Sermon
June 16, 2019
Trinity Sunday
First Sunday after Pentecost:
Year C
First Reading: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalms 8
Second Reading: Romans 5:1-5
Gospel: John 16:12-15
Romans 5:5
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Trinity Sunday
God our Heavenly Father, God is in us all around us, in everything that is seen and unseen, He is the creator of Heaven and Earth. And as the earth breaths and moves…. we are dancing around with it; and WE are divinely connected to Heaven and Earth.
Jesus the Christ, the Son transformed from God born to be the savior of the world, to bring light into darkness. The promised Messiah, who was promised by God to bring salvation to the world.
The Holy Spirit has been written about throughout the Bible. In (Genesis 1:2), the Holy Spirit is moving about the surface of waters. From the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible, in Revelations, The Holy Spirit, flowing around and through us, tending to us, to help show us the way, to guide us and comfort us, to be Gods advocate. Helping us and reminding us and teaching us, moving along the side of us, counsels us and intercedes, because He is God’s advocate
I have had many experiences with The Holy Spirit sometimes it is a visual feeling, sometimes it’s a profound spiritual feeling and sometimes it is a gut feeling.
One day I had this strong desire to contact a friend, I had a gut feeling something was wrong…I emailed her, just saying are you doing OKAY? It turns out the ambulance was at her house getting ready to take her to the hospital for unexplained chest pain. Early in my ministry, while anointing a person with Holy Oil, I felt the Holy Spirit, leave me and enter her. I knew then, I was doing what I was called to do.
“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”(Romans 8:16)
The Holy Spirit will connect with your internal human spirit, the question is being aware of it. Knowing that the Holy Spirit is communicating with you, is and will be life changing.
Gospel: (John 16:12-15)
This Gospel is packed with wonderful messages!
Jesus said to his disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
All that the Father has is mine. For this reason, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
Jesus has been with his disciples for 3 years and they have been taught many things during that time, throughout the John’s gospel, he focuses on The Holy Spirit many times.
John the Baptizer gives witness to the fact that, after baptizing Jesus, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove” (John 1:32).
Jesus introduced the Spirit into his conversation with the Pharisee… Nicodemus….” he declares “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.” (John 3-5)
Jesus explained to the unnamed Samaritan woman “God is spirit….” (John 4:24)
And finely
In Jesus’ farewell message “He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ (John 20:22)
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Jesus tells his disciples “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
In (John 15:15) he had told them that he no longer calls them a servant, because a servant does not know his master’s business, instead Jesus said, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
The disciples are his friends! He wants to tell them and maybe he feels a little bad about it, because he can’t. Just like we would if we wanted to tell our friends something, but we can’t tell them for some reason.
Jesus…says…so listen to me! When the Spirit comes, he will guide you into all the truth.
The Spirit!!! They need to listen to Jesus now pay attention to the Spirit…he will declare to you the things that are to come!
AND, He will glorify me, Because! He will take what is mine and declare it to you.!
So, The Holy Spirt will take what is in Jesus and declare it to them!
All that the Father has is mine.
For!! This reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
Wow! You see…. we are left with this message years and years later. We just have to trust in what we have been taught through the living Word!
We are told that, in the future; in the unfolding of time, we will be told and we will hear what the sprit is saying to us, the Spirit will guide us, speak to us, and declare all to us all that we need to know! We are given a picture of the three persons of the Trinity. Jesus speaks of himself, of the Spirit’s activities and of the Father.
Conclusion:
The Holy Trinity is an invitation to a relationship with God, Christ Jesus and The Holy Spirit and internal and external relationship.
It is okay to be a Christian and not know everything, believe me I for-one have worried about not knowing as much as I think I should know.
The Good News:
We have been given an invitation to continue to dance our way through all that he has created in and around us. To learn to love and expose ourselves again and again to the presence of God in our lives, to listen to the teachings of Christ Jesus and to be aware and open to The Holy Spirit, guiding and leading us to be good disciples for Christ Jesus.
Amen
Rev. Lola Culbreath