Many people try and connect the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to worldly things so we can understand it. Some people use the apple to depict the Trinity. The skin is like God the Father, because He protects us. The flesh is like God the Son, because Jesus Christ took on human flesh. The seeds are like God the Holy Spirit, because He helps us to grow. Each of the parts of an apple is different, but they are all ‘apple.’ Others have used an egg with shell, white and yolk
These illustrations try to explain the oneness and threeness of God, but they do a terrible job of illustrating God. And the reason is simple. Apples and eggs are material and are composed of parts. God is immaterial and is not composed of parts.
Another is water. People try to explain God as water. Ice, water and steam. Yet, it can only be in one state at a time. The heresy there is that God can only be Son at one time, or the Father at one time or Spirit at one time. God does not put on certain personas at times. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are at all times existing and still remaining three persons.

The trefoil or clover is one of the most common symbols of the Trinity, often found in Gothic church windows. It depicts a three-leafed shamrock created and used by St. Patrick to illustrate Trinity’s doctrine and unity – the three separate leaves of one clover-like plant.

However, the three-leaf clover can therefore mislead a person, especially a child, into falling into the heresy of Tritheism. Tritheism was (and is) a heresy which taught that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were three distinct Gods who shared a similar nature rather than the truth of there being one God in three persons who share an identical nature.

Even the triangle, one shape with three vertices or points is used to represent the trinity, but even that fails because one point doesn’t represent the whole. Scripture tells us that God the Father is fully God, not just a part of God. Of course, the same is true for the Son and the Spirit. This heresy is fittingly called Partialism.
This was the problem with Aaron. He made the golden calf to show the strength of God, but this was heresy. God is stronger than His creation. This is why the people were punished and God was upset. Here again, when you try to equate God to His creation it will always falter. All analogies fall short and are insufficient in different ways. However, since analogies of the Trinity are seeking to help us understand the very nature of God, faulty analogies are going to result in faulty knowledge of God. Since our discipleship rests on our growing knowledge and love of God you have to be particularly wary of using these poor understandings of God in the way pastors teach the body of Christ. This was why Athanasius wrote the creed for the church.

Too many times satan, the world or even your own fallen understanding interfere with God and try and turn you away ever so slightly. This slight deviation leads to false understanding and heresy which ultimately leads to destruction. It is only by God, the will of the Father for Christ’s sacrifice so that the Holy Spirit works in you so you will understand His Word rightly. Through Scripture you know there is one God and at the same time there is a Father, there is a Son, and there is a Holy Spirit. All three of one accord, all three encompassing the whole Godhead, yet at the same time distinct. This is why the Athanasian Creed is so long. It goes in great detail about the Trinity and the Persons of the Trinity. It speaks on the Father, on the Son and on the Holy Spirit. It goes in great detail to battle the heresies that were attacking the Church at that time, but these heresies continue to sprout up from misunderstanding. The Athanasian Creed is a summary of Scripture on the subject of the Trinity. It is okay not to understand it logically, but to still believe it fully.

Poor Nicodemus could not understand what Christ was saying because he did not see Jesus for who He was. He did not understand scripture correctly or would have acted like Isaiah in the OT reading. God was standing before Him and Nicodemus says “We know you are a teacher come from God. He almost got it right, but almost doesn’t count. Jesus is God or not. Jesus tells Nicodemus how he is to be saved. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Your sin, your earthly understanding does not comprehend God. It will not understand the the Trinity. It is only through the revelation of the Holy Spirit through Scripture that you may believe and confess the Triune God. It is only through the Holy Spirit that you can believe Jesus Christ is not just a mere good teacher sent from God, but that He is God incarnate. The understanding that only God can obey HIs Law perfectly, it is only God that can make the justification of the sinner happen through His all availing sacrifice.

You beloved of Christ understand, by no means of your own, that this birth that Jesus speaks of is baptism. It is the unification of a sinner into the death and resurrection of Christ. In this, the dry bones are brought to new flesh, death turns into life. Sinner now becomes saint, exiled becomes a child.

The wind blows where it wishes, the Holy Spirit works where He wills, but it is the same will as the Father and the Son, this Will is for the glorification of God. You in the flesh may not understand His workings, but His ways are above your ways. Yet, you know that For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Here on Holy Trinity Sunday. We thank God for all He has done. It is only through He, He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
It is by Jesus Christ and His sacrifice that was payment for the whole world that the Spirit could come to you so that you may understand God. It is through Christ that you understand the Father. That He has made the visible and invisible. He takes care of these things to this day and forever. It is through Christ, that you are given the Spirit, which has formed the Church, that you have the Sacraments, that you know that His Word, the Holy Scripture, is true. Jesus says
“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
This is why Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. For He is all of God, who reveals the Father and Himself to you through His Spirit. The Holy blessed Trinity!

It is okay that your logic may fail you with 1+1+1=1. It’s okay that you don’t use apples, eggs, clovers, water or shapes to describe the Trinity. The Trinity is pronounced in the Gospel and the Holy Spirit gives you the wisdom to believe it. Christ has saved you! This has been the will of the Father before all worlds, this is the message that the Holy Spirit spreads where He wills. Thank God that He spreads it here. That He has come to serve you today and every Sunday. That He brings you to His table and feeds you His very flesh and blood. It is here where His Word and Sacraments are the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! God has given you eternal life through the Son! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Amen!

SDG

Pr. Daniel Holm

John 3
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Isaiah 6
1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Romans 11
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.