Folks I had a sermon written for today. It was pretty good, actually. In it I spoke about scrappy young David and how he used the skills God had given him---an amazing ability with a sling shot-- and his faith in God to –against all odds and sensibility--defeat the monster Goliath and to bring a peace and tranquility to the Israelites that old King Saul was unable to do.
I then talked about how frustrated Jesus was with the disciples about how Jesus berated them for not having faith---how Jesus expected them to be able to weather that nasty storm with trust in what they knew---handling a boat on the unpredictable waters of Galilee and trust in the God who gave them the ability to develop these skills in the first place.
I wrapped up the sermon by asking you what the storms were in your lives, where were your monsters?
It was a good sermon.
And then Wednesday happened.
And then the storm of racism, the monster of hate reared its fire breathing, disgusting head .
Dylan Roof, a young man proudly referring to himself as a “white supremacist” entered Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston SC and unleashed a storm of hate in such a monstrous way that none of us, none of us will ever be the same. Not you, not me, not God.
You see as those bullets entered Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, The Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, The Honorable Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, the Rev. Daniel Simmons, Sr. , the Rev. Sharonda Singleton and Myra Thompson, as those bullets pierced their skin and stole their earthly life, something changed in me. And I hope in you and I’m sure in God.
When those bullets killed those innocent, God-loving faithful people gathered in a church I have NO DOUBT ,NO DOUBT at all that God cried out with every shot: Stop. Stop. Stop this madness right now and right here. I have no doubt that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as one by one, these faithful, innocent people fell, cried out, No, no no. And I have no doubt, none at all, that both God and God’s blessed Son are looking to us. To you and to me, to put an end to this madness right here and right now.
And you know what, they’re right. We can stop this madness and we must stop this madness. It is time. It is time to face the monster of racism head on. It is time to stand up and say that the dignity of every human being isn’t just something we say, it is something we believe, it is something we hold dear and it is something we demand. To me respecting the dignity of every human being includes:
making gun control something real.
making equal opportunity for all real.
making our schools havens for education instead of fear and political wrangling.
It includes challenging our own racist thoughts and actions and those in others.
It’s time to respect, really and truly respect the dignity of every single person on this earth and most especially in this nation.
It’s time to redouble our efforts at loving our neighbor as we have been loved.
It’s time to remember that our neighbor is everyone. Everywhere.
Even those people who don’t look like us, sound like us, worship like us, love like us, live like us.
It’s time to stop the madness.
We owe it to our brothers and sisters in Charleston, in Baltimore, in Cleveland, in Ferguson, in Buffalo.
We owe it to our children
We owe it to our God to use the tools we’ve been given: our voices, our vote, our wallets, our conscience to stop, once and for all, the madness of intolerance, the storm of hate, the monster of racism.
My sisters and brothers in Christ, storms and monsters will rail about all our lives, but this week, in this nation and at this time, something has shifted and I am afraid. Afraid that if we don’t use the tools we’ve been given by God to stand up for what’s right, and to shut down what’s wrong, then it might, actually be too late.
The time to use all that we are and all that we have is now because, as our Bishop preached on Friday, enough is enough .
Amen.
Now, before we continue with the service I invite you to turn to page 499 of the Book of Common Prayer and join me in commending the martyrs of Charleston:
Celebrant: Give rest, O Christ, to your servants with your saints,
People: where sorrow and pain are no more,
neither sighing, but life everlasting.
Celebrant: You only are immortal, the creator and maker of humankind; and we are mortal, formed of the earth, and to earth shall we return. For so did you ordain when you created me, saying, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” All of us go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
People: Give rest, O Christ, to your servants with your saints, where sorrow and pain are no more,
neither sighing, but life everlasting.
The Celebrant continues
Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servants Cynthia, Susie, Ethel, DePayne, Clementa, Tywanza, Daniel, Sharonda and Myra . Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, sheep of your own fold, lambs of your own flock, sinners of your own redeeming. Receive them into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Sermon preached by John Harris June 14, 2015 Proper 6 Year B
Our gospel today is remarkably annoying. As Pete just read to us, Jesus explained #everything# in private to his disciples. But that jerk who wrote our gospel decided to give us only the public parts. Given how much trouble the disciples tended to have understanding Jesus even after the super-secret private tutelage, what chance do we have to figure out what He was talking about? But let’s take a wild stab at it anyway and see what we can come up with.
On its surface, what does a story about someone mindlessly scattering seed, or a story about how big a plant a mustard seed grows into, have to do with the kingdom of God? Jesus recognized that sometimes it takes a bit of misdirection to get our minds around a difficult truth. 50 years ago, CS Lewis said that what we needed as Christians are new metaphors. We need new ways to get at the truth to pull us out of our complacency.
Surely, when Jesus began to talk about the kingdom of God, he could have given a dense theological treatise on the topic. But what good would that have done? Remember the disciples? The passage tells us Jesus explained his parables to them, yet the disciples of the gospels are at best a mixed bag. The first parable intentionally undermines the whole idea that we will be ok if we just have everything explained to us. The person sowing the seed doesn’t know how it grows. Knowledge is neither the prerequisite nor the solution to living in the kingdom of God.
Let’s use Mother Cathy as an example, for a moment. If Mother Cathy so chose, she could quiz everybody at the altar rail before administering communion. Oh you want to receive the bread, do you? Well explain first what it means when the Nicene Creed says that Jesus is light from light, true God from true God. You think that you get the wine just because you got the bread question right? Not so fast! How does the council of Chalcedon inform our liturgical practice today? She could administer the theological version of the old racist literacy tests that were designed to keep the undesirables from voting.
And that is what the insistence on purity of knowledge would do. It would separate us into an elite who knows, truly understands, the theological truths of the world. And then there would be the peons, the underclass, who know nothing. The medieval Roman church fell into this trap, in separating the clergy from the laity and fencing off the Eucharist from the common folk.
Jesus tells a parable like this to speak to people like me. I have always prided myself on being smart, on knowing lots of things. And there is nothing intrinsically wrong with knowing things, whether in the context of school or work or even church. But Jesus tells us that:
The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, #he does not know how#. The earth produces #of itself#, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come."
God brings about the kingdom, #despite# our lack of understanding. Our limited minds are not this end all impediment to the growth of the Kingdom. And sometimes, we need odd parables to be thrown at us in order to break us out of our normal mindsets, to make sure that we can walk #by faith# into areas that we don't completely understand.
To make this point a slightly different way, I want us to think about St. Barnabas the Apostle. His feast day just passed on June 11th. Barnabas, whose name literally means son of encouragement, has two things for which he is famous in the Bible. Barnabas is chosen by the church in Jerusalem to bring additional preaching help north to Antioch. When he gets asked, he casts about for a companion and finds this random fellow named Paul, who due to his unsavory past no one would talk to. Paul gets his missionary start because Barnabas trusted the work that God had done, even if he was unable to understand every jot and tittle of it in a propositional sense. So first off Barnabas is known for giving St. Paul his start because of the faith he had that God had changed Paul.
After Barnabas and Paul go wandering about on some missionary journeys, they are joined by a young man named Mark, whose name should be familiar given the source of our gospel today. Mark had trouble on the journeys, though, and he skipped out along the way. After the first big journey around the eastern Mediterranean was completed, Paul and Barnabas got ready for journey #2. Barnabas thought they should bring Mark along, but Paul would have none of it. Paul knew, and he had clear evidence, that Mark was not good enough to go on a missionary journey. So they split, Paul wandering off to Greece, and Barnabas wandering off with Mark in a different direction. Second, then, Barnabas is known for giving St. Mark a second chance because he had faith that God was continuing to work through someone who had previously failed.
Barnabas, it seems to me, felt the truth of our gospel deep down in his bones. He knew that God was able to produce fruit from week and feeble human soil. He knew that one failure was not enough to write a person off. He knew that at the right time God would enable a bountiful harvest, a harvest of justice, righteousness, and maybe in the end, knowledge as he walked by faith in spreading God's kingdom.
On its surface, what does a story about someone mindlessly scattering seed, or a story about how big a plant a mustard seed grows into, have to do with the kingdom of God? Jesus recognized that sometimes it takes a bit of misdirection to get our minds around a difficult truth. 50 years ago, CS Lewis said that what we needed as Christians are new metaphors. We need new ways to get at the truth to pull us out of our complacency.
Surely, when Jesus began to talk about the kingdom of God, he could have given a dense theological treatise on the topic. But what good would that have done? Remember the disciples? The passage tells us Jesus explained his parables to them, yet the disciples of the gospels are at best a mixed bag. The first parable intentionally undermines the whole idea that we will be ok if we just have everything explained to us. The person sowing the seed doesn’t know how it grows. Knowledge is neither the prerequisite nor the solution to living in the kingdom of God.
Let’s use Mother Cathy as an example, for a moment. If Mother Cathy so chose, she could quiz everybody at the altar rail before administering communion. Oh you want to receive the bread, do you? Well explain first what it means when the Nicene Creed says that Jesus is light from light, true God from true God. You think that you get the wine just because you got the bread question right? Not so fast! How does the council of Chalcedon inform our liturgical practice today? She could administer the theological version of the old racist literacy tests that were designed to keep the undesirables from voting.
And that is what the insistence on purity of knowledge would do. It would separate us into an elite who knows, truly understands, the theological truths of the world. And then there would be the peons, the underclass, who know nothing. The medieval Roman church fell into this trap, in separating the clergy from the laity and fencing off the Eucharist from the common folk.
Jesus tells a parable like this to speak to people like me. I have always prided myself on being smart, on knowing lots of things. And there is nothing intrinsically wrong with knowing things, whether in the context of school or work or even church. But Jesus tells us that:
The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, #he does not know how#. The earth produces #of itself#, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come."
God brings about the kingdom, #despite# our lack of understanding. Our limited minds are not this end all impediment to the growth of the Kingdom. And sometimes, we need odd parables to be thrown at us in order to break us out of our normal mindsets, to make sure that we can walk #by faith# into areas that we don't completely understand.
To make this point a slightly different way, I want us to think about St. Barnabas the Apostle. His feast day just passed on June 11th. Barnabas, whose name literally means son of encouragement, has two things for which he is famous in the Bible. Barnabas is chosen by the church in Jerusalem to bring additional preaching help north to Antioch. When he gets asked, he casts about for a companion and finds this random fellow named Paul, who due to his unsavory past no one would talk to. Paul gets his missionary start because Barnabas trusted the work that God had done, even if he was unable to understand every jot and tittle of it in a propositional sense. So first off Barnabas is known for giving St. Paul his start because of the faith he had that God had changed Paul.
After Barnabas and Paul go wandering about on some missionary journeys, they are joined by a young man named Mark, whose name should be familiar given the source of our gospel today. Mark had trouble on the journeys, though, and he skipped out along the way. After the first big journey around the eastern Mediterranean was completed, Paul and Barnabas got ready for journey #2. Barnabas thought they should bring Mark along, but Paul would have none of it. Paul knew, and he had clear evidence, that Mark was not good enough to go on a missionary journey. So they split, Paul wandering off to Greece, and Barnabas wandering off with Mark in a different direction. Second, then, Barnabas is known for giving St. Mark a second chance because he had faith that God was continuing to work through someone who had previously failed.
Barnabas, it seems to me, felt the truth of our gospel deep down in his bones. He knew that God was able to produce fruit from week and feeble human soil. He knew that one failure was not enough to write a person off. He knew that at the right time God would enable a bountiful harvest, a harvest of justice, righteousness, and maybe in the end, knowledge as he walked by faith in spreading God's kingdom.
Crazy Jesus. Sermon by Deacon Pete preached on June 7, 2015 Proper 5
Just how crazy was Jesus? Using the book of Mark as a resource, let’s do a little forensic psychology. Mark begins with the baptism of Jesus. Jesus doesn’t head to the temple to solicit the blessing of religious leaders before beginning His ministry. He heads to the muddy old river Jordan and into the clutches of a wild man. Jesus doesn’t look for the approval of the folks who are in charge before beginning, He goes out to encounter John and the Holy Spirit, and He hears a voice from heaven saying “You are my Son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased”. How crazy is that?
After hearing the voice Jesus immediately is sent by the Spirit out into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Jesus meets evil and darkness head on with no weapons other than His faith in God and His faith in His ministry. How crazy is that?
Jesus heads to Galilee preaching that the kingdom of God has come near and it is time to repent and believe the good news. He heads to the sea and recruits 4 fisherman with whom to journey along the path He believes God has set before Him. At Capernaum Jesus teaches in the synagogue, amazing the people with His authority and drives out an impure spirit from one of His listeners. The people are amazed and word of Him begins to spread. At the home of Simon and Andrew the whole town gathers and Jesus healed many of their diseases and drove out many demons. How crazy is that?
A few days later Jesus is in a house packed to the gills with folks who want to hear His message. It is so crowded that a group of men open a hole in the roof of the house to lower their paralyzed friend inside for Jesus to heal. Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven”, knowing that this will mightily anger some teachers of the law who are listening in, knowing that this will spark confrontation. How crazy is that?
Next Jesus heads to the lake and calls Levi the tax collector to join Him. A tax collector, a traitor to the Jews, a collaborator of Rome’s, someone hated and feared by the Jewish people. Jesus eats dinner at Levi’s with other tax collectors and sinners. When questioned why, His response was that He comes not for the healthy but for the sick, not for the righteous but for sinners. How crazy is that?
The list of suspect behaviors goes on…Jesus doesn’t make a big deal out of fasting, a major and important piece of the Jewish religion. He allows His disciples to pick grain on the Sabbath, He heals a man with a shriveled hand on the Sabbath, impure spirits fall down before Him saying, “You are the Son of God”. How crazy is all of that?
So, it is no wonder that by today’s Gospel Jesus’ family is all fired up and ready to take control of Him, saying, “He’s out of his mind.” Jesus is their brother, Mary and Joseph’s son, raised with all of the teachings and practices of mainstream Judaism. Who is He to be preaching and teaching in synagogues instead of following in Joseph’s footsteps? Why isn’t He getting married and raising a family? He must be crazy to have gathered up this rag tag band of followers, He must be out of his mind to think He is curing the sick and banishing demons. He must be a bubble off level to be so intentionally infuriating the secular and religious leaders of the day. He must be nuts to think that He is doing the will of God, showing us who God is and showing us what God would have us do.
There you have it, our forensic analysis is complete. According to the norms of His times, according to His family, and according to the events recorded in Mark, our diagnosis is clear…Jesus is crazy!
And that’s a bit of a problem for us. Jesus, our savior, our role model, and our icon of how to be in right relationship with God is out of his mind. We spend a large portion of our days holding it all together, doing our best to fit in, to do good works, to pay our bills, to behave as decent members of society and after all of this, Jesus is modeling crazy behavior. Are we wrong? Does He expect us to be nuts too?
If that’s true, if we’re supposed to be a little crazy, how are we doing? Let’s take a look; let’s do a forensic analysis of ourselves. We are crazy enough to be running two food pantries, one for people, and one for pets. In these pantries we warmly welcome people of all sorts and conditions with no judgment, no hostile messages that they should be doing better. We are crazy enough to open our building for community gatherings with no proselytizing on our part. We are crazy enough to think that our time and presence at School 54 will make a difference, that building this relationship is one way to address the issues of poverty and illiteracy that haunt our neighbors. Ascension is crazy enough to let go of 16 Linwood, trusting that God is not in the building but in the community of believers. Good Shepherd is crazy enough to welcome Ascension into 96 Jewett, believing that hospitality is a virtue. Thanks to our own Kristen Grandinetti’s work and advocacy the city of Niagara Falls raised the rainbow flag for the first time in the city’s history and this was announced on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, that’s pretty crazy. Today many of us will don the t-shirts made by Liz Marshall, quoting a sermon of Mother Cathy’s, and march in the Pride parade, representing the total inclusion that marked Jesus’ ministry on earth, that’s pretty crazy.
So, all in all we’re not doing a bad job of being ‘out of our minds for Jesus’. But, there is always more…As we enter the summer months, hopefully planning some time for rest, relaxation and reflection, our homework is this….Are we crazy enough? What else could we be doing that will cause people to say, “Why are they behaving that way? Who do they think they are? Are they nuts?”. AMEN.
After hearing the voice Jesus immediately is sent by the Spirit out into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Jesus meets evil and darkness head on with no weapons other than His faith in God and His faith in His ministry. How crazy is that?
Jesus heads to Galilee preaching that the kingdom of God has come near and it is time to repent and believe the good news. He heads to the sea and recruits 4 fisherman with whom to journey along the path He believes God has set before Him. At Capernaum Jesus teaches in the synagogue, amazing the people with His authority and drives out an impure spirit from one of His listeners. The people are amazed and word of Him begins to spread. At the home of Simon and Andrew the whole town gathers and Jesus healed many of their diseases and drove out many demons. How crazy is that?
A few days later Jesus is in a house packed to the gills with folks who want to hear His message. It is so crowded that a group of men open a hole in the roof of the house to lower their paralyzed friend inside for Jesus to heal. Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven”, knowing that this will mightily anger some teachers of the law who are listening in, knowing that this will spark confrontation. How crazy is that?
Next Jesus heads to the lake and calls Levi the tax collector to join Him. A tax collector, a traitor to the Jews, a collaborator of Rome’s, someone hated and feared by the Jewish people. Jesus eats dinner at Levi’s with other tax collectors and sinners. When questioned why, His response was that He comes not for the healthy but for the sick, not for the righteous but for sinners. How crazy is that?
The list of suspect behaviors goes on…Jesus doesn’t make a big deal out of fasting, a major and important piece of the Jewish religion. He allows His disciples to pick grain on the Sabbath, He heals a man with a shriveled hand on the Sabbath, impure spirits fall down before Him saying, “You are the Son of God”. How crazy is all of that?
So, it is no wonder that by today’s Gospel Jesus’ family is all fired up and ready to take control of Him, saying, “He’s out of his mind.” Jesus is their brother, Mary and Joseph’s son, raised with all of the teachings and practices of mainstream Judaism. Who is He to be preaching and teaching in synagogues instead of following in Joseph’s footsteps? Why isn’t He getting married and raising a family? He must be crazy to have gathered up this rag tag band of followers, He must be out of his mind to think He is curing the sick and banishing demons. He must be a bubble off level to be so intentionally infuriating the secular and religious leaders of the day. He must be nuts to think that He is doing the will of God, showing us who God is and showing us what God would have us do.
There you have it, our forensic analysis is complete. According to the norms of His times, according to His family, and according to the events recorded in Mark, our diagnosis is clear…Jesus is crazy!
And that’s a bit of a problem for us. Jesus, our savior, our role model, and our icon of how to be in right relationship with God is out of his mind. We spend a large portion of our days holding it all together, doing our best to fit in, to do good works, to pay our bills, to behave as decent members of society and after all of this, Jesus is modeling crazy behavior. Are we wrong? Does He expect us to be nuts too?
If that’s true, if we’re supposed to be a little crazy, how are we doing? Let’s take a look; let’s do a forensic analysis of ourselves. We are crazy enough to be running two food pantries, one for people, and one for pets. In these pantries we warmly welcome people of all sorts and conditions with no judgment, no hostile messages that they should be doing better. We are crazy enough to open our building for community gatherings with no proselytizing on our part. We are crazy enough to think that our time and presence at School 54 will make a difference, that building this relationship is one way to address the issues of poverty and illiteracy that haunt our neighbors. Ascension is crazy enough to let go of 16 Linwood, trusting that God is not in the building but in the community of believers. Good Shepherd is crazy enough to welcome Ascension into 96 Jewett, believing that hospitality is a virtue. Thanks to our own Kristen Grandinetti’s work and advocacy the city of Niagara Falls raised the rainbow flag for the first time in the city’s history and this was announced on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, that’s pretty crazy. Today many of us will don the t-shirts made by Liz Marshall, quoting a sermon of Mother Cathy’s, and march in the Pride parade, representing the total inclusion that marked Jesus’ ministry on earth, that’s pretty crazy.
So, all in all we’re not doing a bad job of being ‘out of our minds for Jesus’. But, there is always more…As we enter the summer months, hopefully planning some time for rest, relaxation and reflection, our homework is this….Are we crazy enough? What else could we be doing that will cause people to say, “Why are they behaving that way? Who do they think they are? Are they nuts?”. AMEN.
Monday, June 1, 2015
Sermon preached at Trinity Warsaw, May 31, 2015 (a re-work of a sermon from Trinity Sunday, 2012)
+In many Episcopal churches, including the two we serve in Buffalo, Good Shepherd and Ascension, we use the “lavabo,” the silver bowl over which a server pours water over the priest’s fingers. It is a “symbolic hand washing, reminiscent of the ritual handwashing done in the Jewish faith. When I wash my hands, , I utter a simple prayer: “Gracious God, cleanse me from all iniquity and make me worthy to enter Your mystery.” I use this prayer as a way to ready myself for what will happen at this altar because, truth be told, I have NO IDEA what happens at this altar. But not being able to explain it doesn’t mean it isn’t real. Not fully understanding doesn’t mean nothing is happening. It just means that some things can’t be explained as much as they must be experienced.
A major— “I am not sure I can explain it, but I know it is real, I know it means something to me, I just don’t understand it”:---concept in Christianity is the Trinity: The one in Three and Three in One.
We may well have some comprehension of it---we believe in One God who is present to us in three distinct, yet linked ways: God as Father/Mother/Creator, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit---but we can’t really understand it because to understand it means that we fully grasp it in all of it’s nuance.
Our comprehension of the Trinity requires a leap of faith, a leap into a mystery, and an acceptance that we won’t know what this really means until the last day. Until then, we’re grasping at straws whenever we try to come up with a hard and fast definition.
So in no way am I going to try and make the Holy and Undivided Trinity understandable to you--Understanding is a personal thing which comes to each of us in different ways and at different times. A process exemplified in Nicodemus, the main character in today’s Gospel. Nicodemus appears several times in John’s Gospel, and each time, he gains more understanding, more insight into just who this Jesus is and how this Jesus is God. It was, for Nicodemus, a process. Just like understanding God in three persons, blessed Trinity, is a process. It’s always changing, ever moving. It’s dynamic. Which, by the way, is a great way to describe
the interrelatedness between our Creator Father/Mother God our Redeeming Son God and our Sustaining Advocate Holy Spirit God---these three persons of the Trinity are in constant movement toward one another and towards us.
Now let’s get one thing clear, we have one God. Period. When we say, there are three persons in One God, what we mean is that there are three aspects, three distinct ways the Almighty is in relationship with us—the more authoritative, parental God who was and is the Creator of all things, the accessible fully human and fully divine God—the Son who felt all the same things we feel and was capable of all the same things as us and finally, the advocate, the Holy Spirit given to us on Pentecost; that unseen God who acts in and through other people in our lives and is that still small voice deep within us.
Three distinct characteristics of the triune God. But remember, these three characteristics are just that--- characteristics of a whole—they are not separate. They are “part of.”
Throughout the generations, people have fought over the Doctrine of the Trinity---Jolly old St Nicholas was expelled from the Council of Nicea because he became so irate over the efforts to explain, in words, just what we mean by the Holy and Undivided Trinity, one God, that he actually punched another attendee! Others have made valiant efforts to explain the Trinity using visual aids:
St. Patrick used the three leaves of a Shamrock—each leaf is distinct but is not separate from the whole of the clover.
Icons show the Trinity as a swirling dance of interconnected parts—always attached, but each moving in it’s own way.
Almost all expository attempts at describing the Trinity fall short because at its heart, the essence of the Trinity is relationship. And describing the essence of a relationship is like trying to nail Jell-O to a tree…it just doesn’t work.
Think of your own relationships---the most precious ones you have—how would you describe them? Can you find the words? Could you diagram it? You could get close, but it’d still be lacking. That’s my point---to describe the Holy and Undivided Trinity just doesn’t do it justice, because it’s a relationship and relationships are hard to explain.
God is relationship.
Retired Lutheran Pastor Richard Lischer shared this interpretation of the Trinity he discovered while contemplating a stained glass window depiction of the Trinity: “The fairly typical Trinitarian design of three interconnecting triangles reminded me of an aerial photograph taken of our small farming community. Besides the straight and orderly rows of crops in the fields, another distinct pattern emerged: well-worn paths criss-crossing from one farmhouse to another. These paths, worn into the ground by generations of neighbors visiting and helping out in times of need, linked the town, they knit the community together.” Lischer’s description of the interconnectedness represented in those paths explains my experience of the Trinity.
God grooves paths in our lives, coming to us at different times and in different forms to address a variety of needs.
God, in three persons, Blessed Trinity, reaches out to us as a strong parental type when we feel small and childlike.
God in three persons, Blessed Trinity reaches out to us as a forgiving friend in times of loneliness and confusion.
God in three persons, Blessed Trinity reaches out to us as a sustaining force of inexplicable peace when we’re bereft and lost, angry and bitter, hopeless and helpless.
God in three persons, Blessed Trinity, longs to be a palpable presence in our lives, so God, in God’s infinite wisdom, walks a number of paths to reach us.
Although difficult to explain, the formula of the Trinity is simple
God Loves Us.
God Wants to be With Us
Through the miracle and mystery of God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity, God’s Love is always with us.
And that, although almost impossible to explain, is so wonderfully, beautifully real.
Amen.
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