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!”

Living in-between time

Listen to the sermon.     

Have you ever watched a little child with a helium-filled balloon?  Kids are fascinated by helium balloons.  They love to hold on to them and look up.  The safest thing, of course, is to tie the string around their wrist so that they don’t loose it.  If you go to large indoor events where balloons are sold, you will always see balloons that have escaped up among the rafters – or outdoors, you will sometimes see them drifting off in the breeze.  And I know you‘ve seen kids crying because their balloon got away – as they stand there looking up watching it go up and up and away.  

Sam tells the story about his brothers, Ted and Harry, who had built a perfectly balanced glider.  It was their pride and joy.  It was quite large and they loved to take it out in the pastures around their house and sail it on rather calm days when it could catch the air currents and stay up for a long time.  One day it caught several good updrafts and literally sailed away.  They watched it go, thrilled at the beauty of it, but even though they chased it, they never did find it.

Three days ago (Thursday) was the feast day of the Ascension.  Our first lesson has the disciples watching Jesus rise up into the heavens.  Imagine how they felt on that day as they watched him go.  It was probably one of the most magnificent sights they had ever seen, but at the same time it both confused them and scared them.  During that 10 days between the ascension and pentecost, they were living in the in-between times:  in between the ascension of Jesus and the coming down of the Holy Spirit, in between heaven and earth, in between the present and the coming kingdom, in between the local (what was happening then and there) and the global (the commission to go out and preach the word.)

After all this time they had been with Jesus, they heard him preach, they saw the miracles, they witnessed his death

 and his resurrection, and he made all these appearances to them and now they are on the hillside.  And the first 

question the disciples ask him is, “Lord, is now the time you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”  They are still 

expecting a military victory – an overthrowing of the current Roman government.  They still didn't get it. 

He tells them, “You don’t need to know the times,” because the kingdom that Jesus talked about had nothing to do with the political structures of our earthly governments.  The kingdom that Jesus talked about had to do with our interior state of being – our attitudes toward one another – and our love and caring, not only for  God, but for one another.

Jesus tells them here that they “will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them and that they will be witnesses to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  This could be an overwhelming job – so they went back to the upper room where they were staying.  And for 10 days, they devoted themselves to praying together.  And I’m sure – trying to figure out what it was that Jesus had been trying to tell them.

They didn’t have a clue what it meant to have the Holy Spirit – the nearest concept they could entertain was probably the stories of the prophets of old who were filled with the Spirit of God.  But it hadn’t happened yet, and they couldn’t quite imagine themselves as the prophets of old.  They were living in-between.  They were planted firmly on the ground, living in the present time, day by day, in Jerusalem waiting for what would happen next.

In our second lesson, Peter tells us to humble ourselves before God – to cast all our cares upon him – and to discipline ourselves, keeping alert at all times.  And he tells us that Christ will restore, support and strengthen us.  Peter learned this during that in-between time in Jerusalem and with the coming of the Holy Spirit.  I’m sure it was hard not to become discouraged – waiting.  

I don't wait well - I find it hard to just sit and do nothing.  Different people wait in different ways, and some people wait in different way at different times in their lives.  

My idea of waiting is to stay busy, find something to do.  At one time in my life that meant coming down here to this church and spend hours praying and reading scripture.  At another time it meant spending hours singing and playing spiritual songs.   Especially Change my heart, O God...    ----    At another time, it meant spending hours in the hospital visiting and working with people there.  At another time it meant sitting still praying with beads or contemplating scripture or centering prayer.  

We live in the in-between – we are in the world – right here in this time and place - and while we are here, we are to be present to those around us and live in the moment for Christ. Grace Church is in an in-between time, between Father David and whoever will be called as your new rector.  

This is your time to strengthen your ministry - to build up your church - to come together to find what God is calling you to be and do - both individually and as a church.  God doesn't want you to just sit on your hands doing nothing -

he wants you to be active, remembering that the person preaching to you isn't the be-all and end-all.  

The future of this church does not depend me or whoever comes next.  The future of this church depends on you!  

Our gospel lesson is Jesus’ prayer for us.  He doesn’t pray for world harmony – he prays for the disciples – for us – for unity – that we are able to work together to live and bring about his kingdom on this earth.  

How can you make this place a little better for someone else?  How can you reach out to someone in need or pain?  Some of you do this on a daily basis – praying for each other or helping each other out working and planning for ministry.

In his prayer, Jesus begins, “The hour has come…”  Now is the time – to pray for others - to reach out to help others – to live into God’s purpose in your life.  Not later, but now.  I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get so overwhelmed by the things that I have to do – the sheer volume – that I become less than productive, less than effective.  

Learning to live in the moment, what is happening this very minute – and not worry about what I have to do in the next hour, or tomorrow, or the next day – is one way I can begin to live into what Jesus wants me to be.  And I invite you to contemplate what it is that Jesus is calling you to be and do.

Let us pray,

Most precious Father, send your Holy Spirit onto us, into us, 

that we may live into your plan for our lives and for our church.  

Help us to live in the tension of this world, 

keeping the promise of your kingdom 

always on the horizon of our consciousness.  

Help us to see those around us here in this world, 

And to see your heavenly purpose in their lives also.

This we ask in the name of your son, Jesus, 

as we await the coming power of His Holy Spirit.  Amen.