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Sunday, May 26, 2024

Doxological dialogues

Sermon for Trinity Sunday

You finish 
the last verse of the psalm.

Now what do you say?

Glory be to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Ghost 
as it was in the beginning,
is now
and ever shall be
world without end.
Amen.

Why do we say that?

[PAUSE]

We really need
to know what we are saying.

To give glory to something
means that we recognise 
the impact something 
has in our lives.

The Hebrew word for glory
has a sense of weight behind it,
something substantial 
that makes a difference 
to our lives.

Glory often comes 
with light.

To see the angels 
in glory
at Christmas
is to see Heaven
impacting upon the Earth,
and this reinforces 
the impact of the Baby born 
in a manger
and the life He lives.

So we say glory to God
in recognition and in gratitude 
for the impact that He has
in our lives.

We end each psalm
with this expression of worship, 
and we now state
how we recognise 
the God Whom we worship.

We worship
God the Father,
God the Son and
God the Holy Ghost
Three Persons,
One God
the Holy Trinity.

In making this statement 
we are directing our attention 
to the One Who is unique.

No other being
can be three distinct persons
in one substance.

This is why all our attempts
to understand the Trinity
must fail:
He is unique 
and this means 
we have nothing with which 
to compare Him directly.

All our analogies,
diagrams, charts, 
formulae and philosophy 
fail to shed light
upon his it is that
God is three distinct persons
and how each of those 
distinct persons 
is fully and indivisibly God.

He stands outside our universe 
and so He stands outside
any means of our comprehension.

All we can do
is state our faith
and turn to the One Great
Incomprehensible.

[PAUSE]

We end our psalm
rehearsing our faith 
and seeing in the Old Testament 
the truth of the Triune God
Whose revelation is
completed in the New.

We are also stating
something important 
about the Glory of God:
it's the same in the beginning,
now and ever shall be,
world without end.

What does that mean?

Literally, "world without end" 
translates the Greek phrase 
"unto the age of ages".

This "age of ages" is rather 
mysterious,
but rather it refers to 
our human conception of age,
all finite and doomed to end, 
being taken up
into God's age
which is Eternal.

This glory of God
is our life in His age,
His Time,
His Eternity.

In glorifting God
unto the age of ages
we are recognising 
His impact in our lives
and yet beyond our lives
to Eternity.

It is an expression 
of the Christian hope
that we will receive 
Eternal life
by participating in His Eternal life.

And this Eternal life
will be all the Church together
worshipping the One God
in unity.

It is as if the whole Church
will become one human being
in a multiplicity of persons 
to reflect the truth 
of one God in three persons.

[PAUSE]

The Gloria at the end of the psalm
is called a doxology in Greek

Doxology means "word of glory"
and it is something which,
when prayed heartily
brings us into contact 
with the One Who stands
beyond our understanding 
and yet gives us
some way of knowing Him.

This is His glory for us.

Glory be to the Father 
and to the Son
and to the Holy Ghost 
as it was in the beginning,
is now and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

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