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Thought for the Week 30 May – Trinity Sunday
The Homily today comes from the respected columnist and author, Jane
Williams. From very early on in the life of the Church,
Christians read the figure of 'Wisdom' in Proverbs as a reference to Jesus.
They assumed that God had already shown, in hints, characters and patterns of
relating, what he would reveal in full in Jesus. Wisdom, in particular, lent
herself as a very good introduction to what Christians were claiming about
Jesus. Wisdom is a figure who is present with God before anything else is
created, and she teaches people God's way in the world. In
the context of the theology of Proverbs itself, of course, written long
before the time of Jesus, wisdom is a literary device on the part of the
author. To follow the way of 'wisdom' is to live in the world as you should,
as its maker intended. It is not, on the whole, a mystical or even deeply
religious-sounding book, but its assumption is that if you try hard to find
the right way, day by day, and follow the teaching of the wise, you will
actually be doing what you were created to do, and you will make the world a
better place for yourself and others. But when Wisdom is personified, as
she is in today's passage, the mood changes. This is not the patient,
slightly baffled, concentration on doing the best you can, but a sudden
insight into the mind of God. Suddenly, instead of the slightly dull and
obvious advice of an old gentleman, we are in the presence of God, the source
of all wisdom. At the start of the passage,
Wisdom is standing at all the busiest and most noticeable points of the city
and shouting. God's wisdom is not a thing reserved only for the few, the
intellectual giants. It is available to anyone who has ears to hear. And yet
what Wisdom is calling out is sung to the tune that makes the universe dance.
She was present as God created the world, and she saw it all unfolding. She
shared God's joy in it, and it is this joy, this knowledge of the love of the
Creator for his world, that she is sharing as she sings. The knowledge of how
to live with joy as a child of God in the world that he has made is what
Wisdom offers. No wonder, then, that Christians
saw the connections with Jesus. The first few verses of Romans 5 convey
something of that same sense of standing in a world that suddenly makes
sense, because we are sure of our rightful place in it. Our place is the one
that has been won for us by Christ. Just as in Proverbs the
wild delight that Wisdom speaks of has to be filtered through into the
minutiae of daily life, so in Romans, the almost unbearable relief of knowing
that we are reconciled to God has to be the rock on which we stand, whatever
happens in life. Paul wants us to feel the seismic shift in our whole
perception of the world~ now that we are brought back to God and he wants
that to colour everything that happens to us. To live in Christ, as to live
by Wisdom, is to live in tune with the world, so that everything that
happens, good and bad, deepens our understanding of who we are in relation to
God. But,
Paul tells us, we have rather more than a system for recognizing the purpose
of God. We have the living presence of God's Holy Spirit, given to us so that
we can feel God's love for the world. We are now doing what Wisdom does in
Proverbs 8; we are sharing God's love for his world, and feeling his joy in
what he has made. Both
of these passages are profound insights into God's Trinitarian nature, but it
is the passage from today's Gospel that spells it out. John's image of the
Trinity is of a circle in which each figure is only illuminated by the light
of the torches that the others are holding. Each desperately wants us to see
and love the others. What the torches reveal is both how much they love each
other and how alike they are, with a deep family resemblance that makes us
look from one to the other with a sense of true recognition. But the circle
of light does not exclude us. It spills some of its warmth out to us, the
audience. It invites us forward, into the light, and the transforming light
begins to make us, too, resemble the main players, not by right, but because
of the generous light reflected on us, the light of the Father, Son and Holy
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