Meditation for Trinity 2025

Collect for Trinity Sunday

Romans 5:1-5

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

John 16: 12-15

Meditation for Pentecost 2025

Collect for Pentecost

Genesis 11:1-9 The Tower of Babel

The whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel — because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world and scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Acts 2:1-6 The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.

From confusion to unity.

Of all the strange things happening on the Day of Pentecost, perhaps the most puzzling is when God appears to have second thoughts. In Genesis 11, He makes it difficult for people to understand each other’s language – “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

And then in Acts 2, He does the opposite – in the crowd, from all four corners of the Earth, “each one heard their own language being spoken.”

We feel like saying Lord, make your mind up – you divided us, now you want us to be together?

But that’s not what’s happening. In Babel, arrogant humans think they can build a tower that will let them reach what they think would be heaven through their own ability, and exercise secular dominion over creation. They believe they have no need of God. With a common language, the result would be uniformity, not unity. Heaven? I Don’t think so. Stultifying boredom, more like.

Instead, God, working through the power of the Holy Spirit, unites people with the gift of understanding each other in their glorious technicolour diversity. They each still have their own language, culture and traditions, but they are as one in Him, united in proclaiming the name of Jesus as Lord.

We don’t need bricks and tar. Through Him, His example, and the strength of the Spirit, we are built by love, transcending those things that divide us. As Heaven reaches down to us, we reach out in turn and share that love to all Humankind, whoever and wherever they might be. We see the Kingdom of Heaven shining like a jewel in all its multifaceted splendour.

If the world only, just as an experiment, really, truly, tried to love as Jesus loves His apostles, disciples, and us – perhaps for just one day – I wonder what would result?

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Meditation for Easter 6

In the spirit, the angel carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.

It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.

I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations. But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practises abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there anymore. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever.

There are few contrasts more pronounced than that between the glorious vision of the New Jerusalem, and the simplicity of peace in a believer’s heart.

The vision of the Holy City might be jewel-encrusted and a glorious image of the final victory in the Last Battle, but its significance is more than that.

It has defensive walls, but its gates allow access from all corners of the Earth; and its foundations are the apostles who were given the message of the Gospel to disseminate to God’s people wherever they may be. The fruit on the tree of life is abundant all year round; its leaves offer healing to the lost, the lonely and all who have suffered; and there is no more night.

But despite the grandeur, each individual is recognised by name, and the light of Christ is in each heart as we approach the throne of our creator.

But that light does not shine only when we become resident in the Holy City; it shines in this earthly life at the moment we proclaim Jesus as Lord, and accept Him as the Christ who sets us free.

It is good to know that the New Jerusalem awaits us – but we have a role to play in the here and now. We can take comfort in the promise of eternal life in His Kingdom; but in daily living as the body of Christ we know we shall endure sorrow and suffering as well as joy. We need sustenance on our life journey, and that comes through the peace promised by Jesus as He says His farewell to the Disciples, the peace we are offered each moment of our lives.

‘Peace I give to you… do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.’
His peace is not remote and only there at the end of things – His Peace is with us now.

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Meditation for Easter 5

Collect

John 13: 31-35

When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him,* God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

Love one another. Easier said than done.

Those of us who are fortunate and blessed to be in love, have no difficulty with obeying that commandment. It’s harder if that love was in the past, or no longer exists.

Loving family is the most straightforward, but even then it’s not always easy. (Particularly, it seems, for celebrities.)

Loving friends is somewhat easier – at least you can choose who your friends are.

But loving as meant by Jesus – ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους ‘you should love one another’ is something else entirely. Agape love means selflessness, sacrifice, and unconditional care for others. Partner, family, friends – that’s hard enough. But Jesus tells us that isn’t enough. It’s not just ‘love each other’. It’s love …as I have loved you…

So the commandment is a challenge. To love those who betray you. Those who jeer. Those who wield the whips embedded with flint, hammer in the nails, pierce your side. Bury you and think that’s the last they’ll see of you. Forgive them. All of them.

Love as I have loved you, says Jesus.

Spend a few moments asking yourself a question – what if I did?

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Meditation for Easter 4

Collect

Revelation 7: 9-12

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,

‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’
And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, singing,

‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honour
and power and might
be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’

John 10: 22-30

At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.’

In 1807, an edited version of the Bible, reduced to just 14 Chapters, was produced for slaveowners to distribute to their slaves. Any chapters or stories giving reference to freedom were completely omitted. These included Moses leading the Israelites away from Egypt, Paul’s declaration ‘There is no longer Jew nor Greek, no longer slave or free…’, the description in Revelation ’there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.’

The belief was that a complete Bible “could instil in slaves a dangerous hope for freedom and dreams of equality”. What was left was heavily redacted to emphasise the duty of slaves to practice obedience and submission.

The reason behind all of this was simply fear. Fear that the Bible message would upset the social hierarchy and bring justice in a unjust world.

Which is profoundly true. It is meant to. So that fear still remains.

The Gospel message is dangerous, and continues to be distorted to reinforce and protect current social structures which depend on oppression – none more so than the ‘prosperity gospel’ of the millionaire ‘televangelists’ and the increasing number of obnoxious right-wing white male supremacists.

Frederick Douglass, the American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman (who had once been a slave himself), had this to say: “Between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slave-holding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason but the most deceitful one for calling the religion of this land Christianity…”

As we speak, 49.6 million people live in modern slavery – in forced labour and forced marriage, and of these, roughly a quarter of all victims of modern slavery are children. Domestic violence is rife, and the role of women is still demeaned and repressed in so many societies. Slaves are not just people abducted to work in cottonfields – wherever there are people who have no freedom to make choices about their lives, where there is inequality and injustice, slavery exists.

The unedited Gospel message makes it clear that the oppressed and the dispossessed are His sheep. So are we. The difference is that we have the power to do something about it.

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