Living in the Circle of God’s Trinity

A sermon preached at St Martin-in-the-Fields on May 31, 2026 by Revd Richard Carter

Giving Thanks for Twenty Years at St Martin-in-the-Fields

How can we live authentically  in the midst of a world at the moment- a world of so much distrust anger, division and conflict. How can we live in hope – truthful to ourselves and all that we were created to be and truthful to God and all that God calls us to be

Today Trinity Sunday, the day we celebrate the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and as I reflect on twenty years of being part of this church I want to celebrate the hope of our Christian faith. The hope that it is possible  not to belong to these powers of fear and division and prejudice or to mirror back the things we fear , but rather to choose the God  of love as our home.

This is the meaning of Trinity- not some formular we try to in vain to understand. It is the love we live. It is the house of love with the ever open doors that Dick Sheppard all those years ago saw in his vision. “This is where we are going to learn about the love of God” and “This is the place we call home.” This  house of love is beautifully  expressed in the icon of the Holy Trinity, painted by Andrew Rublev in 1425.  It is the icon most of you will have seen many times before and today is on the front of your order of service and behind the altar in front of us.  I hope that even in reproduction it can still speak to us.

Three persons which seem like angels sit around a table. Each angel alike but slightly different each taking a different position at the table

Perhaps this is  based on the mystery of the three angels who appeared at the Oak of Mamre, who ate the meal Sarah and Abraham generously offered to them and who announced the unexpected birth of Isaac (Genesis 18). It is the mystery of hospitality expressed in how Abraham’s and Sarah in welcoming strangers welcomed the three angels unaware, but is not this also the story of not only how they welcomed but how God welcomes them into his love- and welcomes us. Welcome us into a covenant of love. Rublev’s icon as we gaze upon is speaking of a timeless reality that we are being invited to share the life of God- Father Son and Holy Spirit

Behold- the three are seated around a stone table- an altar not so different from the stone altar at the front of our church today. And on the altar is a chalice- a chalice the sign of God’s love for the world- God’s total outpouring of love, Christ’s sacrificial love- the sign of our forgiveness. And at the very centre of the table or altar there is a gap- a gap which Christ’s with his two outstretched fingers behind the altar seem to be blessing and the angel- to the right- believed to be the symbol of the Holy Spirit seems to be pointing or indicating us towards. And the humble figure on the left- believed to be the God figure has made space at the table for us to come to the table too and complete the circle.  Notice the way in this icon we are not confronted with power or kingdom, or throne, or hierarchy instead we gaze at three  figures- figures of beauty and gentleness- Notice their posture as though each one seems to be listening to the other and the way each figure seems to be bowing in humble reverence to the other. There is a huge tenderness and beauty both in their relationship to each other and in the space they have created into which they are calling us. For this icon, as we gaze upon it, more and more seems to be saying that that place in the circle- that place around the table is open for all of us. And that small rectangle on the front of the altar is the space into which each one of us is invited to come. What we see here is not an explanation of the trinity for us to understand rather it is an invitation to come home- to come to the table and to enter into and participate in the life of God.

As we gaze on this circle of love- perhaps we begin to realise a truth that the church has sometimes lost. That the Trinity is not a doctrine it  is relationship-an eternal community of love. Early Christians used the beautiful Greek word Perichoresis meaning- around- to make room to dwell.  It’s very essence is inviting us home. It’s not about a hierarchy or an oppressive power. Its not something fixed or static. It’s not the altar of judgment- it is the table of welcome. Everyone at the table is equal- equally loved.

And today I want to say that one of the places where I have found that altar of love is here at St Martin-in-the-Fields. At this altar- I have experienced the relationship and it is not a static thing but a dynamic living circle that goes on and on deepening and inviting and including and widening. And this space at the table is for each one of us and everyone outside of us.  And somehow this is why a church like this can become a home- for all- a mother house -Christ  like a  mother hen gathering us all under his wings- where everyone can taste and see that they too can be welcomed at the table and become part of God’s love. And this Trinity is not confined to a building – it has open doors -this circle ripples outwards onto our streets and into homes. I can think of thousands of examples of this rippling outwards over the last twenty years. I wish I could mention them all but here as a taste of the wine at the centre of the Table-

Mally Lightbourn who showed hospitality week after week in her own home- welcoming strangers and sharing food- and many  others who in countless acts of hospitality and care -welcome and build community-  Alison Hardwick who diligently served coffee and her humble insightful wisdom,   Bronwyn who gathers and energises and cares so much, Jeff serving with endless dedication delicious shepherd’s pie or cheese shortbread, or Mel who honours and loves with bone china cups of tea and cakes or our vicar Sam Wells welcoming us to his home cooking for all his team last Thursday and giving space for each one of us to share our stories and gifts.  Or kind gentle David cooking huge pots of rice for the International Group, Ebenezer the constant calm and dignified servant of us all serving food to the hungry every single Sunday for 10 years- Asanka up all night to cook the Easter breakfast- or Amrit and his staff who brought huge pots of rice and dal during covid and helped us feed those left behind in Trafalgar Square, and  who beams, as week after week his Sikh Punjab restaurant provides delicious curries for our International Group facing homelessness at cost price and says it is a blessing to serve our church. Or Sophie always ready to help and serve  and notice those who have been forgotten or fallen through the cracks.  I will leave 100s out because there are too many of you who have learnt what it means to be both guest and host  and to share the generosity and hospitality of the trinity and the circle of God’s love. The Trinity is about Being With and this church is a constant experiment, improvisation and revelation about what being with means.

And then another Trinitarian gift- the gift of prayer. Prayer in a culture where people are taught to compete and where minds are often crammed with stress and  fear of failing and algorithms of scandal, distrust and violence.  . And where so often the phycology of our time teaches us to bend inwards on ourselves and crushes our human longings and compassion and spirit- And yet here in this place prayer which allows us to unbind and let us go free. To seek beauty and truth.  Prayer which opens us up to the wonder of God all around us out of the church and into the streets and parks in meditation. Prayer and silence and listening which expands and tenderises our hearts. Prayer which lifts us into the circle of love or which in the voices of our choirs and prayers or the mystery of silence expresses the inexplicable  music of God

And in this Trinity everyone though different can become the bearers of God’s love– the circle of God’s loving “shinning out like shook foil” in most unexpected and wonderful ways. A homeless migrant offering his sweat shirt to another man feeling the cold more than himself.  Our International Group on the day out to Worthing sharing fish and chips,  cheerful in sun rain and splashing and laughing in the sea. A man who once arrived destitute and in despair having lost everything  now with partner and beautiful daughter who take me to see the flamingos in London Zoo because the daughter loves the colour pink best.  Trinity is at work as 100 people make a pilgrimage to canterbury each helping each other over styles, to carry heavy bags or bandage blistered feet.  Trinity is 100 people gathered online to pray writing each other prayers of encouragement. It is 140 of our Nazareth Community and Companions on retreat together sitting in front of the Nazareth Cross from all walks and different parts of the world realising that together in community we have come home.

And of course the Trinity – the open space at the table is there in pain and struggle and need too. The person facing the difficult diagnosis surrounded by love and prayer- in sickness and even in death. The person struggling with addiction who is still loved and longed for that he might become free and even if he doesn’t will know that he is still part of us still loved.  And it is the Trinity that longs for justice- that faces the horror of violence and animosity of our world with courage but constantly resists the temptation to become like the oppressor. The Trinity that says in the icon the only way to solve the problems and the conflict and the pain is to come to the table  as equals and to listen to the other. The Trinity which says resurrection is possible

I believe that Trinity is not a formular we fit God into it is the life of the Gospels we are called to live- and this Church does ,live. “You do what you say on the tin” my brother says. It is the song we sing and which our wonderful choirs sing. It is the light we try to light in the darkness. It is not always easy. We sometimes get trapped and bogged down and turn away from Christ and get it wrong. Christ can get lost in our processes. But he will not stay forgotten for it is in the forgotten places – the places where people have often been  overlooked and forgotten that the trinity of love is often most in evidence. I wonder where you see Father Son and Holy Spirit- perhaps at a disability conference where people who previously were given no place at the table now do. Among those bereaved and grieving meeting together for ten weeks to share their stories in the Being With the End of Life course and finally finding a space where they can express their loss and be understood. Or among LGBTQI+ people who felt judged, lost , excluded who can now celebrate our love and humanity and become the prophetic voice to the whole church and to nations where people of different sexuality are still being beaten, bullied and victimised. And among asylum seekers and migrants who so often have been treated as scapegoats but who here have enriched the life of the church and are no longer outsiders but at the heart of our home- creating home.  In the Nazareth Manifesto Sam wrote: It is the miracle of God’s grace that God meets our scarcity  through the abundance we discover in those apparently more exposed to scarcity than ourselves. We cannot understand, listen to, learn or receive grace from people, unless we inhabit their world, which we see as valuable for its own sake- unless we learn to share from the same table or sit down together on the same ground. There is no goal beyond restored relationship. Reconciliation is the Gospel. It is the Trinity

May God through his grace continue to make this a mother house of welcome, healing and reconciliation where all are fed. And may the trinity of God’s love the Father Son and Holy Spirit fill us as we go simply, humbly attentively, out into the world discovering God’s circle of love is already there- waiting to be revealed. And may we enter that circle of love which helps heaven come down to earth and lifts earth up to heaven.