Sermon: "Who are you?"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

[This sermon by Bishop vonRosenberg was delivered using the following notes.]

The mystery of faith that we commemorate today stretches our perceptions of reality and challenges our common sense. The doctrine of the Trinity proclaims that God is one substance but three persons – one God, known in three manifestations. And that is indeed a stretch for our perception of reality and a challenge to our common sense.

This mystery of faith – the Trinity – provides the subject matter of the Creeds, those liturgical faith statements that we make each week. And if we consider the content of the Creeds, then we wade into the mystery of one substance and three persons – the three in one and one in three. However, as someone has written, “The Creeds proclaim the mystery of God, they do not define it.” Indeed, that mystery of who God is cannot finally be defined, but only proclaimed. The mystery proclaimed is that of the Trinity – the God of one substance but three persons.

Mysterious though the Trinity may be, however, perhaps our own experience actually contains some suggestions, some hints, of its meaning. That is, a partial understanding of the Trinity’s mystery may actually emerge from our lives. For instance, each of us has been perceived as different people at different times. Under different circumstances – or by different individuals – we may seem to be different people ourselves.

For example, I realize that, as bishop, I serve in a variety of sometimes-conflicting roles. To our clergy, I am to be chief pastor of the diocese … the person to whom they may come with problems and difficulties. Yet, I also serve as chief deployment officer for those same clergy … the one who makes recommendations for new callings. And, then, sometimes, I function as police chief as well … the one who makes judgments about certain behaviors. Thus, three distinct roles are placed on me as bishop … three persons, in a sense. At the same time, though, I continue actually to be the same, one individual.

We all have such complicated combinations of roles. Indeed, in our own experience, we encounter a mystery not entirely unlike the Trinity. We are known differently by different people, who have differing awarenesses and points of view. And this is the important point – the fundamental reality in all this involves knowing and being known … knowing and being known.

The truth depicted by the doctrine of the Trinity addresses the means by which we know God … the identity of God … who God is. The persons of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – name the ways that we know God. Our readings today provide us examples of people struggling to know God, by means of certain access points – that is, the persons of God.

The Old Testament reading, from Exodus, deals with Moses who encounters the first person of the Trinity in a burning bush. In the mystery and the awe of that encounter, Moses has a basic question – “Who are you?” Moses seeks to know God.

The reading from the Letter to the Romans deals with the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity – and with who that person is. Paul explains that by means of the Spirit, we are adopted into the household of God, and therefore, we become “joint heirs with Christ” of God’s promises. The Holy Spirit is the one who enables these things – in Baptism and at other times – the means by which we know God in action through the Church.

Finally, the Gospel reading today deals with Nicodemus who sets out under cover of night to discover more about Jesus and to know Jesus, the second person of the Trinity. And, in the encounter with Jesus, Nicodemus’ basic question is this: “Who are you?”

This is the fundamental question in relationships – “Who are you?” That’s what parents want to know – and struggle to find out – when a new baby comes into their lives. And the baby probably wants to know the same thing about them. “Who are you?” is the basic question for individuals in a dating relationship – and in marriages, too, for that matter. That’s the question we ask of one another when our roles in life change. The question of identity also has much to do with our actions this morning in Baptism and in Confirmation. Indeed, as we exist in all kinds of relationships with other people and with God, that is what we always want and need to know: “Who are you?”

“Who are you?” Those words name the quest to know, and they imply the need to be known. The Bible itself – and, indeed, the entire story of our faith – may be considered in those terms. On the one hand, we learn of people all through the Bible – people like Moses and Nicodemus – who seek to know God. And, on the other hand, we learn of God who seeks to reveal himself to human beings – to be known. This dynamic – to know and to be known – provides the material that builds relationships with other people and with God.

God knows us well. As the Psalmist writes, “Lord, you have searched me out and known me; you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You trace my journeys and my resting places; and are acquainted with all my ways … Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain to it”(139:1, 2, 5). There exists nothing about us that God does not know. Our thoughts and our motives, as well as our words and our actions, are completely transparent to God.

However, God in his infinite knowledge chooses to be known also. God created human beings to be in relationship with him. The Psalmist ascribes these words to God: “Be still, then, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth”(46:11). “Be still, then, and know that I am God.” Thus, God calls to Moses from the burning bush. Thus, also, God in Christ welcomes Nicodemus. God chooses to be in relationship. Therefore, God responds to the question, “Who are you?” God reveals himself over and over again, for God wills to be known by us.

God is one God. But that one God is known to us – and has been revealed to us – in three persons. The Trinity of persons provides us the means by which we may know God.

God the Father is creator of all that is. The Creator God is source and reason for being of everything – everything that we know about and all that we do not.

God the Son is redeemer, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Jesus makes possible our right relationship with God by becoming a human being. God becomes known in Jesus so that we might know the Godly call of our own humanity.

God the Holy Spirit is sanctifier, the presence of God in Christ even now. The Spirit provides power and direction to the Body of Christ, the Church, today. God’s Spirit is our motive for mission, our impetus for fellowship, and our meaning in worship.

Thanks be to God, therefore – one God in three persons. May we know God more and more in the persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And, as we come to know and see God more clearly, may we also love God more dearly and follow God more nearly, day by day. Amen.

Copyright © 2003 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee