BILLBOARDS, BUSES AND BIBLE VERSES

Confession: I am not usually a fan of Christian billboards. Even as a person of faith, I can’t help but read them in a judgemental tone: as though a better, holier Christian has caught me out playing Candy Crush on the bus, rather than using the time for Bible study, or for some other activity that might be better for my soul. One billboard sticks out in my memory, though — I was sixteen, and weeks away from being baptised. After school, I squeezed myself onto an unusually busy bus, the doors brushing my shoulders as they closed on me and my fellow sardines…

Another confession: I was more likely to have spent bus journeys reading my Bible back then than I am now. My early faith was full of bewildered excitement at having found myself so loved, so held by the God of the universe. I’d delve into my new-found faith at any opportunity, highlighting so many verses in my pocket Bible that it entirely defeated the point of having a highlighter in the first place. It felt as though every word on the page, every sermon I heard or hymn I learned was a gift from God, just for me. I was less cynical about Christian billboards back then.

So, squished between the bus doors and a buggy, there was no chance of Bible highlighting. Instead, I scanned the adverts above me for bus passes, low-cost dental treatment plans and hair loss prevention. Next to them, another advert caught my eye: ‘Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.’

It was my first time reading those words that Paul penned to the Romans. I read them over and over, amazed that God was speaking into that bus, struck by the image of God’s love being poured into my heart, a fountain of love, welling up with hope, even in the most difficult of times. It was breathtaking. I think I missed my stop. Sixteen-year-old me was just beginning to grasp what the older, more cynical version of me is in danger of taking for granted: that we are included in the life of the triune God, and this changes everything.

JOINING IN WITH THE LIFE OF THE TRINITY

Paul, in this letter, captures all the excitement of those early Christians just beginning to grasp what their faith means, as they learn to live in the peace, grace, and glory of God. Sharing God’s own glory: already, this is stunning stuff, more than billboard-worthy. But this, Paul writes, is not the only thing worth shouting about. Even suffering is totally transformed through that overflowing, unlimited love of God. Jesus Christ offers peace with God, whose love is poured into us by the Spirit. We are included in the
life of the triune God, and this changes everything.

This extraordinary, bizarre, incomprehensible truth is, somehow, offered to us as a daily reality. This, I think, is why we celebrate Trinity Sunday, just before we launch into a long stretch of Ordinary Time. In our ordinary, everyday lives – with all their ups and downs, all their greatest joys, their deepest sufferings, and everything in between – we who are baptised into Christ are enfolded in the life of the triune God. The Holy Trinity invites us to join in with the dance of overflowing love and unquenchable hope that gave birth to and sustains all creation. We are included in the life of the triune God, and this changes everything.

LEANING INTO THE MYSTERY

If you were hoping for a Trinity Sunday sermon that would make the mystery of the three-ness and one-ness of God clearer, I’m afraid I’m not sure I’ve met the brief. But I hope that we might leave today just a little more curious, a little more excited to join in with the life of God. I hope we might let ourselves put down our cynicism and find ourselves filled with wonder that the triune God is constantly pouring love into our ordinary lives. I hope that we might lean into this mystery, rather than attempt to solve it: that, whether we will ever get our heads around the Trinity, or not, we are included in the life of the triune God, and this changes everything.