St George's Sermon Blog

  John 3:1-17      Last week during the festival of Pentecost we talked about the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of Christ’s Holy church.   We witnessed the transformation this ragtag frightened bunch of disciples into passionate witnesses of the gospel.    This week, during the festival of the Holy Trinity, we will consider how the power of our own encounter with this divine Holy Trinity transforms our lives.        Holy Trinity Sunday is the day within the church year that we celebrate and remember the mystery of the Holy Trinity.   It is in fact the only festival in the church year devoted to a doctrine or idea and not an actual event or biblical character.   And it’s not like it’s a simple or straightforward idea.   As I mentioned in my newsletter article this week, the doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most difficult concepts in all of theology to understand.   There have been myriads of symbols and analogies and ways of discussing the Trinity over the centuries all o

Acts 2:1-21 Lord send your spirit upon us and bless us with your presence as we seek to draw closer to you that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you our rock and our redeemer. Today is the great festival of Pentecost in the church.  It is one of my favorite holidays because in is one of the only major Christian holidays that has not been taken over by the wider culture.  I doubt any of you saw big Pentecost displays in the stores this week or spent a lot of time putting up Pentecost decorations or planning Pentecost parties.  It’s not a national holiday with days off from work or school.  Most people outside of the church and probably many from within the church especially from less-liturgical traditions probably couldn’t even tell you what Pentecost is or why we celebrate it. Yet here within the church it is one of the most important days of the church year.  It is the Birthday of the church, the day we commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit