Holy Trinity Sunday

When I was in Seminary at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubugue Iowa, I took a course in American Civil Religion which was taught by a Franciscan monk. There were three seminaries in Dubuque at the time, a Lutheran Seminary, Wartburg, a Methodist Seminary, University of Dubuque Seminary, and Thomas Aquinas Seminary, a Catholic Seminary. We were allowed to take courses at all three.

I had several courses at Aquinas Seminary.

The course in American Civil Religion was really well presented. After these many years, 32, I remember that when in the American Civil discourse about God, we never hear the name of Jesus.

The monk pointed out that the founding fathers were not Christians per se, but believed in a deity, an all encompassing God. But they were not Christians. They never referred to Christ in any of their writings.

As this is Trinity Sunday, we as Christians proclaim a belief in a God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We cannot, i believe, talk about God without mentioning the other two parts of the Trinity, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

With all the discourse on television today between politicians and the religious right's talk about God, we forget about the Christ who died for us and the Spirit who dwells within us.

The God I believe in is more that a punishing God, but a God who through His Son Jesus Christ, loves us and forgives our sins and promises us a room in the mansion in the sky.

We hear no talk about that. All we hear is that I believe in God. That is fine, but where is Jesus, where is the Spirit. And when that comes into play, then we no longer have a separation between religion and state. Then I am forcing my belief on you.

So we have to stay with the idea of just God not the Trinity because we all have different ways of expressing our belief in who Jesus Christ is. I am Lutheran and my understanding of Jesus is far different than a Baptist idea of Jesus, or an evangelical Christian.

I do not try to convert a Baptist to my way of thinking and I would hope they would not try to convert me, as we all have different ideas of faith as we read the Bible and church teachings. No one denomination has the only true way of believing.