Such a short gospel reading for today: John 16:12-15.

Yet so complicated! I lose track of what on earth Jesus is saying: it moves from him to God to the spirit to us to him to spirit to God back to us again. Fittingly, the passage begins with Jesus telling us that he has much to tell us but we won’t get it! You don’t say!

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, a day that has generated hymns about God’s nature being immortal, invisible, consubstantial, coeternal – I have no idea what we are supposed to get from any of these descriptions other than confused. At heart it is Jesus trying to explain love. But we can’t explain love, we feel it, we express it, we are transformed and changed by it, it shapes and moulds us, but we don’t understand it. What we do know is that once it starts it doesn’t stop, it doesn’t respect boundaries, or understand limits, it continues to generate more love.Thankfully we are not called to understand God, just to receive and to hand on the love that is given, and take our place in the great love story that is life.

Show us. Philip asks Jesus in John 14:8-17, show us God and we will be satisfied. Jesus rolls his eyes and shakes his head. You’ve been seeing God all this time when you have been seeing the power of God at work in me.

Jesus asks us to trust in works of love and justice. This is where we see God at work in the world.

This is still where we see God at work in the world. Christ’s promise to us is that the same divine power that lived in him can live in us.

This is the gift of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit.

It comes when we are together, together with one another, together in our concern for those in need in our world, together in our faith that God has the power to change the world in and through us.

Pentecost is our patronal festival at CHS; we are named for and dedicated to the Spirit of God. Today above all days we open ourselves to that unity with God, one another, and the world that allows the spirit to move through us.

This Sunday we mark Ascension Day. Our readings give us two accounts. In both Jesus gives his followers a task. It is not the task they had expected or wanted. In Acts 1:1-11 they ask him “is now the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” They are still hoping for a victory of their side over and against the other side. Instead Jesus sends them out of their homeland to serve people other than their own. In the gospel version, Luke 24:44-53, Jesus tells his followers, we began in Jerusalem, we began at home, but you are to go to all nations. This is not just a change in scope, it is a change in the nature of their mission. They must let go of previous ideas of who they are (and who God is) and embrace a much broader vision. The image this week expresses something of the surprise they feel.

On leaving his disciples Jesus tells them not to be troubled or afraid, John 14:23-29. Easy to say but not easy to do either for them nor for us today. Then as now, however, human beings find themselves able to survive and thrive in the most troubling and frightening of situations. Two things that support such resilience is a sense of purpose and the support of those around us. When we have a sense of purpose, we are no longer passive; we have a role to play. Jesus tells us our role: the peace that he is leaving with us. This is not the peace that the world gives, the peace of the Pax Romana that was imposed by force, but a peace built of justice, a peace in which everyone could be at home in the world. In our first reading, Acts 16:9-15, a foreign woman in a new home does just this for Paul and his companions when they come to a new city. Lydia, having experienced being away from home, opens her home to others. She is, in her own small way, building peace. A peace built by a thousand tiny actions which seek to open the world for others.

Today we are holding our Annual Parish Church Meeting. This is the meeting at which we elect those who will serve us and the community for the coming year. We will also be receiving the Annual Report. This is a long old document, but a number of us will be speaking (very briefly) about some of the work undertaken by the church in the past year. It’s a time to give thanks for all that we have done and been together, to show our gratitude for those who have served us, and to commit to supporting and upholding those who will serve us in the year ahead. The reading this week is blessedly short, John 13:31-35. This is part of Jesus’ farewell to his friends and disciples. He tells us that we cannot go with Him; our job is to stay here and carry on His work. We do this by loving one another. The love we have for one another and for the community we serve and the wider world in which we live is not a feeling of warmth or affection. For Christ love is not a noun, a state of being; it is verb, an active commitment we undertake. Getting stuck into the mess and challenge of working together is what builds up this love and gives us the energy and courage to act in love in all areas of our life.

Today is good Shepherd Sunday, the Sunday when we focus on what makes a good leader and how we too can be good leaders, nurturing those in need of our care.

The people of Israel always assumed that they were a special flock set apart from others. In our gospel reading, John 10:22-30, Jesus re-defines what it means to be the sheep who belong to God; it means responding to his voice, to listen and discern and then … to grow into being shepherds ourselves.

This week Good Shepherd Sunday falls during Christian Aid week: a good time to remind ourselves that we are not called to stay in the safety of our own flock, but to follow the voice of the one who calls us to embrace and include, to nurture and feed, to seek and to find, all God’s children, that all may be gathered into one flock.

In our fist reading, Acts 9:36-43, we hear the story of Tabitha, not an apostle, not a deacon, just part of the flock whose life was spent shepherding others: providing for those on the margins, drawing the most vulnerable into the family of God.

Both of this week’s readings are about the perpetual hope of a new beginning, a starting over, life springing forth anew. In Acts 9:1-20 we hear about Saul, a fierce persecutor of Christ, who turns around and becomes Paul, giving the rest of his life taking Christ to others. But Paul’s change is a painful one, he is thrown into blindness and dependency. New life is not without cost, letting go of our old life can feel like loss. We can only let go if we take a risk; in our gospel, John 21:1-19, we witness the disciples struggle to trust that the one who greets them and feeds them is Christ. Around the fire Christ asks Peter three times whether he trusts him, echoing the three times that he denied Christ around the fire before Christ’s death. Our weakness & our failure do not need to be the last word. However many times we fall, the call will come again.

“Fear has never been a good advisor” Angela Merkel. Despite the resurrection in our gospel today, John 20:19-31, are still paralysed by fear—literally locked in. Today fear still locks many of us in. Breaking out of the tombs we create for ourselves and one another is not always easy. Fortunately, Christ is able to pass through the locked doors of upper room and of hearts and minds.