Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Isaiah 6:1-8 Trinity 2024 The Trinity is not a problem to be solved, but a relationship to be encountered. A link to the audio of this talk can be found here There is a great clip from the film, Nuns on the Run where the two characters Brian and Charlie are hiding from gangsters dressed as nuns. Brian has to teach a class about the Trinity Brian: Explain the Trinity. Charlie: Hmm, well it’s a bit of a mystery. You’ve got the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. But the three are one---like a shamrock, my old priest used to say. Three leaves but one leaf. Now the Father sent down the Son, who was love, and then when he went away he sent down the Holy Spirit, who came down in the form of a…. Brian: You already told me—a ghost. Charlie: No, a dove. Brian: The dove was a ghost? Charlie: No, the ghost was a dove. Brian: Let me try and summarise this. God is his son. And his son is God. But his son moonlights as a holy ghost, a holy spirit and a dove. And they all send each other, even though...

John 16:12-15 If you visit the Tretyakov Gallery and go downstairs to the icon section, you will discover this icon. It is Rublev’s icon of the Trinity and is one of the great gifts that Russian spirituality has given to the Christian world. It depicts an Old Testament event. Abraham, the great ancestor of the Jewish people, has settled by the oak of Mamre (Genesis 18:1-15). You can see the tree here in the centre of the image. Three travellers are walking through the desert. Abraham, as was customary at the time, invites them to stop and rest, and provides them with food. So here you have Abraham’s house and the desert, and the three visitors, seated around a meal of lamb. Those who have investigated the original can make out the image of a lamb in the cup. After they have eaten, the guests tell Abraham that even though Sarah his wife is over 90, she will have the son that God promised them. And Abraham realises that he has entertained not just three travellers, b...

Romans 8.12-17 This is at first sight, a strange passage for Trinity Sunday: it should really be a reading for Pentecost because it is about the Spirit – about being led by the Spirit. But the Spirit cannot be separated from the Father or the Son. For a start, the Spirit here is described as ‘the Spirit’, as the ‘Spirit of God’ (v14), and as the ‘Spirit of Christ’ (v9). And we are told that the Spirit is the Spirit of adoption (v15): If we are led by the Spirit, we are adopted into God’s family. We are not, in our human fallen state, children of God – not children in that special way. But when the Spirit of God, or the Spirit of Christ, comes into our lives, when we receive the Spirit, we are born again – or ‘from above’ – by the Spirit. And we become adopted children in the family of God. And as people who have the Spirit, that means that we have all the privileges of being sons and daughters of God. And now we’re beginning to speak about Trinity....

John 15.5-11 Harry Potter discovers a mirror in the room of enchantment! It is not a normal mirror. When he looks into it, he sees himself with his parents. He was orphaned as a baby. He spends hours gazing at the image in the mirror. And it is only when Dumbledore explains that he realises what is going on. The mirror shows you what your deepest desire, your deepest wish is. It is the mirror or Erised, which is desire backwards. Jesus speaks here of desire, when he says (v7), 'Ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you'. He doesn't just say it here. In Matthew 7.7 he says, 'Ask, and it will be given you' (Luke 11.9) In Matthew 21.22 he says, 'Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive' (Mark 11.24) In John 14.13 he says, 'I will do whatever you ask in my name'. In v14 he says, 'If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it'. In 16.24, he says, 'Ask and you will receive, so that y...

                  1. Limitations of language ‘If you can understand it, it’s not God’. (Augustine of Hippo)   2. Experience of disciples a) They knew that there was only one God Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One Lord. ( Deuteronomy 6:4 ) For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. ( Isaiah 46:9 ) The first followers call the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, God (Colossians 1.3)   They also saw that Jesus prayed to God as Father (eg. John 11.41), is conscious of being loved by the Father, of being sent by the Father, of being given all things by the Father (3.34), of speaking the words of the Father (12.49f), doing the works of the Father (4.34, 6.38), judging with the judgement of the Father (8.16), sharing in the glory of the Father (8.54; 17.5), and of being one with the Father (John 10.29). Jesus had this sense of being in the Father and o...