Trinity Sunday!

Aah - the most frightening Sunday of the year for preachers - how to condense all our wonderings about the Trinity into a manageable length of sermon? Well, I think I gave up that a few years ago, and instead go for a 'one facet of a very complicated thing' approach instead.

Readings are:

Isaiah 6: 1-8
Romans 8: 12-17
John 3: 1-17

Wow! Any one of those readings is a big 'chew' theologically speaking...
So, thoughts so far: at one church I have a baptism, at the other the ordination of an elder - but I think in both cases I want to focus on what the Trinity tells us about the God who is relationship - both within the Trinity & reaching out to include us.

Baptism teaches us about our place in the family of God.
The Isaiah reading speaks of a God of awe and power, who nevertheless reaches out to humanity with God's word.

So how do we relate to God, as part of the family?

Jesus makes it clear to Nicodemus that this is a gift, not an earned right. The phrase we usually translate 'born again' can also be translated 'born form above' - in either case, it is not a work of our doing. It is God's will that we should know God 'God so loved the world he sent the only son...' - God in Trinity reaches out to embrace and love the whole world.

Then Romans speaks of the spirit of son (and I want to say daughter)-ship, of adoption. The Spirit leads us more deeply into a pre-existing truth, what is alread tru, even if we do not know it - that we are children of God.

We are included in the relationship at the heart of God in Trinity, to be loved and cherished and to grow.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Faith and Guidance

Genesis 12: 1-9; Romans 4: 13-25   It’s been quite a week for politics. Whatever your party affiliations, there has been a lot of unpredictability and upheaval  - there are going to be 3 by-elections very soon - and we might all be left feeling breathless and wondering ‘what happens next?’.   We might wonder what guidance we might expect our political leaders to seek. And we might, this week, have had our own moments of wondering where to turn for guidance or direction in the turmoil of life.    So it’s rather helpful to look at the story of Abram.   Like all good stories this one is long and multi-faceted and well worth exploring.   Just before the part that we heard, we are told (in Genesis chapter 11)  that Terah, the father of Abram, took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (son of Haran, who had died) and his daughter-in-law Sarai, Abram’s wife, and set off from Ur of the Chaldees for Canaan. But when they reached Harran they settled there, and there Terah died, leaving Abram as the h
Read more

Abraham and Isaac - a good question!

Genesis 22: 1-14       Matthew 10: 40-42 Isidor Rabi, who was born in Austria in 1898, moved to the United States as a child and won the Nobel prize for physics in 1944. He was once asked by an admiring friend, “Why did you become a scientist, rather than a doctor or lawyer or businessman, like the other immigrant kids in your neighbourhood?” Rabi responded: “My mother made me a scientist without ever intending it. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: ‘So? Did you learn anything today?’ But not my mother. She always asked me a different question. ‘Izzy,’ she would say, ‘did you ask a good question today?’ That difference – asking good questions – made me a scientist.” I think we could say that living in a relationship with God – which for us means following Jesus Christ – is based on the same principle. Did you ask a good question today? What might our ‘good questions’ be as we read the scriptures today? Let’s look closely at the story of Abraham, bei
Read more

Spring IS coming!

I love to dip into Revgalblogpals, and though I don't usually 'play' at the Friday five questions, I thought that with no sermon to do I would, for a change: Sally writes: Candlemass is past, and Christmas is well and truly over, here in the UK February looks set to be its usual grey and cold self. Signs of spring are yet to emerge; if like me you long for them perhaps you need ways to get through these long dark days. So lets share a few tips for a cold and rainy/ snowy day.... 1. Exercise, what do you do if you can't face getting out into the cold and damp? I do find it therapeutic to clean the house vigourously - but if you could see the dust you'd know I don't often get round to it! I also make a point of always running, rather than walking, upstairs - something my mum always did until her stroke. 2. Food; time to comfort eat, or time to prepare your body for the coming spring/summer? I try to eat healthily, but my body craves carbohydrate. 3. Brainpower; do
Read more