{"id":3121,"date":"2019-06-17T13:51:58","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T13:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/?page_id=3121"},"modified":"2019-06-17T13:51:58","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T13:51:58","slug":"sermon-16th-june-2019","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/information\/sermons\/sermon-16th-june-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon – 16th June 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sermons index<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trinity Sunday \u2013 evening<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Sunday 16th June 2019 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Trinity Sunday \u2013 evening
\nExodus 3. 1-15
\nJohn 3. 1-17<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"Maureen<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\nArguing with God. It seems a\npretty pointless exercise on one hand, after all, how can we possibly\nargue with the one being who knows everything, made everything, loves\neverything? But that has never stopped human beings trying to do so\nthrough the ages. Maybe because we are such argumentative beings?\nLook at all our main institutions \u2013 Parliament, the Church, even\nFootball clubs! All riven with argument and disagreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWhen I was at school we tried\nto channel this natural tendency by having a Debating Society. Anyone\nelse have experience of this? It was great! This wasn\u2019t in a Public\nSchool by the way \u2013 we were very definitely a state grammar school\nthat became a comprehensive while I was there. You weren\u2019t allowed\nto join until you were in the fifth form \u2013 I suppose that would be\nyear 12 or 13 now? And it was only as sixth formers that you really\nbegan to take part. And it was a forum where some of our teachers\nwould come and engage with us as equals. We met each week in term\ntime on a Friday after school… but I mustn\u2019t get stuck in\nnostalgia for my schooldays! But taking part did give us confidence\nat public speaking and enabled us to engage in argument in a\nrelatively civilised way… you had to listen as your opponents put\nforward their case for whatever motion we were debating that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIn both our readings this\nevening we see human beings debating \/ arguing with God. Moses as he\nargues against the instructions coming to him from the burning bush.\nTrying desperately to get control back from this mysterious power\nwhich both fascinates and terrifies him in equal measure. Trying to\ndiscover the name of God \u2013 which will render God both more\ncomprehensible and more domesticated than God seems to be… wildfire\nburning in the desert without apparently consuming the bush!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back at the beginning of Creation in Genesis, names were important: God asked Adam to name all the creatures. Now God is about to reveal his own name. It is a significant moment. I AM WHO I AM. Or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE. Or even I AM BECOMING WHO I AM BECOMING.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIt\u2019s\na Hebrew phrase that is both profoundly simple and deeply complicated\nat the same time. (Hebrew verbs do not use tenses in the same way as\nEnglish or most other Western languages, which is why it can be\nunderstood as both present and future, and really anything in between\ntoo!) But above all, it is a name of Being<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe idea of God simply as\n\u2018Being\u2019 or \u2018Existence\u2019 or \u2018Life itself\u2019 is something of a\npuzzle \u2013 so a fitting concept to ponder on this Trinity Sunday when\nwe think of God as both unity and united! But it does relate to God\nas Creator \u2013 the one who gave life. And it reveals God as\nSustainer, the one who continues to give life, continues to\nre-create. This is a God who simply is, and always will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nBut it is also a God that will\nalways seek us out to be in relationship with us. Even when we go off\non a tangent and try to do things all by ourselves! He will always\ncome back and rescue us, upholding that relationship through thick\nand thin. He will be our Redeemer as well as our Creator and\nSustainer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nI suppose that one good thing\nyou can say about argument, is that it means there is engagement,\npassion and some kind of relationship? Much better than apathy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd at the heart of God is\nrelationship; between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy\nSpirit. Our reading from John\u2019s Gospel tells us through Jesus\u2019\nwords to Nicodemus, about the Spirit as crucial to being in the\nkingdom of God. And that through the Father giving his Son, the\nkingdom of God is opened to all who receive the Spirit. That really\nis the most wonderful love \u2013 no argument about that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe Trinity then is a sign of\nlove: The Spirit of love between the three persons of God. Love in\ntheir actions: and love in their being. Love of course can be both\nsimple and complicated; it can enrich us, inspire us, and make us\nwhole. It doesn\u2019t mean that we will never disagree with each other\n\u2013 we wouldn\u2019t be human if that were the case! But it does mean\nthat in our very being, and perhaps because we can call upon God by\nname, we can come through all our arguing to understand that nothing\nis bigger than that God who is love, within and through his very\nbeing. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trinity Sunday \u2013 evening Sunday 16th June 2019 Trinity Sunday \u2013 evening Exodus 3. 1-15 John 3. 1-17 Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs Arguing with God. It seems a pretty pointless exercise on one hand, after all, how can we possibly argue with the one being who knows everything, made everything, loves everything? But that has … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Sermon – 16th June 2019”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":270,"menu_order":107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3121","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3121"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3123,"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3121\/revisions\/3123"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}