Sunday 4 June, 2023 The First Sunday after Pentecost - Trinity Sunday
One
of my favourite movies is Spy Kids. The
movie begins with a typical day in life of this family, thought to be a typical
south American family. To an outsider,
we see that the before school routine includes acrobatic type gym work – not exactly
typical. As the movie moves on the kids
discover secret places and a whole different side to their parents. The parents are spies! Upon discovering this the daughter says, “Our
parents can't be spies... they're not cool enough!”
Are
you aware that we all have an image of people we know? And likewise, they have an image of us. The image of each person differs depending on
the relationship we have with them and how much of their true self they reveal.
The accuracy of that image depends on our
knowledge of the person, but there is always more to know... What is our image
of God? When you pray, do you relate to
God the father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit?
The
doctrine of the Holy Trinity developed
gradually over several centuries and through many controversies, to sure up
what we believe and stand against heresy. It is not a term you will find in the Bible, however we find
reference to the Spirit and the father in the Old Testament, and Jesus is
spoken of as the “Word”. And we know
that through that word, all things were created.
In the New Testament we find support for the
doctrine in many places and especially in Jesus’ command to make disciples,
Baptising them in the name of the father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But make no mistake – There is but ONE
God. We believe in One God. The doctrine of the Trinity means that there
is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons — the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. God is one in essence
and three in person. A great article on
this can be found on the website; https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-is-the-doctrine-of-the-trinity
Fully grasping the mystery of the Trinity is not
something to worry about. We get an
inkling of it when we get to know who God is, and this, getting to know God, is
the more important goal.
God is love.
This is like an echo that we hear throughout the Old through to our New
Testament. The encounter of Moses with
God, records God’s own words about himself.
He says; “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with
him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses,
proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to
anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and
forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty
unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the
parents to the third and fourth generation.”
This is a revelation of the nature of our God….. What
does this mean for you and me? How do we
interpret the nature of God?
Many years ago, in Yepoon, I was asked to give a talk on
images of God in the Bible. Right at the
start of the session, I had a man jump up angrily and let me know that God was
Holy and Just and we need to take note because God was not going to be putting
up with sin. And before I could say
anything, a little old catholic nun jumped up and proclaimed that the man was
wrong and God is love and forgives everyone.
What would you have said to them?
It was a tense start, but I reassured both of them, that they were both
correct and we then went on to look honestly at the revelations of God’s nature
as revealed in the scriptures and just how these aspects relate to the Good
News.
We often explain that God is loving and forgiving, and
sometimes neglect to say that God hates sin.
In the past, people have been well acquainted with the idea that those
who sin can not be with God. And when we
look at this text where God himself tells us about himself, there is a much
greater emphasis on love and grace. The
truth is, that God is also just.
I have noticed that some people are truly offended if
you should suggest that God is all loving and omit that he is also a God of
purity and Justice, and likewise there are others, many more, who are equally
or even more offended if you talk about God’s harshness with sin, and yet not
mention his love. (which would certainly be wrong)
We need to keep in mind that there is a truth about
the nature of God, and keep in mind that God is bigger, deeper, wider, wiser
and beyond all of us. However, there are
some things that we do know, because it has been revealed to us through
scripture, Jesus and the Holy Spirt.
Firstly, we need to know that the holiness and justice of God are part
of God’s goodness and love. God has all
these attributes. When we are wronged,
we demand justice. We need to know that
God is big enough, wise enough and powerful enough to make sense of all the
evil in our world, yet loving and compassionate enough to understand and
forgive our own fickle hearts.
The message of the Gospel always begins with the
reality of our human condition. There is
evil in the world and it is because humans freely choose their own will rather
than follow God. Most of us don’t mean
to do anything wrong – but in the very least there will be sometimes when we
will certainly make the selfish choice.
The Psalmist (Psalm 15) wrote; “Lord, who may dwell in your sacred
tent? Who may live on your holy
mountain?
The one whose
walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their
heart; whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbour,…” (coincidentally
– David was that Psalmist and he certainly did do harm to a neighbour!!!! Yet God called David a man after God’s own
heart.)
None of us are perfectly perfect. So, God made a way for us. God’s justice, and holiness demands
perfection, but so do we with our own inner sense of, and demand for
justice, but God’s love and compassion is more intense than any love we will
ever humanly encounter and He made a way for us to be eternally united to
him. Now nothing can keep us from the
love of God. But it came at a high
price. The Son came to be the lamb of
God to take away sin. The Son, while on
earth lived as a fully human, perfect man.
Through our baptism we are united to Christ and spiritually, God sees us
as clothed in Christ – Therefore he sees us, who are baptised, as his perfect
Son. We need ongoing help from God to
live this life. We need God’s empowering
to live as though we are children of God.
We need the Holy Spirit.
Just as it was significant that Jesus sacrifice took
place at the time of Passover, the coming of the Holy Spirit coming on the day
of Pentecost was also significant.
Pentecost is a festival known to the Jewish as “Shavuot”. It is a holiday commemorating the giving of
the Torah (the first five books in the Hebrew Bible) to Moses at Mount Sinai. The Holy Spirit is God’s law within us.
We are also Triune beings with body, soul and spirit
and it is the Holy Spirit that makes us spiritually alive, as the Holy Spirit
is God within us and all that God is… The Bible says We work out
our Salvation. This is because we need
to allow God in our inner most being to affect the rest of our being so that we
grow more and more in his likeness. We
are redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus, and we are sanctified – made holy… set
apart, by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:10 tells us; “But if Christ is in you,
then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives
life because of righteousness.”
In so many other verses we are encouraged to live by
the Spirit… to walk in the Spirit.
Why? Because the Holy Spirit is
God and God gives us free will. We can still
choose to use our free will, resist or quench the Holy Spirit and walk in the
natural. If we forget to rely on the
Holy Spirit…. More than anything else, we will be short changing
ourselves.
The Holy Spirit is the power of God. It is the power to do what is right, when our
natural self doesn’t want to. It is the
power to be courageous when we are afraid of being rejected, and more than
anything, the Holy Spirit is the power of God to be loving, when we just want
to be spiteful and act with revenge or self-righteousness.
Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday. It is part of the church calendar to ensure
that we retain our core belief and understanding about the nature of God. This year, I want to encourage us to take a
step further than belief. Belief is
nothing unless there is an action that testifies, and so I challenge us all to determine
to rely on God… and by this I mean to rely on the fullness of God… We are generally comfortable in
praying to the father, we have a pretty good knowledge of the saving work of
the Son, but can we explore what it means to walk in the Spirit and grow in our
understanding of the magnitude of God?
We are reminded today of the Great Commission; “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 teaching them to obey
everything that I have commanded you.”
We are to be making disciples – meaning learners. We are to baptize them, and although it is
into the family of God, we are commanded to specifically do this in the name of
the Father… and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We are then to teach them to obey all that
Jesus commanded.
The people of God are meant to be a blessing to the
nations – A blessing to the world around us.
This means we are meant to be a blessing to our community, and as we go
about being a blessing, we should make disciples and be baptizing and teaching.
On the day of Pentecost three thousand were added to
their number in one day and five thousand a little later. Many, many in that community were baptised
and became disciples. Where are we at
with the great commission today?
Our church is in desperate need of the life that only
the Holy Spirit can bring. And the Holy Spirit works through us saying, “YES”
to the will of God. I believe our Image of God needs to
grow bigger. And our understanding of what
God wants to accomplish life needs to expand.
There are lyrics in the song, the servant King, that sum up the magnitude
and compassion of God; Hands that flung stars into space, to cruel nails
surrounded. He is the same God who has
intervened in human history, parted the sea so that a nation could be saved,
spoke with Moses on the Mountain, is Holy and Pure, all powerful and awesome,
yet so compassionate and merciful that he came to die for us. He is one and yet three persons.
Perhaps our prayer today can be the words of the song
by Lynn DeShazo - Be Magnified;
I have made You too small in my eyes, O Lord, forgive
me. And I have believed in a lie -That You were unable to help me. But now, O
Lord, I see my wrong
Heal my heart and show Yourself strong -And in my eyes
and with my song - O Lord, be magnified - O Lord, be mag - nified.
Be magnified, O Lord - You are highly exalted
And there is nothing You can't do - O Lord, my eyes
are on You.
Be magnified, O Lord, be mag - nified.
I have leaned on the wisdom of men - O Lord, forgive
me. And I have responded to them - Instead
of Your light and Your mercy. But now, O Lord, I see my wrong- Heal my heart
and show Yourself strong. And in my eyes
with my song O Lord, be magnified - O
Lord, be magnified.
Be magnified, O Lord - You are highly exalted
And there is nothing You can't do - O Lord, my eyes
are on You.
Be magnified, O Lord, be mag - nified.
And we make this prayer, in the name of the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit. AMEN
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