Andrew Boyle                                  Trinity Sunday                30 May 2010

The writer of the ancient book of proverbs talks of the presence of wisdom in the world; he, we assume it’s a he but this image of wisdom is such a feminine figure it could be a she; she writes as though wisdom is a divine partner of God, present with God from the very creation of the world. There is no world without this wisdom; she is present in all things. What we have heard concludes with the words: 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.

When I hear these words I wonder; I wonder if God still delights in the human race; because there is so much tragedy in the world. So much hatred of neighbour and cruelty toward each other – and now cruelty toward the earth in all its beauty and wonder. When we pray Jesus encourages us to pray in silence – not to babble but to be quiet. To pray is to listen to God; we listen; God listens too. I wonder what God feels about this suffering world.

We follow Jesus who points us toward God; Jesus, icon of God who shows us something of the divine heart, and that wisdom which permeates all things – if we will but look. He calls those who will follow to love God with heart and mind and strength, and to love neighbour as self. It’s an act of the will which he calls us to make. Acts of the will are sometimes costly. In his own time Jesus  was calling people to make an act of the will – to be humble, to forgive unconditionally, to not seek an eye for an eye – in a  country which was occupied by Rome, the superpower of the time. It was no meaningless gesture that he was calling people to make. Many of you have made the same costly choice to embrace the way of peace which honours the image of God in each other.

Last week on Pentecost we recalled the coming of that spirit which was in Jesus amongst the disciples so that they began to live in the same way in which Jesus had. Today we hear from the Gospel of John the promise that that same spirit which was in Jesus would come and permeate the lives of the disciples once Jesus was gone. The writer Luke gives us an image of the coming of the spirit on the day of Pentecost – a Jewish festival when the giving of the law was remembered and celebrated – it’s Luke’s way of saying that the law is now infused with a spirit of grace not condemnation. Present in Jerusalem in this story are a great host of nationalities. A new sense of unity springs up amongst these people as the spirit comes. Luke tells us that present are:

Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts, Cretans and Arabs.

Now the ancient world was the same as the contemporary world; people were suspicious of those of other nationalities. They would maybe tolerate each other but not really trust. The coming of the spirit changed all that. For those of us who have lived in this city all our lives we know that as each new wave of migrants come here there is often an ugly victimization of the newcomer. Some difference is drawn attention to as justification to pick on them. Tragically, both our leading political parties, in a mischievous and immoral campaign, are yet again involved in a race to see who can arouse our most base instincts towards asylum seekers. But the spirit of Jesus calls us to be otherwise – to acknowledge the image of God in each other, no matter where we come from. And especially to reach out in compassion and understanding when others have suffered so terribly. This what the spirit of Jesus enabled in the disciples.

This is what we are choosing to do, too,  in the name and the spirit of Christ – to acknowledge and honour our differences, to reach out seeking to lift each other up in the hope that healing may come. In so doing we proclaim and celebrate the peace which Christ has come to bring. When we baptise we are inducted into the way of Jesus. We die to all that denies life and the image of God in each other and we pledge ourselves to follow in Jesus’ way. It’s good on this Sunday of the Healing Trail to be able to baptise Clive because we are reminded that we need to choose – that life is not a spectator sport -  but a life and death struggle to bring the image of God to birth in ourselves and each other; to give expression to Jesus prayer: your will be done, your kingdom come on earth as in heaven. In our choosing we become part of the communion of saints through time and find ourselves linked in wonderful ways through Christ, as we are today.

The peace ....