Nicene Creed - 2
Nicene Creed Sermon Series – II
God the Father almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth
Corinne de Klerk, Ordinand
Trinity Sunday, 15 June 2025
On this second Sunday of reflecting on the Nicene Creed, which also happens to be Trinity Sunday and some fathers may have received special attention this morning, I have the pleasure to be talking about the first person of the Trinity. None of the 3 persons are uncontroversial, and the Father is certainly not without challenges – spoiler alert : I do not pretend to be able to solve these.
Our Muslim brothers and sisters have 99 names for Allah the Almighty. Father is not one of them. The Shema starts emphatically Hear, O Israel, the L-rd is our G‑d, the L-rd is One. Our trinitarian God is something that sets us apart from the other Abrahamic traditions. Why do we complicate matters?
The Trinity is not mentioned in the Bible, yet the 3 persons are found throughout the Bible. The most obvious moment is where they are all mentioned together at Jesus’ baptism by John. Jesus is baptised, the Spirit alights on him and the voice of the Father is heard.
Arguably, an earlier moment is at Creation. We believe in God the Creator of Heaven and Earth. The Father creates, the Spirit hovers over the waters and the Word who is Jesus was with God and was God. Indeed, when God makes humans in Genesis 1, he says Let us make mankind. But the Trinity is a mystery. Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, a 20th century theologian and a favourite of mine said this :
“… There is one God, but He is not one Person; He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is an ocean of love and joy beyond anything that we can conceive and beyond anything that could exist in one person.”[1]
Talking about God brings the problem of not only pro-nouns but of words. Our words do not fit God, God is too other.
God is not a Father, or a Son, or a Spirit the way we understand these words in our culture, in our time. God is more, greater and different. Our religious language originated in an era that was not in any way politically correct, however, many centuries later, we are still using that language. But be that as it may, we have no way of describing God adequately, because we do not fully understand how God is.
St Augustine of Hippo taught that all knowledge was a gift of grace, for which we must strive under the guidance of pre-existing belief – unless you believe, you will not understand.[2] We cannot understand God unless we reach out with faith to engage with what is beyond description. You must trust to believe, and this reveals itself in relationship. The trinitarian God is most intrinsically a God of relationship.
So we reach out with faith when we pray as Jesus taught Our Father who art in Heaven. When we try to understand that which is beyond comprehension we resort to metaphors. And the basis of these metaphors more often than not is Biblical. God the Son became enfleshed and walked on this earth as part of Creation and gave us stories to explain God’s Kingdom and God’s character.
In the Bible there are metaphors, like the parables, which try to approach an explanation of the nature of God. And there are the words of Jesus, not always easy to understand. But one significant way into the first person of the Trinity, is the fact that Jesus when he prays, calls God Abba, daddy or poppa. An affectionate term for father. And whether we use words like fatherly or motherly or like a parent or lover in the here and now to describe God, is actually not relevant. Words are but an estimation of a description of God.
You can only be a Father in relationship to something other. God is not only relationship within God’s self, but also in relationship with God’s Creation. In the end, when we talk about God the Father, it is the characteristics we ascribe to Them that should help us approach the divine community of diversity
And in that way, Islam with it’s 99 names for Allah the Almighty has a point we can learn from. God is all that. Yet more.
Do you know why a camel looks as haughty as it does and always seems to be looking down on humans? It is not only because it can survive in the desert, but also it is said to be the only creature who knows the 100th name of Allah the merciful.
Christians have names to describe God that our brothers and sisters from other faiths do not share. One of them is Emmanuel, God with us. The person of God who comes down to earth to be one of us and proclaim the Kingdom of the Father and promises the Spirit, is a key to understanding a little more about God. Yet there is still mystery.
Back to the Nicene Creed. The Creed refers to Creation as a significant aspect of God. Creativity is a divine characteristic, that humans were blessed with. Jesus was a carpenter, a builder, he made things. It can be an act of worship to be creative. We can find God in Creation, because of the way it was made, with beauty, intricacy, humour (platypus? penguin?). God acts within Their Creation – through the person of Jesus, through the actions of the Spirit, all pointing back to the loving Creator who cares. N.T. Wright said this : When we look at the world and see beauty, order, complexity, and life, we are seeing signs of the God who made it and loves it.[3] God is revealed in Creation.
It is about relationship. Creation is an Open System. Open systems science is methodology about systems whose operation involves interaction with the outside world. It emphasizes flow and change and shows the importance of history and context in shaping the future. We see a world comprised of patterns of relationships which embrace paradox, mystery and emergence. Open systems science acknowledges that the world is complex and that we influence the outcome. We were made to play a formative role in the relationships we enter into.
It is about our hearts reaching out in faith to know the God who loved us enough to give His only son to die on the cross, rise again and send the Spirit to counsel, guide and inspire us. It is about us desiring to be known for who we are and be loved extravagantly.
It is about yearning to know a God who Jesus called daddy, and about whom Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, the apostle to the apostles in John 20:17 : “But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God”. It is about wanting a relationship with the God Jesus invites us to call Father and maybe to see God as the one where we find our basis, a home, our security. The Bible tells us even the hairs on our heads are numbered and our tears caught in a bottle and recorded.
In the Dutch language, there are 2 words that do not translate well into English – and are hard to pronounce for most people because they are so guttural. One is gezellig, which some people may have heard off. Gezellig is like cosy, the Danish hygge, but it is always with people, like sitting in front of a fireplace on a cold winter night with friends, toasting marsh mallows or drinking wine, and feeling warm and at home. Gezellig.
Geborgen is the overriding step. You are in that same situation, but now the people with you are not just friends, they are loved ones. You are secure in location, secure in who you are and you are in the best company there is. Geborgen. It can also be used for a baby tucked safely inside their mother’s womb. Safe and warm and loved. It is what we pray for all children to experience, knowing that not all do and mourning over that fact.
Geborgen is the feeling that we try to convey when we speak of God the Father. That is what the Creed attempts to put into words. And what it appeals to is this shared bit of stardust in our DNA, the fact that we are wired for connection and love.
A way of dealing with theological debates is to let go of prescriptive language and resort to metaphors, parables and intuition to approach the eternal. To see the world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower as William Blake said. We need to use our imagination as a way into understanding the God we acknowledge in the Creed.
I believe in God the Father, the Parent, the Creator, the Ocean of Love, the one where I am geborgen. The point is that it is God who wants a relationship with us, who deeply cares and who is in the here and not yet and who extends an open invitation to us to walk with Him in our time here on earth.
I mentioned Augustine before and will end with him as well. He said: “for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it comes to rest in you.”[4]
So we have spoken about how we can not understand God and therefore words fail when we try to describe the Trinity. However, we were made to be in relationship with each other and with God. So we can talk about the feeling of God the Father – that feeling of being the object of total, awesome love when our hearts find their rest.
So on my last Sunday with you as your ordinand - I will be back – this is my prayer. That we my dear St Bene’t’s brothers and sisters, my friends and Church family, may experience, rest and delight in being loved by God, Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] P. 31 Newbigin, Sin and Salvation
[2] P. 92 Newbigin, Sin and Salvation
[3] N.T. Wright, Simply Christian, Why Christianity makes sense
[4] Augustine, Confessions
[5] N.T. Wright, Simply Christian, Why Christianity makes sense