Preached by Carol Kidd LLM on 7 June 2020: Trinity Sunday
2 Corinthians 13: 11-end / Matthew 28:16-20
May I speak in the name of God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Amen
Today marks the ‘Feast of the Holy Trinity’ when we celebrate the three in one relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Jesus sent the disciples out to minister and evangelize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. As brothers and sisters in Christ, charged with continuing the mission of Jesus – albeit in new ways due to current restrictions – St Paul’s farewell words to the people of Corinth should guide our lives. When we share the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit we follow in the footsteps of the early Christians and Jesus’ great commission.
God the Father, not only dwells with us through the gifting power of the Holy Spirit [celebrated last week at Pentecost] but extends an inclusive welcome through the love of Christ His Son. All are invited into the relationship of grace, mercy and love that has existed since Jesus and the Spirit were with God when the world was created. The co-equal relationship of the Trinity is not exclusive and inward-looking but inclusive and outward-looking, gathering in believers, seeking the lost and inviting everyone into a loving community of faith. We are welcomed at our Christian baptism in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit; and at Christian funerals the departed are entrusted into the care of the Holy Trinity.
In our worship, forgiveness is granted and blessing made in the name of the Trinity. And in our worship, we praise the united Divinity through the ‘Glory be’ at the end of Psalms and the Gloria, as well as within the Creed and the Eucharistic Prayer. Today Vicky will introduce the Peace with a three-fold greeting that we will be invited to share.
Martyn Percy recently stated that: ‘Social distance between God and humanity is abolished in the Incarnation.’ [1] In this strange time of social-distancing personal relationships are struggling due to separation and we are physically isolated from community activities that nourish and enhance our lives. Many are lonely and especially miss gathering together to worship, pray and receive the Eucharist. How reassuring then that God is not just watching from a distance rather He desires to be with every single person.
It is through the unity of the Trinity, [revealed at the Annunciation, in the Incarnation and at Jesus’ baptism] that Christ desires to gather and support, to come near to and to be at one with us.
There is the well-known saying, “two’s company, three’s a crowd”. That may be so in a close one to one relationship where a third person is seeking inclusion and feeling excluded – but that is not so in the Trinity. Rather than being in a competitive relationship Father, Son and Holy Spirit make up a perfect united community and all God’s people are invited to know the freely given hope, joy and love of Christ and the strength and peace of His Spirit.
As Christians we are tasked with helping others become adopted children of the Heavenly Father. That will only happen when, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we display the inclusive love of the Trinity in our own actions. It is not in turning away from those we do not understand, or blaming God for tragedies, that will help usher in God’s Kingdom but by offering the welcome Jesus exampled and sent His disciples out to proclaim.
In the book: ‘Love’s Endeavour, Love’s Expense’[2] William Vanstone equated the Trinity to a family who allows each member to flourish – he described the Trinity as a community, seeking to extend their generous, never-failing, circle of love to those who are lost and unloved, including the rejected and the suffering.
Christian discipleship, how we relate to God, is defined by the Trinity. Christian life must be loving and inclusive because God in Trinity is loving and invites all; Christian life should be communal, transparent, humble and joyful, because God in Trinity is communal, transparent, humble and joyful. Within the community of the Trinity there’s no jealousy, no conflict, no disrespect. There’s no lying or hiding, and no blaming. Within the community of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit there’s just love: perfect love, perfect unity and open communication. The Holy Trinity reaches out to humankind with a peace beyond understanding. It is not for us to strive to make sense of the mystery of the threefold Godhead but rather we are called to enter into and accept the love that is offered.
Working in perfect unity God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, not only looks outward to the world but engages and abides with us, and especially cares for those who so dearly need the courage, strength, care and compassion that ALL are invited to discover for themselves.
Jesus commissioned and sent out the disciples to share His message of good news in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let us follow that command knowing that He is with us ‘always to the very end of the age!’
Paul, in his farewell to the people of Corinth, gifted a ‘Three in One’ blessing of unending love and fellowship that sustained the early Christians. Today it can be for us a prayer of strength, comfort and affirmation:
Amen
[1] https://modernchurch.org.uk/martyn-percy-a-plague-of-numbers
[2] Vanstone WH {1977} ‘’Love’s Endeavour, Love’s Expense” Darton, Longman and Todd