Dear friends,
This time of the year is always special for me, I always look forward to Lent, Holy Week, and Easter. In my past life the biggest incentive was that it was the first Bank Holiday of the year, which I used to look forward to as I set out to work on dark and cold mornings. As I became more aware of the Christian and specifically Methodist celebrations, events like the ascension of Christ, Wesley Day, and Pentecost, celebrations seem to follow hot on the heals of the last one and I look forward every year to this part of the Christian journey. Today is Trinity Sunday and I always feel as we celebrate the Trinity, we reach the high point of our Christian journey. I remember as a young preacher, way back in the eighties being told to block Trinity Sunday because it is the most difficult Sunday of the year. I confess that I have never really understood why people find the Trinity difficult to understand. I remember having a conversation a few years ago with a Muslim leader, we had a fascinating chat and during that time, he said “you Christians don’t half make life difficult with three different God’s, we have one God, it’s much more straight forward” is it? I find myself asking, this is how I see it: –
In the beginning God:
I believe in God, the one God, the creator of the universe, who was there at the beginning of time and will be there at the end of time. I heard somebody say recently “I think it is good to have a white-haired old man up in the clouds looking after us all” I’m pretty sure that I don’t share that particular view of God, but I treasure the stories from the Old Testament where the all-powerful God leads his people to do incredible things, who speak through Prophets, priests and Kings, who influences life. I believe in the eternal and infinite God and on that issue, I can agree with my Muslim friend There is one God and I worship him.
For God so loved the world:
My issue with my Muslim friend’s simplicity is that God remains remote, communicating with us through our modern-day prophets. As a Christian, I believe that God looked upon a lost race and in pity and love sent his son into the world. My Muslim friend believes in Jesus just the same as I do, however, to him, Jesus is a prophet, to me Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, God in human form. Therefore, as I read the eyewitness accounts recorded by his followers, I am reading the life, ministry, teaching, and example of God himself. When I look at the broken body of Christ on the cross, I see God making the ultimate sacrifice for us. I truly believe that this man was the Messiah, God incarnate.
I will pour out my Spirit:
I would have struggled to survive over the last two and a bit years without the help of the Holy Spirit, in fact, I think that I can honestly say that there have been several chapters in the book of my life, that could so easily have caused me to sink, and I can not imagine ever being in this situation as a Minister in the Methodist Church, writing to people, without the Holy Spirit working in me. I achieve so little in my own strength, in the Power of the Spirit I can far surpass my own expectation! God poured out his Spirit on the early Disciples and empowered them to achieve what must have felt to be impossible, just imagine where he can lead the Church today.
Thirty-seven years on from the words of wisdom about Trinity Sunday, I continue to Worship, in the name of Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and I remain loyal to a trinitarian understanding of faith. I hope that you find this helpful.
With best wishes.
Derek