Trinity Sunday

Mike Bowler

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31, Romans 5:1-5, John 16:12-15

May my words and our thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord. Amen

Last week on Sunday we celebrated Pentecost, 50 days after Easter, the birthday in effect of the Church, where the Holy spirit descended on the disciples like the blowing of a violent wind and with tongues of fire, and the disciples spoke in other languages. Later in that story in Acts, the prophet Joel is quoted “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people….” (Acts 2:17)

Today we have come to a point very nearly in the middle of our calendar year, with almost 6 months of the year having already gone by. This day is perhaps the most important day of our church calendar, where we remember and celebrate the Holy Trinity, that very difficult concept that Christians have struggled with for millennia.

It is our only festival that celebrates a doctrine rather than a person or an event and was probably first celebrated in the 10th century.  

The word “Trinity” doesn’t actually appear in the bible. However, the concept of the relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit is alluded to many, many times throughout the bible. The apostle Peter, in his initial greeting to the scattered Christian recipients of his letter says “ …who have been chosen according to the fore knowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ…”(1 Peter 1:2)
Trinity Sunday also represents the start of what is known as “Ordinary” time. This is the longest period of the church calendar and perhaps gives the connotation of being boring. Perhaps after the busy-ness of the Christmas and Easter periods, boring might be good! The word ordinary doesn’t actually refer to the plainness that it implies. The Sundays after Trinity are numbered and so are in order, hence the name. The liturgical colour of green also points to new life and growth, of Christian hope as we celebrate God with us during our every day lives.

In our county of Canterbury it was important to Cathcart Wason who founded Barrhill on the south bank of the Rakaia River in the 19th century. He planted trees in the centre of the township which are now seen to be in the form of the interlocking circles representing the Trinity.   

At Christmas, we remembered the birth of Jesus, God made man, and we have been through Lent and then Easter, where we remembered Christ’s journey to the cross and his dying and rising again on the third day.

It can be very confusing and daunting for us as a human being here in Ashburton to comprehend the magnitude of God. This is the same God referred to in Genesis “ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..” Genesis 1:1. It is the same God who created the Universe perhaps some 13 billion years ago, a universe that has been estimated at 92 billion light years across, containing some 2 trillion galaxies.  That is such a large and incomprehensible figure that we need not get too worried about it. It is huge. It is the same God who spoke to Moses, walked this earth and shared a Passover with his disciples. It is the same God who filled the disciples with the Holy Spirit on that day we celebrated last week at Pentecost. It is the same God who has numbered every hair on your head (Luke 12:17). It is the same God who was present at the beginning of time and will be with us at the end of time as he promised “ …And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

How are we to understand the seemingly impossible concept that that God can be so large and so small?

Well, we can’t! Similarly, we perhaps cannot get clear in our minds how the same God can be God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Bishop Peter in his recent letter said “… Trinity should not become a doctrinal rabbit hole down which we fall into debate and division”.

Can the Trinity be likened to the three phases that the chemical compound known as water is found, that is a solid, a liquid and a gas? Or could the Trinity be compared to a geometric shape such as a triangle, one triangle with three sides? These are all inadequate explanations, and I am sure we probably would all have different view points on it anyway.

In this world where there is so much diversity, differences should be celebrated, as those differences are God given. There can actually be unity in that diversity, and it is amazing to think that God the creator beyond us, Jesus the friend and companion beside us and the Holy Spirit with in us are the same.

An amusing old Eastern European story about a bishop of a large diocese who decided to visit every single one of his parishes. After spending years on horseback, he thought that he had seen them all, when someone told him about a tiny chapel, on a remote island in the sea. Faithful to his mission, he chartered a boat and set out for the island. Upon landing, he found it to be a desolate spot, inhabited only by three old men. He greeted them and began to question these isolated Christians about the orthodoxy of their faith. “Tell me,” said the bishop, “how do you pray?” They replied, “We simply stand, holding hands like this.” And the three old men clasped their hands together, saying, “You are three, we are three, have mercy upon us.”

“What?” said the bishop. “This will never do. Don’t you know the Lord’s Prayer?” “No,” said the hermits, “Please teach us, O holy man of God!” The bishop spent all afternoon teaching the absent-minded old hermits the Lord’s Prayer, and when they had finally gotten it, he said his goodbyes, returned to the boat, and headed back out to sea, puzzling over these odd, old men and their island.

It grew dark as he mused on the deck of his boat, looking out over the sea, when from far away he began to see a tiny point of light coming from the island. As it drew nearer, the light grew brighter and brighter, until he could see that it was the three hermits, holding hands, running swiftly on top of the water, beards flying in the wind, their faces radiant with the light of Christ. “O holy man of God, holy man of God!” said the hermits, “We have forgotten the prayer you taught us! Please teach us again so that we may pray rightly!” “On second thought,” said the bishop, “I think that your prayer must be fine.” (Rev Bertie Pearson, Episcopal Church)

Todays reading from John “ But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13) has Jesus telling the disciples that the Spirit will be with them when He is gone. The Spirit will be guiding them, will be their helper, will be nudging them. The closeness of and connection of the Trinity is underlined in the later verse “All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.” (John 16:15). That promise from Jesus is as relevant today as it was to the disciples then. We have been left with the Holy Spirit in our hearts. That Great God of creation is alive in us today. The separation mankind may have experienced from God has by God’s grace been removed and Jesus went on to say “..the Father himself loves you because you have loved me…” (John 16:27)  
Let us not take up time trying to define God. If we could do that, then we would be greater than God, and that can’t be so. Perhaps let our understanding remain simple, as we sing shortly the hymn with the words, “God everlasting, through Eternity…. God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity”.  In the Eucharist at the offering, we also say “All that is in the Heavens and the earth is yours”.

​Let us be forever thankful that we have a personal relationship with that awesome God, who created the Universe,  who created Man in his own image, who spoke to Adam and Eve, who spoke to the prophets and saints before us and speaks to us today. 

In the words of Bishop Peter: “ when we talk about God as Three in One and One in Three, we talk about God being for us, the Threeness of God working with a single will and purpose of Love for us: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” The proper response to God as the Trinity of Love is then adoration and praise.
Let us not treat the coming season as ordinary, but make it EXTRA ordinary, where we let the Holy Spirit work in us and through us, in the fertile landscape of our lives.

In the words of that beautiful song There is a Redeemer:
“Thank you, O our Father, for giving us your Son and leaving your Spirit till your work on earth is Done”
Amen.