Trinity Sunday 2022 St Andrew’s Milngavie
Dear All
Today we gathered to celebrate Trinity Sunday. We welcomed Hugh to play for us as we sang the traditional Trinity hymns.
Please don’t forget the Summer Tea Party in the Hall next Saturday 2-4pm – we are hoping for a sunny and glorious afternoon!
Notices for this week:
Tuesday 10am Prayer Group in the Garden Room.
Thursday 10am Said Eucharist followed by coffee in Friendship House
Saturday 18th June 2pm -4pm Summer Tea Party and Stalls in the hall and garden – Please support and invite anyone who you think may wish to come – all welcome!
Readings for next Sunday – First Sunday after Trinity Isaiah 65:1-9 Galatians 3:23-29 Luke 8:26-39
Today’s readings – Proverbs 8:1-4,22-31 Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15
I have been trying to catch up with the recent silent witness episodes. It’s a while since I’ve watched this programme – but I used to enjoy it, admiring Emelia Fox in her role of Home Office pathologist wondering if I could ever have possibly aspired to such a position! Amazingly this is the 23rd series -the mysteries and the plots becoming ever more complex and sophisticated.
In many ways the Bible is similar – mysterious and complex in its content as it tells the story of God – The mystery of the God Almighty. Today, Trinity Sunday we take that mystery even further as we celebrate the Holy Trinity, the relationship between the Father Son and Holy spirit. It maybe helpful to turn to the bible to help understand this somewhat mysterious concept.
In the Old Testament the focus is mainly on God the Creator and we read about the building up of his relationship with his people. Here we only get the merest hints about the Son and the Spirit.
In the New Testament we discover that the God who made the world was so concerned for us, his people, that he wanted tangibly to be part of us. So sent his son to be born as a human – to share in our earthly life. So, God the Creator became also God the Father.
We also learn in the New Testament that, in Jesus, God was prepared to die for us, a death that was not an end but a beginning – a doorway to eternal life for all of us. God the Son is also God the Redeemer.
Pentecost or Whitsun which was celebrated last week reveals yet another aspect of God’s character, another dimension to his love. At Pentecost God shared that love with us by sending his spirit upon the apostles and all his people, inspiring, equipping and enabling them to proclaim and assuring us of his presence with us always, through his spirit.
As Christ promised to his disciples before he ascended
“I will send the advocate to you …………..When the spirit of truth comes He will guide you into all truth…”
God the Holy Spirit is also God the Sanctifier and Sustainer.
But if we think of the bible as a mystery story, the mystery of The Almighty, in a sense it is only the first volume. There are still many things God wants to tell us and there is a sequel, but the sequel involves us. It involves us seeking the spirit’s guidance in our everyday lives, embracing the scriptures and nurturing our faith through prayer and relationship. All in a world so different from first century Palestine but just as real and relevant.
And there is to be a further episode too. There will be a time when all the clues in the Trinity Trilogy make sense and when we see in full, though now we see only in part through a glass darkly, a concept so well expressed by St Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians.
“ For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
But for now, we must live with mystery. We need simply to accept that God’s essential nature is a mystery. Each of us at our baptism became part of that mystery and each of us at our Holy Communion today can share in the mystery, which is the love of God, the real presence of God brought to us through the sharing of the bread and wine.
So often in our journey in faith we seek and desire definite answers to serious questions about God and our relationship with him and his people. Why is there suffering in the world?
Why do we suffer?
Why is there war in Ukraine?
Is there life after death?
Does God really love and forgive us?
Why do our prayers sometimes seem to go unanswered?
The list could on……. Many, many theologians over the centuries have tried to answer these questions, but there are no definite answers. Faith isn’t like that
In the letter to the Hebrews it says in chapter 11
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”
Simple acceptance of mystery that is what faith is about.
Amen