Hovering*

Trinity Sunday - June 7, 2020

 (readings from the RCL)

Genesis 1:1-2; 4a

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Matthew 28: 16-20

Let’s begin with language from Paul:

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

The love of God

And the communion of the Holy Spirit”

Be with all of you

Today…just saying those words

Slowly and intentionally…in one breath…gives me calm

Do you feel weighed down?

I feel weighed down…and I imagine that Christian Congregations and people everywhere are 

feeling weighed down…
         by grief and anguish…fear…confusion…horror… Or all of the above?

And it causes me to wonder

Is there a WORD?
We are gathering around the Word.

Our sacred scriptures…

Is there a WORD?

I wonder and I hope

On this Trinity Sunday…

LET THERE BE A WORD

Let there be a WORD that speaks to THIS NOW?

We just read the last three verses of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians

This is the end of a very emotional letter
Throughout the letter Paul is trying to keep his passions in check

It is both stern and loving…a tricky balance to achieve 

He names the community’s vices in Ch 12

I imagine him with his finger in their faces

Quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder”

The place is torn by factions

Into this moment in the life of the Corinthian community

He speaks a challenging word of unity and love

“Put things in order”

C’mon you know what’s essential and what’s not!

“Listen to my appeal”
“Agree with one another” 

Okay…that’s sounds pie in the sky
but Paul isn’t after uniformity

He just got finished praising the diversity of gifts in the community
so its not uniformity…but rather, 

Together, my dear Corinthians, we must figure out how to speak according to Christ…that must be the goal

‘And then…all in one breath:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

The love of God

And the communion of the Holy Spirit

Be with all of you

Paul has a word for us today

And what about Genesis?

We learned in Old Testament class 

That there were many creation stories floating the ancient near east at the same time…

They were full of violent melodramas playing out in the heavens between many fickle deities.

Lots of violence and trickery…one god pushing the other jockeying for power

SO… what makes this creation story in Genesis 1 so radical

is that it is blatantly monotheistic

In Genesis ONE we have ONE God 

One God who presides over the chaos and intervenes

(the text is notoriously difficult to translate)

It begins in chaos 

The world was a wild chaos

It resonates doesn’t it?

Sounds like a world that could kill you

But there is more than the wild chaos

It is subtle…you could miss it if you aren’t careful

There is a breath from God

Ruach is Hebrew

Pneuma in Greek

In English we might say breath, wind or spirit

This breath…it …seems so tiny against a raging chaotic water…doesn’t it?

Some translations use the words hovering, or fluttering and evoke a gentleness

A gentle fluttering breath, 

God’s breath, moving gently atop the waters of chaos

It may be gentle 

but it is NOT weak

It is steady and committed

It is gentle breath…hovering…for the long haul

This steady breath of God, blows and pushes

In one direction toward a horizon.

What does this mean?

The chaos…the colliding currents and crashing waves 

Are hovered over
hovered over by a breath blowing gently but relentlessly in one direction

Toward a horizon 

It is the horizon that St Paul paints for us in such beautiful language…

The horizon IS:

the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,

the Love of God,

and the Communion of the Holy Spirit!”  

This week we have continued to witness many images that linger in our minds eye

Many many images of chaos

Of torture and destruction

Of grief and anger

Of threats and boisterous blaming
Of frustration

Of death

And scattered within these many many images

There are some…Though all too few

I have seen a few

A courageous few

A reconciling few

A gentle few

A fluttering few

Not a weak few

But a strong few

And I have been asking myself:

Will I give myself over to this relentless gentleness?

How will I participate in this small subtle movement directed by the breath of God?

And if I do, will I be fruitful and multiply?

If my answer is a resolved YES

I believe I will be reaching toward the place of Paul’s promise…

I will be reaching towards: 

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

The love of God

And the communion of the Holy Spirit.

And the Gospel

I noticed something I’ve never noticed before

In our Gospel reading, traditionally called the Great Commission

I noticed that the “who” in the text… is the eleven

The eleven not the twelve because…you know JUDAS.
In the verses just before,
the risen Jesus has told Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
to go and tell the disciples to meet him as they planned.
And now they are gathered 

on a mountain 

(because everything important in Matthew’s Gospel happens on a mountaintop)

And then we have this:

When they saw him they worshipped him; but they also doubted

(Our translation says ‘some doubted’ but the consensus is that it is best read “but they also doubted”)

It makes a big difference…doesn’t it?

If it is some 

I find myself wondering am I a worshipper or a doubter

But if it is “they also doubted”

Then I can be both…and that rings true

I feel sometimes like both

The eleven are both

And they still get authority

Because the authority is supported by the final gift

A gift that belongs to all of us

“I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew’s Gospel began with the infant Jesus called Immanuel

“God with us”

And it ends the same way

“I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

These are bookends

They are heavy

They keep everything grounded and together

Jesus says:

I am with you

And HOW am I with you?

I am like a gentle but relentless breath hovering over the chaos

Where can you find me?

Wherever you catch a view of that horizon!

Wherever you glimpse

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

The love of God

And the communion of the Holy Spirit.

That’s how I am with you

And that’s where you can find me

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

The love of God 

And the communion of the Holy Spirit

Be with you always

Until the end of the age