Peace

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

August 18, 2019

15 Proper C

Thursday evening, I had the pleasure of having dinner and spending the night with my aunt in Chicago.  I was in the city for a meeting Friday morning at Bexley-Seabury seminary, where I serve on the board of directors.  Paula, my aunt, was the wife of my father’s older brother, my late uncle, but she is far closer to my age than she was to that of Uncle George.  Their children are about the same age as my sons.  While we were together Thursday evening, we looked at some old family photos.  There are photos of my dad and my uncle when they were little boys, photos of the 8 cousins, the grandparents we had in common, and photos of various family reunions over the decades.  Those photos tell the story of a family made up of different views on pretty much everything, including the family story, but also made up of people who care deeply about each other, share a set of experiences and family resemblances.  The photos are reminders of the important role we have played in each other’s lives.  I was reminded of the way I feel at home when I am with family, even when I am far from home.

          Family is important, so Jesus’ words come as a shock to me this morning.  Jesus seems to be something of a home-wrecker when he says “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided.”  Then Jesus goes on in some detail about what that division looks like.  If these words were the only words we had from Jesus, we would be hard pressed to say why this is good news and we might wonder how Jesus ever attracted any followers! 

But these are not the only words we have from or about Jesus.   When Jesus is born, the angels light up the sky and sing “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” To the woman who anoints his feet with costly ointment, Jesus says “Go in peace, your faith has saved you,” which is also what he says to the woman healed of her hemorrhage.  And at the end of Luke’s gospel, when Jesus appears to the disciples, he says “Peace be with you.” 

Clearly, Jesus has nothing against peace.  So, what is Jesus up to this morning with his gloom and doom talk about family division?

There are two places in Luke’s gospel where we find a basic job description for Jesus.  First, when Mary went to visit Elizabeth when both women were pregnant, the child in Elizabeth’s womb, aka John the Baptist, leapt for joy.  Then Mary sang the words many of us know as the Magnificat.  The Magnificat, based on the Song of Hannah in 1 Samuel, includes these words:  

He has shown strength with his arm;

   he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

   and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

   and sent the rich away empty.

This is part 1 of Jesus’ job description.  The second part of the job description is in Luke 4 at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry when he enters the synagogue in Nazareth and reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. 

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

   because he has anointed me

     to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

   and recovery of sight to the blind,

     to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

When Jesus finishes, he says to the congregation “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  At first, the people listening are amazed at the gracious words coming from Jesus.  But then, when they realize that Jesus’ gracious words are not for them alone, they are furious and want to throw Jesus off a cliff. 

In these two passages, we hear that Jesus has come to turn the world upside down.  He has come to bring good news to the poor and show the rich what real wealth is.  He has come to lift the lowly, and show the powerful what true power looks like.  He has come to feed the hungry and show the rich the food that really satisfies.  In the gospel world of Jesus, the outsiders are insiders, the rich are poor, the last are first, and death brings life.   This is what the Kingdom of God looks like.  

This morning, Jesus tells us that he has come to make the Kingdom of God a present reality and to light a fire under us.  In the Hebrew scriptures, fire is a sign of the divine presence as God led the Hebrew people out of Egypt as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  Fire is also about purification, as we hear from John the Baptist at the beginning of Luke’s gospel when he warns the gathered crowds that “every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”  Jesus has come to bring gospel values to earth and he is as serious as fire about his mission.

Jesus has nothing against peace.  But he is not competing in a popularity contest either.  Jesus is clear this morning that he has a job to do, a mission to fulfill, and he knows there will be deep resistance to his words just as there was deep resistance in Nazareth when he started his ministry.  Some will choose to follow him and others will not.  Even within families, some will choose to follow and others will not, and that choice will create division in those families.  Jesus does not say this morning that families are bad, or that division is good or some goal to be achieved.  Jesus is being honest and telling his followers that division happens.  In the late first century world in which Luke was written, Christians were experiencing exactly what Jesus describes this morning as some in a family chose to follow Jesus and pay the price and others did not.  Today, some families are deeply divided over issues of faith.  If peace is the goal of following Jesus, those in families that have divided over whether or how to follow Jesus can easily feel like failures.  Jesus tells his followers that division is not failure, but division may be part of the price we pay for following him.  Jesus never claims that being his follower will be easy.  Jesus’ claim is that following him faithfully will have a cost.  Jesus’ promise is that following him will make the Kingdom of God a more present reality on earth, and that following him always leads to life. 

                                                          Amen.

Community

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

August 11, 2019

14 Proper C

          Almost two years ago, in the fall of 2017, we held a series of cottage meetings in which over 100 people dreamed about our future at Christ Church.  Some of the dreams were huge-like use our Christian Education hallway for a pre-school.  Some of the dreams were small, like new carpet in the Parish Hall.  We allowed ourselves to dream as if money were no obstacle so we could begin to discern what God is calling us to do and be at Christ Church.

          Over the months and now years that followed, we honed that dream, pushing ourselves to be specific about both the what and the why of our dreams.  Through more parish conversations, we discerned that we wanted to make our space, particularly our parish hall and other gathering spaces, more user friendly both for ourselves and for the community at large.  At a parish gathering, we determined that our number one priority was to maximize the use of our building. 

          This morning, we hear Jesus say “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  I would like to suggest that over the past two years, we have been trying to articulate where our heart is, so we can put our treasure there.   From our conversations, I believe our collective heart at Christ Church wants to be more connected and of more service to our community both in Hudson and beyond.  Our collective heart hears Isaiah speak God’s voice this morning and say “cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow,” and we long to do what God desires of us.  Our mission statement proclaims that we seek to be a welcoming community of faith, grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ, serving Hudson and beyond.  Our heart is in building that community.

          We already welcome many groups into our buildings.  We host Job Search, AA, Al Anon, SAGE which is an educational opportunity for retired people, the Hudson Youth Chorus, Music from the Western Reserve,  Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, Brownie Scouts and Daisy Scouts, Refuge Recovery, the Hudson Writers’ Workshop, the Learned Owl book group, Newborns in Need, and First Presbyterian Church.  I am sure I have left something out, and that does not include the groups or people who ask to use the building on a one time or occasional basis.  All of that is on top of the very many Christ Church ministries that occur in our building.

          Jesus calls us to action and preparedness this morning, then Jesus says “"But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."  Our baptismal covenant calls us to “Seek and serve Christ in all people.”  Yes, we wait for Jesus to come at the end time.  But we also believe that Jesus comes in the form of every single person who crosses our threshold, whether a member of the parish, a visitor or guest, someone trying to find their way from the parking lot to the Upper Room for an AA meeting, or the 42 children we served at Vacation Bible School last week.  Jesus comes at unexpected times and in unexpected ways, while at the same time Jesus comes all the time in everyone.  Our call is to be a church that welcomes and serves Jesus every time Jesus walks though our door.

          Today, we kick off our Capital Campaign.  Lou Young and George Van Buren will tell you more about that at the end of the service.  The name of our campaign is “Building for Community.”  On the surface, a capital campaign can look like it’s all about the building and all about us.  Yes, our buildings need some work and yes, we will benefit from that work.  But if that is all the campaign is about, I am really not interested.  Our campaign is about community, building community among ourselves and building community in Hudson.  Our campaign is about providing a more welcoming and accessible place where we meet Jesus and where we better serve Jesus as he comes through our doors day in and day out.  More accessible gathering spaces, more accessible restrooms, a hallway to go around an upgraded parish hall with more space and a sound system so everyone can hear, and some work on the outside of our historic Beebe House are all pieces of this campaign.  Yes, the campaign is about the building.  But the building is about being a place that creates community and serves Jesus at Christ Church.

          The reading from Hebrews reminds us of the faith of Abraham, who was called by God to set out on a journey, not knowing where he was going, how he would get there, or what he was supposed to do when he arrived.  We are called to such faith, even though we have a much better idea of where we are going and how we will get there than Abraham did.  But we do have an audacious goal for our campaign and reaching that goal is going to require stepping out in faith.  Stepping out in faith is nothing new to Christ Church and I brag about your faithfulness and tenacity all the time to pretty much anyone who will listen.  Our theme, again, is building for community.  I believe that working together as one body on this campaign will strengthen us as a community.  In my experience, every time a church steps out in faith and bites off what feels like a little more than they can chew, that church grows in faith, in energy, and sometimes even in numbers because faith and excitement are contagious.  And when we step out in faith, whatever we are doing, we will find Jesus in new and unexpected times and places.

                                                                             Amen.

         

Division

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

August 4, 2019

13 Proper C

           My friend Dawn has a great gift for helping other people downsize to smaller living quarters or clean out a loved one’s house after a death in the family.  Dawn makes quick decisions about what needs to be kept, given away, or thrown away.  She has come to my rescue more than once when I had such a job to do and her energy has kept me afloat in the midst of more than one basement filled with decades worth of earthly belongings.  In each case, Dawn had less of an emotional investment in the property being downsized, which was a great help.  How much easier is it to say “Are you really going to use this?” when the item in question does not belong to you, never belonged to you, and has none of your memories attached to it!  Dawn is a relentless sorter of other people’s things and in no time a room can be sorted into things to keep, things to give away, and things to toss. 

          At first glance, the landowner in today’s parable needs Dawn for a friend.  When she finished with his crops and his goods, I assure you he would have no need for new barns.  Everything would fit in a shed!  That is what the landowner really needs, right?  He needs to downsize and get on with his life.

          However, the landowner’s real problem is not that he needs to downsize or come up with more space for his crops and goods.  I do wonder what the man did with all of his grain and all of his goods once he tore down his old barns and waited for the new barns to be built, but that is not the problem of the parable, either.  Listen to what the landowner says:  “What should I do for I have no place to store my crops.”  Then he goes on “I will do this.  I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grains and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, and be merry.”  In those few lines, the landowner uses the word “I” or “my” 11 times.  The landowner’s problem is that the landowner is the naval of his own universe.  Never does the landowner think that he might share his abundance with others as a solution to his storage problem, or that his abundance is a result of anything other than his own good fortune.

          Both our reading from Hosea and our psalm this morning remind God’s people of God’s tender love for them and the way God led the people out of slavery in Egypt, through the wilderness, providing for their hunger and thirst, and guiding them to the Promised Land.  Both readings proclaim God’s faithfulness, even when the people complained and rebelled.   Both readings are drenched in God’s love for the people and all God has done and is doing for them.  In the reading from Hosea, we hear the heartbreak in God’s voice as the people turn time and time again to false gods when they feel threatened, and yet God loves the people despite God’s heartbreak.

          In the reading from Colossians, we are told what our lives look like when Christ is revealed in glory.  Those things which divide us from each other are out: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, which we are told is idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive language.  Instead, we are called to recognize that in Christ, we are all one.  We have put aside that which divides us and there is no longer Jew or Greek, slaves or free, or division by ethnic identity.  In today’s world, we might add to that list economic status, gender identity, political party, skin color, views on gun control, or any of the many other ways in which we allow ourselves to be divided.  In Christ, we are all one.

          So, what is the fundamental problem of the landowner?  The fundamental problem is greed.  Before Jesus tells us the parable of the rich landowner this morning, Jesus says “Take care!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist of the abundance of possessions.”  The landowner’s problem is that his life does consist of the abundance of his own possessions.  The landowner is concerned with the welfare of only one person-himself.  The landowner has forgotten the story of God’s people, which tells us that all we are connected with all that God has made and warns us against the futility of putting our trust in anything other than God when times are tough.  God’s heart is broken in the reading from Hosea precisely because the people have forgotten these two things.

          We live in heartbreaking times.  We live in a time when we allow ourselves to be divided along so many lines and those divisions keep us from being able to solve the problems that confront us as a nation.  Just yesterday, a mass shooting in a Wal-Mart in El Paso, Texas took the lives of 20 people and injured dozens more.  I got up this morning and read of the mass shooting last night in Dayton, Ohio where, at last count, 9 people had been killed and 16 injured.   We wring our hands, pray, and feel hopeless.  We wonder what we can do to end this madness.   And so long as we as a society allow ourselves to be divided by our differences and, like the landowner, we focus on the words “I” and “my,” the answer is probably nothing.  But the good news that Scripture proclaims this morning and always is that God has created us to be connected to each other.  In Christ, we are one.  At a fundamental level, humans are wired for connection with God and all people. Our hope and our call is in living as the people God created us to be.  There is no place for division in God’s heart.  Let there be no room for division in our hearts so that we can begin to heal this very broken world.  We can only begin with ourselves.

                                                                             Amen.

Children of the Living God

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

July 28, 2019

12 Proper C

          In the baptism service in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, the edition immediately prior to the prayer book we now use, right after the lessons and prayers and just before the baby was baptized, the priest said “Name this child.”  The service recognized that God knows and calls us each by name, and that names are important.  Our name distinguishes us as individuals.  The way someone says our name can communicate love or displeasure.  My name connects me to my godmother and cousin, and to her grandmother who was my great-grandmother, connecting me to a story much larger than my own.   The names Don and I gave our children were carefully thought out, combining names we just like with names that connect them with a larger story.  Names are important.

          So, I am somewhat taken back by the reading from Hosea this morning.  God instructs Hosea to take for himself a wife of whoredom, for the people have committed whoredom by forsaking God.  If that is not bad enough, God then instructs Hosea and Gomer to name their children Jezreel, as a sign of the punishment to come; Loruhamah, because God will neither pity nor forgive the house of Israel; and Lo-ammi meaning that the people are no longer God’s people and God is no longer their God.

          So now we have three innocent little children caught in the middle of an ugly dispute between God and the people of Israel.  This is the kind of story that gives the Old Testament a bad reputation and casts God as an angry and vengeful god.   While the final verse of the passage promises that God’s anger will not have the final word, anyone familiar with the cycle of domestic violence knows that the violence is often followed by apologies and promises, which are then followed by more violence.  Passages of scripture such as this one have often been misused to justify violence against women and children.

          So, what are we to do with this reading?  Rather than look at all of Scripture through the lens of one passage, we are always called to look at any single passage through the lens of all of scripture.  Fortunately, our other readings today help in this regard.  The psalm sings of the graciousness of God and the way God restored the good fortunes of the people.  The psalm recognizes God’s fury, and God had every right to be angry at the transgressions of God’s chosen people.  But the psalm also calls the people to turn their hearts back to God and listen to what God is saying, for God is speaking peace to God’s faithful people.

          The reading from Colossians reminds us how God calls us to live, rooting our lives in Christ and abounding in thanksgiving, and not turning away from God toward human tradition.  The passage from Luke’s gospel teaches us how to pray and reminds us how very much God loves us and wants good things for us.  The prayer that Jesus teaches us reminds us of our deep connections with God and each other.  If we believe that God’s name is hallowed, or holy, we believe that God has a claim on us.  If we ask for God’s kingdom to come, then we imply that we will pattern our lives after the values of that kingdom.  If we ask to each be given our own daily bread, we admit our dependence on God and our trust that God will care for us.  And as we ask forgiveness of our sins, which is to be reconnected with God and those we have offended, we offer that forgiveness to others, willing to admit that we are connected even with those who harm us. 

          How does any of this help us with Hosea?  Hosea was a prophet in Israel in the 8^th century before the common era.  God’s people were worshiping foreign gods in the hopes that those gods could save them from the Assyrians.  The commandments of God had been forgotten, as murder, theft, and unfaithfulness were rampant.  Widows, children and the poor were being neglected.   The story of the Exodus and God’s deliverance of the people from slavery in Egypt had been forgotten.  The way God called the Israelites to live was not that different from the way the readings from Colossians and Luke’s gospel call us to live, rooted in God’s love, abounding in thanksgiving, remembering our connection to God and all people.  No one knows for sure whether Hosea’s family as described this morning was a real family with three real children or is an allegory of the people’s unfaithfulness. But either way, what is clear is that God is justifiably angry.  Why is God so angry?  God’s heart has been broken by the deep unfaithfulness of the people God has chosen and whom God loves. 

          So, this morning, in the context of all the rancor and division in our country, in the context of the deplorable ways human beings, particularly children, are being treated, in the midst of our concern for our own rights more than the rights of others, we hear God’s call to live our lives rooted in Christ, abounding in thanksgiving, living into our connections with God and all whom God has made.  We hear the absolute heartbreak in God’s voice in the reading from Hosea, naming the sin of God’s people, and calling them and us to live as children of the living God and to treat all people as children of the living God.  The good news is that God loves us, despite ourselves.  The challenge is the demand God places on us to actually live our lives as the children of the living God we are created to be.

                                                                             Amen.

Follow

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

June 30, 2019

8 Proper C

          When I was in London earlier this month on my continuing education adventure, my classmates and I spent a lot of time navigating the tube, or the underground, more commonly known here as the subway.  I confess that the tube terrifies me.  Getting lost above ground where I can see street names and landmarks, and there are Ubers and taxis is one thing.  Getting lost below ground is something else entirely.  Traveling underground is totally counter intuitive to me and I have no idea how to get from one place to another.

          However, I learned about a great app for my phone called city mapper.  This app takes all the guess work out of traveling by the underground.  The app automatically knew where I was, so all I had to do was put in my destination.  The app would guide me to the correct entry point, get me on the right train, and tell me where and how to change or get off.  Suddenly the tube was far less terrifying, and I could get where I wanted to go, step by step. 

          If only there was such an app for following Jesus so we would know exactly how to follow Jesus in any given situation.  Today’s gospel reading seems to be a lesson in how not to follow Jesus.  Apparently, disciples of Jesus do not get to use their spiritual power to command fire to come down and consume those who do not offer hospitality to Jesus or themselves.  James and John want to try that this morning when Jesus is rejected in Samaria.  Jesus, who had not too many chapters ago taught his disciples that they should love their enemies and do good to those who hurt them, does not find the disciples’ offer amusing.  Jesus rebukes the disciples which is something Jesus generally reserves for unclean spirits.  Next, someone runs up to Jesus and says “I will follow you where ever you go!”  This sounds a bit like Elisha this morning who insists that he will not leave Elijah, even when Elijah offers him the opportunity to stay put while Elijah faces whatever is ahead.  Twice Elisha says “As the Lord lives and as I live, I will not leave you.  And Elijah does not argue.

          But what does Jesus says to the person who wants to follow him? “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."  What does that even mean?  I have no idea whether Jesus is saying “yes” or “no” to the man.  So are we to offer to follow Jesus or not?

Then Jesus calls someone to follow him, but that person wants to bury his father first, which seems quite faithful to me.  “Honor your father and mother” is one of the 10 commandments, after all.  Leaving the dead to bury the dead seems to be both heartless and in violation of that commandment.  So, are followers of Jesus to follow the 10 commandments or abandon them?  Another person offers to follow Jesus, but only after saying good-bye to those at home.  Clearly the person realizes that following Jesus means going where Jesus is going, or there would be no need to say good bye.  Soon, Jesus will encounter a lawyer who will ask Jesus how to inherit eternal life.  Jesus will ask the lawyer “What is written in the Law” and the lawyer will respond with the summary of the law “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself”  (Luke 10:27) which Jesus will indicate is correct.  Is not saying good bye to those you love before heading out on an unknown mission part of loving your neighbor as yourself?  Apparently not, according to Jesus who replies “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."  Ouch!

          So, how are we to follow Jesus when Jesus himself makes discipleship complicated at best and at worst, impossible?  Where is that Jesus app when we need it?

          Perhaps there is a clue for us in the reading from Galatians where Paul describes the Christian life as a life of freedom.  “For freedom Christ has set us free.”  Paul makes clear that what we are freed from in Christ is bondage to the negative forces that can consume us and in which we can get lost-such as jealousy, anger, quarrels, envy, idolatry, and on and on.  We are freed in Christ to find our way as followers of Jesus by opening ourselves to the gifts of the Spirit, which are the liberating gifts of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.   There may not be a city mapper app for navigating the Christian life, but Paul gives us pretty clear directions here.  When we wonder how to navigate a particular situation as a follower of Jesus, the gifts of the Spirit may not tell us exactly what to do, step by step, but they do give us some direction and keep us from losing our way. Whether we are thinking about our own families, or our neighborhoods and community, or the pressing and very urgent problems of our national life, I believe Jesus calls us to filter our actions as his disciples through the gifts of the Spirit and use those gifts to guide our discipleship.  Imagine what the world would be like if all who call ourselves followers of Jesus lived our lives according to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  We can only start with ourselves.  Jesus calls us to follow him by keeping our hand on the plow of love and our eye on making this world a bit more like the Kingdom of God. 

                                                                             Amen.

Labels

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

June 23, 2019

7 Proper C

          When I was in 6^th grade, my family moved from a suburb of New York City to Little Rock, Arkansas.  The culture shift was huge, despite the fact that both of my parents were from the deep south and my brother, sister, and I were raised as southern children even in New Jersey.  One of the many differences was that, in a suburb of New York City, people moved in and out of the neighborhood at a dizzying pace due to job transfers.  We had to get to know our neighbors quickly or they would be gone.  But in Little Rock, the community was much more stable and families there went back for generations.  While no one in New Jersey cared who you were related to, in Little Rock, that mattered.  A lot.  Even to eleven year olds.  The simple question “What is your name?” was a loaded question with implications far beyond a first and a last name.  The real question behind the question was “who are your people?”  Fortunately for us, we did have roots in Little Rock, and I was Sarah Polk’s granddaughter, Anne Banks’ niece, and Charlotte Brown’s cousin.  We were related to someone, which gave us an identity and roots there. 

          “What is your name?” is the question Jesus asks the man possessed by demons this morning.  This is a straightforward question in a very odd story.  First, how does the man know Jesus will arrive on the shore of the country of the Gerasenes?  When the man sees Jesus, why does he basically say “Leave me alone” when the man is the one who came to the shore to meet Jesus in the first place?  Why does Jesus agree to send the demons into a herd of swine?  And why on earth, once the man has been healed and asks to follow Jesus does Jesus say “no” and send the man home?

          There is something here to offend just about anyone.  Mental health is not an issue of demon possession.  Sending demons into a herd of pigs which then rush down into the lake and drown does not constitute humane treatment of animals.  And is not discipleship about following Jesus?  How does Jesus expect to attract followers if he sends them away?  If you are confused or offended by this story, you are not alone.

          “What is your name,” however, seems like a straightforward and even kind question.  We have heard about the plight of the man, how he wore no clothes and lived in the tombs, and how “he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.”   We have been told that there is no longer any distinction between the man and the demons as the man has asked Jesus not to torment him when Jesus commands the demons to leave him.  But Jesus takes the time to ask the man his name.  The man’s reply further shows the lack of distinction between himself and the demons when he replies “Legion” and we are told that this is his name because many demons had entered him.  Rather than a name, the man has a label.

          Interestingly, the reading from Galatians also deals with labels.  Paul is making an argument in Galatians that Gentiles who desire to convert to Christianity do not need to become Jews first.  I think it is important to note that Paul is speaking here to Christians about Christians.  Paul was a faithful and zealous Jew at one point, so to think that Paul really believed that Judaism is all about legalism would be to think that he did not know his Hebrew scriptures.  Paul’s point here is to remind the Christians in Galatia that they are all one in Christ. Their identity comes from being baptized in Christ and clothed in Christ.  Their identity no longer comes from being Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female.  All are one in Christ.  Labels that divide and separate no longer apply.

          The man called Legion had a label that indicated his complete separation from everyone and everything, including himself.  When Jesus frees the man from the demons, the man is no longer separated.  He is sitting still, clothed and in his right mind.  He is free to go home.  He is free to be the person God created him to be.  And yet, no one is happy.  The swineherds are not happy.  Their livelihood has just rushed into the lake and drowned.  The people in the surrounding country are not happy.  They were seized with fear and asked Jesus to leave, which he does.  Even the man who has been healed does not seem happy.  The man begs Jesus to let him go with Jesus, and the fact that he begs indicates that he really, really does not want to go home.  My guess is that he is afraid of his newfound freedom.

          But Jesus says “no.”  He tells the man to return to his home and declare how much God has done for him.  Perhaps Jesus is asking the man to claim his primary identity as a child of God.  Living without labels and living with freedom is hard, as the people in Galatia knew all too well.  We can all too easily slip into labels that divide, whether along ethnic lines, or age, or gender, or socio-economic status, or education and use these to define ourselves and others.  Living fully as people whose primary identity is as a children of God means letting go of all the separates us from each other and living as people who are connected or related to each other, recognizing our common roots and the identity that comes from being made in the image of God.  Jesus calls us to go, and declare how much God has done for us, and claim our fundamental identity as children of God. 

                                                                   Amen.

         

Trinity

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

June 16, 2019

Trinity Sunday

          As many of you know, I returned home this week from 10 days in London studying the ways growing congregations are connecting with their communities and making a gospel difference in their neighborhoods.  The 10 of us in the class, plus our instructor, visited large churches and small churches.  We saw churches with amazing historic buildings and no building at all.   We met leadership teams that were made up of clergy and lay people, and some that were entirely made up of lay people.  And we experienced worship that ran the gamut from a service held as part of a dinner meal to an Anglo-Catholic mid-week service using the 1662 English Book of Common Prayer.  I have only half-jokingly referred to the 10 days as boot camp for church geeks.

          One characteristic all of these congregations had in common despite their diversity was an intentional focus on relationships.  Everyone we met radiated such joy in their relationship with God and in their ministry that we could not help but feel some of that joy ourselves.  The ministry teams we met had deep relationships with each other.  They prayed together regularly and worked to build community among themselves so that they worked together as one team with one mission rather than as a collection of individuals doing their own work.  And every congregation we experienced was deeply connected with the community they served, listening to the needs, the hopes and dreams of the people around them and finding ways to connect and build ministry around what they heard.  While I have many learnings from my trip, perhaps the most significant reminder for me was the call to always be working to deepen our relationships with God, each other, and the community we serve.

          Today, the church celebrates Trinity Sunday.  What, you might reasonably ask, do with my experiences in London have to do with Trinity Sunday?  Trinity Sunday always falls on the Sunday after Pentecost and is sometimes thought to be the one Sunday of the year when we celebrate a doctrine of the church rather than an event.   Usually we celebrate the birth of Jesus, or his baptism, or the events of Holy Week, or the resurrection.  Or we hear stories about the things Jesus did or stories he told.  But today we celebrate the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Nicene Creed, which we say each week, is built around the Trinity.  We say “We believe in God, the Father almighty.”  “We believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord.”  And “We believe in the Holy Spirit.”  In the first chapter of Genesis, which, in my ideal world would be one of our readings for today, we are told that we are created in the image of God. “In the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.”  One of the interesting questions about the Trinity is “What does it mean that we are created in the image of the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?”  What does it mean to be made in the image of the Trinity?

If our readings from Scripture this morning would explain the Trinity, that would be helpful.  But they do not, and that is because there are only a few places in Scripture that even mention all three parts of the Trinity in one breath, much less give us an explanation.  At the end of Matthew’s gospel, in the great commission, Jesus sends the disciples out to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  There are a few places in John’s gospel, such as today’s gospel, where Jesus refers to the Father, himself, and the Advocate, or the Spirit, in the same passage, but there is no explanation.  The apostle Paul will often mention two of the three persons of the Trinity in the opening of his letters when he says something like “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  So, with all due respect to both Jesus and Paul, they are not very helpful in trying to understand the Trinity.

Taken together, however, today’s readings do shed some light on what the Church means when we say that the one God we worship is Father and Son and Holy Spirit, or Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.  In the reading from Proverbs, the Spirit is personified as Wisdom, the female voice of God that cries out to the people.  Wisdom reminds us that she was present when God created the mountains, the earth and the fields, the heavens and the foundation of the deep.  The passage ends with the reveling of Wisdom, or the Spirit, in the deep joy of being in relationship with the Creator and creation: “And I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race."

Paul tells us in the reading from Romans that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, giving us all three members of the Trinity.  God has worked in human life not just as the Creator, but also as the one who has brought us peace through Jesus Christ and sustains us with the Holy Spirit.  And in the Gospel, Jesus tells us of the way that God will speak to us through the Spirit of Truth, and that what belongs to Jesus belongs to the Father.

What we learn about the Trinity from these readings is that God has always been in relationship, even before there were human beings.  We have one God who is intentionally and intensely relational in nature. Today’s readings are just a sample of the many places in scripture that tell us that from the beginning, when the earth was a formless void and waters covered the deep, God has worked in human history as the creator, the redeemer, and the sustainer.

Trinity Sunday calls us, as the image of God, to mirror that intentional relationship for the world.  The Trinity calls us to be in relationship with God, each other and the world around us the way that the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, or Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are in relationship with each other.  Just as the Trinity is one God who is and has always been in relationship, we are called to live as the image of the Trinity by being one body, always in relationship.  God’s love has been poured into our collective hearts, as Paul writes, so that we can pour out that love to God, to each other and to the world. 

                                                                   Amen.