Weeds, Mustard and Yeast

 Matthew 13:24-33

June 28, 2015

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

            Big things come in small packages.

Let me illustrate the point with the story of one of our least known United States Presidents.

Andrew Johnson’s presidency is considered a failure by most historians.  Yet our 17^th President was an impressive man in many ways. 

            Johnson, who had no formal education, was the only tailor to occupy the White House.  As Governor of Tennessee at the outbreak of the Civil War, he was the only Southern leader to oppose secessionism.  Always suspicious of the power and influence of the aristocracy of the South, this simple tradesman believed it was the rich who were misleading the Southern masses into war against the Union.

            And Andrew Johnson never failed to say so.

            To Secessionists he was a “Southern traitor”.  There were numerous threats against his life when he returned to Tennessee after his appointment as Senator following Lincoln’s first inauguration in 1861.

            At Lynchburg, Virginia, a mob dragged him out of a train, kicked him, spat on him and was about to hang him, when an old man in the crowd shouted, “His neighbors at Greenville, Tennessee, have made arrangements to hang their senator on his arrival.  Virginians have no right to deprive them of that privilege!”  The mob let him go and he journeyed on (Boller, Jr., Paul F. ed., Presidential Anecdotes, pp. 147-151).

            Where ever he went he was jeered at, insulted and threatened.  But he refused to be intimidated.  He continued to travel throughout his state, arguing to stay in the Union.  But to no avail.  When Tennessee voted to join the Confederacy, Johnson had to flee.

            In June of 1864 when Johnson was nominated for Vice-President, he was slandered along with Abraham Lincoln.  “The Age of Statesmen is gone!” said the newspaper The New York World, of the Lincoln-Johnson ticket.  “The age of rail splitters and tailors, buffoons, boors and fanatics has succeeded…In a crisis of appalling magnitude…the country is asked to consider the claims of two ignorant…third rate, backwoods lawyers for the highest stations in government…God save the Republic!”

            Just goes to show you that you can’t believe everything you hear in the media!

            When Johnson became President after Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, Union politicians, knowing of Johnson’s dislike of the Southern aristocracy, were thrilled.  Some of them had reconstruction plans which would have pillaged the South of any remaining wealth.  These political carpet baggers wanted to punish the South and make them second-class states in the Union.

            But Andrew Johnson would not cooperate with these repressive plans nor would he abandon the vision of reconciliation left by his predecessor.

            A majority of the House and Senate passed a reconstruction program over Johnson’s veto and enacted a law which limited the President’s power of appointment.  When Johnson defied this law, which he held to be unconstitutional, by dismissing the Secretary of War, the House of Representatives voted to impeach him for “high crimes and misdemeanors”.

            After this impeachment a lengthy trail began to remove him from office; his guilt or innocence to be determined by a 2/3rds majority vote of the Senate.

            As the legislators solidified their positions, it became clear that Johnson’s fate hung on the vote of just one man…Edmund G. Ross…who was faced with siding against the majority of the Senate or standing by his convictions (Kennedy, John F., Profiles in Courage).  Later, Ross would write, “I almost literally looked down into my open grave.  Friendships, position, fortune, everything that makes life desirable to an ambitious man were about to be swept away by the breath of my mouth, perhaps forever”.

            His answer to the roll call was, “Not guilty”.  Although impeached, Andrew Johnson was acquitted of any crime.  The unfair law which he opposed was later found unconstitutional indeed by the Supreme Court.

            The vote of one man, Edmund Ross, not only saved a President from utter disgrace, but a free nation as well.  Ross wrote his wife these words shortly after the trial, “Millions…cursing me today will bless me tomorrow for having saved the country though none but God can ever know the struggle it has cost me.”

            One man stood against the majority and upheld the constitutional principals of our country.

            One President, having opposed the majority of his southern peers’ decision to war against the Union, also opposed the efforts of the Northern majority to punish and exploit those same Southern peers in defeat.

            The smallest minority of one can affect great change when that voice speaks for justice, fairness and reconciliation.  There are times when the greatest power is only one voice.

            We hear in our gospel lesson this morning three parables by Jesus about the power of the minority.

            The Parable of the Weeds points to the coming End of the World, when God will harvest all that grows and save the good seed while discarding the weeds amongst them in the eternal fires.

            It may seem at times that there are a lot more weeds out there than good seed.   That the evil get away with murder.  That the rich get only richer while children are hungry and the poor get poorer.  Certainly that is how the first Christians who heard this Parable must have felt as they watched their tiny minority of Jesus followers arrested, tortured and executed for their faith.   For these folk, who were expecting the End of the World at any time, the Parable encouraged them to know that at the End, we will all be held accountable for our lives by a perfect and just God.  In the End, no one will “get away” with anything.  A minority life-style of active love, peacemaking and justice will one day have its reward, even if it seems irrelevant in a world which worships power and profit.

            Edmund G. Ross experienced that.

            The Parable of the Mustard Seed promises great things from small beginnings.  Who would have ever dreamt that 12 uneducated Galileans and their 90 or so followers, from the back waters of Palestine, would start a religious movement that would 300 years later overwhelm the Roman Empire?

            Over one hundred and ten years ago a small group of people envisioned a church in the center of Carmel-by-the-Sea.  Who among them would have dreamt that a ministry would arise which has blessed thousands of people since then?

            You see, minorities committed to the Reign of God in their lives don’t get discouraged by the obstacles of the present.  Rather they see them simply as opportunities on the way to the future. 

Great things have small beginnings.

The Parable of the Yeast reminds me of Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount;  “You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world…let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven”(Matthew 5:14-16).  Those who follow Jesus are a minority that stick out in a crowd.

Do you know how yeast works?  The bacteria of the bread yeast mixed into the flour begins to consume the sugars in its gluten, letting off carbon dioxide gas in the process, making the dough rise and double in size and lighten into the delight of fresh bread.  Yeast is a transforming agent.  It changes brewed grain into beer, grape juice into wine and flour into bread.  And it doesn’t take much, only a hand full of yeast will enliven “three measures” of flour that can make up to 100 loaves of bread.

Even as a small minority in our increasingly secular society, we who follow Jesus can be as salt, light and yeast to people seeking flavor, guidance and transformation in this life.

An example: A handful of Christians 39 years ago in Americus, Georgia, started Habitat for Humanity began with the contagious vision to end poverty housing and homelessness in the world. It is no accident that Christian churches are the main source of support for the Habitat for Humanity program.  Habitat offers a family living in poverty a chance to buy their own home, interest free.  The family will provide at least 500 hours of their own labor on the house and then they pay Habitat back in a formula based on their income and their family’s need.  Not only do they get housing but over the years an asset on which to base their future self-sufficiency.  Habitat for Humanity doesn’t just build houses it transforms lives.  It is like yeast.

Compared to the numbers and money of government programs, Habitat folk are a small minority of people. There are now affiliates over 2,000 cities and 100 countries in the world.  Habitat has helped more than 4 million people construct, rehabilitate or preserve more than 800,000 homes since its founding in 1976.

It doesn’t always take a majority to change the world. In fact, sometimes the majority is the greatest obstacle to the future.  When we feel powerless to make a difference in the world remember Jesus’ parables of weeds, mustard and yeast.

Even a small minority of people committed to God’s future can turn the world upside down.  Even one voice, committed to justice and refusing to be silent, can save a nation.

Jesus uses parables in his preaching to “proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world”.  We who would follow his way are to find courage in the truth that in spite of the weeds in our lives, the future is ultimately in God’s hands.  We are to find the hope of the mustard seed, that even small beginnings can have great endings.  We are empowered to become the leaven in a world desperate for transformation.

After all, who will speak out for fairness in our work places, justice in our society and forgiveness in our homes if it is not you and me?                 

 

Amen.

Take a Rest

 Matthew 11:25-30

June 14, 2015

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

            A very good friend of mine shared a brilliant insight.  Although very spiritual, he is not a Christian.  Hearing of the variety of projects, programs and work in which Bonnie and I are involved he said, “You know what the trouble with you Christians is, you are always trying to take Jesus off the cross.”

            He has been able to see the tendency in Christians to expend vast amounts of energy to serve the poor, assist their churches and to volunteer for the countless organizations that help others.  In all the busyness and effort, how often we become martyrs vainly trying to ‘out martyr’ the greatest martyr of all. 

I am notorious for grabbing the check at a lunch or dinner out.  I love to pay the bill.  It must have something to do with ego or macho or my own need to be a public martyr.  I once attended a missionary conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and at a certain lunch our table of 6 professional missionaries nearly broke out into a fist fight over who would get the privilege to pay the bill. It’s nearly impossible to ‘out martyr’ professional martyrs!  [Now if I start getting a flood of calls for meal appointments from this sermon I’ll know why!]

Maybe you understand what it means to see yourself as a martyr? At work, at home, in your relationships, with your kids, in your faith?

            It is as if we thought we could save our Lord from the cross if only we could make the world right.  Rather than accepting that it is by his dying for us that we become right with the world.

            Our faith in Christ is not so much a matter of spitting on our hands and working harder to make ourselves whole, as it is a growing awareness of, and a humble appreciation for, the One who is working in us to make us complete.  We are called to participate in the salvation of the world, certainly.  But ultimately the world’s salvation is not all up to us.  That is God’s job.

How much time do we allow ourselves to be fed and energized by others and God?  As important as it is to give, why is it so hard for us to receive?  Why do so many of us fall into the trap of “being all things for all people”?

And Jesus says to us this morning, “Take a rest”.

The apostle Paul had the same struggle in which many of us find ourselves.  Talk about a martyr! 

Paul boasts of his sufferings in order to justify his status as an apostle:

 “Five times I have received…the forty lashes minus one.  Three times I was beaten with rods.  Once I received a stoning.  Three times I was shipwrecked.  For a night and a day I was adrift at sea.   On frequent journeys, I was in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters.  In toil and hardship through many a sleepless nights, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked and…I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches…” (II Corinthians 11:16-33).

Boasting about beatings and imprisonment and shipwrecks may seem odd to us modern, sophisticated folk.  But how many of us subtly boast to our bosses, our spouses and colleagues abut how many hours we work each week, how we come into the office on weekends, how we check our voicemail and answer our emails during vacations?  

We get the impression that Paul never rested from the time of his enlightenment on the Damascus Road until his final days in Rome.  He was constantly preaching, teaching and starting new churches where ever he went. And at a personal cost most of us find inconceivable.

Yet this same saint laments, “I do not understand my own actions.  For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15)  Paul will admit to a personal physical, emotional or mental disability plaguing his life which he calls his “thorn in his flesh” given by God to keep him humble (II Corinthians 12:7).   [Scholars have debated what this problem was for Paul for centuries and have come up with all sorts of ideas ranging from a limp to a lisp, ugliness to a speech stutter, schizophrenia to homosexuality.]  These words come from the person responsible for bringing Christianity out of a small Jewish sect in Jerusalem to the boundaries of the known world of his day!

Even Paul has to remind himself who it is that really saves the world.  He writes:

 

“…the Lord said to me, “”My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness”” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecution and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” (II Corinthians 12:8-10)

 

Even the apostle Paul has to admit his limitations.  And it is in his honesty about who he really is as a person that the apostle Paul comes to accept that the salvation of the world is not all up to him.

Can we?

I am a compulsive overeater.  I’ve struggled with obesity since I was in Kindergarten.  Most chuckle as Oprah publicly loses and gains the same fifty pounds over and over again, but I weep with her as I have done it myself a dozen times.  I cannot resist a refrigerator.  Once in seminary, Bonnie needed me to return some library books, so she put them in the fridge with a note, knowing that it is to the ice box I go first whenever I come home.

I can be a compulsive over-worker.  Many of us know the siren song of the piles on the desk, of the mail and email waiting to be answered, of the project that wakes you up a night and is easier to finish than to get back to sleep.  Don’t look to most preachers for enlightenment on the subject.   Making ourselves indispensable feeds the craving to be needed. 

There are many reasons for compulsive behaviors and one of them is the narcotic affect it has on the pain and doubts and low self-esteem in our lives.  It is a way to run and hide.

What do you do that you know isn’t good for you but you can’t seem to stop?  Smoking?  Drinking too much alcohol?  Too much TV?  If we have a compulsive behavior, we will understand Paul better.  Because religion can become one as well.

We can attend churches that require worship attendance on Wednesday, Saturday and twice on Sundays.  We can find ourselves on three committees, two fellowship groups and volunteering for various ecumenical organizations.  We can read every new book out by every preacher and religious expert.  We can buy tapes of the scripture or religious instruction to play in our cars.  We can send the kids to church school, camp and catechism.  We can get busy for the Lord!!!

When religion becomes a compulsive behavior it loses its power.

Part of Paul’s greatness is that he can see himself honestly.  He is all too aware of the conflict in the self between what we know and what we do.  Paul shares our cry that this self-alienation is a condition, not an occasional act.  We can’t save the world with our religious activities, no matter how sincere, even Paul the apostle knows that.  We can’t even save ourselves from our own compulsions.

Who then will rescue us? 

In our scripture lesson this morning from Matthew, the disciples are having a rough time of it.  There is controversy and bitterness between them and the followers of John the Baptist.  They have traveled to many villages where folks refused to listen to their message and be healed.  They are facing failure and discouragement about their efforts when Jesus says, “Come to me and I will give you rest.”

What a welcome invitation to those of us who are sick and tired of trying to be all things for all people.  What a liberating word to those of us who obey all the rules, knock ourselves out trying to do good things, trying to earn God’s favor.

“Come to me and I will give you rest”.

We don’t have to do anything to receive God’s love.  We don’t have to be in church four times a week.  Maybe we can come to church not because we’re supposed to but just to be peaceful for a while.  Of all places, the church should be a place where we can be honest about our needs and our limitations and not be judged by them but loved as children of God.

We don’t have to fill the spiritual airways with our prayerful requests.  Maybe we can be silent and listen to what God has to say every now and then. 

We don’t have to be on every committee in the church or help in every project.  Why not let the church minister to you sometimes?

Our faith will not grow only by our effort to read and study and find the right teacher.  Our faith will also grow when we stop…and rest.  When we simply open ourselves to be sustained and surround by God’s love. 

You see, it is God who transforms us and the world.  We don’t have to do anything.  It is a gift.  All we have to do is receive it.  Yield to it.

 Jesus says, “Come, all of you with heavy burdens and take a rest”!

If you find yourself giving more than you are receiving, be honest about who you really are and listen to Jesus’ words.

I have struggled to learn throughout my ministry that the world is not all on my shoulders after all.  People I love will die or will be healed no matter how good of a minister I am.  People I love will divorce or marry in spite of my “expert” counseling.  Poverty, war and racism seem to go on in spite of my preaching about it.

Good Lord, I can’t even stay out of an ice box, let alone save my own soul!  Thanks be to God that the world’s salvation is not all up to us, we are only called to do our part.  Even we can afford to take a rest now and then.

 

            Amen.

Standing in the Bite of the Line

 Genesis 22:1-14

June 7, 2015

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

            God tests Abraham.

            Our scripture lesson this morning is not a story about God plotting to murder a child.  It is easy to get that impression from this vivid and disturbing drama of God’s call to Abraham to sacrifice his only son on a mountain altar.  But the writer of the text wants us to know from the very beginning that God’s call isn’t about taking Isaac’s life.   It is about testing Abraham’s faith.  As readers, we are supposed to understand that Isaac’s life is never in danger from God.

This is a test.  It is only a test.

But Abraham doesn’t know that.

He lived among cultures which indeed took the lives of children as a part of their worship.  Human sacrifices were common in that time and persisted long into Hebrew history (Judges 11:29-40, 2 Kings 16:3).  The people of Israel will understand such horror as an “abomination” against God (Deut 12:31, 17:1).  The roots of our lesson this morning comes from that time and a people who refused to hurt children for the sake of religious ritual.  We come from such a people who hold that the love and protection of children is one of God’s greatest concerns.  Which is why we find this story so unsettling as Abraham binds Isaac’s hands and raises the knife over his son’s chest.  It is inconceivable that God…our God…would be calling for such a thing.  It’s a monstrous scene.

But it’s a test.  It is only a test.

God does not hurt children.  The story isn’t so much about what God will do. 

Rather the story is about what Abraham will do when faced with the impossible.

We face impossible situations every day.

Since 2011, the government of Syria has bombed, gassed and murdered its own citizens with impunity.  Thousands have been killed.  Millions have fled as refugees.  The resulting civil war has allowed a terrorist group to take over large sections of Syria and parts of Iraq on its border. At face value, the international community has been powerless to stop this madness.    

This preacher has observed these events unfold and not said a word from the pulpit, other than to offer prayers, because I do not know what to say.  There are no neat and tidy answers to offer, no Biblical or theological clichés to share.  We can’t stand by while innocents suffer.  Yet military efforts, however valiantly applied, will not solve the problem.  It’s an impossible situation.

A family has to decide whether by pulling the plug on a loved one’s medical care they are ending suffering or a life.

A young woman has to decide whether to keep a baby or give it away in adoption.

A spouse has to decide to stick it out in a marriage knowing full well the obstacles to be overcome whether they stay in it or not.

Life by its nature presents us all with impossible situations.  How do we keep going when the path is not clear and no solution is in sight?

That is really the question posed to Abraham.

“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”

 In response, without a word, Abraham saddles up his donkey, takes along some hired hands, firewood and Isaac and off he goes. God has threatened to take away the very promise which compelled Abraham to leave his homeland in the first place (Gen 12:1-f).  The promise which changed his name, which moved him to circumcise himself and his family (17:1-f).  The promise delivered by angels which drives Sarah to laughter (20:1-f).  Isaac is not only Abraham’s beloved son, he is the first child of the promise of God to Abraham to make from his progeny a great nation, a nation which will bless the whole world.  To kill Isaac would be to kill the dream.

Surely Abraham is bewildered by this request.  Surely he is terrified of its implications.  He must be furious with this capricious Deity who promises the future then demands to take it all away.  But we don’t hear an objection from Abraham.  The writer doesn’t let us in on Abraham’s psychological state of mind.  All we are told is that when called by God, Abraham follows.

You see, just because one can’t see a solution to a problem, doesn’t mean that there isn’t one.

So again, Abraham strikes out into the unknown in faith.

Martin Luther, the great Protestant Reformer of the 16^th century said, “Faith is an active and reckless trust in the goodness of God.”

At Stanford Hospital many years ago, a little girl named Liz was suffering from a rare and serious disease.  Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her five year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.  The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.  He hesitated for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, “Yes, I’ll do it if it will save Liz”.  As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled as he watched the color return to her cheeks.  Then his face grew pale and his own smile faded.  He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, “Will I start to die right away?”  Being young, the boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood.  He was willing to do so to save his sister.

That was an act of love.  It was certainly an act of faith.

God knows that Abraham loves his son Isaac.  Abraham divides the labor of the journey up to the mountain altar so that Abraham carries the knife and fire which could potentially hurt the young man.  When Isaac asks his father where is the lamb required for the sacrifice, Abraham responds, “God will provide his own lamb when we get there.”  It spite of the ambiguity and terror of God’s call, God has never let Abraham down before.  In active and reckless trust in the goodness of the God who has called him, Abraham knows somewhere deep down inside that God will provide a way out of this impossible dilemma.

Sometimes when life seems utterly mysterious, bewildering and outright contradictory, all we can count on is that God will provide.  And sometimes that is enough.

Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 26 years in South Africa jails for subversive activities against its government.  Never a communist, he was indeed a subversive.  As a lawyer he actively challenged the South African apartheid system used by the white minority to subject the African majority to terrible and demeaning living conditions.

After release from prison, Nelson Mandela was elected as South Africa’s first African President.  The result was not the violence of retribution by the majority against the minority as predicted by so many.  Rather he instituted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to expose and purge the hatred and pain of that society. 

Asked how he endured those 26 years behind bars, he has said many times, it was the love of his family, his passion for justice and his faith in the God who promises the future.

Sometimes when life seems utterly mysterious, bewildering and outright contradictory, all we can count on is that God will provide.

At the mountain top altar, Abraham’s sacrifice is stopped by the voice of God.  Isaac’s life was never really needed.  It was Abraham’s faith that was at risk.  YHWH God reiterates his promise to build from Abraham’s family the salvation of the world.  He then names the place for the truth he knew all along.  Abraham calls the mountain top “God Will Provide”.

            Abraham follows when called.  Abraham risks what is most precious in his life in order to grow in his relationship with the One God.  He does so with a compassionate heart, bold courage and dogged determination even when the circumstances are murky, dangerous and contradictory.  Abraham is a person of faith in an impossible situation.

            As a result from his heritage will come David and the prophets and the Nazarene Jesus.  Christians for 2,000 years have understood this story as part of Jesus’ identification as “…the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world…” (John 1:29).

            We all know folks like Abraham.  They have shaped our lives for the better.  We need more like him to stand in the “bite of the line”.  [Intriguing sermon title, isn’t?!]

            In Gerald May’s book Addiction & Grace, he describes a piece of large construction equipment used to build the skyscrapers of New York City fifty years ago.  While a crew of workers loaded material into this machine one person had to stand with a special steel hook to capture a heavy steel cable in case it should come off its wheels and whip out of control, injuring the entire crew.

            Members of the crew took turns standing in that dangerous place, with that hook, in order to safe guard the others.   It was called, “Standing in the bite of the line.”

            That’s one way to describe what it means to love.

            It’s one way to describe what it means to have faith.

            In a world where too many innocents stand in the line of fire, we need people who will listen to and follow the God That Provides.

            In a church facing new challenges, we need people who so trust that God Will Provide us a way into the future that we will risk change.

For the one in chemo therapy…for the spouse struggling to keep the marriage going…for the High School graduate facing the unknown of a college campus…we need someone with a compassionate heart to boldly assert that no matter the outcome, God Will Provide.

            Between the chaos of confusion and the promises of God’s future stand good men and women with an active and reckless trust in the goodness of God.

            God knows in this world we need more like them “to stand in the bite of the line”.

 

            Amen.

 

 

 

Eggs, Roses and Dandelions

 

Matthew 28:16-20

 

May 31, 2015

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

            This sermon is about eggs, roses and dandelions. [Not really, but since it has a lot to do with theology, preachers have to use exciting props to keep people’s attention!]

 

            Traditionally, the Sunday following Pentecost is known as “Trinity” Sunday, an annual attempt to teach the doctrine of the Trinity to the Church.  We all remember the Trinity, right, the notion of “God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit”?

            We sing about it in one of our favorite hymns, No. 64, “Holy, Holy, Holy”; (verse 4) “Holy, holy, holy!  Merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity”.  We sing it in our Doxology following the Offertory.  That’s the song we sing in praise of God after we collect our financial gifts to the church, No. 95,  “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; praise God all creatures here below; praise God above the heavenly hosts; praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost”.

If you grew up in a traditional Protestant church as a kid you probably recited the Apostle’s Creed each Sunday, (No. 881):

            I believe in God the Father Almighty,

            Maker of heaven and earth;

            And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord:

            Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

            Born of the Virgin Mary,

            Suffered under Pontius Pilate,

            Was crucified, dead and buried,

            On the third day he rose from the dead;

            He ascended into heaven,

            And sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

            From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

            I believe in the Holy Spirit,

            The holy catholic church,

            The communion of saint,

            The forgiveness of sins,

            The resurrection of the body,

            And the life everlasting.  Amen.

 

The Trinity is one of the central doctrines of the Church, but we don’t find the word “trinity” anywhere in the Bible.  We find the combination of the words “God”, “Jesus” and “Holy Spirit” only 7 times in the entire New Testament (Acts 2:33, I Cor 12:4-6, II Cor 13:13, Eph 4:4-6, I Pet 1:2, Rev 1:4-5a) and only once as the phrase, “Father, Son and Holy Spirit”.  Which is in our text from Matthew this Sunday.

The Trinity as a notion of God having “one substance and three persons”…Father, Son and Holy Spirit…came from an early church leader by the name of Tertullian (160-220AD).  He was a lawyer from Carthage and a convert to Christianity.  He was the first theologian to write in Latin.  He was the first to come up with the idea of three separate and distinct natures of the one God.

The idea goes like this:

God is the Creator, Source, and the Eternal Transcendent One.  God is above and beyond human comprehension.  This God is universal to all human cultures and time, especially known to Israel as the God who acts to save, love and forgive.  In the awe of nature, the silence of prayer and the presence of another we encounter the God that is “over us”.

God is Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the ultimate revelation of this loving God of Creation.   Jesus was fully human and fully divine, the culmination of God’s saving acts.  Jesus’ resurrection from the dead not only offered his disciples the same promise of eternal life, but ushered in the Reign of God on earth.  Jesus is the incarnation of God in human form, one born like us, who would laugh and eat and cry like us, and who would die like us.  Jesus is God “with us”.

God is the Holy Spirit, unleashed because of Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is the divine spark in us all that makes us alive, makes us human.  The Holy Spirit binds each individual into the fellowship of the church empowering the individual and the church to service and loving kindness in this world.  The Holy Spirit is that “friend” and “comforter” (John 14:15-31) that shapes us, moves us and carries us through the hard times.  The Holy Spirit is God “in us”.

God over us.  God with us.  God in us.  That is the Trinity.

Just like an egg.  One egg, three substances.  Shell.  White.  Yoke.  One egg in three persons, blessed trinity!

This understanding of God was new to the Western world, which up until that time had worshipped many and different gods.

Personal monotheism was a radical notion.  It suggested that an individual could actually have a relationship with the One God, Creator of the universe and that the relationship was based on love.  It was an idea that turned the world upside down.  We may have lost just how important an idea it was.

For the writer of the gospel of Matthew it was much more than an idea.  It was the power and commission for the disciples of Jesus to change the world.  For the apostle Paul it was much more than a doctrine.  It was a lifestyle.  To the difficult and struggling church in Corinth he reminds them, in effect, “You’re not just anybody, you are the people of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!  Now live like it!” (II Cor 13:13).

What do we do with the reality of the love of God, the grace of Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit?  How does our church live out its commission to “go out into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”?

A rose.  A beautiful thing, fragrant, colorful.  It reminds us of love, romance and perfection.

Yet a rose can be a difficult flower to grow.  It takes constant attention, maintenance and feeding.  It demands hours of time to nurture it just right.  For all that effort it only blooms two, or at most, three times a year.  The bloom itself must be protected and refrigerated before it goes bad and then its peak of beauty is only momentary, lasting but a few days.

When Rev. Bob Olmstead was pastor of First United Methodist Church in Palo Alto, he suggested that many of us see the church just like a rose.  A church is a sentimental place of memories and beauty.  It needs constant care and maintenance.  For many of us to be a Christian means to keep the church going, fixing up the buildings, keeping the programs as they have always been, making sure no changes threaten the warmth of our togetherness as a church family.

Those who see the church like a rose work very hard for it to shine two or three times a year; Christmas, Easter, maybe a family wedding or baptism.

Consider the lowly dandelion. 

This bloom is beautiful, too, in its own way.  Intricate and lacy.  It is nature’s favorite toy for children.  Poor folk have used it as a vegetable for centuries, with leaves high in vitamin C.  It is seemingly indestructible.   In spite of the best efforts devised by humanity, these things just keep popping up.  Everywhere.  At the slightest breeze, its seeds are carried to propagate more and more of these blooms.  It takes little care and maintenance to grow.  In fact, it grows on its own.  In some climates it grows all year.  It blooms all the time!

Pastor Olmstead suggested that not many of us see the church as a dandelion, but what if we did?

The church’s beauty would be seen in the way it makes children happy.  The way it can feed the poor.  The way it can survive even the most determined efforts to destroy it.

The church as the dandelion doesn’t exist to be cared for and maintained but to propagate itself everywhere and in every way.  Its beauty isn’t threaten by change but just the opposite, change unleashes the dandelion’s ability to spread itself throughout the world.

How do we see the church?  Like a rose or a dandelion?  Is our beauty to be shared mainly for our own enjoyment or to be spread on the winds, carried to very corner of our worlds?   Is our church threatened by change or does it find change an opportunity?

Matthew reports Jesus’ instructions to his followers shortly before he returns to heaven.  Our mission is to go and make disciples in all nations, baptizing them in the name of the triune God…Parent, Child and Spirit.

The mission of the church has never been to keep quiet.  Yet how many of us will share our faith with another at work or at school or within our own family?

We come here each week.  Something must compel us to be here, the music or the message or the fellowship of like-minded people.  Yet how many of us will invite a friend to come and experience what we find valuable enough to spend our Sunday mornings doing?

We have not come here to merely cope with the world and the difficulties of life, as important as that is.

We have not come here to maintain an institution.

We are here to change the world and ourselves.

Each week we sing and pray about “the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”.  We don’t recite these words merely because they are tradition.  We do so because our job upon leaving this beautiful room is to spread the word about the love of God, the grace of Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, much more like dandelions than roses.

We make disciples by being ones.

That means we can’t keep it to ourselves.

 

                                    Amen.