Tag: Matthew

Trinity Sunday: Can You Handle the Truth?

31/05/26
Trinity Sunday

Isaiah 40:12-17, 27-31
Matthew 28:16-20

The first Sunday after Pentecost is always Trinity Sunday. That special day when we are meant to celebrate the Christian doctrine of the Trinity: God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. Celebrating foundational Christian doctrine might not sound all that exciting, but it is!

It is always worthwhile to remind ourselves about the essence of our Christian faith after the seasons of Lent, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. The church year now rolls along until Advent as the big festivals are complete.

The Church has marked Trinity Sunday since the mid 800’s. It was instituted to speak against the heresies of the early church as they worked out how to understand the nature of Jesus; was he only a man? Was he divine? A combination of both? How could the church understand and explain how God can be three and one.

Reference to the Trinity is woven through our services; each time I or we say ‘in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit‘. We repeat it each week in the Creeds. The entire Christian story is retold in the Eucharistic prayer before Communion; listen for the references again this morning.

It is difficult to understand and at some point needs to be believed as part of the mystery of God. But don’t simply jump to that conclusion (or not) as tempting as it is!

The doctrine of the Trinity sets out to tell the whole truth about God, even though it is difficult. The full Christian story is that God created the world, redeemed it through Jesus and is present in the world and our lives through the Holy Spirit. All equal, all the same.

From theologian Alistair McGrath,

‘Let’s pretend that God is simply someone up in heaven, who made the world. That’s the way many Greek philosophers thought about God. It’s not a difficult idea. So why don’t Christians just adopt this simple view of God? The reason is clear. This may be an easy idea to understand, but it is a totally inadequate view of God, from a Christian point of view. Why? Because this scaled-down God is the distant and far-removed creator of this world, who never becomes directly involved in its affairs. And Christians know that God just isn’t like that. For Christians, God entered into this world in Jesus of Nazareth: “the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory” (John 1:14). Good theology is about telling the full story, and enabling us to see the full picture. And that means weeding out inadequate ideas about God.’

Trying to deepen our understanding of the Trinity, should help us to expand our faith ideas of what it is to be a Christian. How? The Trinity should challenge us with the truth about God. Being a Christian is not solely about turning up to church or simply being a good person. The truth of God will always be more than our minds can cope with.

The truth of God will always convict and remake us. We are created in God’s image as everyone is. We cannot remake the image to suit ourselves. It is an image we are to grow and mature into.

Secondly, the Trinity shows us that God is dynamic. God is on the move. He flows, he dances. This proves that the idea of a distant God is inadequate. We pray and worship, we believe that God is creator and lord, we know that the Spirit guides and moves us to action.

We see the action of God in Isaiah 40. The Israelites are in Babylon by force as the prophecies of the coming exile have come true. Jerusalem fell to King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in 587 BC. This section is dated from the 540’s.

Isaiah is addressing people who have suffered the trauma of exile after 40 years. There is a new generation who did not know the ‘old’ Jerusalem. The writer is bringing hope and comfort to the community whose exile is coming to an end by the grace of God. He is reminding them of God’s vastness: a God who can measure the waters in the hollow of his hand, enclose the dust of the earth in a measure, and weigh the mountains on scales. Nations are like a drop from a bucket.

The writer makes the case that God can be trusted to save the exiles. He wants to and he can. God is the source of power and will renew the strength of the exhausted and weary. Isaiah is imploring the old generation to tell the new generation about God.

Jesus’ final commandment to his disciples in Matthew’s Gospel is to ‘Go! Make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ They were not to stay still in Jerusalem and never change. Thank God they did go. God is always waiting and watching over us. He wants us to move and change; to become the people He created us to be.

Now some who heard Jesus that day doubted, hesitated. Why? Maybe they were not sure of what they were seeing? Was it really Jesus? Or a vision? They were not the first people who had trouble recognising the post-resurrection Jesus.

Disciples are learners and followers; if you want to learn and follow then you are in good company. We need to make more of them. This is not about securing more members to the group but securing wholehearted commitment to Jesus, to the Trinity. We do that by following the example of Jesus and being open to the work of the Spirit in our lives. What might that look like for you?

Take comfort in the words of Jesus, ‘I am with you always, to the end of age.’ The Trinity is not something we will ever fully understand but it is an attempt to tell the full story of God. Not the absent one but the God whose love and presence can be known here and now in the ordinary every day.

God is not forgetful or careless. No one who measured the water in the hollow of his hand or weighed the mountains on a scale lacks attention to detail. Remember that God is inexhaustible. God is unending energy. Jesus is unending energy. The Holy Spirit is unending energy.

Lean into God for comfort and encouragement. Lean into Jesus and follow his example. Lean into the Holy Spirit and ask for energy and imagination. Lean into each other as we continue to learn and grow together. May we be transformed by the Trinity.

Lent 1: Three Questions

The Temptations of Christ, 12th century mosaic at St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice.

22/2/26
Year A – Lent 1

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” – Charles Baudelaire (French poet & essayist).

“Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in.” – Billy Sunday (American evangelist & professional baseball player)

“The devil hath power / To assume a pleasing shape.” – William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

“We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.” – Oscar Wilde.

Scripture tells us repeatedly that the devil is the father of lies. In the wilderness or in the Garden of Eden there is nothing on offer but lies. We see the devil at work in the Genesis and Matthew readings which are always set for the first Sunday in Lent. It is a reminder that the devil/evil/darkness/temptation has been around from the beginning. No one is immune from it, not even Jesus. We have to learn to be aware of it and stand against it. The quotes chosen this morning give a glimpse of how others have contended with the devil.

Many people are convinced that the devil does not exist. We can invite him in. Evil is not always unattractive at first glance. We are our own devils and cause much of our own destruction.

In Genesis, the devil takes the form of a serpent, more crafty than any other animal God had made. The serpent takes an effective and basic approach to deception: casting doubt. Did God really say… Eve knew what God had said, she repeated it verbatim. The serpent carried on telling Eve what would happen which was a lie. She ate the fruit (not necessarily an apple), gave some to Adam and the rest is history.

At the heart of the fall of Adam and Eve is disobedience resulting from lies and deception. Most of our personal problems, the world’s problems stem from lies, deception and ultimately disobedience. Who should we be obedient to? Who should we disobey? What lies have we fallen for?

In Jesus’ baptism, his identity is revealed by God as being his son, precious and beloved. The Spirit then leads him into the wilderness where that truth is powerfully tested and assaulted by the devil. Jesus is not treated as we might expect post-baptism. If you have been to a baptism recently you may have experienced a lavish celebration after the event! There is no cake or bouncy castle for Jesus, no lingering in the glory of baptism for him.

One explanation for Jesus’ temptation is that he had to determine what kind of Messiah he was going to be. Jesus was at the very start of his public ministry; He might as well start as he means to go on.

I want to briefly look at the temptations that Jesus faced and ask three questions that I had not ever considered before.

Stone to Bread

Jesus’ temptation begins after his forty days and nights in the wilderness; likely at this weakest point physically, spiritually and psychologically. Many of us may know the restorative power of a nap and a snack to change perspective. The first need the devil attacks Jesus with is for physical food. Tell this stone to become bread and Jesus of course could do that. There is nothing quite like having hunger satisfied quickly.

The question is: what is truly nourishing for you? If we are thinking about food I am reminded of family meals with everyone around the table. The nourishment of conversation, laughter, being with the people we love. So often we eat junk, we are marketed cheap calories and convenience that do not satisfy our souls or bodies.

We can also ask this spiritually – what nourishes your soul? As you are here this morning I would guess that coming to church does. I know for myself that I am nourished at the Communion table, in times of prayer and reflection. I want you to be fed spiritually, to take this seriously. Do we trust that God and His Word will sustain us?

Jump and Let the Angels
The second temptation is also about trust in God as the devil wants Jesus to put God to the test. This never ends well! Sometimes we put God to the test too when we try to bargain with him, ‘I’ll do this, if you’ll do that.’ We bargain because of our need for safety. Human beings are hardwired for survival and to do that we need to be and feel safe.

The second question is: What is true safety? For a number of years I saw safety in my Canadian passport and credit card with a high limit. If it all went wrong here in the UK, then I could go. Be home again by dinner tomorrow. A growing number of people in this country carry weapons; young people with knives. Is that true safety?

This is driven by fear; I was afraid of failing, running out of money, not having a job or not liking what I was doing. Often fear is far greater than any perceived enemy. God is more than capable of handling our questions, our doubts, our anger and even our temptations. They need to be handed over to him though. What is not acceptable is dangling these things, threatening to do them in order to make God responsible for our actions.

True safety has nothing today with weapons and passports; it has to do with trust. Trusting that God is with us, we are loved. No need to jump off the cliff.

Worship Me and All is Yours

It is very difficult to imagine that Jesus would be tempted to worship the devil. This final temptation is about power. People crave power and the devil knows this. We want to be in control of our own lives, destinies, plans. Adam and Eve were tempted by the prospect of power. They believed, with no proof at all, that eating a piece of fruit would make them like God.

The serpent convinced them that there was more to God than he was letting on. Surely just living the good life in the garden was not all that God wanted. Really? The idea that we can become our own ‘god’ is pervasive in current culture. We want to be powerful, image is everything. Is it? People are falling down all over the place – so get torn down, others throw themselves down.

The third question: What is true power? We learn again and again, or we fail to learn again and again, Jesus’s own central teaching: true power has nothing to do with governments or kingdoms or popularity contests or how many people you can command. True power is the mysterious path that Jesus walked. It comes with no guarantees. It is self-giving surrender, the strangest of paradoxes, and it leads to the cross.

Lent can be a wilderness season of sorts as we make time (or should make time) to examine where we are at with God. To ask ourselves what is truly nourishing? What is true safety? What is true power? Jesus was able to answer the devil at each turn with scripture from Deuteronomy. Maybe we need to brush up on what the bible says (or doesn’t)! Maybe we need to think again about where our trust lies.

A wilderness season, however challenging, will never be wasted if we believe and know that God is with us, that those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, that our identity lies in being His beloved son or daughter. If we can hang on to that, then whatever the wilderness throws at us, whatever illusions we live under can be overcome.

2nd before Lent: Worry?! What me?

8/2/26

2nd Sunday Before Lent 

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Matthew 6:25-34

Sometimes when I walk through the churchyard I think about all of the deceased who are resting in peace around us. I wonder about their worries and how they have now all come to an end. Nothing like a little chastening from the great beyond to give perspective to the current worries! 

A considerable worry is the way that people are being treated across the world. Today is ‘Racial Justice Sunday’ which marks the 32nd anniversary of the racially-motivated murder of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence in Eltham, south-east London. This is to be a time for all churches to remember, reflect and respond to the importance of racial justice, and an opportunity to give thanks for the gift of human diversity and commit to ending racial discrimination. I am worried I haven’t done anything about this and have not paid very much attention to this real and pressing need in our society.    

We live in a worried world and we always have; probably much more worried now than we have ever known. What can we do to combat our worldly worries? Hopefully this morning there are a few useful suggestions. 

How many of you worry about things that don’t ever happen? I think a lot of people tend to worry about things that won’t ever happen. Could not possibly happen – but it might. So worry about it! Let’s throw that on the pile too! 

The Old Testament reading for today is Genesis chapter 1 & 2 which tells the story of creation. I deliberately chose Genesis to help us take a grander view of the world. Whatever we make of the Genesis account of creation, we are given a view of God that is huge. 

God the creator of everything who made something out of nothing, brought order to chaos, called things into being and they were. God saw that everything he did was good. The big things like the wind and water, light and darkness, sea and sky right down to seeds to birds to the things that creep along the ground. God took his time to do all these things.

Seven times in the creation story we are told we come from a God who sees. God steps back from his work and he looks, he notices each tiny piece. We also come from a God who creates new things. On each of the six days in creation, God made something new. 

He still does today! We wake up every day and there are new things in the world. The snowdrops and daffodils, the tiny buds on the trees. Nothing goes unnoticed. God’s mercies are new every morning. God is also big enough to take on our worries, our cares. Cast your cares on him.

As Christians we need to continually learn and re-learn to trust in the providence of God. Jesus uses the birds of the air and the lilies of the field as an example. Birds and lilies cannot provide for themselves. Birds neither sow nor reap. Lilies cannot toil nor spin but are beautifully made. We are of more value to God than these.

Matthew 6 will hopefully soothe our worried souls. This is part of the wider Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is addressing a crowd of people for whom worry was evidently a part of life too. Jesus is speaking to the practical needs of food, drink, clothing and housing. Very real issues to an impoverished crowd. Very real issues to many people today.

Jesus is trying to give his listeners some perspective on their worries by giving them a bigger picture of life. Is life not more than food and the body more than clothing? We are of value to God; more than the birds are and he looks after them.

If we can believe in our great value to God, it frees us from much worry. I’m not sure many things compare to the challenge of ceasing to worry. Maybe one reason why it is hard to stop worrying is because we have so many prime opportunities to practise. Yet we will never overcome worry by eliminating reasons to worry. It does free up time and space to get on with living.

One of my Grandmothers was of Mennonite German descent and she had a saying that loosely and more politely translated from low-German to English was: ‘don’t wee before the water comes.’ What she meant is that we are not to get anxious before there is something to get anxious about.

Jesus would tell us that when these situations arise, and they will, we are to go to him. Jesus sums up the futility of worry in verses 25 & 26; we cannot add a minute to our life by worrying. The paradox is that there will always be something to worry about.  

Simply put, worry is not particularly helpful. Even when we seem to worry about ‘important things’; even when we worry in the name of love it will accomplish nothing. 

Well then, what are we supposed to do?! It seems that we need to change our perspective by seeking the kingdom of God. How do you do that? A starting point may be to learn to turn our worry effort into prayer. Have a conversation with God; that is what prayer effectively is. He already knows what we need. Prayer is the way to access those needs, to build a relationship with the one who created us. 

Is it possible to reframe our worries into hopeful waiting by seeking the kingdom of God? I hope so! There are endless things to worry about, no question. Worrying will not eliminate the things we worry about. It will not add any hours to our lives. Seeking God and his kingdom, remembering we are part of something bigger that also waits to be free gives hope. This will add eternity to our lives and that is well worth waiting for. 

I am going to end with a poem by American poet Mary Oliver… 

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.

Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And I gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.

Baptism of Christ

11/1/2026
Isaiah 42:1-9
Matthew 3:13-end

Happy New Year! Christmas is officially over. It is not just because Easter Creme Eggs have appeared in the shops! I find the transition from Christmas to Epiphany a bit jarring. One minute, we’re gazing at a swaddled baby. Next, we’re whizzing past a toddler, an array of gift-bearing Magi, a young family fleeing to Egypt, a twelve-year-old boy in a temple, and a mother, pondering all these things in her heart. And today we are standing on the banks of the Jordan River, waiting in line with Jesus watching John the Baptist baptise people who believed his message.

Epiphany starts with the visitation of the Wise Men to Joseph, Mary and Jesus. The significance is that this visit sent the clear message that Jesus came for everyone – not only the Jewish people. The revelation, this epiphany, was a life changing event for them and for us.

Over the next few weeks we will look at the epiphany moments of significant Biblical characters. Today we look at Jesus’ baptism.

Three of the four Gospels recounts the baptism of Jesus with varying degrees of detail. Matthew 3 begins with John calling for repentance with urgency and harshness; accusing the religious elite of being a brood of vipers and hypocrites before Jesus appears.

Mark has a shortened version of Matthew.

Luke has an even shorter version with no mention of John doing his baptism.

John’s gospel alludes to Jesus’ baptism but rather strongly alludes to it.

Up to this point, John has been calling people to prepare themselves to meet the Messiah when he comes. This involved confession and repentance of sin through the water of baptism. This was also a temporary measure and John knows it. When Jesus arrived at the river that day, the baton was passed.

Jesus was not being baptised for repentance or salvation; he was being baptised into ministry. See the picture for a moment – the crowd of people having confessed their sins and then standing in the river to be baptised. Then Jesus comes along after they’ve made their confession.

Jesus and John standing in the Jordan. Jesus is baptised; he was drenched in the same waters where they had confessed their sins. This is all about symbolism but do you see Jesus almost wearing the sins they had confessed in those waters?

In the waters of baptism our sin is washed away through the work of the Holy Spirit – this is the baptism that Jesus offers us. The crowd who were listening to John that day were full of expectation. They had heard John preaching about a baptism of repentance, probably not easy to listen to. John had previously referred to his listeners as a brood of vipers!

He was not preaching a message of fluff and ‘just be a good person’, or ‘as long as you don’t hurt anyone else’. John was preparing them not for salvation but for repentance, he was preparing them to encounter Jesus, the only one who could bring them salvation.

Sin is significant. It has a significant impact on your life and those around you.

Beth Moore: I believe they (the people being baptised that day) were quite specific confessing their sins. In all likelihood they were crying out these confessions, maybe even wailing them. They may have been weeping over their sins. Then came Christ. We know He was not coming to be baptised unto repentance. He was the spotless Lamb of God. Complete perfection. The only One who had no confession to do that day in those waters. He came for John to baptise Him.

There is power in the water of baptism. Do we live like there is? What an amazing privilege it is to be baptised. We never have to feel insignificant again. We are called by name into the deep waters of baptism where He is always with us. He took on our sin and paid the price for us.

After Jesus was baptised, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove. The voice of God ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ This little glimpse of heaven! Jesus was about to be taken into the wilderness for his 40 days of temptation. I would like to believe that the sound of that voice stayed with him.

The voice that called down from heaven is the same voice that calls our name. He is with us when we pass through the waters and the rivers and in the deep waters of baptism, we are significant; and we should be expectant.

Happy New Year!

Advent 4: Mary & Joseph

Advent 4 – Year A
Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-25

I am struggling to believe that it is the Fourth Sunday of Advent. It has gone by way too quickly. My well-intentioned plans for a reflective and attentive Advent have largely fallen by the wayside. Roll on Christmas.

The Gospel readings for Fourth Sunday always revolve around Mary as she completes the picture of our Advent journey. I looked back over the lectionary (as I did for John the Baptist) to see which stories of Mary are used on this particular Sunday. Year B has set Luke 1 which is the Annunciation; when Mary was visited by Gabriel who brings her the good news that she will bear a son. Year C has also set Luke 1; the Magnificat in which Mary proclaims the greatness of the Lord who has looked with favour on her lowly self.

But every third year in Year A, the Gospel reading switches primary focus to Joseph with Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus. Matthew seems to focus his attention on Joseph much more than on Mary. You might not have noticed this but Joseph never speaks.

We never hear his voice in any of the accounts. Mary speaks and there is great focus and attention on her. In comparison, we know very little about Joseph and there can be a temptation to push him to the side-lines. I want to take the opportunity to look a little closer at Joseph. Without him the whole Christmas story would have faltered.

In many dramatisations of the nativity, Joseph is portrayed as a responsible but passionate younger man who was deeply in love with Mary. When Mary returns from visiting her cousin Elizabeth with a very obvious baby bump, Joseph is devastated, angry, grief-stricken, embarrassed. As viewers, we were confronted with a range of emotions and conversations between Mary and Joseph that were likely experienced but are not mentioned in the biblical story.

In Matthew’s account, Joseph is told about Mary’s baby and in a breath decides to quietly divorce her and save her from public disgrace. Here we see the loyalty and dignity, the faithfulness of Joseph.

It is not until the angel appears to Joseph in a dream to explain the whole situation that he believes Mary’s story when he wakes up.

We would make a mistake to sanitise Joseph’s consent as being an easy decision to come to. We diminish his humanity by overlooking his humiliation and doubt. In a culture and religion that was bound by rules, Joseph would have been in a lot of pain.

We so often want to separate ourselves from the pain of other people, we can feel so helpless in the face of it. In Joseph, we see that God’s favour is not always a shiny, happy thing. Whatever thoughts Joseph had about his family’s future were upended. His ideas of fairness, justice, goodness and purity are shattered. Being chosen by God is not always so attractive.

Joseph’s story is one that can give us hope. Many of us will know what it is to struggle to do what has been asked of us. Sometimes the decisions are difficult and the choices are limited. Joseph struggled. He was prepared to do the honourable, arguably easier thing but that was not what was asked.

So he struggled more and came to the decision that was far harder but the right one. He woke up and did what the angel commanded him. Little wonder that the angel’s opening line was do not be afraid. Joseph was needed as it is through him that Jesus’ connection to the House of David is made. If you read through the opening verses of Matthew chapter one, it is a cabaret of characters who did some interesting things.

Debie Thomas wrote, ‘Interestingly, in the verses that immediately precede our Gospel reading, Matthew gives us a genealogy of Jesus’s ancestors. He mentions Abraham — the patriarch who abandoned his son, Ishmael, and twice endangered his wife’s safety in order to save his own skin. He mentions Jacob, the trickster usurper who humiliated his older brother. He mentions David, who slept with another man’s wife and then ordered that man’s murder to protect his own reputation. He mentions Tamar, who pretended to be a sex worker, and Rahab, who was one. These are just a few representative samples.

Notice anything? Anything like messiness? Complication? Scandal? Sin? How interesting that God, who could have chosen any genealogy for his Son, chose a long line of brokenness, imperfection, dishonour, and scandal. The perfect backdrop, I suppose, for his beautiful works of restoration, healing, hope, and second chances.’

Not only was Jesus born into a messy world, but a messy family. Joseph helps to remind us that what God asks of us is often messy and unexpected. We should however expect to have our own ideas upended and challenged. Yet do not be afraid. I hope as we come fully into this Christmas season and new year that we are not afraid to love more deeply, pay more attention to what God is doing or asking of us. It might be messy.

Do not be afraid of the mess. It is in the mess that Jesus our Saviour was born.