07.04.2014
Draw Aside to Hear the Voice of God – Revd Dr Heather Morris Tells Trinity Monday Service
Hearing the voice of God amongst the multitude of other voices vying for our attention was the focus of this year’s Trinity Monday sermon. The preacher at the service in the Trinity College Chapel this morning (April 7) was the President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Revd Dr Heather Morris. The annual service of commemoration and thanksgiving follows the announcement of the new scholars and fellows of Trinity College Dublin at the beginning of Trinity Week.
Drawing on the New Testament reading from John 12: 9–19, Dr Morris recalled how the chapel formed the backdrop to her time at Trinity but said it moved to the foreground during exam time when she would go to it “to pray and listen for the one voice which amid all the other pressures and all the other voices I needed to hear”.
When Jesus was on his way into Jerusalem there were so many voices vying for his attention, she said. They ranged from those who liked him to those who wanted to satisfy their curiosity to those more dangerous ones, in the background for now, who wanted him dead.
She said that in today’s world people were bombarded with many voices, expectations, opportunities and pressures. “Expectations, pressures and opportunities are real, they are part of life, and in the midst of them all there is another voice which we are invited to hear. And not all the time, but sometimes it helps to draw aside to places like this to hear it. It is the voice of God, Creator of heaven and earth and all that is, seen and unseen; it is the voice of God whose name “Emmanuel” means God is with us. The voice of God who still loves the world and everyone in it.” Dr Morris said.
“My experience, and its true not just on exam days, is that it helps to remember that. My experience and belief is that life is changed, and changed utterly when we remember that no matter how great our strength or how profound our weaknesses that One stands with us who knows us, loves us, enables us and challenges us to love more than ourselves,” she added
She said that Jesus, with all the voices and pressures, did not disengage. He found a donkey and sat on it because he knew what the disciples did not yet realise, that he was fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy. This, she suggested was a subversive signal and a sign of another Kingdom to come.
Dr Morris said our lives could also become signs of that other Kingdom. “When we act on behalf of those who are conveniently forgotten; when we show unexpected kindness; when we develop policies so that no one is excluded from excellent education because of social deprivation we are pointing to another Kingdom. Our lives point to a different set of values, and to the God to whom all are significant, the God who desires justice and who loves mercy,” she stated.
Photo Caption: The President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Revd Dr Heather Morris, was the preacher at this year’s Trinity Monday Service of Commemoration and Thanksgiving in the college chapel this morning (Monday April 7). She is pictured (centre) with the college chaplains The Revd Paddy Gleeson, the Revd Darren McCallig, the Revd Peter Sexton and the Revd Julian Hamilton.