Today in church it was trinity Sunday and communion. We did something very unlike us — stood up for the peace. Most of the time we only stand up and move around to get more coffee or to sing the final song, but today we had that awkward “go and greet” suggestion. So, as good Presbyterians, we said hello and shook hands. We will leave the hugs and kisses to the Pentecostals and Papists.

Now, as I think about this and the sermon (on how God is one, but three, and how this is very hard to understand, but real. How this unity and separation matters) led to me thinking about some other things. How that the consequences of our faith are shown in our actions. That our theology matters.

This is where Calvin ended up when he thought about systematic theology. When he first wrote the institutes — as a young man — he followed a fairly snadard method used by the Catholic Church of his day, by Luther, and probably as he had been taught — work through the creeds, the ten commandments, and thus cover not only salvation but the Christian life. By the end of his life he had organized to book into the nature of God, the nature of sin, the need for salvation, and the way we should then live. Francis Schaeffer, who added to this the need for a personal God — who is there and who is not silent — pointed out that at the beginning of Genesis God says — let us… he was one, true, but within that unity there was a conversation.

God communicates. God speaks through creation, and through his incarnation in Christ, and then through the spirit. And this morning we were reminded not to neglect any aspect: while some concentrate on Christology we should not forget the creation, and those who concentrate on the Holy Spirit and its power should not forget Christ nor the Father.

Deuteronomy 6:1-15

¹Now this is the commandment — the statutes and the ordinances — that the LORD your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, ²so that you and your children and your children’s children may fear the LORD your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. ³Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.

⁴Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. ⁵You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. ⁶Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. ⁷Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. ⁸Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, ⁹and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

¹⁰When the LORD your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you — a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, ¹¹houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant — and when you have eaten your fill, ¹²take care that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹³The LORD your God you shall fear; him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear. ¹⁴Do not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who are all around you, ¹⁵because the LORD your God, who is present with you, is a jealous God. The anger of the LORD your God would be kindled against you and he would destroy you from the face of the earth.

John 16:12-15

¹² “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³ When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

What to take from this? Well firstly, the way we act to each other will bear witness to whom we worship.

• We cannot forget that it is God who made us, and our prime duty is to obey and love God.
• We have to be stewards of the creation of God, husbanding nature, animals, crops and families.
• We have to continually be thankful for the saving work of Christ, and work for his behalf. We have to thus avoid the temptation to be fashionable, or fit within the greater society when it heads towards perdition, but instead hold to the faith.
• We have to rely on the Spirit guiding os, and those who lead us. Given that we can all rationalize, this is place where we need to continually pray.

And this should lead to unity, to support, to joy, and to growth. Not hatred, Not death, Not destruction. We can leave that to the pagans — (the monotheistic Islamic version, and the polytheistic Hindu or national neopagan  versions).  For they are not communicating, but coercing.

Or, as Christ taught, you can judge them by their fruit.

We must not