JN 16: 12-15 

Jottings on John…Trinity Sunday…Revised 2019 

Despite being the proud wearer of a T shirt emblazoned with ‘Heretic - In Good Company’ (the gift of a theologian son!) I have nothing at all against the Trinity! Can you hear God sighing with relief from wherever you are?! Seriously, though, what-ever we do, let’s not shirk preaching the Trinity today. More, when we preach ‘The Trinity’, let’s preach the Holy Three as a Relationship, not as a Doctrine.

Doctrine, of course, has its place, but rarely, I suggest, from the pulpit. Preach the Holy Three as Doctrine & we lose the Energy inherent in Them & between Them. We’ll also lose the congregation, too, I suspect. As my granddaughter is wont to say when I’m nearing dangerous ground, “Don’t go there Grandad!” (Or you’ll spoil the relationship!)

So, how to preach the Holy Trinity as the the most Lively, Life-giving, Energy-filled- Relationship from before the beginning of time? As relevant & necessary today as ‘It’ has ever been!

I once saw a banner proclaiming what the Trinity is & what ‘It’ isn’t. It consisted of a shield with 'ribbons' linking the Persons of the Trinity (One in each corner) with the words: ‘The Father is not the Son; The Son is not the Spirit; &, The Spirit is not the Father. Then, running from each corner to the word 'GOD' in the centre, other ribbons proclaimed ‘The Father is God; the Son is God; the Spirit is God’.  It represented, or tried to, pictorially, a doctrine of God seemingly flowing between deepest mystery & the obvious.

Today’s Gospel proclaims God’s ‘In-house’ relationships quite clearly if we’ll explore it. There is still, though, much that Jesus would like to share with us: 'I still have a lot to tell you but you can't cope with it yet’ [v.12]. Despite long theological exploration - or, could it be, because of it? - are we still in that 'yet' stage? Do we know the Holy Three as Personally as God knows us? Person to person? What are our own personal Relationships like? Are we at one within ourself, as the Holy Three are One?

Or, are we conflicted within? In which case we’re also more likely to be conflicted without, too, aren’t we? What are Relationships like within our congregation? Those in our wider community? Whatever these relationships are, & in all of these cases, how do we need to act to bring them up to a Godly  standard? A Trinity-like standard? How, & what should we be praying to bring any & all of these relationships up to the standard the Holy Three expect of us & need from us? Dare I ask if we’re bringing our good intentions down to earth? As well as God does - Father, Son, & Spirit?

Brian

Afterthought: God is God, not doctrine about God! God limited to any descriptive terms we've come up with can’t really be God. Even in terms we can 'prove' are Biblical! God always lives outside the Book. Any book! Not least our Bible!

JN 14: 8-17 

Jottings on John…Pentecost…New 2019

At sermon time, why not re-read the opening of the Acts passage, dramatically, as: ‘Suddenly from heaven there comes the sound like the rush of violent wind! It breaks through the roof of the church & fills the entire place! Tongues like fire come down & distribute themselves & sit on each one of us! And we are all filled with Holy Spirit & begin to speak in other languages as the Spirit makes it possible.’

When it comes to the ‘other languages’ I have no problem with re-interpreting the speaking in tongues bit in the light of today’s needs, rather than those of the first spreaders of the Gospel. The language that matters most of all today is that of Love. In short supply in most lands, & in religions of all stripes. Resist any temptation to bog down in fruitless theological dissection of ‘tongues’. To do that would be yet another distraction from that One Language we all need to learn to speak. And we’re all capable of ‘speaking’ when the Spirit empowers us; the language of God’s love. 

Going further, when we reach the Greeting of Peace, & the President says, ‘We are the Body of Christ’ let’s shout back, ‘His Spirit is with us!’ And respond to ‘The Peace of the Lord be always with you’ with an almighty, ‘And also with you!’ Then share that peace with those nearby, looking them straight in the eye with our ‘Peace be with you’ & holding that gaze till they look us straight in the eye, too, with their ‘And also with you!’ A good way to share the Peace, today & every day!

In the Gospel, Philip hovers on the brink of a great discovery: that Jesus really is the human face of God. But he doesn't quite get there. Not even after Jesus explains it to him so simply as to say, "Look at me, Phil; if you see me you see God". Pentecost is our annual celebration of the Spirit of Jesus being God’s Living Reminder that Love is the One Language that speaks across all barriers & boundaries. God’s new creation depends not on speaking in tongues - in any sense - but on people being able to look at us & see God looking back at them in us! As Phil didn’t quite get!

Holy Spirit isn’t a doctrine. Any more than Jesus is. Or the Father! Pentecost is all about God making God-self present & knowable in the Spirit of Jesus the Christ. Putting it another way, Holy Spirit brings us together in ourselves & in each other as God is All Together! All Together One. Pentecost, like Resurrection, needs to be a personal, on-going, & unifying experience if God is to be real for us, & if we're to be real to God & for each other.

 Brian 

Afterthought: In the beginning the Spirit of God sweeps over the waters unifying what God is calling into being step by step, ‘day’ by ‘day’. The Spirit of Love is still at work sweeping over us & unifying us as a New Creation.