Trinity Sunday

See Commentary on Matthew 28:16-20.

Homily 1 - 2006

There are some people who don’t believe that God is. But then there are people who do believe there is God. They are mainly Jews, Christians and Muslims. Of these, we Christians speak differently of God. The one responsible for our further insight was himself a Jew – Jesus.

Jesus was unique. He was as human as you and I are. Over time Jesus’ followers came to the insight that Jesus was not only wonderfully human, but also divine. At first they lacked words and thoughts to express their insight with reasonable accuracy. It took four and a half centuries before Christians could agree on a way of thinking and speaking that would do justice to who and what Jesus was.

The problem basically is: If there is only one God, how can Jesus be God?

Most of us have a rough idea of an answer – we believe that the oneness, the unity of God, exists as trinity. But don’t ask average Christians too many questions after that or they will be well and truly out of their depth – mainly on the theological issues, understanding the how.

Perhaps bigger than the mystery of the Trinity, however, is the basic mystery: that there is God at all, and how that God is to be understood.

Atheists need not be fools; neither need agnostics; neither need Jews or Muslims be fools. But more importantly for us, neither need Christians be fools, claiming what looks at first sight like contradiction.

But, then, when all is said and done, does it matter?

It matters to me that there is God. My certainty gives context, direction and meaning to my life. It anchors my sense of responsibility; it speaks to my otherwise cosmic loneliness.

But does it make much difference that God is Trinity? Both Jews and Muslims believe deeply in the mercy of God. Muslims honour Jesus. They honour his teachings. They see him as a great prophet. Basically, the issue is: Does it matter that Jesus is divine, or not?

We Christians know that, since Jesus is God, he not only had things to say about the mercy of God - he was the merciful God in human form. By knowing him, we know God. We know the mercy of God. Jesus also shows us the power of God. And in knowing the life-giving power of the love of God - in Jesus, we also know the vulnerability of that power. We know the vulnerability of the loving God. I find that vulnerability particularly attractive. It makes it easier for me to draw close to God.

Both Jews, Christians and Muslims believe strongly in the creating God. But in Jesus we know more. We know that we are loved, not just as precious creatures but that, in Jesus, we are loved, as it were, as members of the family. We share not just the being but the living of God.

With Jesus, the man who is also God, we are loved as friends. This friend who loves us we can meet not just sometimes - by appointment - but he lives in us and we live in him. The contact is constant. In and through Jesus God finds in us God’s “homeliest home”. I find all this beautiful.

We also experience the action in and on us of God’s Spirit. We would have no way of knowing or understanding that, however, if Jesus had not explained, and tipped us off, as it were. But it is in fact through the power and action of God’s Spirit that we are able to know Jesus – not as learnt about from a book or from someone else - but as encountered – in prayer.

It is also through the Spirit that we are made able to love Jesus, not just as we love a human friend, but with a more unifying love that truly makes us one with him.

That God is matters. That God is Trinity matters - equally. We are fortunate beyond words.

Homily 2 - 2009

This is a great feast today. We celebrate the Trinity, which somehow marks our whole lives -particularly since our baptism.

Father, Son and Spirit - three partners, all different, dancing to the one rhythm; or, like three musical instruments, together, making the one melody. And the one dance, the one melody, is the dance and the melody of love.

We're marked by that one rhythm, that one melody - made in the image of God, baptised into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Each of the three is different: the source of it all, the starting point for it all, the unknowable mystery behind it all, we call the Father.

The expression of it all, the revelation of it all, St John called the Word, though more often we call that one the Son.

And the one who works in them and works on us, drawing us into the rhythm, the melody, of love, we call the Holy Spirit. It is that Spirit that enables us to be truly christened, and - in and through Christ - draws us, as daughters and sons, into the very life, the dance, of God.

It is all about loving. God is all about loving. We are all about loving. But, don't we struggle!

There is a formidable power abroad in our world that tries to draw us away from each other, that pits us against each other, that encourages us to see others as competitors, threats, resources, ones we can use and exploit, or simply ignore.

Our Scriptures call that power the sin of the world, and somehow it seeps into our hearts and minds.

But, we're made for better things. We are called to better things. We can love, with the power - the gracious power - of God. And, to the extent that we do, our life becomes a dance - in unison, a wonderful melody – in massed choir.

But, it starts with God, the source of love. We need to let ourselves be loved; we need to believe and accept that love or we are powerless. Succeed at that – and the rest follows.

Something is afoot in the parish at the moment. We're being called to get up from around the wall and to step out onto the dance-floor, and to dance, together, in step.

As parish, we are the Body of Christ. We share the mission of the Church - to reveal to our world, our families, our town, our community, the liberating and exhilarating love of God - as parish.

We are called to do something: to love, but to do it as the unique persons we are: in the time that God gifts us with, and by means of the personal gifts and skills and interests and opportunities - the talents that make us who we are.

We are called to direct our resources, our wealth, our treasure to the Church's mission to make our world a better place, and to replace self-interest and comfort with concern and hospitality and practical actions for compassion and justice.

As I said, something is afoot in the parish at the moment. It is time once more to take stock; and our taking stock is situated within the context of the parish's Planned Giving Campaign -though it is by no means limited to that.

It is time for the three-yearly renewal. It kicks off at parish level with a parish gathering next Wednesday evening in Dunworth Centre at 7.30 pm. This is one gathering which you are all urged to attend - as a sign of belonging, of mutual encouragement, and of hospitality to each other. Just being there, together, gives everyone a shot in the arm.

It will be an opportunity to look back over what you have achieved together over the past three years; to review your present commitment, and, as parish, to plan and prioritise for the future.

In order that the venue can be set up appropriately, name tags be prepared, and hospitality assured, you are asked to indicate your attendance on the clip-boards that will be passed around immediately.

Homily 3 - 2015

I find that I make sense of God as Trinity as I make sense of my personal life trajectory across the years. I started off as a little baby, as real and as human as my mother and father, but with absolutely no sense of who or what I was. Over time my awareness, my consciousness, began to develop, and I had some sense of who I was. But if were asked, Who are you? I would have had no answer, beyond, perhaps, my ability to give my name. But my name says nothing of who I am. It labels me, but it is not who I am. With more time, I become more conscious of my self. I am me, and I can say excitedly to mum, “Mummy, look at me!” – but I know little about this precious me. 

With more time, I begin to feel a bit anxious about this me, insecure in this world of unpredictable and powerful adults. And as I go to pre-school or kinder, I feel my peers as competitors or even threats to this me, and I embark on a process of trying to make myself someone. Instead of being my self, I try to become a self-made man; in the process, constantly judging myself and frantically trying to make myself better, certainly to look better, than who I vaguely feel I am. This process, this making myself the self-made man or woman, can go on right through adolescence and adulthood. I have an alternating love/hate relationship to my self-made self, and my true self slips easily off the radar… until the crunch comes, often about mid-life, with some trauma or unexpected moment of insight, and I have to face the truth. The possibility presents itself, perhaps for the first time, to discover my true self, and to unmask my false self. With the possibility comes the decision – to make peace at last with the me whom I discover or to keep up trying to strengthen the façade of the false me. If I choose to accept what is, with time, I can begin to love that true me, seeing there the unique image of God that I am and, what is equally [or perhaps more] wonderful, beginning to see everyone else as the other unique images of God that they are. That experience becomes progressively more wonderful and joyful! So over life, the trajectory can move from existence, to consciousness, to love, to joyful wonder.

As Christians, we believe that we are all made in the image of God. We inherit, as it were, the DNA of God. So, like ourselves, we can view the mystery that is God as being, knowing, loving and rejoicing. Nine centuries ago, there was a theologian teaching at a university near Paris. His name was Richard, and the university was called St.Victoire. On one occasion he wrote: "To be truth, God must be one; to be love, God must be two; to be joy, God must be three.” Chew on that over the week!! The First Person is, and knows. The Second is the Self, known by the First - the consciousness, as it were, of God, or the self-revelation, or what St John called the Word. The First and Second Persons, recognizing their truth and beauty, love that one truth and beauty. But that love is something more, a shared love, an embrace, a dance; and from that ecstatic mutual embrace or dance of love comes an energetic, explosive, creative joy that is the Spirit of them both.

Our faith in Trinity calls us to know ourselves. It calls us to love the unique image of God that we discover reflected there in and as ourselves. It offers us the unbounded joy that fills us as we surrender to that never-stopping dance of love that is the life of God.