Words of Welcome

  2 Corinthians 13:11-13 Today is Trinity Sunday. It may not be as exciting as Pentecost Sunday, but it’s a good time to stop and think about the God we serve and worship. Most Christian traditions affirm the idea that God is both one and yet three. This may sound like some kind of math problem, but thankfully, especially since I’m not a math person, this isn’t about math. It just means that, like our Jewish siblings, we believe that God is one. However, Christianity complicates things by suggesting that God is also three persons. So, we sing: “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee; holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity!” (Reginald Heber).     The doctrine of the Trinity that we celebrate this morning is only present in the New Testament implicitly. It took several centuries before early Christians nailed down a consensus view of God as Trinity. The Nicene Creed, which we will ...

2 Corinthians 13:11-13 It is Trinity Sunday, which is a good time to stop and think about the God we serve and worship.  Most Christian traditions confess God to be One, and yet three.  This is the confession we raise when we sing: “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!  Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee; holy, holy, holy!  Merciful and mighty!  God in three persons, blessed Trinity!” (Reginald Heber).     This doctrine of the Trinity that we celebrate today is complicated, and yet there are incredible spiritual riches to be found in this confession.  The benediction that closes Paul’s second Corinthian letter offers us one of the more explicit Trinitarian confessions in the New Testament.  While this isn’t a fully developed theology of the Trinity, because it closes one of Paul’s most difficult letters, it might have some practical importance.  Paul wrote to a congregation he started, but which was now dee...