Phil (w)Rite: Trinity Sunday C

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Sunday, June 12, 2022

Trinity FAQ

Trinity Sunday June 12, 2022

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 Psalm 8/Canticle 13

Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15

In my typical droning fashion, of reading a written sermon, I'd like to drone on like the proverbial Officer Friday with some "just the facts" ma'am, about the Trinity. But by facts, I mean FAQ or frequently asked questions, or more truthful frequently asked Phil Questions about the Trinity.

Q: What is the Holy Trinity?

A: The Trinity is the Christian belief about God being one God in three equal Persons.

Q: Is the Holy Trinity the invention of the Council of Nicaea in the year 325?

A: The Council of Nicaea was a meeting of Bishops to standardize across the known Christian World, Christian practice, and belief, starting with what Christians believed about God, as God was referred to as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit within the writings which had come to be general accepted as inspired writings for the churches, the writings known now as the New Testament.

Q: Did all Christians agree about the Trinity before and after the Council of Nicaea?

A: No. There were different writings by scholars and bishops regarding the degree of divinity of Jesus, and the nature of the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The winner of the Council resolution is associated with Athanasius who argued for the full and equal status of Jesus as both equally God and human. This is referred to as a High Christology position. A priest named Arius is associated with what is call a Low Christology in emphasizing the human nature of Christ. Bishops and scholars had followings in different regions with many having the support and protection of their local governors. So, even though Athanasius’ position won the vote at the council and the canons condemn any other beliefs to the contrary, those contrary beliefs continue in various regions for about another century. There was not actual unity of belief and practice for the period before and after the Council of Nicaea.

Q: Is there evidence for the Holy Trinity in the Hebrew Scriptures?

A: Yes, if one is a Christian looking for that evidence, like the reference to a "Son of Man," coming in the cloud mentioned in the Prophet Daniel. Also, one can say God the Father spoke the words to create and the Word that was being spoken was the Eternal Word Christ, and further the dynamic implementation of creation was the Spirit moving over the abyss. Voila! There is the Trinity found in the creation account. It would be wrong to say that for Jews who are in the traditions the Hebrew religion and Judaism, find the Trinity in their Scriptures. The Hebrew religion and Islam derived from polytheistic situations and the Hebrew Scriptures describe the condition of henotheism (belief in a chief god who presides above other gods). Hebrew Scriptures describe the phase of henotheism while becoming exclusively monotheistic. One can see that anything that looked like the direction of plural deities would be suspect to strict monotheistic religions like Judaism and Islam.

Q: Can the Holy Trinity be defended as true according to empirical verification?

A: If something is only meaningfully true if it can be empirically verified, then the Holy Trinity does not qualify as that kind of meaningful truth.

Q: How can it be claimed and defended that the Holy Trinity is true?

A: First, admit that empirical verification is not the only criteria for meaningful truth. There are intuitive truths, aesthetic truths, literary truth, relationship truths, spiritual truths, and moral truths that are obviously meaningful in the lives of people. The belief in the Trinity conforms to these other criteria of meaningful truths. And these truths have empirically verifiable outcomes, like when we practice active love and justice in physical word and deeds because of our Trinitarian beliefs, these outcomes are verifiable.

Q: How is the Holy Trinity a relational truth?

A: It is found in the specific words attributed to Jesus about himself, about his relationship to God as his Father, and his promise of the Holy Spirit being known to his followers. Since Jesus is the superlative life example for his followers, his words about himself and the nature of God become definitive for how we understand and communicate our faith. Jesus was the relationship location for God as Father and Holy Spirit, and he said that people too could be in a relationship location for the three Person of the Godhead.

Q: How is the Holy Trinity intuitive truth?

A: As human beings, we are limited to having human experiences of God, so we speak about God from human perspectives with human language and human experiences from which we use analogies about God. We understand we have come from Plenitude as the origin of our coming to be, so God as Father is Origin Plenitude. The appearance of one who is human, and God means that human experience is a valid way to come to know the one greater than we are. So, we speak of God the Son, as validating our higher knowledge of God. Further, we know that we exist in an environment which conduct mutual and reciprocal and relationship experience. So, we call the Holy Spirit this omnipresence which allows us to know mutual connection. In this way, we can confess the Trinity to be intuitively meaningful truth.

Q: Can you and I know the Holy Trinity?

A: Not if we think that we have the equal capacity to know. We can know that we are contained by Plenitude and greatness. We can know that our relationship with Plenitude is personal, because we use language. The use of language implies personality; so we cannot avoid knowing God in personal ways. God as Trinity is never known, but God is always becoming known, because relationship is dynamic in time. And God becomes known in piecemeal events of relationships, sometimes as Father, sometimes as Son, and sometime as Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as original dynamic love relationship, acquires all of the possible attributes which are consistent with the definition of greatness. Knowing the Trinity is being open to continuous future relationship, since as Jesus said, "the Spirit is present to let us know continually about this endless on-going relationship."

Q: How should we regard the Holy Trinity?

A: With the humility of knowing that it is better that God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, knows us and is knowing and experiencing through us, rather than it being about our pride in thinking we know God.

In short, let us not be proud of our knowledge of the Trinity; let us humbly make ourselves available to be known by God so that we can represent the divine persons to our world with a witness to God as Creator, God as forgiver, redeemer, reconciler, and God as continuous dynamic personal connection as the Holy Glue of continual Oneness.

In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Sunday School, June 12, 2022 Trinity Sunday, C

Today is Trinity Sunday

What does Trinity mean?

It means that we believe God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit

But if God is three persons, how can God be One God? Do we believe in three Gods?

No, we believe in One God, in three Persons who are all equally God

Why do we believe in God as a Trinity?

Even though we believe God is much greater than us, we believe that God wants us to know about God. We as human being believe we are persons. A person is someone who knows oneself in relationship with each other. I am a son because I have a father. I am a father because I have a son. I am a brother because I have brothers and sisters. I am a husband because I have a wife. So I have many expressions of my personality depending upon what relationship I have with other people.

We believe that God wants to be related to us as persons. So we believe that God can best be known to us in being known as Persons of the Trinity.

When we relate to God as our creator, we speak of God as our Father. When we relate to God as someone who became human to show us how to live the best human life, we know God as Jesus the Son. And when we know that God surrounds us like water surrounding a fish and when we know that God is close inside of us, we know God as the invisible Holy Spirit.

So in our relationship with God we know God in different kinds of relationships and yet each of these kinds of relationship are with a single one, kind and loving God.

The Trinity is our confession about a great God who wants to be in relationship with us and we wants us to be in relationship with God, in different ways, sometimes as our Father, sometimes as our big brother Jesus and sometimes like the invisible breath or wind when we know God is with us because we feel the closeness of God.

Exercise: What is your name? How many persons are you? Son? Daughter? Brother? Sister? Boy? Girl? Student? Soccer Player? Dancer?

Puppet Show for Trinity Sunday
Characters:

Officer George

Father Phil

Sign on the Puppet Theatre

Security Agent, Security Systems and Driving Instruction

Fr. Phil: (knocks on the puppet theatre) Is anyone in? I need some help.

Officer George: (pops up) Hello, I’m Officer George here. Can I help you?

Fr. Phil: Yes, I need some one to teach a friend of mine how to drive.

Officer George: Happy to help you. Just have them come and sign up and I will be do the driving instruction. I have never had a ticket but I wrote lots of tickets for speeders when I was a traffic cop.

Fr. Phil: Great, I’ll have my friend come by to see you and sign up for the class.

(Officer George leaves)

Fr. Phil: Oops, I forgot that I needed something else. (Fr. Phil knocks on the theatre again) Hello, is anyone still in the office?

Officer George: (pops up) Yes, I’m still here. Do you need another driving lesson?

Fr. Phil: No, I want to talk to your security person. I need to have an alarm installed at my home.

Officer George: Well, you’ve come to the right place. I’ll be happy to help you.

Fr. Phil: But aren’t you the Driving Instructor?

Officer George: Yes, but I also install alarm systems. Is that a problem?

Fr. Phil: Well, no but you must be a busy person. I will give you my address. When can you come by and give me a bid.

Officer George: I’ll come by tomorrow and help you decide what kind of alarm system that you need. Good bye…..(Officer George disappears)

Fr. Phil: Oops. I forgot I still need something. I need a security guard to come by each night and check our property. Knock! Knock! Is anyone still there?

Officer George: Oh, hello. I see you are still here. How can I help you?

Fr. Phil: I want to talk with your security agent. I need a watchman to check out the church each night. Can I hire one of your night watchmen?

Officer George: Yes, you can. I am the night watchman.

Fr. Phil: How can you be the Driver Instructor, the alarm installer and the night watchman?

Officer George: Well, I could ask you how you, the one and same person, could need a driver instructor, an alarm installed and a watchman.

Fr. Phil: Well, as a person I have many needs.

Officer George: So you can be just one person and have many needs? Don’t you think that I can be one person and have many jobs and titles? I am a Driving Instructor, an alarm installer and a watchman. Fr. Phil as a priest you should be able to understand that?

Fr. Phil: Why do you say that?

Officer George: Well, today is Trinity Sunday. God is One, but we know God in different ways in God’s different Persons. We know God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Fr. Phil: Officer George, thank you for your instruction about the Trinity. Do you think this will help the children at St. John’s understand the Trinity?

Officer George: Maybe a little…but now you’ve given me a fourth job, a teacher. I think that I’ll stick to my three jobs. Good bye, as you see I’m a very busy person having three different jobs.

Fr. Phil: Good bye Officer George and thank you. God must be a very busy God since there are so many people who have so many needs. It’s a good thing that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Don’t you think so?

A Sermon for Trinity Sunday.

Can you be a brother or sister, and a son or daughter, and student all at one time? Can your father be a father, brother and husband all at one time? Can your mother be a mother, sister and wife all at one time?

So one person can be many different personal roles at one time. I am a father, a brother, a son, a cousin, a priest, and yet I am still just one human being. I am a father person, a brother person and a son person, but still just one human being.

Today is called Trinity Sunday. Does anyone know what Trinity means. Whenever you see the three letters TRI at the start of a word, what number are we talking about? The number three. So Trinity refers to three persons.

As Christians we say that God is One God but in trinity of persons. And what are the three persons? Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

If you are talking to your Dad, then you know him as your father. But if your uncle is talking to your dad, he will know your dad as a brother. And if your mother is talking her your dad, she will know your dad as her husband.

So whether we know God as Father, Son or Holy Spirit, it all depends on how we are knowing God.

If we are talking about God as the great creator, we will be speaking about God as our Father.

But if we are talking about God as God became known to us as a human being, then we will talk about Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

And if we talking about how God can be present everywhere at one time, then we will talk about God as the Holy Spirit.

So God can be one God and be also known as three different persons, depending upon what we need to know about God.

And that is the wonderful thing about the Trinity. God can be known to us in different ways. Because sometimes we need to know God in different ways.

Today let us be thankful that God can be known to us in different ways, as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is the Trinity that we celebrate today. Amen.

Intergenerational Family Service with Holy Eucharist

June 12, 2020 Trinity Sunday

Gathering Songs: The King of Glory, Glorify Thy Name, Eat This Bread, Peace Like a River

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever. Amen.

Liturgist: Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Song: The King of Glory Comes, (Renew! # 267)

Chorus: The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices. Open the gates before him, lift up your voices.

1-Who is the King of Glory; how shall we call him? He is Emmanuel, the promised of ages.

2-In all of Galilee, in city or village, he goes among his people curing their illness.

3-Sing then of David’s son, our savior and brother: in all of Galilee was never another

Liturgist: The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Liturgist: Let us pray

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia

O God, you are Great! Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us! Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior! Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family! Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins! Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead! Alleluia

A reading from the Book of Proverbs

Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: "To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live. The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 8

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, * the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,

What are men and women that you should be mindful of them? * and their children that you should seek them out?

You have made them but little lower than the angels; * you adorn them with glory and honor;

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

Thanks be to God!

Liturgist: The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John

People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said to the disciples, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

Liturgist: The Gospel of the Lord.

People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever. Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist: The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People: And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Offertory Song: Glorify Your Name, (Renew!, # 37)

Father we love you we worship and adore you. Glorify your Name in all of the world. Glorify your name, glorify your name, glorify your name in all the world.

Jesus we love you we worship and adore you. Glorify your Name in all of the world. Glorify your name, glorify your name, glorify your name in all the world.

Spirit we love you we worship and adore you. Glorify your Name in all of the world. Glorify your name, glorify your name, glorify your name in all the world.

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts. Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might. Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All may gather around the altar)

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

the bread and drink the wine, we can know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as

this food and drink that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ. May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant: Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People: Therefore let us keep the feast.

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Eat This Bread, (Renew! # 228)

Eat this bread, drink this cup, come to me and never be hungry.

Eat this bread, drink this cup, trust in me and you will not thirst.

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Closing Song: I’ve Got Peace Like a River (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 122)

I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river in my soul. I’ve got peace like a river; I’ve got peace like a river. I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.

I’ve got love….

I’ve got joy…

Dismissal:

Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.

People: Thanks be to God!

Sunday, June 16, 2019

The Trinity and the Baptismal Formula

Trinity Sunday June 16, 2019

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 Psalm 8/Canticle 13

Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15

Lectionary LinkPerhaps you remember the apocryphal story of Isaac Newton and the law of gravity. Newton was sitting under an apple tree and an apple fell and hit him on the head, thus inspiring his famous theory and law of gravity. And he got credit for the law law of gravity even though Aristotle and Hindu philosophers wrote in other ways about this obvious force of Nature long before Newton.

Did gravity exist before the Newton wrote his law of gravity? Of course it did. And Einstein and the Quantum Physicists have come to write theories of gravity different from Isaac Newton's theory.

Today, on Trinity Sunday, we celebrate the Christian understanding of God as One God, in Trinity of Persons. And the events of understanding God as Trinity; did these events make the Trinity exists or did the Trinity always exists? And the Trinity would not be God, if the Trinity did not always exist so such a question is obviously, rhetorical.

Did Jesus create the Trinity? Before Jesus how could we have known that God had a Son? The only direct son of God before Jesus would have been first son, Adam. We can say that the Trinity became revealed in time and space history in a particular way with the appearance of Jesus, but the New Testament writers wondered if the Nature of Jesus had existence before the conception of Jesus in the Virgin Mary.

Probably, the most Trinitarian Gospel is the Gospel of John, the last Gospel and one with clear evidence of the oracle of Jesus alive and well in the early church.

John's Gospel, rewrote the beginning in a way different than the book of Genesis. The Book of Genesis begins: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The Gospel of John begins, "In the beginning was the Word, the word was with God and the world was God. All things came into being through the Word.

Why do you think the writer of John's Gospel seems to rewrite the beginning? Was God in the beginning or was Word in the beginning? Or both?

Could it be that the writer of John's Gospel was trying to indicate how the eternal Christ was One with God from the Beginning?

How does the Genesis writing explain creation? God spoke and said, let there be light and there was light. The Genesis writer also wrote that along with God speaking and ordering creation, the divine wind or breath or spirit of God moved over the chaos and brought what was created into being. God the Father spoke, what he spoke was Christ the creating word and the Spirit executed the Word which made creation, in all of its array.

Even as we can understand that gravity existed long before Newton wrote his law of gravity; so too the nature of God as Trinity was retroactively shown to be long before it became to be revealed in the way it was revealed in the life of Jesus Christ.

Christians have been disagreeing about the Trinity for many years. When disagreements threatened the unity of the church and the Empire, the Emperor got the bishops of the church to meet in council to try to standardize a teaching and a doctrine about the Trinity and place it in a Creed so that it could be promulgated and taught in a singular way throughout the known Christian world. But it took more than a century for the teachings of the Nicaean Council to gain general acceptance, and those who were declared to be heretics were not insincere people of faith. There are insights to be found in heresies, even as they could not become the general doctrine of the church.

You and I may not identify with all of the politics of the theological disagreements in the church. In fact there is good statistical evidence today that lots of people are staying from church attendance because of how all of the church disagreements get publicly aired.

You and I probably want something more than the politics of the Trinity. How do we get beyond the politics of the Trinity?

First, we acknowledge that the Trinity, like God and like lots of things, is a mystery. We live and move and have our being in the Triune God who is much bigger than we are. God, who is much bigger than we are, is a mystery. We can come to honest humility to be able to say "I don't really know the intricate details of how God is a Trinity of Equal Persons, because anything that is truly great is never finished in being further revealed and understood." The Trinity has been revealed but the understanding of it has not been exhausted; therefore the Trinity still has future Epiphany events for you and me and for this world. The Trinity is open to a future because being everlasting, means always being open to a further future.

Another way to get beyond the politics of the Trinity is to return to the clearest insight given to us about the Trinity. The Trinity is essentially the relationship that Jesus had with his Father and the Holy Spirit, and he shared his dynamic relationship with his friends.

And what did he shared? He shared that each of us could be born of the Spirit of God and that we can know ourselves to be sons and daughters of God. Jesus understood himself as God's Son, and he became the chief sibling who taught us how we can be his brothers and sisters with God as our Father.

Perhaps we can see now the importance of the baptismal formula. "I baptize you in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." This is the ultimate invitation to each of us. At the baptism of Jesus, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove upon him and the heavenly voice of God the Father, said, this is my beloved Son; with him I am well pleased.

The best way for us to understand the Trinity is to understand the meaning of our baptism. The Holy Spirit has become known inside of us and given birth within us of the life of Christ. And in this event we experience our adoption as God's children, children with whom God is well pleased. We have become God's children with rights to be downright familiar with God and call God, "Daddy, or Abba."

Today, let us not complicate the Trinity; let us return to our baptism and remember that we are born by water and the Holy Spirit, the life of Christ is born within us and we are in the family of God, with God as our intimate heavenly parent.

And so I remind you again today, you are baptized in the Name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Sunday School, June 16, 2019 Trinity Sunday, C

Today is Trinity Sunday

What does Trinity mean?

It means that we believe God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit

But if God is three persons, how can God be One God? Do we believe in three Gods?

No, we believe in One God, in three Persons who are all equally God

Why do we believe in God as a Trinity?

We believe that God wants to be related to us as persons. So we believe that God can best be known to us in being known as Persons of the Trinity.

So in our relationship with God we know God in different kinds of relationships and yet each of these kinds of relationship are with a single one, kind and loving God.

Exercise: What is your name? How many persons are you? Son? Daughter? Brother? Sister? Boy? Girl? Student? Soccer Player? Dancer?

Puppet Show for Trinity Sunday
Characters:

Officer George

Father Phil

Sign on the Puppet Theatre

Security Agent, Security Systems and Driving Instruction

Fr. Phil: (knocks on the puppet theatre) Is anyone in? I need some help.

Officer George: (pops up) Hello, I’m Officer George here. Can I help you?

Fr. Phil: Yes, I need some one to teach a friend of mine how to drive.

Fr. Phil: Great, I’ll have my friend come by to see you and sign up for the class.

(Officer George leaves)

Fr. Phil: Oops, I forgot that I needed something else. (Fr. Phil knocks on the theatre again) Hello, is anyone still in the office?

Officer George: (pops up) Yes, I’m still here. Do you need another driving lesson?

Fr. Phil: No, I want to talk to your security person. I need to have an alarm installed at my home.

Officer George: Well, you’ve come to the right place. I’ll be happy to help you.

Fr. Phil: But aren’t you the Driving Instructor?

Officer George: Yes, but I also install alarm systems. Is that a problem?

Fr. Phil: Well, no but you must be a busy person. I will give you my address. When can you come by and give me a bid.

Officer George: I’ll come by tomorrow and help you decide what kind of alarm system that you need. Good bye…..(Officer George disappears)

Fr. Phil: Oops. I forgot I still need something. I need a security guard to come by each night and check our property. Knock! Knock! Is anyone still there?

Officer George: Oh, hello. I see you are still here. How can I help you?

Fr. Phil: I want to talk with your security agent. I need a watchman to check out the church each night. Can I hire one of your night watchmen?

Officer George: Yes, you can. I am the night watchman.

Fr. Phil: How can you be the Driver Instructor, the alarm installer and the night watchman?

Officer George: Well, I could ask you how you, the one and same person, could need a driver instructor, an alarm installed and a watchman.

Fr. Phil: Well, as a person I have many needs.

Fr. Phil: Why do you say that?

Officer George: Well, today is Trinity Sunday. God is One, but we know God in different ways in God’s different Persons. We know God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Fr. Phil: Officer George, thank you for your instruction about the Trinity. Do you think this will help the children at St. John’s understand the Trinity?