Sermons
The First Sunday after Trinity - 7th June 2026
Hosea Cpt 5 v15- Cpt 6 v6. Romans Cpt 4 v13 – 25. Matt Cpt 9 v9-13 and 18-26
A tax collector today is a civil servant and regarded as a member of an honorable profession. At the time of Jesus, since Judea was occupied by the Romans, anyone working for the Romans was regarded as a traitor, a person to be ostracized. Working for the Romans was seen as wrong, it was also seen as sinful.
It was a job which was difficult, it was hard for a man to collect the taxes honestly and fairly if he wished to be a Godfearing Jew. The Romans demanded a certain sum of money from the collector, there was no charge laid down for each person, but since the tax collector had to earn a living, he charged people more than the Romans demanded and I’m sure some tax collectors made a very good living.
Tax collectors were resented and avoided, no law- abiding Jew would visit their homes or invite them to their own house to share a meal with them, yet this is exactly what Jesus did. He doesn’t say to the religious leaders, the Pharisees, that tax collectors have kept the law, he admits that they are sinners in need of help, for he says they are like the sick who need a doctor.
I’m sure some men became tax collectors because they were desperate to support their families. There have always been men and women who have lived on the edge because circumstances make them desperate.
It is possible that the man Jesus ate with was Matthew the apostle, although St Mark’s gospel says it was a man called Levi. Whoever this man was the story is told in order to emphasize that there is a place in Christ’s kingdom for sinners.
The words of Jesus, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”, is a quotation from our Old Testament reading. In the book of the prophet Hosea God says to Israel, I desire loyalty or steadfast love, not sacrifice”
Through his personal experience, the unfaithfulness of his wife Gomer, Hosea sees the behaviour of his wife like that of Israel. As a nation they have made a covenant with God, they have committed themselves to be faithful to God, and yet again and again their love is “like the morning mist, like the dew that goes away early”.
In these 14 short chapters the prophet Hosea reflects on his relationship with his wife and sees how similar the relationship was between God and Israel. Hosea puts much of what he says into the mouth of God and we see both the depths of God’s love for Israel, and also the suffering God endures because of Israel’s unfaithfulness, their sinfulness.
All three of our readings today confronts us with the reality of human sinfulness. Israel made a covenant with God, promised to be faithful, but again and again they sinned, thinking that offering sacrifices would be enough to please God. The tax collectors at the time of Jesus made compromises with the occupying power, they neglected the commandments of God. In the letter to the Romans Paul has reminded his readers that “no human being will be justified in God’s sight by obeying the law, since we have all sinned.
So today we are asked to consider what is the Christian understanding of sin. Sin separates us from God. We are all sinners, we cannot divide human being into 2 camps, the good and the bad, although often in practice many people do. We all fail to live as God wants us to. We are not filled with the love of Christ, loving God and our fellow human beings with our whole hearts.
In the First Letter of John we are told “No one who abides in Christ sins, no one who sins has either seen him or known him (Cpt3 v6 ). So what does this mean? We believe God’s Spirit is with us, yet we know we fail every day to live lives without sin.
When John says that those who abide in Christ don’t sin, he knows that Christians are not perfect. We don’t allow Christ to fill our hearts, to completely change our lives, for then, if we did, we would be perfect.
Some of you may know the story of the man speaking to his priest about his own sinfulness. “Father”, he said “It’s always the same sins, my laziness, my forgetfulness, my thoughts and unkind words, I don’t seem to have anything new to say” “Thank God” said the priest, “you are not adding new sins to the weaknesses you have already admitted to”.
In the Letter to the Romans that we heard a part of this morning Paul tells his readers that it is not our actions, that enable us to have a relationship with God. Paul says before the law existed Abraham had faith, he trusted God and this was the basis of that relationship. If we admit we are sinners, that our actions can never be perfect, that they cannot be the basis of a right relationship with God.
Jesus Christ has already made a new way to God, we have the assurance of God’s forgiveness for our sinfulness. The Holy Spirit teaches us how to grow in our love for God and other people. In this world we may go on struggling to live in God’s way, we will sin. As we come together to worship God each week, we need to begin by confessing our sinfulness.
God loves us in our sinful state so we approach God because we know God is perfect love, merciful and patient and will lead us in this life until we have hearts filled with the love of Christ, able to share in God’s eternity.
Rev'd Janet Fulljames
Trinity Sunday - 31st May 2026
based on Isaiah 40, 2 Cor.13 and Matt. 28
For at least 55 years since I was in the Sixth Form at secondary school I have been thinking about, and reading about the nature of God and about the great MYSTERIES of the Christian faith which underlie our worship and our prayers and, I hope, condition the way in which we try to live out our Christian faith.
In 1917 the German theologian and philosopher, Rudolf Otto, wrote an influential book called The Idea of the Holy, in which he coined a term to describe our religious experience as confronting the NUMINOUS, by which he meant encounter with what is divine, transcendent and WHOLLY OTHER, a majestic reality going beyond all human reason.
The great Mystery with which we are called to wrestle today is the Holy Trinity, the perplexing notion that the God whom we worship is TRIUNE, viz. one indivisible being in substance, but paradoxically at the same time also distinct in three separate persons.
These three distinct persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, are constantly at work RELATIONALLY in the acts of Creation, Redemption and Salvation. They never work separately from one another, but only in harmonious concert, as I hope to show.
However hard I have tried during these last 55 years to make some kind of sense of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, I have sadly struggled to understand this mystery in any meaningful way. I have neither the intellect nor the imagination to get my head around what it really means to be both Three and One. I apprehend parts of this mystery, but cannot comprehend its totality.
I keep trying, however, partly because, while at university, I took comfort from listening to John Freeman’s interview in 1959 on a programme on the BBC called Face to Face with an aged Carl Jung, one of the two most influential psychologists of the twentieth century, who unlike Sigmund Freud, Jung’s former mentor, was at least sympathetic to the notion of God.
At a critical point in the interview Freeman asked Jung whether he believed in God. Jung looked astonished at the question. “Believe, believe?” he replied. “I know”.
Ever since then I have argued with critics that, if faith is good enough for serious thinkers like Jung, or CS Lewis, or John Polkinghorne, or Rowan Williams, or Pope Leo X1V, then it is good enough for me…. and I can’t help it, if my brain hurts. I acknowledge and applaud their more profound grasp of this central mystery of our faith, the Holy Trinity.
Given my admitted puzzlement, what light can I possibly shed for you, most of whom like me are probably equally bewildered by such an important teaching of the Church about the nature and the activity of the God whom we proclaim to be the Creator, Redeemer and Saviour of the world?
The sophisticated writer of the Letter to the Hebrews writes in Cp.11: 1 that “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the assurance of things not seen”. Consider that assertion for a moment. He is telling us that we really do have a solid foundation for the things that we hope for in the divine promises of forgiveness, healing, reconciliation and eternal life that have been given to us by God through his Son in the power of his Holy Spirit.
The atheists and agnostics who reject all religious belief as irrational cannot accept that we Christians live in a spirit of absolute trust in the saving power of what Christ has done for us in his exemplary life, his profound teaching, his sacrificial death on the Cross and in his glorious Resurrection and Ascension.
Since faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit to those who reverence God in Christ and have committed themselves to open their hearts to that Love which enlarges the image of Christ within each of us and daily transforms us towards becoming ever more like the people that God created us to be, we can surely dismiss the sceptics with God’s blessing, for he loves them every bit as much as he loves us in spite of their unbelief.
So what can we say about the Triune God whom we worship? If we think of the Father as the sole Creator of all that is, we are missing the truth that He creates only in combination with the Son and Holy Spirit. In Gen.1: 1 we read that “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…..(while) THE SPIRIT of God was hovering over the waters”.
In John 8: 58 Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I AM”. This is a clear assertion that Christ the Son pre-exists the Creation and is therefore co-equal with the Father and the Spirit in Creation.
Furthermore, by using the phrase I AM, Jesus is echoing God’s characterization of himself to Moses at Exodus 3:14 as YAHWEH, which means, I AM WHO I AM, viz. God is not A BEING as we are all beings, but rather He is BEING in itself, the source and ground of all being.
Similarly, it would be wrong to see The Son as acting alone in the work of Redemption. In fact Christ is working in the power of the Father and in partnership with the Spirit. Thus we read at Ephesians 1: 7 “ In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with riches of GOD’S GRACE”, which means that the Father and the Spirit are equally involved in bringing about our redemption.
In the same vein the Holy Spirit does not sanctify us by purifying our hearts and intentions unaided. At 1 Corinthians 6: 11 we read, “ you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”.
Not only are the three persons of the Trinity co-equal and consubstantial, they are also co-eternal. “The Lord is the everlasting God, Creator of the ends of the earth,” we read in our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah 40. The interrelationship of the three persons within the undivided godhead is permanent and pre-exists the creation of the material universe.
There is a harmonious collaboration and a beautiful coherence and unity within the God whom we worship. His agent on earth has commanded 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 Holy Trinity is our unique Christian model of the perfection and glory of God. If you want a crude analogy for this metaphysical mystery, think about a tube of Signal or Aquafresh toothpaste that you have squeezed onto your toothbrush. All the different colours intertwine and yet remain distinct on your toothbrush.
I have probably committed heresy by making so crass a comparison with what is most holy, most NUMINOUS, so let us hope that the Holy Trinity in mercy will forgive me. We all believe, nay we KNOW, that God is Love, so may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all on this special day and always. Amen.
Fr Munna Mitra
Pentecost - 24th May 2026
Joint Service at Rowbarton Methodist Church.
ACTS 2 v 1-21. JOHN 7 v 37-39.
I have visited the United States of America twice, the first time was in 1995. For part of the visit I stayed with relatives in Upper New York State. One day during the stay we went to the Niagara Falls. All waterfalls are beautiful, spectacular, and demonstrate the power of water. While there we got into a boat and were taken to the foot of the falls, the spray was tremendous, but gentle, refreshing, it was a very different experience from listening to the roar of the water and viewing the falls from dry land.
Today I want to speak about two symbols of the Holy Spirit, fire and water. In John’s Gospel Jesus speaks of streams of living water within those who have received the Holy Spirit. In the Acts of the Apostles Luke describes that first Pentecost as a time when flames like tongues of fire rested on each of the apostles. In many ways fire and water are similar, they are powerful, frightening, essential to life, they can also be gentle, as they refresh and warm us.
In our world today we can clearly see the times when both fire and water are powerful, frightening and destructive. In the last year floods have destroyed whole villages. Countries as far apart as Indonesia, Sri Lanka Vietnam, Thailand, South Africa and Kenya were all badly affected by floods. Even the USA was affected, and in Kentucky 11 people died. The floods in the Rift Valley in Kenya affected about 700, 000 people and hundreds of people died. Tens of thousands homes were destroyed, as were the crops of farmers.
Last year also at least 600 people around the world died from fires out of control in extreme weather conditions.
Both floods and fires have been the consequence of global warming. The greatest challenge we face at present as human beings is climate change and how to control it, to prevent the further destruction of the natural world, of animal species, and ultimately the destruction of human life on this planet.
The Holy Spirit whose festival we celebrate today is God’s gift to the world. The Holy Spirit is at work in the world, bringing life to all creation. Our task is to work with the Holy Spirit to renew the face of the earth.
When the apostles experienced the outpouring of the Spirit in Jerusalem people outside could see how they had changed. We know the apostles were so often living in Jerusalem in hiding, afraid they would be arrested as Jesus had been. Now they are making so much noise in the house where they are staying, the crowd outside thought they were drunk!
Is there much evidence that we have received the Holy Spirit? When I think of occasions when we show excitement or enthusiasm I think of a football match, not many Christian assemblies have that same atmosphere. There are Christians who sing enthusiastically, who may speak in tongues as well, but I don’t think it quite compares with the singing at a football match.
We might respond by saying that the Holy Spirit who dwells within us can be like water, gentle and refreshing. The Spirit quietly transforms us into the people God wants us to be, people who are loving, peaceful, joyful, patient, kind and gentle as St Paul says in his letter to the Galatians (Gal 5 v 22-3.) The presence of God is making us more Christlike. I think this gentle presence suits the English character, on the whole we are not a demonstrative people.
We are so often content to live our Christian lives quietly, acknowledging the presence of the Holy Spirit, in our daily lives doing what we can to love and serve our neighbours. The problem is so often we are not noticed, certainly not in the way the first apostles were noticed 2,000 years ago! 3,000 people in that crowd became followers of Jesus the Messiah that same day.
One person who was noticed by those outside of the Church was John Wesley. Today May 24th is Wesley Day, also celebrated as the feast of John and Charles Wesley in the Church of England. John Wesley saw the desperate needs of poor people, people who would have been uncomfortable entering a parish church, so he went to them. He preached to crowds of people in the open air and so began the Methodist Societies. John Wesley came to Somerset and preached to miners working in the North Somerset coalfield. The Mining Museum at Radstock has a section describing the visits of John Wesley to Somerset. Many in the Church of England did not approve of John Wesley’s methods and some clergy refused to allow those who listened to him to attend their parish churches. Many in the Church of England were unable to accept new ways to share the Good News.
It is a real challenge to all of us today to find those new ways of communicating the good news of the gospel, not expecting people to come to us, but going to where they are.
As our Methodist brothers and sisters I am sure are aware St Andrew’s is in vacancy, without a vicar at present. We have been thinking about the needs of the parish and yesterday reflected together on this.
It is easy to think a young man or woman with children will be able to attract young families to join the church, but so many people now are uncomfortable entering a church building, maybe we need to find new ways of meeting people outside of our church buildings.
We need to remind ourselves that the task of making disciples is the task of every baptized member of the church, and maybe God is just as interested in attracting the over 60’s to the Christian Community!
Each baptised member of the Christian Church has received the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have God’s presence with us to go out and live the good news we have received. We may be called to minister to neighbours, or to provide practical help to those in need, or to speak to friends and family about Jesus. Each one of us has our own particular calling, but each one of us does have a task and we need to discover what God is calling us to do, how we are to share the Good News in Taunton in 2026. It won’t be in the same way that the first apostles did on that first Pentecost. It won’t be in the way John Wesley did nearly 300 years ago. It will be a way that attracts people’s attention, that helps them to see the love of God at work in us, that then enables them to hear what we have to say.
Fire and water, symbols of the Holy Spirit, powerful, and gentle. Never think if God is gentle and the Holy Spirit refreshes and encourages us that this is a tiny flame or falling raindrops. Do not think we need only to be a spark or a trickle of water! God calls us to be flames of fire, torrents of water, visible in the world.
I will end with the words of a prayer used frequently at Morning Prayer in our Common Worship prayer books.
“As we rejoice in the gift of this new day, may the light of your presence, O God, set our hearts on fire with love for you, now and forever. Amen.”
Rev'd Janet Fulljames
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