Trinity Sunday Year A 4th June 2023
Lectionary Readings:
Isaiah 40 v12-17; 27-31; Psalm 8; 2 Corinthians 13 v1-13; Matthew 28 v16-20
Motivation.
What is it that motivates and binds together God the Father, his son Jesus and the Holy Spirit?
The apostle Paul is in no doubt – and weaves his understanding into the blessing at the end of his letter to the community of Christians in Corinth. “I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will bless you and be kind to you. May God bless you with his love and may the Holy Spirit join all your hearts together”. (2 Corinthians 13 v13.)
Love is both a binding agent and an energy giving force. Love originates from God. God is the source of love, the inexhaustible well of love, that Isaiah alludes to, constantly flowing outwards from God to all creation. (see Isaiah 40 v28)
If we want to play our part in God’s plan of reconciling earth and heaven; then we need to tap into the stream of positive, life enhancing energy that we call ‘love’. Fortunately for us, God has made this possible, by the gift of his Holy Spirit.
We are to do just as Paul urges the Corinthians to do, to get on with one another, encouraging each other in our common journey of faith, demonstrating to others how a life motivated and sustained by love is lived out, day by day.
We are to show this by the way we relate to one another, and how we respond to life’s difficulties and disappointments. How we use our time and talents and how we make use of our material resources. In so doing we can offer our community an alternative and more desirable ‘world view’; one that runs counter to that offered by those whose values are rooted in a culture of materialism, power, and wealth.
The credibility and attractiveness of Christianity relies upon us witnessing to what motivates us, who we have faith in and who we believe is really in charge of this world.
As Matthew makes plain at the end of his gospel – The risen Christ is counting on us!
Hymn writer Fred Pratt Green speaks of love, joy and peace. (Singing the Faith 709 v1-3, 5).
Of all the Spirit’s gift to me, I pray that I may never cease
to take and treasure most these three: love, joy and peace.
The Spirit shows me love’s the root of every gift sent from above,
of every flower, of every fruit, that God is love.
The Spirit shows if I possess a love no evil can destroy,
however great is my distress, then this is joy.
We go in peace – but made aware that, in a needy world like this,
our clearest purpose is to share love, joy and peace.
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version.