Sermon - 2020 - 06 - 07 - Holy Trinity Sunday

Today is Holy Trinity Sunday.  A Sunday in the year that we celebrate and recognize the Holy Trinity.  However, this past week has made it hard to focus on the complexity of God when there is so much here on Earth around us that is demanding our attention.  Yet, I am also reminded that it is here in the complexity of God that it shines a light of hope into the complexity of our own life and yes…  even what is happening among us today.  

Throughout this week, I wrestled for the right words to say to the pain, anger, frustration, voices, longing for recognition, and yet nothing came.  So to say nothing is a choice.  Yet it is in the choice to remain silent that we allow others to create and form an opinion for us.   I recognize that racism is one factor of the protests happening right now.  I recognize that among us are people who we separate from us and call a variety of races, that each and every one of us has our own experiences which give us insight into what is happening in our nation.  Right now there are divisions of not only race, but economic, ideology, and so many other ways.  The divisions keep growing with pain, with anger, with frustration, with silence.  However,  in each of these divisions are our brothers and sisters who are suffering. I could not come up with the words that would heal the wounds.  I could not find a way to share the love that would calm the anger.  I could not comprehend all the voices and how they were not heard.  So still I was in silence.  But it was in the silence that I realized how heavy my heart truly was and that no words were adequate.  

Yet today, I must speak to feelings, emotions, divisions, and silence that is happening now.  We need to begin to listen and speak.  Not to spew forth more anger, hate, pain, suffering, frustration, labels of division, and separation that we hear echoing around us.  No.  We listen and speak to understand.  We speak to pray that God would enter into our lives, into the brokenness that we are in, and into the reality that is chaotically tearing us apart from one another.  That we may not bear witness to it, but now be called to action to be that instrument of change, of healing, and of hope.  That we may recognize the evil that is among us and name it for what it is but to realize that the person is so much more than the label that we have given them.  The person is so much more than we have heard from others.  That we may actually look upon one another as a person, a child of God, part of God’s harmony and diversity of Creation.  

Today we take a moment to pause our thoughts and to pray for those who are impacted by all of this hate, anger, injustice and pray that God would wake up our hearts and minds to be instruments of peace, respect, mercy, and love.  

Now we must turn from the brokenness that surrounds us and turn to God.  God gives us an example of how to be in community with others through the Trinity.  The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each having an equal share, equal contribution, and all being one God.  Recognizing that every part is needed to be whole and complete so that all may care and support one another.  When God created the whole world, God made the diversity of plants, animals, and even people.  God created the world so that it would be sustained, thriving, and built so that every part was necessary for the balance and continuation of the whole.  We see this time and again that different animals will have different colors of fur, scales, or abilities based on the place where they live.  

Now as Disciples of Jesus Christ, we are following the example that Jesus shared with us on earth.  Jesus often taught in parables, so when Jesus talks about where your treasure is in the world, there your heart would be also.  This lesson speaks of what we value and what is most important in our lives.  When Jesus speaks of the sower spreading the seeds of the Gospel, of love, grace, and mercy in the world along with the soil that it falls upon.  Jesus is speaking of us being the soils of receiving this Gospel and allowing it to grow for others to experience and know.  Jesus is often referred to as the Good Shepherd and in one parable, he speaks of leaving the 99 to go after the one.  The 99 still matter, but it is the one who is lost and hurting that needs the attention in order to be reunited with the whole flock.  Yet perhaps even more appropriate for today’s events, Jesus speaks of a divided kingdom and how there are those who shall gather with Jesus or those who will be scattered away from God. 

When we look at the examples of how Jesus treated those who had been separated from society by disease, economic hardship, anger, division, and other means of separation; over and over again, Jesus went to be with them, meeting them where they were, healing the relationship between them and the community so that unity may grow.  The woman at the well, the healing of the lepers, the calling of a tax collector, providing for 5,000 and 4,000, the calming of the storms that threatened lives, and ultimately taking on the brokenness, divisions, the pain, anger, the suffering of this world on the cross.  

Yes, it was here on the cross that Christ died so that we may no longer treat others the way that Christ was treated by us.  You may recall that during Holy Week we remember that Jesus was captured by religious authorities, taken before the government authorities to be beaten, but that was not enough for us because then we wanted his death.  However, not even that death would hold Jesus Christ apart from his love for us, the world, and the glory of the Father in heaven.  This is where we celebrate Easter.  When we recall what it is we have done to Christ, we may also bear witness what Christ has done for us.  In realizing that Christ forgives us for what we have done, restoring us as a community, and now calling us to the work that Christ is bringing in the world.  As Christians, we would realize that we must do the hard work of listening, caring, building, growing, and honoring one another.  

Now it is the Holy Spirit that leads us through this gathering together and being this community that we are called to be.  We need to recognize that we need this guidance, we need to look in the mirror to see if we have ways that we can grow and help solve the problems that are raging in this nation.  We need to bring the Baptismal waters of healing, justice, equality, and unity to this world that is crying out in pain and suffering while helping those who need to listen to realize that they have a part in this too.   

So today, may we take some time to pray, to reflect, to listen, and begin the process of finding ways of healing in this nation and that God may be at the center of it all. Amen.