Celebrating Trinity Sunday
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This year, the two important church calendar Sundays of Pentecost and Trinity Sunday were perfectly sandwiched between Memorial Day and Father’s Day. Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox branches of Christianity all agree in worshipping God as the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The most unifying feature in Christendom is the fact that all major branches baptize people “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19 NIV)” as Jesus commanded.
Pastor Kelvin taught that one of the best ways to advance our understanding of the Trinity is to look at passages in the New Testament where more than one person of the Trinity are mentioned. There are a few passages where all three persons are included in a short discussion. The most commonly referred to is the account of the baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:16,17). Pastor Kelvin also guided us in discussing three additional such Trinity passages (Acts 5:30-32, 1 Cor. 12:3-6, and 1 Peter 1:1,2). During “Jet Pack,” our moment for younger viewers, JoAnne reviewed one common illustration of the Trinity, the three physical states of water. All three are clearly different, yet we know that in essence, they are one.
We also noted two historical helps for understanding the Trinity. We read the Nicene Creed together and noted both its Trinitarian formulation and its particular care in defining the full deity and full humanity of Jesus. And we examined the Trinity Shield, a geometric design often used in medieval stained glass to represent and teach about the Trinity. But finally, Pastor Kelvin reminded us that our main response to all this is simply to worship God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with all our hearts.