Bible Study: Trinity Sunday (B) – 2024

RCL: Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17

Isaiah 6:1-8

When reading the books of prophecy in the Old Testament, it is important to approach them as poetry rather than as history or journalism. Prophecy stretches our hearts and imaginations, offering glimpses of God’s glory and of a deeper reality transcending what we normally experience with our senses.

In this passage, Isaiah describes God, who is so glorious that the hem of God’s robe fills the temple. He describes wondrous heavenly beings, seraphs, who sing to God, using words that inspired the first part of the Sanctus hymn that we sing during the Eucharist. (Sanctus means “holy” in Latin.) This description of seraphs (or seraphim as they are also called) is unique to Isaiah.

Isaiah is overwhelmed by this experience of God’s glory and majesty, and he feels unworthy to have seen such an incredible sight, but a seraph brings him a coal that takes away his sin and guilt. Fire in the Bible is often a symbol of purification. Following this purification, Isaiah hears God’s voice and responds to God’s call.

• Isaiah describes God’s greatness and magnificent size, but he does not describe anything specific about God’s appearance or his face. Why do you think this is?
• Try to imagine the seraphs that Isaiah describes. Although angels seem to be different types of heavenly beings from seraphs, does this change your idea of what angels might look like?

Psalm 29

Today’s psalm is one of praise, focusing on God’s glory, magnificence, and power. The psalmist describes the power of God’s voice, a theme that can be found throughout scripture. In Genesis 1, God creates the world through speech. Isaiah hears God’s voice in today’s Old Testament passage. Peter, James, and John hear God’s voice in the Transfiguration accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

In today’s psalm, God’s voice has power to break the cedar trees, make mountains skip, split flames of fire, shake the wilderness, and make oak trees writhe. God’s power is awe-inspiring, and it is comforting to know that nothing in the world is stronger or more powerful than God.

• What image in this psalm do you find the most compelling?
• What other episodes in scripture can you think of that involve God’s voice? How do they compare with Psalm 29 and the episodes mentioned above? 

Romans 8:12-17

In this segment from Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul mentions Father, Son, and Spirit, making this a fitting passage for Trinity Sunday. Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we are invited into the life of the Holy Trinity.

Paul writes about dying to sin so that we can have new life in Christ. In a culture that places so much value on the individual, it may be challenging to think of being led by the Holy Spirit as liberative. Paul is clear that sin, or the worship of anything that is not God, such as money, fame, or pleasure, is a form of slavery. These material things will never satisfy us; seeking after them becomes an addiction.

Because of the work of Christ, we can be restored to our original purpose, to live in unity with God, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. This is not work that we do ourselves but work that the Spirit does within us, with our consent. Even our prayers are prompted by the work of the Holy Spirit. Freedom is dying to sin and living an abundant life in Christ, so that we grow more unified with the Holy Trinity and with one another, becoming the human beings that God created us to be.

• Can you think of instances in your life when surrendering to God has been a liberating experience?

John 3:1-17

In today’s Gospel passage, as in the epistle, we again have a description of how the Trinity works, of God sending the Son into the world to save it, of human beings needing to be born of the Spirit in order to enter God’s kingdom. God is one, but somehow God is also Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus seeking answers to difficult questions. He knows that Jesus comes from God, but he is earnestly struggling to understand Jesus’ teachings intellectually. Jesus patiently addresses his many questions. Many Christians struggle with the concept of the Trinity, while many other Christians seem content to accept that God is more complex than our brains can grasp and live with the mystery. Whatever our struggles or questions are, we can feel confident and safe that we can bring them to God in prayer.

John 3:14-15 refers to a fascinating story in Numbers, in which God makes a way for the Hebrew people to be saved from a plague of venomous snakes by looking upon a bronze serpent. Similarly, Jesus has come to offer healing and redemption to a broken and rebellious world when we raise our eyes to him. John 3:16-17 are two of the most comforting verses not only in the Gospel of John but in the entire Bible. They proclaim that God loves God’s creation and is working to save it.

• What difficult theological questions do you want to bring to Jesus in prayer?
• What are some concrete ways that your church community can lovingly show those around you that God sent the Son into the world in order to save it, not to condemn it?

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