i. celebrate 'Father's Day',
ii. celebrate Trinity Sunday (yes, I know the word's not in the Bible), and
iii. celebrate the resurrection (as we do every Sunday - that's why Sundays are not part of Lent)
Today is the day when the Church struggles to not only understand, but also explain,'The Trinity'. There will be explanations containing three leaf clovers, 'wife, mother and daughter', 'ice, stem and water' and so much more and by the close of play today - God will become modal, functional and mentally-ill - and nothing of merit will have been done!
So here's my remedy to all the madness for in the Trinity (three person's) we have:
God (the Father) - the author of life and reconciliation (salvation) to Him.
God (the Son) - the person who makes reconciliation with God real by His freewill offering of Himself to death on the Cross (FOR ALL).
God (the Holy Spirit) - lives in us, enabling and guiding us to to maintain that reconciled relationship and live in unity and peace with God and man.
And to put the cherry on the cake - the mediaeval Church would tell us that God is three persons - one substance but with three distinct personalities. I found a great graphic to show this and to help our understand - and again, it's all very simple.
The Collect
Holy God, faithful and unchanging:
enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth,
and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love,
that we may truly worship you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
So here's the readings for today:
Isaiah 40.12-17,27-31
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?
Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or as his counsellor has instructed him?
Whom did he consult for his enlightenment, and who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?
Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as dust on the scales; see, he takes up the isles like fine dust. Lebanon would not provide fuel enough, nor are its animals enough for a burnt-offering. All the nations are as nothing before him; they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel,
‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God’?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
2 Corinthians 13.11-13
Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Matthew 28.16-20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And 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, baptising 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. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
Post Communion
Almighty and eternal God,
you have revealed yourself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and live and reign in the perfect unity of love:
hold us firm in this faith,
that we may know you in all your ways
and evermore rejoice in your eternal glory,
who are three Persons yet one God,
now and for ever.
Not wanting to reinvent the wheel - if you'd like to get a grip on the 'modes' stuff, take a look here:
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