THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
5th July 2025
Greetings.
High School graduations are a relatively new phenomenon in this country, an import I think from the USA. Last evening Liz and I attended the Ferndown Upper School graduation in the grand setting of Canford School. It was an occasion of celebration, pride and considerable expense (Joseph had outgrown the suit we bought for his GCSE graduation two years ago). There was also much advice dispensed by the various speakers of a life-enhancing kind. In a previous age it would have been rooted in the Christian faith (love the the Lord your God with all you heart soul ... and your neighbour as yourself) but this occasion reflected the values of our time. It was very much about accentuating the positive, making good choices, and - something that I particularly liked - committing not to what you think you ought to do but to what you are passionate about. It was a variant of something I once heard; do what you really want to do in life and find a way of getting paid for it. Had I followed that advice I might have been a cricket commentator!
In the readings for the Third Sunday after Trinity, much advice is dispensed. Paul, concluding his letter to the Galatians exhorts them to remain steadfast in the faith resisting all temptation to wander. Jesus (Luke 10.1-11, 16-20) sends out a further seventy disciples in pairs to proclaim the imminence of God's Kingdom and they are to remain urgent in their attitude and focussed in their task. We might wonder who these seventy were and what their qualification was. They had certainly not graduated from any theological seminary, and given the obtuseness of the twelve (the immediate disciples) did these further seventy even know what they talking about? Possibly not. But several times in the passage Jesus refers to peace. These seventy go out as bearers of his peace. And likewise, Paul reminds the Galatians that as a new creation in Christ they are clothed in his peace. The peace of God which passes all understanding is not an academic qualification or a riddle to be solved. It is the most profound of gifts which, in a language greater than words, enables us to witness to the deepest of mysteries. May God give each of us grace to take this mystery to heart and be fruitful in our service of Christ.
Every blessing,
Charles Booth
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