Trinity Sunday – Romans 8:12-17

¹² Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴ For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. ¹⁵ The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.^[a] And by him we cry, “Abba,^[b] Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Kids Talk:

Good morning! Are there any kids here today? Are there any “kids at heart” here today? Wonderful, then the next few minutes are for you!

Today’s reading from Romans mentions something about hair. Did you hear that in the reading too? It said we were hairs of God. Isn’t that amazing! (put on wig) It almost seems unbelievable… I mean, it’s cool but I just don’t get it. How are we hairs… (re-read verse) Oh, I am sorry, I think I have made a mistake here. Hair isn’t spelt H-E-I-R is it… (sheepishly take off wig).

Now I get it. Paul is writing to the believers in the city of Rome, and he is reminding them that because the Spirit of God is in them, they are heirs of God. That means they have been adopted into the family of God and get the benefits of being a child of the King. The benefits include things like in sharing in God’s glory, which means enjoying a fullness of life where we are no longer separated from God but instead live in his Kingdom of love, peace and joy.

But how did this happen. You and I were not born into a Royal family, right?

In my life there have been times I have questioned if I was born into my family, have you ever felt that way? I will give you an example: When I turned 18 I decided to go and donate blood to Red Cross. After the donation they sent me an envelope with a thank you t in it and a small keyring with my blood type on it. I excitedly showed this to my family including my parents. I showed Mum and asked her what blood type she was. She said B+. I asked Dad and he said he was A-. The look on my face must have said everything, because here in front of me was a keyring that said I was O+. How could I be related to parents who did not even share the same letter in the alphabet as me! My Dad laughed for a very long time and then kindly explained that it was absolutely possible to have a different blood type than your parents and that if I looked in a mirror, I would be able to tell quickly that I was not adopted. We still make jokes to this day that it is weird that we look similar seeing as I must be adopted, my blood type is O+!

We do not have the benefits of being an heir from birth, we are adopted into the family when we accept and profess Jesus as Lord and Savior and receive the Holy Spirit through Baptism and Confirmation. It is from this point on that our “spiritual DNA” starts to look more and more like Jesus as we follow the spirit and live for God and not ourselves. Paul may have been writing to believers in Rome but isn’t it great to hear his reminder and remember that the truth of his words applies to us today too. We are hairs of God (hold up wig). I mean heirs of God. Because of God’s spirit in us, and Jesus saving us, the Father’s blessings of eternal love, peace and joy are available to us too.    – Pray for the children

I would like to take a quick moment to share something very exciting with you. On Tuesday this week I had an Anniversary. It was my 3-month anniversary of being at St Luke’s Taroona! Praise God!

Now being my 3-month Anniversary there is a very important step that needs to be completed. We need to confirm if I have successfully completed my 3-month probation.

As you know poor Ruth is stuck having fun in Japan and cannot do this for us, so I have devised a clever way to do this and save her a lot of work when she returns. At morning Tea there will be a box of chocolates, and if you think I have passed my probation, please take a chocolate. If there are no chocolates left at the end of morning tea, then that means I have passed probation. Sound ok with everyone? 😉

Thank you everyone for such a warm welcome to St Luke’s. It is a privilege to have a job where I can help St Luke’s reach out into the community, to care for each other, to encourage opportunities of invitation, and to help us grow the faith of children together. My two girls have felt loved each time they have come to St Luke’s, and I know as we are visited by more children they too will be blessed by the warm welcome and generosity of our church.

Today’s talk will reflect on the importance of having the spirit of God active in our lives. Before I continue, would you like me to share some quick examples of ways I have seen God’s spirit working at St Luke’s these past three months? If yes; This is just a short list:

The Tuesday Playgroup is regularly getting 9 families attending with three new families coming in recent weeks; we have been given permission by the principal of Taroona High School to help run a lunch-time club; there are new locals coming to church; we have a fully renovated sign, beautifully framed pictures and a growing car-park garden thanks to the hard work of people volunteering their time and resources; we have talks specifically for kids every 1^st Sunday of the month; our prayer and bible study groups are sharing deeply and caring freely; local businesses know who we are and have been referring people in need to the church; we have a lovely Alpha group sharing dinner and a chat on Sunday’s at 5pm (little plug there!), the list could go on & on! Isn’t it wonderful!

Adult Talk:

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Ps 19:14

Happy Trinity Sunday everyone. This is the Sunday where Christians all over the world scratch their collective heads and ask the simple question “how does it all work again?”! If you feel that the idea of the trinity is a difficult one to understand and explain, you are in good company. Since finding out that I would be talking on Trinity Sunday I have talked with Deacons, Chaplains, Ministers and Scholars and the general response to needing to preach on the Trinity has been one of laughter and consolation. One well known Vicar in Hobart went to the extent of telling me that they will be starting their sermon with a Disclaimer, that no matter how they explain the Trinity they expect that people will disagree with them.

I will not provide a disclaimer, but I will start within the safety of the Anglican Prayer Book of Australia and remind us of the definition of the Trinity found in the Thirty-Nine Articles. It says this: “There is but one living God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power and eternity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

The Trinity is not one doctrine among others; rather, the Trinity is our interpretive framework for all Scripture and doctrine. The doctrine of the Trinity – God as one in essence and three in person – shapes and structures Christian faith and practice in every way. Scripture reveals the three persons (Father, Son, and Spirit) as distinct actors in the historical outworking of creation, redemption, the application of salvation, and the final resurrection.

The concept of the Trinity continues to be one of the most difficult Theological concepts for Christians to describe. St. Augustine, best known for his great works such as the Confessions and City of God, worked on De Trinitate for over 30 years without ever fully finishing it. Rod kindly lent me this copy and I read it cover to cover… I mean I read the front and back! Just reading a small amount though, I can see the mind of a great Christian Theologian fighting a mighty battle to understand how the Trinity works – and he could not finish the process.

I feel the process Christians take to understand the Trinity can look different, I will explain this by sharing a story. There once was a little girl who walked into the kitchen to see the kettle on, with water boiling and steam rising into the air. She turned to her dad and asked “Dad, why is the water boiling in the kettle”. The Dad thought for a second and then smiled. “That is a great question” The dad then described the process that allows power to be generated, how it is delivered to houses via large cables, how a circuit is created when the plug goes into the power point, how the element at the bottom of the kettle heats the water around it to 100 degrees Celsius and that this then causes the water to boil and steam to be produced. Satisfied with a comprehensive answer, the dad walked away. The girl then approached her mum and asked “Mum, why is the water boiling in the kettle”. The Mum looked lovingly down to her daughter and replied, “I am making a cup of tea darling”.

Like the dad in this story it is common for us to desire to explain and understand the complex interplay and purpose of the Trinity. There is nothing wrong with this, but it can sometimes cause us to miss an important point, God is a relational being and this is just who he is and how he interacts with the world. The water is boiling simply to make a cup of tea, and God is three persons in one simply because that is how God exists. It is normal to ask who someone is, or even what someone is, for example “this is Trevor, he is a man”. But if we asked, “how is Trevor?”, this would be a very unusual question to ask! Trevor isn’t a how, but a who and a what. As a relational being it is somewhat easy to ask who and what God is, but it becomes much more challenging when we ask how is God, in someways this is not a good question to ask of a complex relational being, a being that needs to be experienced to be understood.

The doctrine of the Trinity is grounded in an experience—an experience of the Spirit of sonship and the Spirit of the Son. The devotional life of the first Christians made it clear that they stood in a triadic relationship to God—God as he was known through the Spirit of holiness, in sonship to the Father, and in service to the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 8:15–16; 1 Cor 12:3). The Trinity is the theological implication that emerges from the Christian experience of God in the Spirit, through the Son, and before the Father. Only when we know the God, who is Father, the Son and Holy Spirit can we properly pray to him, worship him, proclaim him, imitate him and serve him.

There are around thirty times in the bible where the three persons of the Godhead are described together, including today’s reading from Romans chapter 8.

 “And by him we cry, “Abba,^[b] Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ”.

It is interesting to note that in these verses we see Father mentioned first, then the Spirit and then Finally the Son, but this is not always the case, in fact all possible orders are included in scripture, with Father, Son and Holy Spirit the most common and so the one most used most regularly by the church.

Paul is describing a profound thing in today’s passage and is choosing intentionally to support his point with the full involvement and interaction of the persons of God. Paul is telling the Romans that it is only through the Spirit of God transforming us and leading us that we can escape the control of the world that grips us with sin. It is more than knowing God intellectually that transforms us, it is experiencing the fullness of the Godhead, a personal God of distinct character and nature, that provides an internal ability to free us from the control of the “flesh”, in other words, free us from the worldly desires that lead to fear and death and away from relationship with God.

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.

The likeness between God and humanity is fundamentally a relational and covenantal communion, with God initiating and sustaining the relationship. The Trinity does not remain within its own harmonious existence but attempts to express its internal love externally. In these verses we see that through faith in Christ, humans receive the Spirit of God, which corrects us and confirms in our spirit our adoption as children of the Father.

The Salvation that the gospel promises portrays the Father as choosing, Christ as redeeming, and the Spirit as renewing, all in a unified work by distinct persons, in a single Godhead. This does not happen accidentally or by osmosis, it happens through conscious choice and relationship. If you wish to experience the full saving work of transformation in your life that can free you from the pain of sinful actions and thoughts, then we know there is a way. We need to live according to the Spirit of God, we invite God’s Spirit into our lives by crying “Abba Father”, we become co-heirs through accepting Christ’s sacrifice to atone for our sins.

After my first sermon here at St Luke’s I received the challenge to summarize my sermon’s main points. So, as we close, here are the main points I hope you can take away. 1) The Trinity is a useful framework we use to understand God, 2) to understand the trinity fully we need to experience God through relationship, 3) Relationship with God is found by inviting the Spirit in, calling on God as Father, and trusting in the saving works of the Son.

I will close with the wonderful Celtic Prayer of St. Patrick’s Breastplate:

For my shield this day I call:

A might power:

The Holy Trinity!

Affirming threeness,

Confessing oneness,

In the making of all

Through love.