As I write this, the media is full of dramatic footage of protests across America, protests that have been a mix of peaceful and violent, as George Floyd’s death lit a long-repressed fuse of racial anger. We pray for the United States as it faces these issues, and pray that above everything a path might be found towards a more just world where people of every race, colour or creed are not just seen, but treated as equal before God. We live in a world that is not, and has never been just and where those at the apex of the hierarchy have access to resources and those at the bottom just don’t, either globally or nationally, including here in Australia. So, today on this day when we reflect on the very nature of God, a God who we know is, and can only ever be love, we pray for justice and peace, for the United States, but also for the world.
We are now seeing COVID-19 restrictions being lifted across our nation, and the ACT Government has ruled that churches can open with small numbers of socially-distanced people. However, our Diocese is still working through the implications of this, and your Council will be working through the many requirements that include developing a COVID-safe plan for opening, so that everyone can be assured that they are safe as they come into our beautiful building. This may take us a little time, so in the meantime we will continue with our online worship. Please remember to join us from our Virtual Church page, and to check out the other resources there to help you with your spiritual reflections.
Over the past weeks of the Easter season we have reflecting together about the risen Jesus as he appeared to, and walked with his disciples. Last week we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit in wind and fire at the festival of Pentecost. Today we put all these things together and take a step back to think about the Trinity, God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Today we are reminded that God is the Creator of all that is, and that in Jesus, this God chose to take on our humanity, to live a truly human life, to suffer and to die. And then last Sunday we experienced the joy and the challenge of God revealed as Spirit, or as the intimate breath of God breathed on each of us, but also as the power of fire and wind inspiring us to go out and to tell, to share the Good News of this God with the world.
These stories of Easter and Pentecost are the reason we worship a Trinitarian God. This is the God who is both the Divine Creator and yet intimate lover; the one who walks with us in our daily lives, in our joys and in our sorrows, the one who is close to us on our human journey, because in Jesus, he experienced every part of our daily life. Today on this Trinity Sunday we celebrate and remember all these things. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
In peace. Mother Lynda