Sermon For Trinity Sunday May 18th 2008
[the following sermon starts by pointing to quite a few of the strengths of Holy Trinity Church. To an outsider, this may sound arrogant. But remember the sermon was preached to those hearing it. It is designed to get us to build on the strengths God has given us so as to overcome our weaknesses. No church is without strengths, and by preaching on the strengths God has given your church, you can encourage them to build on those to grow in the areas where God would have you grow]
Matthew 28.16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Holy Trinity Sunday at Holy Trinity Church - it's a good time for us to think about what it means for us to be a church.
What would Jesus think was the perfect local church? In Jesus's view what would the perfect local church be like? Let's take a moment's silence to ponder that.
PAUSE
Now, Hands up if you think we are already the totally perfect church?
[no hands go up]
Oh [sound disappointed]
- so we're obviously not quite perfect yet....
But if I'm reading you right, we would like to move little bit closer to being a perfect church. So, I've been pondering that this week. We're not doing badly so far. We are not perfect, but We're not doing badly so far.
If we want to become, well not a perfect church (because fallen humans will never get there) but one, two or three steps closer to what Jesus would think of as the perfect church, then it makes sense to build on what we've already got. What strengths have we got that if we built on, could help us become more like what Jesus would have us be? You'll have your own list (looking at some one else) - You'll have another list. I'm going to focus on these three:
Number
Name
Nature
Number
Name
Nature
Number
The number of Mothers. We've got all sorts of people here this morning. One thing we have got a lot of is mothers. Some of you, you're children are long grown up. But you have the experience of having been a mother. So? Well, every mother lives her life for another. And that is what the church is meant to be like. As former Archbishop of Cantabury William Temple put it, "The Church is the only society that exists solely for the benefit of it's non-members." Or as Jesus put it "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you"
Every Mother lives her life for another. Those of you who have been mothers - for the love of your child you have been through the excruciating pain of labour. For the love of your child you had yoru sleep broken as you wake to feed your baby and change her nappy. For the love of your child, you have massively reduced your social life - think how much more you used to go out before you had your child than you did when your child was young. For the love of your child, you structured our entire day around things like School drop off and School pick up times. And on top of all the practical things you did for your child, you spent your time constantly thinking about what would be best for her or him. Every mother lives her life for another.
Now, not all of us in this church are mothers. I, for example, have never been a mother. And of course there are other forms of self sacrifice too. But the mothers here are an inspiration to the rest of us. Every mother exists not for her own benefit but for the benefit of her children. We need to put that into practice in a different context. Every mother exists not for her own benefit but for the benefit of her children. We need to learn more and more to exist not for our own benefit but for the benefit of our non-members.
Of course - it's easy to romanticise being a mother. Frequently you will have thought "I don't want to do this", "I don't want to do that", "Do I have to?" - especially when it comes to having your sleep broken in the middle of the night. "Do I have to?" Yet for love of your child, you got out of bed, comforted her, fed her and changed her nappy. For love of your child you did not what you wanted but what was best for her. As a church too, there will frequently be times for each one of us when we say "I don't want to do this", "I don't want to do that", "Do I have to?" yet, if as parents we can do things we don't want because we love our child, then as Christians, for love of God and love of those who haven't yet come to faith, we will do not what we want but what is best for them.
Go and make disciples of all nations.
Every mother lives her life for another
The Church is the only society that exists solely for the benefit of it's non-members
Number
Name
In 1840 our ancestors started this church. And they chose the name "The Chapel of the Holy and Undivided Trinity" They could have chosen any name - but they chose the name "The Holy and Undivided Trinity"
Everyone of us here chose to be a part of a church called the Holy and Undivided Trinity. There are plenty of good churches in the area - any one of us could have chosen any of those churches. And yet we chose this church. You chose this church. I know in the middle ages (unfortunately) people got forced to go to the church their local Lord of the Mannor went to. But that wasn't the case for you and it wasn't the case for me. We chose to come to this church - of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. And there's so many reasons why we may have done so - this is a good church. But lets not forget the name - "the church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity"
Three persons in one God.
If we call it a mystery, then we mean that there's always something new for us to learn about what it means for God to be three in one. Not that we can't begin to understand it - but that we can never have finished understanding it. The more we learn about the Trinity, the more we learn that there is yet to learn. We can never finish understanding the Trinity - but we CAN begin to understand the concept. And it's a very simple one - it's the concept of love.
Shakespeare describes a couple (in the Phoenix and the Turtle)
They so loved that love in twain
had the essence but of one
two distincts, division none
Number there in love was slain.
"Number there in love was slain" - that two people could love one another so much that the barriers between them broke down and they were one. Well in human relationships we never quite get there, whatever the Bard might write. But God gets there. Father, Son and Holy Spirit - three distinct persons, yet so filled with love for each other, that all barriers break down, all division is ended, "number there in love is slain" and they are not three but one. Quite simple really!
And what name church have we chosen to join? the church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity! So if we are to become closer to Jesus's ideal of the perfect local church, we need to make ourselves more and more like the Holy and Undivided Trinity - loving one another so much that barriers begin to break down, division begin to disappear.
As Fr John Ortberg puts it - "'Number there in love was slain.' The logic of mathematics where two is always two and can never be one - was transcended by the logic of love. In the Trinity, God is three and yet one. God creates human beings, male and female, and the two are one. Jesus prays for his followers, for the church, for all redeemed humanity to become one. This is the "new Math" of God: Everything equals one"
So - our ancestors chose the Name "Holy and Undivided Trinity". We've chosen to belong to a church of this name. And that commits us to working to break down all division - to forgive the other people in this church their mistakes, not just some of the other people, all the other people! to say sorry for our mistakes! To make this community a place where mistakes are rubbed out Not rubbed in - a place where mistakes are rubbed out Not rubbed in! Where the things that separate us from each other shrink, and where love grows. Where love grows and grows and grows. Where we become the church we have chosen to be - the Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity.
A Number,
A Name
And
A Nature
Peter[the person who did the reading] read us a strange Gospel reading for Trinity Sunday. On the face of it, it doesn't tell us much about the Trinity - though I shall come back to that point. But it does tell us to GO! Not "sit down, rest, meditate and contemplate the wonders of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" but Go - "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" That's one thing we know then about Jesus's ideal local church - it's not a sitting around church - it's an active church - Go! - a church where people use the Time and Talents that God has given them.
For all our flaws in other areas, Holy Trinity Barkingside isn't doing too badly on this front.
I have here a copy of my annual report from this year's APCM - I'd like to read it out again it's full of wonderful stuff. I'm not going to, because of time constraints - but I'd like to. Each year my Vicar's Report get's longer and longer, because each year there are more and more people to celebrate, because more and more people are doing things. We are not a sitting around church, we are an active church. When Jesus says Go - we Go!
We are in a far better state than many other churches in this land - which is perhaps why when so many other churches are declining we are NOT. Because we use our talents and our time - when Jesus says go, we go.
But there's no point in a sermon that just makes us feel good about ourselves. We come here to be challenged. You'd rightly be offended if all I did was say the positive stuff and didn't say how we could go further to become more the church Jesus wants us to be. Yes we are wonderfully active and doing lots of good stuff - but you'll rightly feel I am wasting your time if i don't also add a point of challenge, a point of growth.
So our Nature is to be church where people use their time and talents. That's our strength - but what's our weakness.
Well - to be controversial here - I think our weakness is that there are two many James Bonds sitting in front of me, and not enough three musketeers. James Bond is the action hero - par excellence. Single-handedly he saves the day while sipping his Martinis. He doesn't have to rely on any one else - alone he can defeat Blofelt and rescue the world. James Bond is a great hero. But we can do better than that. We can begin to model ourselves on the Musketeers. All for one and one for all!
I said the Gospel we had read to us APPEARED not to say much about the Trinity. But actually it shows us the Trinity in action. The Father does not act alone like James Bond. The son does not act alone like James Bond. The Holy Spirit does not act alone like James Bond. Team Trinity always acts together - all for one and one for all. Every point where we see God at work we see all three persons of the Trinity at work - creation, redemption, new creation. And in today's reading we see it too. In Team Trinity - The Father acts "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me (ie by the Father)" In team Trinity, The Son acts - Jesus uses that authority and says "Go" In Team Trinity, the Spirit acts. Jesus says he will be with us to the end of time. How will he be with us? through the Spirit! All for one and one for all.
There is a natural human tendency to create empires. In a church where nobody does anything, this won't occur. But in a church where we are working hard, we will rightly be proud of the good things we have achieved. So it can be very frustrating if anyone else doing our thing- they'll mess it up. They won't do it as well as us. They won't do it our way. We are James Bond - we can save the day alone. But God calls us to be like Team Trinity, like the three musketeers, all for one, and one for all. If someone else gets involved with the aspect of church life that we've been doing it for years, and does it differently from us, does it matter? NO! Because it's all for one and one for all. Perhaps they'll make mistakes - but so did we when we started. Perhaps it's easier to do it without them interfering. But we're not called to be superhero - we're called to be a team. All for one and one for all. That's challenging stuff. But you're big enough. You can take it!
So I began by asking what is Jesus's ideal for the local church.
And as I hope I've shown - we already have the strengths that can help us become that ideal - if we are willing to take the risk
We have the advantage of the number of Mothers - reminding us how to live for other people, in a mum's case, her child, in the church's case - how to make the church not what we want, but designed for the benefit of it's non members.
We have the advantage of our Name. None of us has been forced to belong to the church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. All of us have chosen to be a part of a church with this name. let us build on that choice and love until all barriers come down and every littlest rivalry or grudge ends.
We have the advantage of our Nature - we are a church where people use their time and talents. Let's build on that strength to be less a church of talented individualists - and more a team - All for one and one for all.
Number, Name, Nature
Amen
