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Trninity Sunday 2009 and Baptism
SERMON – 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 7th June 2009
Revd. Canon David Pickering
We welcome today Rafe Hudson and Cara Emily Bennett and their families as they come for their Baptism into the family of the Church.
Today has a very unusual name – Trinity Sunday.
Look at the Order of Service and see the strange symbols.
Invite children to colour them in.
Symbols are very important in the Christian Faith, as in any religion. We use signs and symbols to represent what we cannot always fully grasp or understand.
They are also very important in our worship.
This morning we are using a special symbol for the Baptism of Cara and Rafe – water.
Do they need washing?
I am sure they are very clean.
Do they need a drink?
Look well fed and watered to me.
Do they need to have any sins washed away?
Don't think they know much about and wrong yet.
The water of baptism is a kind of double sign or symbol.
As I pour the water over them I say the words, "I baptise you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
The word 'baptise' means to wash, but it is a promise that God will in their future lives wash away all faults and failings if they are truly sorry for them.
But they are also baptised 'in the name' of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
They are incorporated or even submerged, to use a watery term, into the life of God.
God the Holy Trinity takes over in their lives.
There's that word 'Trinity' again.
What do we mean by the word Trinity?
Let look at the word TRINITY [Display]
There's another word like it that may help us to see how God is a Trinity, TRIANGLE [Display]
Show a triangle
GOD in the middle
Father, Son and Holy Spirit on each of the three sides.
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