May I speak in the name of the living God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
On certain Sundays you know what kind of Sunday service it will be, such as Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, etc. Or maybe there's a special event planned as a part of the service such as a baptism, a confirmation, or an Annual General Meeting... This morning, you may not have known that today is Trinity Sunday. And if you had known, you might have thought, 'Oh, do I really want to go listen to a sermon on the Trinity?' If that was and still is the case, I'll try to show you that this really is a special Sunday. In fact, in the Anglican tradition it is one of the nine Principal Feasts.i In the future, you can remember it like this. After Easter comes Ascension, then Pentecost, and the first Sunday after Pentecost is Trinity Sunday.
Interestingly, this is not a Feast Day that goes back all the way to the early Church. It wasn't until the 14th century that it was instituted by the western part of the Church. Which means, if you grew up in the Orthodox tradition, you wouldn't have ever known about it. The reason that the Orthodox tradition has not included it seems to be that on every Sunday we celebrate the Trinity. They hear the Trinity in the prayers and Bible readings, and they see it in the icons. I'll come back to this last point later. Now, if you did not grow up in the church, then the notion of the Trinity might still be very foreign. You may have heard about it, but you don't quite understand what it means that we worship one God and yet we speak of God as being composed of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. [Show the diagram: the Scutum fidei or Scutum trinitatis] It is challenging and can be a bit confusing.
To grasp its meaning, every generation must read the Bible texts for themselves and seek to understand how God has revealed himself and is described by the biblical authors. The conclusion of the authors of the Creed (the Nicene Creed) was that the Bible presents three divine persons having characteristics that only God can have, for example, they are not created. Today's readings offer a few examples of those texts which speak of three divine persons who simultaneously exist and are also one God. As you have heard, this year is the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, which has stood the test of time. We explored that confession of the Church back on February 23rd. If you missed it, you can find the recording on our website. And if you really want to dig deeper, our very own David Marshall has produced a short book about the Nicene Creed, which is available in PDF format.
Someone might think to themselves, 'Well, what's all the fuss?' Isn't it enough to believe in God? Does it really matter whether we hold on to the doctrine of the Trinity? Well, what if a few weeks ago when we baptised Jesse Aduba, I said, 'Jesse, I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son...” and then I stopped there. You may have wondered, 'Oops, James seems to have forgotten something...' and Helen, certainly would have said, 'James, you forgot to say 'and of the Holy Spirit'. Then and there, I would had two options, saying, 'Oh, let's do it again...' and then proceed with the full baptismal prayer, or 2) I could have said, 'Well, actually, I didn't forget it. I only baptise in the name of the Father and of the Son'. You could imagine then and there how much it does matter that we recognise the Holy Spirit (or the Father and the Son) as God as well. And, I'd be sent back to vicar school... Why? Because a minister should know what kind of God he or she is worshiping and teaching to others! I also think that God cares about what we say about him. Just like we care when people talk about us. So, that said, let's look at one text, which helps us to contemplate the reality of the Trinity.
The Gospel of John offers several passages about the spiritual union between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In this passage, Jesus tells his disciples about some of the actions that the Holy Spirit does. At the time when Jesus spoke these words, the Holy Spirit, of course, already existed, but He had not yet been given in full measure to Jesus' disciples. For this reason, Jesus says, 'When the Spirit of truth comes...' Here, Jesus is referring to the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit would fill Jesus' disciples, that is, to dwell in them and enable them to live and speak according to Christ's teaching. Jesus goes on to say that the Holy Spirit does several specific things. First, he will guide Jesus' disciples into all truth. This means that the Holy Spirit will continue to help the disciples to grasp more fully Jesus' teaching and apply it in their lives. Rather than speaking 'on his own'; the Holy Spirit takes what the Lord Jesus had received from the Father and gives the disciples understanding. There, we find unity in their revelation and teaching.
Second, the Holy Spirit declares to the disciples the things that were to come; this meant that the disciples would receive discernment about the challenges and opportunities that they would face. This is probably what Jesus meant when he said, 'I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.'
Third, the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus, again, taking what Jesus had passed on to the disciples and declaring it to them. We see this in action in the book of the Acts of the Apostles where we read about how the disciples and their disciples were able to teach and preach with great clarity and power. The Holy Spirit showed the world how great the Lord Jesus Christ was...and still is. That is one of the reasons why the early Church grew so fast.
The last verse of the passage, verse 15, summarises Jesus' words: 'All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he [i.e. the Holy Spirit] will take what is mine and declare it to you.' Here is an example of the harmony between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There is real spiritual union. God's generosity is also highlighted here. Notice how often the word 'you' occurs in this passage. The Holy Spirit's activity here is for our benefit, helping us to grow in Christ's teaching. This is brilliantly described in the reading of Paul's letter to the Romans where he displays God's generosity towards us: 'God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us' (5:5). Now, obviously, we could go on to explore many more passages which show how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit exist and act together. But let's think about some practical steps about how this teaching can help us to worship God today and throughout the year.
'Trinity Sunday' brings all the threads together throughout out the year, for example, from Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost, and we consider one thing: how truly great our God is! But, of course, it's not a 'one off' event when we stop thinking about that reality. We are invited to think about God's greatness every Sunday, and not only think about it, but, above all, to come to worship our amazing God. Yes, on Sundays, we come to see our friends. We enjoy fellowship. Yes, we enjoy serving in various ways to help the church to grow and make a difference in the world. But I'd like to challenge us to put 'worship' in the first position, because all the rest flows out of worship!
First of all, when we pay careful attention, we notice how much the Trinity is evoked in our liturgy. It is often said that Anglicans do their theology through their prayers (i.e., liturgy). So, when we pray and worship, very often we hear 'God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit', like in the Creed, but also in shorter forms, for example, in the collects and the blessings. And some of you may wonder why people make the sign of the cross when they hear the prayer of absolution or the final blessing, well it's because we are receiving the prayer for ourselves in God's fulness. The sign of the cross was not a part of my spirituality, probably because I thought it was superstitious or just some kind of formality. But it has become a part of my practice, because it helps me to remember both Jesus' cross and the blessings that each person of the Trinity offers to us.
Another element that could help us to remember the fulness of God is through Christian artwork, such as icons, stained glass windows, and paintings. In our own church nave, we have at least two depictions of Christ, which include a detail that is common in icons, that is the position of Christ's right hand. In the two images of Christ above and in this iconii-- Christ's fingers are in two groups, one group of three and the other group of two. The first group represents the Trinity, and the second group signifies the two natures of Christ, divine and human. In the icon of Christ (i.e., on the side of the organ), Greek letters are also formed to indicate the initial letters of Christ's name.iii But that takes a little more time to explore. In short, this shows us how artwork communicates theology and can help us to contemplate significant realities that are difficult to fathom with our limited understanding.
Finally, something that is available to all of us is how we focus our attention to things that God has given to us to contemplate, namely his amazing Creation and his profound Word, both the written Word, the Scriptures, and the living Word, Jesus our Lord.
When something or someone is excellent, what do you do? For example, a film, poem, painting, a song, a concert. A spectacular mountain, a flowery meadow, a majestic tree, a clever animal, a stunning sunrise. You see it, you admire it, you want to share it with others and return to admire it again.
What do you do when you contemplate and realise the greatness of God?
That he created the entire universe and gave us life to enjoy with him and others;
That he reached out to us and showed us his unconditional love, not only to the whole world but also to each one of us;
That he offers to us his very companionship / fellowship through the Holy Spirit's presence.
What do we do in light of that? We bow down and worship. We exalt, glorify, magnify, and praise him, giving thanks. Take time during the week, even daily, to admire God's creation, his work of reconciliation, and his presence with you. You will not regret it, because you will be in the presence of the almighty God! And your worship in private will become a blessing to all of us as we worship God together as a worshiping community.
Maybe we could 'market' Trinity Sunday a little better, because it is 'Our-God-really-is-an-awesome-God-Sunday'. Amen.
Revd James Morgan