Sun 31 May - Trinity Sunday

Welcome.
First, some notices, and thereafter a reflection and prayer...

Church notices

Sun 7 June, 10:30am: Service of Holy Communion - we join together this coming Sunday to share in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. It is an open table, for Jesus is the host and he welcomes all.

Tues 9 June, 10:30am: the funeral of Mrs Morag Forrest will be held in the church at Abington, and thereafter, the committal will be at Roberton Cemetery. Please do keep the family in your prayers at this time. 

Clydesdale foodbank month: over the month of June, we will be collecting items to deliver to the food bank. If you would like to donate but can't get to church, you can send an online donation HERE

Reflection for Trinity Sunday

In the church calendar, the Sunday following Pentecost is known as 'Trinity' Sunday. It's a time in the year where preachers and theologians can come a little unstuck, trying to explain what is essentially, really rather inexplicable:
God as One yet Three, but Three yet One.
We try, in our limited way to describe the limitless God, who is so much more than the sum or our words and stretches of imagination can fathom. 

Back in the day, the early Christians, trying to distil the essentials of the faith into a handy 'catch all' to help teach people the basics about God, put together Creeds. One of these was the Athenasian Creed and you can almost hear the writers of this sighing just a little as they struggled to describe the God who is more than we can fully comprehend:
God the Father: incomprehensible;
God the Son: incomprehensible;
God the Holy Spirit: incomprehensible.
Bless them, I love them for trying to do the impossible.
However, mystery is not always a bad thing and I suspect that we'll cope if we haven't got the answer to every single question about God this side of heaven.
This, I say, because what we do know of God is what we see in Jesus. And while it is always  absolutely right to ponder and ask questions, and wrestle with this matter of what it is to be God’s people, and while theology is important, the most important starting place for theology is to remember that, for all our attempts to try to explain God, God can’t be put into a box –
and, when humans tried to do that to Jesus, he simply rose from death itself and out of the box we’d tried to put him in.

One way that I find helpful to try and get my head around this One in Three and Three in Oneness of God, is by thinking of God within the terms of relationship. Augustine, a 5th century African theologian who I have a lot of time for, used this idea of relationship to help understand the nature of God, and also, how that sat within the nature of what it is to be human.
He used love as his building blocks: God as One and then as Three seen in:
God as the one who loves,
God as the one who is beloved,
and God as love itself.
The very core of God being love and energised by love: a love that looks to the other, looks out, that is generous, giving, sharing, and spreading that love beyond just the circle of relationship within that perfect community of love which is God. 

And what of us?
Jesus is love made into flesh and blood and bone showing us what love looks like: not a private solitary thing – but something that is lived within community, joyfully, creatively. If we want to know what God looks like – what God thinks, and feels, and wishes, we look to Jesus who points us to love – for love is at the heart of who God and the reason why God does anything.
So, mirroring that relationship of God we, who are created in God’s image, might use a day like Trinity Sunday to ask:
How do we love?
Who do we love?
What is the impact of that love on others?
For, if love is the very heart and motivation of God, then as his creatures, so love should be at the heart of our lives, as we navigate this life of faith.

The priest and poet, Malcolm Guite, wrote the following sonnet for Trinity Sunday, which I leave you with (you can find this, and other sonnets in his collection 'Sounding the Seasons', published by Canterbury Press - do check his work out, he's excellent).

In the Beginning, not in time or space, 

But in the quick before both space and time, 

In Life, in Love, in co-inherent Grace, 

In three in one and one in three, in rhyme, 

In music, in the whole creation story, 

In His own image, His imagination, 

The Triune Poet makes us for His glory, 

And makes us each the other’s inspiration. 

He calls us out of darkness, chaos, chance, 

To improvise a music of our own, 

To sing the chord that calls us to the dance, 

Three notes resounding from a single tone, 

To sing the End in whom we all begin; 

Our God beyond, beside us and within.
                                  Malcolm Guite

Prayer
God, Creator, for your glory shining forth in sky and sea, 

in the changing light on the hills, 

in the flight of birds, 

in the plants of the field 

for the gift of life in all its fullness, 

we thank you. 

Jesus, Redeemer, 

for blessing children, 

healing the sick, 

raising up the lowly, 

suffering the brokenness of the world 

in your own body that we might have fullness of life, 

we thank you. 

Holy Spirit, Comforter, 

for breathing new hope and strength into our lives,

breaking down barriers,  

drawing human beings together in love, 

resisting all that diminishes fullness of life, 

we thank you. 

Holy Trinity, 

in all that we do and say and are, 

may we always choose life, 

for ourselves, and for our neighbours. 

Amen.

As you move into a new week, may you know God walking with you through the moments and the days.
God bless

Nikki

Sun 24 May - Pentecost

HAPPY PENTECOST!

Today we mark the promised coming of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus - and, in a sense, we celebrate the beginning, the ‘birth’ day of the church.

It’s one of the Sundays in the church calendar when we’re reminded of the power and mystery of God, of God who is both Creator of the universe and all things, as well as the God who knows each of our names.

We’re also reminded that we are all a part of something that is so much bigger than us: while we’re the church visible in this small 

corner of the earth, we’re also a part of the church that reaches all around the world; we are both a gathered, and a scattered people. As well as this, we belong to the church ‘invisible’ – 

all those who have walked in the footsteps of Jesus, down through the centuries who learnt about Jesus and passed the stories about him along to others. 

In all of that, so there’s the sense that to celebrate the day of Pentecost comes with more than a little bit of awesomeness – in the true meaning of the word: God mysterious and yet known, God unseen and yet seen in each one of us who are created in God’s image.

A prayer for Pentecost
Holy Spirit,

we pause in your presence,

aware that you do not arrive quietly or on our terms.

You move like wind:

unseen, uncontained, disturbing what has settled too easily.

You burn like fire:

not to destroy, but to refine,

to bring light where we have grown used to shadows.

Meet us here, in all our difference and expectation;

in our longing for clarity, and in our fear of what change might demand.

Slow us down enough to notice where you are already at work,

often ahead of our plans and beyond our control.

Loosen what has grown rigid.

Open what we have closed for safety’s sake.

Give us ears to hear your voice in unfamiliar accents and unsettling truths.

As we listen in this moment,

kindle in us a fire that does not rush to certainty but stays awake to compassion.

Let it shape our words, and our lives.

    ...   ...   ...

Renew us, remake and reshape us;

may we be braver in love,

wider in welcome,

and ready to follow wherever your Spirit leads.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Stay with us.

Move among us.

Make us alive.

Amen.       

On the 'birthday' theme for Pentecost, the fabulous Tabitha made us a Pentecost cake to share at morning tea. It went down well!! 

Thanks, Tabitha!   

Sun 10 May Christian Aid Week 'Good news'

It's Christian Aid Week and this was reflected in our time of worship. 

Our readings were:

Isaiah 61:1-8; Acts 17:16-31; and John 14:15-21 and we were thinking about the words 'good news'.

The Isaiah reading is a bit of a nod to our service last week, in which we went back to the beginnings of Jesus' ministry when he travelled to his home town of Nazareth. It's the first record of Jesus preaching and the text he chose to speak on was today's passage from the Book of Isaiah. The text itself is a manifesto of good news to the oppressed, the captives, the broken-hearted, prisoners, those who mourn - essentially, all who are struggling, whether because of systemic injustice or personal circumstance.
And the good news is that God is with them, God hears their cry; their struggles will end. Out of ruins will come restoration; peace will come; injustices will be righted.
Good news.
God will send one who is anointed, chosen, to not only bring the good news in word, but also through action.
In him, unjust structures will be overcome, as seen in v.8 ‘I the Lord, love justice and hate robbery and wrongdoing.’

To the devastated people of Israel, many of whom were living in captivity in Babylon, and having experienced the loss of home and most of what they had, Isaiah’s message is one of hope.

Of good news.

Jesus chooses this text to read out to those in the synagogue - it is his manifesto:

Isaiah is describing what Jesus is here to do.
But it goes beyond doing:

Jesus is the living embodiment of God's justice, love, and mercy.

He is the good news.

Which leads us to today's gospel passage, in which Jesus instructs them to love:

‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments.'

This is a love that endures - for God is faithful.

Those who put their trust in God, those who follow Jesus' instruction to love, will never be orphaned.

As God loves, so too, God's people - the love is to be shared.

Which is something that Paul takes on in such a way, that he ends up travelling the best part of the then known world to share good news -

the good news of God’s love, found in the person of Jesus…

encouraging those who take in this message of love to heart to go and do likewise -

sharing love in both word and in action, and through doing this, transform the world around us.

Good news.

Sharing good news, sharing God’s love, is very much at the heart of what drives the work of Christian Aid. Imagination, sanctified by God's love, saw a very real problem in urban, overcrowded Nairobi and found a creative, life-giving way to share that love through the Beacon of Hope project. One person who has been helped is Fridah. Her story is here in the clip below:

Through this project, Fridah has learnt new skills that not only provides food for her family, but also a steady stream of income from selling what she grows - which helps to pay for schooling and other necessary living costs.

Good news.

What might we do in our own small corner of the world, as we put love into action?

After all, love can change the world, and in a world that's crying out for good news, so it is ours to share God's love - for God's love is the good news for the world.

Let's pray:

Gracious God, 

when we stand on the plains of uncertainty, 

with no path before us, we look to you. 

We remember what you have done before 

and our anxious hearts are comforted.  

Showing mercy, you delivered us then; 

in your love and faithfulness, you will do it again. 

Give us the strength to step forward in hope.  

Give us faith that changes us, 

hope that feeds us,  

love that moves us.  

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

If you would like to donate to the work of Christian Aid, you can find their site HERE