1st Sunday after Pentecost: Trinity Sunday/Year B
May 30, 2021
Isaiah 6:1-8; Canticle 13; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17
Opening prayer: (from d365.org)
Breathe in, breathe out.
Open your mind to the Spirit of truth.
Open your heart to the Spirit of compassion.
Open your hands to the Spirit of justice.
Open yourself to the Spirit of God, moving in you. Amen.
When was the last time you thought about the Spirit of God moving in you? When was the last time you sat down with someone, and shared how you believe you have experienced the Spirit of God moving in your life?
I think for many of us, we probably don’t give much thought to the Spirit of God moving in us. Sure…we probably think about God and our beliefs about God, often….And as we come to the end of one season of the church year, the Easter season….we’ve probably come to a renewed understanding about who Jesus is, and how his life, death and resurrection from the dead, proclaimed the love of God for us, in the way of love that Jesus showed us, as we listened and learned from the stories about Him, throughout the scriptures…And just last Sunday… we celebrated the last day of the Easter season on the Day of Pentecost…the day we celebrated the fulfillment of yet another promise that Jesus had made to his disciples, as he prepared to leave this earthly life….the promise that the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth would be sent to them (and us)… to guide us all into the way of truth….the truth of God’s love and power made alive in us, and throughout the world, through the gift of the Holy Spirit given to us…
Today, we pause, as we transition to the season after Pentecost, to celebrate how this final gift of the Holy Spirit, weaves and binds together what sometimes seems on the surface to be three separate stories in the scriptures about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit…We pause to consider the invitation to explore and to be open to the Spirit of God, moving in us now, helping us to acknowledge the mystery and the glory of God, in three Persons, blessed Trinity…
On the church calendar today, we mark this day as Trinity Sunday, the 1st Sunday after Pentecost.
On pg 851 in our Book of Common prayer Catechism section… we can learn some very basic info about the foundational teachings of the church, as outlined in the creeds, regarding the understanding of God, the Trinity, and the importance of this final gift of the Holy Spirit given to us…
Q. What is the Trinity?
A. The Trinity is one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Then this section jumps right into the teaching on the Holy Spirit…
The Holy Spirit
Q. What is the Holy Spirit?
A. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity, God at
work in the world and in the Church even now.
Q. How is the Holy Spirit revealed in the Old Covenant?
A. The Holy Spirit is revealed in the Old Covenant as the
giver of life, the One who spoke through the prophets.
Q. How is the Holy Spirit revealed in the New Covenant?
A. The Holy Spirit is revealed as the Lord who leads us into
all truth and enables us to grow in the likeness of Christ.
Q. How do we recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives?
A. We recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit when we
confess Jesus Christ as Lord and are brought into love
and harmony with God, with ourselves, with our
neighbors, and with all creation.
Q. How do we recognize the truths taught by the Holy Spirit?
A. We recognize truths to be taught by the Holy Spirit
when they are in accord with the Scriptures.
Holy Scriptures
Q. Why do we call the Holy Scriptures the Word of God?
A. We call them the Word of God because God inspired
their human authors and because God still speaks to us
through the Bible.
Q. How do we understand the meaning of the Bible?
A. We understand the meaning of the Bible by the help of
the Holy Spirit, who guides the Church in the true
interpretation of the Scriptures.
All of this, that I just shared with you…is just an outline…one very small section in the book of common prayer, often used for preparing persons for baptism and confirmation….it does not explain everything about God and the Holy Spirit once and for all…
What it does highlight, is the importance of the Holy Spirit, to help us see where God is at work in the world now….and why it matters for us today…
Why does this all matter to you and I today?
I go back to my first questions at the start of my sermon…
When was the last time you thought about the Spirit of God moving in you? When was the last time you sat down with someone, and shared how you believe you have experienced the Spirit of God moving in your life?...
If you haven’t spent much time thinking about the Spirit of God, moving in you…then perhaps now is the time to begin again, with an open mind, heart, and hands to discern what the Spirit of God is calling you to do, to help transform the world, with the truth of God’s love and power made alive in us, and throughout the entire world, through the gift of the Holy Spirit given to us…in a language that we can all understand and share with one another….the language of love….God’s love for all of creation, for all of God’s people…
We need the Spirit of God to help us continue to navigate through these ever-changing days of the pandemic…
As we move into the summer season…this is a perfect time to linger and explore these questions….and think about ways you might open yourself up more to the movement of the Spirit of God in your life…
It is important to spend time, regularly, attending to your spirit, to ask questions of God, to ask for the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit with all of your concerns, wonderings and questions…and to spend time listening for the voice of God, the Spirit of God, calling your name...and waiting for your response….doing so through prayer, silence, music, reading of the scriptures, walking amongst the created world….and equally important…to do all of this in conversations with others, and in in community with others, too…
When I think of the story of Nicodemus today, going to Jesus at night with his wonderings and his questions…. “How can these things be?”
I don’t think it was just Jesus and Nicodemus sitting there…I truly believe there was a third person present…the Holy Spirit…The Holy Spirit that breathed upon us from the very beginning…and the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity…the final gift given to remind us that God is at work in the world and in the Church even now.
Think about that the next time you are alone with God…or sitting with another person…
And pray…
Pray that your mind would be opened to the Spirit of truth.
Pray That your heart would be opened to the Spirit of compassion.
Pray That your hands would be opened to the Spirit of justice.
And pray that you would know without a doubt that the Spirit of God, the truth of God’s love and power, is alive in you, and moving in you.
(from d365.org)
God is calling your name, and waiting for your response…
Whom shall I send?
Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me,
I will hold your people in my heart.
Rev Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, AK
Closing prayer/Hymn: I the Lord of Sea and Sky