God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, this is what we celebrate today on Trinity Sunday. We need to start by acknowledging that none of us can totally understand God, we are human and therefore fallible. But this is not an excuse to leave God as a mystery and walk away. The challenge for all of us is to try to grow closer to God. So where do we begin? Sometimes we make the three persons of God so different and separate that you would think we were talking about three Gods not one God with three persons. There are Christians who believe that Jesus had to die because the Father had to punish someone for our sins which if you think about it makes Jesus’ death divine suicide unless you really believe in three Gods. Is that what we really believe?I believe Jesus came to this earth to show us a ‘New Way’, a way of love, care and compassion and we, human beings, could not cope with that because we were more concerned with power, greed and violence. Each one of us here today has to decide do I want a world of love, care and compassion or a world governed by power, greed and violence?Where were the Father and the Holy Spirit as Jesus died upon the cross? They were there with him feeling his pain and suffering as much as Jesus was feeling the pain and suffering and they stayed with him even when Jesus was in such pain that he could no longer feel that God was present. It is this that is the ‘Good News’ for us!Everything that you and I experience whether good or bad, whether joyful or painful is also being experienced by God the Holy Trinity. In joy and in sorrow God is always with us even when we are not aware of his presence. God never leaves us, God is present not only with us but with every other person in the world. For the great gift of the Holy Trinity let us give thanks and praise to God.Andrew SSL
Happy Birthday to the Church! Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people, and kindle in us the fire of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.‘Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honour and majesty, wrapped in light as with a garment.’ (Psalm 104:1-2)Hymn: Breathe on me, breath of God...Acts 2:1-21; Romans 8:22-27The Spirit of the Lord fills the world and knows our every word and deed. Let us then open ourselves to the Lord and confess our sins in penitence and faith:Most merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we confess that we have sinned in thought, word and deed. We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves. In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us to amend what we are, and direct what we shall be; that we may do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you, our God. Amen.May the God of love bring us back to himself, forgive us our sins, and assure us of his eternal love in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.Prayer for the day: Holy Spirit, sent by the Father, ignite in us your holy fire; strengthen your children with the gift of faith, revive your Church with the breath of love, and renew the face of the earth, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15Please see the message from the minister.Let us pray for God to fill us with his Spirit:We pray for St Peter’s Church and the global Church, asking the Holy spirit to ignite the fire of love in hearts everywhere;We pray for the world, and ask the Holy Spirit to quell all evil, to inspire peace and justice;We pray for our communities, families and friends, asking the Holy Spirit to bring peace and reconciliation where there is conflict;We pray for all who are sick or suffering, asking for the Holy Spirit’s presence to be known;We pray for people who have been bereaved, asking the Holy Spirit to bring comfort.Let us pray the prayer that Jesus taught us:Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.Hymn: O Thou who camest from above..May the Spirit, who set the Church on fire upon the day of Pentecost, bring the world alive with the love of the risen Christ; and may the blessing of God Almighty who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest upon us and and be with us always. Amen.Filled with the Spirit’s power, let us go in the light and peace of Christ. Amen.
God’s Honest Truth In Acts 2, we meet the disciples grieving. Jesus is dead. They have lost their friend and teacher. It’s 50 days after the resurrection and we are told they’re ‘all together in one place’. The Holy Spirit then fills that space and flows out into the streets and into the public realm, beyond the people gathered as so-called ‘church’ and out into the world. The Holy Spirit fills and overflows, so much so that the apostles ‘began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability’. Can you imagine the fear and complete confusion? The Holy Spirit had arrived and the broad invitation was to listen, but primarily to participate. In John 15, we hear Jesus saying that we are to testify. With the arrival of the Holy Spirit, some may ask whether WE really need to testify? Surely the Spirit has this covered for us? Surely, therefore, Jesus doesn’t need us to bear witness? However, we should realise that this isn’t a question of Jesus’ needs, but a question of the needs of the world. Our society, our world needs us to testify because evil and corruption know no bounds. This is why we need the Holy Spirit and this is why we need that fire inside us. The Holy Spirit liberates us to imagine a better and more equal world and the flame of the Spirit enables us to step out confidently into a new reality. The Holy Spirit enables us to envisage a world where all are included and welcomed; a world that gives room at the table for different voices and accents; where equal opportunities provide us all with the potential to light up the darkness! Four times in today’s passage from John (John 15. 26-27; 16. 4b-15) is truth named. Through these references Jesus’ identity is intertwined with that of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit asks us to speak truth, because in doing so we bear witness to the truth of God in and within us. This is a truth that makes us who we are as followers of Christ, a truth by which we are known, loved and trusted. The Holy Spirit is light and wonder, but fundamentally the Holy Spirit is also truth. The Holy Spirit is a truth that pierces the darkness of a lie. We can believe that Jesus’s body was not stolen as some people like to argue, he WAS resurrected and our movement IS ongoing and vibrant, it has not failed as some like to suggest. To be a Christian is to look a lie in the face and be unafraid, because we have the Holy Spirit. It is not our fault we are so often abused or betrayed by those around us, perhaps particularly those who control narratives or who are in authority. It is not our fault they try to justify their actions using their version of the truth, which in reality is lies. Politics around the world is often in a state of disorganised chaos because those in public office have forgotten the central importance of ‘truth’, ‘equality’, ‘inclusion’ and ‘welcome’. We do not need scandal in public life or mismanagement of public funds. What we need is honest conversations, humility and transparency. What we need is directed funding towards social care, the NHS and education. We need those who give selfless service to our communities to be paid the salary they deserve and not to be exploited because they chose to follow their vocations. We need truthful conversations about the funding of wars which, intentionally or unintentionally, target and kill civilians and children. We need truth, not lies and humility, not greed. Spirit-filled faith is a massive threat to those who live for themselves alone. No wonder they attack all people of faith who speak out to bring a greater understanding of truth to the world.We need to make room to speak God’s honest truth to all, because we have the freedom and permission of the Holy Spirit. Within this truth, we travel the path laid before us together, set aflame by the resurrection of a dead body and the living breath of a loving and patient God. Jesus is alive! Jesus loves us and is waiting for us all to testify against the greatest lies and to say loud and clear, and without hesitation, we are not alone, we are not abandoned, love conquers all and the world is upside down! God’s world is the right way up. The hungry will be fed, the children will be safe. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will no longer be death nor sorrow. Our weeping may endure longer than we want, but joy comes in the resurrection morning. The Trinitarian reality of Pentecost is that God sees in us something greater than we could ever see in ourselves and we are called to be a people who testify to the greater good and a greater glory. God’s honest truth is that God was with us in the beginning and we will be with God at the end, but only after we have stepped into the promise of our potential and testified in word and action to the truth. At Pentecost, we are reminded that as Christians, we have everything we need, in the Holy Spirit, to fulfil Jesus’ call to love our neighbours as ourselves and speak God’s truth to those who deny it. Have you welcomed the Holy Spirit into your heart, are you willing to testify? With every blessing, Christian
In the gospel reading, St John recalls Jesus at prayer: praying that the world may believe that God had sent him, that this showed God’s love for each one of us, and that we must share God’s love with the people around us, just as Jesus had shared God’s love with the people around him.Prayer is a great activity as we wait for God’s to lead us between faith in the risen Christ and the prompting of the Holy Spirit. As with the prayer of Jesus so our prayer is driven by the on-going drama of our life -family life, politics, the threats of a European War and the need for peace, struggles with our health and with the health of others.Sharing in Prayer takes us forward to share in Holy Communion, where in Christ our sins are forgiven and where we are saved from despair by living in the hope of ever closer relationship with God.Prayer gives us concern for the people around us who are yet to come to faith but who will one day find what they are looking for. So we pray that we and they may be one with us in faith.Prayer gives us a concern for the people of faith that we may give respect for those who hold their faith differently to us. We pray that we can remain together in celebration of the risen Christ without the rancour of disunity. For Jesus and God the Father are one; intimately united in mutual honour, belonging, and love. We need to work in faith to share God’s love with all people of faith and of none.The Revd Malcolm France
