Sharing some thoughts

  There are some Sundays in the church year when the preacher wakes up with a spring in their step… and then there is Trinity Sunday. This is the day when clergy everywhere quietly wonder whether it’s possible to explain the mystery of God without baffling everyone, boring everyone or accidentally committing heresy before the Peace.   Perhaps the biggest problem might be that we try so hard to explain something that, at its heart, is meant to draw us into wonder. Trinity Sunday isn’t a puzzle to solve, instead, it’s an invitation to step closer to God who is love - love shared, poured out, drawing us in. And the most important thing to reflect on is that even if the Trinity is hard to explain, it is absolutely central to how Christians understand God. God the Father, the Creator. God the Son, the Saviour. God the Holy Spirit, the Comforter and Guide… Three ways God reaches towards us. Three ways God works in the world. Three ways God invites us into relationship. And that’s wh...

Most people have at least some idea of what Christmas is about - Jesus being born in Bethlehem, angels singing, shepherds hurrying down the hillside.   Most people know that Easter is important - something to do with Jesus dying and rising again, some recognising that it is something to do with hope breaking out of a tomb. But Pentecost? For many, it’s simply the weekend that sometimes brings a Bank Holiday, a long weekend, a chance to cut the grass, maybe a barbecue if the weather behaves… And yet Pentecost is one of the most important days in the Christian year. It is the birthday of the Church, it is the time that God breathed life, power and purpose into ordinary people and invited them to be part of something world‑changing. In the book of Acts (2:1-21) we read: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place… Suddenly a sound like a rushing wind… tongues of fire… all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit…” “A crowd gathered… each one heard them speakin...

  Ascension Day, which we celebrated on Thursday, marks one of the great turning points in the Church’s year. It is a moment that we can easily miss, overshadowed by Easter on one side and Pentecost on the other, yet it is absolutely vital for understanding who we are as followers of Jesus today.   For the disciples, the Ascension marked the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. No longer would they gather around Jesus physically, listening to him teach, watching him heal, sharing meals and conversations. Now they were being prepared for something new - a life of outward mission, a life that would take them far beyond the familiar rooms and roads where they had walked with him. In today’s gospel reading from John (17:1-11), Jesus is praying for his disciples on the night before his crucifixion. He knows what lies ahead. He knows that soon he will no longer be with them in the way they have known. And so he prays - not for their comfort, not for their safety, but tha...