For a moment it looked like rain once more.  The sky darkened, the trees danced in the wind, the cars were covered in fresh water droplets; now the sun has returned.   One minute sun, the next rain, then back again: frustrating.

Can I work outside, should I wear a coat, do I need to put things under cover just now?  Seemingly random changeability leads to uncertainty; uncertainty makes us uncomfortable.  We can’t control the weather but we like to try and control our response to it.

Today, reading the weather is just a matter of convenience; at the worst I shall get a wet shirt if I get it wrong.  For many it is critical; success in business, even life-enhancing or life-threatening safety, may depend on it.  Knowing what the weather will do is one thing, understanding the impact is a different matter and that is true of life in all its many aspects.

St John recalls a conversation between Jesus and a leading Pharisee, Nicodemus^[1].  Told by Jesus that he must be born from above,^[2] a puzzled Nicodemus asks  how anyone can be born again after having grown old.  As is so often the case for all of us; Nicodemus thinks only in familiar terms and being born begins in a mother’s womb – or does it?  In a later exchange,^[3] Jesus tells us that God is Spirit, and that true worship is in spirit and in truth.  We humans, created in God’s image, have both a spiritual as well as a physical dimension; both are essential to a healthy,  balanced life.  The sad truth is that, from the Fall, the spiritual side is stunted; it is this that needs new birth; needs to be reborn.

Yesterday it rained again.   Spectacular though the downpour was, it is only once the water has soaked deeply into the earth that it can provide lasting good.  Surface water at moments like that can do more harm than good.  At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came; that too was spectacular, there too the spectacle was short lived.  The Spirit soared into the lives of many of Jesus’ followers that day and its impact lives on.  Like the earth around us after the rain; we need to let the Spirit permeate deeply into all aspects of our life, for only then will we experience to the full the life our Lord came to share with us.

Rev’d Philip Payne                                        First Sunday after Trinity

The Notice Sheet for 2nd June can be found here

Sunday 2nd June Holy Communion at St Mary’s at 11.00am

^[1] St John 3: 1-17

^[2] or ‘born again’, depending on translation.

^[3] St John 4: 24, Jesus’ change with the Samaritan woman at Sychar