Bloghardt's Reflector

That it is the Cross, tells us why God cares – because God Son took on flesh, lived the life we are required by God's Law to live and died the death that God's law demands of us for our sin. The cross tells us that the Father is “For Me” the Son is “for Me” and the Spirit is “for Me.”

Now, an example might help. If you haven't noticed, my sons are practically the same size. Much to the chagrin of my oldest, who rightly thinks he should be bigger than his younger brother.

Now for some reason unbeknownst to me, the younger likes to wear the clothes of the older. So, to tell prevent wars in the name of Hanes and Fruit of the Loom, we put their initials on their clothes. “T” for “Thomas.” G for “George.” The clothes are then “marked” as theirs.

In Holy Baptism, we are marked with His Name – God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. His Name says who we are,

I'm the Father's, and the Son's, and the Holy Spirit's. We are made children of God when God marked as His own. Marks us with His Name in the water.

And we are remembering that... or reminding ourselves of that when we look at the label – when we make the sign of the Holy Cross.

Now, you aren't required to make the sign of the cross. Nor is it some magic trick. You are free not to – as long as your remember who you are in Christ.

For it is very sad when we who are children of God don't even think about who we are and who our Triune God is.

You see, we must confess that most days, we don't think of the Holy Trinity. We go about our day to day tasks. Live our lives without any thought of God.

The things we do, the things we say, unaffected by the name put on us, as if the Triune God doesn't exist. That's why we do unspeakable things to each other and to ourselves.

Now, which do you think is worse? When the unbelievers do unthinkable sins or when we who are baptized do them? Shouldn't we know better? Have we forgotten who we are? Are we going to escape the wrath of God? Do we really believe we'll be saved? Perhaps, we might check the tag again..

We bear His name, but we don't ever think about His Name or what it means or contemplate it. I mean, when was the last time that you considered the Holy Trinity? And if you who bear His name don't, how will those around you be saved by God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit?

That's why it is good to say the Athanasian Creed. It's good to learn it. To study it. It is the basics about God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that everyone who bears the name of the Triune God should know.

The Athanasian Creed sums up the great battles of the Christian faith. What good is a winning a war when we forget what was so important that we fought in the first place? And so, saying this creed reminds us of who we are and what we believe.

It speaks against the great enemies of our Christian – those that denied that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God. Such as the Judism, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarians. Or any so-called Christian denomination which would make Jesus some how less than God.

I tell you, dear friends, if Jesus is somehow less than the Father, then you and I are lost because it takes God Himself dying to save us from our sins.

This creed also guards us against those who would deny that there is One Unity, one True God, and He is our Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Here I'm talking about the Hindus, Mormons, and Buddhists. And the God within you that Oprah loves to talk about!

For there is another God other than Jesus, then we are lost! Then, we are left getting ourselves out of our sins. And no one can work their way out of the dog house that our sins have put us in with Almighty God.

So, St. Athanasius was a short Ethiopian who served as a pastor in Africa and was one of the bishops at the council of Nicea in 325.

Now, Christianity had just been proclaimed legal by the Emperor Constantine. There arose a preacher – more charismatic and dynamic than even that fella named Joel in Houston. Everyone – and here I mean almost all of Christianity - loved Arius and was impressed with his sermons. All... except St. Athanasius.

Arius preached that Jesus was merely man. A man blessed and empowered by God – but still a man. A man who had purpose and lived His best life now. But a man who was said to be created, special but not God. But, he was as godly as they come. All the Christian world believed Arius.

Now Constantine didn't get wrapped up in who God actually is or what God actually was about... like Jesus who said that all nations should be baptized in the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All the emperor wanted was that everyone playing nice in His now Christian empire.

And Athanasius was branded the trouble-maker, a know-it-all, unfriendly, uncaring, guy who just wrapped up in theological nit-picking. Not like that fine upstanding gentleman whom Barbara Walters might interview, Arius.

And so, St. Athanasius was booted from his parish not once, not twice, but three times!

The Gospel. The Truth. It always shines through. Arius, with all his charisma was dead wrong and now today is considered one of the great “Arch-Heretic” of the Church.

Jesus is God and man - it takes both to save us. This truth is now confessed in the creed which you say on Holy Trinity Sunday.

The Father above has His Son seated at the right hand. The Father does not make one move without knowing a hundred ways that move will benefit you and me.

The Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit in the words we hear and preach and sing and read and pray. And by the Holy Spirit, you and I have our crimes pardoned; some of them we break with for good; some we struggle with, some always put us in danger of the evil one. “Deliver us from evil.”

And since you can't just say the Athanasian Creed to remind you of your faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit every morning at 6am like the church traditional has done throughout the centuries, that would take to long, I invite you to confess Jesus as God and Man with your hand.

Quick reminder: this is who you are. I'm baptized. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You can do that in the morning before your mind wakes up! And you can do that in your bed when your mind has already gone to sleep.

I might lose everything – my goods, fame, child, and wife. These all be gone. I still have this one thing in my favor:

I'm baptized. I bear the name of God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

They may boot me three times from where I live and work.. but they can harm me none. God the Father sent His Son to die for me. The Spirit made that known to me in my Baptism.

God's Name put on you in Baptism. That's what we rejoice in today. This Holy Trinity Sunday as we confess with our mouthes the Athanasian Creed and remember our Baptisms with our hands.

Blessed be the Holy Trinity and Undivided Unity! You know what you can do now right?

In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.