Some of you will have been coming to this annual service for years; others, like myself, will be here for the first or second time, but we are all here, as we heard at the beginning of our service to remember, to seek God’s guidance and to work for peace.

It is hard for those of us who never lived through the war years to understand fully what those years were like and what devastation was brought to the world in the middle of the last century. Each year, the number of those who fought and served in other ways decreases, both here and at such occasions right across the country and the world. But, of course, we mustn’t forget either that men and women in our armed forces continue to serve around the world today in conflict situations and still risk their lives for the sake of others.

Those who fought and who were involved directly with the Second World War, as part of the Armed Forces, or support services or at home, will have painful memories that, fortunately, many of us will never have to bear. The horrors of war are not something to be replicated. Only those who were there at the time will know exactly how horrendous were the situations they faced.

There was an added element for those who fought in Burma, that they seemed at times to have been forgotten by the rest of the world.

In August 1944, Lord Louis Mountbatten reminded the world through the press not to forget the Far East: “My object in this press conference is to try to put before the press of the world that every effort has been and is continuing to be put into the South East Asia campaign; that the Burma battle front is a single unified front: that my plans are made in close consultation with my deputy, General Joseph Stilwell, and, we carry them out with a common end in view.

“Please therefore look upon Burma as one big Allied effort. British. American and Chinese with the help of the Dutch and the other nations that are with us. It is going extraordinarily well as an Allied effort. We do not want a lot of limelight, in fact we do not want any, but I go round and talk to the men in the Command and what worries them is that their wives, their mothers, their daughters their sweethearts and their sisters don’t seem to know that the war they are fighting is important and worthwhile, which it most assuredly is.”

As he points out, those who were fighting in the Far East were not after the limelight, seeking only to do their duty.

Mountbatten then went on to outline what was going on and what had happened in the campaign so far, so that the forgotten people might be forgotten no more.

Today memories are more available but time is running out, if we are to continue hearing first-hand what the War was like.

Arthur Swinson wrote these words, which are quoted on the Association website: “More than perhaps any campaign in the Second World War, save the Russians’ defence of Stalingrad, the Burma campaign has the elements of a great Homeric saga. It took place in a fantastic terrain, isolated by the great mountains and jungles from any other theatre. It went on unbroken for three years and eight months. It covered vast areas.

“It sucked into its maelstrom nearly 2,000,000 men. It encompassed great disaster and ended in great triumphs. It produced prodigies of heroism, patience, resolution, and endurance. It brought about great suffering, but fascinated and enthralled those taking part in it, both victors and losers. It was like no war that had ever been in the history of conflict.”

You here today are ensuring that that heroism, patience, resolution and endurance is not forgotten. If we are to fulfil that pledge to work for peace, then we need to remember what a world devoid of peace is like.
War is never a good thing. Too many people lose their lives; too many people have to endure a life of bereavement and grief; too many people lose a husband or child, a parent or friend; too many people experience horrors from which their minds and emotions will never be truly free; too many people are damaged physically.

The Second World War was a tragedy of history, and yet, those who fought and stood up for liberty believed it to be a better option than doing nothing at all. With war and the threat of war an ever-present feature of life in our time, we need constantly to remind ourselves of the heroism and courage of those who fight, and support them in our prayers, but also we need to keep reminding ourselves that war causes devastation and by so doing renew our efforts always to work for peace.

The facts about war are stark, but facts do not inspire others as much as personal testimony.

The personal stories of those who have suffered because of war are what will affect others most, so do keep telling your stories, and the stories of your parents and grandparents.

And, what of God in all this? The God who calls us to love our enemies, to walk in his ways and bear witness to his love. God often gets the blame when things go wrong, and in today’s world that is more of an issue than ever, since people so often claim they are fighting on God’s behalf.

In fact, the responsibility lies not with God, but with us. God does not drive people to kill others; God is a God of love, who created every human being, and longs for us to live at peace with one another. Think how a parent feels when their children fall out with one another.

God longs for us to follow his paths, but does not force us to do so, since that would make us little more than automatons, which cannot love or hate, or feel or care for others.

War usually has its roots in a conflict about power - it might be power related to land or power related to an individual’s desire to control. It might be the desire of power of one nation over another or one misguided individual over other individuals. The Christian Gospel calls us back and reminds us that it is God who is powerful, and that in God’s kingdom it is the meek who hold a blessed place.

This is not to take away from any of the sacrifices that were made by men and women of the past in wartime or those that are being made today, by men and women in our modern arenas of conflict, men and women who have left home and family to work for the protection and peace of others.

But, it is to offer a call to each one of us here today to stop and remember what are the values of the kingdom of God, and to work for those values in our world today. When we recognise our own sinfulness, our lust for power, our greed, and acknowledge them before God, we can share the values of the kingdom with others.

But we can only do this with the help and guidance of God, and by recognising in humility where true power lies - in the hands of God. But in the hands of a God who has let go some of that power because humans have a choice.

We have a choice whether to work for our own ends or those of others. We have a choice whether to work for peace or for greater conflict. We have a choice whether to sacrifice ourselves and our well-being for the good of the other.

Those who went to Burma and the Far East gave up their own desires and in many cases sacrificed their lives for others. They believed that their fight was one of good against evil. Those are the choices we sometimes have to make in our fallen world. War is not undertaken lightly.

And, as we remember what the men and women of the past sacrificed for our present well-being, we should recall the words of Jesus: “Greater love hath no one than this that they lay down their life for their friends,” and pledge ourselves to working for a future governed by the values of God’s kingdom - love and joy and peace. Amen.

Isaiah 40.1-11; Galatians 3.23-29; Luke 1.57-66, 80

Since Trinity Sunday, our epistle readings have come from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, and will do so for a week or two more, so I thought this morning, we’d start by looking at some background to that letter.

This letter was written not just to one specific church but to a number of churches in Galatia, though we don’t know how many. The people to whom it was written will have heard it read out to them rather than reading it for themselves. It would have been read in its entirety. Our services don’t allow us time to read a whole letter at one time, but it’s a good thing to do sometime to sit down with your Bible and read some of the epistles from start to finish, using a commentary to help you understand the background to each letter.

We have to remember that when the letters were written they were written for specific people in specific situations. I’m sure Paul when he was writing to first-century churches never had in mind that 2000-plus years later, we would still be reading them.

We can never know exactly what was going on in these early Churches but we can glean some idea of the debates, discussions, arguments behind the letters through what they say and don’t say.

In Galatians, we see Paul at his most passionate. He really cares about the people who will read his letter and about them getting the right message about Christianity. The very identity of Christianity is at stake here, so perhaps it’s not surprising that we see Paul’s passion in this letter.

It is likely that Paul had some hand in founding the Galatian churches, so he probably feels very protective towards them. They were a little like his children. So, when he sees them putting their new Christianity at risk, he becomes very passionate and desperate to help them get back on the right track.

The problem is that the churches that Paul founded have been visited more recently by other people with a different message. Paul needs to put his message strongly, if he is to gain them back.

Paul’s opponents were saying that, in order for Christians to be real Christians, they must accept the Jewish Law, lock, stock and barrel. To be a part of God’s people, they were saying, the men would need to be circumcised, they would need to follow rules on clean and unclean food, they must keep Jewish festivals as laid down in Scripture.

And the Galatians seem to have been caught up in this new message. Having rules to keep showed that they belonged to God’s people. Keeping festivals was part of that - of course at this point there were no Christian festivals as we know them. No Christmas or Easter. No saints’ days.

So, although extra rules might at first seem not very inviting, the Galatians were tempted by this new teaching.

But at the heart of Paul’s teaching - and we see this in a number of his letters - is the theme of grace. It is by faith we are saved and not through works of the Law. Paul taught that the law stood only until the coming of Christ. The law was ineffective as a means of salvation because no one could keep it fully. It had been what had held the Jewish people together in the past and given them their identity, but Christianity was a new thing, he argued.

 No longer was it the Law that held God’s people together and gave them their identity, it was Jesus. Let’s have a look again at today’s epistle reading: “Before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith.”

Faith replaces the law as the definer of God’s people. Christians are God’s people through their faith in Christ. That’s what makes children of God. None of the old divisions - Jew, Greek, slave, free, male, female - hold up any more because Christians are made one body through the work of Christ.

If Paul had not won out, Christianity would, if it still existed, be a sect of Judaism. Jesus’s death would have been in vain, if keeping the Law had been able to lead to salvation.

But the story of Israel as seen in Scripture made it clear that keeping the Law fully was not possible and so would never bring about salvation.

Today is the day when the Church celebrates the birth of John the Baptist. So what does any of this have to do with him?

More than might seem at first glance. Paul’s tension is between the old and new covenants. Christians are people of the new covenant; his opponents were trying to impose the rules of the old covenant on the people of the new. John is important because he is on the cusp of the two. He is born in the time of the old covenant - his task is to point the way towards the new.

His task, such an important, is to prepare people for this great change that is to come about, to prepare people for the coming of Jesus who brings with him the start of the new way.

John is the herald of good tidings to the people of Israel and through them to the world beyond.

No longer is their salvation dependent on a Law which none on can keep; with Jesus salvation comes through God’s grace. John has been marked out from the beginning for this special task. It’s a bit like Prince William. From the moment of his birth he has been marked out as a future king.

We only have part of the story of John today as our Gospel reading. Let me remind you what went on before. John’s father Zechariah was on duty in the temple offering incense to God when an angel appeared and told him that his wife would bear a son. That boy was to be called John. Zechariah cannot believe the angel’s words, since he knows how old his wife is. As a result, the angel strikes him dumb until all that it has foretold comes true.

We see that happening in today’s reading.

In Bible times, the firstborn son of a family was traditionally named after his father. John, therefore, should have been Zechariah - that explains why the people were astounded when his mother announced that be was to be John.

But there is a tradition too in Scripture of God naming people, giving them names which said something about who they were. And this is what we find here. John means God is gracious - not only has his task been marked out for him, his name sums up that his work is about God’s grace.

It’s all been foretold since the time of Isaiah - “A voice cries out: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord.” That is the voice of John, the forerunner of Jesus, the man who straddles the old and new covenants.

And John’s message is important, for no longer do the people of God have to be part of a particular race: The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all people will see it together.

John is the one who points the way towards the new future; God’s new future when all can partake of God’s glory.

John is a sign pointing forward, but a sign’s instructions only bear fruit, if they are followed. He points towards Jesus - he is saying that the way to life is coming in Jesus. So, John is saying that we can be part of this new life, if we go to Jesus. Elsewhere we see his message in explicit terms - repent, for the kingdom of heaven is come near. 

That’s where we start - with repentance. Repentance means being honest about the state of our lives. It’s about turning away from sin and towards God.

We shouldn’t become inward-looking navel gazers, but we can only repent, if we are aware of where we’re not living in the way that God hopes for.

Repentance means taking time to assess and review the state of our lives and coming to God for forgiveness. It’s about recognising our need for God.

That need for God finds fulfilment in Christ. That is John’s message to the people of the New Testament, but it’s a message that loses none of its power today. The call through the ages remains now as it was then.

2 Samuel 11.26-12.10,13-15; Galatians 2.15-21; Luke 7.36-8.3

I came across a moving and powerful story the other day which arose from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa.

A frail black woman rises to her feet. She is something over 70 years of age. Facing across the room are several white security police officers, one of whom, Mr van der Broek, has just been tried and found implicated in the murders of both the woman’s son and her husband some years before.

He had come to the woman’s home, taken her son, shot him at point blank range and then set the young man’s body on fire while he and his officers partied nearby.

Several years later van der Broek and his cohorts had returned to take away her husband as well. For many months she heard nothing of his whereabouts. Then almost two years after her husband’s disappearance, van der Broek came back to fetch the woman herself.

How vividly she remembers that evening, going to a place beside a river where she was shown her husband bound and beaten but still strong in spirit, lying on a pile of wood. The last words she heard from his lips as the officers poured gasoline over his body and set him on aflame were: “Father, forgive them . . .”

Now the woman stands in the courtroom and listens to the confessions offered by van der Broek. A member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission turns to her and asks, “So what do you want? How should justice be done to this man who has so brutally destroyed your family?”

“I want three things,” begins the old woman calmly but confidently. “I want first to be taken to the place where my husband’s body was burned so that I can gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial.”

She pauses and then continues. “My husband and son were my only family. I want secondly, therefore, for Mr van der Broek to become my son. I would like for him to come twice a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me so that I can pour out on him whatever love I still have remaining in me.”

“And finally,” she says, “I want a third thing. This is also the wish of my husband. And so, I would kindly ask someone to come to my side and lead me across the courtroom so that I can take Mr van der Broek in my arms and embrace him and let him know he is truly forgiven.”

As the court assistants come to lead the elderly woman across the room, Mr van der Broek, overwhelmed by what he has just heard, faints. As he does, those in the courtroom, family, friends, neighbours - all victims of decades of oppression and injustice - begin to sing, softly but assuredly. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”

Forgiveness and its power are not confined to the pages of our Bibles, but we find them there too. Our readings this morning show clearly how forgiveness is something that comes through God’s grace, not by anything that we have done.

If we fail to forgive, we end up hardened and embittered. We seek revenge and we judge others. If we fail to forgive, we become trapped by our hardness of heart and bound by the chains of resentment. Hatred grows and enemies develop.

When we forgive, we free ourselves and the one whom we have forgiven. Look at the contrast between the woman in our Gospel story and the Pharisee. The woman falls on her feet, weeping and acknowledging her wretchedness. The Pharisee is all for sending this gate-crasher away. This is a gathering in his home for his friends and Jesus the honoured guest, not for the likes of this sinful woman, who clearly doesn’t know her place and is not someone we should be mixing with.

He, however, sees himself as a good follower of God. But beneath the outward shell is a proud self-righteousness. The Pharisee clearly sees himself as a much better grade of person than this wailing woman.

How wonderfully Jesus turns around the story. How deftly he points out that those who receive forgiveness are those who become free to love more.

We can only receive forgiveness, if we recognise that we are in the wrong. It takes Jesus to point out to Simon that his hospitality had been seriously lacking, that he wasn’t the good person that he thought he was.

The Gospel becomes powerful when we recognise our need for forgiveness and open our hearts to receive from God. Our love from God will grow more deeply, the more we receive his forgiveness. That’s what Jesus is saying.

That’s why confession is an important part of Anglican services. Because confession leads to repentance and repentance leads to receiving the forgiveness of God. And when we receive God’s forgiveness, we are free to love more.

Forgiveness is costly. Think what our redemption has cost God.

There’s that phrase we repeat time after time - forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us - or in modern language - forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

Graham Tomlin in his Spiritual Fitness writes this: “Forgiveness is far from cheap. There is always a cost involved. Forgiveness involves releasing a debt that has been incurred, and that always costs the one who forgives it. If someone owes me £1000, and I choose to forgive that debt, it costs me. It means I have £1000 less that I had a right to, and I will have to make do without it. In the same way, for a partner to forgive the drug dealer who led her child into addiction, or for a son to forgive his father’s killers, seems impossibly hard. There are only two ways in which the pain caused by such a crime can be dealt with. One is revenge, the other is forgiveness. In revenge I make the other person pay - I simply pass on my pain to someone else. In forgiveness, I choose to pay.”

Revenge binds and causes the pain to continue; forgiveness stops the cycle of hatred and enmity and frees us to love again.

In our Gospel reading, the key to all this is made very clear. “Her sins which are many have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”

It’s not a question of going out from church this morning and deliberately doing dreadful things so that we can receive more forgiveness in order to love more. It’s about recognising that we are sinners, about not covering up the things we do wrong.

Many Christians look at their lives and can’t see a great deal wrong. Many Christians are respectable people, who would never dream of stealing or deliberately harming someone. Of course we wouldn’t. Nor did Simon the Pharisee.

But when it comes to forgiveness, it is not the standards of the world around by which we are to be judged. It is the standards of God. While we may be outwardly respectable, I wonder how our hearts would stand up against the love of God. Are we always compassionate? Are we always selfless? Do we trust God in everything? Do we really out God first in our lives?

I suspect there is no one here this morning who could truly and honest answer yes to all those questions. I know I can’t. Our selfishness catches up with us, however hard we try to be generous or more loving. We all have certain situations that bring out the worst in us.

One of the main things Christianity has to teach the world is the power of forgiveness. It’s something that is distinct about the Gospel. Forgiveness is so powerful - it is the gift of God. So often, when the sick were brought to Jesus, the first thing he said was “Your sins are forgiven.”

It caused people to hate him; it led to his death. But it brought freedom. It brought freedom for the sinful woman; it brings freedom for us. And through receiving forgiveness and offering forgiveness to others, our love for God and for other people can grow, and we can become more truly the people we have been created to be, not weighed down by the burden of sin or selfishness or revenge, but liberated by the love of God.

Sunday 24th June - Trinity 3
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion with baptism of Mitchell Winkworth and Junior Church,St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
2.30 p.m. Burma Star service, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 25th June
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
8.00 p.m. Deanery Synod, Royston Parish Church

Tuesday 26th June
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Wednesday 27th June
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Thursday 28th June
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed

Friday 29th June
 
Saturday 30th June
9.00 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
1.30 p.m. Blessing of Marriage, James Rounds and Laura Hadwin, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 1st July - Trinity 4
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion (said), St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion and Junior Church, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
3.00 p.m. Baptism of Harper Rand, St Mary’s, Reed
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

THE COMING MONTH
(Morning Prayer usually takes place each day: Monday and Tuesday in Barkway; Wednesday and Saturday in Barley and Thursday in Reed)

Monday 2nd July
8.00 p.m. Barkway VA First School Governors’ meeting

Wednesday 4th July
10.30 a.m. Holy Communion,, Margaret House
7.30 p.m. Barley VC First School Governors’ meeting

Thursday 5th July
10.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Wheatsheaf Meadow House, Barkway

Saturday 7th July
12.30 p.m. Barkway Church Fete, Barkway House
7.30 p.m. Friends of Reed Jazz Evening, North Farm, Reed

Sunday 8th July
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Sung Eucharist, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Saturday 14th July
p.m. Barley Village Show

Sunday 17th June - Trinity 2/Father’s Day
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
2.00 p.m. Friends of Barkway Church Open Gardens (until 6.00 p.m.)
5.00 p.m. All-age worship for Father’s Day, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Monday 18th June
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
7.30 p.m. Barley PCC mission sub-group meeting, Willetts, Barley

Tuesday 19th June
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkwayr

Wednesday 20th June
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
8.00 p.m. Deanery Chapter, St Mary’s Aspenden
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Prayer Group, High Bank, Reed

Thursday 21st June
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed
5.00 p.m. Wedding Rehearsal, St Mary’s, Reed

Friday 22nd June
 
Saturday 23rd June
9.00 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
3.00 p.m. Marriage of John Newman and Penny Baxter, St Mary’s, Reed

Sunday 24th June - Trinity 3
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion with baptism of Mitchell Winkworth and Junior Church,St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
2.30 p.m. Burma Star service, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

THE COMING MONTH
(Morning Prayer usually takes place each day: Monday and Tuesday in Barkway; Wednesday and Saturday in Barley and Thursday in Reed)

Monday 25th June
8.00 p.m. Deanery Synod

Saturday 30th June
1.30 p.m. Blessing of Marriage, James Rounds and Laura Hadwin, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 1st July - Trinity 4
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion (said), St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion and Junior Church, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
3.00 p.m. Baptism of Harper Rand, St Mary’s, Reed
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 2nd July
8.00 p.m. Barkway VA First School Governors’ meeting

Wednesday 4th July
10.30 a.m. Holy Communion,, Margaret House
7.30 p.m. Barley VC First School Governors’ meeting

Thursday 5th July
10.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Wheatsheaf Meadow House, Barkway

Saturday 7th July
p.m. Barkway Church Fete, Barkway House
7.30 p.m. Friends of Reed Jazz Evening, North Farm, Reed

Sunday 8th July
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Sung Eucharist, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Proverbs 8.1-4, 22-31; Romans 5.1-5; John 16.12-15

When there was nothing
There was I
Lighting volcanoes
Stretching the sky
Sketching the veins of an acorn leaf
Painting the gloss on the tiger’s teeth

When there was nothing
I was there
Buffing the buffalo
Grooming the bear
Curling the cobra in his coiled-up cave
Rippling the river and frothing the wave

When there was nothing
There was Me
Expanding the girth
Of the Redwood tree
Molding the moon whilst counting the bugs
And no matter if you’re squeamish
But I even made the slug

When there was nothing
Just I AM
Before I’d even offered you
My punctured lamb
I juggled all the planets
Then equipped the frog
With the energetic means
To leap from log to bog

When there was nothing
There was I
When there was nothing
I was there
When there was nothing
There were always Three
Spirit
Son
And Me

That poem by Stewart Henderson reminds us that the Trinity of God has existed long before the doctrine of the Trinity ever existed.

Trinity Sunday is an odd church festival. It’s the only one in the year when we don’t celebrate a specific event, such as Easter or Pentecost, or what a specific person has done, such as we do on saints’ days. It’s a day when we think about who God is, not what God has done.

There is no developed doctrine of the Trinity in the Bible. All three Persons are mentioned, all three Persons play a part, but nowhere is it all neatly explained.

There’s some mystery there about how exactly the three fit together. Trying to explain God is a task that we just cannot really do. God is a mystery. We have passages such as in today’s Gospel where it is made clear that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are connected, but nowhere is there a detailed understanding of how it all works.

We’re not good at mystery. We want everything explained away all the time. But think about this: if you were to try and explain your husband or wife, your mother or father or sister or brother or best friend, you would really struggle to do it. You’d be able to describe a bit what they were like, but would never really be able to explain the essence of what makes them the person they are.

The only way someone else can know what our husband, wife, mother, sister etc is like is for them to experience life with them for themselves.

It’s the same with God. We can describe in part what we know about God, but we can’t explain the mystery. We need to learn to be happy with living with mystery. St Paul said in 1 Corinthians, “Now we see in a mirror darkly, then we shall see face to face, now we know in part, then we will know fully.”

In the same way, as we can only really know a person when we have experienced spending time with them, the Trinity and its mystery can only mean something for those who experience God’s life for themselves.

As we devote more of our lives to God, the mystery will seem clearer, and, in a paradoxical way, it will also become more profound.

At the heart of that mystery is God living in community. God calls us to be part of that community. We are drawn in to the centre of the Godhead through our relationship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The doctrine of the Trinity took many years to develop, but its starting-point was how people had experienced God. God was one, and yet God was experienced as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. How does this all work?

The important point to be made about the Trinity is that God exists in community. The totality of God requires Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three equal beings, the identity of each only complete when seen in relation to the other two. Even in the Old Testament we see God in three forms - Wisdom, Word and Spirit.

Each person of the Trinity cannot exist alone for without the other two it is not complete. The relationships within the Trinity are often referred to as a dance, something dynamic and ever-changing, not static. And we are called to be part of this dance.

This requires us to reflect on how we view God. A dance is something dynamic and changing, people who live in relationship with one another cannot but grow and develop as a result of their being in relationship.

So does the same happen with God? Is God ever-changing? How does this fit in with our Sunday-school image of God as the one who never changes, the rock? Big questions to ponder.

In a similar way, we who are made in the image of God are not complete unless we live in relationship with God and with each other. Think of Jesus’s teaching - “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself.”

We are called to live in community with God and with each other. You cannot be a Christian alone, since the essence of being a Christian is recognising oneself as part of the Body of Christ - a united body, not a pile of disconnected bones.

And at the heart of this is that we are called to live in community with those who are different from us. It’s no accident that St Paul describes the Church as a body made up of different members.

So the question I want us to ask ourselves today is what does this living in community with God and with others mean for us today. What does it mean for the congregation of this church? And what does it mean for our benefice?

And for us as members of the North Buntingford Group (and if you don’t know what that is, come and ask me afterwards), the deanery, the diocese, the Anglican Communion?

Obviously how we relate to some of these communities differs from how we relate to others of them, but we need to recognise that we are members of all these bodies.

(Incidentally - and this is an aside - please do read the diocesan newsletter See Round. Each month we pay for copies - at the end of every month, sadly I put about 80 per cent of them in the recycling - unread. It’s a chance to discover what our bishops think is important, what other parishes around the diocese are doing, and what the diocese itself is focusing on at any particular time.)

As I was reflecting on the Trinity, I was struck by how our benefice is a little like the Trinity - we are three in one, and one in three. Now I know this analogy is a limited, as all analogies are, and doesn’t take account of Buckland church or the smaller communities, but if we concentrate on our three main centres of worship, I hope you get what I mean.

And yet, our unity is somewhat lacking. We’re good at being three, but not so good at being one. Unsurprisingly people find their main identity within their own village community and feel that they belong most to their own village church. But we have been called to live in the community of the benefice.

That means welcoming those from other parishes into our churches for services and at other times. That means being willing to travel to another church for worship, if there is no worship in your own church one Sunday, and looking out for people who don’t have their own transport and might like a lift. That means supporting one another’s fund-raising events, and perhaps in the future, doing specific things together as a benefice.

Some people are good at doing this already, but some obviously find it much harder. I’m reflecting hard at the moment about how we can be more united, what we can do to ensure that we become good at being one as well as three. So, if you’ve any good ideas, let me know.

I think more than anything being one means getting to know people from the other churches and treating them as friends, for if we can’t do that, then we will never be in community with one another. It means recognising that we are the Body of Christ together in our villages. Once we see people from the other villages as friends, then doing things together won’t seem so difficult.

If we live in community, the Trinity of Barkway, Barley and Reed churches, then we will be reflecting the life of God, who exists in community, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Romans 5.1-5; John 16.12-15

Today is Trinity Sunday. Unlike most festival days in the church, Trinity Sunday doesn’t celebrate something that happened; it’s not remembering an event. It’s a day when we remember not what someone has done, not what God has done, but a day when we think about what God is like.

In a few moments I will baptise Hector, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That is what we mean by the Trinity - the fact that God, though One, is also Three.

It’s a difficult concept to get our heads around, and through the ages, people have come up with many different ideas for explaining what we mean - the shamrock, which has three parts but is one leaf; water which has three different forms - steam, liquid and ice - but they are the same thing; a triangle, which is only a triangle, if it has three corners and sides.

But when it comes down to it, all these illustrations are incomplete. And it’s not really surprising that this is so. The doctrine of the Trinity is less an explanation of God - that’s something we as humans are never really going to be able to do - and more a description of what we know about God that is true.

Think about this: if you were to try and explain your husband or wife, your mother or father or sister or brother or best friend, you would really struggle to do it. You’d be able to describe a bit what they were like, but would never really be able to explain the essence of what makes them the person they are.

The only way someone else can know what our husband, wife, mother, sister etc is like is for them to experience life with them for themselves.

It’s the same with God. We can describe in part what we know about God, but we can’t explain the mystery. We need to learn to be happy with living with mystery. St Paul said in the first letter to the Corinthians, “Now we see in a mirror darkly, then we shall see face to face, now we know in part, then we will know fully.”

In the same way, as we can only really know a person when we have experienced spending time with them, the Trinity and its mystery can only mean something for those who experience God’s life for themselves.

As we devote more of our lives to God, the mystery will seem clearer, and, in a paradoxical way, it will also become more profound.

At the heart of that mystery is God living in community. God calls us to be part of that community. We are drawn in to the centre of the Godhead through our relationship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We are drawn into that community by the love of God. That love of God that we are acknowledging today in Hector’s baptism.

Of course, he is too young to say for himself that he wants to be a Christian, so what we are acknowledging today is that God accepts him, even now, when he can’t really return that acceptance.

God’s love for us is not determined by our response. However we respond God will keep loving us. Of course, God desires that we come to love him too, but at the heart of baptism is the sense that God’s love is not dependent on our response.

Hector’s parents and godparents are making promises on his behalf that he will, we hope and pray, make for himself when he is older.

But we as a church are also doing something. A few moments ago, we declared that we would welcome Hector into our midst and uphold him in his new life in Christ.

Just as God lives in community, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we too are called to live in community. We are made in God’s image, the Bible tells us. That means that we are called not to live alone, but to live in community. Part of baptism is welcoming Hector into this community.

Through the community of Christians is one important way that Hector will be able to experience life with God for himself. When we welcome him we must ensure that the words we say are not empty words, but that they are carried through in action. We all have a responsibility to help Hector come to know what it is to experience the life of God for himself.

We can do this through our prayers for him, through welcoming him as part of our worshipping community, through supporting his parents Jo and Ali as they bring him up, in helping them to teach him about what it means to be loved by God and to be part of a worshipping community.

And we can support Hector and each other by celebrating together today what it means for each one of us to be loved by God as God’s precious children. That is at the heart of the Gospel message, and that is something truly worth celebrating, for it gives worth and value to each one of us, in this world and in the world to come.

Sunday 3rd June - Trinity Sunday
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion with baptism of Hector Wallace and Junior Church, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 4th June
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
7.45 p.m. Barkway VCC, Manor Farm

Tuesday 5th June
No Morning Prayer

Wednesday 6th June
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Thursday 7th June
No Morning Prayer
8.00 p.m. Friends of Barkway Church committee meeting, The Old Post Office, Barkway

Friday 8th June
 
Saturday 9th June
9.00 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 10th June - Trinity 1
10.30 a.m. United Benefice Sung Eucharist, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway, with the Revd Canon Michael Sansom
7.30 p.m. Simply Reeds, Concert at St Mary’s, Reed, in aid of church funds

Monday 11th June
No Morning Prayer
7.00 p.m. Barley Church Times study group, The Manor

Tuesday 12th June
No Morning Prayer

Wednesday 13th June
8.15 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Thursday 14th June
8.15 a.m. Morning Prayer, St Mary’s, Reed

Friday 15th June

Saturdaay 16th June
9.00 a.m Morning Prayer, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
11.00 a.m. Baptism of Charlie King, St Mary’s, Reed

Sunday 17th June - Trinity 2/Father’s Day
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion, St Mary’s, Reed
2.00 p.m. Friends of Barkway Church Open Gardens (until 6.00 p.m.)
5.00 p.m. All-age worship for Father’s Day, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

THE COMING MONTH
(Morning Prayer usually takes place each day: Monday and Tuesday in Barkway; Wednesday and Saturday in Barley and Thursday in Reed)

Monday 18th June
7.30 p.m. Barley PCC mission sub-group meeting, Willetts, Barley

Wednesday 20th June
8.00 p.m. Deanery Chapter, St Mary’s Aspenden
8.00 p.m. North Buntingford Prayer Group, High Bank, Reed

Thursday 21st June
5.00 p.m. Wedding Rehearsal, St Mary’s, Reed

Saturday 23rd June
3.00 p.m. Marriage of John Newman and Penny Baxter, St Mary’s, Reed

Sunday 24th June - Trinity 3
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion with baptism of Mitchell Winkworth and Junior Church,St Mary Magdalene, Barkway
2.30 p.m. Burma Star service, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 25th June
8.00 p.m. Deanery Synod

Thursday 28th June
Evening Diocesan Stewardship Adviser to Barkway

Saturday 30th June
1.30 p.m. Blessing of Marriage, James Rounds and Laura Hadwin, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley

Sunday 1st July - Trinity 4
9.00 a.m. Parish Communion (said), St Mary’s, Reed
10.30 a.m. Parish Communion and Juniopr Church, St Margaret of Antioch, Barley
3.00 p.m. Baptism of Harper Rand, St Mary’s, Reed
6.00 p.m. BCP Evensong, St Mary Magdalene, Barkway

Monday 2nd July
8.00 p.m. Barkway VA First School Governors’ meeting

Wednesday 4th July
10.30 a.m. Holy Communion,, Margaret House
7.30 p.m. Barley VC First School Governors’ meeting