Trinity Sunday - Patronal Festival

Here are sermon nuggets for tomorrow - Trinity Sunday. I'll make something from this.

• Trinity Sunday - who thought that one up? It's a bit like the BBC deciding to have a broadcasting week! Surely every Sunday is a Trinity Sunday? I don't really understand the logic of this one.
  
• I can't get my head around why preachers sweat at the thought of this topic. Surely everything we proclaim subsists in the Holy Trinity?
  
• The danger is that we treat the subject of the Trinity as an optional extra. It's not as if some bored Early Church theologians thought it up on a rainy day. We cannot jettison the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, yet sometimes we act as if we could. I mean we just dont live it enough. As a remedy I would suggest that we ban the word 'God' for a while from our vocabularly. Instead let us speak of The Father (or 'Abba'), Jesus and Holy Spirit.
  
• Another one is to ban the word 'Church' and speak of 'Body' instead. The more we speak of the 'Body of Christ' the more we might begin to act like it.
  
• The collects from the Prayer Book and Common Worship dont always scratch were it itches with me. All those adjetives sound so parsonical and impersonal. Do you remember the sketch of the school chaplain from Monty Python's film 'The Meaning of Life' ? 'Oooou God you are sooo big. We're jolly impressed down here.' Sometimes these collects sound a bit like this.
  
• Dont get wrong its not a case of God all-matey. But surely the message of the Gospel is that the image of the awesome God stands before us as Jesus? 'I call you not servants but friends'. Through the Cross we have access to the majesty of Christ. Through the incarnation we can see God among us as the infant Christ of Bethlehem. The Eucharist unveils the God of mystery as our food. God touches us with his physical sacraments. The veil of the Holy of Holies has been torn in two.
  
• We are baptised into the name of the Trinity. Anything else is repudiated by orthodox Christianity and the baptism seen as invalid. The Great Commission of Jesus at the end of Matthew's Gospel tells us to baptise the nations in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are to immerse the world into this mystery. We cant do the job if we are not spiritually immersed in the Trinity itself.
  
• I love all that stuff in The Shack about the Trinity and how the three persons explain that they live in perfect community. Human beings want to be independent of their creator and in doing so fail to be truly themselves.
  
• I appreciate in these rough notes I have not given Scripture references. Of course one of the aunt sally's that is put up is that the Trinity is not scriptural. (Some of the sects like Jehovah Witnesses make this point as does Dan Brown in the DaVinci Code.) But although the technical word 'Trinity' is not there, the relationships of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are there. Jesus for example in the last Supper Dialogue (St John) is quite clear that the Advocate is a person. Paul also speaks of the Spirit in a personal way. Since they are not speaking of an angel or the force from Star Wars, the Church has understood this as the Ruach Ha'Kodesh - the Holy Spirit.

Well I shall offer these little random thoughts to Almighty Everlasting God - Abba, in the hope that something will come together. (Not the Swedish band of Mama Mia fame).

PS Did that MP who claimed for £5 he put in the collection gift aid it. If he did at least we'd get someting extra.

Some Future Priorities for the National Church

My mind often ruminates on matters of home mission or what we now call evangelisation. Recently I have thought that the Church of England needs to change its focus. I appreciate that some of this is happening with the Mission Shaped Church agenda and Fresh Expressions. However, I wonder if all of this still too congregational its philosophy. I suspect that we need to move 90% of our energies into discipleship rather than congregational life. I would foresee three priorities for growth.

(1) Families. Here I propose we need to create a national network of Christian families. What I am about to say may sound rather exclusive but the these families are to be standard bearers. At the heart is the idea that the first church we experience is not a building or even the congregation but a Christian family. This little church - or domus is KEY to the formation of future generations. At present the Church of England does not recognise formally the family as a church. I propose that the fulness of a 'little church' is a family of two practising parents who pray daily together. To join the national network families would have to register go through a period of formation or noviate.

(2) Work. We now need urgently a recognised order for Christians in work or higher education. Members would be excluded from involvement in parish life to prevent burn out. They would follow a rule of life which must involve daily prayer. These people would be visibly Christian. I'm not sure how this is done but the order must quickly be recognised as wearing a Christian symbol. This must be accepted as valid as anyone's else religious atire, eg headscarf, turban, etc. We need so R&D which can come up with something as powerful as the prayer mat. Adoption of a five-fold daily prayer office for example would mean that employees would have to give us time to pray at work. (I have called this 'work' but in reality it could include anyone, employed, unemployed, retired, etc.)

(3) School. These are our biggest resources and we must further their Christian formation. I suggest that primary schools are formally invited to create a network of schools who admit children to holy communion. We need the Eucharist to be celebrated regularly within our primary schools.

For all three networks I suggest that three bishops are ordained to have special jurisdiction over each network. In other words each network is a Anglican equivalent of a personal prelature which operates at a provincial level. These bishops would not have diocese as we understand it but be the Ordinary for these groups. If we can have pioneer priests why not pioneer bishops?

Pentecost Thoughts

When preparing for a sermon I often note down lists of thoughts. Sometimes they are disconnected, other times they form a pattern. With Pentecost Sunday coming there is so much that can be said. Here are some of my random notes:

• Are you part of the New Creation? God through Christ is transforming this world - do we want to be part of that transformation? The great danger is that our spirituality is fixed solely on our own spiritual survival AND therefore we lack any concern for the world around us.
  
• Britain's Got Talent got huge ratings and massive hits on youtube. Has does God equip his Church with talent? I think sometimes when we consider 'gifting' and the Church we tend to think that its all about doing things 'in church' on a Sunday. Life in the sanctuary of Sunday worship is important but not as pivitol as the life we live out Monday to Saturday. What gifts does God give us to live out our Christian life in the real world?
  
• Romans 8. 26: Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. I suspect that the Holy Spirit can do little in us until we admit our weakness. The best prayer surely starts by not knowing how to start? The Church will only get somewhere when it is on its knees. In some cases when we look at Church decline in the UK - maybe the Father is bringing us to our knees. Have we not, as churches, become too focused on our own abilities? That confidence, or smugness, has prevented the Spirit from breaking through. Maybe this is a bit harsh - but I sense that we to regain confidence in God's power to resurrect the Church in Britain.
  
• Romans 8.26b The very Spirit interceeds with sighs too deep for words. If our critics say that we have nothing to offer the world in terms of "spirituality" then what about that sentence? It is a mighty blow for blow argument. God's Holy Spirit wants to rest so deep within in our hearts if we let Him. That relationship will be one beyond words, a connection which is physical, emotional, mental, spiritual.
  
• The image that comes to mind is of a wind-chime. That we are the chime and God is the wind.
  
• Somehow we need to relay that deep spirituality of Romans 8.26 to those outside the boundaries of the institutional Church. People need to know that the well runs very deep - if not infinitely deep.
  
• Spiritual giftedness is something that mainstream churches tend to shy away a bit. I want to consider this for a bit. The clergy maybe are suspicious of losing control to the laity? We have grown up in such a materialistic world view that I suspect churches are worried that talking or experiencing spiritual gifts may be too unpalatable for people outside.
  
• Spiritual giftedness is not some hidden talent we have. It is not like people who claim to be clairvoyants or mind readers. Surely its about how God's Spirit uses us for a ministry? I think that is the essence of the gifts of the spirit which Paul lists. They are there for a purpose and not for vanity.
  
• I knew a lady, who was a hospital cleaner. She had a gift that she barely recognised. Her gift was in being able to be the voice of God's comfort in specific situation. She transformed (I should write this in bold TRANSFORMED) several people's lives by a sentence. Depression literally fell off one person, guilt, anger, ebbed away. And yet, her own life, was one of pain, failure and the loss of a son who suddenly died in his forties. Somehow she was content in God's presence. Its really difficult to explain, but she was, is, a transforming personality.

• The more we relax into the stream of the Holy Spirit consciousness, the more we see the world through His eyes. The more, he prays in us. We begin connect with the heart of God and understand what He gave up on the Cross.
  
• I believe these gifts are for our work in the world and not so much in the Church. That is why is crucial that most active Christians turn attentions away from the inner workings of the church. We must be amateur ecclesiastics not professionals. The Spirit will look after the Church must better than we ever will.
  
• A high-up cleric (I wont say who) recently said that the Church must be made fit for mission. I want to give another point of view. We are fit for mission!!! We dont need massive reorganising. We need deploying. Saying that we must be 'made fit for mission' is saying that we are not fit for mission. In other words we ready or not good enough. I wonder what the average age here is in Salcombe parish church and benefice. Say it is a modest 50. A practising Christian will have gone to 50 x 52 Sunday services in his or her life. Thats 2600 hours of training. An average degree has 3000 hours. Basic training in the army would probably have 1000 hours. So including all the Bible Study groups, special meetings, reading, retreats, how can we say that the Church, including our church, is not fit for mission?
  
• When bishops and priests talk of mission here what they mean is a reconnection of the Christian message and the Church with the nation. Just in case you wonder. It's not about going off to work with folks in other continents.
  
• Some spiritual gifts I believe can also be less obviously supernatural. Many of the Old Testament prophets spoke up for justice, for what is right. They instinctively were led to see a structural evil in the world around them. From their passion for justice flowed imense energy and insight.

Well, that a few nuggets to work on. It's 10.43 and Susan Boyle has not won BGT. I cant help but feel she was built up over a few weeks and then cruely pounced on by the media. Hopefully she will have a brilliant singing career.