Genesis 1: 1 – 2:4
Psalm
8
II
Corinthians 13: 11 – 13
Matthew
28: 16 – 20
This
is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, June 4,
2023 by Fr. Gene Tucker.
“INVITED IN”
(Homily text: Matthew 28: 16 – 20)
Imagine being invited in to have a
glimpse of the inner life of God.
In a very real sense, that’s what we
are offered as our Lord Jesus Christ comes among us, telling us of His
relationship with the Father, and promising to send the Holy Spirit to guide us
into all truth, to comfort us, to enlighten us, and to empower our witness to
the great things that God has done.
For, in truth, our Lord is the doorway,
the window into that inner life of God, the relationship between the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit, that God in three Persons, yet that God who is one
in Being.
Perhaps it’s possible that our Lord
provides with about as much information as we are able to understand this side
of heaven about the reality and the mystery of God’s nature. Maybe that’s why
the Lord uses the language of Father and Son to describe the relationship
between two of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity.
After all, what we’re dealing with as
we consider the nature of God, is a mystery. God has chosen to reveal some of
His nature to us, in the person of Jesus Christ, His Son.
As the Church was planted in this world
to provide a witness to the great goodness that the coming of Jesus Christ
meant, it had to wrestle with what had happened in the “Christ Event”, the term
theologians use to describe all that is connected to the coming of Jesus among
us. That wrestling took over four centuries to come to a conclusion, as the
Church affirmed that Jesus Christ is truly one with God the Father, and yet –
at the same time – is also fully and completely human, as well, with neither
the divine nature nor the human nature being confused by the other, nor divided
from each other. (For a statement of the Church’s understanding, see the Book
of Common Prayer, 1979 edition, page 864, for the Council of Chalcedon’s
conclusion about the dual natures of Jesus Christ, adopted in the year 451 AD.)
We said a moment ago that it’s possible
that the Lord provides us with about as much information as we are able to
understand about God this side of heaven. Related to this truth is the tendency
(a naturally-occurring one, I think) to see each Person of the Trinity
separately. For example, when we think about God the Son, Jesus the Christ, we
might tend to ignore the reality that God the Father is also present, as is the
Holy Spirit. The tendency to focus on one of the three Persons is called
“modalism”, referring to the idea that we are considering the “mode” in which
we experience God.
Considering that the possibility is
quite strong for us humans to watch our minds spin in bewilderment as we think
about God’s nature as being one God in three Persons, perhaps we can ask for God’s
help as we struggle to understand something about the mystery of God’s identity
and nature. We are, after all, made in God’s image and likeness, but though we
possess some tools for grasping the reality of God’s existence, we are limited
in our ability to see God for all that He is. Again, this side of heaven.
Come then, Holy Spirit, and enable us
to see more clearly, to know God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to remember
that when we encounter one Person of the Holy Trinity, we are also encountering
the other two Persons of that same Trinity.
We praise and glorify your holy Name
for the glimpse into your true nature that our Lord Jesus Christ has made known
to us.
AMEN.
