Sermon on Trinity Sunday, May 30th 2021
Today is Trinity Sunday, a time for contemplation on the central tenets of our faith. When we do this we see how they fit together as we make our annual liturgical journey.
I’d like to start with another journey, a visit to the Temple in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus.
There are five courts which grow in significance as we get closer to the Holy of Holies. And like a series of sieves with smaller holes, so fewer of us can proceed.
We start with the Court of the Gentiles
No Gentile can pass beyond this.
Into the Court of Women. No women can pass beyond this point.
Then the Court of the Israelites – only men in here.
Then the Court of the Priests. only priests
And finally the Holy of Holies reserved for the presence of God – which only the High Priest can enter, and then only once a year on Yom Kippur The Day of Atonement).
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him, bless his name.”
Psalm 100.4
What has this to do with Trinity Sunday?
Our faith is a paradox.
The transcendent creator God – unknowable and beyond
Yet we also have this deep sense of love and an intimate relationship with God, Father Son and Holy Spirit.
It has been said that the story of scripture could be described as how these two realities come together, how humans come to understand our connection with God
We‘ve had two examples this moring. The prophet touched on the lips by the seraph we heard about in Isaiah, Nicodemus in conversation with our Lord.
Giles Fraser puts it like this: “How God jumps the distance between himself and humanity.”
For Judaism, the Temple was the ultimate sacred space because this was the place where the distance between God and his people was at its thinnest.
The destination of our journey of Contemplation on this Trinity Sunday morning is, to my mind, that through the gift of the Trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit has jumped the distance between us and God and opened the Holy of Holies to all peoples.
Any sieves or sieving have been made redundant.
Because through God, Father Son and Holy Spirit we are surrounded by God’s love.
We may not understand exactly how the three separate manifestations of God work.
But many of us do not understand the law of gravity. This doesn’t stop us living. And we can live the Trinity too.
Interestingly, the Trinity itself is not be found by name in the Bible.
(I’m always rather cautious if views expressed which include “because the Bible says so” because they often seem to be holding the metaphorical sieve).
But there are references to the triune God in the Bible.
Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (St. Matthew – the Great Commission)
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Paul writing to the Corinthians
We also have the story of the three visitors to Abraham and Sarah in Genesis (see the Rublev icon on the front of our service sheets) at the Oak of Mamre – where one of the angels announces that Sarah will conceive.
Note there is no hierarchy of the three angels and also that the four sided table has a vacant place – is it for us the onlooker?
Now let reflect on the Church’s year and what it teaches us about the Holy Trinity.
The birth of Christ – God incarnate
The Baptism of Christ – with the manifestation of the Spirit descending as a dove – the poor person’s sacrificial animal at the Temple
Jesus – driving out the money changers from the Temple- “What sign can you show us for doing this?
Destroy this temple and in the three days I will raise it up.
Christ the is our temple
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
Jesus in the Temple:
“Our ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” 57 Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”[k] 58 Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”
Look at the Rublev icon – of the three visitors to Abraham and Sarah. Remember what our Lord said: Before Abraham was I am.
The ministry of Christ – healing and miracles – God jumping the distance between God and humanity.
Holy Week – the trial and crucifixion
Easter – the Resurrection, Jesus appearances – Thomas: My Lord and my God – equality of Jesus and the Creator God – whose spirit moved upon the waters.
The same Spirit who we hear Jesus talking to Nicodemus about.
Pentecost – the Gift of the Holy Spirit which occurred on the day of the Jewish feast of Shavuot (shavuwhat) – which encompasses the celebration of summer harvest “All things come from you and of your own have we given you.” Celebrating Creation
So there are many pointers to the Triune (three fold God) in the Bible.
The early church fathers had arguments about what exactly was the relationship between the three. Don’t have time to go into these. You can look up Arius and Arianism for example.
What is key is that doctrine of the Trinity which was developed at the Council of Nicaea regulates the relationship between Father Son and Holy Spirit.
God is one God, manifested by Father Son and Holy Spirit.
This relationship of equality, of love and mutual inter dependence has much to teach us.
In the last year we have received new perspective on those on who we depend.
Let us give thanks for the gift of the Trinity – that God exists as three persons but is one being, having a single divine nature. The members of the Trinity are co-equal and co-eternal, one in essence, nature, power, action, and will.
Let us pray that our understanding of the Trinity develops. That in the coming week and beyond, we narrow the gap between heaven and earth, which we recognise and give thanks to God and to those on whom we depend.
God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Here I am send me.
Fr. Peter Wolton
Trinity Sunday
30 May 2021