The Trinity is one of those mysteries that is hard to get one’s mind around. We proclaim that there is only one God – and then we name God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit – which implies a threeness – as depicted in the famous Rublev icon of the Trinity opposite. This form of addressing God – which has biblical precedent from passages such as Matthew 28:19 – raises other issues for us as it sounds quite patriarchal to our contemporary culture. And yet here we are on Trinity Sunday, invited to reflect on who God is for us and what it means to be God’s people in the world.
Something that may surprise you is that trinitarian thinking came very early in the life of the church. The apostle Paul was using a trinitarian blessing within 20 years of Jesus’ death – what we know as the Grace from 2 Cor 13:13 – ‘May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all’. From a very early date baptism was carried out in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit.
What sort of response might we make to these truths about God?
We will be holding a Zoom worship meeting this Sunday morning from 9.45 am. I will host the meeting from my home but it will be an opportunity to hold a larger (virtual) gathering and to see each others’ faces. We will be basing our worship on the attached worship@home resource for this week, so it would be handy to have a copy present. We can send you a link to the meeting or a phone number and meeting details if you sign up by emailing the Croydon UC church office on office@croydon.unitingchurch.org.au or using the form in the sidebar.
Click here for worship@home resources Thinking about the Trinity - 7 June 2020