We are all Prodigals

The story of the Prodigal son has many, many levels to it.  There are different approaches and for each person in this room there is a different perspective.  Even when looking up resources I found that the story is known by different titles. The Prodigal Son, also known as Two Sons, Lost Son and the Running Father, the Dutiful son, the Forgiving father …just by those titles alone there seems to be different foci.

A story of a prodigal by definition is of one who spends money recklessly.

Henri Nouwen renowned spiritual writer engages this story so deeply that he ended up writing a whole book on it.  Henri describes his first encounter of Rembrandt’s interpretation of this passage and what led him to ponder this story.

“When I first saw the prodigal son, I had just finished an exhausting six-week lecturing trip through the united states, calling Christian communities to do anything they possibly could to prevent violence and war in Central America.  I was dead tired, so much so that I could barely walk.  I was anxious, lonely, restless, and very needy….It was in this condition I first encountered Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son on the door of Simone’s office.  My heart leapt when I saw it.  After my long self-exposing journey, the tender embrace of father and son expressed everything I desired at that moment.  I was indeed, the son exhausted from long travels; I wanted to be embraced; I was looking for a home where I could feel safe.  The son-come-home was all I was and all I wanted to be.  For so long I had been going from place to place: confronting, beseeching, admonishing, and consoling.  Now I desired only to rest safely in a place where I could feel a sense of belonging, a place where I could feel at home.”[1]

Have you ever felt that way?  Ever feel like you have been fighting for, working for, striving for something for so long that you are just exhausted…tired of fighting, striving…you just wanted a place that is safe, warm and welcoming…a place that says come into my arms and rest your struggle is done, relax, you are safe here.  It doesn’t matter how you got here, it doesn’t matter what you did right or what you may have done wrong this is about rest in the journey.

This is a story of a homecoming, this is a story of a young person’s search and discovery, this is a story of a loving fathers longing for a complete family and this is a story of a brother who gets a little green when it comes to parity. I wonder who each of you is in this story.  I wonder where the mother is, is there a mother?

I know for me in this story I can identify with the prodigal.  I was raised a young good catholic.  I went to church every Sunday, I excelled at Sunday school, I was an altar boy and I dreamt of being a missionary priest.  In high school I worked with the worship committee and volunteer student services and was in a Christian rock band.

Sure I had my moments of trouble.  I even ran away for a weekend not so much cause things were bad at home more seeking the opportunity for travel.  When I was a kid I was nick named Charlie brown especially because of my luck with kites but as I became a teenager and into young adult hood I think I became more like huckleberry Finn with a deep yearning for travel and adventure.

After coming into my true self as a Gay man I sought out Dignity Detroit.  I so wanted to remain a good catholic though who I was existed in direct opposition to the clerical hierarchy of the Church.  When the church finally asked that Dignity meet anywhere besides a catholic church, though dignity Detroit remained in their original home for years, I left.  The order was enough to tell me I was not welcome any more.

So I took my inheritance and I left the church.  It is interesting to note that when the prodigal asks his father for his share of his inheritance the father divides up the property and a few days later the son is on his way.  This is so matter of fact, there is no complaint no bargaining it is just;  “well here you go have fun…”  I can’t help but in my mind’s eye see the father turn around give a slight smile and say to himself he’ll be back in a day or so.

So what was my inheritance?  What had the Catholic Church gave me to take with me as I left?  Well it had taught me to ask questions thanks to some very liberal teachers in high school.  It had given me a sense of spirituality and spiritual practice.  It had allowed me to seek what God and a relationship with the divine meant for me and as I walked away that is what I carried with me.

In Luke it explains after everything was spent a great famine broke out.  The prodigal spends his inheritance, it doesn’t say he spent it foolishly, it doesn’t say he spent it wisely.  It just says “everything was spent”, exhausted, beat, beaten, burned-out, bushed, dead, and done.  Those are just a few of the synonyms.  Now who hasn’t felt that way?  I mean in just the day to day of trying to get by, who hasn’t felt completely spent?

I think that description matches me.  I left Detroit for Chicago for a weekend with a friend…after the weekend came to an end I was like; “I have a friend in Long beach!”  I don’t know why but I had packed nothing where my friend packed all he had…he had no intention of returning to Detroit.

Spent about two months in Long beach searching for a job…Finally had a job interview and there was a sign on the door…”went to Disney!”…only in California, I swear.

I had my ups and downs.  I had good times and bad.  At one point I had been kicked out of what had been my home with my bags literally outside the door and I had to sue to gain some of my other belongings and some semblance of retribution for three years of work.

I had to get emergency housing and was put in a hotel that leaked as it rained a cold winter desert rain.  I ended up sleeping on couches and floors for several weeks and eating a lot of sandwiches as I waited for assistance to come through so that I could find a place to live. The Famine had hit

I was exhausted…I was beaten down …I was hungry spiritually for some sort of strength…I returned to the Church.  A place I knew as home.  I quietly walked in and I sat in the very back row. I returned as a prodigal, beaten and exhausted tired of fighting for scraps.

Now the Minister didn’t see me coming from a long way off and run out to greet me.  No and yet looking back…God did.

You see all the time I was seeking, searching, surviving, living, partying, fund raising, educating…no matter what I was doing my inheritance,  that deep down spiritual life and connection to God was still there informing my every move.  When I felt it was entirely spent God came running out to greet me.  I can’t tell you what was said, what was sung, or how the service even went that day.  I can tell you I cried.

I cried out that exhaustion, I cried out my frustration, I left what was bitterness and pain in the church that day.  God had come running out to greet me.

It is interesting that in the story the son comes seeking forgiveness, seeking to be made the lowest in his father’s house, seeking nothing but some semblance of a life.  Yet just as he is barely in sight his Father see’s him and is moved.  That is what the story says; “While still a long way off the father caught site of the child and was deeply moved.”

I know I am playing with synonyms today but let’s go there…to be moved is a visceral reaction, it is to be fired up, to excite, impassion, to stimulate or enflame.  This is strong, do you hear it?  This is a once in a lifetime type of reaction so much so that the father doesn’t hear the sons plea of forgiveness but throws his arms around him, kisses him , gives him rings and robes and throws a party!

Why such a visceral reaction?  Why was it so strong? Well remember in my version the Father walks away with a grin on his face thinking oh he’ll be back?  I hear further the father thinking; I have been there and done that he needs to learn his lesson.  But then he doesn’t come back right away.  The son stays gone till he has spent his inheritance.  Taking in consideration what the father has when the son returns, I suspect, that was a pretty good inheritance.  Therefore, no matter how he chooses to spend it, it took a while to spend.

I know this is a story to display God’s love and welcoming back into the flock of a sinner. But it is using humans as an example, which makes sense if we are created in the image, not exactly like and not perfect, but the image of God.  Gods own behavior might resemble some of ours. 

So the father is smug at first.  Let me give my son a taste of the real world, a taste of freedom and he will be back quickly for the world is nothing as he imagines.  But then that day turns into a few days, then weeks and months.  Soon it has been a long time with no word and no sign of his son.  Is he doing well, or has he fallen in with a bad crowd.  What if he is in jail?  What if he is sick or worse yet dead?

The longer the time apart the more worried the father becomes, the longer apart the greater the possibility of no return. Yet, I believe, if it was one day or 1000 days the greeting would be the same.  En impassioned joyous welcome home.  You see the Father in this story, just as god doesn’t really want to let us go.  But that is what free will is about…it is in Gods nature to let us go.

Henri Nouwen speaks of it this way…

How much would he have liked to pull them back with his fatherly authority and hold them close to himself so that they would not get hurt?

     But his love is too great to do any of that. It cannot constrain, push, or pull.  It offers the freedom to reject that love or to love in return. It is precisely the immensity of the divine love that is the source of the divine suffering. God, creator of heaven and earth, has chosen to be, first and foremost a father.[2]

God has chosen to be a parent, a parent who sometimes must set us free to allow us to do what we must do to become who we are. I mean how many times have any one of us looked back on our lives and said I would not be where I am now if I had not gone through what I did. I actually could not write what I write today, or any day for that matter had I not gone through and lived all that I lived.  Yes I often wonder about the what ifs, but if I were given an opportunity to go through it all again…I would for it has brought me here in front of you all today.

God the parent, grieves when we separate ourselves for the love that is extended and yet as soon as we start to walk back, God comes running out to greet us…no need for confession there is no concern there…That is what we hold against ourselves not God.

“There is no lust, greed, anger, resentment, jealousy, or vengeance in his (God’s) lost children that have not caused immense grief to his (God’s) heart…From the deep inner place where love embraces all human grief, the Father (creator) reaches out to His (the) children.  The touch of His (God’s) hands radiating inner light only seeks to heal.”[3] This is the lesson of the moment of assurance we have here every Sunday.  There is nothing you can do, nothing you can say, think or pray that will separate you from the love of God.

But yet God goes further…God Goes over the top…Isn’t that what this parable portrays?  Henri Nouwen goes on to comment; “I realize that I am not used to the image of God throwing a big party.”[4]  Well now isn’t that an understatement.  I mean we all have this image of God that is all commanding, Judging, Powerful and dead serious.  Where did that come from?  I mean as followers of Christ there isn’t much of this “judginses” going on in Christ’s teachings.  I mean if Christ is any example are we surprised when the Loving parent throws a huge party at the return of the son.

As in this parable, and many others, God is waiting …just waiting to throw this big feast.  Not only is the invitation there, the party will start without you until you arrive.  Yet, as in another Parable, it doesn’t matter when you show up; just show up for the last will receive just the same as the very first. “Celebration belongs to God’s Kingdom. God not only offers forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing, but wants to lift up these gifts as a source of joy for all who witness them.”[5] Guess what…we get the honor of witnessing it here every week, heck any day you walk in here.  This is the place where you are welcome as part of the creators loving family.  We witness it every Sunday when it is proclaimed that this is not our table it is God’s and there is nothing…nothing that can prevent you from participating in the little banquet.  Yes I called the communion here the little banquet for the feat the creator has set aside for us is so much greater than we can even imagine.

So you see, you are allowed to walk away…you are allowed to spend your inheritance…you are allowed to come back home tired, broke, spent and the loving parent that is God will be waiting to clothe you, heal you and give you respite.  The loving parent is ready to throw you a feast; a party to allow you to sing and dance.  I truly enjoy the way Carey Landry expressed this in a song; “and the creator shall dance as on a day of Joy God will exalt over you and renew you with God’s love.” All of this is so that when you are ready you can step boldly and proclaim that you are a child of God. Amen.

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[1] Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Meditation on Fathers, Brothers, and Sons (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 4.

[2] Henry J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming (New York: Continuum, 1995), 95.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid., 113.

[5] Ibid.

We are many

I remember being a kid in grade school when the schools started having special ed classrooms and for some part of the day the kids with special needs would be in class with the rest of us. According to Wikipedia

Initially, children with disabilities were often placed in heterogeneous "special education" classrooms, making it difficult for any of their difficulties to be addressed appropriately. In the 1970s, the mainstreaming model began to be used more often as a result of the requirement to place children in the least restrictive environment (Clearinghouse, E. 2003). Students with relatively minor disabilities were integrated into regular classrooms, while students with major disabilities remained in segregated special classrooms, with the opportunity to be among normal students for up to a few hours each day. Many parents and educators favored allowing students with disabilities to be in classrooms along with their nondisabled peers.

The initial reaction to allowing the kids with disabilities in the classroom required notes sent to parents…PTA meetings where fears were vocalized…what if they hurt someone…what if they are contagious…who will protect our children???

Fear can cause an irrational reaction to something that is new or different.

The God of the New Testament does not fit our human hopes very neatly. Our Lord Jesus was not the person that religious people of the first century were expecting or looking for. Instead of being the answer to everybody’s dreams, Jesus had a tendency to upset people‘s hopes and dreams, disorientating cultural structures and pretext. Once in a while , as in today’s Gospel reading, an encounter with Jesus concluded with people pleading with Him that He might go away and leave them alone!

The story takes place in the Gadarenes or the Gerasenes, or the Gergasenes, depending on which version of which Gospel you read.

It is indeed one of the problems with this story that none of the three Gospel writers who recorded this incident - Matthew, Mark and Luke - seemed to be entirely clear about exactly where Jesus had this encounter with this shadowy character, and even the earliest copies of Luke’s Gospel that we have, are not in complete agreement as to exactly which of these three places it was.

Rev. David Smith, an Episcopal priest writes “There is a good and straightforward explanation for this I think, as whichever place it was - the Gadarenes or the Gerasenes, or the Gergasenes - they all had one thing in common. These were places outside of Israel. This was pagan country, on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. No self-respecting Jew would visit any of these places, and I suspect that the reason that nobody could quite remember which of these places it was, reflects the fact that none of these Gospel writers had ever been there - neither Matthew, Mark, nor Luke. Nor were they ever likely to go there!

The place where Jesus decides to travel to is somewhere out on the periphery of the civilized world. Strange people live there, who worship strange gods. They eat pigs over there, which no self-respecting Jew would do, and they have one very strange ambassador, coming out to meet Jesus - dirty, disheveled, completely naked, and moaning with some horrible guttural moan that echoes the darkness that infests his system.

It’s important to realize that this is a key point that the Gospel writer is trying to make, for it would have been clear to his original readers that Jesus is very deliberately overlooking the fact that everything he touches here is unclean!

Jesus has walked into an unclean land, full of unclean people - to hillsides covered with unclean animals, and he makes a beeline for a crazy, demon-possessed man, who lives amongst the tombs - as unclean a character as you could find!”[1]

Jesus, once again is seen stepping out of bounds.  This is yet another example of Jesus intentionally showing his followers that his ministry is for all.  Not only the Jewish community.  As Bob spoke about last week, Jesus is again walking where “No good Jewish person would go.”  Then to make matters worse he doesn’t seek out the head of the guard, the religious leader of that town, not even a provincial judge.  Where does he go??  He heads straight to the mad man.

A man so ostracized by the local community that he is put outside the walls.  A man so feared that they try to chain him, a man so strong that no chain can hold him.  This is a man so different that he runs naked all day and lives in the tombs.

See this is about the lowest of all beings in Jewish culture.  To be near a corpse is unwelcomed. The presence of a dead body is considered a source of ritual impurity. For this reason, a priest may not be in the presence of a corpse. People who have been in the presence of a body, wash their hands before entering a home. This is done to symbolically remove spiritual impurity, not physical uncleanness: it applies regardless of whether you have physically touched the body.

So you see the metaphor here, better yet do you see the truth here???  There is no shame, there is no one so unclean, that they cannot be approached. What we do know about this man is that he is homeless, naked, and not right in the head. We are told that he used to deliberately physically damage himself, and that even when he had been restrained, he had managed to burst free of the restraints!

Some of these symptoms seem familiar to those of us who have worked with persons with either illness or severe disabilities hurting themselves out of frustration, or to distract from other pain. This man was a highly fragmented personality, getting into fits of rage such that no one was able to control them or willing to try.

When Jesus starts to approach this man, in his tantrum, in the Midst of his Illness he can see who Jesus is and falls to his Knees proclaiming it loudly. That Christ is the “Only begotten of the highest God.”  I always find it odd that those who were the most ill…usually described as possessed (though not always sometimes it was those who believed the most), can clearly see who Christ is and proclaim it then they are usually quieted or asked to keep it quiet.

Jesus asks what is your name and the man answers legion.  It is often described that he is called legion for he represents many demons.  I would put forth he is called legion for he represents many oppressions, the many ways humanity mistreats humanity.  He is the homeless, he is the disabled, he is the mentally ill, and he is the unclean. He is called unclean as those with Aids, those who have substance abuse problems have been so named.  He is cast out, out of the town, out of the community, out of sight where none have to deal with him…out of sight out of mind.

As the interaction develops we are told that the many “Legion” ask not to be returned to the abyss but be allowed to dwell in the local pig heard.  So Jesus casts out the unworthiness and into the pigs that then drown themselves.  It’s kind of funny the impurity asks “Cast us over there”. Jesus does just that and the impurity drives the lowest of creatures, in Jewish culture’s perception, into madness so painful that these creatures can’t stand it and drown themselves.

Can you imagine the pain this man felt? He was so ostracized, to be believed to be so unworthy that when these emotions, demons, these bad judgments that he has been labeled with, that has been placed upon him, were cast out, it caused the lowest creature to kill itself because the pain, the shame, and the isolation was so great.

Now the men who tended this flock witnessed all that had happened and they run into town to tell the story and not just the town but all the country side as well.  When the people came to see for themselves they found the man they once knew as insane, as an outcast, perhaps even as a scapegoat who was probably blamed for some or many mishaps in the town.  They find him dressed sitting at Jesus’ feet and fully in his right mind.

So here is the brunt of your anger…here is where you can justify all the reasons you were unjust, uncompassionate, cruel, prejudice... just plain mean.  This man who represents all that and had all the signs to justify it, is now fully clothed in his right mind and probably remembers all you did…or even worse all you did not do for him.

This man now seated at Christ’s feet full of joy, health and gratitude represents, to the town’s people, all they had done wrong.  They have missed the mark.  They had missed the opportunity to be compassionate people…and now when they see him they know it.  This triggers their anger.

Not so much anger for losing a heard of pigs…their food for that is easily replenished over time.  What makes them angry is they are faced with their own wrong doing, their own misjudgments and their own guilt.  But pay attention to this…Jesus said nothing.  Jesus was sitting with a healthy, happy clothed man, a man clothed by Jesus. The guilt, the anger, the shame that the people experience is their own…it is nothing that Jesus said to them.  They know they have done wrong and the presence of the Healthy mad men is accusation enough for them…so much so they ask Jesus to leave.

This is where the story takes an odd turn.  You see most stories of Jesus’ healings never tell us what happened afterwards. They generally end with Jesus saying, “Go in peace” or “your faith has made you well” or some go make the offering that is prescribed.  But in this case he commissions the mad man. Jesus tells him to go home and tell of what God has done for you.  The story says that he does just that he tells of Jesus encounter with him and the compassion of Christ that healed him.

These people have an encounter with Jesus, and the result is that their world has been turned upside down. The man who has been healed is full of joy, but Jesus very deliberately leaves him there, in a town where he will face an uncertain future amongst people who won’t know what to do with him.  They can’t blame him for anything, they can’t cast him out all his maladies are gone.

In this case, as in so many instances in the Gospels, people do not know what to do with Jesus. They are scared by his awesome, life-changing power. They do not want to have their lives turned upside-down. They do not want to stand that close to the fire!  They do not want to face who they have been and what they had done and yet Jesus leaves the biggest reminder of their past and the opportunity to heal.

I say by this man staying behind.  By the madman preaching what Jesus did for him.  He gives permission for others to do the same.  This is a lesson in compassion and an opportunity for the townspeople not just to forgive themselves, but make an effort to make their community better.

To following Jesus is to choose not to follow the easy path in life. It is the road less travelled, and it is a road that is guaranteed to lead us to places where we do not want to go - places on the edge of society, places where strange people live with strange beliefs, and people who are not like us and who suffer from problems that we do not understand.

We are called to be a prophetic voice and this does not mean words.  St Francis “wherever you go, preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.”  This man was living Gospel.  He became the word of Christ through being healed by him.  We are called to do the same.  We are called to action.

There are many forms action can take.  It can be joining in the feeding of the homeless once a month. It can be tending to the Garden and providing care for the earth.  You can bring you old meds here and we will get them to the hospice in Tijuana who are desperate need of everyday medication, aspirin, pain killers, ointments, and HIV medication.

You can get involved with immigration reform and the fight for equality for all people.  One can join in after school programs as a volunteer. Perhaps you know someone who has a hard time getting around, a neighbor or an acquaintance…just stop by, check in and see how they are doing.

I worked with the developmentally disabled population for 15 years and they are always looking for volunteers at the Special Olympics.  As a kid I used to go to the nursing home and I would read mail to a gentleman who had gone blind.  There are programs at the library or childrens hospital where you can do the same.

You see Jesus is calling us to the region of the Garasenes.  He is calling us to a strange place one we would not normally go on our own.  Jesus is asking us to reach out to the most disenfranchised and do what we can.  Often time our response to such a request is fear.

You see this is one of the greatest thing that holds people back from following Jesus, and that so often holds us back from truly giving ourselves to Him, is fear - the same fear that those villagers had: fear of economic loss, fear of change, fear of being taken places where we do not want to go, fear of confronting our own prejudices or concepts of reality.

We must give that fear up. Now I am not saying all fear for some fear and trepidation is good otherwise we end up putting ourselves in harm’s way.  By giving fear up I mean offering it up to God.  Asking that we may be fearless in the opportunity to reach out and care as Jesus has called us too.  To fearlessly seek out the far away unfamiliar place and meet the Madmen and help make whim whole, healthy and clothed.

We are not going to solve all the world’s problems.  Jesus himself said we will always have poor and hungry, the ill and the homeless.  But he also lived, walked and acted upon a simple message…look you can do something.  Yes Jesus was a great teacher but his greatest lessons are in his actions, not his stories, his actions.

Go out from here today and seek out the wrong person and break bread.  Seek out the injured and offer Gods’ loving comfort.  Seek the lonely and walk with them and offer friendship.  Even if it is just for a moment, a fearless moment, you are walking as Jesus did.

And God will say…

I was hungry and you fed me,

I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,

I was homeless and you gave me a room,

I was shivering and you gave me clothes,

I was sick and you stopped to visit,

I was in prison and you came to me.’

I pray for the day that the world can live without fear and only know compassion and love. Amen.

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[1] David Smith, Esus v Legion: a hellish stoush! (A sermon on Luke 8:26-39), http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/jesus-v-legion-a-hellish-stoush-a-sermon-on-luke-826-39-david-smith-sermon-on-discipleship-113267.asp (accessed June 18, 2013).

What is the trinity for us today??

Pastor Carol Cavin Dillion from Christ united Methodist church in Tennessee tells the story of when she was the asked if she could speak to the first-grade Sunday school class. The topic was worship, and she was to meet with the children in the sanctuary so that they could get a close look at the baptismal font, the altar, and the paraments.

So she met the youngsters at the front of the sanctuary. The children’s minister had asked her to wear her robes so that the children could see them and they could talk about it. After they toured the sanctuary and talked about colors and symbols, remember the Methodists have a high church style everything has a purpose and everything has a meaning. She sat down with them and asked if they had any questions. One little girl looked down, pointed at the white stole and said, “What’s that thing?”

She replied, referring to the intricate design upon the stole, “It’s a symbol of the Trinity.” “What’s the Trinity?” the little girl asked. “Uh. . . .” For the next five minutes (which seemed like an eternity) she found herself trying to explain the Trinity to a group of first graders.

 By the time she finished hemming and hawing, they looked so confused! How in the world do you teach a bunch of six-year olds about the most complicated theological concept in the book? The answer might be just to wait until they’re older. A six-year-old is too young for Narnia, much less the Trinity!

Perhaps we should wait till they’re teenagers. Or even adults.  Because we adults can handle such theological complexities, right? We’ve been to school. We’ve studied literature and algebra and biology and philosophy. Heck, some of us even have a Masters and PhD! surely it’s easy for us to understand and explain the Trinity Right?

Okay Go…

A professor in a seminary jokingly once tried to explain it like this: “It makes perfect sense. God is three . . . is one . . . is three. Get it?”

MMMMMMMMMMMM

Okay this concept is hard to wrap our brains around.  And I admit it is not even part of everyone’s theology.   But I grew up with it and so I wanted to explore the concept. It has been explained like the Shamrock.  The Trinity just as the shamrock is one plant with three leaves; God is one God with three faces.  Then there is the water metaphor as H2O can take three forms in ice, liquid, and steam, so God has three forms. The Trinity!

To be honest the Trinity is one of those elements of faith that tends to be taken for granted.  It is a foundation of what many Christians believe about God, yet I would venture to say, that most don’t even try to wrap their minds around it. We believe in God the creator, Christ the redeemer and the Holy Spirit the sustainer and we speak of the three as one and just leave it at that.

Today, the first Sunday after Pentecost, is known as Trinity Sunday. But do we have any idea what we’re talking about? Is the Trinity just an obscure concept that we give lip service to because the church calendar tells us to or the traditions we came from declare it as absolute doctrine? Does it have anything to do with our daily living? Think about it—what does the Trinity mean to you?

In our readings this morning and throughout our worship this morning we have heard references to God and how God self is revealed to us.  In the opening of Proverb we hear speech of wisdom and it is spoken of in the feminine which is a common concept of the spirit.  Then later it proclaims how “I” was given birth before the first acts of creation this is often heard of and referred to as Jesus. In John 16 Jesus expresses unity with God and the Holy Spirit, although he speaks of three unique persons doing three different jobs: Abba God shares the Son; God the Son stands among the disciples, teaching of the spirit; God the spirit helps interpret and teach the truth that comes from Abba God and the Son.

We often speak of God as the creator and God loves creation and wants us to love creation as well. One way that God teaches us how to love creation and one another is in the person of Jesus Christ. As Matthew and the other gospel writers tell us, Jesus walked alongside us on this earth to show us the face of God. And in Jesus’ death and resurrection, God becomes our Redeemer. Now, we spend a lot of time in the church talking about Jesus. We learn about Jesus’ teaching, his example, his healing, and his love. The gospel stories give us something tangible to hold onto. Jesus gives us all sorts of guidance on how to live our lives. It’s not hard to find ways that Jesus is relevant to our lives.

The concept of A Trinitarian or triune god speaks of god in relationship. Abba, Son and Spirit have always existed in relationship, loving relationship, with each other.  Lady wisdom declares I was there in that moment of creation alongside the Son and Abba.  I was having fun, stirring the elements, sparking life and rejoicing in the dance that was creation.  In the opening verse of the song  The Lord of the Dance it states:

“I danced in the morning when the world was young
I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun
I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth

  That energy that drives the dance…that makes us want to dance..that is spirit and the dancer is Jesus and God the music of the universe.

For many of us, that Spirit is very relevant to our daily living. We recognize the Spirit’s activity all around us: in those little nudges to call someone or pray for someone, in the peace that surrounds us before we undergo surgery, in the inspiration that comes when we’re teaching or praying, in the board meeting where truth is spoken and consensus is reached. Many of us know the Spirit as our sustainer, our inspiration, our daily guide and yes the mischief maker.

We see daily evidence of God our Creator. We strive to follow the concrete example of Jesus the Christ. We look for signs of the Holy Spirit around us. Individually, the three persons of the Trinity make sense to us. But what does it mean for the three to be one and the one to be three? Abba God, Son, and Holy Spirit. Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. One in three in one. Ice and liquid and steam. Three leaves of a shamrock. What power can this mysterious concept have for us?

Whether you relate most to God the Creator, Jesus the Redeemer, or the Holy Spirit

 Sustainer, the mystery of the Trinity has something to teach us. There is something beautiful and powerful about a God in three persons. There is something God can reveal to us when we ponder the mystery of the Trinity.

The triune God of our faith is a mystery, revealed to us only partially and gradually.  God goes way beyond our human capability of comprehension and understanding and our language.  Yet we are offered an opportunity to reach out, touch, and try to understand how these three, these three in one touch and bless our lives.  Heck, it wasn’t until long after the books of the creation of all, the passing on of the stories of God active in our world...Long after someone decided to write down the stories then collect them into a book, did we even conceive of this nature of God.

In the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, there is an icon of the Holy Trinity painted by Andrei Rublev sometime around 1400 C.E. For those of you who are unfamiliar with icons, they are pictures that are used in prayer. Believers are to gaze at them prayerfully until they become like a window into the heart of God. God can reveal Godself to us as we are praying through the image of an icon.

Jeff could you show the image again.

This icon takes as its subject the mysterious story where Abraham receives three visitors as he camps by the oak of Mamre. He serves them a meal. As the conversation progresses he seems to be talking straight to God, as if these 'angels' were in some way a metaphor for the three persons of the Trinity. In Rublev's representation of the scene, the three gold-winged figures are seated around a white table on which a golden, chalice-like bowl contains a roasted lamb. In the background of the picture, a house can be seen at the top left and a tree in the center. Less distinctly, a rocky hill lies in the upper right corner. The composition is a great circle around the table, focusing the attention on the chalice-bowl at the center, which reminds the viewer inescapably of an altar at Communion.

On one level this picture shows three angels seated under Abraham's tree, but on another it is a visual expression of what the Trinity means, what is the nature of God, and how we approach God. Reading the picture from left to right, we see Abba creator, Son the redeemer, Holy Spirit the Sustainer.

Rublev gives each person of the Trinity different clothing. On the right, the Holy Spirit has a garment of the clear blue of the sky, wrapped over with a robe of a fragile green. So the Spirit of creation moves in sky and water, breathes in heaven and earth. All living things owe their freshness to her touch.

The Son has the deepest colors; a thick heavy garment of the reddish-brown of earth and a cloak of the blue of heaven. In his person he unites heaven and earth, the two natures are present in him, and over his right shoulder (the Government shall be upon his shoulder) there is a band of gold shot through the earthly garment, as his divinity suffuses and transfigures his earthly being.

The Creator seems to wear all the colors in a kind of fabric that changes with the light, that seems transparent, that cannot be described or confined in words. And this is how it should be. No one has seen Abba, but the vision of Abba fills the universe.

The Creator looks forward, raising a hand in blessing to the Son. this gesture expresses a movement towards the Son. The hand of the Son points on, around the circle, to the Spirit. In this simple array we see the movement of life towards us; we are the fourth being at this table, the life flows clockwise around the circle. And we complete the circle The Spirit touches us, even though we do not know who it is that is touching us. The spirit leads us and moves us in ways we are unaware until we look back.  In moments of stillness and clarity can we see where the spirit, the hand of God has touched and moved us.

It is interesting to note that each of these great winged creatures have staffs for a journey.  They each have a staff because we are on a journey and instead of flying on ahead, avoiding all trials and trouble they walk with us, beside us on our individual journeys in this life here and now.[1]

In many traditions this concept of the trinity is a doctrine; a belief written in stone that must be believed, three separate beings and yet one God.  I perceive them more as aspects of God.  Different parts of one personality or being.  The three are in communion with each other as we are one community and yet each one of us is a unique expression of this community.  The Trinity is a community of Love.

As we think about the community of love that has been within God since the beginning of time, the trinity. Let us understand that there is an invitation for us to be part of that community. Just as Andrei’s icon shows us a place at the table so we can see it for real,  as the invitation stands open to all at this table, God’s table.  As we see real, concrete examples of how God has created us, redeemed us, and sustained us, let us respond with love and gratitude. Let us add our love to the Trinity’s communion of love.

Let us allow God be revealed in our community. The concept of the Trinity teaches us that no one ever stands alone. As soon as we accept God’s love and reflect that love back out to the world, we are members of a community. We cannot be a community without being connected to one another. If we are to embrace the triune aspects of God the creator, Christ the redeemer, and the Holy Spirit the sustainer then we are called to embrace each other as community and reach out beyond these walls to those who challenge us, need us, who are hungry for a message of love. The love we find in the Trinity,  in the communion, we find with one another, is not just for our own sakes. It’s for the sake of the world. It’s meant to be shared.[2]

The world needs love. The world needs grace. The world needs community. May the Triune God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer—help us to share the message of the Trinity with all creation.  Carol Cavin Dillion[3]

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[1] sacred heart pullman, Explanation of Andrei Rublev's Icon of the trinity, http://www.sacredheartpullman.org/Icon%20explanation.htm (accessed May 14, 2013).

[2] The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2013 (Nashville: Abingdon press, 2012).

[3] David N. Mosser, Abingdon Preaching Annual 2008 (nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007).

Look Ma Nekked!

Okay I admit that this is a funny title for a sermon but the opening of this passage is…well… funny!  The NIB commentary points out that for one this passage marks a very quick scene change we are instantaneously transported from Jerusalem to Galilee.  What is more peculiar is that the book actually ends before this passage.  The passage before this sounds like the first book ended.  Many believe that this is a different writer expressing another of many accepted traditions.

This relates the story of the apostles as if the seven in the boat were not in the upper room or they may not have understood the message in the upper room or were still too afraid to act it out.  That story last week is of the disciples commissioning “As the creator has sent me so I send you.”

So we have the apostles out in boat fishing and they are catching nothing.  It is a long hot night and the sun is just starting to rise...  Peter is lying back in the boat naked… Now it doesn't take much to get naked in those day s slip of a rope, slide of a robe, and allow the under wrapping to go loose and well there you are...Yet the writer finds it important to express that Peter, no mention of anyone else, is naked.

So here we are with several of the disciples, they have tried to do what they do best the best way they know how and yet they have caught nothing.  A stranger on the shore asks how goes it..is anything biting?  The disciples reply; “nothing all night can you believe it not even a weed has floated into our nets.”

Now here is something for me…maybe this is just for me…I don’t know  but have you ever been so frustrated by something that  you keep doing it over and over again and it doesn't work.  Yet you just try it again the same way getting more frustrated. 

So here we are with the fisher men who have been fishing all night and this guy on the shore says try fishing from the other side of the boat… try fishing a different way.  Can you imagine the reaction: “a different way...?  You mean on this side of the boat here?  Well what the heck, if it’s not gonna work right here… then we are sure it will work over here …. Thump! The nets fill up and with that the disciple who Jesus loved says to Peter “it is the Lord “and with that Peter dresses himself Jumps into the water and swims to the shore.

As I was praying over this and wondering about this passage I could not help but think of the young man in marks gospel who is following Christ is caught by the guards and flees naked.  This is often thought of as a metaphor, that he shed his mortal coil, the young man was killed.

So as I look at this sequence I see Peter disrobed.  He has lost his mortal self... he is lost and doesn't know what to do after all for three years he has led an exciting, miracle filled, wine filled, travel filled, and lesson filled life and now he is back to the boat.  So he hears it is the lord and his heart jumps, he clothes himself makes himself anew,  in the way he longed for…he jumps into the water instead of rowing ashore,  The water is almost a self baptism cleansing himself , the water is a sign of life…rebirth...forgiveness through the most common…, life giving thing…water.

Once on the shore they find a fire burning with fish and bread and yet Jesus asks Peter to retrieve the fish from the net and they number 153.  People have tried to analyze the number of fish and their significance the common belief is the number reflects the expansion of the church.  Now it is said in the scripture that none dared to ask who he was for they knew it was Jesus…Just a thought, this sounds as if he was not recognizable to them but in his actions. 

Isn’t this the only way we see Christ today…in others.  Is this trying to tell us to look for Christ in the welcoming, in the attempt to help us see another way, in the sharing of abundance and in the sharing in the lack of abundance?  In the hospitality of a stranger?

Then Jesus asks them to breakfast sharing with them fish and bread  this may be an expression of early communal meals that would later evolve to be the Eucharist as we know it today.  Before the eucharis tic meal became symbolic and ritualized it was often a gathering together to offer prayer and thanks giving and share a meal as a community.  That meal would reflect the local culture and what was available so for a early Christian church near the shores of the sea of Tiberius fish would have been a common food.

After the meal is finished Jesus looks at Peter and asks him three questions and commissions him 3 times.  People often get caught up in the words used here.  You see in Greek there are three words for Love each having its own nuances Eros is generally known as physical love, Phileo is brotherly love, and Agape is generally known as divine love. 

Christ asks Peter to have a divine love for me and Peter says I have a Brotherly love for you to which Christ says feed my Lambs…He asks again do you have agape (divine love for me) and again Peter answers Lord I have a brotherly love for you (Phileo) Christ  then asks Peter tend my sheep.  Here the actual Greek word is poimaine which actual translates to herd or lead to pasture.  Finally Christ asks a third time and in the language it is written he asks Peter do you have brotherly love for me.

 It sounds like, to me, Christ is giving up a little here.  Peter is not hearing what Christ is asking or …more likely..he is too human to earthbound to assume to have a divine love or be capable of it so Christ asks him a third time in Peters own words do you have a brotherly love for me?  Now Peter gets a bit testy for this is what he has been saying all along “Lord you know everything you know that I love you.”  Christ says then tend my sheep.

There is a direct parallel here to Peter’s denial.  As Peter denied Christ three times, here, Christ allows him to undo what he has done.  Christ has now given Peter the tool in which he can forgive himself. All he has to do is answer a simple question.

Answer a Simple question, the most important question of his life, Peter do you Love me? Such a simple question, honestly! Yet, it resounds so deeply in Peter, after all, Peter has doubted Christ, he has tested his patience, in the hour of arrest he pulled a sword and attacked a roman guard to defend Christ, a defense mounted in fear and anger, and then a few hours later, denied ever knowing the man….Peter do you love me?

Pastor Christine Erb-Kanzleiter a pastor at peace Church UMC in Munich Poses these questions

“What do you answer after a shared breakfast when somebody asks you: Do you love me? Is there any freedom left to say No? Does the person who is expected to answer have a choice? And what is even more difficult: how do you respond to the question “do you love me more than these?”, when “all these” are around you? … Listening curiously …?

Would we do what Jesus did: ask one of our weakest friends the same question three times in a row? Do you love me? On the other hand: don’t we sometimes tend to take love between two persons too much for granted? Thinking that once love is there, it will never change or disappear? Don’t we sometimes take love for granted, without realizing that it was lost long ago in the exhausting struggles of everyday?

Do you love me? After all we have gone through, After all the experiences of pain and disappointment? Do you love me? …even though the other day you let me down…even though your words have hurt me so much? Can I be certain of your love towards me?

Should I reassure myself every now and again? Should I ask you more often: do you love me?

Of all the questions to ask why this one, why now?  he could have asked anyone one this question but he choose to ask Peter.  Why?  Well have you ever done something that you regret so much that even after apologizing or making amends it still weighs on your heart, Weighs on your heart to a point of distraction.  No matter what you do,  no matter how busy you keep yourself it keeps coming back at you.”[1]

Jesus doesn't ask Peter what is on his mind, doesn't scold Peter.  He invites Peter into a divine love, agape.  Peter knowing and bearing his own guilt and shame cannot reply with divine love only brotherly love…Yet for Christ Love is Love and this is enough then snap out of this and look at the movement growing around you and feed my lambs.  Again Jesus offers a divine relationship in a the holiest of Love Peter do you love me…Peter searches his deepest being and his unworthiness that he holds will not allow him to go that far so again he replies I love you in a brotherly way an Earthly way. Jesus replies lovingly, then tend and care for my sheep.

We all know how shocked you can be to discover your true self: how cowardly, how mean, how unfaithful you can be… We all know the dark sides of human life. …how far away light seems to be sometimes. This is where Peter is and this invitation into loves seems to be almost a cruel taunt and yet Jesus asks one more time hearing Peter‘s pain and changes his language.  Jesus meets Peter in his pain and offers the love that Peter has been expressing all along; do you love me in a brotherly, earthly, human way.

The story says Peter felt hurt because Jesus had asked him a third time but I see it as Peter had a lot of hurt, pain and guilt that he had been holding down and was finally able to let the cork out of the bottle and just released all those emotions. His heart now open can say Yes you know all and you know I love you. 

This gentle invitation into love has broken Peters failings…has broken His self loathing and has set Peter free: not only to remember the coal fire in the night of his betrayal, his own walking on the water and sinking, his over-hasty confessions of faith and his broken promises, but also his strengths and abilities. Peter can now see not only the Peter who ran away to his shame, but also the friend of Jesus who rediscovers his love.

Peter learns to accept, appreciate and love himself with all the bright and the dark parts of his story! And loving himself again, he can look away from his own story of limitations and questions and become free for others: Tending and caring … is what he is able to do now!…

This is a new beginning in Christ.  This is a resurrected Peter if you will. And this is the invitation to us today Jesus is not looking for an action or a job, He is not asking you to be a preacher or a scholar he is asking for one simple thing.  Your love  if you can do that if you can just hold into to a simple human Love for Christ you get so much more in return.

See this call into love of love of Christ allowed Peter to find that love of self and confidence to take on what would be his life ministry. He was able to love with all the love that is humanly possible and more for now his love is empowered by his love for Christ with this he was able to feed people with the story of Christ, to care for communities that have chosen to mirror Christ’s compassion in the world. 

Do you Love me?

This question is being asked of us here today...actually every day. We are called to Love God with our whole heart, we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves, and we are called to not only care for each other but for the earth herself.  So how do you answer?

You know some traditions say all we have to do is invite Jesus into our hearts and we are saved.  But there is more to it than that for when we invite Jesus and over God our love we can’t just sit and bask in the glow of Jesus’ love.  The Love stirs us into action and care. You might say Jesus love comes with conditions.

It gives you the condition of caring, it gives you the condition to be the eyes and the ears of Christ.  As the poem by St. Teresa of Avila says;

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks Compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good, Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

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So Jesus is saying if you love me…if you truly love me then you must love all I care about…the poor, the children, the hungry, the homeless, the cancer patient, the disabled, the marginalized, the homebound, the migrant farmer, the itinerant worker, the soldier, the enemy, any where there is injustice and suffering Jesus’ love calls us towards it.  As Christians we are called to face it the injustice, lift it up and reach out.

We are only human and one can only do what one can do or what one feels called to do I am not sure I want a church full of Mother Theresa’s but one or two may be nice.  We do what we can if it is dropping of clothes to take to the mission or just sending a note to a sick friend.  You do what you can that is all God is asking.

I know that in that doing we will come up short.  We will fail.  We will hold things in our hearts against ourselves in spit of knowing that we are free and forgiven and able to live through love.  It is okay for Jesus’ Love is Agape.  It is a divine love that conquers all, renews all and offers a million do overs.

A final quote from Pastor Christine Erb-Kanzleiter

It may seem strange to be called or commanded to love…

And sometimes we may feel that love is not something that happens on demand.

You can’t turn it on like a tap.

But it clearly is our calling: to love!

And in recognizing the call, and in seeking to respond to it, we may be careful to

find out what Christian love really is.

Is great love perhaps quieter than we sometimes imagine? Is love sometimes

neither in the storm nor in the earthquake, but in the still small voice?

Can we sometimes be caught in God’s outpouring love without even noticing or

reflecting it?

Jesus responds to Peter’s confession of love by giving him a task, a responsibility:

Feed my sheep. Love my people. Care for them.[2]

Christ has no body now on earth but yours go and be that body, the best way you know how. Amen

[1] Pastor Christine Erb-Kanzleiter, Do oyu love me, http://www.peacechurch.de/Do_you_love_me_John_21v15ff.pdf (accessed April 9, 2013).

[2] Ibid.