Holy Trinity Sunday and ConfirmationA sermon based on Genesis 1:1-2:4a and Matthew 28:16-20.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; Amen.
If there is one story that you: L, G, and I, should hear today it would be the story of creation. I think one of the reasons that it was chosen to be read on Trinity Sunday might be verse 26 when God says, “Let US make humankind in OUR image, according to OUR likeness.”
Some people say that God was referring to the Holy Trinity by speaking in the plural instead of the singular. When God said “us” God meant “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” But there are other reasons or options for why God would have used “we”.
The writer of Genesis could have been using what is called the “royal we” when God spoke these words. If you watch movies or read books about kings and queens sometimes you’ll notice that royalty refers to itself in the plural.
It’s also possible that God was talking to the other beings in heaven: the whole heavenly host of angels and archangels and cherubim and seraphim we sometimes hear about.
Yesterday my father called me and asked me if I was done writing my sermon for today. He told me to take it seriously… this was Trinity Sunday – Holy Trinity Sunday and I had to be careful not to be heretical because the salvation of your souls depended upon me delivering an orthodox and theologically correct sermon about the Trinity. If I wasn’t careful, he told me, I might damn you all to hell.
He wasn’t being serious, but the truth of the matter is I was somewhat relieved when we decided to hold confirmation on this day rather than on Pentecost. It gave me a good excuse to ignore the Trinity which always makes me worry that I will be heretical; that is… say something that isn’t true or in line with what the Church tells us is true about the Trinity.
We only talked about the Trinity once in class and some of the questions that you asked were near impossible to answer. “How could God be on earth and in heaven at the same time?” “Did this mean that Jesus prayed to himself?” and “If so, why would he do that?”
The truth is that people smarter than me have a hard time understanding or explaining the Trinity and so they will often give the same answer that I give: some things about our faith are just a mystery.
How the Trinity works is a mystery. How God is three people in one is a mystery. And just who God was referring to by using the plural “us” is a mystery.
Here’s what isn’t a mystery: God made us in God’s image, according to God’s likeness. God made us and when God was done God saw that what was made was good. We were made in the image and likeness of God, which of course means to some people that we look like God or that God looks like us. But in actuality what it really means is that God made us so that we could be in relationship with God.
We were made to be in relationship with God.
L, G, and I … you three were made to be in relationship with God. That relationship began when your parents brought you to the baptismal font and asked that you be drowned in the waters and reborn not just their child, but God’s child.
When they did this they made promises that they would teach you to pray, and encourage in you the study of scripture by giving you a Bible, and that they would teach you the creeds: those things that say what we believe about God, and that they would bring you to the table so that you could be fed by God’s own body and blood.
And then some pastor poured water over your heads in the name of the Trinity: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and you became a child of God.
Today, the church has deemed you old enough to make promises of your own; to say that you will continue in the lives that your parents gave you when they brought you to the waters of baptism.
These promises that you make are promises that you will continue to ask questions and strive to understand what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God. In other words, what it means to be in a relationship with God.
I ask that you honor these promises – God will always be there for you in your lives and so you should be present for God as well. Relationships require commitment and conversation; come to church and continue to pray.
God made you in such a way that you could receive the gift of grace and peace and so that you could share it with others. You were made to care for creation and for all those others who share creation with you.
Today is a gift for you, but it is also a gift for the rest of us because today we remember that we too were baptized and made into children of God. Today we too remember that God gifted us with grace and peace and called us to share our gifts with others.
Today we remember that, despite all the other mysteries of our faith, we know that God made us so that we could be in relationship with God.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
If there is one story that you: L, G, and I, should hear today it would be the story of creation. I think one of the reasons that it was chosen to be read on Trinity Sunday might be verse 26 when God says, “Let US make humankind in OUR image, according to OUR likeness.”
Some people say that God was referring to the Holy Trinity by speaking in the plural instead of the singular. When God said “us” God meant “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” But there are other reasons or options for why God would have used “we”.
The writer of Genesis could have been using what is called the “royal we” when God spoke these words. If you watch movies or read books about kings and queens sometimes you’ll notice that royalty refers to itself in the plural.
It’s also possible that God was talking to the other beings in heaven: the whole heavenly host of angels and archangels and cherubim and seraphim we sometimes hear about.
Yesterday my father called me and asked me if I was done writing my sermon for today. He told me to take it seriously… this was Trinity Sunday – Holy Trinity Sunday and I had to be careful not to be heretical because the salvation of your souls depended upon me delivering an orthodox and theologically correct sermon about the Trinity. If I wasn’t careful, he told me, I might damn you all to hell.
He wasn’t being serious, but the truth of the matter is I was somewhat relieved when we decided to hold confirmation on this day rather than on Pentecost. It gave me a good excuse to ignore the Trinity which always makes me worry that I will be heretical; that is… say something that isn’t true or in line with what the Church tells us is true about the Trinity.
We only talked about the Trinity once in class and some of the questions that you asked were near impossible to answer. “How could God be on earth and in heaven at the same time?” “Did this mean that Jesus prayed to himself?” and “If so, why would he do that?”
The truth is that people smarter than me have a hard time understanding or explaining the Trinity and so they will often give the same answer that I give: some things about our faith are just a mystery.
How the Trinity works is a mystery. How God is three people in one is a mystery. And just who God was referring to by using the plural “us” is a mystery.
Here’s what isn’t a mystery: God made us in God’s image, according to God’s likeness. God made us and when God was done God saw that what was made was good. We were made in the image and likeness of God, which of course means to some people that we look like God or that God looks like us. But in actuality what it really means is that God made us so that we could be in relationship with God.
We were made to be in relationship with God.
L, G, and I … you three were made to be in relationship with God. That relationship began when your parents brought you to the baptismal font and asked that you be drowned in the waters and reborn not just their child, but God’s child.
When they did this they made promises that they would teach you to pray, and encourage in you the study of scripture by giving you a Bible, and that they would teach you the creeds: those things that say what we believe about God, and that they would bring you to the table so that you could be fed by God’s own body and blood.
And then some pastor poured water over your heads in the name of the Trinity: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and you became a child of God.
Today, the church has deemed you old enough to make promises of your own; to say that you will continue in the lives that your parents gave you when they brought you to the waters of baptism.
These promises that you make are promises that you will continue to ask questions and strive to understand what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God. In other words, what it means to be in a relationship with God.
I ask that you honor these promises – God will always be there for you in your lives and so you should be present for God as well. Relationships require commitment and conversation; come to church and continue to pray.
God made you in such a way that you could receive the gift of grace and peace and so that you could share it with others. You were made to care for creation and for all those others who share creation with you.
Today is a gift for you, but it is also a gift for the rest of us because today we remember that we too were baptized and made into children of God. Today we too remember that God gifted us with grace and peace and called us to share our gifts with others.
Today we remember that, despite all the other mysteries of our faith, we know that God made us so that we could be in relationship with God.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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