What’s in a name?

Jennifer points to a surprisingly good statement on the trinitarian name, particularly as it’s used in Baptism, from the bishops of the ELCA:

The Gospel is at stake in the name of God. “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” is the eternal ground for the Church’s evangelical message. God’s revelation takes place in human history. It is this one, true God who was in Jesus, the Christ, reconciling the world to its Creator Lord. In the New Testament, the crucified and risen Jesus is designated by the “Spirit” as the “Son” of the covenant-making God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the same God whom Jesus personally called Abba (“Father”). It is this Triune God alone who sent the Savior to us, became the Savior for us, and inspires faith in the Savior within us.

“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” is therefore the only doctrinally acceptable way for a person to be baptized into the Body of Christ. The Gospel promises that in Baptism we are graciously united by the Spirit into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, with whom we too may then address God confidently as “our Father.” This view fulfills the apostolic understanding of our risen Lord’s commission for the Church to practice a Trinitarian Baptism in Matthew 28. It is also faithfully reflected in the Trinitarian baptismal formula pronounced by the Church throughout the ages, as presented in the rite for Holy Baptism in the Lutheran Book of Worship.

Consequently, Christians today dare not confuse our proclamation about God and our invocation of God. In speaking about God, the creative use of both masculine and feminine metaphors, analogies, similes, and symbols are highly appropriate and recommended for effective preaching and teaching. Impressive examples already abound in both Scripture and tradition. This intentional practice can also serve well to condemn any alleged Trinitarian sanction for sinful inequality or oppression of women in church and society.

None of these diversified figures of speech, however, may rightly be employed as exchangeable equivalents of God’s name, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Here the Church, in adoration and praise, calls upon the non-sexist name of the three persons of the transsexual Trinity in their own eternal inter-relationships. So, for example, “Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier” is not a personal synonym for “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” First, God’s historical activities-creating, redeeming, and sanctifying-are attributed in Scripture to all three persons in the Godhead. Second, God’s indivisible works in history are never confessed to be identical with God’s Trinitarian name in eternity. While others can affirm God as “Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier,” only Christ-centered Trinitarians invoke God by name as “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

Of course, in practice this is violated all the time. And the phrase “transsexual Trinity,” while technically accurate, seems like an unfortunate choice of words, doesn’t it?