Holy Trinity Sunday

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Keeping the members of CALC connected.

May 30, 2021

Canadian Association of Lutheran Congregations (CALC)

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It’s Trinity Sunday, the Sunday on which we teach and confess our God as Triune in accordance with the 1st Article of the Augsburg Confession:

“Our Churches, with common consent, do teach that the decree of the Council of Nicaea concerning the Unity of the Divine Essence and concerning the Three Persons, is true and to be believed without any doubting; that is to say, there is one Divine Essence which is called and which is God: eternal, without body, without parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, the Maker and Preserver of all things, visible and invisible; and yet there are three Persons, of the same essence and power, who also are coeternal, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And the term “person” they use as the Fathers have used it, to signify, not a part or quality in another, but that which exists in and of itself.

We believe, in one God, who is unseen, unknowable, indivisible, and unsearchable. The one God is all powerful, knows all and is present everywhere. Yet, that one God is also revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with each person existing in and of itself. “How can that be?” How can I confess something that I don’t understand? Over the centuries theologians have proposed analogies aimed at helping us understand the Trinity.

There’s the water analogy. Water can be found in three forms: liquid, solid (ice) and vapor (steam or clouds). In the same way God is found or revealed in three forms: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A variant of this analogy uses a person and the various roles a person takes. An adult male can be revealed to the world in three different and distinct ways, as a husband, as a father and as an employer. The same man has three different roles, purposes and ways fulfilling the same. They seem like perfect analogies. They point to a single substance, in one case water and the other case one man, and they show how this one substance or person can take on distinctly different forms. However, these analogies reflect an ancient heresy that theologians call “Modalism.” Modalism declares that there is one God who took on different forms, namely, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Augsburg Confession rejects this analogy. Article 1 states that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three persons that are distinct from one another. Therefore, it is impossible to think of our Triune God in terms of one man with three roles or three forms of the same substance like water in a liquid, solid or gaseous state. Modalism was condemned as a heresy by early councils of the church.

Then there’s the “sun” analogy. The sun is a star that emits light and heat. In this analogy God the Father is represented by the sun (the star), Jesus as the light that emanates from the sun, and the Holy Spirit as the heat that emanates from the sun. This analogy seems to overcome the downfall of Modalism. The star, light and heat are all connected, yet, are all distinctly different. Perfect analogy! Right? No! This analogy is also reflective of an ancient heresy dubbed “Arianism” by some scholars. The problem with this analogy is that the heat and light are not of the same nature as the star but are created by the star. If the Son is like sunlight and the Holy Spirit is like heat, they become creations of the Holy Father and not of the same essence and power God the Father. For this reason, Arianism was condemned as a heresy by early councils of the church.

Then there is St. Patrick’s clover analogy and its variants. St. Patrick used a three leaf clover to describe God. Just as each of the petals of a cloverleaf combine to form a perfect three-leafed clover, so the Father, Son and Holy Spirit combine to form the perfect God. An egg is equally efficacious for this analogy. Just as the shell, white and yoke make a perfect egg, so the father, Son and Holy Spirit make the perfect God. The problem with this analogy is that it portrays the indivisible all powerful God, to a clover than can be torn asunder and an egg that can be cracked and the yoke and white extracted and beaten together to make my breakfast. I have a hard time finding the purpose and the profundity of these images. They do not make me want to worship God in Trinity.

The problem with all these analogies is that they attempt to reduce a profound and unfathomable mystery of God to object lessons with childlike characteristics. In the end these analogies create more confusion than clarity. The words of Evelyn Underhill immediately come to mind. “If God were small enough to be understood, he would not be big enough to be worshipped.” Amen sister Underhill! Amen and Amen!

Attempts to find an analogy which rationalizes one God, all powerful of one essence, and yet there are three Persons, of the same essence and power, who also are coeternal, leads to conclusions that can seem senseless, logically unacceptable, and/or self-contradictory. The only thing that can hold God revealed as one essence, yet three distinct persons, is faith. The faith of a child.

My son called me “Daddy” and my wife “Mommy” when he was a little boy. His use of those labels was not based on his careful examination of his birth certificate, his understanding of our relationship as parents or the union that produced him, and/or the results of DNA tests that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt we were his biological parents. He called us Mommy and Daddy because we told him we were his parents. Our words were reinforced by our actions. We bathed him, fed him, clothed him, housed him, disciplined him, forgave him, taught him, comforted him and showed our love for him in a myriad of different ways.

In the same way, I believe in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit as one God in three persons because I was baptized in that Triune name. In baptism I died with the Son and rose again. I received a washing of regeneration. I was clothed with Christ and received the Holy Spirit. I was declared a child of God and made a part of God’s larger family, the Church. In that church I have been fed, comforted and disciplined by God’s word, received forgiveness in the words of Absolution and received Christ’s presence and the forgiveness of sin in Holy Communion. I experienced God’s love and discipline in a myriad of different ways. The Apostle Paul declared that Faith is a gift from God through the word of God. “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” (Romans 10:17)

In Christ

Pastor Ed Skutshek, President

The date for CALC's 2021 Annual General Convention has been changed from Saturday June 12th to Saturday September 11th. The convention will be convened as a one-day event beginning at 9:00 AM and concluding at 5:30 PM (MDT) and will include the annual business meeting and an address by a keynote speaker. If it is impossible or impractical to hold the convention as a hybrid meeting on September 11; it will be held on that date as a totally online convention via ZOOM.

The Convention will be held at the Coast Nisku Inn and Conference Center located at 1101 4 Street, Nisku, Alberta. Our venue is located minutes south of the Edmonton International Airport. An official notice of the change of the date of the 2021 national convention was mailed to each congregation on May 12th. An update on the plans for the convention will be available in next week's e-Connector.

Online Worship

Click the button below. You will be re-directed to CALC's website. Click on "CALC ONLINE" in the navigation pane at the top of the Homepage and you will be directed to an alphabetical list of congregation's with online worship services. Click and enjoy!!!

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