Psalm 8; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15
Opening prayer
Gracious God, open our hearts and minds to receive all that you want to give us this day. Amen.
Today is Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday after Pentecost, that celebrates the Christian doctrine of God as the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit — three persons in one substance, an eternal community of love.
Trinity Sunday marks the beginning of the Trinity Season (or Trinitytide), also called the Season after Pentecost or Ordinary Time. Trinity is a fitting name for this season because the focus shifts from the great feasts of sacred history—Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Ascension, Easter, and Pentecost—to the ongoing life of Christian growth in the love of our Trinitarian God.
It is also an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the mystery of God's triune nature – three persons in one divine being. But not only that, this triune God invites us to come and share in this trinitarian love. You and I are welcomed into the fellowship of the godhead through our Saviour Jesus. The reading from Romans 5 reminds us that Jesus has done all that is necessary for our salvation. We receive God's grace through faith in Jesus' finished work on the cross. We have assurance in God’s saving work on our behalf as his love is poured into our hearts by his Spirit so that we don't lose hope when faced with sufferings.
So, we’re going to think a little more about the Trinity – one of the most difficult doctrines to comprehend! Down the centuries many learned and godly people have wrestled with and written about the Trinity. But after all is said and done, we have to accept that we will never fully understand the concept of the Trinity purely by human intellect. We have to accept it through faith. That said, the Scriptures reveal all that we need to know about this triune God and his saving purposes for us. And we can have full assurance and confidence in his word.
The Christian faith believes in a three-personed God –
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, historically understood as the communion of
Three: each distinct but inseparable from the others, whose being consists in their relations with one another. Each person within the Godhead is fully God bound together in divine love for one another. Divine love binds together the three persons in an eternal and everlasting relationship whereby God the Father loves God the Son and the Holy Spirit, and they in turn love God the Father.
We are of course limited by our human understanding to fully appreciate the richness of the triune nature of God and what that means for us. But God in his grace has revealed himself to us in the person of his Son Christ Jesus and poured out his Spirit so that through faith we might come to know him.
One of the church's foundational statements, is the Nicene Creed which is the theological framework that holds and preserves the Church’s teaching of the Holy Trinity. It affirms the oneness of God while showing the distinctive roles of each person within the Godhead. A little later we will be saying the Nicene Creed together, reminding ourselves of the triune nature and saving purposes of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Ok, so you might not know this but the word ‘Trinity’ is not actually in the bible! And yet, the Trinity is all over the bible. Think about the beginning of the bible where God the Father, with his hovering Spirit, creates everything by his Son the Word (Genesis 1). Or consider the end of the bible where the Spirit calls us to the throne of the Father and his Son the Lamb in Revelation 22.
There are numerous occasions in the gospels when Jesus speaks of and to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Think for a moment about the beginning of Jesus' ministry when John baptises him in the river Jordan. The Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove and the Father speaks words of love and affirmation to him (Matthew 3:13-17; Luke 3:21-22; Mark 1:9-11).
In John 16 (we've only read a very small section) Jesus is reassuring his disciples that he's not going to leave them alone. He will send the Holy Spirit to his disciples even as He is returning to the Father. This is the Spirit of truth who will guide Jesus's disciples into all truth about himself. The Spirit testifies about Jesus and his saving work.
This same Spirit of truth witnesses to our spirits that we are God's beloved children.
Again, when Jesus commissions his disciples, he sends them to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them. How? In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28). Why? So that they might be fully immersed in the love of the Trinitarian God.
You see at the very heart of the Trinity is an eternal community of love. As I said earlier, the three persons of the Godhead – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – are bound to each other in love. At Jesus’ baptism, the Father’s words of love points to a deeper meaning of the Trinity. So, when St. John writes “God is love,” he means not only that God is loving but also that God in his essence is love (1 John 4:8). Even before creation, God is a community of love between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God did not create out of loneliness. He did so from an overflow of love, rejoicing to share his eternal love with his creation.
Saint Augustine of Hippo was reflecting on this mystery of the triune God and described the Trinity as the Father who loves, the Son who is beloved, and the Spirit who is the love between them. An eternal circle of love if you like.
The most wonderful thing is that God sent his Son Jesus to become a man, die, and rise again to bring us into this circle of love. His blood paid the price of our adoption into the family of God. And we now receive the Holy Spirit, by which we, too, can speak to God as “Our Father.”
Saint Paul put it like this in Colossians 4:4-7 “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
What the Trinity does is show us the relational being of God – an eternal relationship of love. And God invites us into this relationship with himself – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He wants you and me to be part of the circle of love that exists in the Godhead. The wonderful news is that we can through faith in Jesus our Saviour.
I found this metaphor by David Roseberry helpful in understanding what the Trinity does for us. He says the Trinity is gravity, a force we cannot see or touch, much less explain. We know it is there because we can see its effects. It keeps us on the ground and makes objects fall. We cannot explain it (well, most of us can’t), but we cannot live without it. And we could harm ourselves greatly if we deny or ignore it.
Just like gravity, the Trinity is an essential part of our reality. None of us have gravity. It has us. But without gravity, we would have nothing.
Without the Trinity, we would not be able to have a relationship with God. The fact that the Trinity is in a full-time, always-on relationship with itself means that the Trinity is capable of a relationship with us. The Trinitarian God wants us to know him and be known by him; invites us into relationship with himself; has done all that is necessary for us to be able to enter into this relationship of love.
The question for us is how will we respond to this invitation? Will we come in faith and accept the gift of love offered to us?
Let’s close in prayer:
Gracious Father, our minds cannot begin to grasp the wonder and majesty of your being. And yet, you have revealed yourself to us in your Son Jesus, the Word made flesh, and given us your Spirit of love and truth, inviting us into fellowship with yourself. Warm our hearts to your love and draw us to yourself Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen