Today’s thought for the day is brought to us by Rev Derek Grimshaw
Many years ago, when I first started training as a Local Preacher, an older and wiser preacher advised me to try and avoid ever preaching on Trinity Sunday “it is the most challenging Sunday and I never offer an appointment on that day” he told me. This was a bit like a red rag to a bull for me, I was young and full of my own self-importance at the time, so I deliberately made myself available, I don’t claim to be one of life’s foremost theologians, but the Trinity always made sense to me. Talking to a Muslim colleague a few years ago, he said to me “you Christians don’t half make religion complicated, why do you need three God’s, we have just one” and that comment made me understand that for me, the trinity is important. Perhaps the photograph above helps us to understand the concept of God in three persons. The picture was taken of my wife, daughter, and grandson with me at Scar House Reservoir high in the North Yorkshire moors above Pateley Bridge. I am the same man, but I am the husband of Karen, the father of Amy, and the grandfather of Alexander. Each relationship is different and unique, the same man in three persons, so why is the concept of the Trinity so difficult for us?
We believe in God the Father who created the world and is God, the one God, the true God, the God who is central to other world religions. Throughout the Old Testament God was remote, in heaven and spoke to his people through Prophets, Priests and Kings. He was believed to be in Heaven, high above the earth. When the time was right God sent Jesus Christ into the world. Some other religions believe that Jesus was another prophet, like those from Old Testament times, we believe as Christians that Jesus is the Son of God, or in other words God in human form. Now as flesh and blood, God live among us, he taught, he healed, he made God real to people. The world would not accept him and nailed him to a tree to die the death of a common criminal. We believe that God raised him from the dead at Easter and he ascended back into heaven from where he came. God and Jesus sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit had an important influence on the early Church and was the power that has directed the mission of the Christian community for two thousand years.
Today, when we pray, we pray to God, in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit, perhaps it is difficult to understand, but for me, God in three persons is central to my faith.
Prayer:
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore, Amen.
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