I’m really pleased to be here, with the opportunity to preach this morning. Of course, I’m always enjoy preaching, especially to such a fine bunch of folks as you lot, but today I’m especially excited. That is because today is Trinity Sunday, and I love the Trinity. I think that it is one of the most exciting and exhilarating aspects of God that there is, and I love talking about it. One of the dangers of this is that I might get a bit carried away. Trinity Sunday only comes round once a year, and there is more to be said about the Trinity than can be said in quarter of an hour once a year. But that is what we have, so hopefully this morning, even if I don’t say everything that can be said about the Trinity, I will say enough to help us to experience one God in three persons in a way that is deeper and more real to our hearts.
One of the reasons that I find the Trinity to be so attractive, is that it seems to me that the idea of relationship being at the heart of God’s identity, who God is, helps us to understand our own relationship with God, and our identity, who we really are.
It seems to me that questions of identity are really important, particularly at the moment. Who am I? I might define myself by my family relationships: I am a husband, a son, a father. I might define myself by my job: I am a curate. I might define myself by my nationality: I am British. But, it seems to me that these ways of working out who we are can leave us very vulnerable. Over the last few decades, as the people have become more able to move around the country, families have become less physically close, marriages have broken up, and people close to us die. If I have defined myself as my grandchild’s grandparent, what happens to my identity when that young family has to move to find work? If my identity and self worth are all tied up with my work, with my job, what happens to that when I lose my job? What does it mean to be British? As we see the disaster area of our national political scene at the moment, is being British something that we want to be?
It seems to me that we all need something more stable, more trustworthy to show us our identity, who we really are, how valuable we are.
I believe that God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, can give us that.
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