Trinity Sunday

7 June, 2020

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today is the Feast of the Holy Trinity. It’s an odd day. Most of the feasts of the Church celebrate particular events, like the birth of Jesus or his resurrection. Other feasts celebrate saints, people in whom God was visibly at work. But today’s feast celebrates God himself.

Many people think that this feast celebrates our teaching about the Trinity, about God. There’s an element of truth in that, but it’s not the whole picture. Namely, because we do not believe that the Church came up with the idea that God is a Trinity of persons, but rather that God has revealed himself as the Holy Trinity, three persons and one God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It’s important for us to keep that in mind because, otherwise, we would be falling into the trap that the prophet Isaiah wants to warn us away from.

“To whom will you liken God,” he says, “or what likeness compare with him? An idol? — A workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains.”

 What is an idol or a false god, except this weak thing that Isaiah describes, bound in chains of human devising? God the Holy Trinity does not exist because of our desires. We did not make him. We cannot bind him in place. God is the Creator, everlasting and free, the ground of our being. He made us.

When this truth of God gets ahold of us, we will understand just why we have this Feast of the Holy Trinity. We are celebrating God as he is, God in his beauty: God the Father, God the Son, and God Holy Spirit — untamed, almighty, and closer to us than our own breath.

This great God has made himself known in all the universe and in human history. “Ever since the creation of the world,” St Paul says, “his eternal power and divine nature…have been understood and seen through the things he has made” (Rom. 1:20). But we know God in particular through all that he did in the history of Israel and in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, and in all that he has done and is doing in the life of the church. For he is present in our midst and always acting.

Let me give two concrete examples of what I mean by that, relating to our baptism and to our prayer.

God has acted in us. We were all baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. When we entered the waters, we entered into the deep, into the life of God. Just as water covers the whole body of whoever is submerged in it, so our entire life is soaked in God. We do not live by ourselves or for ourselves (Rom. 14:7), but with and in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so we have no experience of life apart from God the Holy Trinity. Awake or asleep, working or resting, hoping or despairing, God dwells within us. This is something to wonder at, like the Psalmist.

“What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him little lower than the angels, and crown him with glory and honor.” (Ps. 8:4-5)

 Who am I now that God is with me? I am washed, I am sanctified, made holy and just by the name of the Lord.

And so of course, if these things are true, God is also with us in prayer. He is the source and inspirer of all prayer, the one who enables prayer, and the one to whom we pray. In this dynamic movement of prayer, which we all may experience at any moment, the Holy Trinity is especially revealed in us.  

We pray to the God the Father through Jesus Christ his Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit. This truth of God standing above us, besides us, within us — as we pray — is one of the chief reasons the Church has spoken of God as Trinity. St Paul says in Romans, “When we cry ‘Abba, Father’, it is that very Spirit [of God] bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…” (Rom. 8:15-17).

I have thought of all these heady things this week as I considered and remembered our church, our congregation. I have thought of the great gift of knowing God, the God who does not leave us to ourselves, but who redeems us. I have thought of how God's life covers us like the waters. And I have thought of how God is with us all in prayer, uniting us in one fellowship with him and with one another.

I have thought of these things especially as I have prayed each day the ancient prayer “the Grace,” which came at the end of our second reading and which Anglicans use to close many times of prayer. “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore.” That is a prayer of great sweetness: and when I close my eyes, I can almost hear everyone’s voices each time I pray it.

I have needed this prayer this past week, which was a difficult one. Violence and racial prejudice were on full display. Many people I know are in hard situations, with no easy way out. And still around the world, thousands are dying daily from the virus. All of us need grace and love and fellowship. Indeed, we need salvation. This prayer, the Grace, is a reminder that help is near to hand, no matter what.

Are you besieged by the difficulties of daily life? Are you suffering through illness or poverty? Are you wearied by the lack of public righteousness, or the hypocrisy of our time? Or, do you just need God? Pray this Grace, and seek the help of the Lord who wearies not, who never grows faint. And remember: if you are struggling, whether to pray or in dealing with any trouble, don't hesitate to call or write to someone at St Bene't's. Our contact details are on our website.

On this Trinity Sunday, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be ours forevermore. Amen.