Community and Intimacy . . .

     One of my colleagues here in Iowa posted on Facebook this week “Trinity Sunday: That special Sunday when every member of the clergy feels the need to dazzle their congregations with their theological education, and that special Sunday when every member of every congregation really would rather that we not.” All kidding about the Ceiling Cat and lolcats aside, there is an uncomfortable truth in that post. As a church, we set aside a special day when we specifically talk about a mystery. More often than not, it ends up being a day when assistants and substitutes “get the honor” of preaching to a group such as this. I always ask, whenever anyone approaches me to tell me in the next couple of weeks how bad the sermon was, whether it was given by their regular clergy or someone else. If it was a substitute, I ask them to show a little more grace. If it was the regular clergy, then it is fun to explore what set them on edge or turned them off. At an “average size” church such as ours, however, there is no avoiding of the problem of preaching on the Trinity for the regular clergy. And with school just ending, there was no way to foist this privilege onto George or Robin or anyone else’s shoulders by taking an early vacation.




     It is just as well, however, because the Trinity has been much in my mind since my spring travels back east for Human Trafficking. As many of you know, I stopped in at my seminary. One of my professors was finishing up her PhD in theology (she finished a few weeks ago). A sociologist has pointed out that our society, for all its technological innovation, is becoming more isolated. We used to have friends and neighbors. We would gather on front porches, in bars, in homes, and at all kinds of places to interact and cement those relationships. That has certainly changed. Nowadays, we have “Twitter” followers (or those we follow), “Facebook friends,” “online pals,” and other such detached relationships. They are not detached in the sense that they are not real (there are other human beings on the other side of the relationship, after all), but they are detached in the sense that the depth that used to describe our most important relationships is missing. If I ask a parishioner about a particular comment on one of their posts, I usually get the “hey, it’s not like we are friends in rl (real life), we’re just fb friends” excuse. It is a very telling answer. People may have a 1000 Twitter followers, hundreds of fb friends, lots of listserv co-posters, but how many friends do we have in real life.



     And, lest you think this is a new phenomenon, I was reminded yet again of the truth of Ecclesiastes by another professor. He sent me a link to a Phillip Jenkins sermon from over 100 years ago. Phillip Jenkins was an Episcopal bishop from the early 1900’s. In this Trinity Sunday sermon of a century ago, preaching on our Isaiah 6 text, he was complaining that men (we were a little more sexist then) like to praise and glorify doubt. When speaking of high and lofty things, such as God, human beings tend to like to celebrate what is not known. Ignorance, we like to pretend, is bliss. Worse, we place our focus on the wrong knowledge. We begin to think we are the measure, that we are the determiners of what is to be valued. And, the end result is that the glory to which God calls us is obscured by our “man-made” efforts and idols. Sound familiar? His solution? Rather, God’s solution? Sometimes our forests of achievement need to be laid bare. We need to be reminded of the glory to which we are called, and the glory and righteousness of the One who calls us each by name.



     Much as with the bishop of a century ago, this professor with whom I was speaking wondered whether the reminder of the doctrine of the Trinity was the cure for what ails society. Clearly, her advisor thought she was on to something, and the faculty at Gordon Conwell agreed that might have a solution to a problem confronting churches around the country, else the degree would likely have been denied. As I have reflected on what she shared of her work and some of the ministry to which I am called, I wonder that we diminish ourselves by relegating the consideration of the Trinity to a single Sunday each year? I wonder that we withhold necessary medicine for that which ails us when we send unsuspecting or unprepared clergy into the pulpits on this day?



     Both in the Church community and outside the Church Community, there is an antagonism toward certainty. I get that uncertainty outside the Church. They have no reason to trust anyone or anything. Those old institutions which we used to esteem have proven themselves fallible. Even the Church, through the actions of unsavory individuals, has earned a reputation outside itself for being no better an authority than any individual conscience. Truth, as one comedian often jokes, has been replaced by truthiness. Think I am wrong? How many here think government and elected officials really care about you and your situation? Is that the same position you held three decades ago? How many of us gathered here think that the companies for which we work or worked, giving an honest day’s labor for an honest day’s wage, really care or cared about us and our welfare? Did you feel that way a decade or two ago? Did your company? And, to be sure, the Church has had enough high profile failures to convince everyone that we are a bunch of hypocrites. Between the embezzlers, the scam artists, the pedophiles, the cheaters, the tax fugitives, and whatever other group that happens to be in the headlines at the time, it is no small wonder that people quit looking to the Church for answers.

     But in the Church, many have fallen prey to the same whispers of doubt, to the very ignorance which Bishop Jenkins was decrying more than a century ago.  And rather than causing us to delve deeper into the writings which He has revealed to us, many in the Church choose to celebrate the uncertainty.  Who can really know the mind of God?  How do we know what He really wanted us to know?  God really doesn't hate sin, does He?  After all, He says He is love and love cannot hate, right?  We are smart enough to figure out which parts of Scripture were God-breathed and which parts of Scripture were the editorial result of human beings.  For reasons known only to God, we seem to forget that He is a revealing God, that He tells us what we need to know about Him and about relationship with Him.  We convince ourselves that we cannot really know Him, and the world hears and watches and turns away from the One who would save them, the One who created them.

     This lack of certainty or lack of Truth has terrible consequences for those in the world around us who have forgotten or have never heard who it is that calls them. There is a terrible shallowness and a terrible sense of isolation plaguing our society. many in the world around us fear they are unlovable.  We eschew real friends for FB friends or Twitter followers. We give up on getting to know others in real life, and spend our energy and efforts creating superficial relationship via technology. How many of us here know a single person who complains of finding a mate for life? How many of those complaining spend most of their time, energy and effort looking via the computer, only to be disappointed when the other is pretending to be different than they are in real life? One of the pernicious evils of the addiction of pornography is the simple fact that fantasy does not match reality. Men who “don’t have a problem” but continue to look find their senses dulled to the women around them. On too many occasions I have had to counsel couples where the man is simply not excited by the real woman in his life. Add to that fear the magazine covers in our supermarkets and it is no wonder that young girls have a crisis of image. Heck, I frequent an imaginary world where somewhere around 12 million people change their cartoon characters like my 4 year old daughter changes outfits to suit her mood. I can have a heartfelt, agonizing conversation with an individual on line, only to see that toon deleted in the weeks and months ahead.



     I could go on and on of the problem. Hopefully, as you reflect on my words, God is speaking into your hearts where this “superficiality” seems to reign in your life. Hopefully, it is not within your life, but in the lives of those with whom you work and live and play. I say hopefully, because this day we remind ourselves of the God who calls us back to Him, of the God who desires nothing more than to embrace us as prodigal sons and daughters returned to ourselves and to Him.  And if there is a superficiality in your life that He is bringing to mind, it is not too late.  The same God who forgives and redeems your life stands ready to cut that superficiality out of your heart.  But it is by no means easy for us.



     Trinity Sunday is that day where, to use Bishop Jenkins words, the Lord strips our forests bare. Over the seasons of Lent and Easter, we have spent time concentrating on the human condition and God’s work to restore us to Him. The only begotten Son has come down from heaven to teach and to restore. He has come to do the Father’s will and to reveal that will to us. Upon His Ascension, we have waited impatiently for the coming of the Holy Spirit. As much as we would have liked for the Son to stay with us, we know it is for our own good that He ascended. He has sent the Spirit to equip us to do amazing works to the glory of the Son and of the Father. Given the way our liturgical season and readings have progressed, it is easy to see why some people might forget the importance of the Trinity. You see, we spend so much time focusing on the will of the Father who sent Him, on the work and person of Christ, and on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that it is easy for us to forget the Unity of that Mystery. Put another way, we can sometimes get too focused on the Persons of God that we forget the Oneness of God. To be sure, our liturgy reminds us each week during the Nicene Creed of that Mystery of the Trinity, but do we really digest what we are saying? If we find ourselves isolated, if we find ourselves seeking meaning, if we find ourselves shallow, I would assert that we do not.



     You see, an important part of the Gospel related by the Trinity is the simple truth that you and are called into, and completed by our participation in, the community described by the Trinity. Lamentably, we buy into the world's idea far too often that we are captains of our own ships and masters of our own domains, when in truth, everything bows to His will and His command. We love to think we are in control.  But when we are truly honest with ourselves, most of us recognize our floundering, our impotence.  Of course, for gracious reasons beyond our understanding, God calls us back into complete community with Him. That description in the Garden of Eden is not fanciful. You and I were created to enjoy complete fellowship with our Creator. That is the end He had in mind for each one of us! That is the calling to which He calls each one of us and those in the world around us!



     For too long we have sat idly by as the world bought into the myth of the Enemy of God. We might be good at sharing our faith when it comes to redemption from sin or relating powerful healings in our life. But when that insidious sense of isolation crops up, how do we behave? What is our story? How do we tell the other in our life that they were created for so much more? For those of us who have forgotten the mystery of the Trinity, we may well be impotent in the face of such radical individualism. But for those of us who recall the mystery, we have been given an awesome reminder.



     Best of all, it is not dependent upon philosophical proofs. It depends only upon His revelation. Had He chosen not to reveal Himself in this manner, you and I could never have apprehended such a teaching on our own. We accept it as a basic tenet of our faith because He revealed it to us by the loving God who came down to save us from our sin and from our selves! Brothers and sisters, the truth and hope of the Trinity is that we need never be alone again. You and I and the whole world is called into an eternal community, an eternal community of true love, true joy, and true hope. So strong is His desire to draw us into that blessed relationship that He chose to act to redeem us, to make us worthy of being in that relationship again, even though our own efforts failed miserably. And even when, through well-intentioned but misguided efforts, we forget that simple truth that we were made for community with Him, every now and again He lays our forests bare, that we might be reminded of that for which we were created and have our being. Will we make mistakes? On this side of the grave you can count on it. But on the other side of the grave, you and I will be swept up into the relationship for which we were formed, a relationship describe by some theologians as a holy dance, and by others as an intimacy which this world cannot know. We may not know how it works. We may have to accept the Trinity on faith. But, if the One who revealed that about Himself is true and trustworthy, no other doctrine has a greater implication on our lives. And no other teaching of the faith speaks to the superficiality and sense of aloneness which plagues the world. We would do well, when confronting that hopelessness and sense of isolation, to remember the glory of the Trinity, which He reveals to us and calls us to, not just in this life, but for all eternity.

Peace,
Brian†

The promise and power of Pentecost . . .

     In the liturgical seasons of the Church, we have made it to that one day when we begin to recognize our inheritance as first born sons and daughters of God the Father and to live our lives as if we believe we are who He says we are.  This day in the church we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower and enlighten us to discern and to accomplish those things which God has given us to do.  Truthfully, here at St. Alban’s, I have a hard time with a sermon for this day.  Non-Christians and lapsed Christians and doubters and seekers will show up on Easter and Christmas, but it is more likely those active in the church and aware of what He has done who come this day.  In a sense, it is a day when I could rightfully read the Gospel and give us some silence to ponder the enormity of what has been given to each of us.  But, I think sometimes, in the parochialism of our lives, we sometimes miss just how busy the Holy Spirit is in the world around us.  We might recognize a healing miracle, but do we always notice the coming of the Holy Spirit into our midst in great power and the wonderful works that are accomplished to the honor and glory of God?

     I must say, part of the reason I have been so busy these last few weeks has been a direct result of that Spirit at work in and through many of you.  But I wonder if we spend enough time reflecting upon both the enormity of the Spirit’s work and the Spirit’s attention to even the small things in our lives or even our very selves?  By that, you and I and the rest of the world are always looking for the obvious miracles in our lives as signs that we are doing those things He has called us to do and as signs that we have earned His favor.  In truth, you and I should always remember that the real proof of His love to us and the proof of His ability to keep His promises to each one of us was His work on the cross and His Resurrection.  But, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, we like the flashy miracles.  Even in that, though, God has been faithful.  Three people given to our prayer chain have either been cured of or presumed to have been misdiagnosed as having cancer in the last month.  We could spend a few hours here celebrating those healings and a couple others, and this would be a memorable day in many of our lives.  But I think we need to look both bigger and deeper.

     I say bigger because of the ministries to which we have been called as a group.  It is hard not to think of Human Trafficking as an obvious example of that bigger working of the Holy Spirit.  To the extent that a little $100k budget church dared to start a fight with a $300B industry, it is obvious that the Spirit is every bit as powerful today as it was that day so long ago recorded in Acts.  But think bigger for a second.  Raise your hand if you ever thought, nearly five years ago, that Roman Catholics, non-denoms, Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Anglicans, and people outside the faith would be united in this particular fight.  You might have hoped in your wildest dreams once you recognized the reality of modern slavery that such would come to pass (after all, we did experience that with Angel Food in the fight against hunger), but can you honestly say you saw this as an outcome in the beginning?  How about as little as two years ago?  And now we Christians, who have significant and serious disagreements among ourselves, to the dishonor and slander of our Bridegroom, find ourselves united in our insistence that the cross and the empty tomb must be shared with those recovered victims in our midst, that they might find true healing and true hope, as opposed to the coping the secular world wants to teach.  We are divided in so many ways, yet locally we seem to speak about this issue in one voice.  Is that not the obvious working of the Spirit in all our lives?

     I must say, I have also had the privilege of watching a parish have this kind of leading and discernment from the outside as they go through a particular struggle.  The struggle, I think, is part of the natural maturation process of a church.  By that, I mean that the struggles are not unexpected.  Though it may be natural and may be expected does not obviate the fact that the process is full of all kinds of pitfalls.  As they began to consider whether their plant should move into a permanent space, God has been working powerfully in their midst.  Taking on a mortgage or rent payment is a huge step in the life of a church.  What if the church overreaches?  What if the neighbors are bad?  What if the fact that the church has permanent location actually turns off those who like the nomadic existence?

     Typically, as you all would expect from Fr. Bryan’s leadership, the Vestry was encouraged to fast and to pray about the opportunity that presented itself.  Was this of God?  Was it not?  As is so often the case, the answer became visible to more and more people, both on the Vestry and in the parish.  When they had first entertained the space, the potential landlord was going to be charging rent.  Within the last few weeks, however, he changed his mind.  Test out the space.  See if it meets your needs.  See if you can settle there permanently.  From his perspective, a permanent resident tenant might cut down on vandalism.  His decision was made purely on economic terms, but look at the impact on the church:  one cause for concern eliminated.

      When they began to meet for the final decision making meeting, and I am skipping tons here, one of their members was compelled to answer a question.  I say compelled because this member considers herself uneducated and uniquely unqualified to lead other Christians or to speak on such matters with any authority.  And I will tell you that, on the basis of secular judgments about such things, she is absolutely right.  Yet here she was, with all her baggage, speaking into the process and naming those things that needed to be named and binding and casting out those things which were evil and loosing those things which were of God.  Of all those in her parish to say the things she said, she was the least likely.  To put it in terms that you or I can understand, think of how unlikely it would be for Jane or Linda to ask me to preach during church.  My guess is, knowing Jane and Linda, the devil will be bundled in a snowsuit before that day comes voluntarily.  Yet this parish found just such an individual leading their discussions and discernment.  To some, her very willingness to speak and her ability to articulate were the final piece of discernment that they needed.  And so they acted.  Were there fears real?  You bet.  Could there be a failure?  Perhaps.  But, collectively, the church had been given its obvious sign in response to their prayer and fasting.  God had answered powerfully, and they could only choose to be obedient to their discernment.

     Bigger movements of the Holy Spirit seem to get all the attention, but I was reminded of the personal attention given by God’s Spirit this week.  While these big events were going on, lives were being lived and lives were being lost.  Nowhere was this more obvious than in the ICU at Genesis East.  As most of you know, I have spent a lot of time there over the past three weeks.  As I arrived during the middle of last week, Jan was sleeping.  Occupational therapy had worn Jan out, so she was sleeping.  The came the cries of ultimate suffering.  Those of you who have ever heard people wail and sob when a loved one is dying and there is no hope know what I heard.  I must confess, I did not want to deal with it.  The nurses came and needed me to leave as they worked on Jan, so I retreated to a section of one of the three ICU waiting rooms to wait for the nurses to finish rather than walk over to the next room over.  Wouldn’t you know it, the family came into my section in my waiting room sobbing.  Now, I have the discernment skills of a slug, but even I am not that blind.  I listened to the crying and anger and hopelessness until the opportunity presented itself.  The family was being asked to take the lady of life support.  Everything but her heart had ceased working.  Doctors told the family there was no hope.  And the family was unable to let the lady go.

     As I was sitting in the room listening to the anguish, I was struck at the difference between the Chapman clan and this family.  Jan and her family, at various times during this ordeal, had been given difficult news and not great prognoses during the course of her treatment.  The difference between the two families was pronounced.  Both families were worried; both were scared.  But one family believed that Christ had died and had risen.  One family had that peace that passes all understanding.  How they faced the death of a loved one was entirely different.  One had hope despite the fear and possible mourning; the other had no hope.  I will say, by way of my obvious duties, I spoke into that hopeless situation.  As it turns out, the lady dying was a woman of faith.  Her children and grandchildren and others did not share her faith in our Lord, but she was, by their accounts, a Christian woman “for all the good it did her now.”  I was able to remind them that it was for this moment in her life that He died.  It was to give them and her hope at this moment that God raised Him from the dead.  What if it is a joke?  What if Jesus is dead?  Then, to be sure, she is to be pitied for living her life as if it were true.  But have you all asked the question of yourself, “What if it is true?  What if He is alive today and claims her as His own?”  Even in the midst of painful news and decisions, the Holy Spirit is still comforting.  Even in the midst of fighting slavery through us and helping churches discern God’s will, the Spirit is reaching into families. 

     The last story that I choose to share this week is of one that you know well, but do not know.  Those of us who read the papers inBettendorf might be aware that a particular individual was returned to our community.  His crime is of such a nature that no one will ever forget.  He will be, if he has not already, moving out of state to avoid the infamy.  Those of you with a couple year’s memory might remember our good friend and fellow laborer “Larry from Houston.”  It turns out that Larry was forced to deal with this individual.  Without going into too much detail, this was the last kind of person that Larry with whom Larry would want (or most of us) to have dealings.  But, as Larry said, that is how were are all seen by God before we plead the cross and Resurrection of Christ.

     As Larry was dealing with him, the young man opened up.  Larry, it seems, had been the first person to treat him with any respect since he returned to the community.  The young man told Larry that he sees the disappointment in his mother’s and father’s eyes every time he talks to them, and rightfully so.  Worse, he hears the whispers and catcalls of total strangers.  As they were driving down Locust, the young man asked Larry for an accounting of his behavior.  Larry pulled over into the Hy—Vee parking lot and answered all his questions.  At the end of their conversation, the young man asked the question of the Ethiopian Eunuch:  “What must be done for me to get that peace?”  Larry told him that God only asked that we say the sinner’s prayer and repent of all our sins. “Would you teach me the prayer?”  Larry showed up in my office after having dropped off the young man, newly forgiven, begging forgiveness.  When he told me the whole tale, I asked “for what?”  I forgot the prayer and may have given him the wrong words.  “Did he repent?”  I think so.  “Then no guilt attaches.  In fact, great joy attaches.”  How do you figure?  “Because one who was lost found his way home thanks to your testimony.”  But my pastor is going to kill me?  “Why?”  Because I forgot the words of the prayer?  “I doubt it, but if he does, I think heaven will still be throwing the confetti when you get there if he does.”  While doing the “grand” and “big” things in life, the Holy Spirit is still speaking into the lives of individuals, and redeeming those who were lost.

     This day, brothers and sisters, we remind ourselves that God has kept a promise to send us power and gifts, both of which are to be used to His honor and glory.  That same Spirit, about which we read in Acts and John this morning, brothers and sisters, is every bit as active today as it was then.  The question is whether we have eyes to see and ears to hear the Holy Spirit at work not just in the world around us, but in our own lives and our own hearts.  The feast of Pentecost, brothers and sisters, is one that ought to have the same importance in our lives as Christmas and Easter.  As those days signify God’s desire to reach out to us and bridge the chasm that exists between us and Him, Pentecost reminds us that He has already begun to keep His promises to us.  It is a day which signifies that you and I and all whom have accepted His call on their hearts have started that process by which He turns us each into priests in His eternal kingdom.  It is that day which reminds us that we are witnesses of the healing that He brings to the world around us and to individual lives like our own, and given a commission and power to take that tale of hope into the world, that He might be glorified, and His kingdom enlarged through the faithful obedience of men and women like ourselves. 

Peace,

Brian†