Church News Volume 5, Issue 7 (June 2004)

Dear friends,

The first Sunday of June is called Trinity Sunday.

The feast of the Blessed Trinity was first brought to this country by Thomas à Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, whose reign as primate ended suddenly and brutally in his cathedral in 1170.

Becket had a special devotion to the Holy Trinity. Perhaps what attracted him was the sense of recognition of the triune nature of God, (creator, redeemer, upholder), with so much else observed in nature and the world around which is similarly threefold.

Christians come to know the truth of the triune God through the experience of walking with God in this life. He reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who lives and works within us.

Most of us will never fully understand, even in part, the depth of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Indeed many theologians have written books and spent many hours debating just that over the years. Yet we believe that if we are joined to this God who is ‘Unity in Trinity’ we have known Him in the full sense, that is, we have fellowship with Him.

So, even if we do not fully comprehend the doctrine of the Trinity, we can indeed know and touch God in our lives.

Even more important, or at least of equal importance, is that we can know and touch God in our worship. Our earthly worship echoes the heavenly worship.

The final book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, comes from St. John's vision into the holy of holies. There is ceaseless worship of the One who is seated on the throne. The four living creatures he sees there are taken to represent the four great cosmic forces that uphold the universe. The great angelic figures represent the created world, the elders he sees, the highest human wisdom and authority. Thus in John's vision of heaven all creation joins in adoration of the One God.

We are being led to believe through the Bible, our experience of the world, and of knowing God, that there is a centre of order and authority, spreading power out in an ordered way, throughout the universe. The mere existence of the universe proclaims the wisdom and power of the Creator, and is in itself a form of worship.

The meaning of existence is out there for those who have the eyes of faith to see. The whole created order calls out in worship of the Triune God. Stop, look, listen and see. Join in.

Revd Ian M. Finn

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