Friends
During the course of the church year, we celebrate God the Creator at Harvest, we celebrate God the Father and Jesus the Son at Christmas and at Easter, we celebrate God the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and finally, on the Sunday after Pentecost, we celebrate our belief that God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are both three distinct expressions of God and also one. The Holy Trinity, three in one and one in three. Over the years, artists, writers and theologians have tried to express this, and every year, preachers lay out our doctrine, with varying degrees of success. Sometimes of course, people are just happy to take it as we say it, without needing to understand it, it just is.
Whoever you are, on what I expect is a sliding scale between the two positions rather than one thing or another, it is true that we are unusual in our affirmation of a God who is three in one and one in three. One of the classic ways of explaining this is to ask someone to stand in front of the congregation and to ask them what they do; who they are to various people. They may reply: “I am a wife, a teacher, a church organist,” as I did when a long-ago preacher asked me to help them in that way. It was a good answer and allowed the preacher to point out that I was indeed one woman, who was expressed in three different ways. All fine and dandy, until the next day when my daughter was asking me to do something while I was doing something else and I said, “I will do it in a bit. Right now I am doing this, and I can’t do two things at once.” To which she replied, “Well, Ian says you can do three things at once!” Not perhaps the message that he had intended to give in his lovely all age address!
However, it is true that we all live multiple lives and do multiple things, and many of us find that to be life-enhancing and energising. It is how we build our community. For others of us, it has become exhausting, and we need to lay down at least one of our multi-faceted beings. On the 14th of June at Windsor Methodist Church, 6pm – 7:30, we are having a fun look at some of the roles in church and circuit using a “speed dating” model. Hosted by our youth group, it will be a lot of fun, even if you don’t need (or want!) another role in the church. Come and see as we continue to grow our community and to serve each other.
God bless, Vicci