Services
Windrush Day celebrates the arrival of the SS Empire Windrush on 22nd June 1948 bringing the first group of Caribbean migrants to Britain. The nation was suffering a labour shortage and invited migrants to resettle in the UK to help with the post-war rebuilding.
Windrush day honours the contributions of migrants to the post-war economy and to our culture and society. Today it is a day of thanksgiving for the courage, resilience, and contribution of the Windrush Generation and their descendants. It is also an opportunity to lament the injustices they endured and to commit ourselves to building a society where all are welcomed and valued.
Our readings today begin with God commanding us, in Leviticus 19:33-34, to treat foreigners the same as native born. God shows no partiality and we too should make distinction between people based on place of birth, heritage or skin colour, we are all neighbours.
Despite this command, the questioner in Luke 10:29-37 still asked Jesus to define “neighbour”. In reply Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan. A story which turns the question on its head: it is the native-born Israelite who is in need of a neighbour and is healed and saved by the compassion of a foreigner.
Throughout scripture we are reminded that we need one another. We are, of course, asked to offer hospitality and welcome to the stranger and the foreigner but also to realise that are as much in need of them as they are of us. Without them we are like the man who fell among thieves and is left for dead.
We are now in what the church calls, Ordinary Time. We have celebrated the life and ministry, the death and resurrection of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit. In the weeks to come we explore why we are given the Spirit and how we continue the work of Christ in the world.
Both of readings describe being chosen: In Exodus 19:2-8a God tells his people: “you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples… a priestly kingdom and a holy nation." In Matthew 9:35-10:8 Jesus picked out just 12 of his followers and “gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.”
The problem with being chosen is that it can lead to a feeling of exclusivity, of superiority. The chosen can assume that they are different from and therefore better than those who are not chosen.
Yet time and time again scripture reminds us that no one is chosen because they have any special merit (indeed, Jesus chooses Judas, who will betray him). They are as much in need of grace as anyone. They are blessed and given the power of the Spirit solely so that they might bring blessing, healing, and liberation to others.
Any grace that God gives can only truly be received when it is given away. It is in freeing others that we ourselves are set free; in healing others that we are made whole; in being a blessing that we ourselves are blessed.
Today is the first Sunday after Trinity when we should be hearing the story of Jesus calling the tax-collector, Matthew. Instead (in a rare break from observing the lectionary) we are hearing again the readings set for Pentecost. Of course, these readings are worth hearing again but the reason for the repetition is that so many of us were away for the feast of Pentecost.
As we are a parish named for the Holy Spirit, Pentecost, for us, is our patronal festival. We are the people of the Holy Spirit and, as our readings make clear, the Holy Spirit is a gift which can only be received when we are gathered in community.
In both Acts 2:1-21 and John 20:19-23, the spirit comes when the disciples are gathered together, they receive it as a community. The Spirit gives different gifts to different individuals so that together we may be the body of Christ in the world and together reflect the glory of God.
These gifts are given to be used in and by the community of the faithful, through which God acts to recreate the world around us. So, the arrival of the Holy Spirit in our readings echoes the work of the Spirit in the very beginning when creation was brought into being: the rushing wind in Acts recalls the wind of the Spirit moving across the waters of chaos in Genesis 1; Jesus breathing the spirit of peace on his disciples in John repeats the action of God breathing life into a people of dust and earth in Genesis 2.
As we gather today to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, we gather together to share food and fellowship and strengthen the bonds that unite us and we receive the Easter light, the light of Christ, as a symbol of our calling to take that light into the world and draw others into the beloved community of God.
Trinity Sunday can seem a bit dry after the excitement of Pentecost but it helps us to explore how we live out the gift of the Spirit which invites us into deeper union with both God and one another. Our first reading assures us of our relationship with God whilst the gospel reading focuses on what this means for our relationship with others.
Isaiah 40:12-17, 27-31 describes a God who is both transcendent, unknowable and unlike us:
“who has measured the waters of the sea in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span”.
A God who is more powerful and greater than any human power:
“all nations are as nothing to him”.
Yet also a God who is intimate and personal, who knows our ways and our fears, who longs to care for us: strengthening the weary and raising up the powerless.
In Matthew 28:16-20 Jesus opens this relationship with God to all humanity: we, who are now bearers of the Spirit, are sent into unite “all nations” bringing them into communion with both God and one another:
“baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
We are no longer mere guests at God’s table, we are also hosts who welcome those God sends.