16th June 2025
Reflection with readings below
Trinity Sunday is a celebration of the mystery of God. Human understanding of God is always going to be limited and incomplete because God is always going to be so much more and so much greater than we can imagine or understand. So we should not feel foolish or hopeless if we feel do not understand God as well as the ‘experts’ but at the same time we should not narrow our search for understanding or simply appreciating the character and nature of God.
Trinity Sunday in particular celebrates God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit – three different but interconnected and united aspects of God. And today’s readings touch in that range and diversity of experiencing God. The readings also show us how integral to and engaged with, is God’s relationship with the Earth. And that points us to the benefit we can gain by studying, by paying attention to the Earth and all that God has created – for that too will enlarge and deepened our understanding of, our relationship with God. We might them reflect that Jesus came to save the world – that is to save not just humans but the whole of creation.
Looking around the world and at the poly crises we face – loss of biodiversity, climate change, conflict, social injustice, depletion of resources – we might reread the passage from Proverbs and realise how we have failed to pay attention to God’s wisdom, how we have failed to understand – and to put into practice – what wisdom has to teach us about living in harmony with all that God has created.
When we look at the conflict in Gaza and in Ukraine, can we reflect how in the natural world (ie the world not dominated by humans) different plants and animals benefit from living alongside each other, thriving together such that successful stable ecosystems are those with the greatest diversity of species. Which is not to deny the predation of some creatures on others, but the overall outcome is one of balance and harmony. But in conflict zones we see humans either wanting to eradicate the other or, motivated by greed, wanting to extract more than their fair share of resources. There is no system in place to help nations and communities understand each other, to value what gifts and skills they have to share, and how by cooperation they might all thrive.
When we look at polluted waters, we see how we as humans have not understood how rivers and seas work, how delicately balanced are their ecosystems, how flooding them with pollutants damages not just life in the water but also the ability of the river or marine ecosystem to protect against floods, droughts and storms. For example, if pollution kills the wildlife – the plants and birds and worms – that create and sustain the mudflats, then the mudflats break down and can no longer absorb excess waters during times of flood, nor protect the land behind during times of storm tides.
Celebrating Trinity Sunday, let us acknowledge God as Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Does not wisdom call,
and does not understanding raise her voice?
On the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
“To you, O people, I call,
and my cry is to all that live.
The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of long ago.
Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth–
when he had not yet made earth and fields,
or the world’s first bits of soil.
When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race.”
Psalm 8
1 O Lord our Sovereign, *
how exalted is your Name in all the world!
2 Out of the mouths of infants and children *
your majesty is praised above the heavens.
3 You have set up a stronghold against your adversaries, *
to quell the enemy and the avenger.
4 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, *
the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,
5 What are humans that you should be mindful of them? *
mortals that you should seek them out?
6 You have made them but little lower than the angels; *
you adorn the, with glory and honour;
7 You give them mastery over the works of your hands; *
you put all things under his feet:
8 All sheep and oxen, *
even the wild beasts of the field,
9 The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, *
and whatsoever walks in the paths of the sea.
10 O Lord our Sovereign, *
how exalted is your Name in all the world!
Romans 5:1-5
Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
John 16:12-15
Jesus said to the disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 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. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
The Green Tau 