Trinity Sunday - Reflecting on God's Revelation in the Word

This Sunday was Trinity Sunday, which is always the Sunday following Pentecost. 

Trinity Sunday is a bit of an oddity in terms of the church year.  It acts as a hinge where themes change.  

The first half the Church Year (starting at the end of November with Advent) focuses on the life and ministry of Jesus.  In that part of the year we celebrate Christmas, the visit of the Magi, Jesus’ Baptism, His Transfiguration and Easter.  We also observe Epiphany which focuses on how Jesus’ miracles show that He is the savior, and Lent which walks us through Jesus’ sacrificial life culminating with His cross.  

The second half of the Church Year is known as, “The Time of the Church.”  It really begins on Pentecost, when God poured out the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, giving them the ability to proclaim the Gospel to the world.  However, for us to be God’s people, to be the Church, we must know who God is.  So the Sunday after Pentecost focuses exactly here:  Who is God?  What is His nature?  What does He do?  How do we know Him?  The rest of The Time of the Church will focus on our mission and life in Christ and will often revolve around the question:  How, now, shall we live?  

As we wrestle with such questions, we must ask ourselves, “Where will we find our answers?”  We all know that there are many opinions about God out there, and they often conflict and disagree.  Often we seek and find answers by observation and experience.  However, God cannot be known in this way.  The Bible teaches that apart from Christ all people, we included, are, “darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” (Ephesians 4:18 ESV)  The only way to rightly know God is through His Word.  “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ ¹⁶ But they have not all obeyed the gospel.  For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ ¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:14-17 ESV)

To be sure there are many things in the Bible that are shrouded in mystery:  Creation, the Flood, how the prophets heard God’s voice, why God chose Israel and us, the Incarnation, miracles, and over them all the atonement for sin by Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Yet, these things are written that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and, by believing, have life in His name.  (John 20:31)  The Word of God makes us wise for salvation through Jesus.  (2 Timothy 3:15)  Indeed, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV)

Ultimately it is in His Word that God makes Himself known to us by the working of the Holy Spirit, and it is a truly Trinitarian action!  He doesn’t always give us the gift to understand, but always calls us to trust.

I want to encourage you to spend some time in God’s Word.  Take 20 minutes and read a letter like Galatians, or a prophet like Joel.  Set aside a few minutes each day to read one of the Gospels.  Pick up Proverbs and wrestle with God’s wisdom.  

The key in this reading is this:  Let God speak.  Let His Word tell you about the reality of life, sin, death, love, salvation, mission, and more.  And pray for the Spirit to open your heart and mind to understand what God says to you, and to all His people.