Trinity
Sunday June
19, 2011
Genesis
1:26 Three-In-One
Means Personal
Dear
fellow redeemed: There's a word for
those who are extremely egotistical and believe the
world
ought to revolve around them.
*
The word is "narcissist". The chief characteristics of a narcissistic
personality, it's said,
are an exaggerated sense of
self-importance and a lack of empathy.
In conversations they
talk mainly about themselves and
show a lack of interest in others. Many
have fantasies
about power or influence and they
constantly overestimate their talents and importance.[i]
*
Narcissism used to be considered
a personality disorder.
More recently, experts simply refer
to it as a condition.
*
It matters little. Whether we're dealing with a narcissist in the
family or at work, it can
prove extremely frustrating. How do you handle one who always has to have
the last say
or get credit for the latest
success? How do you talk to somebody
who's lacking self-
awareness; how he fits in?
*
When all is said and done, a
narcissist in our lives demonstrates how important it is to
learn that we are a part of a
family, a community, a church, and so forth.
We're not in this life simply to
receive the proper strokes from others.
We're here that we might relate with
others on a personal level.
Well,
perhaps we've all had our share of experiences with those who need to be the
center of
everything. Maybe some of us are to a certain degree
narcissistic ourselves.
*
Perhaps. But now imagine if our God were
narcissistic and was lacking in self-
awareness! What if he were not Triune?
* What if from eternity there were no
Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
There was only this god who never
knew another person, because he was not three-in-
one.
He was merely one-in-one.
*
He never spoke a word, for there
was no one to whom he might communicate.
He never interacted with anyone, for
there was nobody with whom he might interact.
*
Furthermore, the thought of
serving, the thought of sacrificing, the thought of
encouraging and supporting was not a
normal part of his thinking, because there was no
occasion for it.
*
Imagine this god who never loved,
for he was alone.
This eternal omnipotent being,
consisted of only one person.
To
imagine that this were the god of the Bible is quite horrifying for various
reasons.
*
And each reason has to do with
how he would relate to his creatures after he formed
Adam out of the dust of the ground.
*
Could he truly interact with his
creatures on a personal level?
Could he communicate with us, if it
were not a part his nature to communicate?
Could he love us, serve us,
sacrifice for us, encourage and support us?
*
Oh. I know what some will
say. "God can do anything he wants."
If he can create
everyone on earth, he can love
everyone on earth. He doesn't need to
know firsthand about relationships.
*
I would disagree. A god who has no self-awareness, who doesn't
know how to be
personal because he's by himself, is
going to have a very different reason for creating us.
And it's not going to be because
he's truly interested in relating with us personally so that
we might benefit from his awesome
works.
*
At best, he's going to create us
merely because he's lonely.
And at worst, he's going to create
us because he wants to feel important.
*
That's why he's going to give us
his Commandments, not because he cares for us and
would like to teach us how we can
love each other and benefit from each other's service.
*
He'll give us his rules simply to
prove who's in charge: this supreme-being whom
everyone must obey and honor, and
around whom universe revolves.
Then
again, that's how many see God, isn't it?
Or, I should say, that's how they see their god.
*
You want eternal life? The Jew says make atonement for your sin
through works of
righteousness, prayer, and
repentance.
*
The Muslim says: "Live by the
moral code of the Pillars of Islam as outlined in the
Koran.
* The Hindu says: "Improve your karma by improving life's
actions.
Complete the cycle of reincarnation
and become one with God."
*
The Mormon says: "Be baptized as
a Mormon, live a good life, pay tithes to the church,
and bear many children."
*
Is it any wonder that much of the
world is more interested in multi-tasking their way into
heaven then they are in truly loving
and helping those whom God has placed in their
lives?
*
Is it any wonder that if the god
our civilization is lacking in self-awareness, so will those
who are trying so desperately to
please him?
*
It's been said of today's culture
that we've become more and more individualistic.
On the one hand, we've largely
forgotten who we are as a family, as a community, and a
nation. On the other hand,
we developed a much greater sense of who we are as
individuals.
*
On the positive side, we're more
creative, more productive and perhaps more tolerant of
those with various backgrounds and
diverse skills. On the negative side,
we've become a
nation of individuals who insist:
"it's all about me!"
That's
not what the Triune God created us to be.
God made you not so that you might know who
you
are. He made us so that we
might know who we are.
* First and foremost we're a
couple. We're a family. We're a community.
We're a congregation. We're God's people.
We're beings who know how to be personal
since our God who created us is personal.
*
That's why God gave us his
Commandments. It wasn't simply for his own
sake, but for
the sake of his people that we might
relate better with the true God and with our neighbor.
Originally,
of course, there was no such need for Commandments.
*
Adam and Eve had a perfect
knowledge of God. They loved God and his
will for their
lives. How they knew and loved God is
explained by the manner in which Adam was
created.
*
Listen again to the words of our
text: "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness.'" Those words "let us" reveal what kind of God
created the first
human being and everyone to
follow. He wasn't alone. He was Triune.
*
Furthermore, being created in
God's image meant Adam was created by One who
understood the meaning of
relationships. Three-in-One meant Adam's
Creator was
capable of getting personal; of
loving and serving someone else.
*
And so it was that God would
supply Adam's every need and Adam would see this
clearly.
Remember
how out of the ground the Lord formed "every beast of the field and
every
bird of the heavens . . . But for
Adam there was not found a helper fit for him."
* And being alone wasn't a good thing
for Adam. So God "caused
a deep sleep to fall
upon the man"
and took one of his ribs and "made (it) into a woman and
brought her to
the man"
(Genesis 2).
*
From the very beginning, God's
creation would show mankind that he was a loving
empathetic God. He cared and delivered because this was his
nature. He was Triune.
From eternity the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit were engaged in a loving caring
relationship.
Since,
the fall, sadly, man has chosen not to benefit from the relationship God
established with
him. The sinful human beings we are, we've chosen
to make it in life our own way.
*
Secretly, we've preferred that we
not be created in God's image.
It's more natural for us to be one
of one than to be one of two or one of a whole family.
*
If I'm one of one, I can stand on
my own and do my own thing.
I don't have to concentrate first on
being a father or a mother.
My parenting skills can take a back
seat to those interests and hobbies
I've wanted to pursue. Instead of being a son or daughter and
spending real time visiting
with Mom and Dad, I can spend my
time in front of the t.v. or my time texting.
Instead of being a husband or wife
and finding time to honestly work through things, I
can prefer my private time.
*
I don't have to know you. I can concentrate on knowing myself.
*
Of course, where do we end
up? We end up old, alone, and
feeling very useless.
Those
who stand on their own through life are going to be standing on their
own at the
end of life.
Thankfully,
this has never been God's gracious plan for his creatures.
*
Instead of choosing time for
himself, God chose time to know us.
And God could know us
inasmuch as it's his nature to relate with other persons.
In fact he has done this throughout
time and before time even existed.
* We are personal beings, not because
God suddenly came up with this notion that he
would create something absolutely
different than himself, beings who were many and
who could interact with each
other. We're personal beings because the
Lord God created
us in his own image.
*
And you know what? If the Triune God could create us in
such a personal way, he could
also save us, that is, redeem
us in a very personal way.
*
After the fall, God in his mercy
would rescue us from our life of isolation.
Instead of agreeing that we should
be left alone to find our own way, he chose to know us
even more.
* Becoming one of us, God the Son would
know everything about our life, our callings, our
emotions, our needs. And much more than that, he would know our
sins and what our sin
had cost us.
*
In the words of Isaiah: "Surely
he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows . . . He
was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities."
*
In our place he would suffer what
it means for every one of us to truly be alone.
He would atone for our sin.
And
naturally, our God would not stop there.
* Christ is risen. He's demonstrated to the world that he's
conquered our sin.
And that each of us might know this
personally, God the Holy Spirit has gone to work.
*
Yes indeed. If God would redeem us in very
personal way, he would also sanctify us, that
is, give us faith, in a very
personal way.
* And that is precisely was he's done
and continues to do. In person he comes
to us in
Holy Baptism to wash us clean from
our sinful thoughts, desires, words and deeds.
* In person he strengthens us through
the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament and
assures us that we are members of
Christ's body by faith in our Savior.
* In person he comes to us in the Gospel
assuring us that Christ's blood is still effective today
declaring us righteous in the sight
of God.
*
And in the process of all this he
offers us this incredible guarantee.
Today we regain the image of God in
part. In heaven it will be restored
fully.
*
Meanwhile, the image of Christ
is placed on us by faith. When God the
Father looks at
us and sees faith in our Savior, he
also sees the blood of his Son.
Written all over us he sees the name
of Christ.
It
may go without saying. The one who's extremely
narcissistic, who insists on being one of one
and
standing on his own, would not do well as a member of an orchestra.
*
A fine orchestra is one in which
each and every one of the string section, the woodwind
section and the brass section have
this keen sense of self-awareness.
*
They know how they sound as
individuals and how they sound as a whole.
Playing in an orchestra, you might
say is a very personal experience.
Each member knows how to relate to
every other member.
They know precisely how they fit in
and are able to contribute.
*
In this way, our salvation may be
likened to a concert. Our very personal
God represents
the various players and sections and
we believers, the Church, represent the instruments.
* If God were not triune, the concert
would never get off the ground.
* If there were no Father, the
instruments would simply produce a bunch of noise.
Created in our own image rather than
God's image, we'd each be designed to play our
own thing, our own solo, if you
will.
*
If there were no Son, there would
be no reason for anyone to listen, each instrument
would be hopelessly out of tune,
both with the others and with itself.
* And if there were no Holy Spirit, the
instruments would not even play.
There would be no breath and
therefore no sound.
*
But enough with the theoretical
and abstract. The Father, Son and Holy
Spirit work in
perfect harmony creating us in
God's image, redeeming us and keeping us in the one true
faith.
*
The final result is that we, the
Church, are beautiful before the Lord both in the way we
sound, and in way we appear. Inasmuch as our Three-in-One God is Personal,
we are
perfect in his eyes in every single
way. Amen.
May
the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus.
Amen.