Trinity, the fire triangle of creative love

Today, with our church family we celebrate Trinity Sunday, invoking images of the three as one - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  This doctrinal concept might conjure all sorts of intellectual quandaries for you, as it has for faithful thinkers for many, many generations.  And, in our secular lives this is also Father’s Day – “father” a symbol that invokes a variety of emotional reactions, depending on our relationship that masculine idea/ideal and how it has been manifested in our own families.

DISCLAIMER:  Full disclosure, I’m ambivalent about gender attributions to God – I yearn for a divine parent, and also hope that God is well beyond my limited projections of engendered expectations.  Yet, masculine imagery of authority is unavoidable today given the secular observance of Father’s Day and the language used in our most familiar doxology (E.g., “praise to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”).  Indeed, from our scripture and tradition, we’ve inherited the language and imagery of God as Father.  And, with reason, we could occupy a whole homily expounding on the challenges of experiencing God as exclusively masculine authority, problems with patriarchy, options from feminist theology, etc..; that’s not my intention today.  When we hear the variety of language used to imagine God (mother, father, creator, etc.), we’re invited to be aware of our responses to the words and images used – masculine, feminine, and gender neutral.  In all cases, consider what our responses reveal about assumptions and models we follow, and how expanding these might be healthy and helpful.  And, with whatever language we employ to describe God, let’s be aware of how considering God through intimately personal and familiar terminology keeps us in touch with incarnational reality of divine relationships.  

Now, let’s turn the doctrine of the Trinity, our readings from scripture, and tie these together with our lives and relationships today.

TRINITY

We’ve just come through major seasons (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, and Easter) in which we’ve focused on the divine Word made flesh.  And, we’ve just celebrated the birth of the church with the coming of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost).  After today’s special observance, we’ll begin a long stretch of our church year, considered ‘ordinary time’, in which the liturgical color returns to green and we’ll be focusing on creation, growth, and discipleship, which includes focusing on how we nurture relationship with God and each other.

We’re launched into this stretch of ‘ordinary time’ by this Trinity Sunday, a major feast dedicated to a church doctrine, not a biblical story or event.  

Not long after the earthly church was born, thinking believers in the 2^nd Century struggled to make sense of a God in multiple forms (divinity of Christ and existence of the Spirit) that was also singular (the Yahweh of Jewish monotheism).   Debate of explanations, rationalizations, and understandings of the Trinity have continued ever since – in legal, economic, and metaphysical terms - beginning with much debate over the parent-child relationship (Christology) and later brining the Spirit into this dance.

In the second century, Tertullian, a legal mind who was not content with classical Greek theology, articulated the “three persons in one substance” Trinitarian description of God that endured through the expressions of later ecumenical councils in 4^th Century (which beget what we now recite as the Nicene Creed).  Athanasius (Bishop of Alexandria in the 4^th Century) wrote, “It is a wholly creative and energizing reality, self-consistent and undivided in its active power, for the Father makes all things through the Word and in the Holy Spirit, and in this way the unity of the holy Trinity is preserved” (from his letter to Serapion).

In the 9^th Century, debates between Western/Latin and Eastern/Greek terminology (‘same’ vs. ‘similar’, essence/substance, beings/persons, characters/mask/roles, threeness vs. oneness) and interpretations of the particulars of the role of “the Son” in the relationship with “the Spirit” would lead to schism between West and East when the West/Latin finally decided to amend the Nicene Creed to include their particular viewpoint about the placement of the Son in a particular order of procession.

In more recently history within the last few centuries there has been again debate about the rationale and relevance of the Doctrine of the Trinity.  For a time, it seemed that discussion of the Trinity was dimming in significance.  Then, theologians like Karl Barth and Karl Rahner brought it back into passionate consideration (in Barth’s Church Dogmatics as “modes of being”; in Rahner’s The Trinity as “distinct modes of subsisting”). 

SCRIPTURE

Why does a notion of God as Trinity endure?  Although the word “trinity” is not found explicitly in our scriptures, three main experiences of the divine are certainly implicit - speaking of parental God (as Father), God’s Word (as Son), and breath of God (as Spirit).  The scriptures are all about the triangle of God’s relationship with us, our relationship with God, and relationships among all of us in creation.

In this morning’s reading from Genesis, we’re reminded that from the beginning was the creator’s Word (logos), and that it is the creator’s breath (ruach, a feminine term in Hebrew; also rendered as pnuema of Spirit) that brought everything, including all of us into being.  Also, you’ll notice that God speaks of God’s self in the plural – “our image” – revealing a relational plurality in God’s being.  We were created in that image as well – as an ‘us’ / a ‘we’ – relational creatures… and God deems this ‘good.’

Today’s Gospel reading contains the only biblical phrase that is most like our Trinitarian doctrine.  It’s found at the end of the Gospel according to Matthew in Jesus’s final instructions to his disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:19).  On this basis, Trinitarian language became part of our very earliest baptismal rites – the ritualistic entry into our church family.

On the subject of family, this morning’s excerpt from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians really brings the familial aspects of Trinity to life.  Paul is very emotional in this letter to a fractured family of believers in Corinth.  In the part of his letter we heard this morning, he appeals to the nature of divine relationship to promote healing among earthly, human relationships.  He proclaims that God is about “love and peace” and that God’s grace is the loving communion shared with Christ through the Holy Spirit.  Through participation with this trinity of love, Paul invites the family of Corinthian  believers to reconcile through sharing in a holy kiss (note: sharing the “kiss of peace” preceded our more modern convention of exchanging the peace through a handshake).

OUR LIVES / RELATIONSHIPS

We can sense that despite its intellectual history the Doctrine of the Trinity is not as much an academic endeavor as it is a very heart-felt attempt to articulate our experience of how God has and does relate with us. 

In the Trinity, we encounter some complex and emotionally provocative concepts.  Some wisdom suggests that if we dwell too long, probe too deeply into the mystery of God as Trinity, we’re bound to slip into heresies.  While it can be tempting, even enjoyable for some of us, to get a little lost in the mental puzzles that the ideas and ideals that this doctrine represents, we’re encouraged to ground ourselves in the simple, sublime truth that this all boils down to divine relationships. 

Along with the traditional “Father, Son, and Spirit”, more contemporary formulations of Trinity also include “Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer” and “Source, Wellspring, and Living Water” (coined by David Cunningham, Professor of Theology and Ethics at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary).  These analogies and models can help with a cognitive understanding of the functions/actions of God in our lives (creation, sustenance, order, preservation, and provision), without triggering potentially problematic projections embedded in engendered personal terminology. 

Personally, I’ve found the model of the fire triangle helpful as analogous with our participation with divine love.  The fire triangle model explains that in fire, three things exist – heat, fuel, and oxygen.  In divine love, the heat of creative intention ignites passion and compassion that is enlivened by the very breath (pneuma/wind/Spirit) of God.  Put another way, just as heat, fuel, and oxygen are fully present in fire, the heat of God’s breath is present as fuel between and among our loving relationships with each other. We are invited into the fire of God’s relationship with all persons.  As we work on stoking our relationship with each other, we are cultivating relationship with God.  As we fuel our relationship with God, we increase our capacity for relationships with others. 

Whatever language model we use, the Trinity points us toward the nature of a relational God, as well as the nature of our human/familial relationships.  Trinity can help us perceive and live toward more divine relationship with God and with each other.  Essentially it’s all about mutual attraction, compassion, and creative love.  

I’d like to end with word from a contemporary Anglican clergyman W.H. Vanstone (b.1923, d. 1999) who describes the relationship of theTrinity with humanity through imagery of adopting an orphan into the family.  I like this because is ties in so much of what we’re dealing with today on Trinity Sunday and a day we honor one of our parents:

Trinitarian theology asserts that God’s love for his creation is not the love that is born of ‘emptiness’ … It is the love which overflows from fullness. Its analogue is the love of a family who, united in mutual love, take an orphan into the home. They do so not out of need but in the pure spontaneity of their own triumphant love. Nevertheless, in the weeks that follow, the family, once complete in itself, comes to need the newcomer. Without him the circle is now incomplete; his absence now causes anxiety: his waywardness brings concern; his goodness and happiness are necessary to those who have come to love him; upon his response depends the triumph or the tragedy of the family’s love.  In spontaneous love, the family has surrendered its own fulfillment and placed it, precariously, in the orphan’s hands. Love has surrendered its triumphant self-sufficiency and created its own need. This is the supreme illustration of love’s self-giving or self-emptying – that it should surrender its fullness and create in itself the emptiness of need. Of such a nature is the kenosis [emptying] of God  -- the self-emptying of Him Who is already in every way fulfilled.

William Hubert Vanstone, Love’s Endeavour, Love’s Expense: The Response of Being to the Love of God (London: Darton, Longman, and Todd, 1977), 69.

All our trinitarian models considered, naming God in very personal terms gets closer to heart of the matter, helping us experience God as encompassing lover, the beloved, and mutual love.  God, in all of God’s fullness, is as intimate with us as an embrace… and a kiss.  And God has told us, time and again, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

AMEN.

Celebrating Pentecost with a Baptism and memories of this past year in the Spirit

A year ago today (June 12, 2010), in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, I was ordained a deacon.  Within a week of that blessed moment, I was with Bishop Bruno and others in the Holy Land, where we would walk the paths of our Lord and the early disciples and also renew our baptismal vows in the Jordan River.

Today, a year later (June 12, 2011), in the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, now having been ordained a priest, I celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and baptized one of our Kansas State campus ministry 'peer ministers' at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Manhattan, KS.

The summer of 2010 launched me into an international journey of deep vocational discovery that would fuel my discernment about job opportunities upon my return to the U.S. and eventually lead me to relocate to the Diocese of Kansas on Labor Day to accept their call to serve as Campus Missioner.  Life over these past nine months has been full of healthy new beginnings and discoveries about humility, service, worship, formation, faith, and ordained ministry.

This summer of 2011 promises to be an equally wonderful journey.  In less than two weeks, I'll be sharing and learning with colleagues at a campus ministry conference in northern California before traveling with Bishop Wolfe to Kenya to serving alongside a team of college students on a Kansas2Kenya mission trip.  After our mission service in Kenya, I'll separate from our team and begin a long-awaited extended vacation that will include travels alone as well as fellowship with friends and family. This extended sabbath should provide plenty of time and space for reflection, renewal, and rejuvenation before my return to a new academic term of campus ministry in the Diocese of Kansas.

This past year of dancing with the Holy Spirit has been full of fire, water, wind, and new breath - I can't help but offer God heartfelt thanks and joyful praise for all that has been and for all that will be !

Living and loving in Unity with Christ may cause us to suffer for a little while

This is the last Sunday of our Easter season.  Christ has risen.  Christ has reassured us.  Christ has now ascended into heaven.  Next Sunday we will celebrate the arrival of the gift that Christ promised us – the coming to us of the Holy Spirit (our advocate, counselor, helper, and comforter) at Pentecost, remembered in our tradition as the ‘birth of the church.’  

As we prepare to celebrate the arrival of this promised gift and the bursting forth of new life in it, today’s lessons underscore that despite Jesus no longer being visible to us in bodily form, Christ dwells in/with us through this Spirit; and that beyond any apparent set-backs in our temporal existence, we’ve been eternally redeemed through the crucifixion and resurrection.

Today, our lessons both have us looking back at where we’ve been as well as looking forward to what has been promised.  The Spirit calls to be aware that living and loving with Christ can put us at odds with dominant culture around us and lead to our suffering (as it has for our ancestors)… “OUR” – we’re also called to live and love in unity as one beloved body… and body that doesn’t so much need to be re-united by our own efforts, but a blessed collective that needs to wake up to the truth that we’re already inter-connected, inter-dependent by our very created nature.  Ultimately we are ‘one’ just as God, Christ, and the Spirit are one.

LOOKING BACK

The Psalmist (Psalm 68:1-10. 33-36) reminds us that God brought our ancestors out of bondage in Egypt and saved them from their enemies.  We’re told that people who deny or turn-away from God are left in parched places – thirsting, hungry, embittered.  But that people who worship and praise God will be provided: protection, shelter, freedom, provisions and nourishment, refreshment, strength and power.  God intends that we participate in the building of our relationships into a healthy, unified family.

In our reading from the Gospel according to John (John 17:1-11), we travel back to that last supper that Jesus, in earthly form, shared with his closest disciples (on what we now remember as Maundy Thursday).  They were celebrating in that moment all that was happening… but Jesus was already looking ahead to what was to come.  Offering instructions, guidance, and encouragement he says the words we heard today that are sometimes referred to as his “high priestly prayer” or his “prayer of consecration.”

Looking back, he says he has done what he was sent to do and that all of this work and witness points back to God with glory (reputation/brightness/greatness/honor).  He has demonstrated humility and merciful compassion toward them and others, commanding them to continue loving each other as he has loved them (more than merely loving their neighbors as themselves), and he has promised to send them an Advocate (Holy Spirit).

Looking ahead, he knows that they will experience moments of weakness – that despite their praise and conviction in this joyful intimate setting, they will soon scatter and abandon him out of fear.  Despite this, as we heard last week, he assures them that he will never abandon them or leave them orphaned.  Looking ahead, he knows that they will suffer and be persecuted because of their expressed faith in his good news… but he also knows that great joy is in store for them ultimately.  Several verses before what we heard today, Jesus uses the metaphor of labor and birth, “…your pain will turn into joy.  When a woman is in labor, she is in pain, because her hour has come.  But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world” (John 16:20-21).

Looking ahead, Jesus sees in their new birth, fully restored through his resurrection as one family with God.  He then prays (a prayer found only in John) to God on their behalf, and on behalf of all future believers (us), asking that God guard/protect them/us, consecrate/sanctify them/us in the truth of the Word (John 17:17) and restore them/us as one family, in shared purpose and love.

Moving forward in time, we heard excerpts from one of Peter’s reassurances (1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11) to the early church that had been birthed through the coming of the Holy Spirit after Jesus’ ascension.  Peter, the rough-n-ready fisherman formerly known as Simon, is now writing to his fellow believers in Asia Minor (area of Turkey today), many of whom are former pagans and non-Jews, often living as unwelcome exiles / aliens in a socially/politically hostile environment. These early believers were initially stigmatized for having separated from their tribes and families in order to gather themselves as believers in Christ.  For this, they were ridiculed and harassed by former friends and family, suffering mostly social rejection and harsh verbal abuse which later would turn into more physical persecution.  The persecution of these early Christians wasn’t because of what they believed, per se, but because how they lived / what they did that was an affront to the systems of social order of the time. These social outcasts practiced solidarity through mutual-support, shared charity, and acts of liberating the oppressed rather than actively participating in the more popular systems of social hierarchy based on material wealth, status, and control through domination and exploitation. They were out-of-sync, to say the least, with the culture around them.  For living and loving as Christ did, they suffered.

In our context today, this might initially be hard for most of us to relate to, here in a society in which we’re not overtly or physically persecuted for our faith (except perhaps mockery at in some social circles).  However, if you’ve ever opted of our predominant social patterns and gone against societal norms to advocate sharing of wealth, justice for the oppressed, or expressing love for the despised, you begin to experience and know more personally the suffering that Peter is addressing.  And, certainly in some parts of our modern world today, to live and love as a Christian is an even risky affair – E.g., www.persecution.com is a website that claims to track and report on the contemporary persecution of Christians.

Back then, Jesus and Peter foresaw that living and loving each other as God intends – doing what is right, if you will – often will put you at odds with the systems and structures around you that are more self-centered and power-hoarding.  They reassured our ancestors, and continue to reassure us, that when we find ourselves suffering because of our expression of Christian faith through charitable, merciful love for others, we are sharing/participating in communion with Christ’s suffering and are joining with all faithful Christians, as one body that suffers, endures, and is redeemed.  How we respond in our unity as a Christian family to these “fiery ordeals” reveals our collective faith and glorifies God.

To endure the birthing pains of a new creation / a newly unified family in Christ, Peter gives the early believers, and us, these instructions: humble yourself before God (it’s not all about you and you’re not ultimately in control); cast your anxiety upon God (don’t spend your energy worrying – surrender and trust in our Lord); discipline yourself and remain alert (don’t live passively and unaware / inattentive to our interconnectedness); and resist the devil’s temptation of convincing yourself that you’re isolated or alone in your faith, or that the only end in life is your personal happiness. 

LOOKING FORWARD

We are not alone – not alone in our suffering, not having to endure things solely on our own, etc… “you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering” (1 Peter 5:9)

You are a part of ‘us.’  We have work and witness to do together which might well cause us suffering; but we have been called ultimately to eternal glory in Christ, through which God restores, supports, strengthens, and establishes us.

SUFFERING: What is the work we have to do – the work that might cause us to suffer for a little while?  See what we have promised to do, with God’s help, as related in our Baptismal Covenant (paraphrasing what is found on pp. 304-305 in our Book of Common Prayer):

·         Believing and having faith in God, his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit;

·         Continuing to teach, fellowship, share meals, and prayer together in Christ’s name;

·         Persevere in resisting evil and whenever we fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord;

·         Proclaim through what we say and do the good news of Christ, essentially loving each other as He loves us;

·         Striving for justice and peace among ALL people, respecting the dignity of every human being as beloved creations of God and members ultimately of God’s one family.

UNITY: We come to know God through our relationship with Christ.  Others come to know God through our relationship with them.  And we all are in relationship through the Spirit.  We are intimately interconnected, us with each other, and us with God, Son, and Spirit – “all mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them…. Protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one” (John 17:10-11) a holy family sharing new creation, eternal sustenance, and perpetual liberation and redemption.

Jesus says, as paraphrased in The Message, “I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakeable and assured, deeply at peace.  In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties.  But take heart!  I’ve conquered the world.” (John 16:33). 

AMEN

Helping God be seen and known through Christ’s Holy Spirit

It’s the sixth Sunday of Easter and it’s Memorial Day weekend.   This morning, we consider things known and unknown; things seen as well as unseen. 

Certainly, something seen and known recently has been violent weather that has been very deadly and has left many people without homes and in need of mercy and charitable love.  We’ll come back to this in our morning announcements.

In case your mind tends to wander during sermons, I’ll state up-front some themes to ponder this week in the Spirit: sacrifice, service/servant leadership, freedom, advocate/comforter, and following Christ’s example of helping God be seen and known through our love and care of each other.

Let’s look at two of today’s lectionary readings, from Acts and from the Gospel attributed to John.  In Acts, we’re told that Paul has stood before an altar to an unknown god and is then compelled before thinkers in Athens to proclaim that the deity they wonder about is indeed known.  Tomorrow, here in our country, some will participate in rituals of reverance before tombs to soldiers unknown.  In both cases, something unseen is still very much perceived and acted upon by believers: the Holy Spirit that Jesus speaks about in John – a comforting and compelling presence that works with us to carry out Christ’s commandments.

As we come before this altar here this morning – a surface on which some might claim nothing much can be seen, and about which others might say nothing much can be known for sure, what is it, who is it, that you see and known?  What difference does this perception and knowledge make in your life?  What has Christ commanded us to do with what you now see and know?

MEMORIAL DAY

First observed as a ritual of remembrance and reconciliation in the latter part of the 19^th Century to honor fallen Confederate and Union soldiers following the Civil War, it was originally known as Decoration Day.  By the late 1960’s it had become a federal holiday and within a few years it was officially set to be honored nationally every final Monday of May.  For many people now it’s simply become a marker of the ending of the academic term, the unofficial beginning of summer, a day off, a weekend of car races and family vacations.  For others, however, it will always represent something more deeply personal and challenging – a memory and reality of mixed emotions of honor, grief, pride, shame, horror, safety, war, and peace.

Often, remembrances on Memorial Day will include visits to cemeteries and sites of ‘supreme’ sacrifice.  One such site, amid burial ground in our nation’s capital, is the Tomb of the Unknowns (a.k.a., Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers).

TOMB OF THE UNKNOWNS

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/visitor_information/tomb_of_the_unknowns.html

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/ceremonies/sentinelsotu.html

Established in 1921 with the burial of an unidentified American soldier from World War I, the ground on which the large sarcophagus rests now also contains crypts for unidentified remains from World War II, Korea and Vietnam.  

Solemn ceremonies have been performed on this site 24/7 since 1930 by an elite, specially selected and trained honor guard of the 3^rd U.S. Infantry (The Old Guard).  The sentinels who enact the carefully choreographed precision movements all day and all night, in any weather, do so out of a high sense of honor and with the intent of keeping alive symbolic memory on behalf of all that their unidentified dead comrades represent.  When they’re not meticulously marching or “Changing of the Guard” in shifts, these impeccably uniformed women and men continue to study the stories of this cemetery and the soldiers it holds and convey these memories to visitors who have come to pay their respects.  On the Arlington Cemetery website it says, “The Guards of Honor at the Tomb of the Unknowns are highly motivated and are proud to honor all American service members who are "Known But to God."”

Sculpted into the tomb’s east panel, which faces Washington, D.C., are three Greek figures representing Peace, Victory, and Valor.

While holding in our mind’s eye this tomb of unknowns in Arlington, VA, let’s travel back to ancient Greece to consider the altar to an unknown God, continuing to contemplate sacrifice, victory and peace.

ACTS 17:22-31

Paul had been traveling throughout  the Mediterranean preaching – sharing the Good News – and compelling fellow Jews, prominent woman, and God-fearing Greeks, to become followers of Christ.  Because he and his followers were stirring up new hope and inspiration, Paul and his followers were not well liked by some of the ‘establishment’ and he/they were run out of town after town.  Paul ends up in Athens, the seat of learning and influence on the Greek world, ‘deeply distressed’ by the worship of false idols there by intelligent and influential, yet apparently ignorant, philosophers of the day who he probably believed ought to wiser.  Paul preached in the public marketplaces often. Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate him.  Eventually, all this fuss caused Paul to be taken before the council of elders who functioned like a judiciary body for hearings and appeals.

Paul preaching at the Areopagus, attributed to Raphael

Standing before them, Paul notes their own admission that they don’t know everything: “I see how extremely religious you are… I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’” (Acts 17:23)

In addressing this symbol they’ve erected, Paul honors their curiosity about the divine, explaining that their hunger to know their divine source is built in to our very being.  He explains that the deity they wonder about can in fact be known and is close at hand: “…so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him – though indeed God is not far from each one of us.  For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’….” (Acts 17:27-28)

Then he proclaims the truth that God, out of love for us as beloved creations, has bridged the gap between the divine and human in a way that can be seem and known – Jesus Christ.  Paul’s proclamation is not yet another option to be considered among their polytheisitic pantheon.  Paul unapologetically proclaims a syncretistic theology about the singular God of all who is uniquely present in the incarnation of Christ… and he says this God commands their repentance – that they turn around in order to see more clearly and that they change their direction of thinking in order to better know God: “While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent…” (Acts 17:30)

Are we not like the intelligentsia of Greece in some ways today?  All the way back to Eden, we’ve proven to be knowledge-hungry and arrogant enough to sometimes believe that truth is of our own making as we explore a plurality of divinities and philosophies – like choosing treats from a line of religious vending machines - picking carefully what to consume in order to satisfy our restlessness and fill a deeper void we feel (see Paul’s words about being, by divine design, made to long/grope for God) without accepting any potential restrictions on our freedom of choice or having to commit to any one school of thought. 

Paul, however, reminds us that a greater, more ultimately nourishing meal is set before us, of which we are invited – even commanded - to feast.  And in his other writings, he is quick to assure us that there is ultimate freedom in surrendering ourselves to the body, blood, and commands of Christ.  Through Christ’s ultimate sacrifice for us, we have been freed from life-restricting sin… liberated from death itself.  Through following his commands, though our bodies might be seen to die,  we know that we endure in resurrected life with Christ.

As we’ve heard before this Easter season, as it says in the Gospel according to John, “God so loved us that he gave his only Son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

JOHN 14:15-21

In quoting from John, this brings us to today’s Gospel lesson, the context for which is what we know of as the Last Supper. Jesus is preparing his apostles for living with/in him even after they can no longer see him.  He wants them to know that they will always been known to him, even if their bodies end up buried among the unidentified:   “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.  In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.”… “On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you (among you).” (John 14:19-20)

Jesus assures them that even after he can no longer be seen, they will know he’s with them through the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Although this Spirit might not been seen by some people, believers will know that this paraclete is forever with them as an advocate, counselor, helper, and comforter: “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you (among you).” (John 14:16-17)

What Jesus expects of them – of us – in response to this gift is obedience in love for his commandments: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”… “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”  (John 14:15, 21)

MY COMMANDMENTS

And just what are Christ’s commandments?

You might remember that when asked what commandments are the greatest, in the synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke), Jesus is consistent in quoting from Deuteronomy (6:5) and Leviticus (19:18) with these two answers: 1) Love God with all of who you are, and 2) Love your neighbor (each other) as yourself.  

In our sacred stories, we’re told that Jesus continually demonstrated living according to these commands, particularly focusing his loving justice, compassion, mercy, healing, and liberation toward the “the least” of those he encountered.

In the same Gospel according to John, Jesus adds a new commandment, notably after having ‘lowered himself’ to wash the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34)

Jesus, through his actions toward others, demonstrates how we are to care for and love each other.  Though Jesus is no longer seen with our mortal eyes, through the Spirit, he continues to loves us as we love him, revealing himself and making God known in and through the love and mercy that we show each other in His name.

CONCLUSION

Why do you continue to come before this altar?  Even though there’s not much to be seen here with mortal eyes, what is it that you perceive?  What and who is known to us in this place?

As loved ones gather at sites of sacred memory this week, what is it that God wants us to remember?   As we honor those who have died, what is it that Christ wants us to keep alive in His name?

Through hearing the Word and the breaking of bread each week, what are we called to remember about Jesus who was sacrificed for us?  In the feasting on him in our minds and hearts, how does Christ continue to live in and through us?  When we walk out of these doors together, what is the Holy Spirit compelling us to do in this name?

Sometimes, we can be overwhelmed by the horrible endurance of war and violence in our world.  We don’t have the power to bring the dead back to life and we can sometimes get lost in our grief.

However, with the Holy Spirit that has been given to us, we now live a resurrected life in God’s love.  We are commanded to act on that profound security.

I began this sermon by stating some themes to ponder this week in the Spirit: sacrifice, service/servant leadership, freedom, advocate/comforter, and following Christ’s example of helping God be seen and known through our love and care of each other.

Every week, but particularly this Memorial Day week, we are to follow Christ’s example – seeking out those people who are otherwise unseen and unknown to popular and dominant culture.  Show them that they have not been forgotten – that they are known and blessed. 

Reach out to those who are hungry, searching for stability, certainty, reconciliation, and hope.  Make God visible to them in acts of mercy and charitable love. 

Boldly proclaim, through your actions more than your words, what you know of our loving and living God.  Invite ‘the least of these’ to His meal.  Show the world how we feed and nourish each other in Christ’s name. 

“…he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:31)

“…They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." (John 14:21)

You have been given “another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth…. You know him, because he abides with you, and he [is] in you.” (John 14:16-17)

AMEN.

Seeing anew what it can mean to reveal Christ in the opening of scripture and breaking of bread together

In one of our recent emails regarding me being here with y’all this morning, Mary+ said “please plug campus ministries, but remember, too, that it’s Mother’s Day.”  So, as we hear what the Spirit is saying to us about our eyes being opened to Christ through the opening of scripture and the breaking of bread together, let’s look anew toward campus ministry and Mother’s Day as opportunities to reveal Christ.  Walk with me on this road today and let’s see who we encounter and what we realize.

The Supper at Emmaus, de Maistre

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?"… they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. (Luke 24: 30-32, 35)

What does it mean to break bread together and how are scriptures opened to us?  More specifically, what might this mean in context of our diocesan campus ministries or in relationship to Mother’s Day?  More personally, what are you hungry for, how do you participate in the feeding of others, and what actions bring to life the words in our scriptures… all such that Christ can be seen and experienced?

Luke 24: 13-25

Although we’re now in our third week of celebrating the resurrection, this morning’s story takes us back to the distraught, disorientation of those first few days after the crucifixion.  We’re walking with a couple of non-descript disciples (their lack of particular description or distinction helps any of us be in their shoes) who are still absorbing the shock of having their dreams shattered and seeing their sense of the future violently killed.  Their friends have scattered in fear and grief and they’re so absorbed in the sense of loss that they’ve lost their sense of perspective – they can’t even see what’s right in front of them.  Can’t we relate to at least part of this – being so focused on the trauma or hurt of the moment that we lose sight of the bigger picture?

Our risen Lord meets them where they are and walks alongside them – listening to their pain, anguished concerns, dreams, and hopes.  Having heard their cries and aware of what they’re hungry for, Jesus educates them – leads them through the prophetic wisdom of their ancestors and encourages them to reconsider all that has happened in context of new vision and new hope. 

As another preacher once said so well:

One of the most wonderful things to come out of the resurrection is that we learn this about Jesus: no matter how bad things become for us, no matter where we go to hide ourselves when the world gets to be too much for us, even if we lose our faith for a time, he will come to be with us. He won’t ask us for explanations, we won’t have to justify our position, and there will be no recriminations. He will simply meet us as we walk, each of us along our own road to Emmaus. It may be in a shopping mall where, out of frustration, we are buying something we don’t really need, or it may be in a car that is taking us away from those things we can no longer endure; or it may actually be on a road as we try to walk off the results of that recent medical test that took us completely by surprise. Whatever route we take when we just can’t take it anymore, Jesus will meet us there. Even though it is us who are going away, he is always faithful. In the words of the noted preacher Barbara Taylor Brown, “He comes to the disappointed, the doubtful, and the disconsolate. He comes to those who do not know their Bibles, who do not recognize Him even when they are walking beside Him. He comes to those who have given up and are headed back home, which makes this whole story about the blessedness of being broken.” (from a 2005 sermon by The Rev. Judith Carrick, Deacon in Diocese of Long Island)

Aware that talk about scripture, no matter how inspired, is necessary but not sufficient to meet the depth of their needs, he seeks to feed their deeper hunger through actions in the literal breaking of bread with them.  Christ embraces a divine hospitality that endures in them amid their grief and comforts them with familiar actions at a table that finally enables them to remember – to see again – who he is, who they are, and the power in this community of faith. 

His physical presence is temporal / fleeting, leaving open the realization that the continued unfolding of his real presence among them must come through regular remembrance like this, discussion, and continual learning as they live communally according to what he has taught them.  Sharing these sacred stories and eating together in his name will nourish them and ennoble their subsequent actions in the world.

And here we are this morning, pretty much doing the same thing a couple of millennia later.  Each time we come into this space together, Christ in Spirit meets us on our road to Emmaus, encourages us to hear something anew as the scriptures are opened, and invites us to break bread together at this table in order that he be revealed in our shared actions.

How do we relate this to our campus ministries?  And specifically, here in Newton, what might this mean to our relationship with the Bethel College community?

On our college campuses there are many people who are walking disoriented –intentionally so.  These students have chosen to put themselves, at a critical time in the development of their beliefs and character, in an environment that is constantly challenging and testing their preconceived notions.  There hopes and dreams can change dramatically from semester to semester as their perception of themselves and the world around them is challenged from many angles.

Peer Ministry: K.U. Canterbury House

What if we dared to meet them on their road to Emmaus - venturing out to meet them where they are? What if we dared walk alongside them for a while, listening to their struggles – not demanding anything from them or admonishing them for naiveté or ignorance, but hearing them with the ears of our heart and patiently waiting for opportune moments, every now-and-then, to offer wisdom from scripture?  What needs might be met (theirs and ours) if we then invited them to our table(s) for a meal?  What might be re-kindled in our hearts in the breaking of bread together?  The experience would be transient in one sense – college students come and go.  And, yet, what enlightenment and new life might endure in our hearts (theirs and ours) if we encountered the risen Christ together?

Less than half the Bethel student body identifies as Mennonite.  The school is more open now to interreligious dialogue and ecumenical engagement than perhaps any time in its history. They have a new physical venue established for campus ministry through their Agape Center. St Matthew’s is already listed on their “find a church” list.  The college has an ethos that resonates well with our Anglican ‘three legged stool’ of engaging scripture and tradition with reason.  One of their stated central values is an “ethic of integrity that celebrates the fundamental connections between spirit and mind, faith and learning, individual and community and fosters personal development through participation in a range of activities.”  Their Director of Church Relations (Dale Schrag) is on their website saying, ““The real evidence of Christian commitment, after all, is always found in actions, not in words; in relationships, not in propositional positions.  And, authentic relations, by definition, must be predicated on love, not on the goal of changing the other person.” 

Can we not hear Christ inviting us to meet each other on the road to Emmaus to open the scriptures together, share in some meals together, and discover what we both see anew about Christ within us and around us? All it takes is some patient, faithful initiative on the part of some in this community who hear this call.

And what does the revelation of Christ through the opening of scripture and breaking of bread together have to with Mother’s Day?

Beyond the profit-minded commercial exploitation of the sentimentality of this day, the deeper history of this observance is rooted in the recognition of a nurturing/nourishing source of life that desires peace, reconciliation, and the reunion of families that have been torn apart.  Is Christ not in this?

How often have our mothers, or those who have served as in place of our mothers, patiently kept track of where we are on this crazy journey of life and lovingly come to walk alongside us when we were feeling lost… when we have struggled to make sense of our circumstances?  Who has listened to us as we expressed the burdens and aspiration of our hearts?  Who among us has not heard what our mothers have said – listened as our moms tried to help us see the bigger picture and gain new perspective  - only to realize later the full wisdom of what they were sharing with us… only to realize later how fleeting and precious those intimate, loving in-person moments are in this life?  Gender-role critiques aside, who is credited as most often having fed us when we were hungry, sometimes from her very breast and heart?  Who, by her tireless example, has revealed to us the comfort and peace of routine actions around the table?

While your mother might not have literally opened a bible to you, can it not be celebrated today that she opened the scriptures to you by serving as an earthly example of divine mercy, compassion, and forgiveness, essentially revealing Christ’s intentions for us?  In her actions, including the breaking of bread for us, has your mom not helped rekindle in you a sense of faith, hope, and charitable love? 

Today, let us hold fast to the love that burns in our hearts at the mention of “mother”… and give thanks this day for what this can teach us about Christ’s love for us.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?"… they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. (Luke 24: 30-32, 35)

Each time we gather like this, like those early disciples, we’re traveling that road trying to make sense of our lives, losses, and loves.  Each time, we literally open the scripture and read it aloud – hoping for nourishment and revelation.  Each time, as we approach this altar we participate in the breaking of bread in Christ’s name and yearn to be fed through his promise, mystical presence, and divine love.  Each time we do these things, Christ is with us as we feast on his presence… indeed, his presence within us – in our souls and bodies.

Let us go forth from here considering how we, each time we break bread with others, have an opportunity to meet the needs of others in Christ’s name.  Each time we encounter friends, family, or college students in distress or on a wandering road, we have the opportunity to open the scriptures with them through our loving actions as well as our compassionate and forgiving words, revealing the good news of Christ.

Wherever you are on life’s journey – whatever road you’re now traveling – pray that when our risen Christ meets you there, perhaps in an unexpected form, you will recognize his voice and hear anew the hope he delivers. 

Pray that when your hunger is being relieved by the familiar actions of a loved one, you will experience Christ revealed in your midst. 

Pray that when you approach the Word of God with a sincere heart, new wisdom and insight may be opened to you through the Spirit of Christ. 

Pray that these encounters will be so overwhelming that they will set your heart on fire with such love of Christ that you simply can’t help but run and tell others the good news.

AMEN

Choosing faith, hope, and love on our 8th days as ‘resurrection’ Christians (what we choose to see and believe)

In this last week since we celebrated the Resurrection, we’ve been bombarded news and images…. some fearful enough that we might be tempted to join the apostles in that upper room – locking ourselves away, hiding from all that might ‘get us.’  Hundreds have died and thousands have lost their homes in the southeast. There is still boiling turmoil and revolution in the Middle East. People are still fighting and dying in global conflicts. 

And, simultaneously, billions of folk around the world tuned in to witness a youthful, royal wedding.  Then another inspiring image flashed briefly across our screens when we saw our President along side wonderfully-recovering Congresswoman Giffords as they watched, waiting for her husband’s launch into space aboard space shuttle Endeavour.

And, no doubt, in the personal lives of our friends and family over this past week there have equally challenging and inspiring personal circumstances involving fear, uncertainty, doubt, and strong emotions that have not made the news but have nonetheless presented us with choices – whether to huddle away or otherwise use barriers to protect ourselves, or to open doors, boldly speak from our hearts, and reach out to touch / to have personal encounters with new life.

Today, let us celebrate that through our risen Lord, we have choices – choices of what/who to believe, who/what to believe in, where to place our faith and hope, and how to live our lives in charitable love as ‘resurrection’ Christians.

The Epistle: 1 Peter 1:3-9

Perhaps written by a disciple of Peter’s toward the end of the 1^st Century, the author of our Epistle lesson is addressing a very small, but faithful of believers.  It’s estimated that less than 1% of the 60 million people in the territories were identified as follower’s of Jesus Christ… and the small number who did were people at the bottom of the social order who typically had few choices – women, slaves, others of low prestige and power.  By choosing to affiliate themselves with this prophetic social movement following the gospel of their Christ, these people were further marginalized from their families and friends and subject to ridicule and verbal abuse at best… and eventually empirical, authoritarian persecution. 

What are we to learn from this brave band of believers?  We can imagine that, like us, virtually none of them had seen Jesus first-hand.  The faith fueling their costly counter-cultural convictions must have been based on some other sort of encounter with Christ.  There must have been enough evidence of the power of resurrection in their lives for them to suffer so (note the emphasis on suffering throughout Peter’s letter) and yet still dare to choose to live their faith out loud.  

Aren’t we in a somewhat similar position?  None of us were first-hand witnesses of the ministry or resurrection of Jesus so long ago… yet most of us, at the very least, cling to the power of hope in the story.  And, some of us might even be bold enough to say that we do experience the Spirit of the risen Christ in our lives and can/will give testimony to the transformative power of the Spirit at work in our lives.  Some of us this morning readily resonate with the final words from this morning’s Epistle reading: “Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith…”

What sort of personal encounter with Christ is fueling us?  What choices have we made, or have others around us made, that have led us to experience the power of Christian resurrection in our lives, even amid the suffering?

The Gospel: John 20:19-31

And, of course, we have this well-known story from John’s writing about the infamous ‘doubting’ Thomas.  Rather than focus exclusively on his moment of doubt, I invite us this morning to consider a bigger picture around this story and what it invites us to consider about the choices we’ve been given.

Rather than forever cast Thomas as the great doubter, recall that this is the same apostle who boldly suggested that the group travel with Jesus back to Bethany after the death of Lazarus even if it meant they would be stoned to death with him (John 11:16).  This is also the same rather practical-minded Thomas chose to ask out loud what others might have been wondering silently - “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going, so how can we know the way” - when Jesus was being rather indirect in his comments about not being with them much longer.  And we can only imagine that in the grief and depression of that week following his lord’s cruel execution, he was understandably a little incredulous when told something so unbelievable by the other apostles who were still huddled in hiding in the upper room.  Thomas wasn’t asking for anything that the others hadn’t already received – some sort of proof.  Many of us can put ourselves in Thomas’s sandals if we’re honest.  And, it’s Thomas who offers us one of the most pithy confessions of faith – “My Lord and my God!” Furthermore, tradition tells us that Thomas might have traveled farthest of any of the apostles in this eventual preaching the Gospel to people in India.  So, let’s give Thomas a bit of a break. 

Rather than focus so much on Thomas this morning, let’s consider instead the wonder of what the resurrected Christ did for those huddled in fear, still grappling with grief… and the choices that the resurrections provides to us.

Jesus walks through walls / barriers erected in fear; he gently offers the reassurance of peace three times; he graciously accommodates doubts and provides proof to remove them; he breaths the Spirit onto them, giving them miraculous authority; and then commissions them to carry on his work in the world, assured that he’s with them, and they’re with him, in the Spirit.

8^th Day:  These things occurred on the 8^th day.  Here we are on our 8^th day into this celebration of Easter – a celebration that we continue for the Great Fifty Days through Pentecost.

In Hebrew numerology, the word and meaning of “8” conveys abundance, strength, and new beginning. In Genesis, God establishes covenant with through the sign of circumcision on the 8^th day (Gen 17:10-12).  In like manner, it was on the eighth day after his birth that our Lord was circumcised and formally named Jesus (Luke 2:21).  This physical act, done at the place on the body associated with the progeneration of new life, becomes a sign of an inward, spiritual conviction – “circumcision of the heart” / taking away the covering of you heart  – of belief and belonging with God (Deut 30:4; Jeremiah 4:4; Rom 2:29).

Some consider the day following the seven days of creation - the 8^th day - to be the day of resurrection – new creation in Christ.  In John (7:37-29), we’re told that is was on the 8^th day (the Great Day) of the Jewish festival feast of Booths/Tabernacles (a celebration of abundance, completion and renewal) that Jesus cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink…. Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” 

In a sermon he once gave many centuries ago on this same day, [Saint] Augustine said “this is the octave day of your new birth.  Today is fulfilled in you the sign of faith that was prefigured in the Old Testament by the circumcision of the flesh on the eighth day after birth…. By his resurrection he consecrated Sunday, or the Lord’s day.  Though the third after his passion, this day is the eighth after the Sabbath, and thus also the first day of the week.”  Indeed, the eighth day of every week is a new beginning.  Each week we have choices to make as ‘resurrection’ Christians.

Conclusion:

It might be temping today, based on the surface of our lectionary readings, to focus on doubts and suffering… to belittle ‘doubting’ Thomas and to encourage us to endure the inevitable suffering that comes from being Christian.  But the Spirit is saying more to us on this 8^th day.  We’re called to be ever mindful of the choices we have now that Christ has died with our sins, has risen, and offers perpetual new life  – choices we’ve been given through the very breath of God. 

Jesus says that we are blessed, those of us who haven’t seen the original events yet have come to believe.

In moments when we have doubts and need proof again our risen Christ, we can find it in many places, if depends on where we look, where we focus our attention.   And, we can serve as the evidence that others are looking for.

The Spirit is compelling us, amid the sometimes harsh conditions of mortal life, to choose to walk well lighted pathways of a resurrected life rather than drive down dead-end trails of despair or creep along cold roads of indifference.

As we continue into Easter, aware that we’re living as resurrection Christians, what will you choose to see and believe in the world around you?  What will your actions help others perceive about our risen Lord?  What life-affirming, loving choices can you make each day that might bring someone from darkness to light such that the eyes of their heart are opened and they are compelled to proclaim,  “My Lord and My God!”  


AMEN.