The 23rd Psalm is one of those pieces of scripture we can easily quote. But when was the last time you spent anytime with it, considering just what it’s telling us, here, today?
The Lord is our shepherd. A shepherd never ever gives up on the sheep. No matter how whiny, smelly and stupid they are. Now I don’t know a lot about sheep , but I do know this, they aren’t very smart. Not at all. They get themselves into problems ALL THE TIME. They get into bramble from which they need to be carefully and lovingly extracted. They get lost as they wander around, seeking a greener pasture, a larger pool of water, a more exciting herd…when they find themselves lost they panic, baaing and bleating with a despair and longing that pierces the heart of the shepherd.
The shepherd never lets the sheep go without. The shepherd will not stop until every sheep is fed, watered and secured for the night. The shepherd makes sure that the burdens befalling each every sheep are lifted, the shepherd guards them, protects them and nurtures them.
The shepherd takes the sheep and MAKES them lie down in green pastures. The shepherd leads the sheep to still and luscious waters. Sometimes this is hard. Sheep are often uncooperative. Stubborn. Bull-headed, anxious to do what they think is best for them. But the shepherd, the shepherd uses whatever means possible to get the sheep to finally relent so that they can get the rest and refreshment they need to face come what may.
The Shepherd revives the soul of her sheep by guiding them—again often by any means necessary----along right pathways, good roads, in a direction toward light and life and love instead of the road of despair and darkness and fear.
Sometimes sheep face horrific terror: predators, drought, loss, danger. The shepherd, even when the sheep have found themselves deep within the valley of death and horror and anger and hate and loss, has his staff extended, a lifeline for the sheep, for when the crook of that staff, the length of that powerful arm of love reaches the sheep, and the sheep stop fighting it, no evil in the world---human made or nature made, will conquer them. For that rod and staff of the shepherd? It comforts, it shelters, it secures. In that grasp, all will be well.
The shepherd, marvelous as she is, spreads a feast before her sheep….the shepherd, always aware of the enemy the devil who is lurking about, spreads this feast just out of the reach of those who wish the sheep harm. Remember that rod and that staff, they keep the darkness away, they shield the flock from harm so that in joyous community, the sheep may lay their burdens down and feast on the gift of love. The sheep, when they relinquish their false sense of control, find their very beings covered in sweet oil and their “cup” overflowing with blessing. The sheep when they turn in full surrender to the loving direction of the shepherd, find themselves in a peace and security not known since they rested in their mother’s womb.
The problem with sheep, though, is that their memory stinks. They are very good forgetters. And so that’s what they do.
They forget.
They wander off.
They get mired in the bramble.
They get lost.
They resist getting found.
They get angry
Belligerent even.
And then?
Then they get sad.
Really sad.
And scared.
Really scared.
And then?
The shepherd shows up.
Well, actually, the shepherd has always been there, searching, reaching out, longing to have the sheep follow his call.
In the end, in the happy ending version of this story, the sheep end up listening. They end up hearing and they follow the call of the Shepherd. They respond to her voice, they find their way home.
Our Lord, our God is, of course, our shepherd. And we? Obviously, we are the sheep.
We are the smelly, stubborn, not all that bright sheep.
We’re lost.
We’re stuck.
We’re scared.
But just around the corner, just up beyond the hill, lies a green pasture of lusciousness and joy beyond anything we can fathom.
We’re lost.
We’re stuck.
We’re scared.
But just around the corner, just beyond the hill, is a pond of still clear waters the likes of which you’ve never seen or tasted--water so refreshing it quenches thirsts you never even knew you had.
We’re lost
We’re stuck
We’re scared
But, just around the corner, just beyond the hill, is a table spread with a manna that is heaven sent. Holy food for holy and blessed people. A food that, when we eat of it, satisfies hungers previously unknown, hungers previously so deep, so sharp, so seemingly un-fillable we long ago gave up seeking to be sated.
Even though the average American has far more ‘stuff’ than in any other time in our history, so many of us live pretty empty lives. We run from our homes to our jobs to the gym or our second jobs or our elderly parent’s house or or or….but at the end of the day when we stop to search for meaning and for hope and for joy, too many of us come up empty- handed…not because meaning, hope and joy aren’t available to us, but because we are so often too lost, too scared and too stuck to notice.
The truth is, the Lord is our shepherd and we are God’s sometimes smelly, often stubborn and really not all that bright, sheep.
May we take the 23rd psalm to heart and
may we find our way back to the fold over smooth pathways, straight roads and verdant valleys.
For the good news is, the great news is this:
the Lord is our Shepherd and we shall never ever want.
Amen and Alleluia.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Sunday, July 12, 2015
God's Like. Proper 10, Yr B July 12, 2015
+We’ve all seen it, some of us have done it, some of us have had it done to us. A parent and child are in the grocery store and the child is engaged in a full blown, foot stomping, ear piercing, temper tantrum. The parent, displaying amazing restraint, says, “You know I love you, but right now I don’t like you very much.”
In most cases, the love of a parent for a child is unconditional….but the like? Oh that’s conditional…there are times we really don’t like the people we love.
Is God, as the ultimate parent, any different? I don’t think so. I know God loves us, but I’m not sure God likes us all the time.
Consider our reading from Amos.
The visions Amos had were clear: God was none too happy with Israel. Established ramrod straight as if on a plumb line the people had gone askew and God, well God was disappointed, angry and perhaps at wit’s end. Right then, God didn’t like God’s people too much.
So God sends this tree dresser, this gardener, a regular guy out to tell the truth: God loves you but God sure doesn’t like you so much right now. And as the reading tells us, “the land couldn’t cope with everything he was saying.” Or, in an older translation, “the land couldn’t bear all his words.”
The people didn’t like what they heard. The people liked being loved, but they didn’t like being held accountable.
Sometimes it’s really hard to accept love—because with love comes great responsibility, responsibility to nurture that love, to respect it and to heed its demands. So the Israelites shut Amos out, despising and rejecting him— they truly couldn’t bear the message being shared …they didn’t want to hear that with God’s love comes expectation. They didn’t accept that Love is a two way street.
Today’s Gospel gives us another glimpse into what happens when we, as recipients of God’s great Love fail to live up to our end of the bargain.
Herod is a sad sap. Now remember this isn’t the Herod of the nativity story, that Herod was ruthless and sure of himself. This Herod? Not so sure of himself. And even though he was attracted to John’s message he didn’t follow John as he may have wanted because, although Herod was King, he most certainly didn’t wear the pants in the family, so although John’s words made his heart burn, fear of his wife made his very being quake so instead of following John, Herod is manipulated by his wife and ends up giving her what she wanted: John’s head on a platter. At that moment, in that situation, Herod had a choice, follow the Love of God as he received it through the words of John or follow his pride and his social standing to adhere to his manipulative and vengeful wife’s hatred.
By denying what he was feeling about John Herod has rejected God. Herod has taken God’s love and simply said, ‘no thank you.”
How often do we choose to save face only to break God’s heart?
The Israelites of Amos’ time did it, Herod did it and you and I do it.
We love God. We know God loves us…but that love so easily fades to the background when we’re faced with the “expectations” of this world, the “expectations” of our own social circle, the “expectations” of our family. How often do we choose the “socially expected” way, the way that will make the fewest waves, cause the least amount of relationship strain instead of the way of God?
When we do that, God doesn’t like us too much.
When we cross the street to avoid the homeless person, God doesn’t like us too much. God doesn’t expect us to give them money, God simply expects us to look them in the eye and to treat them as the human being—the beloved child of God they are.
When we hear someone demeaning the dignity of another human being based on the color of their skin, the name they call their God or the gender of their beloved and we fail to confront that person for their intolerance and hate, God doesn’t like us too much.
When we participate in the destruction of this, our glorious planet, when we are too lazy to recycle, to cheap to demand our food be produced in environmentally sound ways, when we drive bigger and bigger cars, regardless of the cost to earth, God doesn’t like us very much.
When we fail to confront the loved one whose self-destructive behavior is destroying everything good in their world, God doesn’t like us very much.
When we fail to do one of the simplest things we can do to give life to another, by giving blood and by being an organ donor, God doesn’t like us too much.
With love comes great responsibility. To truly love God and to fully accept God’s love of us, we must make the difficult choices, we must speak the hard to hear words.
Herod couldn’t do that—even when face to face with a prophet, face to face with a messenger from God, his heart burning with a recognition that this man brought him something no amount of fame fortune power or prestige could give him couldn’t do that. He rejected the love of God and killed the messenger, all for a few moments of temporal glory and family peace.
Israel in the days Amos, wouldn’t accept God’s love. They doubted, they feared they lost their faith and in so doing, they made God mad. Not mad enough to remove God’s love, but mad enough to make them mighty uncomfortable . God still loved them, but they were too caught up in the here and now to remember that love and to spread it.
We’re no different.
With God’s love comes great expectations. We must let our hearts burn with recognition, we must set out to love and serve the Lord in all we do. We must gather here proclaiming God’s love and then leave here showing the world that love in all that we do and with all whom we meet.
For this is what God likes, a people who know they are loved and in turn love each other in God’s name. When we do that, not only will we be loved, but we’ll also be liked.
Amen.
In most cases, the love of a parent for a child is unconditional….but the like? Oh that’s conditional…there are times we really don’t like the people we love.
Is God, as the ultimate parent, any different? I don’t think so. I know God loves us, but I’m not sure God likes us all the time.
Consider our reading from Amos.
The visions Amos had were clear: God was none too happy with Israel. Established ramrod straight as if on a plumb line the people had gone askew and God, well God was disappointed, angry and perhaps at wit’s end. Right then, God didn’t like God’s people too much.
So God sends this tree dresser, this gardener, a regular guy out to tell the truth: God loves you but God sure doesn’t like you so much right now. And as the reading tells us, “the land couldn’t cope with everything he was saying.” Or, in an older translation, “the land couldn’t bear all his words.”
The people didn’t like what they heard. The people liked being loved, but they didn’t like being held accountable.
Sometimes it’s really hard to accept love—because with love comes great responsibility, responsibility to nurture that love, to respect it and to heed its demands. So the Israelites shut Amos out, despising and rejecting him— they truly couldn’t bear the message being shared …they didn’t want to hear that with God’s love comes expectation. They didn’t accept that Love is a two way street.
Today’s Gospel gives us another glimpse into what happens when we, as recipients of God’s great Love fail to live up to our end of the bargain.
Herod is a sad sap. Now remember this isn’t the Herod of the nativity story, that Herod was ruthless and sure of himself. This Herod? Not so sure of himself. And even though he was attracted to John’s message he didn’t follow John as he may have wanted because, although Herod was King, he most certainly didn’t wear the pants in the family, so although John’s words made his heart burn, fear of his wife made his very being quake so instead of following John, Herod is manipulated by his wife and ends up giving her what she wanted: John’s head on a platter. At that moment, in that situation, Herod had a choice, follow the Love of God as he received it through the words of John or follow his pride and his social standing to adhere to his manipulative and vengeful wife’s hatred.
By denying what he was feeling about John Herod has rejected God. Herod has taken God’s love and simply said, ‘no thank you.”
How often do we choose to save face only to break God’s heart?
The Israelites of Amos’ time did it, Herod did it and you and I do it.
We love God. We know God loves us…but that love so easily fades to the background when we’re faced with the “expectations” of this world, the “expectations” of our own social circle, the “expectations” of our family. How often do we choose the “socially expected” way, the way that will make the fewest waves, cause the least amount of relationship strain instead of the way of God?
When we do that, God doesn’t like us too much.
When we cross the street to avoid the homeless person, God doesn’t like us too much. God doesn’t expect us to give them money, God simply expects us to look them in the eye and to treat them as the human being—the beloved child of God they are.
When we hear someone demeaning the dignity of another human being based on the color of their skin, the name they call their God or the gender of their beloved and we fail to confront that person for their intolerance and hate, God doesn’t like us too much.
When we participate in the destruction of this, our glorious planet, when we are too lazy to recycle, to cheap to demand our food be produced in environmentally sound ways, when we drive bigger and bigger cars, regardless of the cost to earth, God doesn’t like us very much.
When we fail to confront the loved one whose self-destructive behavior is destroying everything good in their world, God doesn’t like us very much.
When we fail to do one of the simplest things we can do to give life to another, by giving blood and by being an organ donor, God doesn’t like us too much.
With love comes great responsibility. To truly love God and to fully accept God’s love of us, we must make the difficult choices, we must speak the hard to hear words.
Herod couldn’t do that—even when face to face with a prophet, face to face with a messenger from God, his heart burning with a recognition that this man brought him something no amount of fame fortune power or prestige could give him couldn’t do that. He rejected the love of God and killed the messenger, all for a few moments of temporal glory and family peace.
Israel in the days Amos, wouldn’t accept God’s love. They doubted, they feared they lost their faith and in so doing, they made God mad. Not mad enough to remove God’s love, but mad enough to make them mighty uncomfortable . God still loved them, but they were too caught up in the here and now to remember that love and to spread it.
We’re no different.
With God’s love comes great expectations. We must let our hearts burn with recognition, we must set out to love and serve the Lord in all we do. We must gather here proclaiming God’s love and then leave here showing the world that love in all that we do and with all whom we meet.
For this is what God likes, a people who know they are loved and in turn love each other in God’s name. When we do that, not only will we be loved, but we’ll also be liked.
Amen.
Monday, July 6, 2015
Notes for my remarks regarding General Convention 78
It is good to be home again.
But, as I think Jesus learned in today's Gospel, leaving home is helpful
--- it changes one's perspective
-----Giving one fresh eyes
And sometimes, when you return home after being gone, you've changed, but home still sees you as you've always been.
And therein lies the conflict and the challenge....you are full of new ideas, you are different.
But folks see you as you've always been.
General convention is a bit homecoming and a bit entering a new land.
You catch up with old friends--- I saw Paul Lillie, seminary friends, folks from Chicago and in one instance someone I've known for over 40 years--- and you make new.
You see these old friends in a different light and you consider your new friends in a unique light--- that of being among several thousand other Episcopalians!
General convention changed our church
And it changed my life
Just as it should!
First of all, being anywhere where episcopalians make up the majority is awesome.
Everywhere we went in SLC there was a sign, welcoming us! They were happy to have us.
Secondly, everyone was really happy.
Now remember we are not of one mind----(table)
But we are of one God
And at GC that really comes through
We truly are a church of via media....the middle way....and everyone must adapt, adjust, bend to create a unified whole
Not so easy for those on the far edges
But everyone worked very hard at it.
So,let take you through what we did as we took the councils of the church for 10 days:
Budget.... Diocesan asking will go down by 2019, but by streamlining some things we should be able to do this without significant cuts. (iPads)
----PB election
Liturgical revision:
BCP
HYMNAL
NAME CHANGE LITURGY
REGULARIZING THE IRREGULAR
DISCUSSION ABOUT BAPTISM
Alcohol use in congregations
Many other "inside baseball" issues that can be tedious but will affect us at the parish level in due time.
We are a people of representative governance. You elect, we represent and on we go.
It's an amazing thing.
And then there is the worship!!! Wow.
Get up girl!!
It's not that hard to find lost sheep...without the lost sheep and the beggars we are nothing but a museum
Music. Dancing. Praising God in many forms and in different languages.
But of course, overarching the whole experience were three events--- one national and two church wide---
Which will change many lives for generations
Supreme Court marriage equality
+Michael
Church marriage equality
Structure
But as Presiding Bishop elect reminded us, we are a Jesus people and Jesus people are committed to making disciples of the whole world
I don't care who you are,
how the Lord has made you,
what the world has to say about you,
if you've been baptized into Jesus
you're in the Jesus Movement and your God's.
As he died to make folk holy
Let us live to set them free
While God is marching on.
Glory.
Glory, hallelujah.
God's truth is marching on.
Now go.
~The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry,
Presiding Bishop - Elect
But, as I think Jesus learned in today's Gospel, leaving home is helpful
--- it changes one's perspective
-----Giving one fresh eyes
And sometimes, when you return home after being gone, you've changed, but home still sees you as you've always been.
And therein lies the conflict and the challenge....you are full of new ideas, you are different.
But folks see you as you've always been.
General convention is a bit homecoming and a bit entering a new land.
You catch up with old friends--- I saw Paul Lillie, seminary friends, folks from Chicago and in one instance someone I've known for over 40 years--- and you make new.
You see these old friends in a different light and you consider your new friends in a unique light--- that of being among several thousand other Episcopalians!
General convention changed our church
And it changed my life
Just as it should!
First of all, being anywhere where episcopalians make up the majority is awesome.
Everywhere we went in SLC there was a sign, welcoming us! They were happy to have us.
Secondly, everyone was really happy.
Now remember we are not of one mind----(table)
But we are of one God
And at GC that really comes through
We truly are a church of via media....the middle way....and everyone must adapt, adjust, bend to create a unified whole
Not so easy for those on the far edges
But everyone worked very hard at it.
So,let take you through what we did as we took the councils of the church for 10 days:
Budget.... Diocesan asking will go down by 2019, but by streamlining some things we should be able to do this without significant cuts. (iPads)
----PB election
Liturgical revision:
BCP
HYMNAL
NAME CHANGE LITURGY
REGULARIZING THE IRREGULAR
DISCUSSION ABOUT BAPTISM
Alcohol use in congregations
Many other "inside baseball" issues that can be tedious but will affect us at the parish level in due time.
We are a people of representative governance. You elect, we represent and on we go.
It's an amazing thing.
And then there is the worship!!! Wow.
Get up girl!!
It's not that hard to find lost sheep...without the lost sheep and the beggars we are nothing but a museum
Music. Dancing. Praising God in many forms and in different languages.
But of course, overarching the whole experience were three events--- one national and two church wide---
Which will change many lives for generations
Supreme Court marriage equality
+Michael
Church marriage equality
Structure
But as Presiding Bishop elect reminded us, we are a Jesus people and Jesus people are committed to making disciples of the whole world
I don't care who you are,
how the Lord has made you,
what the world has to say about you,
if you've been baptized into Jesus
you're in the Jesus Movement and your God's.
As he died to make folk holy
Let us live to set them free
While God is marching on.
Glory.
Glory, hallelujah.
God's truth is marching on.
Now go.
~The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry,
Presiding Bishop - Elect
*****************************************************************************
At the 4:30 service I worked off these notes:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—
Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
From June 24-July 3, as we gathered Episcopalians from far and wide we witnessed the fundamental truth of these statements come to fruition in our country and in our church.
And it was awesome.
We did a lot of work—much of it the “inside baseball” of church polity and structure—all good but not immediately germane to our life together.
And then, as I was sitting in a committee meeting the text message I’ll never forget came through on my phone---the Supreme Court had voted 5-4 for marriage equality. Suddenly I and so many people I know, knew that our marriages were not only “valid” in the eyes of the state they were, at that very moment, the law of the land. Suddenly Pete and I, along with thousands of others were full citizens.
And then we did some really bold things:
We elected the first African American to hold the office of Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church---Michael Bruce Curry, a prophet, an evangelist and a born leader. We are blessed to call Michael ours as he was raised at St Phil.
The electricity around his election, the power of the Holy Spirit as the Bishop’s elected---in a landslide and on the first ballot---him and then we, in the House of Deputies, confirmed their choice---was incredible.
And then we did some other business…like opening the way for other churches to experiment with liturgy as we do here….we decreased the tax levied on dioceses….we addressed issues of alcohol abuse among the clergy and in many of our parishes….we talked about divestment of investments that feed the hatred of Palestinians in Israel….we voted to make a plan fro the revision of the 1979 BCP and the 1982 Hymnal. We did a lot of work.
And then the Holy Spirit did her thing again and in four momentous votes---two in the HOB and two in the HOD---we stated, once and for all, that all people are free to be married in our churches and that the sexual orientation of those people, or the gender identity of those people DOES NOT MATTER. That what matters is Love and that once and for all in our church—the church Pete and I were born into and love----those whom God has brought together, let NO ONE put asunder. In other words, ---all people---in this country and in our church, are created equal---ain’t nobody gonna mess with out marriage.
Two hymns best exemplify the feeling of General Convention and the supreme court decision of last week ---
Lift Every Voice and Sing and The Battle Hymn of the Republic---
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Lift every voice and sing
till earth and heaven ring,
ring with the harmonies of liberty.
Today, my friends, this is true.
Later in the hymn we sing:
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
My brothers and sisters in Christ, for years, for decades, for generations, for millennia, many of us have felt weary and have shed gallons of silent tears.
But now…now those tears have turned from those of weary separation into tears of unbounded joy….
But here’s the thing---whenever the oppression of one is ended it is incumbent upon those who once were lost but are now found to go out and find the lost sheep of this world, the despairing, the hopeless and the terrified an to bring them back into the fold. Our current presiding Bishop, in her sermon to us last Sunday told us that it was time to get up and get out into the world, spreading the Good News of God to all whom we encounter. This may be old news to us at Ascension, but it is very new news to much of our church and it was refreshing to hear it from the Presiding Bishop and then, this past Friday we heard a riveting sermon from our Presiding Bishop-elect who picking up on the theme of inclusion and going out into the world, making disciples of the nations, ended his sermon with this adaptation of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, one of my favorite hymns of all time:
I don't care who you are,
how the Lord has made you,
what the world has to say about you,
if you've been baptized into Jesus
you're in the Jesus Movement and you’re God's.
As he died to make folk holy
Let us live to set them free
While God is marching on.
Glory.
Glory, hallelujah.
God's truth is marching on.
Now go.
~The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry,
Presiding Bishop – Elect
So yes, much was accomplished at the GC but there is much more to do until all peoples—all peoples---will, in joy and thanksgiving lift their voices in a unified hymn of praise to the one God who loves all of us, no exceptions.
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Proper 7 B It’s Up to Us and It’s Time. Aftermath of Mother Emanuel AME Shooting
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.
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.
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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