SERMON FOR TRINITY SUNDAY 4TH JUNE 2023

SERMON FOR TRINITY SUNDAY 4TH JUNE 2023

Trinity Sunday

Have you ever read ‘Hard Times’, by Charles Dickens?
The first two chapters are set in a Victorian schoolroom,
‘Girl number twenty,’ said Mr. Gradgrind, squarely pointing with his square forefinger, ‘I don’t know that girl. Who is that girl?’
‘Sissy Jupe, sir,’ explained number twenty, blushing, standing up, and curtseying.
Let me see. What is your father?’
‘He belongs to the horse-riding, if you please, sir.’
Mr. Gradgrind frowned, and waved off the objectionable calling with his hand.
‘We don’t want to know anything about that, here. You mustn’t tell us about that, here. Your father breaks horses, don’t he?’
‘If you please, sir, when they can get any to break, they do break horses in the ring, sir.’
‘You mustn’t tell us about the ring, here. Very well, then. Describe your father as a horsebreaker. He doctors sick horses, I dare say?’
‘Oh yes, sir.’
‘Very well, then. He is a veterinary surgeon, a farrier, and horsebreaker. Give me your definition of a horse.’
(Sissy Jupe thrown into the greatest alarm by this demand.)
‘Girl number twenty unable to define a horse!’ said Mr. Gradgrind… ‘Girl number twenty possessed of no facts, in reference to one of the commonest of animals! Some boy’s definition of a horse…’
‘Bitzer…Your definition of a horse.’
‘Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.’ Thus (and much more) Bitzer.
‘Now girl number twenty,’ said Mr. Gradgrind. ‘You know what a horse is.’
Horses being the family business Sissy Jupe knew exactly what a horse was, the definition given by the meritorious Bitzer added nothing to her understanding. Sissy surely had a better understanding of horses than anybody in the room, but her understanding came from experience not from books so in Gradgrind’s schoolroom it counted for nothing. If either Bitzer or Mr Gradgrind ever needed to break a horse they would soon find out how useful their definition was.
Trinity Sunday gives us a definition of God, a definition carefully worked out down through the centuries. We believe in One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three persons One God. Consubstantial, coeternal and coequal.
Now, Sissy Jupe, you know who God is. A horse is a graminivorous quadruped and God is a consubstantial, coeternal, coequal Trinity.
Reason is not the only way of knowing something; think about how you know those you are closest to you? Your deep knowledge of those closest to you comes from a relationship of love not from an abstract definition. It is no doubt true that your wife or husband or child or parent is indeed a bipedal culture bearing primate belonging to the species homo-sapiens, but that is not how you know your loved ones, and if someone declared you didn’t know your beloved because you couldn’t explain what a bipedal primate was, you would either feel abashed like Sissy Jupe or, if you were made of sterner stuff, you’d give your pedantic critic an ear bashing.
You don’t fall in love with someone by defining them, and it is the same with God, in fact it is especially so with God because, as the bible tells us, God is love. Knowing God is primarily a matter of the heart not of the head, so to know God you need to first engage the correct organ of knowledge, the heart not the head.
1 John 4; 7-8 says,  ‘Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.   Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.’ John is explaining that love is the way to know God.
Perhaps people don’t recognise God because they have been told God is an idea, a consubstantial, coeternal and coequal proposition. God is love, people recognise love, they feel it, they know it. The self sacrificial, redemptive, healing love made known through the life of Jesus is a fundamental part of human experience. God is love, so at the most intimate, at the meaningful, at the deepest parts of your life there is God.  In loving each other as Christ loved us we find the very presence of God. No wonder people don’t believe in God if the description we give matches nothing they know, yet the description God gives of Himself, the Word made flesh, matches our very humanity.
Ever since the Apostles proclaimed the Word made flesh theologians have been trying with their entire intellectual might to dissolve flesh back into words. Into strings of words that only those with an academic theological training can understand.  If you want to understand God you would do better to put your book aside and go and love others as selflessly as Jesus loved us.
The Trinity is a relationship of perfect love, to say that the three persons of the Trinity are consubstantial, coeternal and coequal is a correct but rather abstract way of describing that eternal love. The truest response to the eternal love of the Trinity is to love God and each other, writing abstracted grammatical equations to try and describe that love is a legitimate response, and can be helpful, but it is not the heart of the matter.
Jesus said ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’, not ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you can repeat and comprehend Trinitarian formulas.’
In the past Christians have been very mean to people who did not have a Trinitarian understanding of God, some still are. Christians who have got all the right words about the Trinity lined up in the right theological order have persecuted other people for not having the same understanding. To be mean to someone, to persecute them, because they haven’t the same understanding of the Trinity is to demonstrate conclusively that you have no real understanding of the Trinity because ‘whoever does not love does not know God.’
Do you want a simple illustration of the Trinity? Give someone a hug.
A hug translates love which cannot be seen into physical touch which can be seen and felt. A hug is a simple picture of the Word made flesh, and the feeling inside of you when you are hugged by a loved one – that is like the Holy Spirit.
One might say there is one hug – love, touch and the feeling inside.
The One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit pictured in a simple action, a hug. No doubt the theologians would howl ‘HERESY’, but if so that would be because they have neither poetry nor humour.
God is love, made touchable in the body of Jesus Christ, and made known in our lives by the Holy Spirit.
So if someone asks you for an explanation of the Trinity, give them a hug.
The absolute best explanation is to love them with the self giving love of Christ, but that is rather demanding and takes time, so give them a hug. If they really want to understand the meaning of the Trinity they may just get it from that. If all they want is to pick an argument with you about God then they will give up and clear off as we are English, and the notion of being hugged by a stranger or acquaintance is appalling.

Amen.

WELLANDFOSSE SERVICES FOR SUNDAY 4TH JUNE 2023

WELLANDFOSSE SERVICES FOR SUNDAY 4TH JUNE 2023

 

Trillium Luteum Plant Perennial Lily Family 1 x 9 cm Pot Recently Potted

Sunday Services for Trinity Sunday

 

9.30am  Duddington Church                                   Holy communion  (SG)

11.oo am  Barrowden Church                                   Holy Communion (said)  (SG)

6.00 pm   South Luffenham Church                        Evensong  (AR)(SS)

Readings :Genesis 6.9-22; 7.24; 8.14-19
Psalm 46
Romans 1.16,17;
3.22b-28[29-31]
Matthew 7.21-29

 

Zoom Morning Prayer every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8.30am and Compline on Thursdays at 6pm

Please email sally@saltlane.com if you would like a Zoom link

WELLAND FOSSE BENEFICE SERVICES FOR JUNE 2023

WELLAND FOSSE BENEFICE SERVICES FOR JUNE 2023

WELLAND-FOSSE BENEFICE SERVICES

 

JUNE 2023

 

Date Barrowden South Luffenham Morcott Duddington Tixover
Sun 4th June

Trinity

Sunday

 

11am

Holy Communion (Said)

(SG)

6pm

Evensong

(AR & SS)

9.30am

Holy Communion

(SG)

 
Sun 11th June

 

 

11am

Family Morning Worship

(SG)

9.30am

Family Holy Communion

(SG)

11am

Morning Worship

(S&V)

 
Sun 18th June 11am

Holy Communion

Elastic Band

(SG)

9.30am

Morning Worship

(SS)

 

  9.30am

Holy Communion

(SG)

SATURDAY

24TH JUNE

5PM

Choral Evensong

Sung by the Uppingham Church choir with singers from Welland-Foss and St Peter’s, Weston Favell under the direction of John Wardle

   
Sun 25th June

 

 

11am

Morning Worship

(AR & SS)

9.30am

Holy communion

(SG)

11am

Holy Communion

(SG)

   

 

 

BENEFICE SERMON FOR PENTECOST SUNDAY 28TH MAY 2023

BENEFICE SERMON FOR PENTECOST SUNDAY 28TH MAY 2023

Sermon for Pentecost

Acts 2, 1 – 8, 14 – 18
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 “‘In the last days, God says,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
    and they will prophesy.”
John 7. 37 – 39
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
The composer, Joseph Haydn, once explained that he had a particular morning routine, he described it thus…
“I get up early, and as soon as I have dressed I go down on my knees and pray to God and the Blessed Virgin that I may have another successful day. Then, when I’ve had some breakfast, I set down at the keyboard and begin my search. If I hit on an idea quickly, it goes ahead easily and without much trouble. But if I can’t get on, I know that I must have forfeited God’s grace by some fault of mine, and then I pray once more for grace.”
Haydn was a devout Roman Catholic who attributed his inspiration to God, he always wrote at the beginning of a manuscript, ‘In the name of the Lord’, and at the end of each composition, ‘Praise God’.
In his morning prayers Haydn sought inspiration; he is not the only composer to have attributed his music to divine inspiration, Sibelius wrote that, ‘Music is for me like a beautiful mosaic which God has put together. He takes all the pieces in his hand, throws them into the world, and we have to recreate the picture from the pieces.’
In fact many composers report an intuitive sense that the music they write may have been written down by them but does not actually originate with them, that the creative process is more about hearing the music than composing it. For instance Mahler once said, ‘I don’t choose what I compose. It chooses me.’
In Church we may talk about the bible as inspired, or prophecy as inspired, but we do not usually equate this with inspiration spoken of beyond the bounds of the Church. The bible has authority over the life of the Church and over the lives of individual Christians, but as the bible says, all good things come from God, and that includes music.
Sometimes we speak as if God is religious and thereby must only exist within Church, and inspiration out in the world must be something different. No wonder people find it hard to believe in God if they think the only place He can be experienced is in Church, especially as people do not always find Church a particularly inspiring place.
If we confine our understanding of God to Church and to religious experiences then we make God irrelevant to our daily lives. Haydn clearly did not think like that, he sought the inspiration of God for each and every day. Given that Haydn was born the son of a humble wheelwright in an obscure Austrian village, and ended his days famed throughout Europe, and respected by princes and Emperors, we might say his prayers were not in vain.
Today is Pentecost when the Church tells the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the job of the Holy Spirit is inspiration…or to break the word up, ‘in-spirit-ation’. Through the work of the Holy Spirit the eternal pours into this world.  When we feel inspiration we are experiencing the touch of God.
When we perceive how to overcome a problem, a Pentecost moment has happened.
When we understand the feelings and emotions of another, a Pentecost moment has happened.
When we are inspired to express Christ-like love for another, a Pentecost moment has happened.
The Holy Spirit is at work in our world.
People are often puzzled by the idea of the Holy Spirit because they do not realise that they have experienced it. If we only expect the Spirit as a mighty rushing wind, or as flames of fire dancing above our heads, when we do receive the gift of God, the inspiration of the Spirit, we do not attribute it to God because it was not attended by either flame or wind.
Sometimes we make God impossible, something wholly beyond our experience or belief, when in fact God the Holy Spirit touches our daily lives.
I’m not even sure that we expect to experience the Holy Spirit in church, but that feeling of peace that you get in prayer, that is the touch of the Holy Spirit, that uplifting feeling you get in singing a hymn, that is the touch of the Holy Spirit, that sense that you have heard a truth in a sermon or a reading, that is the touch of the Holy Spirit – that aura of holiness that can be perceived about the Eucharist, that is the presence of the Holy Spirit making Christ known.
Those moments in your life when you feel most alive, when your soul sings for joy and that song resounds with all creation, in that moment you are in the Spirit – inspired by the presence of God, experiencing a particle of heaven come down.
Of course at times inspiration seems a distant dream, we can call upon the Holy Spirit, but we cannot command the Spirit. It is interesting that in the quote from Haydn he said that sometimes inspiration did not come, and at such times he prayed for grace.
The word grace is a translation of the biblical word charism, which is Greek for a gift. Actually I think the word ‘gift’ is a better translation than the word ‘grace’; we should speak of the gift of God, His good gifts to us.
I also find it interesting that Haydn found repentance allowed inspiration to return to him. It reminds me of Saint Peter’s words written in his first Epistle, ‘Repent and be baptised…in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’
The gift of God is received by those who turn to Him; quite simply you cannot receive a gift if your back is turned to the giver.
Repentance and Pentecost must be at the heart of our understanding of how churches grow because here is the origin and source of all church growth, the beginning, the moment of Genesis. The gathered disciples were the waiting body of Christ and the Holy Spirit was the breath that animated that body – made it alive. Inspiration is to breathe in, to breathe in the life of God and become fully alive. The starting point of growth for our churches is to turn to God and receive His inspiration. Like Haydn sat at his keyboard stuck for ideas our churches can seem to lack the energy and drive of inspiration, and so as Haydn did we also should daily turn to God and expect to receive the gift of His Spirit.
Church growth starts not out in our communities but in our hearts.
Once we have recognised the work of the Spirit in our lives and in our churches, when we have breathed in inspiration, then we can start to recognise the work of the Spirit out in the world and say to those around us, ‘that was the Holy Spirit’.
When we see love expressed for another, we can say ‘that was the inspiration of the Spirit.’ When we hear music that captures our hearts we can say, ‘that was the inspiration of the Spirit’. When we see a problem overcome by insight, then we can say ‘that was the inspiration of the Spirit’.  What is the ‘Eureka’ moment in science but a breaking in of the transcendent, a moment of divine insight? And when we see the feelings and emotions of another understood, then we may say, ‘that was the Holy Spirit at work’. Then perhaps Pentecost will not seem merely a remote and strange event remembered in dusty old churches, it will be recognised as the stuff of life and the beginning of something new.
Amen.
WELLAND FOSSE BENEFICE SERVICES FOR JUNE 2023

WELLAND FOSSE BENEFICE SERVICES FOR JUNE 2023

WELLAND-FOSSE BENEFICE SERVICES

 

JUNE 2023

 

Date Barrowden South Luffenham Morcott Duddington Tixover
Sun 4th June

Trinity

Sunday

 

11am

Holy Communion (Said)

(SG)

6pm

Evensong

(AR & SS)

9.30am

Holy Communion

(SG)

 
Sun 11th June

 

 

11am

Family Morning Worship

(SG)

9.30am

Family Holy Communion

(SG)

11am

Morning Worship

(S&V)

 
Sun 18th June 11am

Holy Communion

Elastic Band

(SG)

9.30am

Morning Worship

(SS)

 

  9.30am

Holy Communion

(SG)

SATURDAY

24TH JUNE

5PM

Choral Evensong

Sung by the Uppingham Church choir with singers from Welland-Foss and St Peter’s, Weston Favell under the direction of John Wardle

   
Sun 25th June

 

 

11am

Morning Worship

(AR & SS)

9.30am

Holy communion

(SG)

11am

Holy Communion

(SG)

   

 

 

BENEFICE CHURCH SERVICES FOR 28TH MAY 2023

BENEFICE CHURCH SERVICES FOR 28TH MAY 2023

 

Sunday Services for Pentecost Sunday

 

9.30am  South Luffenham Church      Holy communion (SG)

11.00 am Barrowden Church                Morning Worship (AR&SS)

11.00am Morcott Church                       Holy Communion   (SG)

Readings:

Psalm 48

Deuteronomy 16.9-15

John 15.26 – 16.15

 

 

Zoom Morning Prayer every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8.30am and Compline on Thursdays at 6pm

Please email sally@saltlane.com if you would like a Zoom link

 

WELLAND FOSSE BENEFICE SERVICES FOR SUNDAY THE 21ST MAY 2023

WELLAND FOSSE BENEFICE SERVICES FOR SUNDAY THE 21ST MAY 2023

Services for the Sunday after the Ascension

 

 

 

9.30 am  South Luffenham Church                               Morning worship (AR)

11.00am Barrowden Church                                            Holy communion (with elastic band) (SG)

 

5.00pm  Tixover Church                                                    Rogation Service  (SG)

Readings :Acts 1.6-14
Psalm 68.1-10,32-35*
1 Peter 4.12-14; 5.6-11
John 17.1-11

Zoom Morning Prayer every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8.30am and Compline on Thursdays at 6pm

Please email sally@saltlane.com if you would like a Zoom link

SPRING EVENING CONCERT AT BARROWDEN CHURCH 14TH MAY 2023

SPRING EVENING CONCERT AT BARROWDEN CHURCH 14TH MAY 2023

 

On Sunday 14th May we had a A Spring Evening concert with Harry Jacques (tenor) and Alan Thomas (guitar) at St Peter’s Barrowden. Harry and Alan performed a variety of songs, including works by Dowland, Handel, folk song arrangements by Britten, and a number of songs by Simon and Garfunkel. It was wonderful to hear musicians of Harry and Alan’s quality performing, they had clearly put a great deal of consideration and preparation into the music. Their helpful explanations of each song, and their friendly banter, created a friendly and informal atmosphere. Each song created a world of imagination and feeling that filled minds and hearts in the church.
The concert was very well attended, and a general hope was expressed that Harry and Alan would return to delight us once more in the not too distant future.