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Trinity Sunday

Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost. It doesn't have a fixed date because Easter doesn't and therefore nor does Ascension Day (40 days post Easter) and Pentecost (50 days post Easter).

I've been told Trinity Sunday, inspires a sense of trepidation in preachers in some Anglican churches who observe the day. That's unfortunate, for Anglicans at least, because the Anglican tradition places the teaching of the Trinity liturgically1at the centre of its worship.

The scriptures set down to be read at Holy Communion for this Trinity Sunday are: Prov 8.1-4, 22-31; Ps 8.1-9; Rom 5.1-5; Jn 16.12-15.2 The reader may ponder at this point why these scriptures have been chosen. (Mouse over the references to see the NKJV rendering.)

The Trinity teaching is One Holy God revealing himself3 in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. But the revelation of the three persons in the Scriptures is one of different relationships and roles among the three persons.

For example, the Father sends the Son into the world (Jn 17.18), the Spirit is sent by the Father (Jn 14.26) and the Son (Jn 15.26a); and the Spirit proceeds4 from the Father (Jn 15.26b).

Bruce A. Ware has written on the Trinity in detail in: Father, Son, & Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, & Relevance, a book well-worth buying and studying. 

One point that I have learned from Anglican worship has to do with prayer and the way Christians address God. I have heard prayers which start with, 'Dear Jesus . . . . ..

Ware points out that when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray Jesus immediately said, 'When you pray say, "Our Father"'. Mark that. Jesus is saying, 'Always begin prayer by addressing the Father'. This direction is consistent with all the teaching Jesus gives to his disciples in John chapters 13-17. For our Lord Jesus always points us unerringly to the Father above.

And the apostle Paul refines this further post-Calvary and after Pentecost by addressing the Father through the Son because Jesus is the one Mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2.5-6). For examples of some of Paul's wonderful prayers mouse-over these references, Eph 3.14-17; 1.15-23; Col 1.9-18. See here for a fuller list. 

1. The bigger picture is that a standard liturgy [service of the people] is a means of spiritual formation so that the church service into belief and into living. So the Latin tag is 'lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi' that is, 'the law of worship, [is the] law of belief, [is the] law of life'.
2. Note the familiar scripture reading pattern: Old Testament > Psalm > New Testament Letter > Gospel.
3. The One God is not the God of Islam despite what liberals might like to say because for one thing, He is revealed in a community of fully divine persons. Moreover, the Triune God is holy righteousness and also full of loving-kindness.
4. I've highlighted this word 'proceed' because it was one reason that the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Western (Roman) Catholic Church separated in AD1054. They have remained so to our day. The Western Church says that the Spirit proceeds from the Father AND the Son; the Eastern Church that He proceeds from the Father only. You might think this a small detail but it has a large effect on the way the Holy Spirit is understand within the Trinity. 
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