The Ache of our Age

• We're more connected than ever and more alone than ever.
• U.S. Surgeon General: loneliness = public health crisis. Equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes/day.
• Over 60% of young adults say they feel seriously lonely on a regular basis.
• Barna: 1 in 3 practicing Christians say they feel lonely ‘frequently’ or ‘constantly.’ 

What kind of God could satisfy our deepest longing for connection?

Matthew 28:16-20
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

1. The Trinity Is Revealed Through Jesus

"When we shall have done away with the incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic, that three are one, and one is three, when we shall have knocked down the artificial scaffolding reared to mask from view the simple structure of Jesus; when, in short, we shall have unlearned everything which has been taught since his day, and get back to the pure and simple doctrines he inculcated, we shall then be truly and worthily his disciples." - Thomas Jefferson.

The Trinity is not a puzzle to solve but a pattern to live into.

Matthew 28:16-18
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

John 10:30
I and the Father are one.

John 14:9
He who has seen me has seen the Father.

2. The Trinity is the Community of Love

Matthew 28: 19-20
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

"Is it not true that you cannot say all that is contained for you in the word 'God' unless you say, 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit?' That is to believe in the Trinity." - James Stuart

"Believers did not formulate the doctrine of the Trinity in order to resolve the mystery of God’s self-revelation, but rather to preserve that mystery." - Paul Jewett.

1 John 4:8
“God is love.”

What the Trinity Reveals:
-One God
-Three Persons
-Each fully God

The Trinity shows us how to live: In love, in mutuality, in community.

Come Home

Nicene Creed:

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. 
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. 
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy, catholic (universal) and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.