Trinity Sunday June 7th, 2020 Leighmoor UC.
Possible Hymns:
TIS 100: ‘All creatures of our God and King
TIS 132: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty’
TIS 478: ‘I bind unto myself today’
TIS 447: ‘Lord, your almighty word’
Prayers of Adoration and Confession
Most blessed, most holy God,
before the brightness of your presence
the angels and archangels veil their faces.
We worship you,
eternal Trinity.
You are God, the Creator, God beyond us, we adore you.
You have created all that has come into being.
You are the depth of all that is.
When we gaze into the universe-we marvel at your handiwork.
You are God the Son, God beside us.
In you we see divine love and human greatness combined.
You mirror what human life should be…what love can be.
God the Spirit, God around us, we adore you.
You draw us to the Creator, and to Christ.
You are the power within us,
making us the people you want us to be.
Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
we adore you.
We thank you for all your gifts, great and small.
For the gift of your nearness to us in the things that happen in our lives-and for the gift of your distance from us, in the mystery and wonder of life.
When we are tired, worn down, when our commitment has grown cold, you come and warm our hearts.
When our faith seems dry and dead, you breathe upon us and give us life.
Yet we come before you, seeking forgiveness.
We have not loved you with our whole heart,
we have not loved our neighbour as ourselves.
Forgive us.
We like things tidy and explainable,
but you defy our understanding.
We are tempted to live closed to the spiritual world, but you touch us with dreams and visions.
When we lose faith in the goodness of creation, in the father-like love of our Creator: forgive us.
When we lose faith in Jesus as the true reflection of your suffering, conquering, redeeming love: forgive us.
When we lose faith in your Spirit’s presence among us: forgive us.
God is love.
Through Christ our sins are forgiven
(thanks be to God).
Take hold of this forgiveness, and live your life in the power of the Spirit.
Amen
Bible Readings
Genesis 1: 1-2:4a
Psalm 8
2 Corinthians 13: 11-13
Matthew 28: 16-20
Sermon: Keep your distance!
Today is Trinity Sunday
-the first Sunday after Pentecost, when we celebrated the third person of the Trinity-the Holy Spirit.
Trinity Sunday is a transitional Sunday:
-we move out of the 50 days of the Easter Season, out of Pentecost, into the ordinary time of the Church year.
-no great feasts or celebrations, with the exception of next Saturday, which is the anniversary of the forming of the Uniting Church, until November 1st-All Saints Day.
Trinity Sunday.
The English preacher, Colin Morris, said that any preacher with good sense would call in sick on Trinity Sunday.
Last year, in my previous parish, a retired minister came up to me and thanked me for preaching-saying he had to do it most years!
I can understand that sentiment.
-trying to get across the concept of the Trinity, the central Christian doctrine-that the One God exists in Three Persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and one substance.
The notion of one God who is three persons is mystery
Yet-it is not altogether beyond us.
-we can grasp something of what ‘Trinity’ means.
In its barest outline, the doctrine contains 4 truths:
- In the one divine nature, there are 3 Persons, the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
- Each is wholly himself
- The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God
- They are not three Gods, but one God.
One substance, or nature. 3 in 1.
If we asked ‘Who are you?’ each of the three would give His own answer-Father, Son or Holy Spirit.
BUT if we asked ‘What are you? ’each would answer God. Each contains the same divine nature or substance.
1 in 3 3 in 1.
If the idea of God as both 3 and 1 is confusing, Frederick Buechner suggests the following:
-look in a mirror
There is
- The interior life-known only to yourself and those you choose to communicate it to (the Father)
- The visible face which is some way reflects your inner life (the Son)
- The invisible power that you have in order to communicate that interior life in such a way that others do not merely know about it, but know it in the sense of its becoming part of who they are (Holy Spirit).
Yet what you are looking at in the mirror is clearly, and unable to be divided-the one and only YOU.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit- may seem a mystery of mathematics (and most mathematics is a mystery to me!)
-we may try to explain it or understand it by looking at water
-as water droplets, ice and steam-3 in 1-all water, but in 3 ways
Or be like St Patrick, who used a shamrock to illustrate the 3 persons (the 3 leaves)- as being part of the whole. (the substance, or nature)
BUT, in the end,
The Trinity is about distance and closeness
Distance, and closeness.
The Trinity is the result of a debate about who God really is.
Knowing we will never know-but wrestling with that anyway.
Isn’t that one reason we attend church today? We are trying to understand something of the nature of God, a God who has touched our lives-and is still active in our lives.
Let’s travel back to the 4th century and meet two individuals who were passionate about God-and instrumental behind what is a human construct-the Trinity. Arius: a priest in charge of twelve parishes. A persuasive preacher, a writer of verse and song,
And Athanasius-secretary to the bishop of Alexandria.
He is one of the giants of Christian history because of his part in defining the doctrine of the Trinity.
The question they debated was, in essence, is Jesus the Christ really God or not?
That was at the heart of the debate.
The Nicene Creed states that Jesus was indeed ‘begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father…’
In other words, Christ was not made out of nothing as we are, but he was ‘begotten’, generated from the very substance of God. When we look at Jesus, we are looking at God.
When we look at Jesus, we are seeing as much of God as we ever hope to see because this Jew from Nazareth is ‘of one Being with the Father.’
This was too much for Arius.
He rejected the Creed’s notion that Jesus was fully divine.
What makes God, God? He asked.
The divine is self sufficient and he thought so exalted a being as God would not want to dirty its divine hands with the lives of his creatures-us.
In a sense, Arius thought God was like a director or owner of a large company-who deals with people only through his receptionist or pa.
-not the God who, like some people in charge-walk up and down the assembly lines, or around the office floors, chatting to the workers.
The doctrine of the Trinity is the result of a debate over distance and closeness or nearness
(repeat)
For Arius, the Nicene Creed and its delineation of the status of Christ and the Holy Spirit as integral, intimate natures of God-was vulgar. God is the great God on high. Who wants a God who is so weak as to need us, his creatures, for anything?
For Arius-his whole concern was to honour God, setting God up high, lifted up, above the word of his creatures. DISTANCE and DISTANT
Then in comes Athanasius, who argued against him-the Jesus was, indeed, God-and therefore NOT distant.
We humans may well imagine that God relates to the world in the same way in which WE relate to the world.
-we don’t like to depend on others (on our children as we grow older)
-we like to keep our distance!
Arius would say what kind of God would lower himself to dirty his hands in human flesh or walk the streets of Nazareth?
There is a clue in John 16: 15:
‘All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.’
John 3: 35: ‘the Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands.’
*the decisive mark of God is that of SELF GIVING
Between the Father and the Son there is total and mutual self- giving-so when we look at the Son, we are looking at the Father.
Jesus cried aloud: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me.’(John 12:44)
Arius’s God is static-keeps his distance from the painful world of humanity.
Athanasius, on the other hand, see God as dynamic, engaged in self-giving, self-disclosing-the Father holds nothing back from the Son. All the glory that God has, is given to the Son who in turn gives back all glory to the Father.
Athanasius charged Arius’s concept of God with being sterile, being a God who doesn’t shine, doesn’t talk or reveal.
A symbol for the Trinity is 3 interlocked circles- showing love coming from and going back constantly.
The Trinity is not maths: 1+1+1=1
Rather, the Trinity is a statement about what makes God, God.
God’s perfection is in God’s closeness rather than in God’s distance
-in God’s ability and willingness to communicate-rather than in God’s silence.
When God gives (such as in the parable of the prodigal son-the father giving him everything)- he doesn’t stop.
The Trinity is our experience of God’s extravagance.
We are often like Arius.
Our God is distant, high, lifted up-even if we have to nail him up there ourselves
And we did
-we nailed him up-only to have him say “And when I am lifted up-I will draw everyone to myself.’
Here is a God who is always willing to stoop, who never stops giving
-a God who welcomes, even seeks our prayers and praise, our good deeds and even our sins.
In Isaiah 55: 8-9, the prophet hears God say:
‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.’
Then we might say-‘Mmm maybe Arius was right, God really is distant, far off.
We can’t possibly know such a God!’
BUT
Isaiah continues with God saying:
‘Just as my rain and snow come down to the earth and water your fields, so my word shall come down and accomplish what I want from it.’
God’s greatest ‘goodness’ is that God is so little like our idea of whom God ought to be.
Our God, the God of the Trinity, is unlike us in that he is so close.
-so self-giving
Holds nothing back-offers us everything.
The Trinity-the affirmation that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit-is a claim that this God stands:
Beside us
Comes to us
Is near to us.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Prayers of the People
We pray for the world.
We ask that your strength and compassion can be felt by those affected by Covid-19.
We pray for peace in this troubled world. For an ending to the riots that rage throughout the United States.
We pray that people can honour and acknowledge one other as brother or sister-no matter their colour, race, or creed.
We pray for strength for those on the front line. Heroes behind perspex.
We thank you for our politicians, making decisions during these difficult, unprecedented times.
As we celebrate some lessening of resdtrictions, may we be mindful for those anxious about these moves.
-for those who are vulnerable, due to age or illness.
May be continue to protect others by our actions, our faith, our love in action.
In the words our Lord taught us, we are confident when we pray to say:
‘Our Father in heaven…’
Amen.
Blessing
May God’s extravagant love consume you,
Christ’s life and passion inspire you,
and the Spirit compel you to do ordinary things
with extraordinary love.
And the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit be upon you and remain with you always.
Amen
(Source of Blessing: Frontier Services Sunday 2013)
