I was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Joseph, Michigan. At a young age we moved and my family began attending Trinity Lutheran Church in Sawyer, Michigan. As I got a little older I learned that many of my relatives attended Trinity Lutheran Church in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
It soon became clear to me that the true and best church was Trinity Church. Now that I’m older I realize that as a small child I was right but not in the way I thought. The only true Church is Trinity Church, that is, since the only true God is the Triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the only True Church is the one that worships the true God.
It is often difficult for some people to accept the fact that not every truth is comprehensible. When it comes to God, this is certainly true. How God can be three persons but only one God is incomprehensible but true because that is how God has revealed Himself to us.
Some people don’t like the fact that Trinity and Triune God are terms not used in the Bible. What they don’t realize is that we use these terms as a short hand way of referring to the God of Holy Scripture remaining true to everything that God says about Himself.
On Trinity Sunday we rejoice that God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has worked for our salvation. God the Father chose us from all eternity to be His. Throughout the Old Testament, He promised that a savior would come. When the time was right, He sent the Savior. Jesus, God the Son, came to be our Savior, to live and die and rise again for our forgiveness, life and salvation. God—The Father and God—The Son sends the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts and brings to us the gifts that Jesus won on the Cross.
Prayer:
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!
Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
Who was, and is, and evermore shall be.
Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;
Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in power, in love, and purity.
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy; merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!
Reginald Heber wrote this hymn for Trinity Sunday while he was Vicar of Hodnet, Shropshire, England.
God’s richest blessings in Christ,
Pastor Philip Quardokus
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