Can't stop singing - Choir Sunday

Psalm 98
Revelation 15

“Can’t stop singing!”

That is precisely how it has often been for many of the followers of Jesus Christ.

Think back to the Middle Ages with a richness of Gregorian chants in the monasteries and abbeys of our land, complimented by the songs of travelling troubadours.

Think on to the period of awakening of interest in true religion - first the hymns of Isaac Watts and then a new array of great hymn writers such as John Newton and of course Charles Wesley.

Look around today and we find that vital Christian life is so often accompanied by a urge to produce new hymnody. See it in charismatic revival. See it also in communities such as Taize and Iona. And of course, it is becoming clear to us today that this is a worldwide phenomena. For modern communications mean that we are increasingly being enriched by the hymnody of other continents.

Of course, there is nothing new in singing our faith. The ancient peoples of Israel did precisely that. The book of Psalms is often seen as the hymn book of ancient Israel. And within it, we find an emphasis on singing in praise to God. The 98th Psalm which we have heard this morning is full of exhortation to make music and to sing to God. Why? Because the Psalmist whose Psalm is the basis for our hymn “Joy to the World”, sees God as having done wonderful things, so wonderful that even creation itself is drawn into the great song of praise.

Such an emphasis on singing does not die out with the ancients. Look at the stories of the early church. Turn to that wonderful story of how Paul and Silas, having been unjustly flogged and imprisoned, still sing to God from their prison cell. Why? Because at the very moment when their earthly fortunes were at their lowest, they can not but still celebrate the greatness of God and express it in song.

And if we sing to God in this world, the Revelation granted to St John, suggests that there will also be singing in heaven. For as we have heard from the Scriptures this morning, John is granted a vision in which angels sing songs that celebrate the greatness and justness of God’s deeds in history whilst daring to see in them the glimpse of a wonderful future.

Oh yes, it is true that God’s people have always been singing. But why? This morning In want to put before you just 3 reasons.

The first reason is that to sing to God is a part of our being in relationship with God. Richard and Ivor Jones put it so well in the Preface to Hymns and Psalms when they write;

“George Herbert might have described hymns as he did prayer, as ‘God’s breath in man returning to its birth.’ “

A beautiful thought that sets the singing of hymns within the context of worship.

The second reason is the empowerment that singing hymns gives. Back in 1735, the Wesley brothers were caught in a dreadful storm off Georgia. They felt within themselves great terror but at the same time they were moved as they saw German Moravian Christians singing with confidence. They wanted some of that for themselves and it is no surprise that when they received just such an assurance three years later, their very first response was to sing of the joys of their new born faith

And the third reason is that the singing of hymns is a valuable aid to our learning the faith in which we are caught up. Two an a half centuries ago, ancestors of mine would have gathered at Gwennap Pit to hear John Wesley. But wonderful as his preaching doubtless was, I am convinced that they learnt far more about the Gospel from singing the hymns of brother, Charles. Learning through singing, the wonders of the Gospel, those same hymns would have given vent to their newly transformed emotions and understandings.

Of course, singing isn’t just about joy. The psalms contain the full range of emotions, some of them rather unworthy. The better and more mature hymn books are not just about joy but about the darker times of life as well. They bring the whole range of human experience into the very presence of God. And we should cherish them for that.

An old saying is that “you are what you eat.” There is some truth in that but there is even more truth that “you are what you sing.” As we travel through the varied experiences and awarenesses of life, we are brought into ever closer relationship with God as we sing the songs that bring us into relationship with God. And so it is that on mountain top as well as in valley, we reach out to the wonder that is God by singing through all things.

Can we as followers of Jesus stop singing? No! For it is a spiritual need as great as our need for the very air that we breath. Stop singing? We can’t and we won't even try!


This sermon is for Choir Sunday at Bideford Methodist Church on Sunday July 1st 2007

A change of influence - Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

In my teenage years, I attended a school whose headteacher was also a Methodist local preacher. During one of his lessons, he told us of the time when he arrived to take a service at a small country church. The service began with six people present in the congregation. Within five minutes, he had caused sufficient offence for that number to drop to three!

I guess he hadn’t imbibed the message of Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to win friends and influence people.” Perhaps like me, he was more in touch with the sort of attitudes that led, Guardian journlaist, Toby Young to recently write his cracking good book, “How to lose friends and alienate people.”

Well in today’s Scripture reading, Jesus turns out not to be exactly a model for pleasing the masses. He is somewhere in the area known as Decapolis which was a predominantly non Jewish area to the southeast of the Lake of Galilee. If he had gone there looking for a quiet time, he certainly did not find it. For on his arrival we find him meeting what is described as a “demon-possessed man.” Now as to what exactly was wrong with this man, we cannot be sure. Certainly he was in a highly disturbed state. We are told that he wandered naked around the tombs and what today we would see as brutal efforts to restrain him had failed. He was in quite a mess!

And now seeing Jesus, this out of control man living an out of control life, is straining at the leash for conflict. Hear that tormented cry:

“What do you want with me, Jesus Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!”

Words that give clues to a history of suffering and the denial of humanity.

But now there comes a change to his life. Long seen as one not worth spending the time of day with, he is spoken to by Jesus as a real person. Jesus asks him a simple question;

“What is your name?”

It’s such an ordinary question but the answer offered by this man is so revealing;

“Legion.”

But Legion is not a name. At that time it meant a unit of 6,000 Roman soldiers with four such legions being stationed in nearby Syrian to control the eastern frontier that included Palestine. So what does this mean? A real possibility is that this man has acquired a multitude of personalities. To me this brings back memories of being a support worker in Cornwall. One of the clients, I spent time with, had such a condition. Alone in a room, he would produce at times varying voices involved in heated arguments with each other. More than once, hearing the sound of argument, I rushed in so that I could help calm down the argument, only to find just this one man to all intents and purposes angrily shouting at himself. It is believe you me quite a disturbing condition to witness.

But “Legion” as a name could well tell us something as to what had produced the man’s condition. Roman military occupation was harsh. It had to be or they would have been overthrown. However at times it went way down the road of depravity as Josephus demonstrates in this account of the Romans putting down the Jewish rebellion less that 40 years later;

“Vesaspian sent Lucius Annius to Gerasa with a cavalry and a considerable number of foot soldiers. After taking the town by assault, he killed a thousand of the young men who had not escaped, took their families captive, and allowed his soldiers to plunder the property. Finally, he set fire to the houses and marched against the surrounding villages. Those who were able-bodied fled, the weak perished, and all that was left went up in flames.”

And so, one can not help wondering if the man’s condition was a result of things he had participated in, witnessed or been the victim of. For encounters with violence and its attendant cruelties and suffering, are things that can poison the human soul. Only in the past week, as the Falklands War has been commemorated, we have been reminded that more of our servicemen have died by their own hand since that war than were killed within it - surely something for leaders to recall before taking decisions for war!

Back to Luke’s narrative. We find Jesus bring healing to this man by sending the demons into the nearby pigs. Why it happened this way is not clear. Some commentators point out that the wild boar was the symbol of a nearby legion. And so as the swine go over the cliffs to destruction, there might be within this narrative a message that powerful as the Roman occupation was, ultimately, its power would dwindle to nothing in the encounter with God. A political reading you might suggest in this age in which we tend to separate religion from politics yet so often we find in the deeds and words of Jesus, powerful messages about the political matters of his day.

Still now we might expect a happy ending. The disturbed man is grateful and would like to go with Jesus. But all is not calm. The nearby community, once frightened of the disturbed man, now feel a fear at what Jesus has done and they demand that Jesus should go away. Why they fear we are not told. It may be that they see Jesus as a threat to the predictability of their lives. They do not want their world to be turned upside down. It may be because in the destruction of their pigs, they have suffered great financial and economic loss. Is it not often the case as those who fought two centuries ago against the transatlantic slave trade found, set yourself against the local economic base and you will face rejection. You know, today as in the past, we are prone to an idolatrous worship of all wealth creating activity. Maybe, we need to distinguish between the economic activity that is life enhancing and that which is destructive to life or to peoples’ wellbeing. Not a few sectors of the British economy could do with a culling!

Finally, what does this episode tell us about the ways of Jesus. Well, Jesus crosses boundaries. He steps outside of traditional Israel and goes here to man whose lifestyle amongst the tombs made him ritually unclean. He does this to show us that he is for all people and not just for some. His love is for all including those most tormented for whereas as to often we dehumanise people, Jesus sees the worth of humanity in all people and desires that this humanity might be fully treasured.

Jesus offers challenge. He is not prepared to accept a life denying status quo. Instead he calls people to follow him the restoration of lost and marred humanity. And in that goal, he seeks to draw each of to be a part of his ever increasing cycles of love and grace. For when our Scripture Reading comes to a close, who do we find telling people the good news of Jesus but “Legion” himself. For Legion has been liberated from the powers that had possessed him. But liberating someone from something is not enough. As political history reminds us, too often people are liberated from one oppression merely to be placed under another form of oppression. The liberation of Jesus is so much more than that. Like Legion, we are offered the liberation of Jesus for a purpose - to be free people with the potential to bring the hope of God’s new community of love and grace.



This sermon is being preached at Bideford Methodist Church on Sunday June 24th 2007 a

Peace in the storm - Sermon for Edgehill College Communion

Mark 4: 35 - 41

It was near the end of a 4 hour ferry journey back to the Isle of Man where we then lived. The journey had been easy and we had as a family happily and greedily pigged out on a curry. Suddenly there was an almighty bang. The sound of cutlery crashing was clearly audible and the boat seemed to lurch on to its side. Screams from children broke out and a good few people were quickly parted from the meals for which they had paid good money - Yukh!

During our five years on the Isle of Man, there were a few other unpleasant journeys and on bad days that same place just a few miles off the island was a place where conditions often turned bad.

And so I can sympathise with the friends of Jesus. The Lake of Galilee is a lake known for storms that are brought on by sudden inrushes of wind. It is a place which can quickly bring terror to those who sail it. And in our story, the followers of Jesus are certainly terrified.

But they are also annoyed. I don’t know about you but when I am subject to extreme feelings I expect others to share in that experience. But here whilst experienced seamen are petrified, the landlubber Jesus sleeps through the storm. No wonder, they give him a good shaking to get him back to consciousness. If they are going to be petrified the least that he can do is to share in their fright.

But the response of the awakened Jesus is to speak words of peace in the storm and to gently suggest that his friends are suffering from a loss of nerve. And so part of an explanation of this encounter has to be about Jesus bringing peace to us at the times when we are troubled, the times when we are afraid and the times when our world is caving in. And that is valid. Jesus does bring a peace to us that enables people to come through the most trying of circumstances. And yet, we need to add the cautionary note that Jesus is not a pain killer who removes all of our difficulties, turmoils and uncertainties. These same followers of Jesus will experience plenty more of these things not just in times when their eyes are off Jesus but as in this case when they are doing precisely what Jesus asks of them. What we need to hang on to is that Jesus is a loving presence who offers a real help to us in both good times and bad times.

But do you notice something else? After the winds have dropped and calm has been restored, the friends of Jesus remain afraid. Why should this be? Perhaps it is because they see more such days. Jesus has already confronted demonic forces. Now he is confronting the destructive powers of the elements. Surely, this is a foretaste of how Jesus is going to go on confronting all the powers that are life destroying. And if they are to be loyal to Jesus, these followers are going to be called into this struggle. Such expectation will be found to be true as Jesus’ authority confronts the wrongs of prejudice, divisions and violence.

Today, Christ continues to cross boundaries through his followers. At times, following the Gospel is like going into a storm but this story serves to remind us that when we are about the good news of Jesus, like his early followers we have his presence with us. This doesn’t mean that discipleship is easy. It certainly isn’t just about the myth of being escapism for elderly ladies, some of whom can teach us lessons in living courageously. For it following Jesus far from being akin to taking a painkilling drug is something that calls for courage and determination - and yet we are not left alone!

So the big question as we come to the table is, are you and me up to the challenge?


This sermon was preached at Edgehill College's Communion Service on Tuesday June 19th 2007

Gate crashing the party! - Third Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 7: 36 - 50

It’s another party for Jesus. Only this time, he isn’t with the dregs of society. This time he is eating and drinking at the home of a Pharisee. Nothing wrong with that. For once the partying isn’t go to lead to his name being dragged through the mud.

After all the Pharisees are good, respectable, devout people. They are religious people who take the things of God very seriously indeed. Indeed they are people who want to obey the law in the right way so as to be pure.

It may well have been this desire which led Simon, the Pharisee, to invite Jesus to his home. He may have wanted to hear the insights of Jesus as a means of developing his own spiritual life. We shall never know. For as Simon, Jesus and other guests reclined at the table, another guest certainly not invited by Simon, made a dramatic entrance.

Now this guest was a woman. Big deal you may think! But that is not how those who first heard this story would have responded. For in the Palestine of Jesus, women were not invited to such public banquets. Respectable men would not publicly eat with women outside of their family. Indeed a rabbi such as Jesus would not be expected to enter into public conversation with a woman. Quite simply women did not really belong in the public space.

But the scandal doesn’t end at this. This woman was a woman with a reputation, a woman who Simon saw as a “sinner.” Yes, this was a woman to avoid. But equally this was a woman who had no intention of being ignored! Her emotions were running into over drive as she wept so profusely that her tears wetted the feet of Jesus. But this was not enough for now this same woman gets down to dry the feet of Jesus with her hair before kissing those feet and then pouring perfume upon them. What a show!

For even today, such an act of affection would be seen by many as somewhat embarrassing. You don’t need to have been reading too many top shelf books to sense the intimacy and even eroticism in the actions of this woman. Surely she has overstepped the mark.

And that is precisely what Simon is thinking. Why he wonders is Jesus letting this sinful woman behave in such a way towards him. I guess that Simon can be seen as judging this woman by her past actions and her current actions on the night of this dinner party. And if that is how we should see people, there is nothing in Luke’s account to suggest that Simon is in any way wrong.

But it can surely not be the full picture. Yes, historical accounts suggest that accompanied women carrying such oils tended to live disreputably. Perfumes were a sign that they had acquired a minor degree of prospering through the sale of their services. But even so, prostitution was rarely an easy option to take but often a result of women especially those without proper support, having precious few options. And so it is today. Think back for a moment to the stories we heard concerning the women who were killed in Ipswich several months ago. For too often, now as then, there are those who are left behind economically and those who find that in a society of distorted sexuality, they are effectively defined by men and the wants of men.

Now Jesus emerges as a counter to the worldview of Simon. He does not see the woman in terms of her means of employment or her past deeds. Throughout, he sees this woman as a real person. What a contrast to that nasty tendency in religion to reject people on the basis of a stereotype without bothering to know them.

This is illustrated by a story of the American Christian sociologist, Tony Campolo. Campolo was teaching a class when one of his students commented;

“Jesus never met a prostitute.”

Campolo’s instinct was to see this as a chance to teach the young man a thing or two about Jesus and so he replied;

“Yes he did. I’ll show you in my Bible where.”

But once again the young man interrupted him;

“You didn’t hear me Doctor Campolo. I said Jesus never met a prostitute.”

Once more Campolo went for his Bible searching for the very story we have heard this evening only for the young man to speak out again, this time with anger in his voice;

“You are not listening to me. You aren’t listening to what I am saying. I am saying that Jesus never met a prostitute. Do you think that when he looked at the woman at his feet that he saw a prostitute? No, Doctor, he saw a woman in need of forgiveness. Jesus never met a prostitute.”

And may I say that if we take nothing else from this particular scripture, we can take the message that Jesus sees each of us as people and not as members of a stereotypical group. And in that, there is a mighty challenge to us. I think that Jesus would tell us;

-Don’t dismissively see followers of Islam, Judaism or other religions. See people created in God‘s image!

-Don’t dismissively see people in terms of their racial grouping. See people created in God’s image!

When it comes to distinctions based on past conduct, sexual morality or sexuality, don’t divide people into those “like us” and a less regarded "them" but see people created in God’s image!

For here, we have seen that Jesus saw not a prostitute but a woman sharing with the rest of humankind in needing the love, acceptance and forgiveness of God. For Jesus sees in all of us not just the all too often tawdry present but multi coloured possibilities of what we might become.

Back to Luke’s story and we find that Jesus is now contrasting this woman at the bottom of the pile with Simon, the Pharisee. And Simon isn’t coming out of the comparison too well. For he has failed in that sacred Jewish responsibility of hospitality. Sure, he deserves credit for inviting Jesus but he does not have a clue when it comes to properly welcoming Jesus. Indeed, Jesus suggests that this woman in kissing him and washing his feet, has been much more of a host to Jesus than Simon himself. The women castigated as a “sinner” has outdone the Pharisee in welcoming Jesus.

And that continues to happen. Too often in the church we have erected walls and excluded those who are other than us from the narrative of the ongoing story of Jesus. And yet, we find the things that point to Jesus in the places and through the people that we least expect to find them. So this story acts as a challenge to each of us to be a people of radical inclusion.

But what is it that makes this woman show so much love to Jesus in contrast to the greater formalism of Simon. Well, let’s look to the short parable that Jesus told to Simon, a parable in which one man is forgiven a much greater debt than the other man. With the approval of Jesus, Simon responds that the one who is forgiven the greater amount is likely to love the money-lender the most.

What is this telling us today? I believe that it tells us that when we realise the immensity of grace through which God forgives us and offers us love and acceptance, then we begin to truly love God. Simon’s problem was that he didn’t realise the extent of his need for forgiveness whereas the woman who wept at the feet of Jesus, knew very well of her need. As we come to God, we find that we are already forgiven for forgiveness comes from the very nature of God and not from any arm twisting on our part. Like this woman who discovers that she has been forgiven and finds that forgiveness creating love within her towards God and presumably towards others, so to as we meet the reality of God’s grace, then a well of love springs up within us towards God and towards others. And so, as we realise our need and find God meeting that need, we find also that God transforms us deep within. For this is the God of transformation.

And now, I invite you to look once more at the picture you have been given of Rubens’ painting, “Christ in the House of Simon.” Look once more at the woman as she kisses the feet of Jesus. Feel its uncomfortable level of intimacy. And then look at the faces around the table. There you see hostility with some turning away their faces in disgust. Think of the question of Jesus, put to Simon;

“Do you see this woman?”

As you look at the picture, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the last thing they want to really look at is this woman.

“Do you see this woman?”

It’s also a question for us and if we are to carry on the loving purposes of Jesus, the answer needs to be an emphatic Yes! Anything less makes us guilty of living out a hateful religion. It can also mean that like Simon, we are harsh because we fail to appreciate the wonder of Divine forgiveness. We have failed to appreciate grace and so the deep wells of love have not sprung up in our hearts.

But the ultimate question has to be a slightly different one;

“Do you see this man?”

This evening, I urge you to see this man for this man is the one who offers unlimited reserves of forgiveness, love and acceptance to each of us. This man wants to travel with each of us, rejoicing in our successes and picking us up when we fall crashing down. This man is “Immanuel, God with us.” And he is the one who can turn our midnights to dawns and help us to leave the deep and barren valleys that we might glimpse the wonder of mountain tops.

“Do you see this man?”

May our answer be an emphatic Yes!



This sermon is being preached at Torrington Methodist Church on Sunday June 17th 2007

Life meets death - 2nd Sunday after Pentecost

LUKE 7: 11 - 17

What kind of God do you believe in?

I think that question is as important as the question of whether you believe in God at all. For the type of God we believe in, will shape how we live our lives. If we believe in a wrathful dictatorial God, we are likely to mirror that in our living. Equally if we believe in a loving God who gives to us freedom to make choices, then that too will pattern our lives.

In my life I have known people who have believed in and patterned their lives on both these Gods. And to be honest I have little doubt as to which God and which people I am most comfortable with.

But of course, it is not for me to invent God. Having come to accept the reality of God, I have to seek to understand the nature of God and then whether in view of that which I learn, whether I really wish to follow that God.

My understanding of God is based primarily upon a view that God is best made visible to me through Jesus who is God living a human life. And so the example of Jesus is to me absolutely vital in understanding what God is about. I go as far as to say that if our view of God is in conflict with what we see in Jesus, then we are not worshipping the Christian God at all.

So does this episode tell us anything of God. Well, the background to our story is that Jesus has just healed the servant of a Roman centurion. Radical stuff indeed given that the Romans were the enemies of Jesus’ people, the Jews. And now, he is on his travels accompanied by a large crowd. But as he approaches the village of Nain, he and his crowd meet another crowd. But whereas the crowd with Jesus were celebrating a great healing, the crowd that they met had a very different emotion for they were a crowd marking a death. And a particularly sad one at that for they were carrying the body of a young man out of the village to the place of his burial.

Within this crowd was a woman. Already a widow, she had now lost her only son. No wonder she wept. For not only was she suffering great grief at the loss of another loved one but she was also all too aware of her vulnerability. No longer had she anyone to care for her. As a childless widow, she was without means of support, right at the bottom of the pile.

This was an age in which some of the hard hearted religious establishment would have sneeringly seen God’s judgement in the suffering of this woman. Oh yes, even then there were those who thought that good things happen to the good and bad things to the bad. But Jesus shows not time for such Hellish lies. He simply sees a woman whose live has fallen apart and whose future looks to be full of woe.

And Jesus feels compassion for this woman who he had never met before. I like that because it is a reminder that compassion is the way of Jesus. Yes the exalted Jesus feels compassion for the like of me and you when our worlds cave in on us, when our futures look to be full of storm clouds. And to me, that is one of the wonderful things about this story - when all looks lost God is on our side because whatever the circumstances God feels only love for us.

In our story, there is a happy ending. The young man is restored to life and to his mother. And that takes us back to the two crowds. From the crowd celebrating life has come Jesus to transform the crowd who have gathered to mark death. The result of the meeting has been decisive. And therein lies our hope. God who has come to us in Jesus is able to meet the worst that can be offered against him - hatred, violence and death. And as he meets these things he not merely defeats them but he transforms them to the greater realities that are love, peace and life.

So today, this miracle gives us a chance to see how Jesus shows us the true nature of God which is all good and all loving. It also gives us a chance to once more identify ourselves with the crowd that celebrates God’s ways of life - and in them see the clues to our victorious living.



This sermon was preached at Glebe Court sheltered housing complex in Northam on Thursday June 7th 2007

More than a numeracy hour -- Trinity Sunday

Psalm 8

John 16: 12 - 15

“Show me a worm that can comprehend a human being, and then I will show you a human being that can comprehend the Triune God.”

So said John Wesley. With such a comment by our glorious founder, I have to confess that I have felt more than a little tempted to follow the advice of Colin Morris who not so long ago was the minister at Mr Wesley’s church in City Road, London who once observed;

“Any preacher with good sense will call in sick on Trinity Sunday.”

Well being of something less that good sense, I will at least make an effort this morning to grapple with the importance of Trinity Sunday.

Why you may ask should I bother with a doctrine that does not explicitly appear in the Scriptures, a doctrine which today is as likely as not to met in many a British church with a deep yawn?

Well, in part my reason is that it mattered greatly to those who in the early centuries after Jesus, faced the challenge of working out how Jesus should be understood. As they reflected on Jesus, they found themselves becoming convinced that Jesus was not just another man. They began to talk of Jesus as being God. But of course given their Jewish background, they could not believe in there being more than one God. And so, a series of controversies took place within the church. The African theologian Tertullion by the early third century began to use the term “Trinity” as he spoke of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit being “one in essence - not one in person.”

But it was in the early fourth century that the matter exploded. The converted Roman Emperor Constantine had no time for divisions within the church. It didn’t suit his political needs and so he began to press the church to resolve its differences. But this was a time when there was developing the mother of all bust ups. Its central figure was a priest named Arius who lived in Alexandria. Arius took the view that whilst Jesus was Divine, he was created by and possibly inferior to the Father.

Now Arius was by no means the first to take this view but he raised it at a time when the pressure was on to resolve the matter. And so there was quite a flare up. People came to blows over the matter and for a time it was every bit as divisive a matter as for example are views on the Iraq War in our society today. Oh yes, this doctrine was very much the stuff of street fights - those were the days!

Ultimately, Arius did not win. At a great council of bishops held in Niceae, Arius and his beliefs were roundly condemned. A few years later, they would have a brief resurgence but it is the dominant view of the Council of Niceae that has dominated ever since within the Christian Church.

And what is that view. Put simply, it is that God is One, but three distinct persons constitute that One God - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And this is the view held by what might be termed the mainstream churches of Christianity.

Now, of course, none of this makes it easy to understand. I recall that when I was in training doing a course relating to the Trinity, I discovered how easy it was to slip into some sort of heresy or other. I can certainly appreciate the second of not the first part of Martin Luther’s terse summary of the struggle to respond properly to the doctrine of the Trinity. Here is what he said;

“To try to deny the Trinity endangers your salvation. To try to comprehend the Trinity endangers your sanity.”

Well, this morning, I wouldn’t wish to endanger anyone’s sanity, least of all my own. But I want to argue that it is not just for historical reasons that the Trinity matters. For it matters also as a response to the big question that has been asked down the ages;

“What is God like?”

And that is a vital question. For many experts in religion tell us that people try to be like the God they worship. If your vision of God is violent, domineering and materialistic, then that is what you are likely to become. If your vision of God is peaceful, domination free and self giving, then that is what you are likely to become.

And so here, the Trinity becomes revealed as more than a mere game with numbers. For the doctrine of the Holy Trinity tells us that God essentially lives in community. And that unity is a relationship that is fundamentally equal. Contrary to what Arius thought, there is no pecking order in the Godhead. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equally God. And here, we find that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit far from being an abstract doctrine, is a living doctrine which challenges fundamentally some of the norms of our age. For too often we think in terms of individualism yet the doctrine of the Trinity tells us that the God example is one of community where we think of our being interrelated across barriers. The world is not just about Me and Mine but about a sense of sharedness. And more than that, too often when we think of hierarchical structures be they based on race, gender or class yet the doctrine of the Holy Trinity tells us that the God example is rooted in equality of worth and status. For the climbing the greasy pole of personal advantage has absolutely no warrant in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

And finally the doctrine of the Holy Trinity tells us that the unity of the Holy trinity is rooted in love. Here there is no competition but a harmony that reaches out into the whole world. We see it in many ways. The eight Psalm has reminded us of that love in creation. The life and death of Jesus has shown us that love in a life lived to bring value to others and a sacrificial death to bring us to a true experience of what it is to live. And in the promise of Jesus to his disciples, the promise of the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the guidance into truth that we need in our journey of life.

In these things, we find that the Holy Trinity far from being a subject for yawns, is the sign of the reality of a God who is all that we dream of and need - and yet more beside. We find revealed a God who is both for us and a pattern that should be a guide as to how we live our lives and see the world. For here, we encounter the absolute wonder that is God.

Back for the moment to the world of the ancients. A legend is told of that great fifth century saint, Augustine of Hippo. In it he was walking by the sea meditating on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. He longed to explain it logically. As he walked he saw a small child all on her own. Time and again the little girl filled a cup with sea water and then poured it into a hole that she had made in the sand. After some time Augustine approached her to ask what she was doing.

“I am trying to empty the sea into this hole,” the girl replied.

“But how do you think that you can empty this immense sea into this tiny hole and with such a tiny cup.” asked the Saint.

Only for the girl to respond;

And how do you suppose that with your small head you can comprehend the immensity of God?”

And that is a fair question. We can never adequately comprehend the mystery of the Holy Trinity. It is beyond us. But it still calls on us to take it seriously for in the mystery we see God being gloriously revealed to us. So this morning I encourage you to behold the mystery. I encourage you to see the God who is involved intimately in all things throughout all the markers of time and into eternity. I encourage you to see the God who is beyond your dreams and who meets you in all points of need. I encourage you to see the God whose being in community offers a pattern to each of us.

But don’t worry if like me you find it so desperately hard to write an essay on the Holy Trinity. Much more important is to wonder at it and to bask in the sheer glory of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.


This sermon was preached in Bideford Methodist Church on Sunday June 3td 2007