Sermons from St Faith's
Trinity
Revd Sue Lucas, Trinity
Sunday, May 31st, 2015
There are a number of mean tricks one can play
on one’s curate – and, yes, I served my time as
being the butt of everyone’s jokes – including –
especially – my training incumbent!
It sometimes happens – depending on the date of
Easter - to get a newly-minted priest – to
preach at Trinity. (Deacons are usually ordained
a bit later on, at Petertide). And it’s
really mean – because the temptation is either
to get caught up in a lot of abstract
theological head stuff from the Ecumenical
Councils (the question of whether the Holy
Spirit proceeds from the Father or from the
Father and the Son is still a bone of contention
between East and West in the Church) – or to
say, simply – ‘it’s all a mystery, Amen’ – and
then sit down.
I’m not going to either – because neither is
quite right. Of course our intellects are
important – and we shouldn’t leave them at the
Church door. Equally, God as Trinity is
not a puzzle to be solved – and by the way you
all know that one of our wardens created wooden
puzzles of the most fiendish and annoying
variety - but a mystery to be experienced,
experienced above all in prayer.
And how very difficult this is for us. It
is said – by one of the Desert Fathers, I think
– that Adam prayed as he breathed; yet we are
fallen humanity – and, like the Adam, the
archetypal human, we find it hard to be naked
before God – in our Gospel, Nicodemus, the
representative of the intellectual elite, the
religious ruling class, can only cover his naked
vulnerability with night. And even then he
doesn’t get it – he cannot step out of his
intellect and allow the presence of God to
transform him.
It is difficult for us, too – for it is, as in
Isaiah’s vision – an awesome thing to come into
the presence of God – for we realise that God is
God, and cannot be manipulated or negotiated
with or appropriated into our own petty
grandiose schemes.
But to the extent that we can – well, then, we
are, like Isaiah, caught up in the life of God,
in the fire that touches our hearts and our
lips, burning away all that separates us from
God. It is an awesome thing to come into
the presence of God;
But if we dare – we are caught up in the life of
God – and the life of God,we discover, is
relentless, committed love – the mutual,
indwelling love of the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit.
And if we dare – we realise we are caught up in
the life of God, because we were made to be
loved, made to share in the dance of love that
is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
And once we dare to realise that we are made for
love, we realise too that the love of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit runs over,
for all humanity.
I’m sure some of you know the wonderful Rublev
icon of the Trinity; three figures are seated
round a central table – it depicts the scene in
Genesis in which Abraham receives three
strangers with generous hospitality. As
you look at the icon you are drawn in by the
gorgeous robes of the three figure; by the sense
of balance between them – the eye is perhaps
drawn to one or other, as they seem to have a
sense of attentiveness, of relaxed yet alert
listening about them;
But above all, there is an empty place at the
table – and it gradually dawns on us that we are
invited to that place – even as we are called to
invite in the Guest who walks with us, our
hearts burning within us: abide with us, Lord,
for it is evening; abide with us in the evening
of the day, in the evening of our lives, in the
evening of the world; abide with us, and with
all your church, God most holy, God most strong,
that we may be drawn into the fire of your love,
and burn with it, that we might make the love of
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, visible in all
the world. Amen.
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