This past Sunday, the 31st of May, was the Feast of the Holy Trinity, taking precedence over the Feast of the Visitation of Our Lord, which would otherwise have been celebrated on that date. It was also the 30th anniversary of my ordination and installation to the Office of the Holy Ministry – at Emmaus Evangelical Lutheran Church in South Bend, Indiana, where I am still privileged to serve as a part-time Associate Pastor. In that case, we did celebrate the Feast of the Visitation, as it was a Friday that year, A.D. 1996. Two days later, on the 2nd of June – my first Sunday as the pastor of Emmaus – we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Trinity, the Service beginning with the Holy Baptism of my second-eldest daughter, Monica, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. As weekends go, it was a big one, and I remember it fondly.
I also remember how, in my eagerness and zeal, I overdid it with my efforts to preach the Holy Trinity on that Sunday morning. Not only was my sermon too long, especially on top of all the other things happening that day, but it was also too academic and too thorough – rather like the sermon I preached for the Feast of the Holy Trinity on my vicarage. I’m confident that I did not say anything contrary to the faith, nor did I resort to analogies of the divine mystery of the Holy Trinity. I simply said too much, and yet, in doing so, I did not serve the purpose of preaching in the most appropriate and edifying way. Thirty years later, I am immensely grateful to the dear people of Emmaus for their patience in allowing me to grow into the office over time.
Attempting to “explain” the Holy Trinity, as though to make it understandable to human reason, misses the mark. As soon as we presume to have done so, it is certain that we have fallen short. Divine Mysteries are precisely that: Mysteries beyond our ken. We do not grasp them by or with our finite human reason, far less so in our fallenness. We cannot comprehend the Holy Triune God by any wisdom, reason, or strength of our own. Thankfully, though, He comprehends us in His divine and holy love by speaking His Word and breathing His Spirit upon us in Christ Jesus. We know and love the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, because the Father knows us and loves us in His incarnate Son, and He pours out the Holy Spirit generously upon us in and with and through the Holy Gospel of that same Son. In doing so, He grants to us the gracious adoption of sons, and He makes Himself known to us – not academically, but as beloved and well-pleasing children, as members of His own household and family, the Body and Bride of Christ Jesus.
As it so happened, I was in St. Louis for the pre-convention floor committee meetings this past Sunday, far away from my family and congregation, but surrounded by other friends, colleagues, brothers and sisters in Christ, and not a few fathers in the faith. And while it did, in some ways, feel strange to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity (and my ordination anniversary) in such a context, we were immensely blessed with a beautiful sermon by our Synod’s 1st Vice President, Rev. Peter Lange (who taught me Greek at the Seminary thirty-seven years ago this fall). What he did was a marvelous example of the preaching of the Holy Trinity – and of what every sermon ought to do – namely, the proclamation and extolling of the Holy Gospel and the other Readings and Propers of the Divine Service, centered and fulfilled in Christ Jesus for us and our salvation. That is how the one true God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reveals and gives Himself to us, unto repentance and faith in His free and full forgiveness of sins. Vice President Lange preached on the historic Holy Gospel, St. John 3:1-17, and on the Old Testament Reading, Isaiah 6:1-7, gently unpacking those most excellent words in our hearing – as God’s good gifts for us. Like the Lord Jesus on the Road to Emmaus, he opened the Scriptures to us; and in his preaching, the Lord Himself opened our ears, our hearts, and our minds to fear, love, and trust in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to worship the Father in Spirit and Truth, and to confess His Holy Name. Thanks be to God that He thus causes His Word to be preached even to the ends of the earth!