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All the way through the Gospels one of Jesus’ constant refrains is “Do not be afraid.”

These words seem to be directly addressed to our times. For while we live in a nation of relative wealth and plenty, we also live in a time it seems of anxiety and fear.

‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they’re endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’ Those words were agreed on the 4th of July, 1776 in the Declaration of Independence. Americans have spent the last 243 years debating what they mean.

The world is captivated by freedom; and never more so than when that freedom seems in jeopardy. Three years ago Donald Trump claimed the American presidency by telling a story that American ‘greatness’ had been stolen by politically correct élites and racial, ethnic and religious others. The same year the Brexit campaign won the day by lamenting that British sovereignty had been stolen by European bureaucrats and manipulated by profiteering citizens of nowhere.

One thing that Jesus does not shy away from is the fact that in the world there is suffering. Real suffering. In fact he tells his disciples that he himself will suffer and if they want to follow him they will have to take up the cross and suffer too.

Today is Trinity Sunday – the day the church across the world celebrates the discovery that God is three persons in one God. In the UK it is also Father’s Day… so I want to use our time this morning to look at what these two have to say to each other.

If you bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill you to break you. The world breaks everybody and if we survive we become strong at the broken places.

Richard Rohr in his new book The Universal Christ quotes the Twentieth Century English mystic Caryll Houselander who described in her autobiography how an ordinary underground train journey in London transformed into a vision that changed her life. 

In 1995 an extraordinary heatwave afflicted the city of Chicago, killing around 750 people. Later, the sociologist Eric Klinenberg made a detailed examination of who died and who didn’t. What he found was that the intense heat affected diverse neighbourhoods and social groups differently.

After the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, what event has changed the world more than anything else? Pentecost and the creation of the church? Maybe – but without our New Testament reading today most of us wouldn’t be sitting here, St Martin’s and most churches around the world wouldn’t have been built, and the church would still be a tiny sect within Judaism only reaching out to other Jewish people. Imagine a world without the global church. Today’s Gospel reading is probably the most important event we never think about.