Trinity Sunday Sermon
“A disciple went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, ‘Abba Joseph, as far as I am able I say my little office, I keep my little fasts, I pray my little prayers, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do to be holy?’ Then Abba Joseph stood up. He stretched his hands toward heaven. His fingers became like ten torches of flame and he said to him, ‘Why not be turned completely into fire?’ ”
This weekend, the Rev. Brian Prior, who is the vice president of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church, the House of Deputies is the body of our Triennial Church wide Convention made up of Lay People, Deacons and Priests, it is the check to the House of Bishops in the Church, Brian said this of those gathered for the CEPVA conference here in the Garden: “What are you on fire about?” His question got me thinking, “What am I on fire about?” Some days I am as clear as a bell about what I love to do, what I love to see the Church doing. Some days I have no idea.
What are you on fire about? What are those things that, like Abba Joseph, turn you into flame? We have discerned, as a community, three different areas of ministry that we find important in the life of the Garden: worship, community and justice. What about worship ignites your soul? What about community, fires your heart? What about justice turns your fingers into torches of flame? What are you on fire about? It is a question, I have come to believe, that makes this place different from the rest of the Episcopal Churches in Minnesota. It is a question that, as we ask it, as we discern its meaning for ourselves, as we live into the question itself, changes the very core of who we are as community of faith. Why? Because it means we are not asking what we should be, rather we are asking what we want to be. Do you see the difference? We must not be a community that asks what we should be, that tries to be all things to all people, rather a community built on the gifts and skills we have as God’s faith filled people living into the world.
I talked last week about being a missionary of the Church, and as part of being a missionary, we participate in those things we believe God has called us to be part of. What are your gifts and skills, what are those things you are good at? What are you on fire about, and how can you take those gifts, that passion and put it into play as part of the ministry of this Church? Some of you may know exactly what you want to do, and I am asking you all to do those things, right now. Some of you may have no idea what your particular gifts and skills are, and to you I say, “Let’s find out!” When we ask the question “What are we on fire about?” We move from a Church community trying to be too comprehensive and spread so thin our ministry is barely able be seen, to a Church that is truly who we are as a part of the Body of Christ. That is what being a missionary is all about.
Today is Trinity Sunday, it is the day we honor the Trinity in our worship, it is the day that our Lectionary gives us readings about God, Jesus and the Spirit. For years the Trinity, for me, has been a doctrinal wall of fog that was terribly difficult to navigate, that is until recently when I discovered, of all things, an icon that depicted the Trinity in a way I had never imagined. Look at this icon, it depicts the Trinity in a way, I have found, that is one of the most popular artistic images of the Trinity in the history of the Church. However, its meaning is vastly different as you talk to people about what it depicts. For me, and my recent Epiphany, it depicts the relational aspect of the Trinity, it brings the Holy Trinity, and all its complexity to this table, the table we are about to receive communion. The three people pictured here are God, Jesus and the Spirit, and if you look closely, there is a place at the table for each of us. There is a place where we are invited to sit with God, to sit with Jesus and to sit with the Spirit, and be in relationship with each of them.
God is not far away from us, this says, Jesus is not in a distant far off land, the Spirit is alive, and blowing in our midst, and we are invited to participate in that relationship as fully as we are able. We are invited to sit at the table and feast with the three persons of the Trinity and be in relationship with, not with just one, but with all three. Howard Anderson was here this weekend as the facilitator for the conference, and one if its Key Notes Speakers, he said something that added immense meaning to this picture. He talked about how God wants to know us, not just be acquainted with us, but to know us. So God created the world for us, not for Godself, not for the angels, not for anything else, but for us, those who were created in God’s image. Then, God wanted to know what it was like to BE human, so God put on human flesh and became human, became Jesus so as to experience all the things that we experience in our lives, joy, sadness, companionship, betrayal, hurt, healing and death. God wanted to know, so God became human and learned all that we know. That, however was not enough, so Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit came to the Disciples and breathed into them the breath of God, the Spirit, the teacher of all things. When Jesus breathed into the Disciples the breath of God, we must remember what sort of intimate act this was, here in Minnesota we have six foot boundaries around us that keep us safe from really getting to know people. In Jesus’ time those boundaries were much smaller, to the point that they almost didn’t exist. Jesus breathed into the Disciples the breath of God, he got close to them, he got right in their faces and breathed into their mouths the breath of God. God knows us, God loves us, God cherishes each of us and that is what we are called to do as missionaries in the world, is to be made holy and to remind this broken world that it also is holy.
Today we have another chance to raise up an individual, an individual who is loved by God, who is cherished by Christ and called by the Holy Spirit to do great things. Leo will be baptized shortly and in this baptism we are ordaining him as one of God’s children. We are ordaining him to be part of the Body of Christ, we are ordaining and revealing within him the gifts God has given Leo to change the world. God is alive, God is here, among us, as the Spirit blowing in or midst, shaping and forming us into missionaries and today we add another passionate soul to this community of faith. Hopefully, Leo, your presence, your baptism will do so much more for us that make us feel good, hopefully your baptism today will remind us how we were ordained, and are called to fulfill God’s mission. Hopefully today Leo, as we welcome you into our midst, your spirit will ignite those dull embers of our hearts and remind us what it is we have passion about and turn us completely into flame.
Today we commit ourselves to Leo, to Alyssa to Erick, to Angie and to Salvador, we commit to helping see that Leo is brought up in the Christian faith, to become a passionate soul, filled with the Holy Spirit. Alyssa and Erick, look around you, the people you see here today will do all that they can to help, to support, to nourish and to cherish this beautiful child of yours. You are as much part of this community as anyone here is, and we are all passionately committed to seeing our promises through. One final story for you as I close:
A young brother went to an elder and confessed he was constantly enduring impure thoughts. The older monk, who himself had been spared such temptations, told his visitor that he was not fit for monastic life. Agreeing that he was unworthy, the young man set out to return to the world. In God’s providence Abbot Apollo was coming toward him, saw his despair, and questioned him about its cause. “Think it no strange thing, my son, and do not despair, for I too, even at my age and in this way of life, am hard pressed by just such thoughts as these,” Abbot Apollo confessed. “Therefore do not give up when tested in this way. The remedy is not in our anxious thoughts but in God’s compassion.” The young monk took heart and returned to monastic life.
May we be like Abbot Apollo to you Leo, anointing you with words of comfort, peace and hope and never sending you away in desperation.
This weekend, the Rev. Brian Prior, who is the vice president of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church, the House of Deputies is the body of our Triennial Church wide Convention made up of Lay People, Deacons and Priests, it is the check to the House of Bishops in the Church, Brian said this of those gathered for the CEPVA conference here in the Garden: “What are you on fire about?” His question got me thinking, “What am I on fire about?” Some days I am as clear as a bell about what I love to do, what I love to see the Church doing. Some days I have no idea.
What are you on fire about? What are those things that, like Abba Joseph, turn you into flame? We have discerned, as a community, three different areas of ministry that we find important in the life of the Garden: worship, community and justice. What about worship ignites your soul? What about community, fires your heart? What about justice turns your fingers into torches of flame? What are you on fire about? It is a question, I have come to believe, that makes this place different from the rest of the Episcopal Churches in Minnesota. It is a question that, as we ask it, as we discern its meaning for ourselves, as we live into the question itself, changes the very core of who we are as community of faith. Why? Because it means we are not asking what we should be, rather we are asking what we want to be. Do you see the difference? We must not be a community that asks what we should be, that tries to be all things to all people, rather a community built on the gifts and skills we have as God’s faith filled people living into the world.
I talked last week about being a missionary of the Church, and as part of being a missionary, we participate in those things we believe God has called us to be part of. What are your gifts and skills, what are those things you are good at? What are you on fire about, and how can you take those gifts, that passion and put it into play as part of the ministry of this Church? Some of you may know exactly what you want to do, and I am asking you all to do those things, right now. Some of you may have no idea what your particular gifts and skills are, and to you I say, “Let’s find out!” When we ask the question “What are we on fire about?” We move from a Church community trying to be too comprehensive and spread so thin our ministry is barely able be seen, to a Church that is truly who we are as a part of the Body of Christ. That is what being a missionary is all about.
Today is Trinity Sunday, it is the day we honor the Trinity in our worship, it is the day that our Lectionary gives us readings about God, Jesus and the Spirit. For years the Trinity, for me, has been a doctrinal wall of fog that was terribly difficult to navigate, that is until recently when I discovered, of all things, an icon that depicted the Trinity in a way I had never imagined. Look at this icon, it depicts the Trinity in a way, I have found, that is one of the most popular artistic images of the Trinity in the history of the Church. However, its meaning is vastly different as you talk to people about what it depicts. For me, and my recent Epiphany, it depicts the relational aspect of the Trinity, it brings the Holy Trinity, and all its complexity to this table, the table we are about to receive communion. The three people pictured here are God, Jesus and the Spirit, and if you look closely, there is a place at the table for each of us. There is a place where we are invited to sit with God, to sit with Jesus and to sit with the Spirit, and be in relationship with each of them.
God is not far away from us, this says, Jesus is not in a distant far off land, the Spirit is alive, and blowing in our midst, and we are invited to participate in that relationship as fully as we are able. We are invited to sit at the table and feast with the three persons of the Trinity and be in relationship with, not with just one, but with all three. Howard Anderson was here this weekend as the facilitator for the conference, and one if its Key Notes Speakers, he said something that added immense meaning to this picture. He talked about how God wants to know us, not just be acquainted with us, but to know us. So God created the world for us, not for Godself, not for the angels, not for anything else, but for us, those who were created in God’s image. Then, God wanted to know what it was like to BE human, so God put on human flesh and became human, became Jesus so as to experience all the things that we experience in our lives, joy, sadness, companionship, betrayal, hurt, healing and death. God wanted to know, so God became human and learned all that we know. That, however was not enough, so Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit came to the Disciples and breathed into them the breath of God, the Spirit, the teacher of all things. When Jesus breathed into the Disciples the breath of God, we must remember what sort of intimate act this was, here in Minnesota we have six foot boundaries around us that keep us safe from really getting to know people. In Jesus’ time those boundaries were much smaller, to the point that they almost didn’t exist. Jesus breathed into the Disciples the breath of God, he got close to them, he got right in their faces and breathed into their mouths the breath of God. God knows us, God loves us, God cherishes each of us and that is what we are called to do as missionaries in the world, is to be made holy and to remind this broken world that it also is holy.
Today we have another chance to raise up an individual, an individual who is loved by God, who is cherished by Christ and called by the Holy Spirit to do great things. Leo will be baptized shortly and in this baptism we are ordaining him as one of God’s children. We are ordaining him to be part of the Body of Christ, we are ordaining and revealing within him the gifts God has given Leo to change the world. God is alive, God is here, among us, as the Spirit blowing in or midst, shaping and forming us into missionaries and today we add another passionate soul to this community of faith. Hopefully, Leo, your presence, your baptism will do so much more for us that make us feel good, hopefully your baptism today will remind us how we were ordained, and are called to fulfill God’s mission. Hopefully today Leo, as we welcome you into our midst, your spirit will ignite those dull embers of our hearts and remind us what it is we have passion about and turn us completely into flame.
Today we commit ourselves to Leo, to Alyssa to Erick, to Angie and to Salvador, we commit to helping see that Leo is brought up in the Christian faith, to become a passionate soul, filled with the Holy Spirit. Alyssa and Erick, look around you, the people you see here today will do all that they can to help, to support, to nourish and to cherish this beautiful child of yours. You are as much part of this community as anyone here is, and we are all passionately committed to seeing our promises through. One final story for you as I close:
A young brother went to an elder and confessed he was constantly enduring impure thoughts. The older monk, who himself had been spared such temptations, told his visitor that he was not fit for monastic life. Agreeing that he was unworthy, the young man set out to return to the world. In God’s providence Abbot Apollo was coming toward him, saw his despair, and questioned him about its cause. “Think it no strange thing, my son, and do not despair, for I too, even at my age and in this way of life, am hard pressed by just such thoughts as these,” Abbot Apollo confessed. “Therefore do not give up when tested in this way. The remedy is not in our anxious thoughts but in God’s compassion.” The young monk took heart and returned to monastic life.
May we be like Abbot Apollo to you Leo, anointing you with words of comfort, peace and hope and never sending you away in desperation.
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