Numbers 6:22-27 * May 30, 2010 * Trinity Sunday * Pastor Leyrer

Dear Friends in Christ,

We just completed our yearly exercise of using the Athanasian Creed. The introductory paragraph tells us it was named after “Athanasius, a staunch defender of the Christian faith in the fourth century.” If you know church history you know that to be accurate. When basic Christian truths like the Trinity were under attack and in the face of fierce opposition, false teachers and several banishments, Athanasius persevered, which gave rise to the Latin saying: Athanasius contra mundum – “Athanasius against the world.”

When Athanasius was growing old God raised up another man whom he also used mightily for the preservation of the faith. His name was Augustine. There is an interesting story told about him which will help serve our purpose for today. I’m not sure if it’s fact or fiction, but either way it makes a good point. It goes like this.

Augustine was a brilliant man and a gifted church leader, but at one point in his life he struggled with the Bible teaching that God is triune – one God but three persons. To him the Trinity just didn’t make mathematical or logical sense. He could figure out most things, but he couldn’t wrap his brain around this, and he couldn’t seem to let it go.

One day he was again pondering this teaching as he walked along the North African sea shore (that’s where he lived). He was still deep in thought when he came across a little boy with cupped hands going back and forth from the ocean to a ditch he had dug in the sand on the beach. He did this again and again.

Augustine observed this for a while and then finally asked the boy what he was doing. The boy answered matter-of-factly: “I’m emptying the ocean into my ditch.”

That was an “aha” moment for Augustine. He thought to himself that he was trying to do the exact same thing. In his attempt to understand the trinity he was trying to empty the vastness and wisdom of God into the small ditch of his mind. And, as the story goes, from that time on Augustine didn’t have any trouble with this basic Bible teaching.

When it comes to the trinity we are all like Augustine. The good news is the teaching that God is triune is not something that has to be understood, it only needs to be enjoyed.

And that is what we intend to do on this Trinity Sunday. While there is but one God, because of the fact He is triune

WE ARE A THRICE BLESSED PEOPLE

²² The LORD said to Moses, ²³ "Tell Aaron and his sons, 'This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:  ²⁴ " ' "The LORD bless you and keep you; ²⁵ the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; ²⁶ the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." ' ²⁷ "So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."

These are familiar words to us. They are also deeply comforting words.

We hear them at the end of the service most of the times we gather for worship. They are the parting words from God we take with us as we leave to go home. And when we hear them – or perhaps, better, when we receive them – we respond by singing “Amen” three times. Which means: “Yes; so be it.”

We call these words the “Aaronic” blessing (or “benediction”) because, as we just heard, God instructed Moses to instruct Aaron and his sons (who served as the religious leaders of the day) to proclaim these words of blessing upon God’s people. These instructions were given shortly after the People of God had been led out of slavery in Egypt and were en route to the Promised Land.

These words and the comfort they conveyed were obviously important for God’s people at that time in their lives, but would actually become even more important to in the years to come. You may remember from your Bible history that it wasn’t too far into their journey that the People of God began to complain and rebel and generally test the patience of God.

Finally God had enough. He told them that with the exception of Joshua and Caleb none of the adults – including Moses himself – would ever enter the Promised Land. So for forty years the people wandered in the wilderness. During that time they would need to be continually reminded of what it was that held them together. What held them together was their place under the blessing and name of God.

The other blessing/benediction we use in church comes from the inspired pen of the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. For this reason we commonly refer to it as the “Pauline” blessing. That’s the one that goes: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

In the Pauline blessing the Triune God is clearly evident. In the three phrases of the Aaronic blessing the Triune God is there as well, just a little less noticeably. What does come through loud and clear is this: through understanding this blessing and appropriating what it means through faith, God puts his name on us and we take our place in His family.

Let’s briefly break this blessing down into its three distinctive parts. Along the way we’ll call attention to the Trinity and how each person of the Triune God works in our lives.

The Lord bless you and keep you.

This reminds us that God our Heavenly Father takes care of us. He blesses us. We use this word a lot and the exact and full range of its meaning is hard to pin down, but behind it is the idea that God – the only One who truly has the power to do so – bestows good things upon us (to the Hebrew mind this means the intangible things that money can’t buy) and makes good things happen for us according to His divine design and plan for our lives.

And part of that blessing is that He keeps us – that is, He protects us and preserves us both body and soul.

All those promises of God’s providence in Scripture come to mind. We think, for example, of Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount on how the God who cares for the birds of the air and so splendidly clothes the grass of the field will certainly also take care of us, the crown of His creation. Or Jesus’ words that the very hairs on our head are numbered and not one falls to the ground without God’s permission.

Such promises remind us that we are indeed a blessed and kept people. They also remind us that while a consumer oriented culture such as the one we live in finds its meaning and value in what it has, we as the People of God find our value in who – and specifically whose – we are.

And while some depict God as a heavenly tyrant who has to be pleased and appeased and cajoled and tricked into liking us by us behaving in a certain way, we know Him for who and what He is: a loving, protecting and approachable Heavenly Father who never takes His eye off His children. In other words, a God who blesses and keeps us.

The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

This reminds us of how God has smiled upon us and provided us with His grace through His Son, Jesus Christ. Paul put it this way: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” We who know the Gospel message are rich indeed. How wealthy are we?

John Newton, best known for writing the hymn “Amazing Grace,” also wrote:

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear!

It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds and drives away all fear.

Sorrows soothed, wounds healed, fears driven away; add to that the assurance of sins forgiven and a place in heaven reserved – those are things that money can’t buy. Such wealth is ours for one reason alone: God has been gracious to us in Jesus Christ.

The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

This reminds us that God the Holy Spirit has allowed us to understand the truth of God’s Word. As a result we are at peace with God.

The Lord has turned his face toward us. Or as we usually say it, he looks with favor upon us. There is an interesting word picture here. In olden days if a person had an audience with the king and, after listening, the king turned his face away from the person, the session was over. Even today if we are talking to someone and they turn their face away from us, we get the idea that they really don’t want to have anything to do with us. “So and so wouldn’t even look at me” we’ll say.

But thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit, God turns his face toward us. We are his children and he is vitally interested in our lives. He looks with favor on us. And that brings us peace – which is another interesting subject.

In the original Hebrew the word we translate “peace” is “shalom.” It’s another one of those words that is hard to fully explain. Language scholars tell us that it comes from a root word that conveys a sense of wholeness, even perfection. “Shalom” means the inner tranquility and spiritual serenity and general sense of wholeness that comes with the assurance that God knows and amply supplies all that is necessary for life’s journey.

Practically speaking, the quiet contentment and satisfying fulfillment of knowing things are and will be okay – physically and emotionally now and spiritually now and forever because of Jesus Christ – is “shalom.” And it is ours.

Bottom line message of this text: We are blessed by God because we bear His name; thrice-blessed because we know His nature:

We have God the Father who created us and continues to care for us; we have God the Son, our Savior, who lived, died and rose again for the forgiveness of our sins and the assurance of our place in heaven; we have God the Holy Spirit who has brought us to an understanding of the truths of God and put our hearts at peace.

So while we cannot intellectually understand the Trinity, we don’t have to. We have only to enjoy all the comfort our Triune God provides. And the familiar blessing we’ve considered today helps us do just that every time we hear it. Amen.