Trinity Sunday

A Road Map

Isa. 40:12–17, 27—31 The greatness of God; Ps. 8 Stewardship of nature; 2 Cor. 13:11–13 God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit; Matt. 28:16–20 Baptism in the name of the Trinity

'Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."' Matthew 28:18–19

A road map

A student, training for ordination to the ministry of the church, was allowed to preach his first practice sermon in a tiny church tucked away in the Oxfordshire countryside. His misfortune was that this was to be on Trinity Sunday. So the student thought about the language we use – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three Persons in one God. What inadequate words to describe the majesty of God, he thought. God's far too big to be contained in tiny, nit-picking phrases like that. God's bigger than the universe he created, so no doctrine formed out of mere words can even begin to describe the nature of God. The student seized his pen and began to write his sermon notes. ‘God has no more resemblance to the doctrine of the Trinity', he wrote, ‘than a . . . hilly landscape has to a road map.' He completed the notes, and set off to find the church where he was going to preach. Unfortunately, he arrived after the service had started, having got thoroughly lost while looking for the church, because he hadn't got a road map!

A salutary lesson

The student had learnt a very salutary lesson. However inadequate a road map may be in describing the full reality, we do actually need a road map. However insufficient the doctrine of the Trinity may be at describing the majesty of God, we do actually need that form of words. Without it, we may easily lose our way when trying to talk about God.

Baptism in the name of the Trinity

Jesus told his disciples to baptize their new converts ‘in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit'. There are many other places in the gospel where Jesus speaks about his Father, and his Spirit, and he said ‘I and my Father are one'. Because of this, many churches allow anyone who's been ‘baptized in the name of the Trinity', to receive the Holy Communion. The insistence on the trinitarian nature of the baptism is not to set up verbal hurdles for people to jump, but to emphasize that the nature of the God we believe in is like that of a loving family. A Trinity in Unity.

Monotheism

You see, there are many sorts of unity. There's the one-ness of the man who goes off alone for a week's hunting in the woods, and never speaks to another living soul. Enjoyable for those who have that sort of temperament, but it doesn't do any good to anybody else. Or there's the one-ness of a large family, who've learnt not only to tolerate each other's quirky characteristics, but to enjoy the fact that no two of them are the same. Therefore they're happy to welcome even quite eccentric visitors to their home, because they're already quite used to the variety of human nature. I think the second sort of one-ness is a much better picture for imagining God than the first. It's a unity of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit living together, each with their own job to do, but with only one plan, one purpose, one will, one aim. That aim is to draw the whole human race into their family of love, so that we can all enjoy each other in our exciting diversity, in the great dance of love that we call the Kingdom of heaven.

Theology

That sort of language might not satisfy the theologians, I don't know. But it seems to me to express the loving wonder of what St Paul meant when he wished his friends: ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.' The idea of God as a family, with an open welcome, expresses some of the loving generosity of Jesus when he said: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.' And although it may not quite convey the loving majesty of Jesus when he said: ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me', yet at least it gives us a sort of road map, which points us in the right direction to glimpse the indescribable greatness of God.

All-age worship

Discuss how families can settle their arguments.

Suggested hymns

Father of heaven, whose love profound; Firmly I believe and truly; Holy holy, holy holy, holy holy, Lord God almighty; Meekness and majesty.