Mailout for 12 June 2022 (Trinity Sunday, Year C)

Dear People of God

I wrestle with the idea of effective evangelism in 21st century Australia. It seems to me that we have three challenges:

1 educate the people who have no prior knowledge of God. ( SRE in schools is very important here)

2 re-invigorate those who, for one reason or another, have fallen away from church attendance (this doesn’t include people who are on the Home Communion list)

3 address unbelief: extra important in a world where there are so many competing ideologies

There are very many people in our immediate community who come into the second category. As I look back over the parish records I see photos and membership lists that include many people who are family members of present regular worshippers, and I want to know “why” they have fallen away. Unless we can understand this we have no way of re-invigorating them.

What I am asking you to do is to ask some of those members of your family and close friends if they want to share the reasons why they stay away. I can guess at many of the replies: “boring sermons” (yes, I’ve sat through many of those and hopefully haven’t preached too many of them myself): “same thing every week”: “behind the times“: science has disproved religion” (there’s a whole topic!): “angry with the church” (who hasn’t been, sometimes VERY angry indeed): family time …..

Come prepared to share the responses. I’m very happy to meet people and to discuss their issues with them, all the while respecting their opinions. If it’s something I can do something about, then let’s try that.

We want to see our church re-filling with worshippers: we have a shared faith and we need to find new ways in which to express it. Will you be partners with me in reinvigorating or community of faith?

A REMINDER

The Parish Luncheon will be held in St Paul’s Hall on Wednesday 29 June. 11:30 for 12 noon. The sign-up forms are at the back of the churches: indications are sluggish at the moment, so please hurry to indicate your attendance so that catering can be organised. Donation $15

ANOTHER REMINDER

Gail is being made Deacon in the Cathedral at 6:00pm on 29 June (that’s right, after the Luncheon). We have organised a minibus for transport to and from, so if you are interested in that lease indicate asap. Numbers are limited to 13 passengers and the fare should be less than $10 each (hopefully less). First in best dressed, so please advise names as soon as possible: to me or on the lists at the back of the churches. There are already some names listed, so hurry! Leave St Paul’s at 4:30pm (peak hour traffic around the city is terrible!)

MOTHERS’ UNION meets in St Paul’s Hall at 10:30 on 15 June. Please bring along a friend who may be interested. The organisation does some admirable work around the world in supporting mothers in a number of different situations. I am checking out some opportunities for support for isolated and lonely mothers in our local area, as well as those who just need a “local mother” to talk to from time to time.

The Lord be with you

Fr George

gmainprize@bigpond.com 0410 586 119

COLLECT and READINGS for TRINITY SUNDAY

Sentence

God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hears, crying “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6)

Collect

Father, we praise you, that through your Word and Holy Spirit you created all things; you reveal your salvation in all the world through Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh; though your Holy Spirit you give us a share in your life and love: fill us with the vision of your glory, that we may always serve and praise you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Collect for St Barnabas (whose Feast Day was Saturday 11 June)

Generous God, whose Son Jesus Christ has taught us that it is more blessed to give than to receive: help us by the example of your apostle Barnabas, a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, to be generous in our judgements and unselfish in our service; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 The gifts of Wisdom

Psalm 8 God’s power and justice

Romans 5:1-5 Results of justification

John 16:12-15 The work of the Spirit

Sermon (Mthr Sharon)

In the Name of God. Amen

‘To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all who live’

Trinity Sunday is often called Heresy Sunday. Its sermons can often become theology lectures, which leave people bored and confused, but maybe not as confused as the preachers. I spent the week reading up on Trinitarian theology, but felt frustrated. What could I give people in ten minutes which would touch their lives, meet their needs, be relevant, I wondered. Putting the books aside, I asked myself, ‘What does the Trinity mean to me? What draws me to worship this “God in three persons”?’ My answer is: God is unfathomable, God is relational, God is loving.

God Is unfathomable. We cannot expect to understand God. You might remember me telling you the story of the crazy student house I once lived in, six of us in a terrace in Chippendale, ah, in the days when you could live in central Sydney for $23.50 a week rent! Housemate Michael had a cat, and every Sunday Michael would treat himself to the Sunday newspaper, and stretch out on the floor to read it. Michael had a cat, Max, and every Sunday Max would look at Michael, look at the black and white newspaper on the floor, and look with puzzlement back and forth. No matter how Max the cat might try, he could never understand the concept of reading, of why Michael was staring at a piece of paper.

There is an infinitely larger gap between the mind of us and God, than between Max and Michael. There are many things about God which are impossible for us to ever understand, and the exact nature of God is one of them. Some say trying to explain the Trinity is like trying to explain colours to a blind person.

God is relational. We can work back from what we already know about God, to help us understand the Trinity. Scripture, and our own experience as Christians, of what we understand the Church to strive to be, at her best, show us that God is all about relationship. Hard as it might be to understand a God who is one and yet three, it is harder still to believe that our God was once alone. If we ditch the concept of the Trinity, we have to believe that God, for all eternity, before Creation, did not love, and was unloved, in fact, that there was no such thing as love in existence; that there was no such thing as relationship. All analogies attempting to define the Trinity fail, as there is no comparison to God; as we’ve said, God is unfathomable; you’ve heard my sermon on this in previous years. The closest, best analogies we have, are those involving relationship. Some say, God is like love; there has to be a lover, a beloved, and the love itself. Some say God is like a kiss; there is the kisser, the kissed, and the kiss. Some say God is like the Sun, emitting light and heat. Theologian Karl Barth says God ‘does not exist in solitude, but in fellowship’, whilst fellow theologian Karl Rahner writes that the Father and the Son welcome each other ‘in love, drawn and returning to each other…in mutual love, that is, as the Holy Spirit.’

The importance of God as being all about relationship makes sense of what we already know and experience in our worship lives. God desires relationship with us, in fact, created us specifically to be in relationship with God and with each other. Remember the two greatest commandments of which Jesus speaks, to love God with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. God comes to meet us in a multitude of ways, as we contemplated last Sunday, at Pentecost, in our own language, in wind, and fire, as John Wesley experienced, in a ‘strange warming of the heart’. NT Wright reminds us that our God is ‘a god who comes to us like a blind beggar with wounds in his hands, a god who comes to us in wind and fire, in bread and wine, in flesh and blood, a god who says to us, ‘You did not choose me; I chose you’.

God is loving. That God is three persons models for us loving relationship. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have for eternity been a completely, pure, loving union, with no fracture or possibility of disagreement. Let us imagine the most perfect relationship we have ever known, whether with parent, spouse, child or friend, and try to imagine something infinitely better. The result of this unimaginable love, of a cup of love which ‘runneth over’, is Creation, especially the creation of humanity, which is made in God’s own image, and has a special relationship with God. As St John writes, ‘We love because he first loved us’

When we look at our faith, centred as it is around the person and ministry of Jesus, we can see the evidence that, as St John tells us, ‘God is love’. Contemporary theologian Alister McGrath writes that the doctrine of the Trinity is an inevitable outcome from answering the questions : ‘Who and what must God be if he [sic] was able to become incarnate in Jesus Christ? What must be true about God if it is true that Jesus Christ is divine?’ In Jesus we see focussed the attributes of God found throughout Scripture, and throughout human experience; mercy, compassion, and righteous anger against injustice. God’s love is shown in the healing of the sick, the restoration to life, and ultimately, in Jesus’ willing self-sacrifice on the Cross and as the first-born of the resurrection to eternal life.

There are a plethora of books, and sermons, and opinions on the doctrine of the Trinity. What is it though, that we need in our lives? It is to know God personally; something which I pray we each already have experienced, and if not, that it may come upon each if us at last; to know the God who loves us into life, the God who loves unto death, the God who loves us into loving.

Amen.

Intercessions (Mother Sharon)

We pray for the world:

We pray for countries in the midst of war and civil unrest, for countries where there is disunity and fragmentation. We especially pray for the people of Ukraine and Russia. We give thanks for leaders and organisations working for unity and the building of relationships between nations. We pray for Vlodomir Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin. We pray for our newly-elected Government, for good working relationships and communication with the Opposition, minor parties, and Independents: may all work harmoniously for the good of the people of Australia.

Lord, in your mercy Hear our prayer

We pray for the Church:

We pray for Church leaders who engage with those of other faiths and no faith, for those who work ecumenically, healing the rifts in the Body of Christ. We pray for the leaders and people of the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox Churches. We pray for our sister Diocese of Guadalcanal, the Church of Ireland, and the Extra-Provincial Dioceses of Ceylon, Cuba, Bermuda, Lusitania, Spain, and the Falkland Islands; and, in Australia, the Diocese of North Queensland, Newcastle Grammar School, and the Parishes of Toronto and Windale. We pray for Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoff our Primate, Kanishka our Metropolitan, and Bishops Peter, Charlie and Sonia. In our parish we pray for our locum priest Fr George; for Mother Sharon; for our Ordinand Gail and for their families; for our stewardship, mission and evangelism and for H2O Church.

Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer

We pray for all in our local community:

We pray for TLC Physiotherapy, Dr Yeh, and Hunter Valley Karate. May we bring the light of Christ into the lives of those around us.

Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer

We pray for those in need:

We pray for people suffering broken relationships, separation and divorce, those feeling alone and isolated. We give thanks for those who go out of their way to connect with the lonely, the rejected, and those who ae shut in. We pray for Noelene's family, for Val, Tom, Daphne, and Ken.

We pray for those on our Prayer List and those in need known to us.

Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer

We give thanks for the lives of the faithful departed:

We pray for Noelene McIntosh, recently deceased, and for those whose anniversary of death falls at this time; for Wayne Henderson, Bill Whitbread, Stewart Farquahson, Hilda Druery, and Zeelan Brady. This week we celebrate the lives of Antony of Padua, missionary and preacher and Evelyn Underhill, spiritual writer, May we, with them, through the love and mercy of God, rest in peace and rise again in glory

Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer

SAINTS and COMMEMORATIONS of the week

13 Anthony of Padua, missionary and preacher (1231)

14 Richard Baxter, Puritan Divine (1691) (England)

15 Evelyn Underhill, spiritual writer (1941)

16 Richard, Bishop of Chichester (1253) (England)

17 Thanksgiving for the Holy Communion (Corpus Christi)

18 Bernard Mizeki, Apostle of the MaShona, martyr (1896) (England)

Corpus Christi: The two Dominical Sacraments (those ordained directly by the Lord) are Baptism and the Eucharist. On the first Sunday after Epiphany we commemorate the Baptism of our Lord: at the Easter Vigil we recall and renew our Baptismal vows. On Maundy (Holy) Thursday we commemorate the instituting of the Eucharist by our Lord. On Corpus Christi (Thanksgiving for the Holy Communion) we celebrate the central feature of our life in the community of faith.

Richard of Chichester: As a child, did you learn that famous prayer “Dear Lord Jesus, Friend and Brother…” or go to see “Jesus Christ, Superstar” in which that prayer is sung? It is composition of St Richard of Chichester (no, it’s not the dam that supplies some of the region’s water; it’s a major city in Sussex on the south coast of England) “Thanks be to you, or Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits you have given us, for all the pains and insults you have borne for us. O most merciful Redeemer, friend and brother, may I see you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.” His shrine was desecrated and destroyed during the Reformation and restored in the 20th century.