Today's Word
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Salisbury PlainClimb a Hill, Look at a Rock Day
Our Lord is so good, He grants us many blessings. We can see Him in the daily course of events, in our homes, our jobs, our lives. I pray that these words help you to grow in your faith and recognize His hand in even the most mundane circumstances.
The picture to the right is of a Celtic Chapel located in Cornwall England. This building is approximately 1700 years old, and contains a holy well known for its healing powers.
(Click for enlarged)
“One of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him. He entered into the Pharisee’s house and sat at the table. Behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that he was reclining in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. Standing behind at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, ‘This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner.’” Luke 7:36-39, WEB
Jesus walked miles a day. He walked everywhere sharing the message of hope and peace of God’s Kingdom with the world. I’m sure He was in great physical shape unlike most of us in this generation, because all that walking most certainly kept Him fit. I imagine however, that His feet suffered from the same problems that we experience when we do something like take a vacation at a theme park or hike miles a day in national parks. He didn’t have the benefit of modern shoes that are designed to take care of the feet, so I’m sure that they were cracked, dry, and sore after walking miles every day. At the very least, His feet were dirty from the hot sandy roads.
There is much more to today’s story than just the anointing of Jesus’ feet. We could talk about the woman, her sin, and Jesus’ forgiveness. We could talk about the Pharisee who was indignant about Jesus’ willingness to associate with a sinner and his assumption that Jesus could not be a prophet. We could talk about the differences between this story and the similar stories of women anointing Jesus that are found in Matthew, Mark, and John. Today’s passage is followed by a parable about forgiveness. We also hear in the first verses in Luke 8 about the women who followed Jesus and offered support to His ministry.
I think there is something very beautiful and poignant in the brief scene between the woman and Jesus. She came to Jesus in her sin and gave him her heart. We don’t know why the Pharisee invited Jesus to his home. Though this story happens early in Luke’s telling of Jesus’ ministry, the Pharisees were already questioning Jesus’ purpose and holiness. Did the Pharisee want to ensnare Jesus or was he truly curious about the things Jesus was doing and saying?
Whatever the reason, the Pharisee was not a very good host. Jesus entered the house but did not receive the proper hospitality due a visitor. There was no one to cleanse His feet from the dust of the road. A woman in tears approached Jesus with a jar of perfume and anointed his feet. I am sure that the ointment felt good on His sore feet, a wonderful relief from the heat and dryness of the road. She met a very real need with great love. She was an outcast sinner, and her actions offended the Pharisee. Why was she there? Was she a stranger to the Pharisee or was she a trap? The Pharisee immediately said of Jesus, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner.”
Jesus made this a lesson in forgiveness. He embraced her and accepted her love, proving in the Pharisee’s mind that Jesus was no prophet. Jesus’ actions, however, proved something even greater. Jesus shined the grace of God. Even Jesus’ visit to the Pharisee’s house was an act of grace, for Jesus must have known the heart of that Pharisee. Jesus willingly went to share God’s love with both the repentant sinner and the one who did not acknowledge his own sin. God’s grace reaches out to the world, calling us all to see that we are all sinners in need of the Savior, which is Jesus. Grace even reaches out to those do not acknowledge their sinfulness, because Jesus wants everyone to repent, draw closer to God, and receive the forgiveness that He promised and that Jesus won for all of us on the cross. Jesus was more than a prophet. He is the LORD who died and rose again for our sake.
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Lectionary Scriptures for June 15, 2025, Holy Trinity Sunday: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Psalm 8; Acts 2:14a, 22-36; John 8:48-59
“Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Psalm 8:1, WEB
Pentecost ushers in a new season in the Church year. This season which lasts until Advent is a season of learning, growing, and becoming that which Christ has called us to be. The first half of the Church year focuses on the story of God: the coming and birth of Christ, the Epiphany and revelation of His presence to the world, the journey to the cross during Lent, the death and resurrection, His final lessons to His disciples, and then His ascension into heaven. The second half focuses more on our story. Pentecost is about how to live extraordinary lives in the midst of ordinary circumstances as Jesus’ disciples.
Before we begin this season of learning, we stop for a moment to linger over the mystery of God. Trinity Sunday makes us stop to reflect upon our God, to draw deeper into His heart and ponder His majesty. It is not a time for us to discern our place in God’s kingdom but to understand God Himself. Who is this God that we are called to follow? We can follow more closely and obediently when we understand Him. Quite frankly, we have plenty of time to figure out who we are, we spend most of our time on ourselves. For one day, let us focus on figuring out who He is.
Generations of Christians have pondered the reality of God, ever since the earliest days of the Church. You can see in the writings of the disciples that they knew Jesus but didn’t quite know Him. They knew God but they had questions. How do you explain the unexplainable? Humans have always struggled with the fact that there are things we might never truly understand. We want satisfying answers, we don’t like mysteries. Modern minds especially have scientific minds; if it can’t be explained then it must not be real. Even the theologians have spent millennia trying to put into words statements of faith to explain the God who has done great things for us.
Creeds are statements of faith about God, proclamations of what we believe, with them we confess a unified faith. We learn these creeds early in our lives of faith and our journey of understanding often begins with those words. Some consider creeds a type of brainwashing that force believers to conform to a human understanding of God. Anti-creedal Christians emphasize the Bible, particularly the New Testament, as the sole authority for faith and practice. However, the first creeds are found in the scriptures, in the letters of Paul and the other disciples. Creeds are simply statements of faith, defining the things that matter to the body of Christ.
It is important, however, that we know more than just the words of the creeds. They are meaningless if they are simply regurgitated on cue each Sunday. The creeds define God and to fully live the life we are called to live, we must know the God we serve. The creeds that we accept as Christians were created by the early Christians pondered together the revelation given to the world through the scriptures and Jesus Christ. As they worked through the teachings of Jesus and the manifestation of God in their experiences, they came to more deeply understand the complexity of the God which we worship.
Many people argue that the word “trinity” is not found in the scriptures, but there is no denying that the concept exists. As the Christians sought to understand God, they came to see that He is truly greater than our human ability to identify, so there must be some things about Him that will remain forever mysterious.
It isn’t part of our lectionary for this week, but one of my favorite passages is Colossians 1:16, “For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him.” I made a painting a few years ago based on this passage. It has a black background with colorful, chaotic swirls dry brushed on top. In the upper right corner, I taped off a cross over the black to protect it from the colorful paint. The swirling pattern represents how I envision the creation of the world as God spoke light and life into existence. The cross reminds us that Jesus Christ was there, from the very beginning.
It is tempting on Trinity Sunday, to try to come up with creative ways of describing the indescribable. The Trinity is a mystery that many have tried to understand and explain in human terms, but it is beyond the human imagination. Every analogy falls apart in some way. We use water, ice, and steam, but water can’t be both ice and steam at the same time. God as mother, daughter, and sister (or father, son, and brother) does not work because I can’t be my own mother or daughter. Patrick’s cloverleaf doesn’t work because the leaves are not unique to one another, they are all the same. My personal favorite is the idea of the ocean. I liken God the Father to the depths of the sea which are unreachable, unknowable, and endless while supporting life; God the Son is the surface which is visible, active, touching the lives of men. God the Spirit is the mist and the waves, constantly moving, changing to world around it, invisible and yet visible, unstoppable, affected and affecting all that it touches. The ocean is all one, but the way the different parts are perceived by the human mind is different. One cannot exist without the other, they can’t be divided, but they can all be understood as uniquely different from the others. Like all the others, the ocean falls short of the mystery of God.
Though many argue that the Trinity is unbiblical, the concept of the Trinity has been around since the earliest days of the Church, when the first disciples wrestled with this idea that God is present in different ways in the world. They knew that there is only One God, but they also recognized that some of what Jesus taught pointed to the idea that the Godhead was plural, involving Father, Son, and Spirit. Even the Great Commission is worded to include this formula for the making of disciples. Baptism was meant to be given in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They had to discover how it could be three but one. They had to try to explain this Threeness while holding to the Oneness of God.
Proverbs 8 was one of the Old Testament texts used to explain the idea of the Trinity. In this passage, we see that Wisdom is both personified but also possessed by God. Wisdom is separate, but also a part of God and equal to Him. The Proverb talks about the divinity and eternity of Wisdom. Nothing is equal to God, or divine like God, or eternal like God. Therefore, Wisdom being possessed by God is an aspect of God and is God. Early Christians recognized that Wisdom, particularly in this Proverb, is the Word, the Logos, Jesus Christ. He, the Son, is also by God, brought up with God, ever present and before all time, equal with God. God’s attributes are a part of Himself. Jesus the Son is a unique part of the Godhead, separate but not separate, unified with God the Father. Jesus says in the book of John, “The Father is in me, and I am in the Father.”
Proverbs 8 is part of a larger passage from Proverbs that compares Wisdom to Folly. Folly is darkness, loud and defiant, brazen like a prostitute with crafty intent. Folly hides her intent. Wisdom is light and is open. She stands at the gates where justice is served and does not hide. She is available, public, manifest, and visible. As we consider the life of Jesus, we see that He too was light. He was available, public, manifest, and visible. It is no wonder that the early Christians saw Christ in this personification of Wisdom.
We do not read verses 32-36, but they are powerful words for our lives. “Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, for blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction, and be wise. Don’t refuse it. Blessed is the man who hears me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my door posts. For whoever finds me finds life, and will obtain favor from Yahweh. But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul. All those who hate me love death.” Obedience equals life. Transgression equals death. Finding Wisdom, knowing Jesus, brings life. It is not enough to believe in some unknown and unknowable “god.” Life and salvation are found in Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Wisdom took pleasure in men, took the nature of mankind, dwelt among us, and filled us with unspeakable treasures. Wisdom (which is Jesus and then the Spirit) calls men by His word and works to follow virtue and flee from vice.
There is a meme that shows different perspectives of our solar system and universe. The first picture shows a number of colored balls representing the planets with earth as the largest. It appears huge compared to some of the other planets. The next picture shows the earth as the smallest of the balls, dwarfed by other planets like Saturn and Jupiter. Another picture shows the sun as a huge ball compared to the planets. Finally, there is a picture of the sun being dwarfed by other suns in the universe. By the final picture, the ball representing earth is so small that it is nothing but a tiny speck that can barely be seen. The meme then shares this thought about our place in this universe: “If the earth on which we live is nothing but a speck, then we are less than a speck on that speck.”
In the Garden of Eden, God made human beings the crown of His creation and gave us the authority to rule over it. This is not just about a farmer working in his fields or a family caring for pets or cattle. We are given dominion over the entirety of God’s creation. We have even managed to travel into space with telescopes so incredible that they can take pictures of celestial bodies millions of light years from earth. We are able to send probes and cameras to almost all of the planets, so that we can study them and learn about the chemical make-up of their surface and the atmosphere. We landed on the moon and Mars, making amazing discoveries. I joke that one day we’ll have archaeologists digging on Mars to determine the origins of Martians.
Yet, as we travel into the vast reaches of God’s created universe, we are humbled by the reality that we will never fully understand it all. It is amazing that we can send rockets into space that will send us pictures of objects that are billions of miles away, but we have to remember that we are limited by our humanity, and we may never really understand many things that will continue to lie beyond our reach. Despite our inadequacies, God has given us the most incredible gifts, the ability to reach beyond what we can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch so that we might understand the macro and micro worlds around us. The fact that we can see an atom or visit the moon is a gift from God. As we continue to explore, we should remember that it is God who has given us dominion over these things, to care for it and to use it for His glory.
The same can be said about spiritual things. God has made it clear through His creation that He is God and that He is Sovereign. We can know Him intimately, even though we are just a speck on a speck. We are nothing, but we are the crown of His creation. We are given dominion over all that He has created, but even more importantly, He has made us children and heirs to all that is His. In the reality of our place in God’s Kingdom, even the universe is a speck compared to the fullness of God. His ways are higher; His thoughts are greater than anything we can imagine. We try to understand the mystery that is beyond our understanding, but even though we can’t grasp it with our brains, it is very real and true. The Trinity, no matter how we try to explain it, is a mystery. It is something about God that perhaps, in our humility, we need to simply believe even though it does not make sense in human terms.
The Christian Creeds have been given to us to help us speak with confidence and faith about this mysterious God. The Apostles Creed lists each aspect of the Trinitarian Godhead, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, defining their individuality while insisting upon their unity. The Nicene Creed does the same with more details. These creeds are enough and are the standard by which all Christian faith is founded. Yet, they focus more on the individual persons of the Trinity rather than on the unity. There is another creed that we usually only hear on Trinity Sunday. The Athanasian Creed is credited to Athanasius of Alexandria. He embraced the Nicene understanding of God and the creed was designed to clarify the Trinity and exclude multiple heresies that were rampant in that day, including Arianism.
Just as many Christians would rather ignore the aspects of God that makes them uncomfortable, the Athanasian Creed is hard to bear in our modern world of tolerance and acceptance. It begins with the words, “Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith.” In this case, the word “catholic” means “universal, Christian.” To be saved, you must believe this. It is not enough to believe there is a god or to believe in a god of our making. It is necessary to believe in the Trinitarian God.
The creed goes on to say, “Now this is the catholic faith: We worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being.” The creed goes on to lay out the characteristics of this Trinity. The Father, Son and Spirit are each one person, but the deity of the three is one, equal in glory and coeternal in majesty. What God is, they all are: uncreated, infinite, eternal. They are all these things, but they are one. There are not three beings. They are all Almighty, but not three almighty beings. All are God, but there are not three gods, but one God. All are Lord, but there are not three Lords, but one Lord.
The creed goes on to describe the distinctions between the three. “The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten; the Son was neither made nor created, but alone was begotten of the Father; the Spirit was neither made nor created but is proceeding from the Father and the Son. There is one Father, not three fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three spirits.”
This section of the creed finishes, “And in this Trinity, no one is before or after, greater or less than the other; but all three persons are in themselves, coeternal and coequal; and so we must worship the Trinity in unity and the one God in three persons. Whoever wants to be saved should think thus about the Trinity.” The rest of the creed parallels the explanations found in the other creeds about the work of Jesus and the Spirit and the Church. It ends with this statement: “This is the catholic faith. One cannot be saved without believing this firmly and faithfully.”
I will admit it: the revelation of Jesus and God in today’s scriptures makes me a little uncomfortable. Jesus is supposed to be tolerant, accepting, loving, but in today’s Gospel lesson He tells the religious leadership that they don’t know the God they claim to worship. Jesus said, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that he is our God. You have not known him, but I know him. If I said, ‘I don’t know him,’ I would be like you, a liar. But I know him and keep his word.” In the passage from Acts, Peter continues his sermon from last week with a bold proclamation that Jesus is Lord. In that proclamation, Peter also tells the crowds that if they must believe that Jesus is Lord.
It isn’t enough to believe that Jesus is our friend or our teacher. It isn’t enough to accept that Jesus is an example of kind-hearted servanthood. Jesus is LORD. He is, in His own words, “Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM.” It is no wonder that the crowds wanted to stone Him to death, after all, in those words Jesus claimed to be God. Unless Jesus is God, the words are blasphemy.
We know that Jesus is God, but He is more. He is fully human and fully divine, part of the Godhead, part of the Trinity. This is the part of theology that we all would rather avoid. How do you explain and understand something as complicated as the Trinity? On Sunday, pastors all over the world will try to explain it from the pulpit using human analogies and tangible examples of trinitarian concepts. Many of these analogies may help people come to a better grasp of the three-in-one/one-in-three Trinity, but all will fall short of the reality, and many border on the heretical.
But we human beings want our God to stay within our control. We want God to fit into our box, having a beginning and suffering from the same failings we experience. We want our gods to be limited and imperfect because then we can strive to be like them. We are still eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, trying to build our own tower of Babel, but instead of reaching up, we try to drag God down to our level.
God has made it clear through His creation that He is God and that He is Sovereign. He is greater than the highest mountain, deeper than the deepest sea, larger than the universe and farther from the furthest sun. He created it all, and so He is greater than it all. He has no beginning. God was not in Heaven when He spoke the first words that brought light to nothing and life to chaos. He was. He is. He will be. He is I AM. We’d rather keep Him in a temple or a church building. We’d rather keep Him on a throne we can imagine in a place that we hope to inhabit someday. It is easier to grasp the concept of an old man on a throne of clouds than to understand the Trinity.
We may never have the words to explain the Trinity, to fully describe God or tell others what it means to be a Christian, but we are called to share our faith with the world. It need not be a lengthy dissertation on the meaning of the great doctrines of Christianity. We need only share our experiences of God with others so that He might work in their lives to spark the faith that will make them part of God's kingdom on earth. Isn't it amazing that God has made us part of this process? The psalmist asks, “What is man, that you think of him?” While this passage is attributed to Jesus Christ, these words are meant for us, too. Not only does God care about everyone and everything He has created, but He has also made man the crown of His creation and given us authority in His Kingdom as His children.
With that authority, however, it is our responsibility to treat it as God would treat it. The wise man is one who will walk according to God’s ways, without abusing or wasting what God has made. The wise man is the one who will seek to understand what God intends for the Creation and to use it to His glory. The wise man will go forth in faith and share the reality of God’s sovereignty and majesty with the world. It won’t be easy. We are tempted to do what we want with what we have been given. We face situations that leave us questioning what God would do. We don’t always understand what God intends, and we fail. Sin plays a role in everything we do, no matter how much we try to avoid sinful behavior. Though saved by grace and sanctified by the Spirit, we are still sinners who make mistakes.
I suppose the greatest mystery is that God loves us anyway and that Jesus Christ did what He did for our sakes. We can’t explain this love with mere human words. We can’t convince people to believe. We must simply fear the Lord, to revere and trust that He will provide us with all we need. We are called to live lives which shun folly, turn from sin and walk in the right path. God helps us to know right from wrong, good from bad, and He guides us on the smart path, so let us listen and believe even if there are mysterious things we will never fully understand.
We celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday as we enter into the Pentecost season because we need to see that God is more than just the Father, just the Son and just the Spirit. He is so great that His name is majestic in all the earth. We need the whole Godhead to do what He has called us to do. We are reminded in the Gospel lesson that we could not have done anything if the whole plan of God had not come to be. The disciples would not have accomplished anything as the Church if Jesus had not gone to heaven and sent the Spirit. The disciples could not bear what was to come without the wisdom and strength that comes from having the Holy Spirit dwell within and amongst God’s people.
The disciples could not bear everything that Christ had to say, so He sent the Spirit to continue teaching the disciples. It is by His power that we have faith. It is by His grace we have wisdom. It is in His strength that we can glorify Christ Jesus by living the life He started when He came in the flesh by serving our neighbor and sharing God’s love. It took generations for Christian theologians to come up with words that help us to believe, and we each continue to learn and grow in our faith so that we can do God’s work in the world with faith and confidence. We might not be ready today to do everything God is asking of us, but he will give us all we need to do His work. We need only walk by faith, knowing that God is sovereign over all of His creation. With us as His crown, we can be a part of something incredible: God’s Kingdom on earth, where all people can know Him and live in His love.
The following links provide some specially chosen scripture that tell the stories of the Birth and Passion of our Lord as Savior Jesus Christ, as well as a fictional perspective of the Crucifixion. Spend time in God's Word, read about His life and learn of the wonderful gifts He has for you. Know Jesus Christ and honor Him today. Thanks be to God.
The Story of our Savior's Passion
The Crucifixion, a fictional perspective
When researching, I use several versions of the bible, including the New International Version and English Standard Version. Due to copyright restrictions, I have not included quotes for the scriptures on some of the archives, but highly encourage you to open your own bibles to read the scripture passages for yourselves. Where scripture is quoted, it is usually the American Standard Version or World English Bible which belong to the public domain. Any other versions used in quotes are identified.
The devotion posted on Wednesday is based on the Lectionary texts used by millions of Christians each Sunday. The Lectionary consists of four texts: an Old Testament passage, a Psalm, a passage from one of the Epistles and a Gospel text and follows the church calendar. Archives for these writings are found at Midweek Oasis.
You are welcome to use these words to share the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. Please remember to give credit to the Author who has given you these gifts, and keep in remembrance the vessel which He used to bring them to you. We pray that this site may be a blessing to you and anyone with whom you've shared it. Peggy Hoppes
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