Sunday 15 June 2025 - Delighting in the human race

Sunday 15 June 2025

Today is Sunday the 15th of June, the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, beginning the 11th week of Ordinary Time. Bifrost Arts sing, ‘Wisdom and Grace’. Teach us to number our days That we may apply our hearts to Your ways O! Teach us to number our days with wisdom and grace, wisdom and grace. Wisdom and grace, wisdom and grace You've been our home and our dwelling our place in all generations. Before the earth or the mountains were formed, Lord, You were God. Teach us to number our days That we may apply our hearts to Your ways O! Teach us to number our days with wisdom and grace, wisdom and grace. Wisdom and grace, wisdom and grace Now the span of our lives, It is made of sorrow and labour As the days pass away like the grass How soon we are gone. Teach us to number our days That we may apply our hearts to Your ways O! Teach us to number our days with wisdom and grace, wisdom and grace. Wisdom and grace Let the work of our hands bring you praise, set Your favour upon us. O establish the work of our hands, May Your kingdom come! Teach us to number our days That we may apply our hearts to Your ways O! Teach us to number our days with wisdom and grace, wisdom and grace. Wisdom and grace, wisdom and grace Today’s reading is from the Book of Proverbs. This reading is about Wisdom as an expression of God’s nature, a dimension of who God is, depending on your translation - a creation or possession of God. Comparison has been made between Wisdom and Jesus. As you listen, where does this make sense, or indeed, not quite work for you? Proverbs 8:22-31 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. Today is Trinity Sunday. We contemplate the mystery of God as loving relationship between Persons. I wonder what your names for God are? How do you understand or experience each of the three Persons? Try this exercise (which can even be written down): as each Person is named, speak aloud (if alone) or whisper (if in company), or write down your particular names for that Person. Feel free to embellish those words as seems fitting to you. (If you need more time for this, make it). The First Person of the Trinity . . . . . . The Second Person . . . . . . The Third Person . . . . . . Now listen again to this passage about Wisdom with and in God. Catch the delight of the Persons of the Trinity in the goodness of creation. Proverbs 8:22-31 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. Can you imagine Jesus and the Holy Spirit together with God the Creator and doing this: “Rejoicing in the inhabited world and delighting in the human race.”? Watch them rejoicing and delighting in the world, and in you . . . Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be World without end Amen