15th June 2025

Trinity Sunday 2025 – Martin Mowat

Genesis 2:4-7 & 15-18 & 21-22 & 3:1

John 3:16-21

Today, being Trinity Sunday, I’m going to talk about “God in three persons”.  Let me start, today, by asking you a rhetorical question.  What is your definition of love?  By that I mean, what are it’s essential elements? 

I was originally planning that our first reading would be from Genesis 1, but David chose that passage last week.  I suppose it’s not so surprising when you think about it, Pentecost and the Trinity have a lot in common. 

So instead, I nearly chose as our second reading, although we heard it back in January, one of my favourite Bible stories, that of two men, disconsolately walking home on the first Easter Day.  They’d witnessed the crucifiction a couple of days earlier, then, on that Sunday morning they had heard people say that they had seen Jesus alive again, but thye found that too far-fetched to be credible.

When Jesus joined them along the road, he asked “What are you talking about?”

“About Jeus of Nazareth” they replied, “…we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.”

“How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’  And beginning with Mosesand all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”

“Beginning with Moses.” It’s widely assumed that Moses was the author of Genesis. He’s also credited with having written Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and so it’s not unreasonable to assume that Jesus’ explanation to Cleopas and his friend, of who he really was, came, at least in part, from Genesis, and specifically from the first few chapters about the creation.  I think that Luke wasn’t speaking so much about “Moses and all the Prophets” as people, but about their writings.

These are chapters that talk about not just about Jesus but about the Trinity.  Even within the first 3 verses of Genesis we hear about all three of them.

“In the beginning God (self existent, outside anything we can possibly imagine, God the Father)”, then “the Spirit of that same God was hovering over the waters” (God the Holy Spirit) and finally “And God said …” (that’s God the Son speaking creation).

That’s why John, in his gospel, explained that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” And then he goes on to say how John the Baptist came “as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.” “Through him”, not “through it” as I just said, God the Son, speaking things into existence.

Going back to Genesis chapter 1, the very last verse says that “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”  Using other words we could say “God loved all that he had made.” I’m sure he did, so much so that he gave himself the next day off – just joking. 

Joking aside though, respecting ‘Sabbath’ is very important indeed. It’s not what I want to concentrate on today, but I will just say one thing - have you noticed how the political and commercial worlds are attempting to destroy it?  Don’t let me go there!

In Genesis chapter 2 now, the account of the Garden if Eden, we have an amplified version of day 6 in chapter 1, the day on which God had created man “in his own image”, making him the pinnacle, the focal point of the creation which he loved so much.  

So “the Lord God took this man and put him in the Garden” it says, and there he gave him almost total freedom, why, because he loved him.

Every evening, “in the cool of the day”, they had a special time together, strolling about, appreciating creation, chatting and enjoying each other’s company. Love requires communion, and communication, to give it fulfilment in a meaningful relationship.

So you see, Genesis 1 and 2 are not contradictory, they are complimentary.  I think David said that too, perhaps in different words.

And then, in chapter 3 we are introduced to Satan, in the form of a serpent or a snake that was “more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made”. 

Do you notice something?   In the beginning God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but no Satan. One of the reasons he is depicted as a snake is that he was part of creation. And let’s be under no illusions, snake or not, Satan DOES exist. 

So why?  Why on earth would God do that? Include Satan as part of his creation?   Why?   Was it a deliberate error? 

Well “yes”, and “no”.   Yes, it was deliberate, no, it was not an error. 

He did it for one very good reason. He did it because true love involves making a choiceand then committing to it. `

God wanted, needed even, to give man the freedom to make that choice.  That’s what the Garden of Eden story is all about. Whether or not you think it’s mythical, it’s fundamental, and God put it in Genesis for a purpose. 

Did God know that Adam and Eve, the apples of his eye, his most precious possessions, the perfect couple that he loved so much, would reject him in the way that they did? Yes, almost certainly, but his love for them and for us is such that he wants us to have the opportunity to choose to come back to him. 

Listen - if you remember nothing else about what I say today, remember this. God - loves - you – every single one of you - totally, unconditionally, with all your lumps, your wrinkles, your bad habits and grumpy moods. 

But for there to be a meaningful love relationship between you and him, it has to be a two-way thing, and it has to be a choice. YOUR choice. 

Whether you have sinned or not is immaterial until the moment you make that choice.

And then, when you do, God the Son will open his forgiving arms, as he did on the cross, to welcome you back into God the Father’s love, and the Holy Spirit, the very breath of God himself, will begin his work in your life by making you a new creation. 

One God, in three persons, the author of, and principle character in, the greatest love story ever told.

One God, in three persons, who so loved the word that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

One God, in three persons, is holding his hand out to you – NOW - in love. Will you take it?