Today is the Festival of the Holy Trinity. Certainly the doctrine of the Holy Trinity sets forth the church's historic understanding that God is one God in three persons, that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three gods but three persons in one Godhead. But above all, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity declares in no uncertain terms the preeminence of God over all things, including human religiousness. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is simply a further expression of the introduction to the Ten Commandments where God says, I am the Lord your God. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity declares that creation, justification, and sanctification are the work of God, not human beings, and that while our response to God is not unimportant, without the initiative of God's Word there would be no human response at all.
Today there is a baptism at the early service and there are six confirmations at the late.
And in being confirmed, Katherine, Sabine, Cheryl, Travis, Alyce, and John are not earning the right to call themselves Christians, but rather God is confirming the decision he made when they were baptized that they should be numbered as his beloved children. All they have to remember is that they are not born again. Rather, they are born from above by the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will support and sustain them in this new life through the church in word and sacrament. The Holy Spirit will help them, as it helps all of us, to remember the past with forgiveness and to anticipate the future with hope, as we live each day with God in the here and now of eternal life.