Not a shopping centre….
Here is my talk from church today… enjoy!
Readings are.. Isaiah 40.12-17, 27-end and Matthew 28.16-end- (you can look these up online at biblegateway.com)
Trinity Sunday is always a challenge for us preachers, because ultimately we only ever see glimpses of who God is through what we read, see and experience. Consistent messages about him seem to appear. Like the same actor appearing in different TV programmes, God, Jesus and the holy Spirit, are playing different roles but are essentially the same person, with the same characteristics.
So who is the Father?
Well according to Isiah he is someone who has designed every aspect of our amazing planet. He is so indescribably other to us, that ‘Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.’ So from God’s perspective, Great Britain is like dust that can fall through Gods fingers it is so small and God is so big.
Then Isiah goes on to point out that we are wrong when we think God has forgotten about us, its not that we don’t matter because we are small to him, it’s just that the concept of time is different for God than us, we have our three or four score years and ten to live hopefully, and God has infinite time, infinite resources at his disposal. He doesn’t grow tired or weary like us, and can give us strength, so that none of us struggle to keep going, none of us stumble or faint.
Who is the Spirit?
I shared this passage from Isiah once with a young man I met in Durham. We had decided to go ‘treasure-hunting’ as a group, where we prayed together for the holy spirit to guide us and then set out to talk to people and be guided towards the people we needed to meet. I had a very clear word of where and who I would speak to, in a way that has never happened before or since. I was to talk to a young man of Asian heritage, and I would be able to see cranes in the sky from the spot where we met. (I know crazy right!!?)
We followed the route we thought we had been given and sure enough on the bridge over the river we could see cranes in the sky over the town centre. We stopped there and gave out Easter eggs and chatted to passers by, until eventually a young man of Asian descent approached us on his own and was happy to stop and talk. We explained what we were doing and that we felt we should share this passage with him, when he heard it, he was really shocked and started to cry. We prayed with him and then later he told us his story.
He was a student, but had grown weary of studying his course, and was looking after his girlfiend who had health problems, and was about to quit and go back to Birmingham. He was from a muslim family, and his girlfriends parents were committed Christians and praying like mad for them both.
At the time I think he had tried out church but it wasn’t familiar to him. So this particular passage the Holy Spirit had sent to him resonated with him..
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
So I think we can safely say that God has a way of speaking to us urgently through the holy spirit, when he needs to, his words are timeless and can cross cultures. This passage was important to someone who didn’t know Jesus today even though it was written thousands of years ago. It was relevant in a way that none of us could have predicted. He holy spirit touched the heart of someone who didn’t yet know god, and moved him to continue his studies and continue exploring faith.
Last but not least, the son, Jesus…
Beautiful though the words from Isiah are and, the poetry and depth of the books of the old testament are all amazing books to read. However without Jesus we do not have Trinity Sunday today. So we need now to turn to his words. Without Jesus as a role model we might know we are gods children but not really know how to act. Jesus gives us a way to learn how to be disciples.
In the text from Matthew, we hear Jesus Great Commission, and his words I think are the ones we should focus on because he askes us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and holy spirit, and teaching them to obey all Jesus commandments. He promises to be with us always to the end of the age. Unlike in the other gospels Matthew doesn’t see Jesus disappear, or ascend to heaven, he remains with us as the risen lord. I find this really helpful, it seems that Jesus isn’t sitting alone on a throne in heaven, but is walking with us, and knows intimately, about our lives and the challenges we face. He is part of our lives today as much as he ever was.
Like the young man I spoke to in Durham, it would appear that Jesus is not afraid of stepping over traditional boundaries. It doesn’t matter if someone is from a different religion, culture or belief system to us, they can still encounter the risen lord, or receive the holy spirit at baptism. This is why Christianity is and remains open to all kinds of converts from other world religions today. In his great commission Jesus urges his close friends, his students, to go and make disciples of all nations. Not some nations, but all of them. The church from the start as we saw at Pentecost last week was an international phenomenon.
A key part of the great commission is to baptise new believers and I know many of you here are as keen as me that we welcome new believers regularly. I hope we can continue to nurture and develop our own faith journeys as well as welcoming others to join us. We have had a lot of baptisms recently and I wonder how we can welcome these families to come and see us more often? Our parish is growing and changing, and I wonder what God’s plans are for these new communities that are growing here too. How can we welcome and pray for the people living in the new housing estates if we don’t know anyone there? Where do we start? Would anyone be prepared to go and visit families after a baptism?
I guess whatever happens, it is comforting to go back to the eternity of God, that even though we are just a grain of sand in gods palms, our communities, and our nations really matter to God. We are asked to baptize nations, in the name of the Father and the Son and the holy spirit. We are asked to seek his justice for our nations.
Maybe there is a way in which we can play our part in this today.
Perhaps we could continue our journey with eco-church, so that we are not negatively impacting on other communities around the world who might be facing climate change. maybe we could pray for our political leaders or campaign against water pollution?
Maybe we should support the introduction of solar farms around this area rather than opposing them?
I am sure you all have different ideas but whatever we do, lets not underestimate the way in which God as Trinity can work. He is both a timeless classic, and a dynamic young man, and a gentle heart-warming force to be reckoned with, who brings change, seeks justice as well as peace and wholeness.
inspiredinyork 