4th June 2023
Reflection (readings below)
Young babies in the early months do not realise that they and their mother are separate beings. Obviously in time they come to realise that their mother is not simply an extension of their body, but that they are each separate beings.
Many mums and dads may expect their role as parents to be time-limited. As their child passes the ages of, say 16 -or 18 or 21 – they realise that being a parent is for life. They will never not be mums and dads!
In fact, as John Donne wrote, ‘No man [no person] is an island’. We are all interdependent beings relying on each other for love, protection, nourishment, purpose, identity etc. The interdependency and interconnectedness of human relationships should not surprise us on this Trinity Sunday. Today is the day when we reflect in particular on the nature of God that has been revealed to us: the one in three and three in one. The one who is both God and Father – a word which we would now understand to include mother or parent. The one who is both God and Son, who is both human and divine. The one who is both God and Spirit, who was hovering over the waters of creation and is the gift that came at Pentecost. The trinitarian God is the God of relationships, of co-creating, of co-working, of co-inherence (meaning the participation of the three persons in one God).
We see in the Trinity the ideal that we should be showing in our human relationships. Sadly we don’t always manage to create and maintain fair relationships between one another. Our interrelationships are marred by injustice and the abuse of power. We have frequently and repeatedly failed to follow the way of Jesus – of love and compassion, of truthfulness and justice, of healing and restoration. Yet that is our vocation and it is a way of living that we are called to share with the whole world.
The passage from Isaiah reminds us that God is not just the creator of we humans, but of the entirety of the earth. And again it should therefore not surprise us that just as we are interdependent on our fellow humans, so following God’s model of being, we are share an interdependent and interconnected relationship with the rest of creation.
We are beginning to understand that without a sizeable population of pollinating creatures – insects, birds, beetles – many of the food crops we depend upon will not survive. We are beginning to understand that without a healthy population of worms, beetles, and subterranean fungi, the fertility of the soil will diminish and with it, our harvests. We are beginning to understand that without large and biodiverse woods and forests, the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere will rise and exacerbate rising temperatures that lead to fatally adverse weather patterns.
I say ‘beginning to understand’ for just as we have failed in so many of our human relationships, so we have failed in so many of our relationships with creation as witnessed by the climate and ecological crises. We need to learn how to live in active cooperation and harmony with all of creation. We need to observe and learn of the interconnected relationships that exist between all parts of the ecosystems we share. We need to learn where we fit in – how we can actually benefit from being part of these interdependent systems. We need to appreciate that just as in the Trinity we see a pattern for how we should live our lives, so in the Trinity we can see the pattern for how all of creation thrives together.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.
Isaiah 40:12 -17, 27 – end
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure,
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
Who has directed the spirit of the Lord,
or as his counsellor has instructed him?
Whom did he consult for his enlightenment,
and who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are accounted as dust on the scales;
see, he takes up the isles like fine dust.
Lebanon would not provide fuel enough,
nor are its animals enough for a burnt-offering.
All the nations are as nothing before him;
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
‘My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God’?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.
Psalm 8
O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honour.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Matthew 28:16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The Green Tau 