Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for May 22, 2016
The Trinity in an illuminated initial D in a 13th Century French manuscript, the Wenceslaus Psalter.
One of the fascinating threads in the beautiful tapestry of scripture is the image of God’s divine wisdom personified as a woman. At the moment of creation we see God the Creator, God’s creative Word and God’s Spirit breath moving over the waters to separate light from darkness and earth from sea. Wisdom is there, the book of Proverbs tells us in these poetic verses, and she cries out joy in the new world, delighting in God’s creation.
Many of the Psalms are ancient hymns, sung in the Temple in Jerusalem. And just as we have a variety of hymns to express joy, sadness, praise, and prayer, the Psalms serve many purposes. Today’s psalm is all about praise: We lift our voices in joyful appreciation for the God who created this universe and everything in it. As we hear these verses today, remember that we must care for God’s creation even as we take pleasure in it.
In place of a Psalm this week we sing Canticle 13, “A Song of Praise” – a litany of praise and exaltation to God as Creator and King. Remember the story of the three young men who danced and sang in defiance of the flames in King Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace? Protected by God, as told in Daniel and the apocryphal Song of Azariah, they walked unharmed through the fire, singing this hymn of praise to God and all creation. These final verses, added to the young mens’ song in Christian times, conclude the Canticle with resounding praise to the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Second Reading: Romans 5:1-5
Is Paul offering the dubious wisdom, “No pain, no gain”? Hardly. Paul is not saying that suffering is good, much less that God makes us suffer. Rather, Paul says we should rejoice in God’s grace in spite of our suffering. He was writing to a mixed congregation of pagan and Jewish Christians who often faced persecution in the generation after Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. He tells them that God’s love, poured into us through the Holy Spirit, provides the strength to hang on to hope even in the face of suffering.
Gospel: John 16:12-15
Today, Trinity Sunday, we hear one of the shortest Sunday Gospel readings in the Lectionary. But it is among the most powerful, in another passage from Jesus’s talk with the disciples at the Last Supper.There are things about God that we just can’t understand, Jesus tells his friends. But he also assures them that the Holy Spirit will be with them, as the Holy Spirit is with us: bearing the glory of Creator and Son, and guiding us all toward the truth.