In the Name of the Trinity

Genesis 1:1-2:4a (KJV)

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, 
in the image of God created he him; 
male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created.

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. Did you have a good weekend? Memorial Day weekend is a long weekend. Do Americans call it May long weekend? In Canada, there are May long weekend and September long weekend. Those two long weekends mark the beginning and the end of the summer vacation season. May long weekend is the weekend of Victoria Day, which is the last Monday before May 25th, which is the official birthday of the queen or now the king, regardless of the actual birthday. As you can see in the name of the day, it is in honour of Queen Victoria when Canada gained the autonomy. The September long weekend is the one with Labour Day, which is the first Monday in September. After the September long weekend, all the campings and outdoor leisure activities end and the Canadians prepare the hibernation for the long winter. When I was in Winnipeg, the first snow fall was usually in mid-October, and the last one in early May. Anyway, during this May long weekend, I went to my friend’s cottage at Lake Barkley in Kentucky, and also the Gaylord Opryland near Nashville, Tennessee. It is a gorgeous place with super lovely indoor gardens. I hope you all had a wonderful week. Yesterday I went to Sam Piper’s graduation celebration. It was very good. As you all know, Sam will study at Purdue to become a vet. It may be different in America, but in Canada people say that the top smartest students go and become vets, the animal doctors. If they are not that smart, they go and become dentists. If they are not smart enough to be dentists, then they go and become surgeons. So according to my Canadian friends, Sam must be super smart.

Trinity

Today is Trinity Sunday. I wanted to use a different bulletin cover picture, but I sent the photo to Gretel way too late. She already finished the bulletin printing. The word Trinity is as you can see from a Latin word, Trinus, whose meaning is ‘Three folds.’ The Trinity is also called Triune, which is a Latin compound word of tria and unus, respectively mean three and one. The Trinity is one God in three Persons as we sang today. There has been many efforts and attempts over two thousand years to explain the secret of the Trinity. So many theologians tried to make sense of it. I am not going to introduce all those theories or try to explain the divine secret of the Trinity today because it is not possible. Some people as an analogy compare the Trinity to water, whose molecule is H2O. Three atoms make one molecule. Just as H2O comes in three different forms of liquid, solid, gas, so one God appears in three different forms of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In mathematical analogy, it is shown as “1 + 1 + 1 = 3” and “1 × 1 × 1 = 1.” 

In Hebrew, the word for God is אֱלֹהִים (Elohim). This word, which appears a lot in today’s OT lesson, is grammatically plural. So the correct translation into English of this word is not ‘a God,’ but ‘Gods.’ This word can be used for both the God of the creation and the other foreign gentile gods. Interesting thing is, when this word refers to the God of all creation, it always takes singular verb in the Hebrew Bible without any exception. For other foreign gentile gods, this word takes plural verbs. For example, in English it is something like this: ‘Foreign gods are idols. But our Gods is good.’ The word itself is plural but acts as singular. It is very interesting to me and I believe it is one of the evidences carved in the Hebrew language for the Trinity.

Anyway, the Trinity is one of the hardest things to understand, and I am not sure if I understand it correctly and completely. I hope I do, but there is no guarantee. But do not worry. The correct understanding of the secret of the Trinity is not required to enter through the heaven’s gate. One of the thieves hanging on the cross next to Jesus went to paradise on that day with our Saviour. I do not believe the thief had a correct understanding of the Trinity. He was saved not by the theology but by the grace of our gracious and merciful Saviour. And as I said last Sunday, the Triune God—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—is everywhere in the Bible from the creation in the Genesis to the end of the world in the Revelation. And in the great commission today, Jesus commands us to baptise all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that is, in the name of the Holy Trinity.

In the Name of

This phrase of “in the name of” comes with a very serious responsibilities. Have you watched the 2001 film, “A Knight’s Tale”? It is quite fun and inspired by the Canterbury tales. I liked it and you may like it as well. The main actor is Heath Ledger, the joker from the Batman movie. Heath Ledger was a peasant boy but pretended to be a nobleman, and forged his genealogy document by Geoffrey Chaucer. But later he was found cheating his identity and was about to be executed. Then the prince of England came and saved him, and also made him a knight. Then the prince says, “By the power vested in me by my father King Edward, and by all the witnesses here, I dub thee Sir William.” So the prince made a peasant boy a knight in the name of his father King Edward. But what if not a prince but a random guy passing by says the same thing, ‘by the power vested in me by the king Edward, I dub thee Sir William,’ would that work? I guess not.

This year we have three high school graduates. I have no idea about the high school graduates in America, because I was born in South Korea and finished up to my bachelor degree there. Many years ago, I graduated from the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. The president of seminary then said, “By the power invested in me by the board of trustees and the state of Illinois, I now confer upon you the degree of Master of Divinity…” So I got the master degree. I now have the same education level as Jesus. The Bible always says that Jesus is master, not a doctor or Ph.D. So the president made me a master in the name of the state of Illinois. But what about if I say the same thing to a guy in the city square? Will that make the guy a master of divinity? No way. But if I do that not as jokingly but seriously, having some sort of ceremony and providing forged certificates, and getting money from the people, what then is going to happen? I will be arrested and spend some years in prison. But why? The president of the seminary and I say the identical words. But why he is OK but I only go to a prison? Because the state of Illinois granted him to use the name of the state, but the same state did not grant me to use the name of the state.

Taking God’s Name in Vain

This is what it means with the third rule in the Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Some people think this commandment means that we are not supposed to say ‘oh my God.’ And when they hear it, they get super upset. Of course it is better if we do not say it. But personally I do not believe that we will fall into hell just by saying ‘oh my God.’ When God says “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” God is telling us not to use God’s name in the wrong way against God’s will. For example, when we cut down other people in Jesus’ name, that is taking God’s name in vain. Another example from the history: During the Civil War, all the churches in the United States were divided into two. The Presbyterian church was not an exception and also was divided into two. Half of us said that the slavery was the will of God because Bible mentions the slavery. It is true that the Bible mentions slavery, but that does not mean it is God’s will and that God wants slavery. Using God’s name against God’s will is taking God’s name in vain. Using God’s name in vain is one of the most grievous sins. Just like I would get in a prison if I use the name of the state wrongly, we will also face serious consequences if we use God’s name in vain. So we have to be very careful when we use God’s name. We must examine over and over again if what we say is actually God’s will or just our thoughts and opinions before we take and use God’s name in our sentences.

Baptise

While we must be very careful at using God’s name, Jesus commanded us to baptise all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Here we see the Trinity again. Jesus did not say in the names of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So there are three Godheads but only one name. So by the commandment of Jesus our Saviour, we need to baptise but who can baptise here beside me? No one as far as I know. Then are all of you breaking the commandment of our Lord? Let us think about the film, ‘A Knight’s Tale.’ The prince dubbed Heath Ledger in the name of his father king Edward, then William became a knight. What about the graduation? The president of the seminary conferred unto me the degree in the name of the state of Illinois, and then I became a master. Likewise by the baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity, a person becomes a Christian. So to baptise in the name of the Holy Trinity is to make unchristians Christians. Just like King Edward granted his son to use his name in dubbing, and the state of Illinois granted the president of the seminary to use the name of the state in conferring, Jesus our Lord also granted all of us to take and use the name of the Trinity in making Christians by spreading the good news of our Lord.

Conclusion

Then how can we make people Christians? The baptism is a symbolic way. Pouring water on random people in the streets like ice bucket challenge will not make them Christians. Jesus had set an example for us by washing the feet of the disciples. So by serving others we can make them Christians. Jesus says “If you love one another, everyone will know you are My disciples.” So by loving one another we can make them Christians. Jesus says again, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” So by doing good works we can make them Christians. So friends, let us serve one another in the name of the Holy Trinity, love one another in the name of the Holy Trinity, and do the good works in the name of the Holy Trinity. By doing these we will never take God’s name in vain but doing the will of God in the name of the Holy Trinity. Amen.