Services
Trinity Sunday can seem a bit dry after the excitement of Pentecost but it helps us to explore how we live out the gift of the Spirit which invites us into deeper union with both God and one another. Our first reading assures us of our relationship with God whilst the gospel reading focuses on what this means for our relationship with others.
Isaiah 40:12-17, 27-31 describes a God who is both transcendent, unknowable and unlike us:
“who has measured the waters of the sea in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span”.
A God who is more powerful and greater than any human power:
“all nations are as nothing to him”.
Yet also a God who is intimate and personal, who knows our ways and our fears, who longs to care for us: strengthening the weary and raising up the powerless.
In Matthew 28:16-20 Jesus opens this relationship with God to all humanity: we, who are now bearers of the Spirit, are sent into unite “all nations” bringing them into communion with both God and one another:
“baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
We are no longer mere guests at God’s table, we are also hosts who welcome those God sends.
Pentecost marks the start of something radically new in the story of our salvation and so both of our readings echo the story of the very beginning:
Acts 2:1-21 echoes the Spirit moving over the waters of creation “and suddenly there came … the rush of a violent wind.”
Whilst in John 20:19-23, Jesus breathes on the disciples in an echo of God breathing life into the very first creatures of dust and earth.
In general though, human beings are fearful of change. Change involves letting go and moving into the unknown. Soo it is not surprising that our readings also both speak of fear and bewilderment: In John the disciples are huddled behind locked doors because they are afraid. In Acts 2:1-21 the arrival of the Holy Spirit is something sudden and violent.
Yet the readings have something else in common, each begins with the disciples gathered together. Whether they are experiencing fear, bewilderment or joy, they are experiencing it as a community.
God continues to offer us new beginnings, the Spirit is constantly at work bringing fresh order out of the disorder of our lives and our world. Whether we find these new beginnings thrilling or terrifying, the important thing is that we explore them together, for it is together that we are sent out to take the gifts of the Spirit to a world in need to renewal.
Today our Annual Parochial Council Meeting takes place within our morning worship. The business part of this meeting is short: we elect those who will serve as our Church Wardens and on our Parish Church Council for the coming year.
The APCM gives us the opportunity to give thanks for all who have served our community in the past year; to declare our support for those who will serve us going forward; and to ask for God’s blessing on their work.
In place of the sermon we will have a speed summary of what we have been up to in the last year.
As we look back at 2025 and look forward to the year ahead we have a chance to reflect on what it means for each of us to be part of Christ’s church. In John 17:1-11, Jesus prays that his disciples may have eternal life which he describes, not as life after death or life at the end of time but as a relationship with him and with God:
“And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Christ’s gift to the church, life in all its fullness, is found in the depth of our relationships, not only with God but also with one another; so Jesus prays “that they may be one, as we are one.”
In the year ahead may those relationships increase and strengthen as we seek to become a beloved community bring Christ to the world.
In the time after the Resurrection and before the Ascension our Gospel readings this year focus on Jesus reassuring the disciples: where will they find God without him? how will they know which way to follow? Today, in John 14:15-21, Jesus again explains that God is present there in and among them; that were there is community, dwelling together in love, there God will be also. Paul echoes this in Acts 17:22-31 as he stands in the public square before the statues of every God: “God does not live in shrines made by human hands” for “in him we live and move and have our being.” Paul’s message is universal, we all bear God’s imprint, for “he made all nations” and we are all his offspring. Where we see the works of love offered to all, there we see God.
The work of love has no limits but we do. Jesus calls us not rely on own strength but to be drawn into closer relationship with one another and God, so that the gift of love may be shared among us. As we grow into beloved community, able to both give and receive, we find ourselves resourced for the work God gives us.
This Sunday also marks the beginning of Christian Aid Week. This year the focus is on families who are being helped to grow their own food in a crowded informal settlement outside Nairobi. Supporting Christian Aid is one way in which we can share God's love in practical action to help our neighbours in deprived parts of God's world.
It is all very well Jesus telling us (as he does in John 14:1-10) not to be troubled or afraid but our lives are full of doubt and uncertainty and we all struggle knowing which way to go. So we can sympathise with Philip who longs for certainty, for something concrete, when he begs Jesus to just “show us the father”.
Jesus is exasperated: “have I been with you all this time and still you do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the father.” Do you still not get it? No! we don’t. We look for something outside of ourselves when all the time God is revealing Godself within us and within each other.
God, faith, the meaning of life, all of this can only be found by living it. Jesus goes on: “if you do not believe [because of me] then believe me because of the works themselves”. Are our actions and choices, our communities and relationships, bearing fruit? Where can we see human flourishing? What is leading to justice, peace, healing and love? For wherever we see these things there we will find God.
Jesus asks us not to seek certainty but instead to trust, to trust that God chose us and through us will do “greater works than these”. When our hearts our troubled and our way is not clear, let us look to whatever is true, honourable, just and pure … and the God of peace will be with us.