Sermon
at St. John’s Parish Church, West Grimstead
- Sunday 11 June 2017
Isaiah
40:12-17; 27-31; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28: 16-20
Dear Lord, I pray that these words spoken next shall be your
words and shall be a blessing to all who hear them. Amen
Today, as you have already
gathered, is Trinity Sunday; that Sunday in which it is usual for incumbents to
get their junior ministers and curates to preach on this most interesting yet
very often confusing and difficult of subjects. A bit of a test I think. The whole concept of Three in One, One God
yet three persons is something which is often extremely difficult to preach to
the Faithful let alone discuss with and try and explain to people of another
faith or, still further, no faith at all.
We cannot turn to a page in the bible, anywhere, to find a passage which
explains this concept yet throughout both Old and New Testaments we will find
reference to God, the Spirit and the “one who is to come”.
I recall a preacher once
trying to explain to a young congregation the concept of “Father, Son and Holy
Spirit”. Three distinct entities, yet
the same. He or she, I think it was,
used the example of water with the chemical symbol “H2O”. We can apply this example to God – ice –
solid and perhaps a bit cold and remote to some, Jesus – liquid, the living
water and the Holy Spirit – steam – a gas which we cannot see yet it has the
immense power to move us like steam can move a mighty machine such as a railway
locomotive. As children brought up in a
Christian family we often were given the concept of God the Father, the
all-seeing and sometimes judgmental figure somewhere in the clouds looking down
on us and seeing all the naughty things we did; Jesus the prophet and teacher,
the son of God, the meek and mild child who was born in a humble stable but
never cried or was naughty himself and who was later taken out and cruelly
executed by the nasty Romans for being good (so why shouldn’t we be naughty?)
and finally the Holy Spirit which we never really understood back then. When I was growing up it was referred to as
the Holy Ghost which made me very fearful of ever having an experience with it,
him or her. Ghosts were frightening things and I never wanted to see one.
I am grateful to that
preacher though, for her wonderful explanation through the example of water by
being able to give her young congregation a really good feeling for what the
Trinity is all about.
We read that the Spirit of
God moved over the face of the embryonic world right at the beginning of the
bible – Genesis 1:2 – the “wind of God” as described in the New Revised
Standard Version. Likewise right at the beginning of John’s Gospel (John 1:1)
which is a parallel to the Genesis Creation story we read that the “Word” (in
this context Jesus) was there at the beginning – at Creation. Therefore, in
those two pieces of Scripture – one in the Old and one in the New Testament we
learn that the three entities were always there together – God, Jesus and the
Spirit.
Throughout the Old Testament
we read of the Spirit descending upon certain individuals for specific purposes
– Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Samuel, David, Solomon, and so on. Very often these individuals were ordinary folk
who felt unworthy of God’s grace. Sometimes, like King Saul the Spirit left
them as they fell from favour or failed in their task; but nevertheless, for a
time, at least, the power of the Holy Spirit was with them.
However, it is not until we
read in Mark, in the New Testament, that we are told that the Holy Spirit will
be made available to all for the asking when John the Baptist reveals that
whilst he is baptising with water there will be “one who is more powerful coming after me; …”I baptise you with water” he
says “but he will baptise you with the
Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:7-8).
So right at the beginning of
the New Testament, Mark’s Gospel having been written before those of Matthew,
Luke or John, although it comes second in the Bible, we learn of the existence
and importance and equality of the Holy Spirit.
We have recently celebrated
the Feasts of Ascension and Pentecost in the Church’s calendar. Coming fairly
soon after Easter they can sometimes be overlooked by many – but hopefully not
our regular church goers. Their
importance to us as Christians is immense. In the first, we celebrate Jesus
leaving us to return to his Father, to be re-united in the Trinity, having
completed – in his own words “Finished” - his Earthly ministry; having left us
with the vehicle of forgiveness through him and promising us that he will
remain with us – “I am with you always to
the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
This must have confused the disciples as they saw him ascending – “How
can he be with us always when we’ve just seen him disappear?” they must have
thought or said to themselves.
The
answer came a few days later at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon
them likes flames in front of many onlookers. The promise which John the
Baptist and Jesus made had come true.
I
have been asked, from time to time, as to the significance of the tearing of
the veil of the Temple at the time of Jesus’s crucifixion. We read that it was
“rent from top to bottom” – not bottom to top – signifying something not done
by human hands. The veil separated the
Ark of the Covenant from the rest of the “holy of holies” within the inner
sanctum of the Temple – a place where the High Priest alone could go, and then
only once a year at the Feast of Atonement.
A place where it was believed God dwelt.
Only the priest, after many washings and other ritualistic cleansings
was allowed in to make atonement for the sins of the Jewish believers. Jesus’s death, therefore, caused the veil to
be ripped as a symbolic act showing that all Humankind now had access to God
and in particular God’s forgiveness.
Jesus’s death was itself Atonement for all our sins.
However, after his death and resurrection and
ascension we still needed to have Jesus with us, to dwell in us, just as he
promised to his disciples. That is why
we have access to the Trinity, to the Three-in-One God, by prayer through Jesus
and the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit
which dwells within us and which moves us to act as Christians – to obey God
and to follow the teachings of Jesus. The
three are inseparable. When we pray, we
either address our prayers to God ending with “Through Jesus Christ our Lord” or address our prayers directly to
Jesus as mediator. We can, though also
pray to the Holy Spirit, asking him or her to fill us up, “fill us anew” as the hymn goes.
As
Christians we should have the Holy Spirit within us all the time but, like a
leaky bicycle tyre, the Spirit can leak away - especially in times when we
become distracted or fill our inner selves up with more temporal thoughts - and
we should constantly ask to be pumped up.
Nicky Gumbel, the founder of the Alpha Course and leader of Holy
Trinity, Brompton, once described the Holy Spirit as being like a gas pilot
light burning within us. It’s there all the time but doing little until we call
upon it to light up the boiler and then with a “whoomph” it ignites the main
boiler and we are warmed by the cosy heat generated. We too are fired up.
In
our Gospel reading Jesus calls upon all his disciples to go out and make
disciples of all nations – to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit. We are
today’s disciples and this Great Commission set out in the last few words of
Matthew’s Gospel are a command to us today.
To spread the Good News that Jesus is alive today through the power of
the Holy Spirit which is available to all – a free gift just for the
asking. Today not many things worth
having are entirely free – but paradoxically a few very important ones are – a
few which are the best – love of God, love of each other and the gift of and
the gifts provided by the Holy Spirit.
The
words of Paul end my sermon well I think and encapsulate everything I could say
in summary to you:
“Finally brothers and sisters … put things in order, listen
to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and
peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints
greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the
Communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all." (2
Corinthians 13:11-13)
Amen
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