St Martin's & St Paul's
Parish Canterbury
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A few years ago I acquired a cheap, small vacuum cleaner from a supermarket. All went well until I realised that I was almost down to the last bag. Vainly I searched the same supermarket and other places for the right one. Then when I mentioned this prosaic subject to someone they told me about a shop in Faversham that had every imaginable type of bag for sale.
So I went to Faversham and there I found the shop (I don't know if it still exists) and there indeed was a huge display of vacuum cleaner bags in packets and a huge display of vacuum cleaner parts and extras. I showed my bag to the man in the shop and he silently went over to his display and selected the right one. I bought three packets to be on the safe side. Wanting to make some sort of conversation I said how different things were now: at one time it was only possible to buy vacuum cleaners in electrical shops and they were quite expensive; now the cleaners were everywhere but replacing the bags was more tricky. This elicited no response at all. The man gave me a hard stare and said, "£7.50."; so I paid up and left.
Now you may well be wondering what on earth is the connection between vacuum cleaner bags and Trinity Sunday? Well only that just as that man was surrounded by vacuum cleaner bags but had nothing to say about them, so we are always surrounded by manifestations of our Trinitarian faith but can be struck dumb at the thought of talking about God the Holy Trinity. The images in our churches, the words in our prayers, the words of our hymns proclaim Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but preaching on Trinity Sunday is somehow viewed as challenging and difficult, and talking about God the Trinity to other people, well, that's even harder.
Matthew's Gospel ends with the great Commission: Go ye into all the world...and shows that the Church and Christian doctrine had clearly developed Trinitarian baptismal confession by the time that Gospel was written; John's Gospel however concludes with a long prayer or discourse in which Jesus communicates the essential relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, somehow we perceive that there is a relationship between God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and that relationship extends to and embraces us as God is our Father, Jesus is the Son and one of us and our redeemer, and the Holy Spirit is our Inspirer. Inadequate as we are, because we respond in penitence and faith, we can be truly drawn into relationship with God.
And that is why when we preach about the Trinity or speak about our faith we are not required to give some sort of theological summary; we are required to speak of what we experience: that the source of light and love and power and truth is there for us to seek and to know: the mystery of God in whose presence we can withdraw from the world to find healing and peace; the presence of Jesus Christ alongside us who knows what life in the world is all about and the Holy Spirit who shows us what it can be about if we only let him work in us. We should not be silent or monosyllabic about our faith but ready to speak of what we experience and know; my vacuum cleaner salesman did a good job in providing what people needed without the necessity of words; indeed words are often not needed in matters of faith where people simply want peace and quiet, but if when we are required to speak we speak of what we know, that will be more effective than any number of worthy books of doctrine.
Amen.
