Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Our first lesson is a vision of heaven seen and described by Isaiah.  In this vision we see God sitting on the throne of heaven surrounded by Seraphs.  His train fills the temple and the angels sing “Holy, Holy, Holy,” as they fly around his throne   The voice of the Lord asks, “Who will go for us?  Whom shall I send?”  It is the same question he asks us today, “Who will go for me?  Who will present me to the world?”

That is the charge given to each baptized person.  We are charged to follow Jesus and to present God to the world.  But we can only do that through the power of the Holy Spirit.  This morning we will have the joy of adopting Clarissa Elise Garza into the household of God through baptism.  And as part of that ceremony, we will affirm our belief in God through the words of the Apostle’s Creed.  In that creed, each of us affirms, “I believe in God the Father.  I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son.”  And finally,  “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”   It is the creed in which we state our personal belief in this triune God, the Holy Trinity.  

That is what today is about, acknowledging the three parts of this Trinitarian God.  God has called us into existence and reveals himself on a daily basis if we just look for it.  Yesterday might well be an example of how He reveals himself.  While Sam was working in the yard yesterday, I went out and sat on the porch.  The sun was shining, and air was fresh and clear and there was a mockingbird singing his heart out in the tree across the street.  Then as the sun was setting, there was a gorgeous pinkish red and golden glow cast upon a facade of clouds in the north and east, a crowning glory for the day.  It was is if He was reminding us that he is the master musician and artist, giving song where he will and a glorious canvas for all to see.  

Later last night, a thunderstorm raged with all the fury it could muster in thunder and lightning, even hail and wind in places.  And even in the thunderstorm, God reminds us of our baptism and that ultimately He is in charge. Teach Clarissa* to look for God in the song of a bird, in the beauty of the sky and even in the power of the storm.  For God creates all things: the bird, the sky, the baby and even the storm, and He holds it all in the palm of His hand. *your children and grandchildren

Our second lesson, Paul’s letter to the Romans, tells us:  “All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”  We are all children, created by God, in His very image, and we are given this earth as a gift, to use, to enjoy and to take care of.  “When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God and heirs of God along with Christ himself.”  He gives us a Spirit not to fall back into fear, but a Spirit of adoption.  

Oh, yes, there is that piece about “suffering with him” so that we may be glorified with him.  This earth that we have inherited is not perfect.  Fallen humankind occupies it, so there is going to be strife even for the children of God.  And that is when we cry out, “Abba! Father!” and our spirit connects with His and we are drawn in and comforted.

Today is Trinity Sunday.  Over the years, there has been a lot of time and energy spent trying to understand and to explain the Trinity.   Some say it’s like a three leaf clover.  Others will tell you it is like the three states of water – steam, liquid, and ice.  Someone might tell you it's like the 3 parts of the apple, or the sun producing light and heat.  Time after time people look for new ways to describe it.   Ways that will be more accurate, more understandable than what has been said before.  But as an idea, a concept, it is a little difficult to get a handle on it - because after all, we are trying to describe God.  That’s one thing about God - He will not be placed in a box so that we can take him out and examine him when we want.  He’s hard to describe.

One of the better things I’ve heard, is that the Trinity is about relationship.  What is important is the relationship that flows between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  In the Holy Trinity, there is a community of mutual love that is not only an example for us, but it reaches out into our lives to empower us to be able to love others more perfectly.  It’s easy for us to understand a father and son, but the Holy Spirit is more difficult.

It’s easier to say that in the Trinity, we have the three necessary ingredients for human kind – 

Creator (the one who creates all things and adopts us as his own); 

Redeemer (the one who redeems the world and rescues us from the ravages of sin); 

and Sustainer (the one who is with us to the end, to guide and direct us in all things).  

Our God is call a Trinity, because the God of the universe, who will always remain as the ‘divine mystery,’ was revealed to us through the flesh of the Son, who is God’s tie to created humanity, and He continues to be revealed through the Holy Spirit, who works in us and through us.  That Holy Spirit always points the way to Jesus, and Jesus always points the way to God.  

There are two scriptures that place the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in a single phrase.  One of them, Matthew 28 tells us to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  That is exactly what we are going to do today.  I would invite the parents and God parents to come forward and bring Clarissa at this time.  

Come, Holy Spirit, Come!

It has been an eventful weekend.  A horse named “Justify” won the Preakness yesterday, the second leg in his journey to the Triple Crown.  

Megan Markle married Prince Harry and became the first American and bi-racial member of the Royal Family of England.  

Closer to home was the violence that was visited upon a school only 8 miles from where we sit right now.  And I would be willing to bet that everyone here knows someone that was personally affected by that event.    

And there are those who would ask, ‘if God exists, where was He when the shooting started.”  When I was a police officer, I never had to face the kind of trial that those responding officers faced on Friday.  I can only imagine what it must have been like, and I can only pray that they never have to experience that again.  

The last three years that I taught school, I taught at Santa Fe High School.  Many of the teachers I taught with have retired now, but I can only imagine what the teachers and students experienced on Friday.  No teacher and no student should ever have to face that kind of devastating event.  

This could have happened right across the street from my house, or 8 miles down the road in the other direction at my grandson’s school.  We are not isolated and protected.  It is happening here and it touches all of us.  

The Bible tells us that we will experience trials and strife in this life because we live in a broken and sinful world.  

And as much as we want God to remove all evil from the world, that would require that he take away our freewill and our freedom to become children of God.

You’ve heard me say it before, and I will continue to say it, God’s promise is not that life will be perfect, but that he will be with us as we go through the pain, through the suffering, through the heartbreak.  We have a God who has suffered himself - Jesus Christ hung on the cross for our sake, to save us, to redeem us, to identify with us, to suffer with us.  We have a God who knows heartache - our Heavenly Father who watched his only Son die on the cross so that we might find entry into heaven.

A friend reminded me of this scripture:  A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping.  Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted, because they are no more.  (Jeremiah 31:15)  When we weep, God weeps with us. 

In today’s lesson from Acts, Jesus is gone – risen – no longer with the disciples.  They are having to learn to live without Jesus.   

They are all together – around 120 of them, praying and worshiping God in the upper room.  And then the wind begins to blow – probably not much different from the way the wind that picks up as a front blows in – you hear it coming, this one was blowing strong and bringing fire.

The tongues of flames danced on the disciples – and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak in other tongues – languages.  Not the kind of prayer language that many people discover today, but known languages.  The people who had come from all these different places each recognized their own language – and the gospel was being spoken and understood by everyone there.  

Jesus had gone, but he had sent a gift – the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This had to happen for any number of reasons.

Jesus had to go in order that we might see him more clearly.  It is in looking back over the things that he said, and the things that he did – as recorded in scripture – that we begin to understand what was going on.  The gospels weren’t written until years later.  Partly because people caught up in the moment of these situations simply looked at the surface – the immediate effect of what was happening.  It was only years later – and in the light of the resurrection - that they began to understand Jesus more fully.

Jesus had to go so that all people might know him.  While he was here on the earth, his influence was limited – limited to those he could physically see and touch.  When Jesus left, it opened the door to allow the Holy Spirit to come in and fill those who were there.  As they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they were empowered to go out themselves and to take the message wherever they went.  And everyone they touched were empowered to go out also to spread the gospel even further.

Jesus had to go so that we would take responsibility to spread his message around the world.  You know the disciples were perfectly happy following Jesus around – listening to what he taught, watching what he did, and occasionally being sent out on a little test run.  They were in no big hurry to go running out to tell everyone about Jesus – they were somewhat greedy and wanted to soak it all up themselves and to bask in his glory.  So like baby birds, they had to be pushed out of the nest in order to learn how to fly on their own.  As long as Jesus was there, they weren't going to leave.

Toward the end of today’s gospel reading Jesus says, “I still have things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” 

I’ve heard people make a lot of statements about any number of subjects – quoting scripture to prove a point.  And the corollary of that is that if it isn’t in scripture, then it is false.  But that’s not true according to this statement.  Jesus clearly states that he hasn’t closed the books – he hasn’t told us everything.  There are other things he wants us to know that the world wasn’t ready for 2000 years ago. 

This is one of those scriptures, the living word of God that keeps on giving and giving.  As the world progresses and as we grow as a people – as we mature – we understand more and more of the scriptures – but we have to be careful.  Jesus didn’t have any trouble re-interpreting, or even changing what scripture said, when he saw that a scripture no longer served its purpose in his modern world.    I think we have to look at the way Jesus interacted with people – and the way he approached both the people and the establishment to understand what he was trying to say.  We need to look at the way Jesus lived his life.

Last year on Pentecost, I shared a Hasidic tale that asked the question, “Where is the Spirit of God?”  The answer: “God is where you let God come in.”  The Holy Spirit is the power that ushers God into our lives - whenever and wherever we allow that to happen.   

As we look back over this weekend, we want to think that the Spirit of God - that Jesus - was only in the good parts, but that’s not true.  Jesus was with every single person who died and who was injured at Santa Fe High School.  Jesus was with all the students who hid or fled in panic.  Jesus was with each panicked parent and friend.  

Jesus will find us when we are stressed, when we are scared, when we don’t know which way to turn.  His Spirit will find us to guide us and to comfort us and stay with us until the end.  In times like these, let us cry out:  “Come, Holy Spirit, Come!”

Where am I going?

For whatever reason, Sam has been singing the opening lines from Paint Your Wagon a lot lately, and it’s gotten stuck in my head. “Where am I going, I don’t know.  When will I get there, I ain’t certain, all I know is I am on my way.”  Do you ever feel like that?  Not sure where you are going or how you are going to get there?  Or even what to do once you do get there?

Sam and I had the pleasure of spending the past week down in Galveston with 20 other retired clergy couples.  There were also 7 members of the Church Pension Fund who led us through a series of talks, exercises and discussions designed to help us look at our life and our goals for living out our retirement and Christian vocation as couples.  The Credo conference that I attended in September did very similar things, but was focused only on clergy.  But this conference acknowledged that spouses are an important part of our life, planning and future.  

So in essence, this conference helped us address that burning question in Sam’s mind, “Where are we going...”. I think the disciples, after the death of Jesus had some of these same burning questions.  Where am I going?  What do I do next?  How do I get to my next assignment?  If you remember last week, after baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch, Philip was whisked away by the Holy Spirit and set down in Azotus.  But mostly the apostles had to walk where ever they went.  

In today’s lesson from the Acts of the Apostles, our focus is on Peter who is preaching to the household and friends of Cornelius, a Roman Centurion.  Peter is breaking a lot of rules just being in Cornelius’ home and preaching to these Gentiles.  Because the leaders considered this new sect to still be a part of the Jewish religion, they insisted that only Jews were acceptable in their movement.  They wanted to limit who could be included in God’s salvation.  But God had other ideas and He was beginning to spread his net over all people, not just Jews.  

So even though these are not circumcised believers, as Peter preached, the Holy Spirit fell on them all and they began to speak in tongues and extol God.  This is one of those examples where the disciples/apostles had to make an about-face and hurry to catch up with what God was doing in this place.  They not only had to accept the gentiles, but they realized that they also had to baptize them. 

When Peter got back to Jerusalem, he had to defend his decision before the counsel.  He had done at least four things that were wrong.  He stayed with Gentiles in their house.  He ate their food.  He preached to them.  And He had them baptized.  The church was not happy with Peter.

But Peter, even though he had broken the rules, knew that he had done what God wanted him to do.  And that was more important that any rule that had been imposed.  God’s will, not mine, be done.  So, what does that mean for us today?  It means when God leads the way into something new, whether we like it or not, whether we agree or not, we at least need to pay attention.  

The Gospel lesson tells us that we are to abide in God’s love – to obey the commandment is to love one another as God has loved us.  It also tells us that we are no longer servants, but friends.  That means something special - it has deepened the relationship between us and God – we are no longer slaves, but now are friends because the master has made known to us what he is doing in the world.  God is always navigating new pathways into our broken and torn world, and we sometimes have to run to keep up with what he is doing and the way he is reaching out to all people.  

His desire is that all should be saved.  In Chapter 2 of Acts, Peter preaches his first sermon and says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  Not if they are good enough.  ..  Not if they believe exactly like us...  Not if they are without sin...  But if they call on the name of Jesus, then they shall be saved.  

Our two lessons from John both speak of love and abiding in the grace of the Lord. Jesus also says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”  To many of us, in our humanity, question whether we are good enough to be chosen, but the truth is that we are all created in the image of God and he has chosen every single one of us.  All we have to do is answer his call to love, both God and one another.

And if we love him and choose to follow him, then we need to be prepared to go to uncomfortable places and live into the kind of love that he has for all creation.  When I started the journey with God, I told him, “If you open the door, I will step through it.”  That’s the way I’ve lived for the past 18 years.  Walking through open doors and trying not to look back when a door closes.  Following where God leads and very grateful that this last door he opened was right here at my home.

I’m not sure where I will go from here.  I have several short term plans for next month and Sam and I want to do some traveling.   Our collect says, “You have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding...”  We plan to continuing to follow the Lord, because he has already led us into more wonderful places and relationships than we could have imagined.  I plan to continue preaching the love of God to those who will listen and to seek his will for our lives.  I also plan to continue singing a new song to the Lord whenever and wherever I can. I know that God is going to be here with you after we leave and that he will make a way for us to return someday.  

I believe that God has great plans for Grace Church, but you need to be willing to step into whatever role God has for you in follow him.  What is your plan for following the Lord?  What doors are you willing to step through for the Lord?