What is Trinity Sunday?
Good Morning Friends,
Words alone do not express the joy of knowing sins forgiven. This promise of new life in Christ is a great hope, but is also so personal that the words I write will be insufficient in explaining this experience. God will have to join in the reading and place additional words on your hearts. It is in this hope of unity on the journey that today we attempt an answer to the question…. What is Trinity Sunday?
Scripture: God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 (NIV)
But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved– and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God– not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Ephesians 2:4-10 (NRSV)
6In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.’ 4The pivots* on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’ 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7The seraph* touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’ 8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’ 9
Isaiah 6:1-8 (NRSV)
15When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17got into a boat, and started across the lake to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18The lake became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19When they had rowed about three or four miles,* they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20But he said to them, ‘It is I;* do not be afraid.’ 21Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land towards which they were going.
John 6:15-6:21 (NRSV)
Message: Yesterday we celebrated Trinity Sunday and now that Easter, the Ascension and Pentecost have sunk in a bit we continue a contemplation of the Creator, Sustainer and the Redeemer in scripture and in our daily life. The trinity is just about everywhere in scripture. Thinking about things in three ways on the sea journey through the eyes of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit can be helpful. So today we think about social harmony of a ship built on the inner harmony of individuals. Today our attention is drawn to the maker, the journey and the body.
If we are indeed under new management we will have a balance of faith and works in our life that has a common core in relationship with a Father who is holy, a Son who is holy and the Spirit who is holy. But for too many that perfect plan for our lives does not fully unfold because we have not fully obeyed that directive God has put on our hearts. We are not holy. We would rather be master of our own fate and captain of our own soul. We do so like the idea of being in charge of our home, business, community and church. The problem is that we too often would rather try to do the best we can in a noble effort alone, even if it is clear that our best is not nearly good enough. When it comes to our efforts balanced against the power of God’s judgment we are hopeless unless we have embraced the only means of our individual and collective salvation. Here is where words fail me in communicating what I want for you to experience, for saying, “God’s riches at Christ’s expense” or “God’s unmerited favor” just does not help us understand how God’s love and grace reaches past our sin into our hearts to heal us while at the same time it guides us to do the very action of works that God has planned for us to exact in the lives of others. So we confess we cannot do this on our own and but that with God, a Triune God, all our futures can be examples of God’s grace.
Pray our logic is sound and that our heart is pure. Pray we be a Body of believers in whose consciousness we live, move and have our very being. Pray we recognize the divine presence. Pray when the time comes we are reintegrated through disintegration. Pray we surrender to the hidden purposes of the divine. Pray we fill the holes in the hull but not His hands. Pray we realize that we are useless unless we are going somewhere. Pray we realize that we are dependent on the winds of the Spirit and a Captain to steer, and a crew to properly set the sails. Pray we realize that the Captain of the ship keeps a log. Pray we see the Spirit in the Sails, the Maker in the Ship and Christ in the Captain. Pray we see the Three as One and the One as Three.
Pray we rejoice in the gift of grace. Pray we realize that God desires to be part of our relationships. Pray we worship in the fullness of God every day.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 