To Live in God's Reality

TrinitySundayC, Sullivan Park Care Center, May 26, 2013 by Annette Fricke

            Today is one of the most dreaded Sundays of the entire year on which to preach.  I know this.  My Facebook newsfeed has a joke about it which is this: A picture of the group of people who ordain—represented, of course by one of the three in a miter—that would be the bishop and the caption reads, “Prepare her as a deacon in your church to be asked each year to preach on Trinity Sunday.”  The truth is, I have seen some bad sermons on this day, including the one children’s sermon given by an ordained pastor of the Lutheran Church in which the Trinity was explained as one person with differing relationships to other people in his life.  I no longer try to explain it in my own words.  There is a hymn that I believe captures it much better.  It is attributed to St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, who lived around 385-461, and goes like this in the first verse, “I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity by invocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three.”  And since we know God most profoundly by way of Jesus, the fourth verse is, “Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in the mouth of friend and stranger.” The words seem to echo the gospel according to John and to speak to all that God is. And to underscore and reinforce the meaning and main point of this hymn, the fifth verse is the last, “I bind unto myself the name, the strong name of the Trinity by invocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three, of whom all nature has creation, eternal Father, Spirit, Word.  Praise to the Lord of my salvation; salvation is of Christ the Lord!” And not to mention, for those of you who know music, the tune is written in ¾ time.  Waltzes are also written in ¾ time, not as easy to sing or conduct as 4/4 time.  There is something about three that makes it difficult to comprehend.  It is not natural.  However, we are not alone.  The early Christians debated the whole concept of the Trinity for the first several years of Christianity and thus the Orthodox Christians began labeling those who believed otherwise as heretics.  Even though the concept of the Trinity is really difficult to describe or comprehend without being heretical, this is the Orthodox Christian teaching. The Orthodox Christians’ hierarchical teaching authority did a great job of enforcing that teaching and snuffing out other teachings to the contrary, except when discoveries were made recently that there was plenty evidence in print of other teachings, tucked away in jars in caves. 

            Why do I mention and quote that which is attributed to St Patrick?  Because he lived during the time that the Nicene Creed was freshly debated, written, and revised to elucidate our understanding of the Trinity.  The Eastern Church leaves out one of the phrases of this well known creed and adds other phrases.  The truth is that the Eastern Church does not believe or confess the same concept of the Trinity as the Western Church.  The Church remains divided on this, what appears to be a crucial doctrine.

            We find another description of God in The Book of Concord which was written by the reformers of the 1500s.  It reads like this, “We unanimously hold and teach, in accordance with the decree of the Council of Nicea, that there is one divine essence, which is called and which is truly God, and that there are three persons in this one divine essence, eternal, without division, without end, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, one creator and preserver of all things visible and invisible.  The word “person” is to be understood as the [Church] Fathers employed the term in this connection, not as a part or property of another but as that which exists of itself.  Therefore all the heresies which are contrary to this article are rejected.

            Between 710 and 714, The Apostle’s Creed as we now know it was formed and solidified.  It is much shorter than the Nicene Creed and has found a wider audience that subscribe to the belief that it puts forth.  Here is one modern version, “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.  I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.  On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.  I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the dead, and the life everlasting. Amen.”  In this version, the descent into hell and the resurrection of the body are rejected as doctrine.  In times past, Christians did not cremate bodies for burial because they believed in the resurrection of the body. Later scholarship revealed that the concept of hell was borrowed from neighboring religions.

            Although on the surface, it may look like a lot of bickering and fighting amongst Christians, this is for sure: we no longer use the words of anathema, heretic, or excommunication as often or as with much vehemence as in our history.  We no longer burn people at the stake because they do not believe as we do or burn their books.  Christianity has learned that belief comes from the heart and to what the heart consents.  Nobody can force anyone else to believe anything.  You are free to pick apart anything that I say or anyone else says.  What you believe is what you believe and nobody can take the right away.  During the terror of Hitler, those who were not thrown into the gas chamber and actually survived the duration of captivity, were those who recited in their minds the scriptures and hymns, both Jews and Christians, but mostly Jews.  Our minds are free and will always be free.

            Barbara Taylor Brown, a celebrated Episcopal priest puts it this way in her book titled, The Preaching Life, “While it may seem more respectable to approach faith as an intellectual exercise or more satisfying to approach it as an emotional one, our relationship to God is not simply a matter of what we think or how we feel. It is more comprehensive than that, and more profound. It is a full-bodied relationship in which mind and heart, spirit and flesh, are converted to a new way of experiencing and responding to the world. It is a matter of learning to see the world, each other, and ourselves as God sees us, and to live as if God's reality were the only one that mattered."

            However, as one old wise priest said, because of the creeds about such things as the mystery of the Trinity, the church has survived all these years.  It has been both bane and blessing as we still strain to figure out who God is and who we are in God’s world.  This much we know for sure, and it is not dependent on any doctrinal statements or beliefs of any kind: God loves us and constantly seeks to have a relationship with us and seeks that we have a relationship with each other.  God will always be there to create and re-create newer understandings and insights for us and we will grow in them if we continue to be open to them and love from our hearts.  The Trinity remains a mystery and is probably best seen that way and not explained.

You will Set the World on Fire

PentecostC, Sullivan Park Care Center, May 19, 2013, by Annette Fricke

'A Prayer to God the Father on the Vigil of Pentecost' by Thomas Merton
Today, Father, this blue sky lauds you. The delicate green and orange flowers of the tulip poplar tree praise you. The distant blue hills praise you, together with the sweet-smelling air that is full of brilliant light. The bickering flycatchers praise you with the lowing cattle and the quail that whistle over there. I too, Father, praise you, with all these my sisters and brothers, and they give voice to my own heart and to my own silence. We are all one silence, and a diversity of voices.
You have made us together, you have made us one and many, you have placed me here, in the midst as witness, as awareness, and as joy. Here I am. In me the world is present, and you are present. I am a link in the chain of light and of presence.
Whatever may have been my particular stupidity, the prayers of your friends and my own prayers have somehow been answered, and I am here, in this solitude, before you, and I am glad because you see me here. For it is here, I think, that you want to see me and I am seen by you. My being here is a response you have asked of me, to something I have not clearly heard. But I have responded, and I am content: there is little more to know about it at present.

Pentecost is the Greek name for the Feast of Weeks, a prominent feast in the calendar of ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai. This feast is still celebrated as Shavuot, which also includes the celebration of the first fruits of the harvest. Later, in the Christian liturgical year, it is also a feast commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the twelve Apostles of Christ.

In the Eastern church, Pentecost can also refer to the whole fifty days between Easter and Pentecost, hence the book containing the liturgical texts for Paschaltide is called the Pentecostarion. The feast is also called Whit Sunday, or Whitsun,especially in England, where the following Monday was traditionally a holiday. Pentecost is celebrated seven weeks (50 days) after Easter Sunday, hence its name. Pentecost falls on the tenth day after Ascension Thursday.

Among Christians, Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Twelve Apostles and other followers of Jesus as described in the Acts of the Apostles 2:1–31. For this reason, Pentecost is sometimes described by some Christians today as the "Birthday of the Church."

The Pentecostal movement of Christianity derives its name from the New Testament event.

The biblical narrative of Pentecost, where the 11 Disciples of Christ (Acts 1:13, 26), along with about 109 other individuals (Acts 1:15), including many women, among whom was Mary the mother of Jesus (Acts 1:14), received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room, is given in the second chapter of the Book of Acts. As recounted in Acts 2:1–6:

“

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.”

While those on whom the Spirit had descended were speaking in many languages, the Apostle Peter stood up with the eleven and proclaimed to the crowd that this event was the fulfillment of the prophecy ("I will pour out my spirit") In Acts 2:17, it reads: "' In the last days it will be,' God declares, 'I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams." Acts 2:41 then reports: "So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added."

Peter stated that this event was the beginning of a continual outpouring that would be available to all believers from that point on, Jews and Gentiles alike.

Traditional interpretation holds that the Descent of the Holy Spirit took place in the Upper Room, or Cenacle, while celebrating the day of Pentecost (Shavuot). The Upper Room was first mentioned in Luke 22:12-13 (“And he shall show you a large upper room furnished: there make ready. And they went, and found as he had said to them: and they made ready the passover."). This Upper Room was to be the location of the Last Supper and the institution of Holy Communion. The next mention of an Upper Room is in Acts 1:13-14, the continuation of the Luke narrative, authored by the same biblical writer. Here the disciples and women wait and they gave themselves up to constant prayer: "And when they had come in, they went up into an upper room, where there was present both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his friends." Then, in Acts 2:1–2, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting." The "place" is in reference to the same Upper Room where these persons had "continued with one accord in prayer and supplication".

This description of the beginning of the Church tells us quite succinctly what the early Church was all about. It is even more simply put in verse 42 of this second chapter of Acts: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”  As Christianity spread throughout the world, Christians adopted many different practices as to what they heard from the preaching and teaching and how to go about structuring the worship and administration of the community of believers.  “What did Jesus really say?” and “What did Jesus really mean?” continue to be studied by mainline denominations.  The popularity of the abbreviation WWJD seems to have died out—WWJD meaning, “What would Jesus do?”  And yet, at a certain level, this is a question we need to have in mind on a daily moment by moment basis.  If Jesus were here in the flesh once again on earth, what would he do and how would he address the various situations and issues we now face in our world?  God now leaves that up to us, having given us the resources and opportunities to be Jesus’ presence in the world. Catherine of Sienna’s answer is this: “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” the first Christian pyromaniac!  Her answer is to have zeal enough to set the world on fire, not literally of course, but to take the word of God very seriously.  Think of it this way: the world used to marvel at martyrs---now the world celebrates celebrities. What do you celebrate?

 

 

Be like a Tree

7EasterC, May 12, 2013, Sullivan Park Care Center, by Annette Fricke

            As I was thinking about whether or not to even mention Mother’s Day in my preaching today, I came across this piece.  The author is a woman who is not a mother and in this essay, she expresses how she feels when certain pastors in her life would say on that day, “All of you who are mothers, please stand up.”  Motherhood is much more inclusive than that and she does a great job of articulating the various forms of motherhood within our earthly experience.  Here is what she wrote:

            The wide spectrum of mothering: To those who gave birth this year to their first child—we celebrate with you. To those who lost a child this year – we mourn with you. To those who are in the trenches with little ones every day and wear the badge of food stains – we appreciate you. To those who experienced loss through miscarriage, failed adoptions, or running away—we mourn with you. To those who walk the hard path of infertility, fraught with pokes, prods, tears, and disappointment – we walk with you. Forgive us when we say foolish things. We don’t mean to make this harder than it is. To those who are foster moms, mentor moms, and spiritual moms – we need you. To those who have warm and close relationships with your children – we celebrate with you. To those who have disappointment, heartache, and distance with your children – we sit with you. To those who lost their mothers this year – we grieve with you. To those who experienced abuse at the hands of your own mother – we acknowledge your experience. To those who lived through driving tests, medical tests, and the overall testing of motherhood – we are better for having you in our midst. To those who have aborted children - we remember them and you on this day. To those who are single and long to be married and mothering your own children - we mourn that life has not turned out the way you longed for it to be. To those who step-parent - we walk with you on these complex paths. To those who envisioned lavishing love on grandchildren, yet that dream is not to be - we grieve with you. To those who will have emptier nests in the upcoming year – we grieve and rejoice with you. And to those who are pregnant with new life, both expected and surprising –we anticipate with you. This Mother’s Day, we walk with you. Mothering is not for the faint of heart and we have real warriors in our midst. We remember you. by Amy Young.

            And then I thought of this: This gospel text basically says the same thing three times. "I in them and you in me, and together we ARE the body of Christ..." In the midst of the horrifying yet miraculous news of three girls.... what they endured over the last decade... these three now rescued young women in Cleveland are returning to families who are experiencing bitter-sweet reunions as one's mother had died just two years after her absence. Still there were other family members who can't wait to "catch them up" on their families’ and friends’ lives. We all hurt for these women... and their friends and family because we can only imagine what that must be like. Their names were made known and not forgotten and God's love remained and still remains! We pray for their healing. "I in them and you in me, and together we ARE the body of Christ..." I guess the question is, do we hear Gospel in this prayer--that because Jesus prayed it, God must surely have answered this prayer and our task is to show in our lives the unity that God has already given us...? Or do we hear Law in this prayer--look at how broken and fragmented we are when Jesus prayed that we should be one. How far have we fallen from the prayer that Jesus prayed?

            Jesus' prayer that we may be one, is clearly for the purpose "that the
world may believe that you have sent me" (vv.21 and 23). The Christian community on earth isn't some cozy little gathering of "like minded people" that Jesus has in mind, but a group that will change the world. As said by Peter J.B. Carman, "unity isn't for its own sake but for the sake of (being a) witness to the love of God and the authenticity of Christ as the one 'sent'." In other words, we are the ones sent by Jesus to be witnesses of the love of God to all of humanity. Since the basis of this unity is found in God's love, our message must be rooted somehow in this love, as with all our relationships. We find that peace and that glory when we join in with the love Jesus has for us and extend it to others. We have been given the power to respond in love, even when someone intends us evil.

            Jesus’ prayer is a futuristic prayer.  He is praying for us because we are now his disciples in the world.  Broken though we may be, represented by many different denominations and Christian groups, Jesus calls for us to unite into a single unit. Like the pieces and colors of a stained glass window that lets the light of both the world and Jesus in, so we are.  The nature of the unity of Jesus’ disciples in this world that he yearns for is to be as profound and close as the unity of Jesus and the Father.  As a child, my eyes would wander to the stained glass windows of my church.  Each one of them represented an important story or key phrase from the scriptures.  Above the altar was the picture that represents this gospel text.  It is a picture of Jesus praying on a big rock in the Garden of Gethsemane.  It is a reminder that Jesus cares very deeply for us.  That is the kind of deep love he hopes to instill in us so that we will love as he loves us, to hold back the words and thoughts of cursing, name-calling, jealous and malicious gossip, questioning others’ motives. In union with God in prayer, we will be guided to do that which is no longer our will, but God’s will.  Paul followed God’s will when he went to Macedonia, we are told.  He was open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit on a regular basis.  That was his guide for ministry. God calls all of us to that intimate union in constant prayer.  At the very least, we should all pray for each other in our daily lives, in all our contacts with others, all of our relationships. We are made in God’s image to be in relationship with God and all of humanity.  That is the stuff we are made of.  Thomas Merton put it this way, “A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying [God]. It “consents,” so to speak, to [God's] creative love. It is expressing an idea which is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree.”  Paul was doing that which Jesus did and continues to do through us.  But, as Merton so eloquently states, we need to be like the tree and consent to God’s creative love working in us.  We are called to be God’s love in the world, a world that works at tearing us down rather than building us up; a world where things happen that we don’t understand, where there is pain, crippling of hands, knees and feet.  It is a world of kidnappers, murderers, liars and cheaters. It is a world of violence that we sometimes see as senseless and irrational.  Intentional acts of kindness are sometimes forgotten by random acts of violence.