From a Child's Point of View

The doctrine of the Trinity is very abstract and complex. Scholars have argued about it for centuries. Many adults have difficulty understanding it. Often on Trinity Sunday, worship takes an educational bent as pastors strive to help their congregations grasp this basic but illusive doctrine.

Three of today's texts that deal with the Trinity are way beyond the understanding of children. But that does not mean there is no way for children to participate in the worship of the Triune God. If the worship leaders are aware of children's undersanding of the trinity, some of the liturgy and the sermon can meet the children where they are, invite them to worship God as they now experience God, and challenge them to stretch their understanding.

All that we can reasonably expect of children is that they know the names of the three persons of the Trinity and sense that these three persons are somehow intimately related to one another. Children relate personally to God (who created the world and cares for them) and to Jesus (who lived among us, showed us how to live, and loved us enough to die for us). They voice questions about the relationship between God and Jesus, but few answers can truly satisfy their literalistic thinking.

Most children are less familiar or comfortable with the Holy Spirit. Older children can begin to interpret the warm community feelings within the congregation and their personal experiences of God's loving care as the work of the Holy Spirit. During their adolescence, as they acquire the ability for abstract thought and a sense of closeness to God as a prime desire, the Holy Spirit will become both understandable and significant. So talking of the Holy Spirit with children is a matter of planting a few seeds which, though they seem insignificant now, will blossom later.

Children can share fully in praising God, who created and cares for the world. They can confess and be pardoned by God/Jesus who loves and forgives them. They can lay their concerns before God, who cares deeply about each person in this world and calls us to do likewise. They can be led to think about what they already know about God and then stretch that knowledge a little. In the process, they may sense God's presence with them and their faith community.

Psalm: Psalm 8. This is the one text for the day that is truly child-accessible. It is a response to the greatness of God the Creator. Children can respond to this greatness without dealing with the other texts. They can follow the poet's line of prayer, from praising God to wondering why God pays any attention at all to people, to meditating on the important place in the natural order to which we have been assigned by God.

Watch Words

Trinity and Triune are unfamiliar. Although children are not ready to define the words, they can hear and accept them as "words we use at church in talking about God."

As you speak of God, be careful to choose words that in no way limit God. Especially watch pronouns that imply that God is only male. (It is hard work to edit exclusively masculine language out of our talk about God, but it is good theology, and it is important to an increasingly large number of women and their daughters. Trinity Sunday offers a good opportunity to work consciously on this task.)

Let the Children Sing

"Now Thank We All Our God" is probably the best general praise hymn for the day. "Holy, Holy, Holy," with its difficult vocabulary balanced by the repeated opening phrase, is a good second choice.

Consider three hymns, one for each person of the Trinity. To God the Creator, sing "For the Beauty of the Earth" or "This Is My Father's World." (To stretch your understanding of God, sing this song with female pronouns, e.g., "This Is My Mother's World . . . her hands the wonders wrought.") Sing "Jesus Loves Me," "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus," or "Come Christians, Join to Sing" for the Son. And try "Breathe on Me, Breath of God" for the Holy Spirit, especially if you sang it last week as you celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

The Liturgical Child

1. Point out the Trinitarian statements in the responses you sing or say every week in worship (e.g., the Gloria Patri and Doxology).

2. Create a child-accessible confession such as the following, based on the three persons of the Trinity.

God, because we cannot see you, it is easy for us to ignore you or act as if you do not exist. Forgive us.
Creator God, when we look at the trees and rocks and animals, we often see only things for us to use. We "forget on purpose" that you made them and that we are to take care of them. Forgive us.
Jesus, we think so much about what we want and what we are doing that we forget what you taught us about loving other people. Forgive us.
Holy Spirit, our feelings of happiness and anger and sadness and joy are so strong that we sometimes do not even notice your presence with us. Please forgive us. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: God loves and forgives all who confess their sin. Just as God made and loves the trees and animals, God made and loves each one of us. Jesus loved us so much that he died for us. The Holy Spirit, God's strong, loving presence, promises to be with us always—even 'til the end of the world. Thanks be to God!

3. To help worshipers feel both the wonder and the thoughtful questions of Psalm 8, "line it out." A worship leader reads the psalm one line at a time, then the congregation repeats each line, matching the tone and emphases of the reader. A dramatic reader can help the congregation, especially the children, understand the message of the psalm as the phrases are repeated. (When books were scarce in colonial America, lining out was an every-Sunday approach to both reading the Bible and singing the hymns.)

Sermon Resources

1. Divide the sermon into three sections to explore the three persons of the Trinity. After each section, lead a prayer addressed to that person of the Trinity. Then invite the congregation to sing a hymn related to this aspect of God. (See the list of possible hymns in "Let the Children Sing.")

2. Talk about "used to thinks." Describe some ideas about God you "used to think" but have now discarded. For example, I used to think that when God talked to people they would hear a voice inside their heads. I have since learned that God speaks through the words of other people, through what we read in the Bible, and through feelings deep inside us. Describe some childhood "used to thinks" and some of your currently changing ideas about God. Encourage worshipers to identify ways their understanding of God has grown and to expect that their current understanding will continue to grow.