Trinity Sunday, 2002
Revelation 4-5

In 1609 Galileo produced a telescope of thirty power. The new device made distant objects seem close. What he saw through the lens was so incredible that he feared it was some kind of deception. He would look at objects near and far through his telescope, then walk up to the objects to be sure he had not been tricked. After hundreds of such experiments he was finally sure his invention was providing him accurate images. He then began using the instrument as a toy to spy on the celestial spheres.

What Galileo viewed through his telescope when he first turned it on the heavens so amazed him that he promptly published a description of what he saw. The twenty-four-page pamphlet The Starry Messenger astonished the learned world. In it, Galileo ecstatically reported the "most beautiful and delightful sight." Until then, all the fixed stars seen "without artificial powers of sight" could actually be counted. Now the telescope "set distinctly before the eyes other stars in myriads which have never been seen before, and which surpass the old, previously known, stars in number more than ten times." Now the diameter of the moon appeared "about thirty times larger, its surface about nine hundred times, and its solid mass nearly 27,000 times larger than when it is viewed only with the naked eye: and consequently any one may know with the certainty that is due to the use of our senses, that the Moon certainly does not possess a smooth and polished surface, but one rough and uneven, and just like the face of the Earth itself, is everywhere full of vast protuberances, deep chasms, and sinuosities."

Just as the telescope afforded Galileo an unprecedented vision, so the Spirit transported St. John out of space and time in order to contemplate an equally amazing scene. The Apostle John's vision will be the subject of our study on this Trinity Sunday.

Reading Revelation 4:1-2. [Read them.]

A voice like a trumpet calls to John, "Come up here." Who is it that goes up and when does it happen? A popular misinterpretation holds that this coming up refers to the rapture, the belief that the Church will be snatched away from this world before a coming tribulation. However, the fact that John is the only man lifted up casts doubt on such a viewpoint. More likely, the Holy Spirit transports John up to receive inspired information. Revelation 4:2 states that John was "in the Spirit," during his heavenly visit. Revelation 1:10 tells us that John was "in the Spirit on the Lord's Day." What is the Lord's Day? It is Sunday, the day of the week the Church chose to worship after Christ's resurrection. Combining the Sunday worship "in the Spirit" of Revelation 1:10, with St. John's rapture "in the Spirit" of Revelation 4:2, and with John's immediate vision of saints and angels around Christ's throne -- weaving together these three strands produces an interesting conclusion: the Apostle John ascended into Heaven in the Spirit during the liturgical worship of the Lord's Day. If this is true, John's vision took place in the Church on Sunday during the celebration of Holy Communion. The Holy Spirit mystically raised him to see the glory and majesty of God's reign.

At first glance, this may sound like a strange concept, yet it has a long chronology winding back to the early Church. The early fathers set forth a doctrine called the Ascension of the Church. The Ascension they were talking about was not Christ's bodily ascension after the Resurrection, nor the Second Coming at the end of time. Rather it was the Church's constant and progressive drawing nigh to Christ in worship in order to behold His glory, rejoice in His presence, and receive His grace. The writer to the Hebrews explains it this way: "you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant" (Hebrews 12:22-24). In other words the communion of saints is composed of those living on earth, and the souls of those who have passed on above. That assembly gathers regularly with myriads of angels to worship the King on His throne, and feast with King Jesus at His banquet table.

The Church Father Germanus in A.D. 715 comments upon this teaching. He said: "The souls of Christians are called together to assemble with the prophets, apostles, and hierarchs in order to recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the mystical banquet of the Kingdom of Christ. Therefore having come into the unity of faith and communion of the Spirit through the grace of Him who died for us and is sitting at the right hand of the Father, we are no longer on earth, but standing by the royal Throne of God in heaven, where Christ is, just as He Himself says: 'Righteous Father, sanctify in Your name those whom You gave me, so that where I am, they may be with Me' (John 17). Calvin agreed with this concept. He wrote: 'In order that pious souls may duly take hold of Christ in the Lord's Supper, they must be raised up to heaven. And for the same reason it was established of old that before consecration the people should be told in a loud voice to "lift up their hearts." Consequently, it would not be out of place to think of John's lofty vision taking place during the Church's normal Sunday ascension at the eucharistic feast.

Let us now consider the images and activity of the throne room liturgy. Reading Revelation 4:6-11. [Read them.]

The symbolism is meant to highlight the majesty and transcendence of the Sovereign Creator and Ruler of the universe. The throne of God is nothing less than the axis mundi, the center of the cosmos. The four living beings correspond to the four corners of the earth. The twenty-four elders symbolize the Church. As the axis mundi, the government of the universe hinges on what God deigns from His throne. He rules the world from there by means of His holy angels. Matter, space, and time are created by God, and are ruled directly and actively by Him. In such a setting, pedestrian chattiness is not proper protocol. The living creatures and elders display utmost awe and reverence for the dreadful Deity. They address the Lord in the most exalted language, crying: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"

Our prayer book liturgy parallels the heavenly. The officiating priest says, "Therefore with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious Name, evermore praising Thee and saying." Then we sing: "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts, Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory, glory be to Thee, O Lord, Most High. Amen!"

The many similarities between heavenly worship, Old Testament temple worship, and New Testament liturgical worship is a fertile theme. We will have to treat it another day, though. On Trinity Sunday we are called on to contemplate the glory of the Trinity. So what does the Revelation passage have to do with the Trinity?

The text presents all three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God the Father is the one sitting on His throne before the glassy sea, a rainbow surrounds Him. From the axis mundi, or throne, emanate lightning, thunder, and voices. These phenomena are characteristic of the shekinah glory cloud that accompanies God's presence.

The Holy Spirit is represented in verse five: "Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God." Why would the Holy Spirit be described as seven lamps and seven spirits? The linking of seven with the Holy Spirit goes back to Isaiah 11:2. There the prophet foretells how the Holy Spirit would descend upon the Christ: "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." The Septuagint, or Greek translation adds the seventh gift of "true godliness." At St. Luke's we sing an ancient hymn that uses this figure: "Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, And lighten with celestial fire. Thou the anointing Spirit art, Who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart." The candelabrum of seven candles is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit. A seven-sticked menorah was used in Jewish temple worship, and with Pentecost the Church retained this symbol. Hence, St. John notices the representation of God the Father and God the Spirit. What about the Second person of the Trinity? Where is God the Son?

He is there. John describes Him in Revelation 5:6. [Read it.]

The Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God stands in the midst of the throne and the Holy Spirit proceeds from Him in the form of the Seven Spirits. We are told that the Spirit stands in relation to Christ as the eyes of the Lamb. Why His eyes? With His eyes He oversees the mission of the Church in every region of the earth. Of course Jesus is not called a Lamb because He is sweet and gentle, rather because of His sacrificial work on the cross.

All three Persons of the deity are now accounted for. The four living creatures sing out, "Holy, Holy, Holy." (Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus!) The Church has long taken the thrice-repeated "Sanctus" cry as an expression of Trinitarian faith. Each Person of the Triune God receives the designation "Holy."

Where does the doctrine of the Trinity come from? The Holy Spirit guided the Church to define the Trinity in creedal form at the councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381). The word "trinity" is not found in the Bible, nonetheless it is certainly explicit in the teaching of Scripture.

The Bible teaches us that God is a Person, and so we can pray to God. The Bible also teaches us that God is three Persons, and so we can pray to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. God's oneness is not the same as His threeness, but God is every bit as much one as He is three, and every bit as much three as He is one. Orthodox Christians, therefore, are not tri-theists. We do not believe in three gods. Nor are we pure monotheists; rather, we are trinitarian. The Church asks us to recite this concept of the deity in the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. These creeds are absolute, objective truth. We express our praise to the triune God by reciting them.

Why are the creeds so important for the Church today? Creeds were formed in order to combat error and human arrogance. Councils met and creeds were formulated not so much to preserve unity as to defend truth. The creeds and councils are still crucial. To the extent the Church abandons the creeds, heresy proliferates. We have much to gain from our predecessors in the faith who have in many instances already fought the same battles we fight. Every one of the cults that has arisen in modern times in some way repeats the errors of the schismatic sects and heretical groups of the first centuries.

What are those major heresies that keep cropping up? Most cultic ideas can be boiled down into a few. First there is Arianism. This system has as its chief cornerstone the denial of the true deity of Jesus Christ. The name "Arianism" stems from its proponent in the fourth century, Arius of Alexandria (d. 336). Arius taught that Jesus is something less than fully God. Arianism has resurfaced often. Servetus and Socinus promulgated Arianism at the time of the Reformation; the Unitarians took it up in the nineteenth century, and Jehovah's Witnesses blare it currently.

Gnosticism always poses a problem. The heart of Gnosticism was the belief that matter is either wretched or non-existent. Plato for instance believed that all the data of the senses were mere unsubstantial shadows. Since physicality was so mediocre, the Son of God could not have been born incarnate with a flesh and bones body, the kingdom of God could not possibly embrace matter; nor would God use bread and wine, water and oil as conveyors of His grace, and so on. Gnostics are pseudo-spiritualists. Their pride blinds them to the proper place of creation, the sacraments, and humanity in general.

Modalism is a common heresy. Modalism holds that the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit spoken of in the Bible were different modes in which the one Person of the divine monad revealed himself to man. The "liquid, solid, and vapor" example is a good way to illustrate modalism. Have you ever heard that one? People try to compare the Trinity to water. Water can take the form of liquid, solid or vapor. Unfortunately the analogy is a more accurate illustration of modalism than it is of orthodox Trinitarianism. A popular version of modalism weds modalism and panentheism. For modern modalists, the world is conceived as being in God and in a process of evolution with God. God is the world, and as the world evolves so does God, changing from one mode to another. The Athanasian Creed was composed in order to counter such nonsense. Arianism, gnosticism, and modalism; these are the three primary anti-trinitarian heresies that afflict the Church.

The Church found that in order to remain faithful to the teaching of the New Testament it had to affirm the doctrine of the Trinity. The Trinity expresses what we experience; it is the heart of our devotion. In prayer we pray to the Father, through the Spirit, in the name of the Son. In the Eucharist, the Father bestows His grace; the Son feeds us His Body and Blood; the Spirit transforms the elements and improves us as we partake of them in faith. The Father created the world; the Son redeems it, the Spirit sanctifies it. In salvation, the Father elects us, the Son dies for us, and the Spirit regenerates us. Consider suffering. The Father permits us to go through tribulation; the Son shares our suffering; the Spirit makes us holy by means of it. Saint John gazed upon the Trinity in Heaven: the Father seated at the axis mundi, the Son at his right hand, and the Spirit standing in the midst of both. We could go on and on. Dr. Peter Toon put it well. He wrote: "There is much to know about God, for He is like a glorious, everlastingly inexhaustible fountain from which we drink and continue to drink. He is super-essential being and the more we know about Him the more we realize that there is to know. Knowledge of the Lord as the Holy Trinity is fundamental. Without this knowledge we can make no progress in worship and devotion." On the other hand, with the knowledge of the Trinity we progress from glory to glory beholding the glory of the Lord.

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