Spirited Word
By God's Word proclaimed, the Holy Spirit works faith in God's grace in Jesus, when and where he pleases. Sermons by Pastor Adrian Kitson, Lutheran Church of Australia.
St Petri Lutheran Church, Nuriootpa, Barossa Valley, South Australia.
www.stpetri.org.au
Spirited Word
Holy Trinity
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Sunday 31 May 2026
“To Whom Will You Compare Me? Who Is My Equal?”
That’s the question God asked his people in Isaiah 46. He had cared for them before they were born and had promised to care for them “until your hair is white with age”. And the people had seen God’s power at work countless times in their history. They survived in the land of heathen people only because the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, loved and cared for them, no matter how many times they rebelled against him.
But they constantly turned to gods of stone and wood – to the man-made gods of the nations around them.
WHY?
There are many reasons, but I think one of the main ones is that the Israelites wanted a god they could understand - and manipulate. The gods were made in their own image, and so the character of each idol was similar to their own. These false gods could be bribed and they operated by set, strict rules – all determined by humans of course. And they could be seen, touched and kept close.
Archaeology has found thousands of these idols to prove this point.
By contrast the people could not see God or get close to him. He remained a complete mystery and could not be cajoled or bribed to do anyone’s will. Even though God remained faithful and served the people with grace and justice, they wanted something concrete to hang on to.
Today we still have a mystery about God that only became a little clearer in the New Testament. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Bible never uses the word TRINITY but it’s the only word we humans can find to even begin to explain God.
But that brings us to the same temptation as the Israelites. We want to see, touch, smell, and know God. We find it so hard to embrace mystery – to accept that God has revealed all we need to know about him in the person of Jesus. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?” (John 14:9).
So how might our awesome, mysterious, all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present, three-Persons-in-One God want us to respond today to his questions above?
Pastor Robert Voigt