Revd Darren McCallig’s sermon from Trinity Sunday.
The sermon begins with Lulu’s letter to God and Rowan Williams’ reply from Lambeth.
In 2011, a six-year-old Scottish girl named Lulu wrote a letter to God. It read, “To God: How did you get invented? From Lulu xo.” Her parents sent the letter to Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time. This is the reply Rowan gave:
Dear Lulu,
Your Dad has sent on your letter and asked if I have any answers. It’s a difficult one! But I think God might reply a bit like this:“Dear Lulu,
Nobody invented me – but lots of people discovered me and were quite surprised. They discovered me when they looked round at the world and thought it was really beautiful or really mysterious and wondered where it came from. They discovered me when they were very very quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t expected.
Then they invented ideas about me – some of them sensible and some of them not very sensible. From time to time I sent them some hints – specially in the life of Jesus – to help them get closer to what I’m really like.
But there was nothing and nobody around before me to invent me. Rather like somebody who writes a story in a book, I started making up the story of the world and eventually invented human beings like you who could ask me awkward questions!”
And then he’d send you lots of love and sign off.
I know he doesn’t usually write letters, so I have to do the best I can on his behalf. Lots of love from me too.
+ Archbishop Rowan
Beginning with Lulu’s wonderfully direct question, this sermon reflects on Rowan Williams’ reply as a simple but rich way into the doctrine of the Trinity. Rowan’s answer speaks of people discovering God in the beauty and mystery of the world, in unexpected peace and love, and in the hints God gives us most fully in Jesus.
Darren draws out these three ways of speaking about God: God above us as creator, God within us as the Holy Spirit, and God alongside us as the Son. The Trinity is presented not as a dry or abstract doctrine, but as a way of recognising the shape and pattern of God’s presence in ordinary human experience.
The sermon also reflects on creation as an act of delight, creativity and love, like an author writing a story and bringing characters to life. Trinity Sunday becomes an invitation to share our own ideas and experiences of God, and to respond to the divine love that is always writing to us, dropping hints and longing for our reply.
The Trinity is the Christian belief that God is one God, known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Christians are not saying there are three gods, but that the one God is known in three distinct ways: as creator and source of all things, as God revealed in Jesus Christ, and as the Holy Spirit present and active in the world and in our lives. In our tradition, Trinity Sunday comes immediately after Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit is revealed to the Church, and is the one principal day in the church year focused especially on a doctrine rather than on an event or person.