Experiencing The Trinity page 1

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The great West Indian cricketer Sir Leary Constantine was once invited to be an after-dinner speaker at a function in London. The Master of Ceremonies was meant to introduce him with the conventional words, "Pray silence for Sir Leary Constantine." Unfortunately, he instead said, "Pray for the silence of Sir Leary Constantine".

The great cricketer rose slowly to his feet and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, your prayers have been answered," and momentarily sat down.
[Adapted from Murray Watts, Hot Under The Collar, #46 p41.]

Well, for those of you praying for silence about the Trinity, this is the final sermon! And it is based on this great prayer of Paul in Ephesians 3:14-21. Although the language of the prayer is glorious and profound, it is far from airy-fairy. There is an urgency in Paul's praying. You can see this from the fact that he says he kneels to pray [verse 14]. We're used to the idea that people kneel to pray, but it isn't what your average Jew did. The normal posture for Jewish prayer was to stand. That is why you see devout Jews even today standing to pray at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

What is it Paul is so urgent and passionate about in this prayer? He is fervently concerned that his readers should experience God. For all Paul's great learning and his ability to teach great mysteries of the Christian faith, he always wants it to be applied in people's lives. It's never academic ivory tower knowledge. God is not only to be known in our minds but experienced in every part of our lives.

And this applies just as much to the revelation of God as Trinity. In the final analysis, God the Holy Trinity is to be experienced. There seem to be six experiences of the Trinity that Paul prays for here, so like the last sermon with its seven brief points, here are six snapshots of the experience of God the Holy Trinity that is ours as Christians.

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Copyright © David D Faulkner, 2006 except where other sources are attributed or noted as inspiration.