the image of God, being in the community is our very human nature, engraved in our own DNA. Without being in the community, we cannot exist and we lose all the meaning. When God made Adam, the man was by himself. God saw him alone and lonely, and God said it is not good for humans to be alone. God made a woman and brought her to Adam to make a community, which was the world’s very first human community in the entire history of time. And we call that community a family.

Love Your Neighbour

In a debate, a teacher of the law asked Jesus which is the greatest commandment of all. Jesus answers, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” But then, what or who is our neighbour? Is it someone next door? Maybe, or maybe not. I thought about going extra thirty minutes with this neighbour thing in Hebrew language. But then I realised that I may become by the end of the sermon your enemy instead of your neighbour, so I am just giving you the short answer. The literal dictionary definition of neighbour in Hebrew, not in English, is the one right next to you. So my question of ‘who is our neighbour?’ can be paraphrased: ‘Who is next to us most of the time?’ That is our spouse. When God said to love your neighbour, God meant to love your husband or your wife. But some couple, I guess, hate each other more than the enemies. Without loving our spouse first, we cannot love God. The someone next to us can be expanded from spouse to family, from family to next doors, from next doors to the town, and on.

Conclusion

Friends, we believe in the Triune God, that is One God in Three Persons. God himself is a community and in a community. Community is the divine nature and thus our human nature. When we are in the community, we can exist and we have meaning. God commanded us to love our neighbours, that is the community. So let us begin from the smallest community because without doing small things, we cannot do bigger things. Let us love our family first. And then let us love our church family,. And then let us love our neighbours. And then let us love our town, and then our country, and then the world. When we build a healthy, livable and vibrant community here on earth in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, then the Triune God will welcome us to the divine community in heaven. Amen.