Meditation for Trinity 1 2025

Collect for Trinity 1

Galatians 3: 23-29

Before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:33-34

Although Neil Sedaka’s song ‘The Immigrant’ was written in 1975 and directed specifically to American policy, it has never been as relevant to the state of the world as it now is.

‘There was a time when strangers were welcome here.’ Let that time return.

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 Ascension Day 2025

Collect

Grant, we pray, Almighty God, that as we believe your only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we in heart and mind may also ascend and with him continually dwell; who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Acts 1:1-11

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Luke 24:44-53

Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

Please enjoy this Meditation by Nick Fawcett, one of his final posts.

https://nickfawcett.uk/

The meditation of the Apostle Philip
You’d think we’d have been dismayed, wouldn’t you –
to lose Jesus again, so soon after he’d come back to us.
After all, we’d been shattered the first time,
left floundering like fish out of water once deprived of his presence.
True, this time was different –
no cross,
no agony, torment and death –
but he was gone nonetheless,
snatched away from us once more.
Only he wasn’t,
that’s the strange thing.
He was with us much more meaningfully,
not in the flesh but in Spirit –
around us,
beside us,
beyond us,
within us,
touching our lives in every part.
I can’t quite explain it,
but suddenly we knew he was closer than we’d ever dreamt –
for he was not just the Messiah,
the risen Lord,
but God himself,
one with him,
one with us,
the divine in human form.
We’d walked and talked with him,
and we finally realised that we’d do so always, to the end of time.
No wonder he blessed us when he took his leave,
for though he’s far away now at the Father’s side,
through his Spirit he couldn’t be more near.

Prayer
Creator God, mighty and mysterious,
awesome beyond words,
thank you for making yourself known to us in Christ –
for sharing our humanity,
walking our earth,
becoming one with us through him.
Lord Jesus Christ,
thank you for breaking down the barriers that separate us from the Father,
for helping us not just to know but to relate to God firs-hand.
Thank you that through your living, dying and rising among us
we can experience the gift of your Spirit,
your living presence deep within.
Open our eyes each day to the wonder of who you are
and of everything you have done,
and help us joyfully to worship you,
our risen, ascended Lord.
Amen.

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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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