Worship - 31 May 2026

Summary Of This Week's Theme

When I read Isaiah’s rebuke to Israel — “Who has scooped up the ocean in his two hands, or measured the sky between his thumb and little finger?” — I am reminded of God’s response to Job, when God points to the wonders of creation and asks, in effect, “What do you know about running the universe?”

Indeed, what can any of us truly claim to understand about creation in all its vastness — from stardust to molecule, from whale to microbe, from mountains to the beauty of Menorca? Including this strange and wonderful species of human beings.

The ancient languages connected personhood with what can be seen and heard: the Greek prosopon, meaning face, and the Latin persona, linked to sound or voice. Personhood is rooted in relationship — in how we encounter one another.

The creeds use the language of “persons” to describe the Trinity we celebrate today: Creator, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Creator’s presence is glimpsed in the universe itself. The Spirit is seen and heard in human lives shaped by grace. Yet both remain difficult for us fully to comprehend.

So we are left with Jesus — the clearest expression of the personality of God that we can know. In the incarnation, the Word made flesh, God becomes relational and approachable. Through Jesus we see generosity, compassion, encouragement, humility, and love embodied in human form.

Still, understanding the Trinity is not really the point. Relationship is.

That becomes clear in the Great Commission. The disciples obey Jesus, see him, worship him, doubt him, and hear him. Every response is grounded in relationship. And from within that imperfect relationship, Jesus commissions them to transform the world.

He sends them not merely as followers of a teacher, but as agents of the God of the cosmos — Creator, Companion, Counsellor; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yet he also reassures them with familiarity: “I am with you always.”

Perhaps that is the gift of the Trinity. We do not need to understand everything about God in order to live in relationship with God. The overwhelming mystery of divine fullness is made approachable through Jesus, whose presence assures us that God is with us still.

And it is from that relationship that we are called to live out our own part in God’s continuing work in the world.