2011-06-19 Sermon for Trinity Sunday John 16

110619pm Isaiah 6:1-8 John 16:5-15

EXERCISE: turn to the person next to you and say, 'Why are you a Christian?'

Why do we believe in God? And how can we explain it someone who asks? You may remember a couple of weeks ago I quoted an article from the Church Times, where the writer had twice overheard this question put to someone, with very different results. The first was a group of raucous football fans, and the explanation had been clear, expressive and full of life – .the best evangelism I have ever heard from a teenager dressed as a seagull'. The second was a couple of ladies of a certain age on a bus, and the person being asked had first said 'You'll have to ask the Vicar', then when pressed had rather lamely said she found the church service peaceful. Her friend told her that Pilates made her feel peaceful, and ended up recruiting the Christian.

Well we need to do better than that. The writer suggested we each need three reasons: one to do with a sense of wonder at the Creation; a second to do with the attractiveness of Jesus, his life and teaching; and a third to do with some personal improvement that has come from being a Christian. You might say those three areas are rational (to do with reason), historical (to do with history), and experiential (what we have experienced in our lives).

In terms of creation, the very fact of existence suggests that it has been made, designed and willed by someone. There are many rational arguments which show that believing in God as creator makes sense, it's not irrational, illogical, unscientific. The more aggressive atheists seem to think that somehow science and theology are at odds, that reason and faith pull in opposite directions, that the more you believe in God the less you believe in science and reason, but this is just not true. There seems to be an unspoken assumption that since Biblical times something has been discovered which renders a creator God unbelievable, though no one can say what this discovery is, or what we now know that they didn't know. There seems to be a lazy belief that science has disproved religion, though no one can remember what experiments were done or what the results were. It makes perfect sense to believe that it's a better explanation of what we see to say that it is the result of a divine mind, rather than that it is here for no reason. It doesn't prove it, but neither can you disprove it. And we may say that it explains more of what we know – why the universe is orderly and obeys universal laws, why it goes to all the bother of existing. Or to put it the other way round, that if the universe were made by God, this is the kind of universe you would expect.

In terms of Jesus, unbelievers could be challenged to give a better explanation of Jesus than he gave himself. This is a different kind of evidence than reason: historical evidence is all about reliable witnesses, documents and artefacts. By its very nature, you can't re-run history to see for yourself what happened, you have to assess the testimony of those who were there and saw what happened. Again, nothing has been 'discovered' which disproves the basic content of the gospels, their testimony to this man, what he said and did and what happened to him.

But many people know very little about Jesus. We can point to some of the things about him that draw us and challenge us: his attitude to the poor, the sick, to friends, to enemies, to religious legalism, to prayer, to marriage, to violence, and so on. We can point to what he said God is like, and his relationship to God his Father. We can point to his birth and his miracles. We can point to the way he faced up to his suffering and death, and what he said it all meant; and we can point to his resurrection, and all the evidence that points to it being true. There is no one in history like Jesus, and we can invite people to make up their minds what they think about him, based on the actual evidence.

So first Creation, second Jesus, third experience. What benefits can we point to in our lives, our personal histories, our attitudes, our feelings about ourselves and the world we live in, the communities and relationships which we are part of, from being Christian? The media tend to portray Christians as nutters, so we have to describe some of the blessings that come from faith. We might talk about a spiritual awareness of God's presence, of being loved by a love coming from the centre of the universe, of being held and supported in hard times, of being rebuked and disciplined when we are going wrong, of being guided in decisions, a sense of purpose and meaning, an energy or determination to do good and worthwhile things even though they are difficult. We can talk about the blessings of the church, the fellowship and acceptance of people who are very different, the patience and forgiveness others give us; the sense of connecting with reality in worship; the practical support of people who gain no benefit from being good to us. And a sense of confidence even in the face of suffering, sickness and ultimately death, a deep conviction that we are held safe in the hands of one much greater than ourselves, greater even than life and death, a sense of eternal life, that everything is going to be alright.

I wonder what you would say in these three areas? It doesn't have to be a PhD that would floor Richard Dawkins, just some simple reasons that we can give to others who say. 'Why are you a Christian?'

Did you notice that we have been talking about the Trinity? God the Father, the fount and origin of all existence, the God of Abraham and Moses, the one Jesus called 'Father', the one he said he was 'going to'. God the Son, the incarnate Word of God, the man Jesus of Nazareth who is the eternal Son of the Father. God the Holy Spirit, who pours God's love into our hearts and applies to each of us to us what Christ has done for all of us. And you notice how the three are intertwined. In creation, God the Father is the creator, the Son sustains all things by his word of power, the Spirit moved over the face of the waters in creation. Jesus is the one who calls God Father, he offered himself to the Father as our representative on the cross, and having returned to the Father he sends his Spirit the Counsellor. The Spirit comes to dwell in our hearts, the Father and the Son come to make their home with us.

In a similar way, reason, history and experience are intertwined in why we believe. We think with our reason about Jesus and about our spiritual experience; the history shows us what Jesus said about the Father and the Spirit; our experience is of the Father who creates all things in an orderly way, and of the same Jesus whom we read about in the Gospels.

So have another go at answering 'Why are you a Christian'. Write or draw on the sheet one reason to do with responding to the complexity and beauty of creation, one to do with delight in the words and deeds of Jesus, and one to do with a personal improvement that has come from going through life in the company of a loving God.