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?
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.
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
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”
“Agree with one another”
Okay…that’s sounds pie in the sky
but Paul isn’t after uniformity
but Paul isn’t after uniformity
He just got finished praising the diversity of gifts in the community
so its not uniformity…but rather,
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
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 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
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
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