To open the relevant Bible passages, hold down SHIFT and click on Deuteronomy 6:1-9 and Matthew 28:16-20.

I was telling my friend and colleague Keith Foot at Christ The King the other day that I was planning to preach a series of sermons on the Trinity. He recounted a story from his curacy where he was due to preach at the main morning service on Trinity Sunday. He looked high and low for a joke to begin the sermon, but could find only one. Relieved that there was at least one funny story relating to the subject of the Trinity, he opened his sermon with it. Imagine his horror when his vicar took the early morning service and began his sermon with precisely the same story!

If it's hard to research humour relating to the subject, you know it's a tough one. And of course we know anyway that the theme of the Trinity is a difficult one to tackle and to understand. I've preached before on aspects of the Trinity, but on the odd occasion when I've used a sermon to try to explain this doctrine, I've found precious little help in theological dictionaries and I've been less than satisfied with my own efforts.

So I was pleased last autumn when I saw a book on the subject that was recommended as being suitable for sharing with a congregation. I bought it but only read it at the beginning of this year. It has so excited me that I want to share what it has done for me, and I'm going to do that in a series of sermons beginning today. I won't finish the series before Easter, but after the Easter celebrations we'll come back to it.

The book has left me thrilled with both the explanations and the mystery, and it has made me want to worship God all the more. I hope this series will do something similar for you.

The book, by the way, is called 'Experiencing The Trinity' by Darrell W Johnson. It began as a series of sermons in an American Presbyterian Church, and I hope to adapt the teaching to our situation.

This week is introductory. What makes us come up with a doctrine such as the Trinity? We'll consider three factors today: one, that a simple belief in Jesus leads us in that direction; two, some of the Biblical signposts; and three, the fact that key aspects of Christian life and experience are related to the Trinity.

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