Scripture & Reflection: Trinity Sunday, 15th June, and for the week ahead:Scripture:Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?- - - 22 The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.23 Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.…when he marked out the foundations of the earth,30 then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,31 rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race. Proverbs 8:1, 8:22-23, 8:30-31Reflection:This Sunday the Church celebrates Trinity Sunday. The Trinity is a way of understanding who God is, which is unique for Christians. We believe in one God, yet we know and experience God in three different ways – God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit.The “person” calling out in this reading from the Old Testament is named as Wisdom, and she is female. This Wisdom has often been associated with The Holy Spirit. This is perhaps the part of the Trinity that even seasoned Christians can struggle to comprehend, but hearing how Wisdom describes herself, a ‘master worker’ working alongside God at the very start of creation, gives us an inkling of how the Holy Spirit operates as co-creator with God, rejoicing together with him in the world that comes alive, and in the human race. The Holy Spirit is called the ‘giver of life’ – no wonder some Christians, me included, think of her as female.Revd Ylva
Scripture & Reflection: Sunday 8th June and for the week ahead:ScriptureWhen the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. (Acts 2:1-4)ReflectionIt is difficult to get our heads around something as abstract as the coming of the Holy Spirit to those first disciples. Locked away in a room….and waiting. And waiting. When suddenly…. “Tongues of fire” appeared; and there was a rushing wind in the room, in the entire house! These things imply energy and power; movement and dynamism. At one and the same time the image of the fire is both communal and individual. All were filled with the Spirit, yet a tongue of fire fell on each one of them separately.God, through the Holy Spirit, recognises us as individuals. He gives each of us our own gifts. Together, though, we are more than the sum of our separate identities. (“Gestalt Theory”, if you care to look it up!) But….do we recognise these gifts given by God: in ourselves, or in each other? Do we use them; do we encourage them in others? May you experience the Holy Spirit – however He chooses to reveal Himself to you; may you be filled with God’s energy and go out and serve Him….for the good of all.Revd David
