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2008-05-20 16:12:00

The trinitarian theology of the Jaffa Cake

Stumped for a missionary metaphor for the Trinity, St Patrick (according to legend) reached for a three-leafed shamrock. Perhaps today he'd have grabbed a passing Jaffa Cake....

Thanks to CL subscriber the Rev Ian Kennedy for the following suggestion for a short all-age talk for Trinity Sunday.

(You don't need us to tell you that the talk will go down best if your listeners have access to the full, embodied reality of the Jaffa Cake experience.)

A Jaffa Cake is made of biscuit, jam and chocolate.

If one part is missing, it is not a Jaffa Cake.

Biscuit missing, you have orange chocolate.
Jam missing, you have a chocolate biscuit.
Chocolate missing, you have a jam tart.

Same with the Trinity, all three persons need to be there for God to be the Trinity.

God the Father covers all creation with his sovereign love and power.
Jesus, like the biscuit base, shared our human life, basing himself on earth, God with us, for thirty-three years.
The Holy Spirit, like the jam, expresses the dynamic relationship between Father and Son, and fills us with energy and power to live as Christ's body on earth.

If that's too hard to contemplate, just enjoy the Jaffa Cake.