Last week we celebrated Pentecost, the only Christian holiday mentioned in the Bible. Pentecost has deep roots in Judaism, but quickly became very important for the Christian community. It marks the birthday of mission in the Church.
Pentecost is the end of the Easter season. It is the doorway that opens before us leading us into a new season of learning. To kick off this new season, we begin with one last festival, the festival of the Holy Trinity. It celebrates the mystery of God—God is one in three and three in one.
There are those who will spend time today trying to explain this mystery (and I have been one of those people in the past), but Martin Luther says, “There are those who are much smarter than I who will try to explain this mystery, but for me it is enough to know that a mystery means that it cannot be resolved.” That is, if you can explain a mystery, it is no longer a mystery. So, today I come to you not to explain how God can be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; but to remind you that to know God is to be in a relationship with God and that this relationship brings a wholeness to our lives that cannot be known without God.
We come today, this day of Holy Trinity, celebrating Christ’s victory over the grave, the birth of mission in our church, and the mystery of God’s continued relationship with us and the world. This is the time to roll up our sleeves and get down to doing the work of the Church. It is time to enter into God’s world of creative possibility, to work with God in the goodness of God’s creation, and to strive for the completion place of peace and hope God has intended for us from the very beginning.
Lately I have spent a fair amount of time studying church growth programs. What people are realizing in these studies is that the church is not as big as it used to be. (Can you believe that? I sometimes wonder how much money has been spent for this learning. We could have told them this without spending a great amount of time, let alone money.)
The studies ask several questions. What is happening in the Church? What is the trend in our society? Why is it that what used to be the center of our communal living is no longer central? What is it that we need to do to reclaim our place in the story of our society? Is it even possible to reclaim our place in that story?
A part of the answer addresses one of the fastest growing sectors of our society—people who identify themselves as “none” or “done”. The “nones” are people who had no or very little in the way of religious upbringing and want nothing to do with religion of any kind. The “dones” were previously dedicated to and active in congregational life. Although still spiritual and faithful, they are done, not only with the religious tradition they were brought up in, but Church as an institution. It is just not going to be part of their lives again.
With this knowledge before us, we come to these texts today, this Holy Trinity Sunday, seeking good news, maybe even comfort; thinking about what the Church has to offer. What is it that the Church has to offer the world? Who is it that needs to be served? How are we, as Christ’s followers, going to meet that need?
We now live in a world where it is no longer about having people come to us. We no longer live in that “If you build it, they will come” society. We are faced with a world where it is more important to think about how we will meet the needs of God’s people outside of this building.
In order to begin knowing what we can do to serve God’s people, we need to identify what God is calling us to do. If we understand our call to ministry is to be gardeners and we choose to work with people whose immediate need is learning English as a second language, then our success rate is not likely to be very high, but, if we are called to be gardeners and our ministry is with hungry people, then our ministry might have a dramatic impact. So, it is important to know what God is calling us to do and where our gifts are needed.
Back in the first days of creation, life was so much easier. In fact, it was really simple. God did all of the work, declared it good, and, then after God created humankind, God invited us to join with God in a Sabbath celebration. Oh, for those days again, right? “Creation time, and the livin’ was easy.”
It was easy until that serpent came along. After that, there was the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, choosing our relationship with one another over our relationship with God, the finger pointing, and the sudden realization that life couldn’t be easy any more. Then there was the sweat of his brow and the pain in child bearing, finding enough time and money to put food on the table, preparing our children for the vicissitudes of life, saving for college educations, and then getting ready for retirement with uncertain markets and low interest rates. No wonder we want to get back to the garden.
We look at our lives and are tempted to think that Bible times were somehow more peaceful, calm, and safe, but, when we really look at the communal lives of the people in Scripture, we discover a world that looks very much like the world we are living in now.
In today’s reading in 2 Corinthians, we find a highly conflicted community. It is on the brink of falling apart. After reading about the issues of conflict within the community in Corinth, after hearing about the lack of faith and struggles for power, we hear these amazing words from Paul, “So, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” (grace, that undeserved love of God—i.e., “May you know Christ’s love!”) … “So, may the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is the love of God (an appositive, Jesus is God’s love for us personified) … “So, may the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit (the “other” advocate sent to walk alongside us, and speak for us, and help us find our way) … “So, may the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you always.”
Now I don’t know about you, but when I am fighting with someone, I am more likely to say something like, “Take that!” Instead, Paul says, “Know God’s love. Find peace. Come to know oneness in the Spirit. Build each other up in love; don’t spend a lot of time trying to destroy the reputation of the people around you. Rejoice!”
And, if that is not enough to make you take pause on this Holy Trinity Sunday, we find ourselves coming back, in Matthew, to where we started several months ago. The disciples have been directed to the mountain in Galilee, and they have gone there. Remember, we heard these words Easter morning, “You are looking for Jesus among the dead. He is not here. He has gone ahead of you to Galilee. There you will find him” (or see him or encounter him).
The disciples went to the great gathering place in Galilee, to this amazing place in the book of Matthew. They went to the mountain—that mountain where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, where he gave his statements on what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Who was he preaching to? Who was listening? They were the sick, the diseased, the lame, the maimed, the blind, the deaf, the rejected, widows, orphans, the broken of the world and their care givers. Many of these people were brought before Jesus on cots, from all over the known world. This is the place where Jesus preached and the people who gathered heard him.
It is at the foot of this mountain, in the book of Matthew, that Jesus fed the five thousand with two fish and five loaves of bread. Two chapters later, Jesus fed four thousand on this mountain side. And it is on this mountain that Jesus is transfigured while speaking with Moses and Elijah. In the book of Matthew, these are all the same mountain. Now Jesus’ disciples have come back again to this central gathering place. It is their sanctuary, their place for worship. It is the place where they have come to know the word of hope, promise, and life itself, in a world that is about dying.
So now, as Jesus directed them, they have come to this sacred place and found him. They found him where he said he would be. And although everything seems to be as it should be, Jesus’ words to them are somewhat disconcerting. Jesus says something like, “It is wonderful that you have come here. I am so glad to see you again. It is a great thing, a heart-warming time for us, now that we can gather here, but we can’t stay here.”
Imagine we are Jesus’ disciples and we have come to witness that Jesus has conquered death and the grave. We have discovered that, indeed, Jesus has gone ahead of us, and he is with us on the side of the mountain. We are there, hearing him say, “All power and authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” It must be great worshipping that day. We may even want to savor this moment for a day or two. We might be tempted to build a shrine, a chapel, even a cathedral, a place where we could stay for many years to come basking in the glory, but Jesus doesn’t allow for that basking. Jesus doesn’t say, “Let’s take a break for a while. Let’s build a Christian commune here for reflection, spiritual discipline, and retreat.”
Instead, Jesus says, “Go! Leave this place! Go out into the world. Go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to all of Galilee, to the remote corners of the Roman Empire, to all of the nations, and make disciples. Spread the word. Teach my commandments: ‘Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and your neighbor as yourself.’ Baptize them into the relationship that I have demonstrated for you—that relationship of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yes, baptize them into that relationship. Live openly in the world around you, knowing that you have been sent to serve the world. Lastly know this, you are not sent out alone. ‘Remember, I am with you to the end of the age.’ I am with you to the end of your days and to the end of all of the days of all those who follow after you.”
On this Holy Trinity Sunday, there are some who will show the triangle symbol and try to demonstrate how that is God, but the great mystery is this relationship that God continues to have with us and that relationship that we continue to have with God. It is not something that just happens; it is something that we have to live into. It is this amazing “into” relationship that we celebrate today. The words in Greek are clearer than our English translation. The Greek literally says, “Baptize them INTO the name of the Father, and INTO the Son, and INTO the Holy Spirit.” It is this INTO relationship word that places us in a relationship of life-long participatory living. It is not a magic act that happens to us once and then leaves us alone. It is this constant presence that interacts with us every day to the end of the age.
As the body of Christ in this place for worship and praise, we also become part of that divine relationship for the sake of the world. No longer is this place a place for shelter and comfort, but a place to be sent from; to hear the command, “GO! Go to all people of the world bearing witness to the power of God’s love for yourself and them in the midst of our controversial differences.”
These texts are challenging for us today, but the world that we live in is challenging. The way that we think about Church is challenging; and it is incumbent upon us to remember where we have been, and where it is that we are going, and how it is that we are going to get there.
We are not on a mountainside today, with the luxury of being able to use gravity to direct our footsteps down into the world when we leave here. What we have is this aisle that runs from the nurture and feeding and teaching place of love, that connects God’s altar to the baptismal font and then passes through the doors leading us out into the world where Christ continues to go ahead of us and call us.
On this Holy Trinity Sunday may we remember and know, really know, in our minds and in our hearts, that we are called to GO, and, in going, we seek to serve the people that God continues to give us. May you always find the surprises of God’s relationship gifts in the world each and every day.
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