June 8, 2022

Beloved in Christ:

A very blessed Trinity Sunday to you all.  In our tradition, Trinity Sunday always follows Pentecost, and then we enter into the longer church season called Ordinary Time that holds the stores of Jesus’ pilgrimage through his life, this year from the point of view of the gospel writer Luke.  Ordinary Time ends on the first Sunday of Advent. Trinity Sunday invites us to explore the deep mysteries of God’s relationships within God’s self, which we describe as the Trinity. God the Creator, Jesus Christ the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit, the Sustainer. Three persons, one God. A relationship of never-ending love. When Jesus calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves, I think he is speaking of the way that God loves within God’s self, and thus shows us how to love ourselves that same way – love and respect and care for ourselves so much that we can’t help but take that same love out into the world to our families, neighbors, strangers and the world. The Trinity describes the way perfect relationships should be – a never-ending dance of love and mutual compassion that God embodies in the incarnation of Jesus, and the sending of the Holy Spirit into the world.

As we enter into the summer, I invite us all to consider how we embody that same love that God has for God’s son, and has for each one of us. How do we live in compassionate relationship with our own bodies and souls; how do we take care of ourselves as God’s precious creations? Then, do we offer that same love and respect to our families, friends, work colleagues, neighbors and all who we meet on our own pilgrimages? These times of our lives, these days that we inhabit right now, make it very easy to be incredibly busy, and very hard to take care of ourselves. I encourage you to hear God’s promise of love as an invitation to find time of rest, refreshment, and joy.  We are all a little bit depleted, I think. It’s time to fill up our hearts and souls and minds with good things as best as we can in order to have the foundation of strength and faith to meet the days ahead.

Thanks be to God for each of you.  In the peace of God,

Beth+