Trinity Sunday is I am afraid to say my favourite holy day

I am aware that might sound strange, but one might imagine that you are getting used to me by now, and realise that strangeness might well be my middle name, the initial being of course ‘S’.

Someone should have asked the question, ‘why is Trinity Sunday your favourite holy day’. Surely, the Easter triptych of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter day should be more than enough competition; that is without mentioning Christmas, the Ascension, Pentecost or the Patronal.

I do not delight in Trinity Sunday because of the opportunity that it presents to come up with an innovative explanative of how the three persons in the Godhead: Father, Son and Spirit relate to one another

–          ice, water and steam for example

–          the three parts of the shamrock leaf

–          or the fact that someone could be a mother, daughter and sister

Each illustration has its merits, but each does not do justice to how the Godhead interrelates; and indeed each one might be considered ever so slightly heretical.

I do not enjoy Trinity Sunday because it gives me the opportunity to dust off some of my weightier theological tomes, and indulge in some further study of the Early Church fathers. That of course would not be a bad thing; and indeed I believe that if the church loses touch with its theological forebears it will become a pale imitation of what it is meant to be.

Trinity Sunday is my favourite holy day because it reminds me of the fact that to we know God because we have experienced God.

God and God’s mission make total and complete sense in worship

For the Christian, God as Trinity becomes clear in the context of worship, particularly I suggest the Eucharist.

Worship is that point in time when we encounter and are changed. That is its purpose. God meets us so that we can see both what we are; but also what we could be. Worship is you and I accepting the invitation of God to change and be changed. Worship of the living God can be nothing other than participating in changing the world. It has never been, nor is or can be a neutral activity.

Bishop Tom Wright has said repeatedly that declaring the Lordship of God is a statement that also embraces that other gods do not have dominion and power.

Isaiah encounters the living in God in worship

Little is known about the prophet.

We know he is probably in the Temple. We are told that he sees God in the royal court, with cherubim and seraphim attending God. For Isaiah, heaven and earth intermingle as worship happens.

That is perhaps a difficult concept to get hold of; but words are stretched when we describe God.

The Eucharist has been seen as the cosmic feast. This is true within Eastern Orthodox theology as much as in the theology of the Church of England.

Isaiah hears the words of the Sanctus

We will sing the words of the Sanctus later

We are told that the glory of God fills the world

Being court up in worship was not a neutral act for the prophet.

He acknowledges that before God, he stands inadequate and short of glory.

When in our liturgy we come to the point of receiving the Eucharist, when perhaps we see the glory of God, we respond with the words, ‘we do not presume’.

One of the heavenly creatures comes to Isaiah, putting a burning coal to his lips. Worship is not just a cerebral act – although for people like me that is important – it is also something that touches all our senses.

For Isaiah this was a time of absolution, of being released from sin –

Sin is one of the loaded words – we trivialise it by assuming that sin is always big concrete things, rather than anything that

(a) takes away God’s rightful place in our lives and the world

(b) prevents us from being fully who God created us to be

Isaiah is absolved

In consequence he is free to choose in with the mission of God

We promise to join in with God’s mission every week, as we are dismissed.

Worship of necessity changes us

If we are not changed; we are not worshipping

How do we experience the Trinity in our worship?

–          Father-focused

–          Son-mediated

–          Spirit-led

Liturgy

Please change us, so that we can change the world

Without that worship however beautiful will be a clanging gong