Text: Dt.6:4-9.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
Theme: “The LORD Our God Is One!”
Today is the first Sunday after Pentecost. In the Western Christian liturgical calendar, this day is celebrated as “Sunday of the Holy Trinity.” Sunday of the Holy Trinity reminds us of the mystery of “Three persons in one God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.”
The core command emphasising the Oneness of God is the Shema. Shema is the Hebrew word for Hear. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” For Israel as it should be for us, it is not enough to only know that the LORD our God is one. The accompanying command to this is: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” The Lord Jesus Christ said this is the greatest commandment, and the second greatest is to “Love your neighbour as yourself”(Lev.19:18).
To love the LORD is to be his obedient and loyal servant. Love for God and neighbour is built on the love that the LORD has for his people(Dt.4:37).
God’s commandments are to be on our hearts and passed on to our children.
While it is important for us that the LORD our God is one, how does this lead us to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity?
Whoever believes that Jesus the Christ is the Son of God can also back this claim with Old Testament prophecies that pointed to him. During his earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ emphasised that he and the Father are one. He promised us the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter and guide who will lead us into all truths about the kingdom of God. In the Great Commission before his ascension he asked that the disciples should baptise people “in the name of God the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”(Mt.28:18-20).
Dear friend, the Trinity is a mystery that has been hidden from the wise and learned, and revealed to little children. Further, the Lord says, “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him…”(Lk.10:21-24).
The wisdom and knowledge of God are so deep, his judgments unsearchable, and his paths beyond tracing. We can not give back to him or repay him(Rom.11:33-36).
The least we can do is to remain with the full knowledge that the LORD our God is one. The greatest we can offer him is to love him with the entirety of our being and to love our neighbours as ourselves.
May God the Father who creates, and God the Son who redeems and God the Holy Spirit who sanctifies be glorified forever and ever. Amen!
Have a blessed Holy Trinity Sunday! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
15/06/2025.