Here’s something a little different.
I recorded the sermon this morning and you should be able to hear it if you click on the icon above. The underlying file is quite big (9MB) so this may be only for those who have broadband.
Does it work? Can you hear me? What do you think?
UPDATE
I’ve added the text of the sermon below for any not able to hear. Note that the text that I was preaching from is not the same as what I said. What you see below is the main argument but with the jokes and the conclusion missed out. (A bit like the Bible really….)
——-begins
Increasingly, we find ourselves talking to atheists. This morning, I want to reflect on the kind of conversations that ensue.
The current round of publicity which Professor Dawkins attracts for his books is extraordinary.
It is a good thing of course. A good thing that we are talking to atheists. Church folk are so very often far too able to accept their own version of eternal truth without being challenged by other people’s ideas. So, I welcome dialogue. And I enjoy a good argument too.
However, the more I talk to atheists, the more I find myself agreeing with them. This is how the conversation goes.
I will be told by someone: “I cannot believe in God, you know, I’m an atheist. I don’t believe that God is up there. I don’t believe that God decides what will happen to us. I don’t believe that God will send people to hell when they die. I don’t believe in any of that at all. I don’t believe in God.”
I find myself nonplussed sometimes. For the assumption is being made that I worship an absurd tyrant in the sky. The assumption is that whoever is engaging me in this debate has seen through these obvious lies and come to some truth which I, a simple and foolish priest have yet to master.
There is rather a problem though. For I keep being told about a God whose existence is not credible and whom only a fool would worship. I firmly believe, that the God to whom atheists refuse to bow the knee is not worthy of worship anyway.
One thing strikes me about all of this on this, Trinity Sunday. The God whom atheists presume I worship is never described in relational terms. That God is never talked about as Trinity – one in three and three in one. Perhaps this is because it is a puzzle and a paradox, I don’t know. There are many puzzles worth trying to solve and much truth can be illuminated by paradox.
The point of the language which Christians use to describe God is that God is like a relationship. God is like an unfolding ever-changing loving relationship.
People often find this hard to grasp. Yet we find it readily understandable when two lovers become one, drawn into a common life by love itself. And that oneness unfolds and grows and deepens.
When we proclaim our belief in the Trinity, we proclaim that God is like a kind of loving. Not some static demagogue meddling in our affairs from a throne on high.
On this day, Trinity Sunday, we pause and think about the different ways in which we encounter the one, true God. The God whom we proclaim as Father, Son and Spirit – the Creator, the Redeemer and Sustainer.
I’ve already said that I meet a lot of atheists. I just cannot keep track of those who tell me proudly that they meet God on mountain tops or on little islands or out walking or on the golf course or something like that.
Well, I should hope so too. For nature is the great cathedral of the holy. Why shouldn’t people find God there? For the biblical writers and the saints through the ages have found God there.
We proclaim the Son too. In Jesus, we proclaim incarnation – the love of God in human form. In Jesus, we proclaim that the utterness of God’s commitment to a confusing and perplexing world. The incarnation itself tells us that God is a kind of loving.
And we proclaim the Spirit – the divine flame that burns inside everyone. The creativity, the source of love, that which drives us together. Where the Spirit is at work – peace breaks out, gentleness is the norm, and Love – eternal Love is at hand.
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