Truth beyond Tradition
It’s that time of year again, friends! For the next few weeks everything is going to be going green, in celebration of all things Irish. The green color comes from the amazing Irish countryside, covered from coast to coast with clover, of as the Irish say, seamróg (where we get our word shamrock!) As the story goes, the people couldn’t understand Patrick’s preaching about the God who was Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all together. They say he reached down, picked up a 3-leafed shamrock and said, “It’s like this”, and the rest is history.
Warning! We shouldn’t take our analogies from history or from nature. The 3 leaves on the shamrock can show us God in 3 parts, but there is a problem – God’s Word teaches us about Him as 3 persons, not 3 parts. This is actually an ancient heresy (a false Christian teaching) called partialism, thinking that Father, Son, and Spirit work separately and come together in some sort of committee meeting to form the Trinity. The shamrock can be divided out into 3 parts, but when it comes to the Trinity, God’s Word teaches us otherwise.
Consider the way Father, Spirit, and Word (Jesus is called the Word of God) are in the creation story (Genesis 1:2-3) or the way Father, Son, and Spirit are there in Jesus’ baptism (Luke 3:21-22). There will always be aspects of God that we will never understand, but take heart! His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. 2 Peter 1:3 How else might we know the eternal Creator, unless He comes to us as the Son, to save us by dying on the cross in our place and rising from the grave to conquer death forever? How else can we be filled and empowered to live for Him, except by His Spirit?
Analogies can help us think about God, let’s stick with the Bible as our only trustworthy source for faith and action. And every time we see a shamrock, let’s thank God for how He extends grace to us, Father, Son, and Spirit.
Let me close by saying “Erin go Bragh” (Ireland forever!) After all, we McElraths are part Irish!
With aloha in Christ
Pastor Jamie
