Created in the Image of God

Preached by Michael Cheuk
May 18, 2008, Trinity Sunday, Year A
Genesis 1:1-2:3; Psalm 8:1-9

Today is Trinity Sunday, a day in the Church year when we acknowledge the belief that we worship and serve one God in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This doctrine is one of the most difficult to understand, and it is a stumbling block for many Christians and non-Christians alike. In the next 10 minutes or so, I’ll try to explore one aspect of this doctrine to the best of my ability, but at the end of the day, I must acknowledge that our affirmation of the unity of God in three Persons is a holy mystery. Explaining the mystery of the Trinity is like trying to explain the mystery of love—we can try to apprehend it, but ultimately, we are called to live in that mystery even though we might not fully understand it.

The Bible never explicitly teaches the doctrine of the Trinity—in fact, the word “trinity” never shows up in the Bible. Nonetheless, within the pages of the Bible, there are intimations that there are three distinct Persons in the one God we worship. In the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis, we read that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the process of creation, the Spirit of God hovered over the dark, chaotic waters before the word of God was spoken to create light and the rest of the world out of chaos. Also, in the beginning of the Gospel of John, we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” In these verses here, John is writing about Jesus as the Word of God who was in the beginning with God in the creation of all things. Through these two passages, we can see how a Trinitarian God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—created the universe.

From Cheers to Jeers

March 16, 2008, Sixth Sunday in Lent
Matthew 21:1-11; Matthew 26:14–27:66

For Palm/Passion Sunday, instead of having a sermon, we decided to let the Matthew reading speak for itself. For the first half of the service, we celebrated Palm Sunday and read Matthew 21:1-11 for the “cheers” part of the service. Then we used a script based on Matthew 26:14–27:66 taken from The New Handbook of the Christian Year by Hoyt Hickman, Don Saliers, Laurence Stookey and James White (pp. 135-141). Several members of the congregation read parts out of the script. That reading served as the “jeers” part of the service. An .mp3 of the reading can be found here.

It was a lot of scripture of being read this past Sunday in worship, but sometimes, I think it is important to let scripture speak for itself, especially during Holy Week, when there were so many events leading up to Christ’s crucifixion. And as someone who believes in the perspicuity of Scripture, this Sunday was an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to work through the clear meaning of the written word to impress upon us the depth of love shown to us by the living Word.