Paul Graetz reflects, in the Newsletter, of how we can all make our contribution to a better world and of how Jesus pointed a simple way of doing this each day, in our everyday lives. In caring for others, we are obeying God. Now this can be done by thinking or praying, but Jesus, ever practical, demonstrated what that meant in practical ways. He did not retreat into an inner circle of yes-men or mix with just those with whom he felt comfortable. In fact, most of the time he did the opposite, regularly going to where people were in trouble, in need, were being victimised or were simply behaving dreadfully. Once there, he tackled the issues facing him, risking a lot in doing so, since what he was doing was against the norm. He didn't care as he told everyone that he hadn't come to save the righteous but to save sinners.
Paul points out that, by each of us doing that bit for the good of others, the world can become a better place, not just for us locally but also for people we shall never meet and will never know of our existence. Everyone is our neighbour.
On Trinity Sunday, just seven days after Pentecost, we have the chance to focus on God as three-in-one, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity. Last week we celebrated the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, as Jesus had promised them. In that moment, they were transformed and the around 120 believers clustered in one room became over 3000 in one day.
It has been thought of as the birth of the church, and the readings for Trinity Sunday reflect this thinking. To the forgiveness of God the Father, to the love and sacrifice of God the Son, was now added the power of God the Holy Spirit, filling, enabling, guiding and strengthening not just the Apostles but ALL believers.
The readings from Paul's Letter to the Romans and from John's Gospel get right to the heart of this wonderful gift from God. Both make clear that this work within each person is something new in the world. It requires belief and an opening up, a decision from an individual person, from you or me. It is not something that can be imposed; God will not force the Holy Spirit on you and no earthly force, no government, no dictator, no friend, no bully, no priest even, can make this happen.
No, the acceptance of Jesus as the Son and the opening up to the Holy Spirit are personal choices. The opening up flows from the belief in Jesus.
The reading from John covers this journey with a story about one of the Jewish leaders, Nicodemus, who visits Jesus at night to ask questions that have been troubling him. He wants to know what Jesus's new teachings mean and is astonished when Jesus describes being 'born of the Spirit'. He simply cannot get his head around the idea and wonders aloud about how one can be born physically again when one is already grown up.
Jesus explains to him that he is talking about a different kind of baptism, of being transformed into a new phase in one's life by accepting that Jesus has come as the Son of God, sent by God the Father to offer eternal life rather than death at the end of a physical life.
The Jews were OK with physical death whilst being a believer of God; what they did not have was the idea of God the Son with an offer of going beyond this, of being transformed in life so that you were guaranteed eternal life after death.
For Nicodemus, this was a new idea and Jesus treated him gently, saying that he could only tell him a limited amount since it would all be too much for him to grasp.
In our world, we are like Nicodemus, despite thousands of years of theological debate and of millions who have tried to live their lives as believers and gone to their graves with that faith in eternal life. For each one of us, it is a personal choice, a moment of mystery when we find that we have become a believer or where it just does not happen. Faced with that choice, we might just say, like Nicodemus, 'How can this be?' and not find ourselves on that other side.
Jesus's life, as told in the Gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles, is a preparation for that moment. That person who arrived as baby in a stable and who was killed as a criminal on a cross laid down his entire life to enable you to be brought to that choice. He came to allow you to reach that point where you could make the decision that John describes, 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.'
On this Trinity Sunday, I pray that those who have chosen to believe may bear witness to others so that they can also choose, and that those others can take the leap into faith that will bring them greater joy in this life and eternal life through Jesus. Amen.