Sermon for Trinity Sunday

Sunday 22nd May 2005

Preached by Rev Brian Parker

Three candles, one light

There’s a new ‘fly on the wall’ documentary running on BBC2 on Tuesday evenings at 9pm. It’s called ‘Monastery’ and it’s set in a Benedictine monastery in the South of England.

Five men have been selected to spend 40 days and 40 nights living within the disciplines of the monastery. They come from a wide range of backgrounds.

There’s a former UDA hard man – he’s tetchy, finding it difficult to control his emotions; a retired schoolteacher who finds he needs to re-examine his values; an Oxford scholar and one-time Buddhist, now an Anglican who goes to the college chapel each day but wonders why? a soft porn film producer with a drink problem who is surprised by the fact that he now looks forward to his conversations with the monks; a young successful businessman who confesses that he loves himself and is reluctant to say much more.

They are now in their third week. It’s evident that the group are adapting to the Monastic way – attending services from dawn to dusk; exploring the scriptures with the monks both on a one to one basis and as a group; reflecting on their lives thus far; being silent; working in the gardens and always wondering about God, questioning and searching. For all of them it’s turning out to be a healthy spiritual experience.

On this Trinity Sunday we sum up the divine revelation and activity that we have been celebrating since the beginning of Advent. It’s the Sunday we bring to mind the whole work and being of God. God the Father – Creator of all things; God the Son – Saviour and Lord, who shows us the kindness and grace of our Creator; God – the Holy Spirit who is with us, renewing our vision, refreshing our souls.

That’s quite a theological mouthful and it’s no surprise that the preacher on Trinity Sunday is often said to have drawn the short straw!

But this morning let’s just wonder for a moment or two at the mystery of The Holy Trinity. As Winston Churchill once said about a complex issue “it’s a riddle wrapped in mystery”. And some when they reflect on the notion of three in one and one in three, see it as a mathematical challenge.

St Augustine would have none of that. He brought a good measure of sanity and clarity to the debate when he said the Trinity was a trinity of love – each part participating fully in the life of the other parts so that they are indistinguishable.

John Wesley was even more succinct when he described the Trinity as ‘three candles; one light’.

So today the Church celebrates the mystery of love. It doesn’t puzzle over a riddle. It doesn’t do sums.

Yet as finite human beings we enter into the presence of the infinite. The mystery of God’s revelation and love for us is something we wonder at in prayer, in worship and in our witness to the Gospel.

But as someone said it’s not what we do for God, it’s what we do with God, together, as partners in the redemption and salvation of all peoples. That relationship of love is at the heart of our Christian faith.

And though St Paul had a robust faith, for him the mystery of love was beyond his understanding – “a dark glass”; something he couldn’t see clearly. Nevertheless in writing to the Corinthians he was confident and trusting in God. “I have the power to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me”.

All conditions of our lives are embraced by the power of God’s love. In the darkest experiences of this life – the light shines; constant, a flickering flame that overcomes the darkness and the pain and the despair.



For God didn’t reveal himself to set us a puzzle- rather he settled with us in a relationship of love.

Isaiah’s vision sees in the mystery of love God’s personality. It’s what binds this relationship: “The Lord the everlasting God will not grow tired or weary and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak”.

However J B Phillips, one of the great Anglican theologians of the 20^th century, once warned that there was no greater nuisance, as he put it, to experiencing the love of God, than absolute, dogmatic theology. He called it the ‘God of one hundred per cent’. The arrogant presumption of the religious zealot who projects his self-made image of God ‘one hundred per cent’ clearly and claims a total monopoly of the truth.

Phillips rejected a faith that had no mystery. No room for questioning. No tolerance of mistakes or interpretation or second thoughts or shared doubts. Phillips was sure that absolute certainty was a distortion of faith. A performance.

One of the early church fathers was also sceptical of the ‘Gods of one hundred per cent’ conviction. He said: “Those who would claim to have come to a full knowledge of God are to be likened to a small child with a spoon who claims that he can scoop up the sea and empty it into a hole in the sand.”
Jesus said: “Learn of me”. And he promised that the ‘Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit shall teach you all things.” So in all humility we approach the mystery of the Holy Trinity as learners, confident in Our Lord’s promise.

But God is not so mysterious that he is therefore remote and aloof from us. He is not so transcendent that he has no grasp of us or our situation and conditions.

“I will be with you always, to the end of time”. “You are my friends”. What a holy mystery – a mystery to be excited about, not puzzled or frustrated over.

So tune in to BBC 2 on Tuesday night. Share in the wonder of souls making a spiritual journey into the mysteries of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And on this Trinity Sunday wonder at the mystery of God’s love for each one of us.

Wonder at the ‘three candles, one light’ that overcomes darkness and is not put out.

Wonder at the power of love that sustains us in all conditions of our lives even unto death.

Wonder with the psalmist:
O Lord, our God
What is man that you are mindful of him?”