All About Relationship

This is the reflection that was sent electronically to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church. Any thoughts?

Gospel: John 16:12-15

 [Jesus said,] ¹²“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³When 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. ¹⁴He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵All that the Father has is mine. For this reason, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

Sunday, we celebrate the Holy Trinity. Scripture only hints at the nature of God being one in three and three in one. Each of the readings for Sunday portrays these various aspects of God.

In our gospel reading, we have Jesus, the second person of the trinity speaking of the Spirit, the third person of the trinity and of God, the Father, the first person of the trinity. The Holy Spirit plays a crucial role in the lives of God’s people. According to Jesus, the Spirit guides us into all truth and will declare to us the things that are to come. The Spirit will also glorify Jesus and will take what is Jesus’ and declare it to God’s people.

Aren’t you glad we are not left on our own in the Christian journey? Not only do we have our sisters and brothers in the faith, but we have the faithful companionship and direction of the Holy Spirit.

It’s hard to wrap our minds around the concept of the Holy Trinity. For centuries, the early church struggled with a right and proper interpretation and understanding of this as they formulated the doctrine of the trinity. In seminary, a wise professor of mine said the best way to understand the trinity is to think of it as a love relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As God is all about relationship; even so the Christian life is all about relationship: relationship with God, relationship with each other and relationship with our community.

This Sunday and always, let us celebrate this great relationship with God that makes us who we are! May we declare this message of right relationship and love to the entire world. Can you imagine what our world would look like if everyone embraced such a life? Let’s make sure they have the opportunity!

Let us pray.

Dear Lord, life in and with you is mystery and yet, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to your truth. May we have hearts turned to you and at the same time, turned to the needs in our community. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen!

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