Category Archives: Trinity Sunday

Trinity Sunday B

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for May 26, 2024 (Trinity Sunday B)

Holy Trinity with Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist and Tobias and the Angel

Holy Trinity with Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist and Tobias and the Angel, by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510). Tempera and oil on panel, altarpiece for the church of Santa Elisabetta delle Convertite in Florence (c.1491-1494). Courtauld Gallery, London. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8

Last Sunday, on Pentecost, we marked the coming of the Holy Spirit in wind and fire. This week we celebrate Trinity Sunday, contemplating the triune relationship among Creator, Redeemer and Advocate. In our first reading we hear the Prophet Isaiah describing the vision in which God called him as a prophet. The news of this vocation does not bring Isaiah joy, but woe, for he does not consider himself worthy to see God. As he confesses that he is a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips, a seraph comes and purifies him with holy fire by touching a burning coal to the prophet’s lips. With that, when God calls him again, Isaiah steps up, saying “Here am I; send me!”

Psalm: Psalm 29

Have you ever sat on a porch with a mixture of fear and awe, watching a fierce summer thunderstorm pass by with lightning and thunder, wind and rain, whipping the trees around and whistling through the branches? Even towering oak trees seem to whirl, and large limbs come crashing down. It’s no wonder that the Psalmist chose to portray God’s power and glory in the metaphor of a massive storm that strips the forest bare. And yet, at the end, showing the emotion that comes when a storm passes, the people shout “Glory,” hailing God’s power and peace.

Alternate Psalm: Canticle 13

Canticle 13 from the Book of Common Prayer, “A Song of Praise,” may be sung as an alternate psalm this week. A poetic litany of praise and exaltation to God as Creator and King, it recalls the story of the three young men who danced and sang in defiance of the flames in King Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace. Protected by God, as told in the Book of Daniel and the apocryphal Song of Azariah, the young men walked unharmed through the fire, singing a hymn of praise to God and all creation. Their full song is recorded as Canticle 12. Canticle 13 offers a modern conclusion, a 20th century addition that sings resounding praise to the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Second Reading: Romans 8:12-17

We turn back a page in Paul’s Letter to the Romans this week to hear these verses that come just before last week’s reading about Christians groaning in the pain and expectancy of a mother in labor as they wait for salvation. In this passage we see Paul building toward that image as he describes the great gift that awaits Christians: When we accept a life led by the Spirit, we become children of God, just as Jesus is the Son of God. Like Jesus we become heirs of God. Inspired by the Spirit, we recognize that suffering with Jesus opens us up to being glorified with Jesus.

Gospel: John 3:1-17

Sunday’s Gospel provides us context for John 3:16 (“‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life”) that a simple sign held up in a sports stadium can’t provide. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, comes to talk with Jesus by night, hoping no one will see him visiting the controversial rabbi. Nicodemus is curious but bewildered by Jesus’s mysterious language. What does it mean to be “born from above” (or as some translations render it, “born again”)? Nicodemus just can’t grasp the distinction between being literally born of flesh as an infant and metaphorically being born of the Holy Spirit in faith. Through the Son, from the Creator, inspired by the Spirit’s restless wind, we come to the Kingdom through a spiritual rebirth in faith and belief.

Trinity Sunday A

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Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for June 4, 2023 (Trinity Sunday A)

First Reading: Genesis 1:1-2:4a

In recent weeks we have celebrated the resurrected Jesus ascending into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, and the Holy Spirit coming to the followers of Jesus in wind and fire.

Trinity Altarpiece

Trinity Altarpiece (c.1480), two panels from an oil painting on wood panels depicting Sir Edward Boncle (portrait on the right panel) in adoration of the Trinity (left panel) by Hugo van der Goes (c.1440-1482). Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh. (Click image to enlarge)

Now as we begin the long season after Pentecost we contemplate Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their mysterious dance, three persons in one triune God, the Holy Trinity. Our first reading, the first creation story at the beginning of Genesis, shows a monotheistic God as a loving creative force at work in the world as Creator, Word, and Spirit wind moving over the waters to make a world.

Psalm: Psalm 8

In Psalm 8, beautiful hymn of praise, we exalt the name of our Creator God and sing grateful thanksgiving for all of creation. We remember that, as part of our God-given dominion over “the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,” we have a solemn duty to preserve and protect them all. This duty feels more significant than ever in this time of mass extinction, rising oceans, and chaotic climate change.

Alternate Psalm: Canticle 13

Canticles, “little songs,” are scripture passages provided by the Book of Common Prayer for use in daily prayer and as occasional substitutes for Lectionary Psalms. Canticle 13 is the Song of the Three Young Men from the Apocryphal Prayer to Azariah. The young men, condemned to death in a fiery furnace by an angry king, marched through the flames unharmed thanks to God’s protection, singing this joyous hymn of praise to God and all creation. These verses, added to this old song in modern Christian times, conclude the Canticle with resounding praise and exaltation to the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Paul closes his second letter to the people of Corinth in the formal style dictated for letters in 1st Century Greek culture. In brief but loving words, he urges this small, often squabbling congregation to sort out their conflicts, pay attention to each other, and love one another as God loves them. In what may be one of early Christianity’s first explicit references to a divine Trinity, Paul blesses the people with his hope for the grace of Jesus, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit.

Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20

Each of the four Gospels ends in a different way, offering us four contrasting views of the resurrected Jesus and his conversations with the disciples who would remain behind as he returns to the Father. In this lectionary year we hear Matthew’s narrative. According to this account, when the women saw Jesus at the tomb, he directed them to tell the remaining eleven disciples to go on to Galilee, where he would meet them. Now they are together again, reunited on a Galilean mountain. Some of them worship him, but others remain doubtful. Then Jesus issues what later Christianity would call The Great Commission, commanding them to go and “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

Trinity Sunday C

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Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for June 12, 2022 (Trinity Sunday C)

First Reading: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

We celebrate Trinity Sunday as the season after Pentecost begins.

Holy Trinity with Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist and Tobias and the Angel

Holy Trinity with Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist and Tobias and the Angel (1491-1494), tempera and oil painting on panel by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510). Courtauld Gallery at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. (Click image to enlarge.)

We hear a distant foreshadowing of a triune God at the moment of creation in Genesis, when God the Creator utters God’s creative Word and breathes a Spirit wind over the waters to separate light from darkness and land from sea. In Sunday’s first reading from the book of Proverbs, we learn that Wisdom was there, too, personified as a woman. In these poetic verses we hear Wisdom’s expression of delight in the newly made world and all that is in it.

Psalm: Psalm 8

In Psalm 8 we lift our voices in joyful appreciation to the God who created this beautiful world and everything that lives on it. God has made humankind only a little lower than the angels, the Psalmist sings. God adorns us with glory and honor. God has given humanity mastery over all creation, and charges us to be dutiful in that husbandry.

Alternate to the Psalm: Canticle 13

Canticle 13, “A Song of Praise” from the Book of Common Prayer, offers a litany of praise and exaltation to God as our Creator and King. This Canticle recalls the three young men who danced and sang in defiance of the flames in King Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace. With God’s protection, they walked unharmed through the fire, singing a hymn of praise to God and all creation. These verses, a modern addition to the original song in Daniel and the apocryphal book of Azariah, shout resounding praise to the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Second Reading: Romans 5:1-5

Is Paul offering the dubious wisdom, “No pain, no gain” in his letter to the Christian community in Rome? Hardly. Paul does not say that suffering is good, much less that God makes us suffer. Rather, he urges his audience to rejoice in God’s grace in spite of their suffering. Paul was writing to a mixed congregation of formerly pagan and Jewish Christians who had faced frequent persecution. He tells them that God’s love, poured into us through the Holy Spirit, provides the strength to hold on to hope even in the face of suffering.

Gospel: John 16:12-15

This short passage for today, Trinity Sunday, is the last of several recent readings from John’s account of Jesus’s talk with the disciples at the Last Supper. It concludes that conversation with Jesus’s reminder that there are things about God that we just can’t understand, but also his assurance that the Holy Spirit – “the Spirit of truth” – will come to guide them, bearing the glory of Creator and Son and guiding all toward the truth.

Trinity Sunday B

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for May 30, 2021

First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8

On Pentecost Sunday last week, we heard of the coming of the Holy Spirit in wind and fire. Now we mark Trinity Sunday, pondering the relationship among Creator, Redeemer and Advocate.

Christ Instructing Nicodemus

Christ Instructing Nicodemus (17th century), painting by Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678). Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique. Brussels. (Click image to enlarge.)

In our first reading, we meet another in the Hebrew Bible’s string of reluctant prophets. Like Moses, who objected to his call, saying he could not speak well enough; or Jeremiah, who worried that he was too young, or. Jonah, who simply ran away. In these verses Isaiah fears that his sinfulness – “unclean lips” – disqualifies him for God’s service. But then a mighty angel purifies Isaiah’s lips with a hot coal, whereupon he eagerly accepts God’s call: “Here I am! Send me!”

Psalm: Psalm 29

We heard this Psalm not long ago, on the first Sunday after the Epiphany in January. Now we read it again on the first Sunday after Pentecost. What is the unifying element? Both readings follow on the Sunday after we celebrate a bold manifestation of the divine: Epiphany and Pentecost. At such a time it seems appropriate, as the Psalm commands, to “ascribe to God the glory due God’s name.” The powerful metaphor of a majestic storm reflects the Holy Spirit as a great wind. A storm strong enough to break and spin mighty oaks and cedars, shoot flames, and shake the wilderness might send us running for shelter. But it also has potential to lure us outside to feel the rain and the wind on our faces as the storm rolls past.

Alternative to the Psalm: Canticle 13

Canticles, “little songs,” are scripture passages, other than Psalms, chosen for use in worship in the Book of Common Prayer. Canticle 13 incorporates parts of the “Song of the Three Young Men” who were thrown into the fiery furnace by an angry king. Protected by God, as told in Daniel and the apocryphal Song of Azariah, they survived this ordeal, walking unharmed through the fire and singing this hymn of praise to God and all creation.

Second Reading: Romans 8:12-17

These verses came just before last week’s reading from Romans, in which Paul likened the hope and pain of Christians waiting for salvation to the pain and expectancy of a mother in labor. In these verses that provide context for that reading, we hear Paul building toward that image. He tells of the great gift that we are offered: Accepting life led by the Spirit, we become children of God, just as Jesus is the Son of God. With Jesus we become heirs of God, inspired by the Spirit, knowing that our suffering with Jesus opens us up to being glorified with Jesus.

Gospel: John 3:1-17

Nicodemus, a Pharisee who seems impressed by Jesus, comes to talk with Jesus at night, perhaps to keep his visit secret in the darkness. In their conversation, Nicodemus just can’t get his mind around the idea of being “born again,” a term that in the original Greek might mean “anew,” “again,” “from above,” “in the future,” or even all of those. Nicodemus, in an exchange that the author of John might have intended to draw chuckles from believers, couldn’t figure how a grown person could creep back into the mother’s body to be re-born. But Jesus understood that there is no contradiction between being born of the flesh as an infant and being “born again,” not in the flesh but through faith and the Spirit. The Gospel concludes with the familiar John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,” followed by the context of 3:17, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Trinity Sunday A

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for June 7, 2020

First Reading: Genesis 1:1-2:4a


As our readings move from Eastertide to Pentecost, we have celebrated Christ’s ascension into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, then seen the Holy Spirit coming in wind and fire.

The Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden (1530), oil painting on poplar wood by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553). Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany. (Click image to enlarge.)

Now as Trinity Sunday marks the start of the six-month-long season after Pentecost, we reflect on Creator, Son and Holy Spirit in their mysterious dance, three persons in one triune God, the Holy Trinity. Sunday’s readings begin where Scripture begins as our first reading presents the first of the two creation stories that open the book of Genesis. We need not take the Genesis story literally to appreciate its beautiful poetry as it portrays a monotheistic God – Creator, Word and Spirit wind moving over the waters – as a loving creative force at work in the world.

Psalm: Psalm 8

This Psalm of praise beautifully knits together the ideas that call for our attention on Trinity Sunday. In it we give praise and thanksgiving for God’s earthly creation. We remember that we hold dominion over creation. We accept that this duty demands that we preserve and protect “the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea.” And finally we worship the majesty of God, our Creator who made it all.

Alternate Psalm: Canticle 13

As an optional alternative to Psalm 8 on Trinity Sunday we may sing Canticle 13 from the Book of Common Prayer, a portion from the Song of Praise from the Apocryphal Prayer to Azariah. Also known as the Song of the Three Young Men who danced and sang in defiance of the flames in King Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace, these verses, added as a supplement to the song in modern times, offer resounding praise and exaltation to God as Creator, Son and Holy Spirit.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13


You won’t find many explicit references to the Holy Trinity in the New Testament, as it took the early church nearly 300 years to fully work out the Trinitarian theology expressed in the Nicene Creed. But we hear foreshadowings of this idea in this reading and the Gospel. In Paul’s loving farewell at the end of his second letter to the people of Corinth, he urges this often squabbling congregation to sort out their conflicts and love one another as God loves them, asking this in the “grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.”

Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20


Last week, Pentecost Sunday, we heard of the Holy Spirit coming to the disciples in wind and fire, inspiring them to go out to the world and tell the good news of the resurrection and eternal life. Now on Trinity Sunday we hear the final verses of Matthew’s gospel – his only account of the risen Christ. Jesus, in Matthew’s account, had told the women at the tomb to tell the eleven disciples to go on to Galilee, where he would meet them. Now they meet on a mountain. Some of them worship him, but others are doubtful. Then Jesus commands them to go and “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” a great commission to Christian evangelism.

Trinity Sunday B

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for May 27, 2018

hrist talking with Nicodemus at night

Christus onderwijst Nicodemus (Christ talking with Nicodemus at night), 1640. Oil on panel by Crijn Hendricksz Volmarijn (c.1601-1645). Private collection, Sotheby’s, London. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8

Last Sunday, on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came in wind and fire. Now as we celebrate Trinity Sunday, we reflect on the relationship among Creator, Redeemer and Advocate. In our first reading, Isaiah sees a vision calling him to be God’s prophet, an image that brings him woe, not joy, for he does not believe that is worthy to see God. He confesses that he is a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips, whereupon a seraph cleanses and purifies him with holy fire, touching a coal to the prophet’s lips. Then, hearing God’s call again, Isaiah steps up, no longer held back by feelings of unworthiness.

Psalm 29

We sang this Psalm just a few months ago, on the first Sunday after the Epiphany; and we sing it again now, on the first Sunday after Pentecost. On both occasions, immediately following the celebration of a bold manifestation of the divine, it seems appropriate to “Ascribe due honor to God’s holy name.” The powerful metaphor of a majestic storm offers us insight into the Holy Spirit as a powerful wind. A storm strong enough to break and spin mighty oaks and cedars, shoot flames, and shake the wilderness might send us running for shelter. But it also has potential to lure us outside to feel the rain and the wind on our faces as the storm rolls by.

Alternative to the Psalm: Canticle 13

Canticles, “little songs,” are scripture passages similar in style to Psalms, chosen for use in worship in the Book of Common Prayer. Canticle 13 offers a short portion of the “Song of the Three Young Men” who were thrown into a fiery furnace by angry King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in the book of Daniel and the apocryphal Song of Azariah. Safe under God’s protection, they survived this ordeal, not only walking unharmed through a raging fire but joyfully singing this hymn of glory to God, promising to praise and highly exalt God forever.

Second Reading: Romans 8:12-17

We turn back a page in Romans this week to hear these verses that come just before last week’s reading about Christians groaning in the pain and expectancy of a mother in labor as they wait for salvation. Now we see Paul building toward that image as he describes the great gift that awaits Christians: When we accept a life led by the Spirit, we become children of God, just as Jesus is the Son of God. Like Jesus we become heirs of God. Inspired by the Spirit, we recognize that suffering with Jesus opens us up to being glorified with Jesus.

Gospel: John 3:1-17

Sunday’s Gospel provides us the context to John 3:16 that a simple sign held up in a sports stadium can’t give. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, comes to talk with Jesus by night, hoping no one will see him visiting the controversial rabbi. Nicodemus is curious but bewildered by Jesus’ mysterious language. What does it mean to be “born from above,” or, in some translations, “born again”? Nicodemus just can’t grasp the distinction between being literally born of flesh as an infant and being born of the Holy Spirit in faith. Through the Son, from the Creator, inspired by the Spirit’s restless wind, we come to the Kingdom through a spiritual rebirth in faith and belief.

Trinity Sunday A

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for June 11, 2017

The Mourning Trinity (Throne Of God)

The Mourning Trinity (Throne Of God), 1433-1435, tempera on panel by Robert Campin (c. 1380-1444), the Flemish Master of Flémalle. Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

First Reading: Genesis 1:1-2:4a

In recent weeks we have celebrated Christ’s ascension into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, and the Holy Spirit coming in wind and fire. Now we begin the long season after Pentecost by contemplating Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their mysterious dance, three persons in one triune God, the Holy Trinity. We begin where Scripture begins, hearing the first of the two creation stories that open the book of Genesis, portraying a monotheistic God – Creator, Word and Spirit wind moving over the waters – as a loving creative force at work in the world.

Psalm 8

We hear again this beautiful Psalm of praise that we sang on the first Sunday of this year. We exalt the name of our Creator God, and we sing grateful thanksgiving for all of creation. We remember that, along with our God-given dominion over “the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,” we have a solemn duty to preserve and protect them all, a duty that seems just as significant in our times as it did in ancient ages.

Alternate Psalm: Canticle 13

What’s a Canticle? These “little songs,” scripture passages that lend themselves to reading or chanting, are given in the Book of Common Prayer for use in daily prayer and, on occasion, as substitutes for Lectionary Psalms. Canticle 13 is the “Song of the Three Young Men” who sang this joyous hymn of praise to God and all creation as God protected them from death in the fiery furnace to which they had been condemned by an angry king. These final verses, added to this old song in modern Christian times, conclude the Canticle with resounding praise and exaltation to the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

You won’t find many explicit references to the Holy Trinity in the New Testament, as it took the early church nearly 300 years to fully work out basic Trinitarian theology as expressed in the Nicene Creed. We hear two of the most specific foreshadowings, though, in today’s second reading and Gospel. In Paul’s loving farewell at the end of his second letter to the people of Corinth, he urges this often squabbling congregation to sort out their conflicts and love one another as God loves them, asking this in the “grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.”

Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20

Each of the Gospels ends in a different way, offering us four contrasting views of the resurrected Christ and his conversations with the disciples who would remain behind. Today we hear Matthew’s narrative. The risen Christ had told the women at the tomb to tell the eleven disciples to go on to Galilee, where he would meet them. Now we watch as they meet on a mountain. Some of them worship him, but others doubt, presumably only briefly. Then, invoking the names of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, he commands them to go and “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” a great commission to Christian evangelism.

Trinity Sunday C

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for May 22, 2016

The Trinity in an illuminated initial D in a 13th Century French manuscript, the Wenceslaus Psalter.

The Trinity in an illuminated initial D in a 13th Century French manuscript, the Wenceslaus Psalter.

First Reading: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

One of the fascinating threads in the beautiful tapestry of scripture is the image of God’s divine wisdom personified as a woman. At the moment of creation we see God the Creator, God’s creative Word and God’s Spirit breath moving over the waters to separate light from darkness and earth from sea. Wisdom is there, the book of Proverbs tells us in these poetic verses, and she cries out joy in the new world, delighting in God’s creation.

Psalm 8

Many of the Psalms are ancient hymns, sung in the Temple in Jerusalem. And just as we have a variety of hymns to express joy, sadness, praise, and prayer, the Psalms serve many purposes. Today’s psalm is all about praise: We lift our voices in joyful appreciation for the God who created this universe and everything in it. As we hear these verses today, remember that we must care for God’s creation even as we take pleasure in it.

Canticle 13

In place of a Psalm this week we sing Canticle 13, “A Song of Praise” – a litany of praise and exaltation to God as Creator and King. Remember the story of the three young men who danced and sang in defiance of the flames in King Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace? Protected by God, as told in Daniel and the apocryphal Song of Azariah, they walked unharmed through the fire, singing this hymn of praise to God and all creation. These final verses, added to the young mens’ song in Christian times, conclude the Canticle with resounding praise to the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Second Reading: Romans 5:1-5

Is Paul offering the dubious wisdom, “No pain, no gain”? Hardly. Paul is not saying that suffering is good, much less that God makes us suffer. Rather, Paul says we should rejoice in God’s grace in spite of our suffering. He was writing to a mixed congregation of pagan and Jewish Christians who often faced persecution in the generation after Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. He tells them that God’s love, poured into us through the Holy Spirit, provides the strength to hang on to hope even in the face of suffering.

Gospel: John 16:12-15

Today, Trinity Sunday, we hear one of the shortest Sunday Gospel readings in the Lectionary. But it is among the most powerful, in another passage from Jesus’s talk with the disciples at the Last Supper.There are things about God that we just can’t understand, Jesus tells his friends. But he also assures them that the Holy Spirit will be with them, as the Holy Spirit is with us: bearing the glory of Creator and Son, and guiding us all toward the truth.

Trinity Sunday B

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for May 31, 2015

First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8

Russian Orthodox icon depicting the Holy Trinity

Russian Orthodox icon depicting the Holy Trinity, painted around 1410 by Andrei Rublev.

Prophets, it seems, need to be persuaded. Moses argued with God, objecting that he could not speak well. Jeremiah worried that he was too young. Jonah simply ran away. Now we hear Isaiah fearing that his sinfulness – “unclean lips” – disqualifies him for God’s service. But then a mighty angel purifies Isaiah’s lips with a hot coal. Now Isaiah eagerly accepts God’s call: “Here I am! Send me!” When God calls us, will we look for an excuse, or shout, “Send me”?

Canticle 13

Canticles, “little songs,” are scripture passages, other than Psalms, chosen for use in worship in the Book of Common Prayer. Canticle 13 incorporates parts of the “Song of the Three Young Men” who were thrown into the fiery furnace by an angry king. Protected by God, as recorded in Daniel and the apocryphal Song of Azariah, they survived this ordeal, walking unharmed through the fire and singing this hymn of praise to God and all creation.

Second Reading: Romans 8:12-17\

These verses came just before last week’s reading from Romans, in which Paul likened the hope and pain of Christians waiting for salvation to the pain and expectancy of a mother in labor. Here we see Paul building toward that image, telling us of the great gift that we are offered: By accepting life led by the Spirit, we become children of God, just as Jesus is the Son of God. With Jesus we become heirs of God, inspired by the Spirit, knowing that our suffering with Jesus opens us up to being glorified with Jesus.

Gospel: John 3:1-17

Our Gospel reading returns to that familiar verse, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” Today, we hear it in context with the narrative that leads up to it. Using language that bewilders Nicodemus, a leader of the Pharisees, Jesus says we must be “born from above” in order to see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus can’t figure out how that works. How can an adult return to a mother’s womb? But Jesus means something completely different: Through the Son, from the Creator, inspired by the Spirit’s restless wind, we come to the Kingdom through a spiritual rebirth in faith and belief.

Trinity Sunday A

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, June 15, 2014

Seventh Day of Creation (from the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle)

Seventh Day of Creation (from the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle)

First Reading: Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Most Episcopalians probably join the ancient rabbis who edited the Old Testament in recognizing the creation stories of Genesis as the inspiring creation legend of our distant spiritual ancestors, not literal fact. Genesis shows us a monotheistic God as a loving creative force at work in the world. As we celebrate Trinity Sunday, look closely at the opening verses, where we can discern three persons at work in one God: Divine creator; creative Word, and Spirit wind that moves over the waters and makes the world be.

Psalm: Psalm 8

Today’s Psalm beautifully knits together the ideas that we hold up on Trinity Sunday. In it we give praise and thanksgiving for God’s creation. We remember that we hold dominion over God’s earthly creation. We accept that this duty calls us to preserve and protect “the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea.” And finally we worship the majesty of God, our Creator who made it all.

Alternate Psalm: Canticle 13

This week in place of a Psalm we mark Trinity Sunday by singing Canticle 13, “A Song of Praise,” offering praise and exaltation to God as Creator, Son and Holy Spirit. Remember the story of the three young men who danced and sang in defiance of the flames in King Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace? This is what they sang in the Prayer to Azariah, an addition to the book of Daniel in the Apocrypha at the end of the Old Testament.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Paul closes his second letter to the people of Corinth in the formal style dictated for letters in 1st Century Greek culture. In brief but loving words, he urges this small, often squabbling congregation to sort out their conflicts, pay attention to each other, and love one another as God loves them. He asks this in the name of the Holy Trinity, blessing them with hope for the peace of Jesus, the love of God and the Communion of the Holy Spirit.

Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20

Last week, Pentecost Sunday, we heard of the Holy Spirit coming to the disciples in wind and fire, inspiring them to go out to the world and tell the good news of the resurrection and eternal life. Today, on Trinity Sunday, we hear the last verses of Matthew, his only account of the risen Christ, who met the disciples in Galilee and commissioned them to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.