Sermon: Trinity Sunday - Westborough

Preacher:

Date:

Sunday 15th June 2014

Venue:

St Francis, Westborough

Readings:

Isaiah 40: 12-7, 27-end

2 Cor. 13:11-end

Matt: 28:16-20

Standing in the local Co-op yesterday, every news paper had a headline about England's opening World Cup match against Italy; the check out was surrounded by flags, whistles and face-paints...  Even amongst non-football fans, excitement or a curious loyalty grows as each match approaches. 

England's captain Steven Gerrard is determined to bring back happy memories of this year's competition.  The climate alone makes it a punishing tournament with high standards expected individually and collectively. Last night wasn't the best start.  But captain and coach remain confident.

In the face of this pressure - whether enthusiasm or indifference - Roy Hodgson's made a rallying call.  He says: what we really want from people back home is support; we want encouragement; we want to give them something to cheer about; we want them to believe.

Support, encouragement and belief lie at the heart our worship on Trinity Sunday: Today is one of the most exciting days in the church's year, because we celebrate the heart of the Christian faith: the love of God.  Love isn't a thing to possess but something we share in relationship.

Trinity Sunday is an opportunity to delight in the glory of the eternal Trinity and to worship the Unity.  Rather than being a mathematical problem to be solved, it is a relationship of love in which we live, and breath and have our being.

Today we rejoice in our experience of God described as holy, almighty, powerful, glorious, creative and self-giving.   All those characteristics drawn together in the name Trinity.  It is the word we use to describe, within the limits of human thought and speech, something of the dynamic and relational character of God's love. 

God relates to us, his people, in love.  That love is poured out towards us as Creator; that love invites and restores us in Jesus Christ our redeemer; that love transforms and empowers us in the Spirit.

That is Trinity: the abundant and overwhelming nature of God; it names the breadth and depth of who God is as love; we not only speak about this loving relationship between Father, Son and Spirit, but we are also welcomed into it.  We are embraced.

The prophet Isaiah gives us an insight into awesome nature of God. He measures, encloses and weighs his creation - the waters, the earth and all that lies therein. He has got the whole world in his hand. 

His knows us intimately; yet he exceeds all our experience and understanding.  He is the one who teaches us and reveals the way of understanding; ways of justice and compassion; peace and forgiveness. God is everlasting and does not grow faint or weary. 

It is in the very nature of God to care for his creation. He gives strength to powerless and lifts of the faint. All that he is, embraces us.  If we wait on him, he will renews us so that we might walk, run and soar like eagles.

The God we believe in supports and encourages us.

At the end of Matthew's Gospel we hear of Jesus' parting words which embody precisely those qualities.  He says that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him.    Such confident words of assurance were a stark contrast with group of disciples who saw and heard him on that mountain in Galilee. 

They worshipped him, but some doubted.  The word translated as doubt doesn't mean 'unbelief'; rather it's  state of confusion, of holding more than one thing in your mind at once. We can all identify  with that - the way in which different concerns and responsibilities make us feel overwhelmed.  To say that others worshipped, is a way of thinking and being that is aligned with God: putting that love that loves unceasingly at the heart of our lives. 

Jesus then entrusts this group of unprepared and overwhelmed disciples with a commission which must've felt impossible. He tells them to go and make disciples of all nations, to baptise them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Like them we are sent into the world.  We are entrusted with that awesome task of bearing witness to the love of God.   At the end of this service, we are sent back to our homes, schools, places of work or leisure, to community projects and hospitals. We are very conscious of being called and sent, particularly as we pray with & for Jackie as she prepares for ordination.  Together, in all the places we find ourselves this week, in the power of the Spirit, we witness to the generous love of God revealed in Christ Jesus.

Our discipleship is part of the life of the church; the community of faith, worship and fellowship, which exists not just here at St Francis' but across the whole world and throughout all generations. That church is weighed and measured, strengthened and empowered by the God the Trinity: that is Love loving.  It is dynamic, creative, incomprehensible, wondrous.  In baptism, we are welcomed into this love; we experience it and believe it for ourselves.  We are in love.

Jesus doesn't wait for the disciples' concerns and doubts to disappear. He sends them. Instructing them to teach others to obey all that he has commanded.  To love as he loves; to love their neighbours as themselves.

That isn't always easy; it never is.  We all have different challenges or obstacles that we have to overcome. The other things that compete for our attention or distract us; the worries and pressures that draw us away from God revealed as Trinity, as Love loving.

Paul knew the challenges of the world - and the complex dynamics of life within families and churches.  When he wrote the Corinthians he had to warn them not to compete over different gifts; to welcome everyone regardless of social status; to stop being boastful or rude.

Even now, in the final lines of his letters he is reminds them of how they're called to live: ensure things are in good order, seek agreement, live peaceably.  This practical outworking of church life flows from God: the grace, love and communion of the Trinity.  Praying those familiar words enables to find peace, in love.

Our faith and trust is in God, not our own strength; God is faithful to us, encouraging and supporting us; from now until the end of the age, as Jesus puts it.  Every breath, every waking moment, every gesture is undergirded by God's love.  We who share in that gift are called to reflect it.

From this Sunday onwards we are into that season the church calls ordinary time: we count the  seemingly endless Sundays after Trinity.  Rather than seeing dull period when life drags on; let's live it with excitement and joy.  In each of us, God is working out the energy and potential of his love in us.

The World Cup will be over in a matter of weeks; England will fly home; the flags will be taken down.  But the life of the Trinity we celebrate today is unending.  In our Eucharist we remember all that God has done - and all that God is.  We receive the gift of Christ in bread and wine and blessing; we are empowered by the Spirit to go in love and peace. 

To tweak Hodgson's rallying call: God gives us is support; we encourage one another; we want to reveal love in our community that we can cheer about; we want them to believe in the one who is faithful to them, the Love that loves united in relationship.

 

Let us pray:

Holy God, faithful, generous and unchanging; enlarge our hearts and minds with the knowledge of your love; may we be drawn more deeply in the unity of Father, Son and Spirit who dwell in love and love in us. Amen.