Holy Trinity Sunday

Today is Sunday.  June 7 is Holy Trinity Sunday. I’ve checked on line and even ELCA and Episcopal church which both support abortion are providing worship at home liturgies and scripture selections. The Catholics use a different selection, and I like theirs better. Although 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 "Greet one another with a holy kiss" will jump out--we may never even shake hands again! This selection was done at least 2 years ago, but is ironic today.

Normally, I would be dressed and ready for church, as we used to call it, and I’d be one of two or three women wearing a dress or skirt. Instead, at 8:30  I was dressed in my gym clothes and ready to go to Lifetime Fitness, which opened a week ago. My church UALC is still closed.

What the lockdown has taught me is I don’t need to go to church—I only have to turn on my computer, and if I don’t like the UALC selection (I never watched after the first try when I was asked to register before watching) I can find great music and dynamic speakers with a click of a mouse. In fact, their submission to the lockdown without a question has taught me I may never need to make the effort again.

After my workout, I went through the McDonald’s drive thru and got a sausage biscuit. At home I enjoyed it and sang a hymn by Horatius Bonar in my squeaky voice which used to be soprano but now is tenor:

“Glory be to God the Father,
glory be to God the Son,
glory be to God the Spirit,
God Almighty, Three in One!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Glory be to him alone.”

Horatius Bonar was born at Edinburgh, in 1808. His education was obtained at the High School, and the University of his native city. He was ordained to the ministry, in 1837, and since then has been pastor at Kelso. In 1843, he joined the Free Church of Scotland. His reputation as a religious writer was first gained on the publication of the "Kelso Tracts," of which he was the author. He has also written many other prose works, some of which have had a very large circulation. Nor is he less favorably known as a religious poet and hymn-writer. The three series of "Hymns of Faith and Hope," have passed through several editions.
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872

The Hymnary.org website use has gone up 40% since April 2019, and I think we know why.  You can support this fine service by making a donation, a tax-deductible contribution by sending a check to Hymnary.org at 3201 Burton SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546.

The Trinity isn't a job description

If a church/pastor regularly prays (or God forbid, baptizes) in the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer instead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I hope she/he knows how disrespectful it is to call God with whom you claim to have a personal, loving relationship, by a job description. It's utilitarian and objectifies God. To my ears it sounds worse than a TV or radio preacher's health and wealth gospel. It's also a violation of 2000 years of Christian history and culture cutting us off from our past.

Imagine if I were walking with you down the streets of Lakeside, a very friendly community, and we meet someone you know and I don't. And you said, "I'd like you to meet retired librarian, cottage owner, who also donates to my church." This revised Trinitarian formula, now no longer trendy but entrenched in liberal mainline churches, is supposed to be 'inclusive." It came about from the feminist movement of the 70s which is at its core unChristian and Marxist, but has infected the Christian churches like black mold.

It's not that we don't ever describe the wonderful things God does for us--in fact, words fail when we try. They are so fabulous we have a book of stories, parables, miracles, poetry and laws to refer to. This is change that never made sense, and I don't know who started it, but probably the offering plate is the only way to stop it.

"Baptisms performed in the name of a gender-neutral Trinity are not true baptisms, the Catholic Church's highest doctrinal authority decreed on Friday (Feb. 29, 2008) Christianity Today." Most protestants don't know our baptisms, sprinkled, splashed, dunked or poured, are valid in the Catholic church--unless this formula is used because it's meaningless.

On this day in 356. . .

The Date: February 8, 356.
The Place: The church of Alexandria, Egypt
The Event: Armed troops barged in at the middle of a worship service to capture a single unarmed man -- the pastor, Athanasius.

He fought the good fight against Arianism. . . the belief that Jesus was not fully God but a created being. In the Council of Nicea that earlier rejected this view, Athanasius had been the clearest speaker for the Orthodox position. Even today, there are fundamentalist Christian groups that claim the church lost its way and true believers went underground only to emerge after the Reformation. Athanasius' list of the authoritative books later became the Canon--our Bible. He survived the Feb. 8 attack and died in 373. http://www.christianity.com/…/athanasius-and-the-creed-of-c…

 Most Christians use the three major creeds in worship at some time during the year, some every Sunday; Apostles, Nicene and Athanasian (which I think our Lutheran church uses about once a year). Athanasius didn't write this creed, but it concerns the Trinity which he defended with his life. 

A few Christian churches announce that they are non-creedal, and don't use them. To me, this is like saying I renounce my genealogy because I never met my great-great-great-great grandfather, and besides I've heard stories about him . . . Maybe so, but he still made you what you are today.

 From the book by Carl Trueman, The Creedal Imperative. on the role of confessions and creeds.

1. All churches have creeds and confessions. They may not recite them. Failure to acknowledge this can be disingenuous.
 2. Confessions delimit the power of the church.They mean the church has to answer to something above it!  Too many Bible only churches think they are the first to find something because they don't know history.
3. They offer succinct and thorough summaries of the central elements of the faith. Good creeds do this, but here the Confessions are even more thorough.
4. Creeds and confessions allow for appropriate discrimination between members and office-bearers: that is, not everyone has to be the expert; but leaders ought to be theologically informed.
 5. Creeds and confessions reflect the ministerial authority of the church … and, yes, this cuts against the grain of our anti-authoritarian culture, but it’s hard to have leaders who don’t lead, or pastors who aren’t to some degree theologically sound and capable of leading, and elders who don’t know their stuff.
 6. Creeds and confessions represent the maximal doctrinal competence the local church aspires to for its members.
7. Creeds and confessions relativize our modern importance and remind us we are part of a long history and Story!
8. Creeds and confessions help define one church in relation to another — this is about information not schism.
9. Creeds and confessions are necessary for maintaining corporate unity.