I Samuel 17:32-49; Psalm 9; Mark 4:35-41

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath your life into us that we may live in the manner you have appointed unto us and better love and serve you and one another. Amen One of my favourite movies is The Karate Kid. It is about a teenager who feels alone and unprotected in the hostile environment of his school and community. He is scared - unable to defend himself against the hoodlums of his neighbourhood. He is afraid. It happens that the lad - whose name is Daniel - meets an old man, Mr. Me-ogi, who has a black belt in Karate - and the old man agrees that he will teach him what he knows so that he can protect himself. On the first day of his lessons the old man asks Daniel to wax and polish several old cars that he owns - wax on - wax off. All day the lad labours to follow these instructions - Wax on - Wax off. On the second day the old man asks the boy to paint his fence -- paint up - paint down. Again it takes all day. On the third day the old man asks him to sand the wooden floor of his verandah - in a circular fashion - and again it takes all day. At the end of the third day the boy is very angry - I've done all this work for you, he says, and you still haven't taught me anything. At this point the master tells Daniel to stand in front of him and do the motion for wax on - wax off - and lo - as he does this - the master makes to hit him - and his blows are deflected by the boys arms. The boy's work for Mr. Me-ogi - his obedience - has made him ready for his first lesson in how to face danger, it has prepared him for the lessons, and the dangers, to follow. In the course of our lives there are many things that arise that cause us to fear. There are giants who are hostile to us and all that we hold dear. There are storms that threaten to overwhelm us. For each of us the dangers are different, the things we fear - vary from person to person, and the intensity of our fear likewise varies. I know people who are afraid to drive in city traffic, others who dread speaking in public, and still others who are terrified by the thought that they might get cancer. Some people fear being alone - others worry and fret about becoming unemployed, or having to face an abusive spouse, still others must fight against the giants of addiction or face the huge machines of governmental indifference and corporate cruelty. There are many dangers out in the world - and we do right to fear these dangers. Fear is a natural reaction - a God given reaction - to those things that threaten us. But fear - while natural - can - if it is listened to too much - if it is indulged - lead to paralysis - Fear can prevent us from dealing with what threatens us; and it can - in the end - permit the thing we fear to destroy us; not just our bodies, which will pass away in any case - but our hearts, and our minds, and even our very souls. That is what was happening at the time when the Philistines came to make war on Israel during the reign of King Saul. The Philistines came with a champion - Goliath of Gath - and he was huge - over nine feet tall, and he was well armed and well armoured - and he challenged the Israelites to send a man against him - and whoever won the battle - his side would win the war. Each day, for forty days he issued this challenge - and each day - the Israelites fled at the sight of him. All were afraid - none would go forth to do battle - except for David - the youngest child of his family - the one who had been relegated to tending his father's sheep while his older and bigger brothers conducted business and served in the army of King Saul. On the 40th day David - while carrying provisions to his brothers where they are camped with the army of King Saul - sees Goliath, hears his challenge - and is shocked by the fact that no one will oppose him - and volunteers to go forth to vanquish him. As we heard - David has a hard time convincing Saul to allow him to do this - Saul is sure that the boy is too small - too inexperienced - but David tells him that he can prevail - that he has killed Lions and Bears who have threatened his father's sheep - and that he can, with God's help, defeat Goliath. And David does - he defeats Goliath - and he does so not with the weapons of war that Saul sought to equip him with - a sword, a helmet, and a coat of mail - but with the instrument that he used as a shepherd - a sling - and with the name of God. When we practice the ways of God - when we obey his commands and trust in his name we can overcome our enemies; we can overcome our natural fear and do what must be done. The trick - if it can be called that, is to gain a perspective on the danger we are in; to understand that God is able to help us - and that he will help us, that he has power over the wind and the waves, that he can still the storm and calm the troubled waters, that he can triumph in the face of overwhelming odds because he is the Lord of Hosts - the God who is over all. It is that way with all our fears - with all the dangers we encounter. We have to look to the solution instead of only looking at the problem if we are to overcome the odds that are so much against us, if we are to overcome the fears that prevent us from acting. In AA - Alcoholics Anonymous, and in all the dependency groups based on the AA Model, there is a slogan - which says "Let Go - and Let God" It is a marvellously liberating thing to let go - and to let God, to trust God to make things come out right instead of worrying about how we are going to make it happen. To decide to act in His will instead of worrying about how to do what we want to do, instead of trying to fix everything on our own. I think what most of us really fear is being out of control - of meeting forces that are greater than we are and not being able to do anything about them. That was the situation in Israel at the time of David and Goliath, and it was certainly the case in the boat in the middle of the storm in the Sea of Galilee. The Israelites when they saw Goliath and the disciples when they saw the wind and the waves felt powerless - they felt overwhelmed and unable to help themselves - unable to overcome the danger around them. We fear what we do not know. We fear what we cannot control. And that is - when you really think about it - passing strange - for the truth of life is this - we cannot control what will happen from one minute to the next. Indeed all is grace - or its opposite. I find that to be a liberating truth - a truth that is worth embracing - because that truth leads me back to God - to the source of my life - and because of his love - the source of my hope - the source of my strength and what courage I possess. David knew from where his strength came - he knew who was in charge - who could help him: Yea - thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. And again The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?. The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When you grow afraid, when you doubt that you will be able to take another step, when you feel you will surely perish, remember God is fully able to help you - that as he helped David slay Goliath, despite the overwhelming odds, and as he calmed the storm that threatened to overcome the small boat in which the disciples sought to cross the Sea of Galilee, so he is present with you to overcome that which would overcome you. Remember our overwhelming God can overcome overwhelming odds, and practice what God seeks to teach you through Jesus Christ, and through his Spirit as you obey his will day by day. Wax on - wax off -- Paint up - paint down. Pray - Read - Meditate and worship, for these things help prepare us for the day of trial, they centre us in the living heart of our living God providing for us an anchor which keeps the soul steadfast and sure and a rock which cannot move. "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you." Blessed be our God, day by day. Amen.

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13 Psalm 20 or Psalm 92 (UMH 811) 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13), 14-17 Mark 4:26-34

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath your life into us that we may live in the manner you have appointed unto us and better love and serve you and one another. Amen Today I want to speak to them and to all of us, about what I feel is important to hold on to as they begin another leg of their faith journey. FIRST MOST OF THE IMPORTANT THINGS OF LIFE ARE INVISIBLE; BUT THEY ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE THINGS WE CAN SEE - this starts with the Spirit of God, - the spirit that gives life - HEBREW - RUAH - MEANS WIND OR BREATH - without air - you cannot live - and extends to every facet of life. - love cannot be touched - mercy cannot be touched - self respect cannot be touched - but while they cannot be touched they have an impact - the breath of life is seen in the rising and falling of the chest - the love of God is seen in the kindness of strangers, the acceptance of family members, the food on our tables - mercy is seen in every act of compassion - and self respect is seen when you treat yourself as an important person - too important to destroy with fast cars, overeating, or feelings that "I am no good" ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT - AND MOST INVISIBLE THING IN LIFE IS TRUST - without trust a person cannot function, a person cannot become close to another, a person cannot escape fear - the most important thing we can do is TRUST GOD, - trust god that he will be our refuge and strength in times of trouble - trust god that he will be present with us and help us accomplish all that he asks of us - trust god that he will give us the power we need, the people we need, the joy we need. Trust in the promises Trust is spoken of in today's gospel reading. You plant a seed, and it grows - whether we are awake or asleep, it puts forth first a shoot, then a head, then the full kernel in the head. By some means or other - life comes out of the seed that is planted. SO TOO OUT OF TRUST PLANTED IN OUR HEARTS COMES LIFE. SECOND - THE MOST SUCCESSFUL LIVES AND THE GREATEST OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD ITSELF, IS AND ARE BASED ON AND ARISE OUT OF THE SMALLEST AND LEAST SIGNIFICANT THINGS. This too is spoken of in the gospel today - by asking you to consider the mustard seed great bush, birds can shelter in it, but it is small at first. Jesus said the kingdom of God is like the mustard seed; and his life shows that this is true. - the kingdom of God works, God works, with the little things. We are wired on big, on grand, on flashy - big cars, big houses, big buildings, huge stages and tremendous sound systems, we are impressed by big money, big fame, big status. God choses what is little to work with - from Jesus - a carpenter born to a peasant girl, to the 12 disciples - simple fisherman - to you and I. The bible says over and over again that God loves the little ones, the humble ones, the people that others despise and reject. The BIBLE SAYS THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ARE THE LITTLE THINGS AND THAT IN THE END THEY WILL OVERTURN THE BIG THINGS, THAT THEY WILL BRING DOWN KINGS AND SHOW THE EMPTINESS OF WEALTH AND POWER. The signs of God's kingdom are not big churches, big congregations, or gold and silver and fantastic wealth - but bread and wine - stuff that can be found at the supermarkets and in most people's refrigerators - ORDINARY THINGS for ordinary people. God's work is done by some flashy people - Billy Graham and Florence Nightingales, and Bishop Tutus - but most often it is done - and done well by you and I, - whenever we give a begger a dollar - or we help a person whose car is stuck in the ditch, - or help a person across the street, - or give a few bucks and a can of beans to the food bank - or volunteer for a reading program for the deaf - or pick up old candy wrappers and pop cans lying in the woods - all these little things - all these acts of care - are God's work. OUT OF THEM GROWS THE KINGDOM OF GOD. WITHOUT THEM - THERE IS NOTHING. God's kingdom is found in the bread and the wine we share here together, in the meals we share at home, in the fellowship we have with others that sees in them another human being in need of love and who is loved by God. THIRD- LIVING FAITH MEANS FOCUSSING ON GOOD - NOT EVIL IT MEANS BELIEVING GOOD, NOT EVIL I am sure you all remember the story of Chicken Little - he thought the sky was going to fall in, and ran around warning everybody, he fretted and fumed and worried. Many people are like Chicken Little, they look all the time at the darkness and evil in our world. Unemployment, drug addiction, crime, pollution and war haunt their waking hours. Fear is fostered in their hearts - fear of failure, fear of losing what they value, fear of being alone, fear of death. They rob themselves by focussing on what is bad, and the more they look at it the bigger it gets. Other people are like the centipede in the old german tale about a centipede and a fly. The fly says to the centipede, I have six legs and I know how to walk. You have 100 legs; how can you walk? The centipede starts to think about it, and he thinks and he thinks, and he becomes paralyzed. OUR FOCUS IS ON GOD - AND ON HIS GOODNESS. THEN WE WILL RADIATE, WE WILL BRING LIGHT TO OTHERS AS WELL AS DISCOVER LIGHT IN OURSELVES LOOK AT THE SIMPLE AND ORDINARY MIRACLES - In the last few days I have been looking at trees around the area where I live. I think it is absolutely remarkable how trees grow. Someone showed me some trees that they had planted only 15 years ago. When they were put in they were only 4 feet high. They now are close to 40 feet tall. How they do it? Corn too is remarkable stuff. You put a little seed in the ground in May - and with the right conditions - by September you have a plant that is over six feet high and which contains literally thousands of kernels of corn. How do they do it? Growth is a remarkable thing - and growth is what our scripture lesson today is about, growth from a tiny seed to the largest plants, growth - which seems to occur as if by magic...you plant a seed, you provide some water and nutrition, perhaps you even cultivate the ground, but in the end what happens is beyond human control, it is virtually beyond our imagining - it is a miracle - the miracle of God, the miracle of life. LOOK AT THE DAILY GOODNESS OF LIFE - loving families, happy marriages, people working together, playing together - think of all the good things - not the bad - and it will be for you GOD'S SEED GROWING IN YOUR HEARTS. WE BELIEVE IN THE GOOD - IN GOD - AND THAT IS ALL WE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO AND TO DO. FOURTH AND FINAL - God is the author of all good stuff - it is God who sows the seed and provides for its growth into the kingdom of God ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE GOD'S FIELD - OPEN YOURSELF TO HIM AND HIS WORD - BY READING IT - THINKING ABOUT IT - ACTING ON IT. THIS IS BEST DONE WITH OTHERS WHO ALSO WANT TO BE GOD'S FIELD, THE PLACE WHERE HIS KINGDOM GROWS. REMEMBER THE BEST STUFF IS INVISIBLE - THE MOST IMPORTANT STUFF SEEMS INSIGNIFICANT AT THE BEGINNING - LIVE FAITH BY LOOKING AT THE GOOD AND OPENING YOURSELF TO GOD AND GOD WILL DO THE REST - GOD WILL BE YOUR PROTECTOR AND YOUR SHIELD. HE WILL BRING YOU INTO THE FULLNESS OF HIS KINGDOM, AND PEACE, JOY, WILL BE YOURS BOTH HERE IN THE MIDST OF WOES AND AT THE END IN THE ETERNAL REALMS OF GOD So we preach, and so you believed - says the Apostle Paul say it be so, both now and forevermore. Amen

Genesis 3:8=15, II Corinthians 4:13 - 5:1 and Mark 3:20-35

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath your life into us that we may live in the manner you have appointed unto us and better love and serve you and one another. Amen We have the story of the garden of Eden - where we see Adam and Eve trying to hide from God - trying to hide their sin and their shame behind the trees and bushes - hoping that God will not notice them. And then we have the story of Jesus - being accused by some scribes from Jerusalem of being possessed by the Devil - by Beelzebub because he is casting demons out of people and healing others, and forgiving sins, and telling still others that is lawful to heal on the Sabbath and perform other good works. And we have Paul - dear Paul - who in his letter to the Corinthians acknowledges the afflictions of this life - how our outer nature - our flesh - our mortal body - wastes away - and who then asserts in the midst of this that those who believe in Christ do not lose heart because their inner nature is renewed day by day. We do not lose heart, he writes, for this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. A lot of people do not believe in the story of the garden of Eden - they do not believe what it teaches about the power of evil, nor what it has to say about pain and suffering being the result of sin. Pity them. Pity them - not because they are somehow less than those who do believe in this story, but because they risk missing the opportunity for their own redemption. Pity them because they have eyes, but do not see, and ears - but do not hear. The suffering of this world - at least the vast majority of it - is quiet clearly caused by human beings. War, poverty, oppression, mass starvation, terrorism, murder - all these things are within human control and yet we have no control over them. Millions starve while tons of grain rots in warehouses. Tens of thousands are killed while the nations all round talk peace. Uncounted numbers suffer - though they have done no wrong. We meet good people - people who really try to do right by their families and friends, and we discover pain and suffering in their lives - children who do not show respect towards them, relatives who cheat them, spouses who betray them. We see bad people apparently prosper - we see them grow rich on the labours of others, and party on with steak and caviar while their neighbours struggle to simply put bread on the table. The bible teaches us that there is a power in the world that causes this, the power of evil, and that this power takes a personal form, a real form against which we have no power of our own . The bible teaches us that we, are under the control of sin and death, and that we cannot change this fact on our own - that we need help. Some time ago a friend of mine was talking about his father: he spoke of how, for many years, his father binged out, how his father was a drunkard - a man who when sober was kind and gentle - and when drunk - well he was something else again. He had no control over himself. And this kind and gentle man brought pain and suffering upon others, or at least the force within him did so - the family had to move - to change homes and communities - almost every year - landlords were cheated, employers disappointed, children neglected, friends - abandoned - or embarrassed or even betrayed. And this continued on - until one day - after taking his children to Sunday School for a period of time, after witnessing the faith of others and what it did for them, he accepted Jesus into his life - he asked God to take control and to guide his actions and save him from his sins - and from the power of sin. And then things changed - debts still had to be paid, amends still had to be made, mistakes still occurred - but the inner man - the man that God made - was set free to grow and mature.. No more booze, a lot more prayer. And the love and kindness of the man that could be glimpsed before - in the moments of sobriety - became apparent to all - for days, weeks, and finally years on end. The children who were still living at home stopped fearing what would happen next - they began to look forward to being with their father - they began to develop their own faith in God - a faith that still guides them to this day. This man, this father, this husband, experience a change in control - he went from being in the control of the devil to being in the control of God, and the result was the renewal of his inner nature, and in the end, when his earthly tent was destroyed, the result was a building from God - a house not made with hands - eternal in the heavens.. There is a power in the world - a power that our sinfulness as individuals, and as a human race, has set loose upon the world. The Bible calls this power Satan - or evil - and it is dedicated to deception, and to destruction, and to death. But there is another power also loose in the world, the power of God, and it is a greater power than the power of Satan, indeed it vanquishes Satan and all his minions, and in the end, as the Revelation of John teaches us, and as Christ himself teaches, it vanquishes death itself. That is what today's Gospel lesson is about when Jesus turns to those who accuse him of casting out demons by the Prince of Demons and says to them How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come.... truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.. Someone I know loves birds and spends a few moments in his backyard here on Lantau Island every morning feeding them. He says that certain birds eat more than other birds and because they have such voracious appetites that kind of bird will soon eat right out of your hand. One morning he decided to play a little game with a particular bird that had been a regular for several months. He held out his hand with seed in it and when the dove approached and was just about to peck out a few seeds, he closed his hand, hiding the seed. The bird stopped, cocked his head in disbelief, and then retreated a few feet. He then reopened his hand and the bird boldly approached a second time. Again the hand clamped shut just before the bird could reach the food. The bird again retreated. Several more times my friend repeated the little ritual and the bird reacted in the same disappointed way. Finally, after about the sixth or seventh time, the bird flew off. My friend never saw that particular bird again; it never returned. We can chase the Spirit of God away. We can deny it access to our lives. We can refuse to believe, to hope, and to obey. We can please ourselves - rather than seeking to please God, much as my friend sought to satisfy his curiosity - rather than the bird that trusted him. When we do - when we refuse to trust and believe. When we refuse to see what is around us or to acknowledge the forces that underlay all human affairs, we remain in the control of the evil one, we remain under the control of sin and death, and our inner nature - with our outer nature - decays - we remain unforgiven - despite the cross - despite the resurrection.. This week we celebrate the 68th Anniversary of the D-Day Landing in Normandy. Rather - we remember it. This event would not have had to occur if people had looked more carefully at the world around them - if they had understood earlier the evil that was, and is, in the world. Back in 1938 after Austria had been taken over by the Germans, after Czechoslovakia had been invaded, after Crystal Naught - the night of broken glass, Prime Minister Chamberlain of England proclaimed that Hitler was a rather pleasant person, a person who really wanted peace - one that the allies could bargain with in good faith. It simply wasn't so - nor is so all the assertion that psychologists and teachers and counsellors make about how the problems of this world will be cured when all people are fed and clothed and educated properly. The German people in 1918 - and again in 1939 - were among the best fed, the best clothed, and the best educated in the world - and look at what happened.. Sometimes you got to hear the bad news if you are to really understand the good news. The bad news is this - we as human beings are sinful, and not only are we sinful - our wills are not completely our own, we are under the influence of an evil that is greater than we are as individuals, an evil which is greater than that of ignorance and of poverty, indeed we in thrall to an evil that is so strong that it even thrives in the midst of education and in the midst of wealth. The good news is this - that God seeks us - that God wants us - and that we can place ourselves under the control of God and enter into the kind of world and help build the kind of world that God planned for us from the very beginning. We do it by faith - by trust - by belief - and by walking in the ways of God, the way revealed to us by Christ Jesus our Lord.. The experience of Paul - which he writes of in today's epistle reading is that when we come to faith, when we come to believe in Jesus Christ and in his message a great and wonderful thing happens - we are made new creatures - day by day, bit by bit, and we begin to share in the victory of Christ over sin and death, over the evil one, until at last we inherit an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all measure, as did my friend's father; as do millions of others each and every day. Look not simply at the things that seen, but look at the things which are unseen - the things that are eternal - and open your hands - and leave them open - so that the Holy Spirit may land upon you, and remain with you, and give you life in this world and in the next. So we preach, and so you believed - says the Apostle Paul May it be so, both now and forevermore. Amen

Genesis 1:1 - 2:4; Romans 1:16-23; Matthew 28:16-20

O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen. Remember to say Amen today whenever you hear the doxological phrase - Blessed be God. That will help move us along - and keep your blood flowing this wonderful spring morning. There is an old story about God that goes like this: God had worked for some time at a fiddly job but finally succeeded - and separated light from dark. One of the heavenly host saw all this and commented, "Say, God, that is really neat. What are you going to do now?" God answered: "Oh, I think I'll call it a day." To dissect something is to kill it. We know that is true about jokes and it is true about many other things as well. Some things you just have to understand where you live - in your heart and in your guts - rather than in your head and on the cold hard table of philosophical analysis. And this is probably no more true than when it is applied to the doctrine of the Trinity; that doctrine which tells us: "Hear O Israel, the Lord Thy God, the Lord is One" and which also tell us "Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - One God, forever and ever." Blessed be the Father who made it all! Amen Blessed be the Son who saved it all! Amen And Blessed be The Spirit which gives life to it all.! Amen The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most important of all the teachings of the church; so important that each year the Sunday after Pentecost is set aside to teach about, so important in fact, that at one time the whole season that stretches from now till Advent was called Trinity. And so I want to talk to you about it today. It is an important reminder to those who have heard it all before - much as the words "I love you", even when said for the hundredth time, is important to the beloved, And for those who haven't heard it all before - it may bring new understanding and appreciation for what the church has proclaimed since the day Jesus told us to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." The doctrine of the Trinity asserts that we know God - and God reveals himself - in three persons. Three persons - one God. As I have already said, how that works is one of those things, one of those mysteries, that defies dissection. But it is a functional mystery and a glorious mystery, one that describes the nature of God and which describes the nature of the wonderful relationship God has with us and with all creation. The mystery begins, of course, before creation itself begins. It begins with God living in community with himself before time - before matter - before energy itself It begins before every marvel that we see about us came to exist, and before every wonder that our science has discovered and is yet to discover came into being. And the mystery continued when God decided to take nothing and make something of it! And so the story of creation unfolds as Frank read it to us this morning. The first day when light was created - and then the second - the third - and the fourth days, those days the scriptures tell us can be as a thousand years (even as a thousand years can be as one day) and then there was a fifth day and after it, the sixth. The sixth day was a really busy day - so busy one can hardly blame God for taking a rest after it was done. The sixth day was the day in which God made all the living creatures that live on the earth (he had done the creatures of the sea and of the air the day before) - and having done them and seeing that they were good - God made us. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground - everything that has the breath of life in it - I give every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning - the sixth day. You know - it's not like something Science would say. Words like "good" and "very good" are not used in the academic world. But they resonate with all who have eyes to see the wonders of the universe and ears to hear the song of the cosmos - and to know that it is all a marvel and a mystery - the marvel and mystery of a love that is wildly free and abundantly creative and generous beyond measure! Thanks be to God - our Father - our Maker for that love. Amen. The creation is good. And our God is good. So good, in fact, that God gives goodness it's name. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! That Psalm, Psalm Eight, is a song of praise that grows out of the awareness of God's greatness in creation and of our strange and awesome place in that creation, our strange and awesome place as co-creators with God and as trustees of what God has made on this marvellous sphere. It was the first biblical text to reach the Moon. It was read on the Apollo 11 Mission and then left on the Moon on a disc along with 73 messages from various nations on the face of the earth. It was a good choice, for it speaks so well of the cosmic sovereignty of God and of the exalted status of human beings; of we who have used our God - given abilities to explore and reach up even to the moon. It is all so marvellous! Yet despite the marvel, despite the awesome nature of what God has done and whom God has made us to be, we forget God the Creator - we forget God the Father. We have been forgetting since we were first made: since Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil since they first decided it might be better to be like God without God being involved, since they first decided to do things their way rather than taking the high way, the way God had set before them. That is what Paul's message in today's reading from the Letter to the Romans is referring to when he writes about how "since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen - being understood from what has been made" yet humanity, although we knew God, "neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him" but rather exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man or woman and birds and animals and reptiles. Idolatry is nothing more - nor less - than forgetting God - and turning from him to the creation and seeking goodness from the creation - and within ourselves - rather from where it first comes. We all fall away and worship the gods of success and of wealth and of power and we do seek divine protection and divine comfort from things that are mortal and perishable rather than seeking them from the one who makes all things. And that cuts us off from the community of God and from the communion we are each meant to have with God and with one another. It is kind of hard, after all, to embrace someone you are angry at. It is kind of hard to bless someone that doesn't want your blessing. It is kind of hard to love someone that blames you for the problems they are having or to love the one that has caused you harm. But while God, like a loving parent, is angry and disappointed about what we have done, about the choices we have made that have caused sin and death to rule in our world, has chosen not to be angry forever. Rather God has chosen to bless us even though we have not sought his blessing - he has chosen to forgive us even though we have blamed him for all our faults - he has chosen to love us with a love that will change us - and save us from ourselves even though we have not loved him and even though we need a lot of saving. God decided he would rescue us from ourselves by becoming one of us, and by revealing the fullness of himself in Christ Jesus and - being in human form - by taking upon himself the burdens we lay upon ourselves and our world by our forgetting. The Father made us - the Son saves us - and so Paul declares: I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last..." Jesus, the second person of the Trinity reveals God to us - the God who creates and who is the Father of all living things - the God who watches over his people and calls them to a closer walk with him - the God who is just and loving - and forgiving and tender - the God who can calm any storm and feed any crowd and heal any who are sick - the God who seeks out the lost and who desires that all living things might live closer to him. Jesus reveals God to us because he and the Father are one, because he is the eternal Son of God - the Word which became flesh and dwelt among us . Praise be to God - to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit! Amen! Praise be to the Spirit who hovered over creation and who gives breath to all that lives - the Spirit who is poured out on all who choose the second life by making the Son their Lord and believing in all that he said and what he did. Praise be to the Spirit who is given so that we might proclaim to the ends of the earth what God has done and what God is doing and what God will yet do. Praise be to the Spirit - the Spirit who speaks in our hearts and who reveals to us the power of God and the word of God and the love of God. Praise be to the Spirit - because it is the Spirit of God - the Spirit of Christ that moves us and touches us and speaks to us and the creation round about us. Praise be to God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Amen! Which leads us to Gospel for the day - and to some final words about the Trinity and how important it is to us and to our understanding of what our faith is.. The passage that you heard read from the Gospel According To Matthew has a special name. It is called the Great Commissioning. It is called that because it speaks of the great job we have been given to do and if the warrant or commission - or authority that we have been given to do it. The commissioning that God gives to us through Christ is a simple one. Jesus tells his disciples after his resurrection - and before his ascension to be at the right hand of the Father: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Make disciples - there is a deep and abiding need for that in every generation; Teach them to obey what I have commanded you - most surely that is needed if we are not to end up going off on our own again and, by worshipping the creation instead of the creator, find ourselves without life or hope. Make disciples of all people, teaching them to obey all Christ has commanded us, and immerse them in the fullness of God, Jesus tell us: immerse them in the waters of creation and pray down the Holy Spirit upon them in the name of the one - the only one who has created and is creating - the one, the only one, who has come in Jesus to reconcile and make new - the one, the only one, who works in us and other by the Spirit. That is the commission that God gives to us - that Christ gives to us - that the Spirit gives to us. In Christ, with Christ, and through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit we are made one with God the Father. This insight - this truth - this revelation - is a great mystery - one that makes us different from all other people - all other religions - all other ways. We proclaim the God who made all things has reached out to those he made through a Son - his Son - the Word of God - the Power of God - made flesh - and that all who turn to him and who obey him are filled with his Power - his Spirit - and made new both in this life - and in the next! The Trinity is a doctrine - and a mystery - but it is a doctrine that points to a living reality that is full of truth: to a truth - and a power - and a way - like no other truth or power or way. And Christ calls us - the Spirit calls us - the Father calls us - to share it! To share it by speaking of it. And to share it by living it. What a universe this is! What a wonder life is! How awesome that all this - and all of you - should be! Spread the word about our Glorious God. Let his light shine in the darkness and his song of love be heard throughout the whole world. Blessed be God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, One. Amen! Blessed be God The One - the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen!