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Keep Us Steadfast in This Faith – Trinity Sunday

Rev. Andrew Brashier / June 16, 2025
Rev. Andrew Brashier / June 16, 2025

This entry is part 34 of 34 in the series

I bind unto myself today

the strong Name of the Trinity,

by invocation of the same,

the Three in One, and One in Three.


This morning is one of the thirteen feast days when the Morning office replaces the baptismal Apostles’ Creed with the matured Athanasian Creed. The longer Creed catechizes us so we may vigorously confess and pledge our allegiance in the words of the Nicene Creed at Holy Communion. The Athanasian Creed offends the modern sensibilities and tastes of the universalist and unitarian tendencies pervading many clergymen and laymen alike, thereby demonstrating the drastic need to boldly, publicly, and urgently confess the Creed again within the public liturgies of the Church. The Anglican Church in North America rightly upholds the Athanasian Creed as one of the catholic creeds in her Fundamental Declarations (not to mention the Thirty-Nine Articles).


Why the stress on the Creed? It is not the Creed, but the doctrine, the teaching, the revelation of God Almighty which is important. God is not a concept to be grasped nor a philosophical maxim to be understood, but is Living, Active, and Piercing our “soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, KJV). God is not a law of nature; He is the lawgiver and Creator of nature. We live in an ever-maddening world that fails to understand what it means to be human. Does it surprise us when we seek to discern who God is and fail because we do not drink from the deep well He has provided us? God is no distant galaxy to be studied and defined; He is the Dictionary by which we define ourselves and His creation, where He planted us. He is the One who gives us the words to describe Him. How dare we presume to define God when He is speaking directly to us and telling us exactly who He is? He is the Three in One and One in Three.


I bind this day to me for ever,

by power of faith, Christ’s Incarnation;

his baptism in the Jordan river;

his death on cross for my salvation;

his bursting from the spiced tomb;

his riding up the heavenly way;

his coming at the day of doom:

I bind unto myself today.


The powerful written word of God, revealing the Father’s will, inspired by the Holy Ghost, and cracking our stony hearts with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Church does not need to be ashamed by the doctrine of the Trinity; she needs to be bold in proclaiming who God is. There is no need to wrestle with who God is, there is only a need for the Church to receive God as He has revealed Himself. The problem is within us, our darkened minds, and our hardened hearts. Hence we cry out to the Triune God who is “almighty and everlasting,” that He lovingly “[has] given unto us [his] servants grace, by the confession of a true faith,” and not a false one. All faith is not equal, for the faith that stems from an individual’s personal thoughts or feelings is no faith at all. A faith that merely assents to one God is faith only to the extent that the demons also believe (James 2:19). Let us not confess mere faith, but let us merely confess the faith once delivered, namely, “to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity” (Collect of the Day).


The catholic faith is not something any creature may tamper with. This faith is not our own, after all, but is a gracious gift from God. Therefore, take His word for it and seek to know Him who revealed Himself to “a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus” (Gospel lesson, John 3:1, KJV). Nicodemus was a man of faith, but not of the true faith. Yet he sought to learn truth from Truth itself; and by seeking, He found Truth and even served our Lord by faithfully burying His body.


Yet at this time, we find Nicodemus curious and seeking answers. Oh, that we too would be curious seekers of the Truth so that we may find Him! Too many who claim Christ will equally deny His deity, thereby denying the Trinity. They fail to learn what Nicodemus heard that fateful night, when Jesus told him, and still tells us, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, KJV). Do you reject that God can be One God and Three persons? Ye need to be born again. Therefore, pray to the God of wonders and “beseech [him] that [he would] keep us steadfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities” (Collect of the Day).


Nicodemus came to Christ to learn truth, and Christ revealed to Him the Godhead, telling the ruler of the Jews, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5, KJV). Do ye seek first the Kingdom of the Father? Then be born again in your baptism by the Holy Spirit and enter the Kingdom through the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. This knowledge cannot be comprehended by man, but it can be received by man, by faith. Hence, Jesus explains to us mere mortals, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6, KJV). Lose your fleshy mind before you lose your mind to the zeitgeist governing the world. Lose your soul to Christ before you lose it to the evil one. Lose your life this hour and live even in your death – for death is defanged and Satan stripped.


Or as St. Augustine preached, “If you have not understood, said I, believe. For understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that you may understand; since, except ye believe, you shall not understand” (Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 29, Paragraph 6).


I bind unto myself the power

of the great love of cherubim;

the sweet “Well done” in judgment hour;

the service of the seraphim;

confessors’ faith, apostles’ word,

the patriarchs’ prayers, the prophets’ scrolls;

all good deeds done unto the Lord,

and purity of virgin souls.


Bound we are born in this world: bound by sin, bound to die, bound to hell.


By the Holy Ghost’s enlightenment, we are born again: born for holiness, born for service, born for heaven’s Kingdom. “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:7-8, KJV). Receive the washing of the Holy Ghost who has moved you to faith and submerged you in the baptismal waters for regeneration and new life as you breathed your first breath coming out of the waters. That first breath, whether you were eight days or eighty years old, is the first breath of life in the Spirit.


Therefore, bind yourself to the Word of God, who bound Himself on the wood of the Cross for you. No man could comprehend how the Triune God would save us, it could only be revealed. For “no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:13, KJV). There were signs, hints, and events preparing humanity to receive the shock of the Cross. Namely, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14, KJV). Do you find it shocking that God would dare to die for His creatures? It should shock you, and should not come as a shock when God reveals Himself as Triune. For out of the Father’s love, the Son goes, and the Spirit is freely given.


I bind unto myself today

the virtues of the starlit heaven

the glorious sun’s life-giving ray,

the whiteness of the moon at even,

the flashing of the lightning free,

the whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,

the stable earth, the deep salt sea,

around the old eternal rocks.


The Lord God, who has bound Himself to us, is calling the Church to bind herself to Him. He has pledged His love for us, by shedding His blood for His bride. He has clothed His bride with His righteousness. He feeds His bride in the Lord’s supper and prepares a great wedding feast for her. Therefore, bind yourself to Him. Hold fast to Christ. Cling to the fringes of His robe. Anchor yourself upon the immovable Rock. Because “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:15, KJV).


I bind unto myself today

the power of God to hold and lead,

his eye to watch, his might to stay,

his ear to hearken, to my need;

the wisdom of my God to teach,

his hand to guide, his shield to ward;

the word of God to give me speech,

his heavenly host to be my guard.


How do we respond to the revelation of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost? We cast everything, our souls, our bodies, our possessions, our loves, our hates, our lives like the elders who “cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou has created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Epistle lesson, Revelation 4:10–11, KJV). Cast yourself before the Rock of God, lest you be dashed by the Rock. For the kingdom of God is the rock cast down from heaven that destroys the kingdoms of man and the rebellion of Satan: “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces” (Daniel 2:34, KJV).


Our call is to cast aside all the cares of this world and care only for the Three in One who redeemed us. He is all we need. He is all we require. He shall one day be all in all. “And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28, KJV). Walk this day with Christ beside, before, around, and within you as Christ bound the strong man, so that you are forever bound to Christ alone.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.


Trinity Sunday gives us a glimpse of how it shall be when heaven descends to earth. On that great and holy day of the Lord, the seas shall be as still and calm as crystal, for God’s feet still the waters as He reigns upon His throne: “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal” (Revelation 4:6, KJV). We shall be in the presence of the Father, where the Son sits at the right hand, and the sevenfold perfect Spirit of God is present (Revelation 4:5). Our hymn will be the same old hymn, the glorious Sanctus, sung as we have never sung it before. Instead of singing it in the empty pews of many American churches, then we shall sing aloud with the innumerable multitude of saints and angelic hosts, “saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8, KJV).


May our voices sing the Triune God’s glory today, so that we may see Him face to face on that glorious Day of the Lord. Boldly confess what God has revealed, “the Catholick Faith. Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled : without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholick Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity” (Athanasian Creed, 1662 Book of Common Prayer). This is not novel theology for the academic locked in his study, but rather is the Living God that we learn in the Comfortable Words of John 3:16: “So God loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”


Since we confess in the Athanasian Creed and do not deny, “At [His] coming all men will rise again with their bodies: and shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting: and they that have done evil into everlasting fire. This is the Catholick Faith: which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved,” then let us die to ourselves and live wholly, solely, and fully by the Spirit who makes us born again. Share this day, tomorrow, and all the hours of your life the good news and comforting Gospel of Christ, who tells all the Nicodemi seeking Him, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:17–18, KJV).


You were known by the Father before your birth, were saved by the Son for His service, and are born again by the Holy Ghost to be bound by the strong Name of the Trinity. Bear the Name well, keep steadfast in the faith, and praise the Blessed and Holy Trinity who binds your wounds and heals your soul.

I bind unto myself the Name,

the strong Name of the Trinity,

by invocation of the same,

the Three in One, and One in Three.

Of whom all nature hath creation,

eternal Father, Spirit, Word:

praise to the Lord of my salvation,

salvation is of Christ the Lord.

 
 
 

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