One of the most well-known of all prayers is the Serenity Prayer:

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

This is a quite modern prayer; it was only composed in the 1930’s, but it has become a very well-known, much loved and often used prayer. And that’s understandable, what’s being asked for in the prayer is very much in keeping with the teaching of Jesus, and I’m sure people would be much happier if they could have the serenity, courage and wisdom mentioned in the prayer. And yet whilst we pray for these things, we often seem to find them very elusive and difficult to practice in our lives.

I remember very well, for example, a time when one of my fellow ordinands at the College of the Resurrection at Mirfield was looking very troubled about something and when I asked him what was wrong he said he’d just submitted a piece of work and was sure he’d left something really important out of the essay. But, as I said to him;

“But you’ve already submitted it?”

“Yes”, he said.

“So can you do anything to change it now then?” I asked,

And he said, “No.”

To which I replied,

“Well there’s not much point in worrying about it then is there?”

That’s just one example from my experience, but I could give others as I’m sure we all could because, at times we all lack the serenity to accept what we can’t change, the courage to change what we can and the wisdom to know the difference. But as we look at the world around us, these are qualities, gifts, that we really do need to have and to practice.

We live in a very troubled world, a very dangerous world, at the present time. If we read a newspaper or watch the news on television, about our own country we seem to hear about nothing but trouble; the cost-of-living crisis, the grooming gang scandal, the problem of illegal immigration, rising crime rates, two-tier justice to name just a few things. And news from the wider world is even worse; war in Ukraine, war in the Middle East, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and now fighting between Israel and Iran that’s threatening to involve many more countries in a much wider and far worse war. People are worried, very worried about the state of the world, they’re frightened about what may happen, and that’s understandable. But really, can we change any of these things? We may be able to influence things in this country by raising our voices in protest, but are the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Iran, the United States, or any other nation going to listen to what we say and allow what we say to change what they do? I think that’s not even a remote possibility. So these are things we can’t change but, whether we like it or not, have to have the serenity to accept. That doesn’t mean we have to like what’s going on in the world and we shouldn’t. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned with what’s going on in the world, because we should and we should have the courage do whatever we can to help the victims of what’s going on in the world. But we have to accept that the reality of things is that we can’t change much of what’s going on in the world.

In our Gospel reading this morning, we heard St Peter’s great confession of faith that Jesus is “The Christ of God.” And we’re here in church this morning to make that same confession of faith, the Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the incarnate Son of God who was sent into the world to show us the light, to lead us out of the darkness of the world and its ways into the light of God and God’s ways. So what does Jesus have to say to us in the face of so much trouble and danger in the world?

One thing Jesus tells us is not to worry about the things of the world, the things of this life because we gain absolutely nothing from worrying about these things. He asks,

“And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” 

He tells us not to worry about what will happen in the future: 

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” 

Jesus was speaking here about our own comfort, clothing, food and drink, but he spoke in the same way about great events in the world too: 

“And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.”

But while Jesus tells us not to worry about things we can’t change, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned about them and especially for the people involved in and affected by troubles. We know that, while Jesus accepted that the destruction of Jerusalem was coming, he still wept about it. He had compassion on crowds and individuals; we read that a number of times in the Gospels. We know he wasn’t immune to personal anguish because we read how he wept at the grave of Lazarus and suffered in Gethsemane. Even in his own darkest time, as he carried his Cross to Calvary, he still felt compassion for others, as his words to the women to weep for themselves and their children rather than for him tells us.

Jesus’ own example shows us that we should feel compassion for those affected by the world’s troubles but that’s not surprising given his commandment that we should love our neighbour as ourselves. And according to that same commandment and Jesus’ own example, if we can do anything about their suffering, we should. But Jesus also tells us that there are things we can’t change. Things can and do and will happen that we can do absolutely nothing about, but he tells us not to worry about these things. In fact, the only thing that Jesus really says we should be worried about is not being ready to meet him when he comes.

In this morning’s Gospel Jesus tells us that, if we truly want to be his disciples we have to take up and carry our own cross every day. And to carry our cross means to stop thinking about ourselves and our own pleasure and comfort in this life and put seeking the kingdom of God first. It means to stop worrying about worldly matters and concentrate on heavenly matters, eternal things. Time and again in the Gospels Jesus warns us that we have to be about this constantly. He warns us to be ready at all times, never to be found sleeping from this work is the way he often puts it. And he says this is what we must do even when it seems that the world is coming to an end.

“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” 

And this is something we should worry about because this is something that does lie in our own hands to change. Many things, many terrible things happen in the world that we can’t do anything about, we can’t change those things. But we can change ourselves so that we’re more Christlike and if we don’t make those changes it’s our own fault. Of course we can’t do it without God’s help, without God’s grace, but we have to want that help and we have the courage to use the grace of God to change our lives so that we are living as Christ’s disciples each and every day of our lives.

Many people are looking at the state of the world today and coming to the conclusion that the end times are here, that the end of the world is nigh. Que sera, sera, what will be, will be. There’s very little, if anything  we can do to change the great events of the world, there’s nothing at all we can do to change God’s mind if he has decided that the end has come. What we can do though is ask ourselves if we’re ready to meet Lord. I’m pretty sure that answer for all of us will be something along the lines of.

“No, not really. Can we have a bit more time?”

Well, we may have more time but who knows how much. We might be run over by a bus tomorrow and then what the world does on Tuesday won’t matter to us at all will it. None of us know how much time we’ve got until we have to stand before the Lord so let’s make good use of the time we do have while we have it. Let’s try to have the serenity to accept that there are things we simply can’t change, no matter how much we might want to so that we can worry less about these things than about the things we can change. Let’s ask God for the wisdom to know the difference between the things we can and can’t change. And let’s ask him for the grace to help us change the things we can change and need to change and for the courage to make those changes so that whenever it happens, we will be ready to stand before the Lord. 

Amen.

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Propers for the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time, 22nd June 2025

Entrance Antiphon
The Lord is the strength of his people,
a saving refuge for the one he has anointed.
Save your people, Lord, and bless your heritage,
and govern them for ever.

The Collect
Grant, O Lord,
that we may always revere and love your holy name,
for you never deprive of your guidance
those you set firm on the foundation of your love.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Zechariah 12:10-11, 13:1
Psalm 63:2-6, 8-9
Galatians 3:26-29
Luke 9:18-24

Prayer after Communion
Renewed and nourished by the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of your Son,
we ask of your mercy, O Lord,
that what we celebrate with constant devotion may be our sure pledge of redemption.
Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

In my sermon last Sunday, I spoke about some of the problems we encounter in the Church when it comes to both the profession of our faith and the living out of our faith. To be more specific, I spoke about the problem of people passing off their own ideas as articles of faith and the problem of people claiming to be Christians whilst, at the same time, they ignore the teachings of Jesus and the prompting of the Spirit. People who do these things can and do cause problems in and for the Church. They can often be very forthright in their views and opinions, not least of the sinfulness of those who disagree with them. They can be very public in their rather less than Christian behaviour too. And people can and do leave the Church on account of people like this and people outside the Church can be and often are put off the Church and the Christian faith because of people like this. So how do we deal with this problem.

Obviously, before we can deal with this problem we have to be clear about what the Christian faith, the faith we’re called to live by, actually is. But here again we can run into problems. For some people, the fullness of the Christian faith is found in scripture and anything that’s not there isn’t and shouldn’t be part of the faith. Those who are ordained in the Church of England, for example, are asked to declare that they,

‘…accept the Holy Scriptures as revealing all things necessary for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.’

And yet before they’re asked that the archdeacon or registrar must confirm that those to be ordained have made oaths of allegiance to the sovereign, obedience to the bishop and have, 

‘…affirmed and declared their belief in ‘the faith which is revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds and to which the historic formularies of the Church of England bear witness’.’

So it’s not quite so straightforward as it might seem.

Many people in the Church speak about the true Christian faith as that which was ‘once delivered to the saints’. That’s an expression we find in the Letter of Jude, and it’s obvious that it was first written to deal with the very problem I’m speaking about.

‘Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.’

But who are the saints the faith was once delivered to? The Apostles, certainly, but a lot of what we regard as the basics of the Christian faith were formulated by the early Church, long after the time of the Apostles. The Nicene Creed, for example,  which we say every Sunday and which we use as the standard profession of the Christian faith was first set down in the year 325. But the version we use which speaks of the Holy Spirit being worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son didn’t appear until 381 and that version wasn’t finally ratified until 451.

So whilst the Christian faith, as we now know it, was first delivered to the Apostles by Christ, it was more fully developed by the Apostles and the early Church through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But that shouldn’t surprise us because it’s quite in keeping with what we read in this morning’s Gospel. Jesus quite openly tells the disciples, those who would become the Apostles, that he hasn’t told them everything because they’re simply not ready. It’s the Spirit who will lead them into a fuller revelation of the truth. So it should be no surprise that the Christian faith has developed over the years and has continued to develop as we live under the influence and guidance of the Spirit who guides us into all truth.

But how then can we decide what is of the Spirit and what isn’t? How can we discern between those who are speaking under the influence of the Spirit and those who are simply speaking for themselves?

When it comes to matters of doctrine the best and simplest way is to look at any new idea or teaching and ask if this is consistent with scripture and especially with the teaching of Christ. If it clearly isn’t in keeping with these things, and especially if it contradicts these things, then we can safely reject the idea as being of human origin. But if it is in keeping with scripture and Christ’s teaching then it’s something that we should think about very carefully. And that still goes even if what’s being said is only implied in scripture but can reasonably be said to be true.

One of the groups I often think of when it comes to this is an obscure sect that grew up in Russia in the 18th Century, the Klysts. On the whole they were simply a rather extreme Pentecostal Church who rejected clergy and all the saints except the Blessed Virgin Mary and whose liturgies consisted of ecstatic utterances, speaking in tongues and dancing until they dropped from exhaustion, all under the influence of the Spirit. But there was a small sect among the Klysts  who had some very strange ideas. Some of the Klystee seemed to believe that in order to experience forgiveness and salvation they had to sin. And the more sinful they were, the greater the experience because the greater the grace they were given through forgiveness and salvation. Mixed in with this seems to have been an idea that to be truly holy, all earthly passions had to be lost, and the simplest way to lose earthly passions was to sate them until they no longer wanted them. I think the reasoning here is easy to understand. If you want to know what something tastes like, taste it. And by the same rule, if you want to know what forgiveness and salvation is like you have to do something to be forgiven for and saved from. So the reasoning is easy to understand but carrying on like this can hardly be said to be living in accordance with the teaching and example of Christ can it? So we can’t possibly accept this as a revelation of the Spirit.

Today we celebrate a great mystery of the Christian faith. It’s something that’s never stated explicitly in Scripture and it’s something that, in fact, many people have said and do say, contradicts scripture. But nevertheless, it’s something that has been revealed to the Church by the Spirit and set down in the Creeds of the Church accordingly, the mystery of the Trinity.

We worship the God of Jesus, the God the Old Testament and the New Testament. Both Testaments say that God is one. And yet we worship a God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We know that Jews and Muslims might think that we can’t possibly be worshipping the same God they do because we must have three Gods, not one. We know that, over the years, and still today, there are those who accept Jesus as their Saviour, and yet cannot accept the Church’s teaching that while God is one, God is, at the same time, also three distinct persons. But whilst this understanding of God isn’t made explicit in scripture, it is implied in scripture.

It’s implied at the very beginning of The Scriptures that, although there is only God, there’s some distinction within God;

‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light”, and there was light.’

That’s implied again in God’s creation of the first human being;

‘Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’

We at least have a distinction here between God and the Spirit but, in the prologue to his Gospel, St John speaks of God’s Word as distinct too.

We find implicit references to the divinity of the Son of God in Jesus’ own words that he and the Father “are one” and in his prayer,

“…Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

We find implicit references to the Trinity in the account of Jesus Baptism, in the voice of the Father revealing Jesus as his Son and in the descent of the Spirit in the form of a dove. And in Jesus’ command to his Church to baptise people in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

So when people may say that the uniquely Christian understanding of God as Trinty isn’t found in scripture, they’re mistaken. It may not be explicitly stated in scripture, but it is implied in many places in scripture. How God can be three distinct persons, at one and the same time, and yet still be one is a great mystery. It’s something that defies explanation. But shouldn’t we expect that of God? Shouldn’t we expect that there are things about God we simply can’t fully understand or explain? Some people say that the doctrine of the Trinity defies reason. I say that what defies reason is that we should be able to understand God so well that we can fully explain God. Rather than trying to explain the inexplicable, I think it would be much better if we simply accepted the Trinity as a mystery of God. Something we can’t fully understand or explain but as a truth about God that has been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit who was sent to lead us into the truth.
Amen.

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Propers for Trinity Sunday, 15th June 2025

Entrance Antiphon
Blest be God the Father,
and the Only Begotten Son of God,
and also the Holy Spirit,
for he has shown us his merciful love.

The Collect
God our Father, who by sending into the world
the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification
made known to the human race your wondrous mystery,
grant us, we pray, that in professing the true faith,
we may acknowledge the Trinity of eternal glory
and adore your Unity, powerful in majesty.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Proverbs 8:22-31
Psalm 8:4-9
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15

Prayer after Communion
May receiving this Sacrament, O Lord our God,
bring us health of body and soul,
as we confess your eternal holy Trinity and undivided Unity.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Entrance Antiphon 
The Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world, 
and that which contains all things understands what is said, alleluia. 

The Collect 
O God, who by the mystery of today’s great feast 
sanctify your whole Church in every people and nation, 
pour out, we pray, the gifts of the Holy Spirit across the face of the earth 
and, with the divine grace that was at work 
when the Gospel was first proclaimed, 
fill now once more the hearts of believers. 
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 
God, for ever and ever. 
Amen. 

The Readings 
Acts 2:1-11  
Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34 
Romans 8:8-17 
John 14:15-16, 23-26 

Prayer after Communion 
O God, who bestow heavenly gifts upon your Church, 
safeguard, we pray, the grace you have given, 
that the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out upon her 
may retain all its force 
and that this spiritual food 
may gain her abundance of eternal redemption. 
Through Christ our Lord. 
Amen.