Bible Study Guide for Trinity Sunday, June 4, Year A

• Genesis 1:1-2:4a
• 2 Corinthians 13:11-13
• Matthew 28:16-20
• Psalm 8

            I happen to be reading a book right now on the history of the first translations of the Christian Bible into English: Wide as the Waters by Benson Bobrick. While I haven’t finished the book yet, I’ve read about John Wycliffe, who led translations of the complete Bible into English in the mid-fourteenth century, and the first publications of William Tyndale, who translated the New Testament and portions of the Old into English during the turbulent early years of the Reformation. It turns out that these men are responsible for the version of Genesis 1:2 that I was expecting to read in today’s Old Testament passage. Instead of “A wind from God swept over the face of the waters,” the words I’m more familiar with are Tyndale’s: “[…] and the spirit of God moved upon the water.”

            This translation from Tyndale is perhaps what the lectionary planners had in mind when they selected the creation story for Trinity Sunday. It draws a clear line between the pre-formed non-world of the first two verses of the Bible and the Trinity that we treasure and celebrate today by naming not just a wind, but a spirit from God. Wycliffe’s translation sounds even more Trinitarian to my ears: “And the Spirit of the Lord was borne upon the waters.”

            I’ve gained a lot more appreciation for the Holy Spirit in the last few years than I once had. I think many Episcopalians don’t quite know what to “do” with the Holy Spirit. Speaking for myself, I was confused by a being that everyone seemed to describe in vague terms and that you couldn’t even really imagine a picture of. I can’t claim to fully understand the Holy Spirit nowadays, but I think I “get it” a little bit more. I’ve sometimes felt quite a strong draw in a certain direction while making a decision, and when I tune into the possibility that it might be the Holy Spirit leading me, I find myself going down a life-giving, life-enriching path. And I don’t have to think about it to sometimes feel a sense of holiness wash over me when I step into a church or hear a magnificent piece of my favorite music. The same Spirit that was moving over the unformed waters before the world even existed is stirring me up, if I let it.

            Of course, the Spirit is one person of the Trinity, and doesn’t exist separately from or without the other members. In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis described the Trinity as an ongoing, three-beat dance with one another, in a rhythm built to draw humanity into God’s active, unstoppable life. Let’s open our ears to listen and join the dance.

– Lindy Noecker

• Do you have a favorite member of the Trinity? If so, who? And why?
• Is there a member of the Trinity you don’t “get”? If so, who? Or maybe it’s the whole idea of the Trinity you don’t get – what do you get stuck on?
• Have you felt the pull of the Holy Spirit or of another member of the Trinity in your life recently? Describe that feeling – what did you do when you realized it?

 

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