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SERMON LIBRARY |
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· Deacon Debbie Wesseloo (2)
· Deacon Phillip Laurings (3)
· Dean William Mosert (1)
· Reverend Angus Paterson (0)
· Reverend Graham Alexander (1)
· Reverend Joe Thompson (2)
· Reverend Lindy Rookyard (4)
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| Date | 2005-05-22 | | Preacher | Fr Gershwin David | | Title | Trinity Sunday | | Sermon Details | In the name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Trinity Sunday is a day to remind us that God comes to be with us in many ways - like a loving parent, like a real human being, and through the Holy Spirit to live within us. When you were baptised - and whenever we baptise anyone – we baptise them in the name of "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" - and there are lots of other times we talk about God in three ways. This idea of God being Three – But One - is called the Trinity - which is a Latin word that means Three. So God is One – but God is also three. That is why we as Christians ascribe to the doctrine of the Trinity. It helps us to identify God.
In our limited way of thinking and talking, we apply to the three persons of God various works. We say that the Father creates us and keeps us in being; the Son redeems us and strengthens us throughout our earthly lives by his word and sacraments; and the Holy Spirit fills us with love and helps us find our way through this life and into the next. Our whole Christian life is caught up in the life of the Trinity. Liturgically, we pray to the Father through Jesus and in the power or in unity with the Holy Spirit. In today’s gospel we hear the account of Jesus instructing his disciples to go and make disciples baptising them: in the name of the Father, and of The Son and of the Holy Spirit.
There is a beautiful Russian icon of the Trinity painted by a monk by the name of Rublev. It depicts the three divine Persons sitting at a table. A dish of food lies on the table. But the thing that immediately strikes you is the fact that at the front of the table there is a vacant place. The vacant space is meant to convey openness, hospitality, and welcome towards the stranger and outsider. That vacant place is meant for each of us, and for all the human family.
It signifies God’s invitation to us to share in the life of the Trinity. God invites us to come in and sit at His table. He wants to share his life with us. “God’s purpose in creating us is that we my share in his very own family life” (George Maloney). We have been granted the privilege of inheriting the glory of God; we have been given the right to belong. We know how it feels to be left out.
The second observation as a result of our contemplation of the Trinity is communion. God in community. As we look at the Trinity it affirms that God does not exist in isolation. God is a social God. They exist in communion, in a mutual sharing of life. Even prior to the creation, God existed in relationship, the relationship, the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit one to another.
Since we are created in God's image, this means that we are created for relationship as well. We become whole persons only in relationship to one another and to God. The persons of the Trinity do not allow for inequality, or subordination, or domination, or hierarchy - interdependence.
The best experiences in life; the highest we can aspire to as humans is when we get community right. Instinctively, we know that we are at our best, our most moral, our most human, our most divine, when we are in loving relationships. But why? Because it is at those times that our true identity is revealed. Our identity as beings made in the image and likeness of the triune God, revealed precisely as a God whose very nature is a loving relationship. Loving relationships form the essence of the trinity.
Our love for people prompts us to know them better; our love for God urges us to deepen our understanding of him. Loving is the highest form of understanding. Our journey towards God and towards each other is made along the same road. The Trinity says that God is relationship-Father, Son, and Spirit-and the basis of that relationship is love. And we are made in that image. No wonder, then, that we are most godly, most divine, most happy, most fulfilled, when we, too, are in loving relationships.
The longer we are acquainted with people, the more we grow to realise how little we know them. Family and friends continue to surprise us, reminding us that they are always more than our understanding of them. We can all give instant impressions of people after knowing them only for a week, but if we’re honest with ourselves we have to admit that our clarity is born of ignorance. The mind. Unless we settle for stereotypes, understanding other people is a lifetime’s task. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that when it comes to understanding God we can become paralysed by the sheer magnitude of the mystery. If we are all made in the image and likeness of God, it should come as no shock to realise that it takes a lifetime to work out and understand each other.
Some people want to know everything, to explain everything, break everything down to facts. But it is exciting to live with mystery. Albert Einstein said, 'The most beautiful experience we can have is that of the mysterious.'
The doctrine of the Trinity is not a mathematical puzzle or an academic formula for theologians to debate - as they have done for so many centuries. It is an answer that we believe God has given us - God has made God's self know to us in three unique ways that there is only one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The considerable knowledge of the Church can never dispel the mystery of the Trinity. Mystery means that we can never say the final word about God; there is always more to discover, there is always more to share, there is always more to experience. In that sense the mystery of God invites us never to abandon the endless task of growing to understand the power behind the world we live in.
As Christians our principal entrance into the mystery of God is the person of Jesus. In the person of Jesus the mystery of God has a face, a voice, a language, a love, a life. To look on the Son of God is to begin to understand the mystery of God. The feast of Pentecost that we celebrated last week reminded us that we cannot begin to understand the truth of God, of Jesus, unless we are gifted with the power of the Spirit. Even the apostles could not recognise the full truth about the Jesus they knew and loved without the gift of the Spirit. The same is true for us: to understand Jesus we need the Spirit. To reach the Father we need to go via the Son. So it is the mystery of the Trinity that is at the heart of the Christian life of faith.
How can we reduce all this to concrete action? What can we do to make the Trinity come alive in our own personal lives? One way that some find helpful is a prayer exercise before falling asleep. Take three minutes to reflect on the day that has ended. During the first minute; think of the good that happened - like keeping not swearing during the day. Then pray to God the Father about it and thank him for it. During the second minute thing of the bad that has happened - like being impatient with someone. Then speak to God the Son: about it and ask his forgiveness. During the third minute, look ahead to tomorrow, to some point - like having to confront someone about something or see the dentist. Then speak to God the Holy Spirit about it and ask for the wisdom and courage, and strength to deal with it properly. As you can see, this exercise combines prayer with an examination of conscience. But more importantly, it brings the Holy Trinity into the events of our lives.
Might I suggest the action response for this week as well:
Spend some time this week contemplating the three-ness of God. Find a way to honour God as Creator/Father: enjoy the beauty of nature. Honour God as Redeemer/Son: help someone in need. Honour God as Holy Spirit: pray for the fruits of the Spirit to be more evident in your life.
So the next time somebody says to you, "Well, you're an Anglican; you believe in the Trinity; what's it all about?" don't go into a long philosophical and theological discussion. Simply say: "It's about three Persons bound in a relationship of love-and it's about me, because I am called to be a reflection of that relationship.
The Trinity is the celebration of the great mystery that God is our Father whom we can trust; Jesus is our brother whom we can follow; and the Holy Spirit is our constant companion whom we can always turn to for guidance. Let us end my message by saying together the Grace that is the trademark of our faith: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all for ever. Amen. |
| Date | 2005-07-15 | | Preacher | Fr Gershwin David | | Title | 15th Sunday of the Year | | Sermon Details | A growing trend in society is to classify people according to personality types. For example, in the world of advertising, there is a theory that divides people into different groups based on their supposed lifestyles. According to one theory of classification two of these groups are the "belongers" and the "achievers".
Belongers are middle-class people who want more than anything else to do the accepted thing. Therefore, to sell a product to people in this group an advertiser will stress that the product is the most popular product of its kind.
That same approach would not work with a group of achievers, however.
Achievers, so the theory goes, are financially successful people who would not want to buy the most popular product. They only want to own things that most people can't afford.
Where do you fit in? Where do I fit in?
People are different.
Jesus knew that people are different. He told a parable: "Listen!", he said, "A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, other seeds fell on rocky ground, other seeds fell among thorns, and other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain.
Later, as we know from our reading of the gospel today, Jesus interpreted this parable for his disciples. Basically his interpretation tells us that different kinds of people respond to the gospel in different ways.
God is the sower, the seed is His word, and we are the different people, the different “ground” on which the seed falls.
What kind of soil are you?
How do you respond to the seed that is cast into your life?
People are different. We are different. People respond to the Gospel in different ways. As a result some people suggest that the parable of the Sower as this parable is traditionally titled, ought to be really titled - the Parable of the Seed.
This suggestion is not a bad idea. It's not a bad idea because it focuses our attention on the question - what kind of soil are we?
How is it that we respond to Word of God - and to the various Acts of God –in our lives?
Do we allow trials and tribulations of this world to overwhelm the tender seed growing within us? Do we pull back when people harass us because we are believers? Do we decide that because things are not working out the way we think they ought - that God doesn't care for us – that He is powerless and weak - and not to be heeded.
Do we allow the cares of this world - our ambitions and our desires for success and happiness to choke out the messages that God sends us through the various events of our daily lives and through the various people we encounter?
How we respond to the Word of God is key to how fruitful the gospel is going to be in our lives.
And, unlike the situation in nature in which seed and various kinds of soil encounter each other, we do have control over how we receive and respond to the gospel message; we can, as it were, change the kind of soil that we are. We are not passive receivers of the Gospel - at least we don't have to be.
We have power over how we respond to the Gospel. God has given us this tremendous freedom to either say "Yes" to Him or "No" to Him.
When you think about it - there is a lot to be said for calling today's parable "The Parable of the Seed". Yet for centuries it has been known as the "Parable of The Sower" and I think I know why - I think it has been called the Parable of the Sower because this title focuses our attention on just what it is that God does and how gracious he is in it.
You see there are many seeds that God casts into our lives – and all of them are meant to land in good soil and to produce abundant fruit.
But, as any farmer knows, some seed is going to fall in places where it simply will not thrive. Knowing this, however, does not prevent the farmer from sowing seed - nor does it prevent him from praying for and expecting a good crop.
When God deals with us - God deals with us even more generously than does the best farmer.
God allows the seed to land on the hard paths and the rocky ground and in the thickets of our lives in the hope that in those places it will find a place to mature and bear fruit - in the hope that those things which impede growth will be removed – in the hope that the soil might be just a little deeper than it at first appears to be in those rocky places.
Praise God for the miracle of growth and salvation he performs! Praise God for his healing love! The Sower sows everywhere my friends knowing that when he does he will end up with an abundant harvest.
And so we ought - So we ought to sow the word of God's love as generously as God sows. So we ought to trust that what we sow will, in the end, produce a harvest - even when it appears that the there is little chance for it even when it appears that every inch of ground is worthless.
Today's parable is a message for us - that there is hope for a harvest; it's message is that we should not discriminate in our sowing of God's seed, that while there are many kinds of people - and many kinds of soil - ultimately the seed that God sows, and the seed we cast in God's name will produce - some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Amen.
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