Sunday Worship
Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on Trinity Sunday. Our Church Services this morning are at the usual times of 9.15 at St Agnes' and 11.00 at St Thomas'.
If you are unable to be with us in person, you can find resources below to worship at home.
Our first hymn this morning is "Father, I Adore You"
Today's Bible Reading
Romans 5:1-5 Peace and Hope and the Holy
Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Reflection
Today is Trinity Sunday – A day that strikes fear into the hearts of many vicars and curates that scratch their head trying to think of a new way to explain the nature of the Triune God. The one in three and three in one.
Last week I mentioned how we declare our belief in the Holy Trinity every time we say the Nicene Creed, however we do need to think about the meaning of what we recite in this statement of faith.
I have written previously about how difficult it is for us as humans to visualise the concept of the unity of the Trinity and at the same the distinct nature as separate entities.
Indeed Jesus himself doesn’t make it any easier – sometimes He speaks of the Father as if God is someone distinct from himself whilst, as we saw last week He tells Philip that, that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him.
But don’t worry, because instead making a befuddling theological argument, I have chosen the passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans. I hope by doing so we can, through Paul’s letter, explore the relationship and nature of how God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit work together.
In the short passage we can see how faith, peace and hope are interwoven.
Paul starts by telling us that when we have faith in God the father, we are at peace with Him. It is easy just to read this as a statement and move on, but when we pause for thought there is also the inference that it is possible to not be at peace with God. For us to be in a state where we are at odds with God.
In the old Testament there are examples of where God was angry with the people of Israel – for example in Exodus 32 where they turned their backs on both God and Moses and ordered Aaron to make an idol of a golden calf to worship. In response God sent a plague on those who had broken His commandment. Similarly in Genesis 19 where God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah. We too need to acknowledge that we also fall short of God’s expectations when we sin.
Paul goes on to reassure that it is only because of Jesus working with God that we can be saved. It is through Jesus who died on the cross as payment for all our sins, that we can be assured of the ongoing grace of God and share in His continued glory. But we also have to commit to Jesus, to declare our belief in the risen Christ and continually repent of our sins.
Jesus, son of God who is in the Father and the Father is in Him makes this possible. It is through Jesus’ obedient sacrifice that mankind can be liberated from the strain of our sinful ways.
When Paul refers to the Spirit, he expresses how God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. The Spirit that, because of God’s unbounded love, has been shared with us – it is only by the power of the Spirit that we can even begin to know God.
A Spirit that enables us deep down to listen to God when He speaks to us – ‘the still small voice’ [Kings 19:12], that whispers gently in our heart. A Spirit that is there to guide us and keep us on the road to the eternal life that Jesus promises and who is there to intervene and help us when we find it hard to pray.
I do not expect that this reflection has massively opened up your understanding of the Holy Trinity, it is after all a divine mystery . But maybe through the words of Paul we might appreciate a little better how God the father, Son and Holy Spirit interact as one for the benefit of humankind.
Peace with God comes about through Jesus Christ. God’s love is poured out into human hearts through the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit is given for us by God.
Paul
