Gordon's Blog Spot: 'Trinity Sunday 2026' - Transcript of Sermon St Oswalds Rugby 31st May 2026

St Oswald’s Trinity Sunday 2026

(Sunday 31st May 2026 10.30am service)

John 16:5-15

Can I invite you to raise your hand if you agree with this statement.

‘God is love.’

Okay, let’s think a tad deeper.

Can there be love without the beloved – someone or something that is the object of that love. And isn’t it the case that if that love be genuine, in the best of circumstances that love will be reciprocated if the object of love has agency as a sentient being.

Therefore, isn’t it plain logic that for love to be active there must be something or someone to love?

A further question then – if God is a single entity and if God is love, whom or what does God love?

Now you may want to quote John 3.16 – ‘for God so loved the world. So, okay we have God loving the world…

But whom or what did God love before the world began – if God was a single entity?

The logical and satisfactory answer comes in the idea of God as three persons, what we know as the Trinity.

And this is exactly what we find in the opening pages of our Bible in the creation narrative of Gensis.

We have God calling out the Word, and we have the Spirit hovering over the chaos waters. (Not hoovering, that’s something very different)

A picture that John picks up in the opening prologue to his Gospel.

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the was with God and the Word was God.’

And in the ordinary course of things and in the best of all circumstances what is it that love does? It creates, it gives new life, and it promotes flourishing.

Again, that is exactly what we read in Genesis and the creation story.

‘Let us create humankind in our own image.’

Think of it this way. When a human couple come together in love then in the best of all circumstances and in the ordinary course of things they will create new life.

That is what true love does, it creates, it brings new life, it produces a flourishing of the other, the beloved other.

Thus, we may say that the Trinity is not some obscure doctrine but rather the experiential reality for those who knew God as Father but then encountered Jesus and then experienced the infilling and indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

A deep and profound and unfathomable mystery, but let’s not be afraid to embrace mystery.

Einstein said, “logic will get you from A to B, but imagination can take your everywhere.”

Logic, imagination and mystery – all these help us to encounter God.

And the Trinity is about a big of a mystery as we could get and yet a mystery we can embrace and step into albeit we may not have all the answers.

The various Councils in the early Church tried to bring some definition of what was and what was not being said in the Doctrine of the Trinity. And one of those involved in this debate was Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria in the second century. (Feast Day at the beginning of May)

Amongst the many gifts he left to the Church was his very comprehensive Creed in defence of the Trinity. You will find a copy in the BCP. However, it is a dense read, especially couched in the 17^th century language of the BCP.

A more accessible reflection on the Trinity and its importance in Christian thought is a book by Father Richard Rhor, ‘The Divine Dance’. This focusses largely around Rublev’s famous Icon, ‘The Hospitality of Abraham’ with its popular alternative title of ‘The Holy Trinity.’

Rhor emphasises the Holy Community of the Trinity into which we are invited to participate in the lifegiving and outpouring love.

God is a community of equals operating out of reciprocal love.

One is lonely, two can become oppositional but three gives an opportunity for a dynamic symbiosis. And this Holy Community as it operates out of reciprocal love births new life and creates flourishing.

And it here that we begin to grasp both the joy and the challenge of being God’s image bearers.

Remember, ‘let us create humankind in our image.’

Not in physical likeness, but in attributes, in our lives, in the way we live and love and foster flourishing.

Consider this as we come to our APCM this morning.

Consider this as we seek to live as faithful apprentice to Jesus.

Reflecting on our Gospel reading this morning…

Jesus is going back to the Father and promises to send the Holy Spirit, which is what we celebrated last week, the Feast of Pentecost.

If these chapters of John’s Gospel, known as Jesus’ final discourses, chapters 13 through to 17, if they teach us anything, it is about the mutual abiding and dwelling of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

But more over that we are invited into that very same abiding presence.

As imagers bearers, as witnesses to the world, we are called to operate in like manner.

To be a community of equals operating out of reciprocal love. A community that births life, has an outpouring of love which produces a flourishing.

Paul writing to the Galatians emphasises that we are equal, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Gal 3.28.

Therefore, a question for us to answer individually and as the Church Family called to be image bearers here and now and in this place, the question is, does everything we do seek to do birth new life, demonstrate love and seeks the flourishing of the other.

Does it seek to bear witness to the Holy Trinity as a Community of reciprocal love?

Are we becoming more of a Faith Community.

A Faith Community that is committed at the core, open at the edges, evangelized and naturally evangelizing.

And let me make one final point returning to Rublev’s Icon.

You notice the three figures, and you will notice a space.

There is always space for the other to come and be part of the Faith Community. Because you will either be playing a part or playing apart.

Should you choose to play apart, then that is your choice, but heed the words of Jesus…

“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

Part of Jesus’ final discourse, John 15.4

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit is a community of equals operating out of reciprocal love bringing new life and flourishing.

I began with a question, so let me end with another question. Is this a fair descriptor of St Oswald’s Faith Community?

The Faith Community of St Oswald’s is a community of equals, operating out of reciprocal love that brings new life and flourishing reflecting the Holy Trinity out into the community and the wider world.