Anne and I were on a train to
Darlington last week. I looked up to see these words above me. Hello, my name is carriage number 55789. How
am I looking today? Let us know if there are any areas needing some tlC. Tweet
us @northernrailorg#55789
I didn't tweet but it got me
thinking about the Trinity. If a train that's carrying me to Darlington can
invite me to speak to it, how much more the One in whom I live and move and who
accompanies me to glory.
He has spoken - God - in
deeds more than words. The Spirit of
truth... will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will
speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. John 16:13
We know about the Trinity because God in Trinity has spoken through his deeds
of creation, resurrection and Pentecost to show us himself. You couldn't make
Christianity up, it’s a revealed faith no more no less and it’s the function of
the Spirit to wake us up to it. Not to convey anything new but to give us a constant
update of what’s been revealed once for all in Jesus Christ.
The first reading from Proverbs
catches this, as the reading on the Darlington train caught me last week. Does not wisdom call, and does not
understanding raise her voice?... The Lord created me at the
beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. Ages
ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. Proverbs 8:1, 22-23 Wisdom is
God’s coming forth to us, his speaking out from the depth of his being as ultimately
Christ and the Spirit have spoken in history.
And what is God saying from his depths? Our second reading tells us from
the receiving end as it speaks of experiencing God in three aspects. We have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ… and hope does not disappoint us,
because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that
has been given to us. (Romans 5:1,5) God who speaks and acts to reveal
himself comes real to us in Jesus so that for over 20 centuries believers have
spoken of the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.(2
Corinthians 13:14 )
Today's Feast of the Blessed
Trinity summarises what the church has set before us about Jesus in the
Christmas and Easter cycles ending with last Sunday's celebration of the coming
of the Holy Spirit. The Paschal Candle is back at the font but the warm light
of the risen Lord burns on in our hearts by the Holy Spirit to the glory of God
the Father. This is the grand reminder of Trinity Sunday.
We were up near Darlington to
enter the worlds of 2 year old Olivia and Toby who've both doubled in size and
age since we last saw them. Lovely to enter the joyous world of children whose
fascination with life is such a great teacher. Oh to see
the world through 2 year old eyes! Such simplicity and trust are in
the gift of faith, along with fascination concerning the word of God and the
paradox of his three in oneness. Just as children take things on trust from
their parents, we children of God trust God as he acts in love towards us and
speaks of himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
God is love. As we dwell in God he dwells in
us and we in him. In the coming of Our Blessed Lord we see how much God loves
us. In the pouring of the Holy Spirit into our hearts we receive God’s love so
we can overcome all that comes against us, putting love where there is no love
and seeing love grow around us. This is what St Paul is speaking about in that
second reading from Romans 5 when he says: suffering produces
endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces
hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured
into our hearts (Romans 5:3-5)
The Feast of the Blessed Trinity
is about God being love in himself
and the revelation of that loving wisdom on earth inseparable from suffering.
You can’t love in abstraction, you have to give it, give yourself to others which means no escape from suffering. The
sign of the Trinity is the sign of the Cross, I crossed out, since Jesus came
down from heaven to earth to suffer on the cross for us.
Just before I travelled up
through Darlington I gave the last rites to James Nicholson’s brother Peter in
a tearful ceremony with his niece Elizabeth. Few have suffered as much hospitalisation
as Peter whose funeral is to be here on Tuesday week. Few families have given
as much loving attention over so long a period, year by year, week by week, day
by day as the Nicholson’s. Suffering produces endurance, and
endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does
not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts That love remains with Peter and the family
as they gather the fruits of perseverance, the character building that fits us
by grace, through suffering, for glory.
We started with a talking train
and thought of the One who also speaks to us as he carries his faithful to
glory.
I end with a voice speaking this
morning as if from that glory. Here is a 2 min clip Peter recorded for Premier
Christian Radio. It speaks of the day of death now arrived for him when grace blossoms
into glory, into the vision of the triune God face to face, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit.
May the Blessed Trinity be
Peter's healing and ours, to whom, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be ascribed all
might, majesty, dominion and power henceforth and evermore. Amen.
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