Trinity Sunday
May 27, 2018
Trinity Sunday is considered the hardest day in the Christian Calendar to preach. How do you explain all the three in one God theology in a way that makes some sense, and seems to apply to our daily lives. But I would like to talk about a woman who was able in simple terms to explain the Trinity. – not for adults but for children. And she did it not through stories, nor stained glass windows, but through simple hymns. And they may well be familiar to you – because although they were written for children, the hymns became so beloved that the hymns were incorporated in to church hymnals.
Cecil Frances Alexander was that hymn writer. She was born in County Wicklow, in Ireland in 1818 and was a member of the Church of Ireland (the Irish Church of England). She and her sister founded a school for those who were called “Deaf Mutes” and she wrote hymns for children, the proceeds of which funded her school. Many of her hymns tackled complex theological concepts through simple language and imagery that would have been familiar to children –including explaining the Trinity which is why she is relevant today. She did not attempt to explain the Trinity through Greco-Roman Philosophy, or the Jewish theology which are the foundation stones of our Apostles and Nicene Creed. Instead she took the stories of our bible, and combined them with every day experiences of children and created something quite beautiful, meaningful and profound.
So she did this by taking each article of the Apostle’s Creed and created the words which were then set to music. As an aside, she was practically tone deaf – her daughter said she could not tell one tune from another but her particular brilliance was creating rhythmic verse.
So what did she say about the first person of the Trinity, God the Father? The first article of the Apostle’s Creed, “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth” – is explained by a hymn from her collection of “Hymns for Little Children”. Please turn to hymn # 405. She took images that she thought would be familiar to children to demonstrate the extent of God’s creative power.
Alexander renders a beautiful view of God’s creation as described in the creed. Her hymn is also scriptural – taking as her source the creation story in the early chapters of Genesis in our Old Testament, and Proverbs 16.
So let’s sing verse 1 of hymn #405.
In terms of the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, or as expressed in the Apostles Creed in the third article “I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary” Alexander fleshed this belief out in Once in Royal David’s City. Hymn number #102. This hymn, which is so familiar to anyone who attends Christmas Eve services, would have been unfamiliar if King’s College Cambridge in England had not included it in their yearly broadcast of Christmas Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve starting in the mid-20th century. And the main point of the hymn is one similar to Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s sermon at the Royal Wedding last week – Jesus brought redeeming love. One editor of this hymn, trying to help the hymn fit contemporary worshippers also added the third verse to say that Jesus also “brought us love for one another.”
So let us sing that 3rd verse of hymn #102.
The fourth article “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried” she addressed with the beautiful hymn “There is a green far away.” This hymn is sung most often on Good Friday. It is Hymn #167. Some have argued that her theology of atonement, what Jesus did on the cross, is watered down and overly simplistic in this hymn. But it is a beautiful hymn for children, and for us, to show us that Jesus died for us, and Jesus loved us, and we must, as Alexander says, trust in his redeeming work for us.
Let us sing verse 5 of hymns #167.
And then as my last reference, He is Risen, He is Risen Hymn #180, which is actually written for adults rather than children, so it was probably written in her later life. It refers to the article of faith in the creed “On the Third day he rose again from the dead, he ascended into heaven.” This hymn tells of the effect of Jesus’s resurrection. And I will leave it for you to read – but images include opening up the gate of heaven to us all.
So let us sing verse 4 of hymn #180.
So in terms of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, we spent a lot of time on the Holy Spirit last week. So I want to end with a hymn that is about the Holy Trinity itself. I will be leaving out the Holy Spirit today because we spent a lot of time with her last week. However, we will have a hymn at communion about the entire Trinity. The hymn is called “I bind Myself Unto Thee Today”, hymn #370, is one our oldest hymns dating back to the 7th century. It is based upon a Breast plate prayer, or Loric Prayer, which would have been chanted while dressing for battle. The legend is that St. Patrick sang this for protection against the pagan Irish King and Druid Fire-worshippers. Alexander was asked to write a metrical version of this prayer for the 1891 Irish Church Hymnal – and it was then sung throughout Ireland on March 17, 1889.
It is a hymn that is sung mostly at ordinations as well as Trinity Sunday.
What these hymns remind us, even though sometimes criticized as simplistic, is that our faith is not an intellectual puzzle to be figured out with solutions to be memorized and regurgitated by rote statements of our faith. Our faith in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is something to gain through our experiences – in our schools, while at play, while at work, and in the everyday lives of men and women. I share these hymns with you so that they can be food for thought and nourishment for prayer. Maybe take a copy of St. Patrick’s Breast Plate with you when you leave and read it as you get ready for battle each day.
St. Patrick’s Breast Plate:
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ’s birth with His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.
I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In the obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In the predictions of prophets,
In the preaching of apostles,
In the faith of confessors,
In the innocence of holy virgins,
In the deeds of righteous men.
I arise today, through
The strength of heaven,
The light of the sun,
The radiance of the moon,
The splendor of fire,
The speed of lightning,
The swiftness of wind,
The depth of the sea,
The stability of the earth,
The firmness of rock.
I arise today, through
God’s strength to pilot me,
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptation of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
afar and near.
I summon today
All these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel and merciless power
that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul;
Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me an abundance of reward.
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
[Note that people sometimes pray a shorter version of this prayer just with these 15 lines about Christ above. The conclusion follows below.]
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
0 Comments