Fire and witnesses

2025 08 17 Sermon

Jeremiah 23:23-29; Hebrews 11:29—12:2; Luke 12:49-56

Jeremiah talks about prophets. The author of Hebrews talks about witnesses. Jesus talks about households and hypocrites and fire. It sure seems like the world is on fire with anger for many reasons. I read a wide variety of material, and watch a variety of programs on TV. I realize the world has been on fire for at least 2,000 years.

My recent list of books includes The Mistress of Rome, by Kate Quinn, and the Secret Midwife, by Soraya Layne. The Mistress of Rome takes place during the reign of Domitian, Caesar of Rome, at the end of the first century. The lead character, Thea, is a beautiful woman who is enslaved, sold eventually to Domitian who is a great administrator, a lover of gladiator battles, and a violent abuser of women.

The Secret Midwife is a Jewish woman named Emilia living in Poland in during World War II. She delivers Jewish babies and then sends the infants to safety out of the country. Until she is arrested and sent to Auschwitz Concentration Camp where she delivers babies, prevents pregnancies, and keeps infants alive.

And this from last month’s Christian Century article on the conditions at the southern border. “Whether we acknowledge it or not, the American dream is built on the nightmares that workers in our fields, factories, and restaurants endure every day. The true purpose of Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants is not to send workers away, cutting into the profits of business owners, but to keep them just where they are: underpaid, overworked, unrepresented by unions, and living in constant fear of immigration authorities and self-appointed vigilantes.”

The truth of these writings makes me angry, lights a fire inside me. Injustice like this shouldn’t still be happening, especially by people who at the same time profess to being Christian.

… Fortunately, I am also reading The Tears of Things, by Richard Rohr. I consider it a God-incidence that I picked up this book just when I needed it. Rohr writes about the ancient prophets’ lives and messages. The part that I needed to read talked about Jonah. In the few chapters we have, we encounter an angry man, sent by God to tell his neighboring king that God says he is doing it wrong. Jonah never outgrows his early anger.

Other prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah serve as prophets long enough to evolve. They go from yelling and acting out their anger (where Jonah is), to deep lamentation about the conditions and circumstances they live in. From lamentation, they move into the understanding that God is ultimately in charge, so they can let go of their anger and their sadness. From this new point of view, such prophets can seek to share God’s news calmly with those who need to hear it, and allow God to be in charge of the situation.

Also, fortunately, I have read other articles and seen TV shows that give me hope. In Atlanta this week, hundreds of Catholic women religious walked in a “pilgrimage of hope.” As they walked, they were guided by readings, music and periods of contemplative silence. They also stopped to pray for healing for three focus issues: forced migration, climate change, and racism.

And, yesterday morning, I watched an episode of The Harlem Globetrotters: Play It Forward. In this
program, members of the team go into communities around the country to focus on improving the lives of young people. In Chicago, they helped clean up an empty lot and make it a into park where residents could enjoy the outdoors. In New Orleans, they had some fun with a youth drum line.

… These stories help balance the anger at so much injustice with hope for the future. The women religious and the Harlem Globetrotters are witnesses to God’s goodness. They demonstrate that God is at work in the world, even when we are in despair of things ever calming down.

It is important to know in general terms what is happening in the world, but it is not necessary to watch the TV news or follow news feeds all day. And it’s important to balance the bad news with good news, with music and comedy and uplifting stories. It’s important to find witnesses to God’s work in the world, in our communities, and in our lives.

It takes prayer and practice to be aware of goodness when we feel surrounded by so much that is not good. I don’t mean prayer when we take our list of people and situations for God to fix. I mean prayer when we sit in silence and wait for God to speak to us. When we learn to let God speak first, we are more observant of the world and people around us.

When we listen for God, we notice the person with her bags in the park, and we offer her our sandwich. We talk with the school leaders and provide what teachers and students need through the year. We notice the person who seems to have no friends.

We are prophets when we campaign for safe highways and local crosswalks. We are prophets when we write letters and send emails to legislators about issues we are concerned about.

And we don’t do these things alone; we do them with others so we join the cloud of witnesses to the goodness of God shown to us by Jesus. I wonder how you will be a witness and a prophet this week. Amen  

Faithfulness

Genesis 15:1-6; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40

One of my first, and favorite, professors at seminary was Ralph Klein. From him I learned the fun of using images to illustrate my point, and that there were many ways to interpret the ancient languages used in scripture. In the case of our first reading, from Genesis 15, Ralph pointed out that the original language, Hebrew, uses only pronouns. This leads us to wonder: who reckoned it to whom as righteousness.

English translations usually assign the reckoning to Abraham. God/the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness. But Ralph said it could just as easily be translated this way: Abraham reckoned it to God as righteousness.

This fits better with an understanding of God as gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Or, as our psalm today states: God’s lovingkindness settles upon us. God’s love comes first, and we are nourished by it. God is faithful first, and we respond with imperfect attempts to be faithful in return.

… The author of Hebrews summarizes Abraham and Sarah’s story. For 25 years they remained faithful, trusting that God would eventually bless them with children. Their faith was imperfect, as we read the story of their lives. They tried to make things happen on their own, believing it was God’s plan, but it wasn’t. Even so, God remained faithful to them.

As Sarah and Abraham raised their son Isaac, and their grandchildren, they taught them to remain faithful to God, ensuring that the trusting relationship between Abraham and God would continue for generations.

… By Jesus’ time, the simple faith Abraham had in God, the trusts that God wanted a relationship with him and his family has evolved into rules and rituals designed to prove that humans are faithful. People have it wrong, Jesus teaches. It’s not up to us to prove our faithfulness to God; rather, it’s up to us to see God’s faithfulness to us.

Jesus challenges us to have no fear, to trust God as a sheep trusts its shepherd. However, we are not much like sheep, willing to be herded to greener pastures and to allow our fleece to be shaved off us yearly. We are more like …  

a flock of emus, who resist being controlled, who prefer to go our own way, who find it hard to believe that God is faithful to us.

Jesus insists that we need to be persistent, determined … to think, believe, behave differently than the way we have been taught. We must be willing to give up everything we have in order to learn that God wants to give us everything we need.

To discover that God is faithful to us, we need to be aware of what is happening around us. We need to be alert to God’s activity among us.

Of course, 2000 years ago, many people failed to see that God was walking among them, talking with them, teaching them about God’s faithfulness. I wonder how many people of that time realized too late that they had missed the very moment to meet God in person.

… It would seem that we who are gathered here this morning have a sense of who God is, have a reliance on God’s provision, trust God to be there/here! for us. But, when we are with people, do we look for Jesus to be among us?

Do we look for him to be at the bedside of those who are dying? In the grocery store with those who struggle to feed a family healthy meals? In worship with us?

Are we Jesus in those situations? For example … A parishioner from another congregation told me this story. Anna was a woman with an ample figure, standing in line at the grocery store on a Saturday afternoon. In front of her was a young mother with a crying baby. The more mom tried to quiet the baby, the harder the baby cried.

Anna reached out her arms and asked if she could hold the baby. Mom said yes. Anna said babies always loved nestling into her soft chest, and this baby was no different. It only took a moment for the baby to snuggle down into Anna’s arms and stop fussing. By the time the mom had paid for her groceries, the baby was happy and smiling.

… This week, I hope that you rediscover that God is faithful first, before you begin to trust God to give you everything you need.

And second, that you will help someone else see that God is faithful, giving them something that they need, maybe as simple as cuddling a crying baby.

 

Let Us Put on the Clothes of Christ

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23; Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21

It was about 20 years ago that I learned a song that the texts today bring to mind. Since we already have a hymn of the day – that we’re going to sing all month – I decided to use it during the sermon. We’ll sing the refrain at several points in the sermon. 

 Let us put on the clothes of Christ / and live as equals with everyone. / Let us put on the clothes of Christ/ and reunite the family of God. [Credit: Brett Hesla]

The Teacher who wrote Ecclesiastes is thought to be Solomon, but scholars say there is no proof of that. In Hebrew, the book is called Qoheleth, the word for preacher or teacher, so let’s call him that.

Qoheleth is having a late-in-life crisis. Who is he now, has his life been worth anything? He has wealth and power, but what does that mean now? He is thought to be wise, but what does wisdom get him now? It’s all mist or vapor, here for a moment and gone forever.

Qoheleth has worked hard to lead the kingdom. Soon, someone else will follow him, and probably change everything. He has worked hard to obtain stuff. What is it worth now? He can’t take it with him. He is beginning to understand that human endeavors are not as fulfilling as he would have wished, and a different kind of life would have been preferable.

Maybe he didn’t need the royal palaces, the thousands of staff and laborers, the wars to gain land and power over his enemies, and the garments made of purple cloth and gold trim. Maybe all he needed was the relationship with God that King David had.

 Let us put on the clothes of Christ / and live as equals with everyone. / Let us put on the clothes of Christ/ and reunite the family of God.

In the Gospel reading, a rich man approaches Jesus. He tries to triangle him into a discussion with his brother about their shared inheritance. Jesus flatly refuses, then tells a story.

A rich man has benefitted from good harvests and accumulated more grain than he can possibly store in his present silos. So, he makes a plan to build another silo, but instead of reveling in the abundance, his life ends suddenly, today. Jesus then gives us the “Moral of the story.” Don’t be greedy, instead be rich toward God.

Let us put on the clothes of Christ / and live as equals with everyone. / Let us put on the clothes of Christ/ and reunite the family of God.

The author of Colossians, who may be Paul or someone writing in his name, makes plain what Jesus and Kohelet were saying. Following Jesus the Christ is the most important thing in your life. And here are some specifics about how to do that.

Essentially, Paul tells us to change how we live in the same way we change our clothes. Take off old habits and put on new habits that focus on living as a baptized child of God. Give up unhealthy sexual practices, give up greed, give up anger and slander and abusive language. Tell the truth, not lies.

Especially, recognize that Jesus welcomes all. The familiar ways of dividing people into groups is out. All are welcome in Jesus’ love.

 Let us put on the clothes of Christ / and live as equals with everyone. / Let us put on the clothes of Christ/ and reunite the family of God.

We could use the list of don’ts in Colossians to shape our lives. When we think of it, the list parallels the Ten Commandments, the portion that tells us how to respect and love each other.

You may have a story about yourself or someone else who’s life changed when they committed their life to Jesus. Sometimes, that commitment happens suddenly; sometimes, it’s a slow process. Either way, when we commit our lives to Jesus, it should be evident to others.

Next week, August 11 is the day we honor St Clare of Assisi, so it’s a good time to talk about how her life changed when she heard Francis preach about Jesus. Francis was the son of a cloth merchant, wealthy enough to be thought of today as upper middle class. He tried going to war, twice, and failed, twice. Finally, he heard God’s message: Francis, rebuild my church. Once he understood that the rebuilding was not about buildings but about people, he began preaching about depending 100% on God for whatever we need.

Clare was from an upper-class family, on the verge of marrying the son from another upper-class family. She heard Francis preach and her life changed. She determined to give up the fancy clothes, the multi-room mansion, the seven-course meals. She joined Francis and the several men who were already following him.

Her hair, considered a woman’s pride and beauty, was cut off, and Clare went to live in a Benedictine monastery until Francis could find a better place for her. Eventually, Clare and several other women lived in a small monastery, slept on the floor, and lived on the food they could grow in their garden and what the local people would donate to them.

Her commitment to following Jesus led her to use her skills as a writer to create some beautiful images of our relationship with God. My favorite is this one:  Place your mind before the mirror of eternity, and your soul in the brilliance of [God’s] glory.

If we remember that we are created in the image of God, children of God, heirs of God’s glory, it may help us put on the clothing of a renewed, changed life.  Amen

  Let us put on the clothes of Christ / and live as equals with everyone. / Let us put on the clothes of Christ/ and reunite the family of God.

Host and guest

Genesis 18:1-10a; Luke 10:38-42

Today, our readings from Genesis and Luke are about hospitality. We see examples in these readings of being the host and being the guest.

I have taken my turn in the kitchen as the host, and I have taken my turn as the guest. Most recently, the Pinelands Conference spring gathering was at Luther Springs, where there were 3 concurrent events happening.

One group of guests was just leaving the dining hall as we were arriving, having been shooed out by the staff. The tables were still littered with breakfast dishes and syrup. It was obvious – the sooner the tables were cleared, the sooner we could begin our own program. Many of the men stood around discussing options, and I began clearing tables, playing the host. Two or three women and men joined me in clearing the tables, and in a short time, the dean could start the meeting. I took my place at one of the tables, and became a listener/learner, a guest.

… In the reading from Genesis, Abraham and Sarah are losing hope of ever having a child, but on this day, three visitors assure them that a child will be born within the year. Abraham is the perfect host: he welcomes the travelers according to local custom, inviting them to wash their feet, quench their thirst, and enjoy a snack while they wait for a meal to be prepared. In the meantime, Sarah may be supervising the meal preparations, but she is also listening at the tent opening.

The guests are understood to be divine messengers. Later believers label them as the Trinity, God in three personas, visiting in person. They are the guests, for sure, but the way they bring a message from God, they could also be thought of as the hosts.

 … In Martha’s home, Jesus is a welcome guest. Although the Gospel of John includes more stories about Martha and Mary, this is the only mention of them in Luke, so, let’s not assume we know anything other than what we have here.

Martha welcomes Jesus to her home, and her sister Mary sits at Jesus’ feet. As the host of this important, well-known guest, Martha wants everything to be perfect. She doesn’t have the servants to carry out the meal preparation tasks that Abraham had, so it’s all up to her. That’s the right way to honor a guest: make everything special.

Mary has other ideas about how to make a guest feel special. She gives him all her attention, ignoring the fuss that Martha is making about a special meal. Martha notices that Mary is not helping her, and motions, urging her to come and help her with the meal. Mary ignores her, and Martha triangles Jesus into the situation.

“Jesus,” she whines, “Tell Mary to help me!” Well, maybe she doesn’t whine. Certainly, she asks Jesus to intervene. He surprises Martha by telling her to stop fussing and come and join them.

… So, a couple things to notice. For us today, having women sitting at the feet of a guest, a storyteller, a teacher, is common. But women’s role in Jesus’ time was to remain in the background, listen while they worked, hidden by the doorway. Or be totally out of earshot – because what the guest was saying “wasn’t for women’s ears.” Here, we can think about Sarah, listening to the three guests from the tent opening.

 In contrast, we know that it was Jesus’ intent to include women in everything. It is Jesus’ intent here for Martha to join Mary in listening/learning at his feet. The fancy meal isn’t needed. The dishes can wait. Take off your apron and sit with us.

… In Luke, Jesus talks a lot about people serving each other, helping those in need. So, it kind of surprises us that Jesus takes this approach with Martha. If serving is good, why criticize her? … And I wonder: what about Mary? Shouldn’t she have called to Martha, telling her to leave the dishes and join her? Luke, our story-teller, doesn’t tell us if that has happened.  

Both stories today are about offering good hospitality, and that hospitality includes being present with the guests. Abraham did this well; of course, he had servants to do the cooking and cleaning. In a small household without servants, we ourselves are responsible for the hospitality, and this is the place where Martha was.

I think Martha was unhappy because she was torn about how best to provide hospitality: the traditional pose: behind the scenes provision of a good meal; or the non-traditional pose: listening and learning at the feet of the teacher. Martha wanted to sit with Jesus, too, but her culture told her she shouldn’t, couldn’t, as long as there was work to do.

… And the most important point in these stories about hosts and guests is that when Jesus is the guest, our focus is rightly on being with him. The table setting, the food, the flower arrangement, the bulletin, the music, is all less important than spending time with Jesus. He is both host and guest at every gathering, every time we pray, every time we worship.  

… Hospitality is about welcoming guests in many ways, and as church people, we are all called to do our best to welcome guests and make them feel at home. Sometimes, that means setting out the food and cleaning up afterwards. And sometimes, it means sitting with the guests and getting to know them.

This week, I hope you ponder the ways you offer hospitality. Do you focus on the meal or on the guest? Or do you find ways to do both? How, especially, do you welcome Jesus? Amen

It’s not too hard for you

Deuteronomy 30:9-14; Luke 10:25-37

I have been pondering the message from Moses to the Israelites as he prepares them for their future. He reminds them that God is present with them, provides for them, and prospers them. In return, the people will observe the commandments and decrees God has given them.

It should not be hard for them to abide by the commandments, because it is written on their hearts, in their whole beings. It should be easy to put God first and be a good neighbor, with the word of God encased in their beings. … As their spiritual descendants, it should be easy for US to do this. But it isn’t. Other parts of our human nature compete with this God-given part, and lead us to be self-centered, imperfect.

… Jesus appeared on earth, God incarnated, God-with-skin-on, to speak God’s words to us in ways we could understand. He spoke with love, with healing, with challenge, to set us back onto God’s path once again. Often, Jesus used parables to make his point. Some of them are so familiar, so easy to understand that they exist in the popular culture, often separated from faith and religion.

 In today’s Gospel, Jesus has a conversation with a legal expert, who seeks to trap Jesus speaking against God. The term “legal expert” is the new way of describing those we used to call “scribes.”  Legal experts not only copied the Torah onto new scrolls, they were familiar with the commandments and the centuries of interpretation of those commandments. They knew how far one could walk on a sabbath; the ways to prepare for sabbath meals; the importance of the annual festivals and how to observe them.

The man asks Jesus about eternal life. Jesus asks a question in return, and the man responds by quoting the Shema – a prayer Jews say every day. “Here, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.”

“Good,” Jesus says. ‘Go and do that!” But the man has a qualifying question. “But, just who is my neighbor?” The question implies the belief that some are his neighbor, and some are not. In response, Jesus tells the parable we call “The good Samaritan.” Interestingly, the author of the book I’m using for Monday Bible study calls this the “parable of the travelers.”

Sometimes, in a parable, we can each take several roles. But, in this one, we usually choose to be the hero. No one wants to be the priest or the Levite. Few even want to be the innkeeper. We want to be the hero, the Samaritan, the one who takes care of his enemy. It’s really not necessary to explain this parable; we can all tell it, pretty much word for word.

 … So let’s think about what it means for us, by asking the question the legal expert asked Jesus. “Who is my neighbor?” We know the “right answer” is everyone. But we find it hard to live it out. There is something within us that forces us to make a distinction between people – some are neighbors, and some can’t possibly be neighbors.

We can rationalize it: our neighbors are not those who live far away; our neighbors are not those who are too different from us; our neighbors are not those who try to harm us – our enemies.  But, Jesus has a comment about that. “I say to you who are willing to hear: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you.” [Luke 6:27-28]

 … We have no excuse, in other words, but to see all people as neighbors, as kin – as I proposed last week. Our country is founded on the principle that all are welcome, that all should be treated fairly, with kindness. Yet, there are lots of examples of refusals to be neighborly toward some group of people or other.

What can we do in the face of such behavior? We can do our best to follow Jesus’, and Lady Liberty’s, example, loving all, welcoming all, and remembering that none of us is perfect. And we can follow other examples of living like Jesus.

 One of the best ambassadors of neighborliness is Fred Rogers. His TV show and way of life demonstrated that all are our neighbors. Many of you will remember that Mr Rogers shows aired beginning in 1968, and that it was a time of great civil unrest. Fred Rogers wanted to take a stand against such prejudice.

In many places, only white people were allowed in community swimming pools. This 1969 episode, which showed Mr Rogers and Officer Clemmons putting their feet in the same water in a child’s swimming pool, was groundbreaking. Fred went even further. He offered to share his towel. And then, he dried Officer Clemmons’ feet. It was scandalous, to some folks. 

Later, Francois Clemmons reflected on this moment. He says he'll never forget the day Rogers wrapped up the program, as he always did, by hanging up his sweater and saying, "You make every day a special day just by being you, and I like you just the way you are." This time in particular, Rogers had been looking right at Clemmons, and after they wrapped, he walked over.

Clemmons asked him, "Fred, were you talking to me?" … "Yes, I have been talking to you for years," Rogers said, as Clemmons recalls. "But you heard me today." … "It was like telling me I'm OK as a human being," Clemmons says. "That was one of the most meaningful experiences I'd ever had."

 … It should not be too hard for us to be good neighbors, according to Moses. God’s word is written in our entire beings. But we are crafty people, and the contrary spirit within us resists the good one. We find ways to not be neighborly. Sometimes, it’s little things, annoyances. But sometimes, we follow the crowd and think of a group of people as “not our neighbors.” We apply labels to them. I won’t list them, but you know what they are.

This week, I pray that you will pay attention to how neighborly you are. When are you tempted to name someone as “not your neighbor?” How do you respond when someone calls someone else “not a neighbor?” Also consider: How many ways are you a good neighbor?  Amen

 

Among Kin

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

On our vacation, Mike and I spent 10 days in Michigan, starting in Detroit, crossing the state along I-94, and ending in Three Oaks, before heading back to Detroit to fly home.  Mostly, we stayed in hotels, but the first four nights we stayed with friends.

Karen and Tom hosted us well. Before we left home, Karen had asked about food sensitivities and preferences. Supper was ready when we arrived at their home after our flights, and breakfast was a spread of our favorites and theirs. We enjoyed their favorite restaurants and home-cooked meals. They took us on a tour of the revitalization of Detroit. They treated us like family, like kin.

… The people of Jesus’ time and place knew about kings and their powerful ways. Kings had all the power and their whims were met with instant compliance. Those who lived within the boundaries of the kingdom were subjects, with limited power and control over their own lives. Often, heads rolled, or bodies ended up on crosses, when kings were unhappy.  

Today, most kings – and queens – are controlled by a congress or parliament, so heads don’t literally roll any more at the whim of the monarch. But we still envision a kingdom as a place, a land with boundaries.

In contrast, Jesus has been teaching that the kingdom of God is different from the earthly kingdom. In the kingdom of God, there are no land boundaries, because it is everywhere God is.

In the kingdom of God, all are important, all are equally children of God, equally loved and forgiven by God. In the kingdom of God, as Paul writes, there is no Jew or Gentile, no slave or slave owner, no male and female.  Jesus envisions a very different way for us to understand God’s relationship with us. Jesus wants us to understand that with God, we are all kin with each other, and through Jesus we are kin with God. Jesus is saying that the kin-dom of God has come near.

…In our gospel reading, Jesus’ ministry has expanded from the initial handful of fishermen to hundreds of followers from all over the Galilee. From these he chose 70 followers to go out and spread the good news farther than he can by himself.  They form a sort of advanced team, to discover where he will be welcome, and where he needn’t bother going.

I imagine it worked like this: Jesus anticipated that the cultural standard of warm hospitality for strangers would work in their favor. Jesus’ expectation was that the disciple pairs would be treated like kin in the homes and towns where they were visiting. He envisioned that the pairs of disciples could develop relationships with their host families, and find ways to share the good news of the kin-dom of God with them.

Mealtime is a great time for such a conversation, and so is work. As the disciples found ways to fit into the towns they were visiting, they used their own skills to contribute to the household economy, studied the Scriptures in the synagogue with the rabbi, and cared for animals and children.

Many, but not all, came to believe in what these followers of Jesus said about him, and wanted to learn more about Jesus and the kin-dom of God. They welcomed Jesus and shared the same hospitality with him that they offered to the visiting pairs.

… 238 years ago, Thomas Jefferson and others who were planning for the future of this country had a similar vision. No king would rule here. Instead, there would be a balance of powers among the president, the congress, and the court. Each would have their own power, but none would have total control.

They sought a balance of power among the states, with care for fair representation. And the people, as well as these men could imagine, were equal as well. Yes, there were still elite and poor, slaves and slave owners, men and women, but the vision for a democracy was born. Over the centuries, amendments have refined the definition of fair representation. It is still imperfect, but being a citizen or legal resident of the US does feel more like kin than like subject.

… Even so, being American is not as important as being a child of God, as being kin with God’s children around the world, with people we know and people we will never meet. The kin-dom of God is present everywhere, whether we acknowledge the kinship or not.

Like it or not, we are kin with everyone in this room, with everyone in greater Leesburg, with everyone in Florida, with everyone in the US, with everyone in North America, with everyone in the world. That means we are kin with people we don’t like, with people we don’t trust, with people who don’t like us.

It’s hard to imagine this, isn’t it? It was just as hard for the first disciples and followers of Jesus. But Jesus promised that whatever they accomplished, they did it with God’s help.

This week, I hope you imagine yourself as kin with everyone you meet, and everyone you think about. When it is hard to do, ask for God’s help. Amen

 

 

Trinity Mystery

 Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Psalm 8; Romans 5:1-5; Gospel: John 16:12-15

I am always hesitant to preach on Holy Trinity Sunday. It’s a theological topic, and as you are well aware, I’d much rather tell you some stories. So, what I give you today is a collection of thoughts about the Trinity.

… It’s too easy to fall into a wrong interpretation of the Trinity. I have a video about it. I know it goes fast; the main point is that the analogies we use to try to explain the Trinity are wrong. (show video) 

Donall and Conall, and St Patrick, are citing the Athanasian Creed which declares that “We worship one God in three persons and three persons in one God, without mixing the persons or dividing the divine being. For each person—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—is distinct, but the deity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory and coeternal in majesty.”

It can be helpful to define God, the Trinity, as a black and white diagram, or as a grammatical exercise. But it’s more like this image, with Father, Son, and Spirit a constantly flowing and interchanging movement. There is one God, that we may experience in different ways, even at the same moment in time. It’s all about relationships, within the Godhead, and between us and God.

… We might think about the way we pray. For many, talking to God means calling on God the Father, the creator of all, who we think of as loving us the way a parent loves.

For others, praying to Jesus is like talking to a friend, who listens as we walk the neighborhood, or joins us at a meal. Jesus makes God seem friendlier, more understandable. At the same time, Jesus makes us want to be more just, more inclusive, as we learn to follow his way of life.

And for others, praying is a spiritual, meditative, contemplative experience. When we spend time in silence, we make room for God the Spirit to approach and enter us. Through God the Spirit there is an opportunity to feel a union with the Divine.

When we pray this way, we don’t pray exclusively to the Father, and ignore the Son or Spirit, and so forth. All the persons of the Trinity are there when we pray, and we know that.

… One of the confusing aspects of the Trinity is our language. We describe Father, Son, and Spirit as three persons, which tends to separate God into three separate entities.

But the original language describes God as three personas. In ancient theater, one actor played several parts, switching masks to identify who he was portraying in that moment. One actor, several personas. Now, Conall and Donall might describe this as partialism, or modalism, but the original intent is to describe the Trinity as One God, experienced in three main ways.

… I remember, imperfectly, a quote from a book by Justo Gonzales. He wrote something like this: The mystery of the Trinity is not a puzzle to be solved but a life to be lived. So we need to spend less time trying to solve the puzzle and more time living what Trinity teaches us. [Hanayama cast puzzle] 

Which takes us to our readings for today. Each of them describes aspects of our relationship with God, and the many ways God reaches out to have a relationship with us. It’s a mutual thing. It’s like that old song, “Mutual admiration society.” We look to God and God looks to us.

What’s the most important thing to know about the Holy Trinity? From the beginning, God has wanted to have a loving, caring relationship with us, and wants us to have a loving, caring relationship with God and with each other, as equally loved and cared for by God.

This week, I suggest you pay attention to how you pray. Do you focus on one persona more than the others? What happens if you switch it up? Does that enhance your prayer? Let me know if you try this. Amen 

 

Crash helmets and life preservers!

 Acts 2:1-21; John 14:8-17

Today, Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the coming of God’s Holy Spirit into the world. This doesn’t mean God’s Spirit wasn’t present before, because we see signs of God’s Spirit throughout the Old Testament. But on this Sunday, the reading from Acts is remarkable in the way Spirit made herself known.

There are, of course, varying scriptural witnesses to the coming of Spirit. The first happens the night the disciples see the risen Jesus, in the upper room, Easter Evening. He breathes on them, saying “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This is the same Spirit Jesus promised during their last supper together.

This Spirit is sort of peaceful, unobtrusive. For weeks, we’ve been reading stories in Acts where Spirit guides the disciples, opens prison doors, frees people from demons, and so forth. This Spirit helps us pray, connect with God, meditate, and so forth.  We think of Spirit working rather like this  video

Let’s give our video friend an American name: Dan. In this video, Dan discovers a lot about himself and his neighbors through simple acts of kindness to others. The woman with the food cart counts on him, and they begin to have fun with each other. The little girl gets to go to school. Dan has a flourishing garden that started with one dry plant. The old woman hugs him, and apparently shares her bananas with him. He has a dog who follows him and eats from his hand. And the vendors shake their heads in wonder. God’s Holy Spirit works like this, slowly, in almost imperceptible ways changing lives.

But this is not the only way Spirit works. It’s been 50 days since Easter. Jesus has ascended and no longer appears to the disciples. They are meeting to figure out what to do next, while they wait for the Holy Spirit Jesus promised would come to them.

And outside the room where the disciples are meeting, a sound like violent wind and tongues of flame appeared in the plaza. A crowd forms, as Jews from all around the Mediterranean Sea come to see what is happening. [Pastor’s note: I realize this week that these folks are not visitors, in town for the celebration. These are foreigners who live in Jerusalem! It says so in verse 5.]

The disciples rush outside and begin to tell everyone about Jesus. They speak Aramaic with a Galilean accent, but everyone hears in their own languages. It’s a miracle of hearing, of simultaneous translation through Spirit. After a while, Peter gets everyone’s attention and gives a message linking this present moment to the promise made by the Prophet Joel
hundreds of years before.

… As I was preparing for this sermon, this quote caught my attention. The poet Annie Dillard once wrote about Christian worship, “Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? We should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews” (Teaching a Stone to Talk, HarperCollins, 1982, p. 58). We invoke God’s name Sunday after Sunday, but do we expect the sudden rush of the Spirit, people on fire for God, new proclamations spilling out everywhere?

Are we actually ready for God to show up? The quote made me think about the “normal” Lutheran congregation. Lutheran Church traditional worship is silent appreciation of the sermon, reverently bowed heads, and singing hymns in four-part harmony. I have been in churches where the folks smiled as loudly as they could when I said something funny.

While that is not true here, it is still hard to get you to clap your hands in time to the music. It's as if we think Jesus didn’t have a sense of humor, and God doesn’t have rhythm. If Jesus’ coming among us brings us joy, if a song or hymn is about praising God’s goodness and holiness, let’s make some joyful noise. 

Instead of quiet reverence, what if we expected Spirit to be so active among us, we needed crash helmets and life preservers? What if we allowed ourselves to be so aware of Spirit’s presence within these walls, we took her with us wherever we went outside the building? What if we listened to her give us ministry ideas and some of them actually worked?

Being church is not just about what happens inside the building. Like the first disciples, we are called, charged, to leave the safety of our building, to take the good news and share it with those who need to hear it, with those who are curious about the Spirit within us, with those in our immediate neighborhood, with those in our various communities.

Today, this week, I hope you will pay attention to the activity of Spirit. How does she help you connect with your neighbors? How does she challenge you to be kind when you’d rather not be bothered? How does she help you share Jesus’ love and forgiveness with someone who needs to hear some good news? Amen!