Whenever I meet with a couple for pre-marriage counselling our discussion invariably gets around to their families of origin. I always ask: “Who was the disciplinarian in your house when you were growing up?” Twenty years ago when I asked that question the couple generally nominated one parent or the other (most often the father). In more recent times the couple are more likely to name both parents, and if the couple are really young they look at me blankly and ask, “What’s discipline?”

I may be a little old-fashioned but I still believe discipline and love are not mutually exclusive, it’s just that we often get them confused, or we conflate them, or we neglect one or the other.

Which is all very interesting. But, of course, what you’re really wondering is: Who is Neil?

It’s Trinity Sunday which means we celebrate God’s triune nature. What does this mean for us? That would be the question Martin Luther would ask. So, I give to you two quotes often attributed to Luther.

“To deny the Trinity is to risk our salvation. To try to explain the Trinity is to risk our sanity.”

‘Risk’ is a dirty word these days so I think this Sunday I will make sure we will avoid any risk to your salvation, or your sanity! (It’s just not worth the paperwork!) Instead, we might go in a different direction. Luther also said, “Of what help is it to you that God is God, if he is not God to you?” Perhaps that is the question for Trinity Sunday, anyway.

This is a page from a 600 year old document known as the Voynich Manuscript. For centuries it has fascinated scholars mainly because no one has the faintest idea of what it says! It may well contain the greatest wisdom ever written but if no one can understand what it says it simply becomes a historical curiosity.

This Sunday we celebrate the 1,992nd birthday of the church (give or take a couple of years). Let us pray that the church never becomes a historical curiosity.