Preachers get very worked up about Trinity Sunday. They believe there is an expectation that they should shed light on the mystery of God’s inner workings. To be fair, I have heard some excellent sermons on the Holy Trinity over the years. Only last year Warwick Rogers preached about the Composer, the Music and the Conductor. Those who set our weekly Bible Readings also have a challenge on their hands as they search for passages that refer to all three – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our Reading today, for example, records Jesus giving the ‘Great Commission’ when he sends us out to win people over to the Gospel and to baptise them in the name of the Trinity. 

There are three points to my Thought for the Day. (A kind of Trinity!) And my first point is that God is amazing. We spend a lot of time in the company of Jesus and we cherish the thought that we can call him our friend. His company often is experienced as gentle and easy. The first disciples also experienced the full humanity of Jesus, and they must have been delighted when he taught them to address the Father as ‘Abba’. The story of the Prodigal Son also paints a wonderful picture of the Father’s delight in the return of his wayward son. There is a lot of down to earth stuff in the Gospels that dares us to believe that we can be comfortable in God’s company. At the same time there was something about Jesus that made the disciples stand back in awe and declare ‘We beheld his glory’. However close we may feel we are to God, it is healthy to have moments when we stand back to be overwhelmed by the majesty of his presence. 

My second point is that faith is amazing. I have been recently reading a book called ‘Alive in God’ by Timothy Radcliffe. He reminds us that faith is transformational. Faith brings us to life. Timothy talks, amusingly, about the Christian whose only response to anything happening in the world is to light a candle. I am all for lighting candles, I love it and find it helpful. But Timothy is challenging us to be more creative and courageous in the way we listen to God and respond to the world. He invites us to take the risk and change the world. Jesus has given us the ‘great commission’ not the ‘great suggestion’! Our amazing faith calls us to action. 

Finally, my third point is that you are amazing. We make fun of the person who looks in the mirror and thinks they are God’s gift to mankind. Well, you are! The Gospel, once understood and applied properly, is incredibly positive about you and me and the potential and value of every life. You and I are God’s gift! But let’s remember: We are God’s gift to mankind.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and for ever. Amen.

(Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.)