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The Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Prayer: Lord, you have promised that when two or three gather in your name you will be present with them. We depend on that promise today and pray that you will move among us. Lord, we pray that you have inspired Mike's preparation, that you will enliven his presentation, and that you will empower our application. Amen The Message: Today we are celebrating Trinity Sunday Day. Now, I have said before on Trinity Sunday, that one of the best pieces of advice I ever received, as I was drawing close to Ordination and was about to launch into my opportunity to preach on a regular basis, was: "Don't try to explain the Trinity." More preachers have fallen into heresy trying to delve into the Trinity than in any other theological mystery of the Christian faith. So, I am not going to "explain" the Trinity this morning. I am going to attempt to talk about some aspects of the Trinity. It is important for us, as Episcopalians, to accept the basic concept of the Trinity. The concept developed in Christian thought, and understanding, as people tried to define and conceptualize the idea of God. It first appears in Christian thought and writing around the year 200. The words 'the Trinity' are the English equivalent of the Latin word Trinitas, which was coined by the early Christian writer Tertullian. The word, which, etymologically, means something like 'the tripleness', is used to refer collectively to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Our second slide this morning is of an icon that is considered in Orthodox church circles to represent the Trinity. Now I have to admit icons were not a big part of my growing up. It wasn't until I went to Seminary and we spent some time discussing them that I developed an interest and appreciation of them. Soon after that, I discovered that several of my friends found them helpful in their spiritual practices. So as my understanding developed I found a deeper appreciation of their meaning and influence in my own spirituality. Here at Christ Church, we only display icons during Lent, when we set out the Stations of the Cross. Some of our more Anglo-Catholic brethren across the Diocese use icons regularly as a part of their worship and spiritual practices. So, I went looking for some background information on his particular icon and found a great resource on the Trinity Iconography Institute page. There they state that The “Holy Trinity” Icon is known as The “Troitsa” The name “Troitsa” is the Russian name given to the icon by the most famous Russian iconographer, St. Andrei Rublev, who lived from about 1370 until 1430 C.E.; Rublev was a professed Orthodox monk living in St. Sergius Monastery, Moscow. The Icon depicts the story of the visit to Abram from the Old Testament. Three figures are seated at a table, under a tree, and in the vicinity of a large house, the home of Abraham and Sarah, at Mamre. These figures represent the Three Persons in One God, or The Holy Trinity. The icon underlines the sameness of the three figures by using a single identical image, repeated three times but robed differently to suggest three different qualities of the three Spirits, or Angels – the Three Aspects of God. Our third image this morning is another attempt to depict the Trinity. It is important to note that no image can capture God any more than we can use words to do that. This image seeks to clarify how God is "at one, and the same time" three and one. In image four and also in our reading from Genesis this morning the creative action of God is illustrated. Image five shows the various actions of creation depict the work of God the Father, the Holy Spirit and the Son all working and interacting together. Then in the verses which describe the events of Day Six humankind is created and the relationship between the Trinity and human beings is outlined. "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day." I believe this is a central and important feature of creation and the Trinity. If you don't take anything else from my Message this morning I hope you will grasp this astounding truth. The Trinity in all of its wonderful "unexplainableness" decided to create humankind and to be in relationship with that particular piece of creation. Psalm 8 describes this wondrous relationship in intimate detail. The place of humankind in creation is like no other piece or part of creation. Now, I have to say here I did not know when I chose the theme for our Sundays@Five Summer Series that we would be reading Psalm 8 today. But it is providential that we will be exploring that relationship all through the Summer. Can I invite you to please come and participate and learn more about the Trinity and about our role and relationship with the Trinity. The Gospel this morning is a short reading and one that is very familiar to all of us. Jesus appears to his disciples and Jesus commissions them: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The disciples carry out the commission and they pass on to those who follow after them. And so it goes on, generation to generation, down through the years until it comes to us. The task, given at creation, for humankind to be the Trinity's ambassadors and stewards of the creation is presented to us. The ongoing desire for the Trinity to be in relationship with humankind is before us. It is a gift to us but also for us, a gift for us to share. What are those words we pray together after Communion: Send us now into the world in peace and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord. Amen" The Gospel: John 20:19-23
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Prayer: Lord, you have promised that when two or three gather in your name you will be present with them. We depend on that promise today and pray that you will move among us. Lord, we pray that you have inspired Mike's preparation, that you will enliven his presentation, and that you will empower our application. Amen The Message: Today we are celebrating Pentecost Sunday. So, today we are going to look at Pentecost and what it means for us. I am going to be focusing on the theme: "he makes all things new" in my message this morning and drawing on what it meant on that first Pentecost and then as it flows into our lives today. Before we go too far into this reflection I want to say that it is important for us to know and recognize that this celebration, like so many others in the Christian faith, has its roots in Jewish tradition. We use the word Pentecost to remember, celebrate and commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples. But the roots of the day go back many hundreds of years in Jewish history and life. The term Pentecost comes from a Greek word meaning "fiftieth." It refers to the Jewish festival of Shavuot which was celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover. It is also known as the "Feast of Weeks" and the "Feast of 50 days" in rabbinic tradition. This was a Jewish celebration day. It had various meanings at various times in Jewish history. All of them were celebrated to some degree at the time of Jesus. Originally Shavuot was the second of the three Pilgrim Festivals of the Jewish religious calendar. It was originally an agricultural festival, marking the beginning of the wheat harvest. During the Temple period, the first fruits of the harvest were brought to the Temple, and two loaves of bread made from the new wheat were offered. This aspect of the holiday is reflected in the custom of decorating the synagogue with fruits and flowers and in the names Yom ha-Bikkurim (“Day of the First Fruits”) and Ḥag ha-Qazir (“Harvest Feast.”) I would like to ask you to hold on to that image of bringing the "First Fruits" to the Lord in thanksgiving. We will return to this concept later in my Message. Now as the lives of the Hebrews and later the Jewish nation changed and evolved so did the commemoration of Shavuot. During rabbinic times the festival became associated with the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai, which is recounted in the Torah readings for the holiday. It became customary during Shavuot to study the Torah and to read the Book of Ruth. Jesus' followers, his disciples, - who were Jewish - are understood to have gathered for the celebration of Shavuot on Pentecost. They have gathered, but they fear for their lives and are meeting in secret behind locked doors. Obedient to tradition but unsure of what the future holds for them when suddenly everything is changed. Jesus' appearance among them took an old situation and turned it into something new. Coincidentally, or perhaps not so coincidentally, this was Jesus' second appearance to his disciples. At Shavuot, the second festival, Jesus makes his second appearance. So, back to making things new, this ancient festival with all its various meanings and reasons for celebration now, was established for Jesus' followers, as the day of the coming of the Holy Spirit. The day was filled with new meaning as they were filled with the Holy Spirit. This appearance of Jesus must have caused some consternation among the disciples. Jesus feels it is necessary to say twice. "Peace be with you." He says it to the disciples before he reveals his hands and his side. Then he says it again "Peace be with you" before he commissions them. "As the father has sent me, so I send you." Then he breathes on them and says "Receive the Holy Spirit." What an amazing sequence of events. If that wasn't enough Jesus then makes an astounding statement: "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them." The disciples are empowered by Jesus and he makes forgiveness the top priority of their new lives and their new ministry. Not only that but they can withhold forgiveness - " if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Later in the service, during our Eucharist, we will pray the Lord's prayer together. The phrase right in the middle really stood out to me as I was writing this message: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." What an awesome opportunity and responsibility that is. To be able to forgive. But also we need to consider what the Lord says about our ability to retain "the sins of others." In some ways, I believe that is an even greater opportunity and responsibility. Can we see, looking back at Shavuot, how Jesus makes this ancient celebration of "first fruits" new? Jesus gives Pentecost a new and a fresh meaning. The "first fruits" of a Christian life is forgiveness. When Jesus comes to the disciples at Pentecost he doesn't come expecting gifts from them. He comes and gives them a gift - the Holy Spirit. The first fruit of the Holy Spirit's activity in a believer's life is forgiveness. Here is a beautiful and meaningful way in which the disciples were given to live their lives. They were to be marked and set apart by forgiveness. If we are his current-day disciples, then we also can participate with the Lord, in his work of making things new. As we go out into the world, or perhaps as we consider those sitting with us here this morning, we have the awesome opportunity and responsibility to help them step into the new life that Christ offers each and every one of us. What great joy we can experience not only in our own relationship - with the Lord - but also in being ambassadors of the love of Christ in the world. This is so well expressed in the prayer from the Daily Office: Christ Our Passover: Alleluia. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us; * therefore let us keep the feast, Not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, * but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Alleluia. Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; * death no longer has dominion over him. The death that he died, he died to sin, once for all; * but the life he lives, he lives to God. So also consider yourselves dead to sin, * and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Alleluia. Christ has been raised from the dead, * the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by a man came death, * by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, * so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Alleluia. Perhaps, as we reflect on this new life and all its opportunities, can pray The Post Communion Blessing. Can I invite you to close your eyes and I will read that prayer: Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord. Amen |
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