June 7th – Trinity Sunday
Readings: Psalm 8 and Matthew 28: 16-20
Trinity Sunday is not a Festival from the Bible like Pentecost or Ascension or Easter, but a Sunday set aside for us to think about God. What does it mean to say God is Three and God is One? In a few paragraphs it is difficult to say much; Our Gospel reading tells us that the early church baptised the first believers in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In the passages from John’s gospel we have looked at in recent weeks Jesus has said the he will send another, the Comforter, the Advocate, his Spirit and at the end of the gospel Jesus breathes on his disciples and says “Receive the Holy Spirit”. This points to three expressions of God; the Son who is the likeness of the Father and the Spirit who is sent from both. But we must remember that Jews were fiercely monotheistic; there was no way they believed in many gods. So in John’s gospel Jesus says: “I and the Father are one”. In the creed we say Jesus is begotten not made, of one substance. Ultimately our language can only take us so far. Experientially I hope we know God as Creator the one who made us, as Saviour / Redeemer, the one who died for us, as Incarnate, the one who lived life with us, as Spirit, who is with us all the time, and in whatever form as the one who is both Holy and who loves us, who is “transcendent” greater and more glorious than we could ever imagine and at the same time “immanent”, present with us, personal to us.
And the gospel tells us that this is not just a matter of intellectual curiosity but we are commanded to share our faith, to go and make disciples of others, because the good news of God is too good not to share.
What do you notice from this passage?
