Refreshing lives, transforming faith, at the heart of the community Haere Mai, Piki Mai
Please Note:This web site makes extensive use of CSS for styling .
If you can read this message, it is probably because your browser does not properly support CSS or you have disabled this yourself.
Although the content looks better with with CSS 'turned on', this site is perfectly readable either way.
One oddity you may notice (with CSS turned off) is the display of text that is intended for PRINTERS ONLY
A Sermon by Dean Charles Tyrrell
Nelson Cathedral
Sunday, 18 May 2008
Trinity Sunday
One day last week I was working at the desk in my study. All of a sudden I heard shouting which had a sense of urgency about it. My
wife Elaine was calling me from the kitchen and for a split second I panicked, worrying that something was wrong. When I arrived in the
kitchen Elaine was pointing outside towards our back garden. And there, as plain as anything, was the most beautifully formed rainbow,
which seemed to cover the whole of our parish. Being a cloudy day, the colours were even more vivid. It was awesome.
In the Revelation of John we read:
'At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! And the one seated there looks like jasper
and cornelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. '
Revelation 4
Awesome is the same word I would apply to John's vision of heavenly worship. I know that some parts of the book we call the Revelation (or the
apocalypse) are difficult to understand and hard to believe, but in essence it is a powerful work and contains far more that is uplifting and
yes ... awesome! John builds on such writing as found in Daniel and even on the words of Jesus himself. So, let's not discount it out of hand.
As rainbows are seen better in the presence of dark cloud, so Johns writing takes on meaning and beauty when we consider the context of his
writing. It is estimated that John was writing from exile on the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea sometime between the year 70AD and the
end of the first century. Whenever it was, John was aware of much suffering and of the persecution of the early church by such emperors as
Nero and Domitian. We can see how talk of the beauty and perfection of heaven, where the saints crowd around God's throne, incessantly
worshipping, must have helped to give courage to Christians under threat.
This sort of thinking builds very well onto our readings for
Pentecost from last week.
Just recall the upper room where the disciples were
cosseted, for fear of trouble. Into that situation where they were bereft by the departure of Jesus, the Holy Spirit came in power and glory
and they were changed. And as we were reminded at our Oikos homegroup last Wednesday, this principle of a new dawn, a new day, was
experienced by the two disciples on their walk from Jerusalem to their home at Emmaus. They were downcast and sad because of what
happened to Jesus, and into this situation came the man himself, the risen Lord. Sullen and sad on the outward journey by contrast they
were buoyed up and confidently asserting that they had "seen the Lord" on their return to Jerusalem. A new day, a new dawn had come for them.
Getting back to John's Revelation, what were the words he attributed to the worshippers at God's throne?
'Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.'
Holy, thrice holy, because he recognized the three aspects of the divinity. God the Father, God the Creator, God over us (in Augustine's words);
God the Son, God in flesh, God with us; and God the Holy Spirit, God the Counsellor, God in us.
God as Trinity is self evident in our reading of the Bible, in both testaments. It is the whole nature of God we worship and adore, not some dissected
portion of the divine. That makes no sense at all. If you take home only one lesson this Trinity Sunday, this has to be it.
The Holy Trinity - the rainbow nature of God. We do not serve a monochrome God but a God who is multi-faceted, multi-functional. Sometimes
we in the Church have attempted to restrict the dynamic nature of God when all the time God appeals to all people. Think back to the days
of Puritanism when all seemed so dark and repressive. Christmas Day was even banned, for goodness'sake! Law crept back into the Church
in order to control the hearts and minds of the people. It was the opposite of what God would have wanted, I am sure.
Now defenders of that time in history would say that they were simply getting the Church back to the undiluted and unadulterated Word of God
as found in the Scriptures. They have left the Church a legacy of fundamentalism, a legacy that dogs us to this day. As God is a
rainbow God, so scripture is incandescent with the record of God and God's dealings with people. We cannot afford to be blinkered in our
interpretation of the Bible but open and receptive to all the possibilities it contains. The best, the only rule of thumb to go by is that if Scripture
was inspired by the Holy Spirit (known as the Author) then here and now we can ask the Author to be present to help us to understand and learn
from it all. That's so reassuring and exciting.
Speaking of scripture, the Holy Bible, you would be entitled to ask where do we find the scriptural basis for the doctrine of God the Holy Trinity?
Well, nowhere, actually! There is not one major discourse in the bible, not even from the lips of Jesus himself, which sets out this doctrine once
and for all. So why bother, you could rightfully ask. Why put ourselves through this annual attempt to explain this divine conundrum which has
defeated so many preachers in the past?
The doctrine of the Trinity may not be explicit in the Bible but implicitly the evidence for it can be seen. OK, there are a few passages where
we see the three Persons of the Trinity at work, as in today's gospel reading, for example. In St John's gospel, Jesus the Son is speaking/teaching
and refers to the Father and the Spirit. The three aspects of the Divine working in tandem.
Think about the time Jesus was baptised by John in the river Jordan. As Jesus the Son stood in the water, God's voice was heard describing him as
his beloved Son and then the Holy Spirit was evidenced in the form of a dove. The Trinity in action.
As people of different facets ourselves and yet united and whole, we can appreciate the Trinity because it addresses us, who we are and how we
are. So today, this Trinity Sunday, is not a day for clever theories that explain God - God forbid - but an opportunity to acknowledge the rainbow
God we love and serve, doing so as the rainbow people of God.
Worship in Revelation was full and fantastically colourful. From a position of suffering, John experienced the fullness of God and saw this expressed
in beautiful worship. Let that be our aim today as we worship God in spirit and in truth from the fullness of our being. Add your praises to those of
the heavenly worshippers and declare with a full heart,
'You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.'
Revelation 4
In the name of the whole Godhead. Amen.
Amen.
This sermon was written and delivered by Dean Charles Tyrrell QSO at Nelson Cathedral on Sunday, 18 May 2008
The Holy Trinity - the rainbow nature of God. We do not serve a monochrome God but a God who is multi-faceted, multi-functional. Sometimes
we in the Church have attempted to restrict the dynamic nature of God when all the time God appeals to all people. Think back to the days
of Puritanism when all seemed so dark and repressive. Christmas Day was even banned, for goodness'sake! Law crept back into the Church
in order to control the hearts and minds of the people. It was the opposite of what God would have wanted, I am sure.
Think about the time Jesus was baptised by John in the river Jordan. As Jesus the Son stood in the water, God's voice was heard describing him as
his beloved Son and then the Holy Spirit was evidenced in the form of a dove. The Trinity in action.