30 May 2010

Welcome to  St Alban’s Anglican Church  

Today's Scripture: Proverbs 8: 1-4, 22-31                 Romans 5: 1-5              S. John 16: 12-15

Today: 8.35 a.m. Matins; 9.00 a.m. Church School; 9.30 a.m. Holy Eucharist; 6 p.m. EP.

This Week: Tues - Fri 12.30 p.m. Prayers; Sat 10 a.m. Prison Ministry.

Next Sunday: 8.35 a.m. Matins; 9.00a.m. Ch School; 9.30 a.m. Holy Eucharist; 6.00 p.m. EP

Trinity Sunday

Almighty and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity; We beseech thee, that thou wouldest keep us stedfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities, who livest and reignest, one God, world without end..

FAITH IN FOCUS:

If we thought we could adequately describe God, then we would surely be fooling ourselves since God is too great for our limited minds to be able to grasp and process. In fact, St Anselm’s famous statement about God was that God is that being greater than which nothing can be imagined. If it takes you a while to work out what that means, then don’t worry; you’re not alone!

But we’re still left with the problem of having to use some words to talk about God. What we tend to do is to use our daily human experience to try to come close to what God is really like.

The bible compares God to a parent. Parents are the authors of life for their children. So to call God a father is to say that he is responsible for all that lives and breathes in our universe. He is our creator.

When we talk about Jesus as the Son, it does not mean that he is less important than the Father; it simply implies closeness of relationship. We speak of the Son as communicating what God is, as the loving expression of God who does not want to see us floundering in the ups and downs of life, but wants us to employ every moment of our God-given existence to the full. He is our redeemer.

The Holy Spirit is on a par with the Father and the Son, and is the inflowing of their love to the world. The Spirit is the daily presence of God among his sons and daughters, inspiring us to good, uplifting us to better things, leading us into the truth. He is our sustainer.

This is how we tend to talk about God, inductively; using our own life experiences as a measuring-stick for what God is and what God does. But it comes as no surprise to learn that each of the three persons in this Trinity is co-equal and that their activity overlaps

Maybe what we can do on this feast of the Trinity is simply to thank God just for being  God and for bothering to regenerate us as his sons and daughters. We may never “understand” God until we see him face to face. But that shouldn’t stop us loving him.