Trinity Sunday - 1^st Sunday after Pentecost at Epiphany on June 3, 2007

In nomine Patri et Filii et Spiritus sancti. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Numbers 6:22-27 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."

The Hands of Our Triune God

1.  The giving hands of God the Father

2.  The working hands of God the Son

3.  The inviting hands of God the Holy Spirit

Today is Trinity Sunday. This is the day that has been celebrated in the Christian church since the 10^th century. As we have just confessed in the Athanasian Creed, the doctrine of the Trinity does not attempt to explain God. It only explains in a very elemental way what God has revealed to us about himself. To describe the tip of the iceberg above the water is not to describe the entire iceberg. So we Christians affirm the Trinity, not as an explanation of God, but simply as a way of describing what we know about him.

We see our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the threefold benediction he gave to bless his chosen people. "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."' These words have been used to end the Christian worship service for centuries. In this threefold blessing God first gave to his chosen people, and still pronounces upon us, we will consider the Hands of our Triune God.

1.  The giving hands of God the Father

Because the word “Lord” is repeated three times in the benediction, we see a reference to the Trinity. We call him our Triune God or Trinity, which means three-in-one. God has revealed himself to us in the pages of his Bible as triune – three distinct persons, yet one united God.

We must admit that we cannot understand how God is triune. No one can! But the beauty is that we don't have to. God doesn't require it. All he requires is that we believe it. A man attended a Sunday service in a new church. The pastor preached about the Trinity. After the service the man approached the pastor and said, “I enjoyed your service, but I’m not convinced of what you said. I just can’t get it through my head that there are three Persons and yet only one God.” The pastor asked the man, “What size hat do you wear?” The man replied, “6 7/8 – but why do you ask?” The pastor replied, “I was just wondering how you expected to get this great and almighty and majestic God of heaven and earth into 6 7/8!” How can we as little human beings hope to comprehend our great God?

Most of us don't understand the maze of switches and wires in our automobiles. We simply believe that our car will run. All we usually have to do is make sure there is air in the tires, oil in the engine and gas in the tank and we take off. In the same way, we know that we, in our limited human knowledge, cannot probe the depths of the Trinity, but we simply believe that the triune God acts on our behalf. We believe and trust that all three are involved in our salvation.

The LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron and his sons, 'this is how you are to bless the Israelites.’” In the book of Numbers, God was giving the traveling Israelites worship instructions for their worship services. He wanted the people to remember who was taking care of them along the way. He wanted them to know him as their gracious and merciful God, so he gave the priests the words of this benediction or blessing. We still use this blessing today at the close of our worship services to remind ourselves of God's precious promises. Each Sunday, as the pastor raises his hands to give the blessing, this reminds us of the Hands of our Triune God who continually pours out his blessings upon us.

Psalm 31 tells us: Our times are in God's Hands. “The Lord bless and keep you.” This first phrase refers especially to the giving hands of God the Father. By nature, each one of us is greedy, we are dissatisfied with what we have been given in life, and we are covetous of what others possess. We whine and complain for more and better stuff. When we don’t get what we want, we cry out that God is being unfair to us. When we do get what we want, we are often ungrateful, forgetting to give thanks. But through all of this, our heavenly Father, amazingly, still blesses us with his giving hands.

The same God who shaped our world, and “knit us together in our mothers' wombs,” continues to shape our lives by blessing us. God isn't stingy. He doesn't "hold out" on us. His giving hands are generous! Wherever we look, we can see how God gives material blessings. Look at our homes! We see cars and clothes, food and furniture, stereos and stoves, and even the electricity that is mysteriously present in the wall sockets. Look at how the Lord blesses you! He gives you the mind, the hands, the talents to make a living or care for our family. He blesses us all with various talents and abilities. He gives some the ability to sing or the talent to play golf or the gift of encouraging others. All of these blessings are to be used in our Father’s service.

Our Father keeps us, too. That means He answers our requests when we pray in the Lord's Prayer: "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." How often does our Father use His hands to keep us by preventing dangers and problems from overwhelming us? He may keep us from going to those places where we will be tempted to sin, for example, to give into peer pressure to drink alcohol at a teenage party or to steal where it would be easy. Yet, how loving our Father's hands are when He also allows testings to come into our lives. These testings may be in the form of an illness, financial difficulties, or a move away from family and friends. He promises that all things, even troubles and tragedies, will work together for the good of those who love Him. All these blessings of our giving Heavenly Father are included in these words: “the LORD bless you and keep you.”

2.  The working hands of God the Son

The second phrase of the benediction addresses the fact that human beings are rebelliously sinful. The only hope for us rebels lies in the fact that God is gracious to us. “The LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.” Here we see clearly the working hands of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

How often do life’s struggles pull you down into the ruts of despair? Reoccurring personal conflicts, wayward children, the aches and pains of old age, all have a tendency to cause us to lose our focus on our salvation. Our earthly problems tend to obstruct our vision of the work and resurrection of God the Son. We often allow despair, lingering frustrations, and hopelessness to surround us and paralyze us.

Because God knows that we are weak and sinful, he wants to bless us by making his face shine upon us and by being gracious to us. But why does God's face shine upon us? With every constant and consistent sin, we are telling God to leave us alone – that we want to live life our own way. How can God be pleased with us even though not an hour goes by where we don't sin against Him, sin that deserves eternal punishment in hell?

It's because of the working hands of the Son, Jesus Christ. He's the "blue-collar" worker of the Trinity. Jesus punched the "time-clock" in human form at Bethlehem to earn heaven for us. He allowed His perfect hands to be nailed to the cross in our place. He put in overtime on the cross to free us from our sins. His resurrection guarantees that God is appeased, satisfied, and pleased with us in Christ.

This is all a demonstration of God’s grace – God’s undeserved kindness to us. It is grace in Christ Jesus. For in Christ, God shows he loves us the most when we deserve it the least. Just as the face of a proud, new mother radiates love, so God makes his face shine upon us with a deep and profound love.

In the state of Iowa , there is a gravestone of a civil war soldier who died in the line of duty. Besides giving his name and age, the tombstone reads: "He died in the place of another." In the Civil War days, when a family man was drafted, it was legal for him to find a single man who would be willing to take his place on the battlefield. How do you think that family man felt after the war was over and he walked passed that dead soldier's gravestone?

More importantly, how do we feel when we stand in faith at Jesus' cross and empty gravestone, as we know that he volunteered to die in our place? We respond with lives of thankfulness and praise, as we spend our lives serving Him. All the blessings of forgiveness and God's grace are earned by the working hands of God the Son because: “The LORD makes His face shine upon us and is gracious to us.” 

3.  The inviting hands of God the Holy Spirit

In the third phrase of the benediction we see the inviting hands of the third person of the Trinity. It is the hands of this “unsung” hero of the Trinity that makes our Christian faith possible. Listen to how his work is described: “the LORD turn His face toward You and give you peace.”

Imagine, a party, a party with all the trimmings: the hall was paid for, the glasses filled with champagne, the food piping hot on the table, but no one came. The guests didn't come because they weren't invited. That would describe the sight in heaven if it weren't for the inviting hands of the Holy Spirit. Like a headwaiter at a restaurant who invites you to your table, the Holy Spirit invites us to the banquet feast of salvation contained in Word and Sacrament.

Each one of us Christians is a walking miracle of the Holy Spirit’s power. There may be self-made millionaires in this life, but there's no such thing as a self-made Christian. That's the Holy Spirit’s job to invite us! But, He doesn't invite us to enjoy God's approval and peace through a telephone call, email or text message. No, He invites us to believe as God's Word is preached. He invites us to believe as his baptismal waters are poured out. He invites us to believe through Christ’s body and blood that is shared.

The phrase “turn his face toward you,” indicates that the Lord gladly looks upon each of us as individuals. How sad it would be if God would turn his back on any of us, ignore us, and leave us to the lot that we deserve. How wonderful is the work of the Holy Spirit! We are rebellious to the ways of God, yet the Holy Spirit makes us God’s children by leading us to faith in Christ! We are blinded by anger and resentment, yet the Holy Spirit gives us the sight to see Jesus as the Light of the world! We keep finding ourselves lost when we follow the tantalizing ways of the world and of Satan, yet the Holy Spirit shows us the heavenly path through Christ Jesus! We are born dead in our trespasses and sins, yet the Holy Spirit gives us life eternal. Every one of us as believers are miracles of the inviting hands of the Holy Spirit! And because we believe, we are given peace that is beyond human understanding. We are given the peace that “neither life nor death, nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our LORD.” (Romans 8:38-39)

The word "amen" means so shall it be or I agree. Just as you sing a threefold “amen” as you receive the Lord’s blessing, so say “amen” to the incredible hands of our Triune God. Lord, God the Father, Creator and Preserver, bless and keep us through your giving hands! Amen, so shall it be! Lord, Jesus Christ, Savior and Redeemer, make your face shine upon us and be gracious to us through your working hands. Amen, so shall it be! Lord, Holy Spirit, Sanctifier and Counselor, turn your face toward us and give us peace through your inviting hands. Amen, so shall it be! Amen.