Today's Scripture Readings
Isaiah 6: 1-8 (NRSV)
Psalm 29 (BCP. p. 620)
Romans 8: 12-17 (NRSV)
John 3: 1-17 (NRSV)
Blog Reflection
Trinity Sunday always follows Pentecost. Call it a "book end" as we move from the Easter Season on Pentecost into the Season after Pentecost or sometimes it is called "Ordinary Time." Yet, before we return to the other Sundays after Pentecost, we stop on this first Sunday after, to reflect on a very profound and mysterious part of the Christian Faith, called the Trinity.
We could get into a long winded philosophical discussion about whether the relationship between the three Persons of the Trinity is logically possible or not. We can talk about how when we are baptized in the Name of God in the three Persons of the Trinity. We could also spend a significant amount of time on the subject of whether to refer to the three Persons by way of the traditional Names, or by more inclusive Names. Yet, what the Trinity means for Christians still gets lost in all of the rhetoric of theological treatises and books.
The Trinity cannot be explained or even described. It can only be experienced as God's grace so chooses. It is both beautiful and mighty. It is holy, yet compassionate. It is open to more than any human expression that can be written or spoken about. God, the Holy Trinity can be known and loved as the One from whom all love comes and returns. Yet as God's love in the relationship known as the Trinity is beyond our sight or comprehension, it is transparent in that it also transforms. It can change the lives of all who are recipients of God's favor through boundless and all inclusive love.
The experience of God's relationship of love is transparent when we as human persons make the effort to "love my God, who lives in my neighbor" (St. Louis Marie de Montfort). A transforming love that does not condone violence, prejudice, injustice or oppression. A love that knows that to exercise brutality in word or action in the Name of Jesus Christ, is both a misuse of the Holy Name of God in the Anointed One of God, and an offense to the God who gives us every reason to love God back. To declare that God's word in the Scriptures condones two Pastors suggesting that all LGBT people be killed by the government, is to spit in the face of the Jesus who is already crowned with thorns as he prepares to embrace the Cross on our behalf.
The relationship of God's love through the Trinity knows that the physical love between two people of the same sex is holy, beautiful and wonderful. That an individual who is born one gender and knows that she/he is a totally different gender, is blessed by God to live out the meaning of the resurrected Christ. Women are to be shown respect and dignity with regards to their bodies, without making them second class citizens to men. It is a love that seeks justice through compassion by individuals of all religious professions and practices, when any or all of us seeks the common good of every human person, without exception.
As we worship God today in this relationship of the Trinity, may we also honor the love that is given as we relate to one another. May today be the opportunity for hospitality and reconciliation so that the healing presence of a loving God may be experienced because it is transparent.
Prayers
Isaiah 6: 1-8 (NRSV)
In 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. Seraphs 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. And one called to another and said:
The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And 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!"
- "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
- the whole earth is full of his glory."
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The 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." Then 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!"
Psalm 29 (BCP. p. 620)
Romans 8: 12-17 (NRSV)
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ-- if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
John 3: 1-17 (NRSV)
There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
"Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
Blog Reflection
Trinity Sunday always follows Pentecost. Call it a "book end" as we move from the Easter Season on Pentecost into the Season after Pentecost or sometimes it is called "Ordinary Time." Yet, before we return to the other Sundays after Pentecost, we stop on this first Sunday after, to reflect on a very profound and mysterious part of the Christian Faith, called the Trinity.
We could get into a long winded philosophical discussion about whether the relationship between the three Persons of the Trinity is logically possible or not. We can talk about how when we are baptized in the Name of God in the three Persons of the Trinity. We could also spend a significant amount of time on the subject of whether to refer to the three Persons by way of the traditional Names, or by more inclusive Names. Yet, what the Trinity means for Christians still gets lost in all of the rhetoric of theological treatises and books.
The Trinity cannot be explained or even described. It can only be experienced as God's grace so chooses. It is both beautiful and mighty. It is holy, yet compassionate. It is open to more than any human expression that can be written or spoken about. God, the Holy Trinity can be known and loved as the One from whom all love comes and returns. Yet as God's love in the relationship known as the Trinity is beyond our sight or comprehension, it is transparent in that it also transforms. It can change the lives of all who are recipients of God's favor through boundless and all inclusive love.
The experience of God's relationship of love is transparent when we as human persons make the effort to "love my God, who lives in my neighbor" (St. Louis Marie de Montfort). A transforming love that does not condone violence, prejudice, injustice or oppression. A love that knows that to exercise brutality in word or action in the Name of Jesus Christ, is both a misuse of the Holy Name of God in the Anointed One of God, and an offense to the God who gives us every reason to love God back. To declare that God's word in the Scriptures condones two Pastors suggesting that all LGBT people be killed by the government, is to spit in the face of the Jesus who is already crowned with thorns as he prepares to embrace the Cross on our behalf.
The relationship of God's love through the Trinity knows that the physical love between two people of the same sex is holy, beautiful and wonderful. That an individual who is born one gender and knows that she/he is a totally different gender, is blessed by God to live out the meaning of the resurrected Christ. Women are to be shown respect and dignity with regards to their bodies, without making them second class citizens to men. It is a love that seeks justice through compassion by individuals of all religious professions and practices, when any or all of us seeks the common good of every human person, without exception.
As we worship God today in this relationship of the Trinity, may we also honor the love that is given as we relate to one another. May today be the opportunity for hospitality and reconciliation so that the healing presence of a loving God may be experienced because it is transparent.
Prayers
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. (Collect for Trinity Sunday, Book of Common Prayer, p. 228).
O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things
both in heaven and earth: Put away from us, we entreat you,
all hurtful things, and give us those things which are profitable
for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen. (Proper 4, Book of Common Prayer, p. 229).
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is
hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where
there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where
there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where
there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to
be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is
in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life. Amen. (Prayer Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, Book of Common Prayer, p. 833).
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