Holy God, faithful and unchanging: enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth, and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love, that we may truly worship you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
All good things come in 3’s we often say – and yet we also have a superstitious tendency to think that bad things come in 3’s too– feeling almost bizarrely relived when the third bad thing has happened – phew that’s it, we say – no more to worry about for a bit!
Well, 3 is my lucky number! Actually I’m not the slightest bit superstitious – I make a point of walking under ladders and welcoming black cats walking across my path – which is lucky as we have one of those at home! But there is something significant about the number 3 isn’t there? The ancient Greeks considered 3 to be the perfect number, imbued with harmony, wisdom and understanding.
Across many different cultures and religions it is seen as significant – representing completeness, wholeness, balance – just think how many things seem to come in threes –
beginning, middle and end,
past present, future,
birth, life death,
body mind soul,
earth, sky, us!
In the Bible the number 3 conveys themes of divine perfection, completeness and God’s involvement in the world. And of course today, on Trinity Sunday – we especially think of God in these 3 ways:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Creator Redeemer, Sustainer
Lover, Beloved, Love
The Holy Trinity – the Holy Three – three in one and one in three. Our talking of God as Trinity really came about because of the way people experienced God – God the Creator of all things, Jesus who comes to live as one of us, Holy Spirit – life force, power of God’s love – and there was no arguing about the fact that God was present to us as human beings in these three ways. Obviously – in reality there was an awful lot of arguing about some of the details – and rather a lot of wars, schisms, death and particularly horrible executions came about because people couldn’t agree on all this. Thankfully, a way of talking about this was agreed – what we call the doctrine of the Trinity. Which no-one really understands, even if they claim to, and as soon as you try to explain it, rationalise it or write it down – it runs away from you like quicksilver or ends up with you uttering one good old heresy after another. We won’t go into all that here!
Today I want to bring us back to three things. Three ways we can know God. Three ways we can be in relationship with God. Three ways we can live in God’s love.
Today we meet as a church family at our APCM also in 3 ways:– looking back at the year that has been, looking forward to the year ahead as we choose those who will help lead us, and looking around at ourselves as we gather together so that we may grow in love and knowledge of each other – and so in love and knowledge of God – the God who made each one of us.
When we look at ourselves as the Church of God, as Canon Bill helped us explore at St Luke’s Mission Day – we think about three ways of being church:
Worship – relationship with God – Communion
Fellowship – relationship with each other – Community
Outreach – relationship with the wider community – Communication
Another way of putting this might be: Looking up, Looking in, Looking out. And this seems to be a good way to help us as we think about the Trinity too – not static, but dynamic, not a fixed triangle, but like the symbols of the Trinity, the Triquetra and the Celtic triangle, free-flowing and endless.
Such is God’s love – that before even we were made to be part of this love, God already was a loving being – a community of love.
Ironically on a day when we focus on the rules of Church Representation and governance, when in our annual meeting we partly look at ourselves through a business type lens – we need to remember that as Nicodemus discovers when he meets Jesus – no human made rules of engagement can limit God, and whilst we talk about God as love, we don’t find it easy to really grasp what this really means for God’s love is not measured and sensible, following a set of rules and administered through us as the Church. Like the wind of the Spirit, like the dove that flies free, God’s love is immeasurable and uncontrollable – and when we let ourselves get caught up in it – it is like a whirlwind, like being born anew!
As we elect our Churchwardens and PCC today – we need to know that these are not boring, wearisome responsibilities and tasks – but like Isaiah, trembling at the unimaginable glory of God he sees in his vision – wondrous callings that will fill us with joy and in the power of the Spirit and in the light of his love we too can say ‘Send me’.
Amen.
Service: Reverend Michelle Dalliston 26th May 2024. (St John The Baptist Church Peterborough UK)
Readings: Isaiah 6.1-8; Psalm 29; Romans 8.12-17; John 3.1-17