has begun, and people are up at the lake, and shorts are replacing sweaters. But you see, Advent has its opportunity to think about the incarnation.

Transcription

1 Sermon for Trinity Sunday John 16:12-15 Micah at Church by Josh Nelson George Buttrick was a famous preacher back in the old 20 th Century I read about his encounter with a fellow traveler on an airplane trip. He slipped out his yellow notepad from his brief case in order to jot down some things he was thinking about ideas, some illustrations, a preaching point. His fellow passenger in the seat next to him, a stranger, watched what he was doing, and observed some of the things he was writing. Excuse me, the man said, I don t mean to bother you. But I m just curious as to what you might be writing? Certainly, said Buttrick. I am a Presbyterian minister and I am working on some thoughts for this Sunday s sermon. Oh, religion, the man observed. I don t like to get all caught up in the ins and outs of religion. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you! That s the Golden rule and that s plenty enough religion for me! And what, asked Buttrick, do you do, sir. What is your line of work? I am a university professor, he said, I am an astronomer. I see, said Buttrick with a bit of a mischievous twinkle in his eye. Astronomy: I don t like to get all caught up in the ins and outs of astronomy. Twinkle twinkle little star: that s enough astronomy for me. So here we are on a holiday weekend, and again, as very often at the outset of summer, the lectionary cycle leads us to celebrating Holy Trinity Sunday. So many of us are ready for picnics and sandals, hammocks and fun in the sun yet our worship pattern today is to lift up the amazing mystery of the Trinity we are being dared to think about the complexities of God. To realize that this faith we confess is not simply a single rule, or a saying on a bumper sticker, but it has nuances and depth and mystery behind it all. I don t know, it would almost be better if Trinity Sunday were assigned to the middle of February, when we are all hunkered down, and in the midst of school, and work, serious with our shoveling of driveways, and cold dark nights. That is the time when you want to contemplate the mysteries of the divine! Not as school is letting out, and golfing

2 has begun, and people are up at the lake, and shorts are replacing sweaters. But you see, Advent has its opportunity to think about the incarnation. Lent has Christology studying the meaning of the cross. Easter has its resurrection and eternal life messages. Then here at the outset of the lengthy Pentecost church season, we hold Trinity Sunday to help ourselves think grander and deeper thoughts about our faith. So let me start, as your preacher this morning, to tell you this is our official Christian day to admit we don t know everything. You don t see many churches put this on their signage or make a banner and hang it over the entrance to the church saying: Welcome to Family of Christ where we don t know much at all! But c mon, that s the truth. We are the kinds of Christians that very respectfully admit we don t know everything in fact, the little we do know gives us plenty enough to work on. We don t understand the greater mysteries, and we admit it, and even like it, truth be told. We reside in part in mystery. Now, if you want the group of believers who know every last answer, every last thought in the mind of God, know exactly what to do and when to do it and reside comfortably in a universe where everything is black and white to them so that they ve got things completely listed out into what to do, what not say, and what you better not do and say you can find that kind of group. It s called a cult. And they ll have a leader telling you what you re supposed to think at all times, and what will happen to you if you dare disagree. Yes, that s a cult and we go to great lengths to tell our Confirmation students to beware of those who make the claim that they have it all figured out. We in the Christian Church on Trinity Sunday, give a collective holy shrug saying we don t know everything. Now listen, that won t keep us from trying to poke around into the strange and mystical, the wondrous and miraculous. We speak of God today, but do so with a true degree of humility admitting that we don t have every single thing worked out we don t have every mysterious depth of existence completely plumbed! Trinity Sunday is our big gigantic collective Christian shrug that says: Eh? Who knows?

3 Well, ok, I m exaggerating a little bit. It is not as if we don t have a few solid ideas about God, and about Jesus, and about the work of the Spirit. It s not as if we don t have anything at all to say about moral behavior: we do, and we point to the Ten Commandments, and to the Golden Rule, and the Sermon on the Mount. We point to the Bible itself, and to church teachings yes we have a lot to say on the very important subject of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But we don t have a 100% completed fully understood absolutely certain no questions left -- kind of faith. We leave room for mystery. Luther himself taught that there is a revealed God that face or understanding of God that we glean from the Bible, from our Savior Jesus, from the revelation of the Spirit, from the created world around us. We glean a comprehension of God and his will and way. But, we also leave plenty of room for the hidden God, as Luther coined it. That part of God that we don t fully understand, that we can t fully comprehend. We are admitting the obvious, that we are finite creatures, and cannot capture the incomprehensible deity. Our minds just don t work on that level. Are you able with me to celebrate such unfathomable mystery, and shrug, and say, Yeah I don t always know! But then next, we also can say, Yet I m thoroughly enjoying, in this life, trying to figure things out! Trying to dive into the mystery to think about our observable God the revealed face of God. We celebrate his ways, his working among us, the vision given to us in our lives and in our church. God s ways and God s vision: how do we ever know any of that? How do we discern? I loved that moment in the movie National Treasure where Nicholas Cage has stolen the original Declaration of Independence and he is now carefully studying the back side of the document because there listed is a secret map. But it can t be read by the naked eye. Special spectacles have been found that have three separate lenses on some hinges. (Now there s a Trinitarian reference for you! And also, I seem to recall that when they re using these glasses, they re sitting in the pews of a church whose name is Trinity Episcopal Church in New York. So that s kind of cool!) Anyway, three lenses: each color needs to be used to see a different clue on the map : there s a red lens, then you drop a green lens on top of that and a different element of the map comes into view. Then

4 you drop a yellow lens on top of the other two, and there is the answer. Talking about God as the Trinity the tri:unity is like that. We need to study different aspects of our God to come to a more full understanding of his work and ways. We collect ourselves with people of faith, we worship regularly, we pray, we seek out God, we study the word. All these different lenses then help complete our picture of how God works among us. We talk of God the Father Almighty, which is a wonderful juxtaposition a God as close to us as a family relationship, like a loving father. Yes the guy who mows the lawn, and cleans out the garage. Or takes the little one for a piggy back ride. Up close and personal is the name Father, and yet it is paired with Almighty which is out there and amazing and inexplicable, unsolved! Father is like us, but Almighty is not. This is the force that created the cosmos in all its infinite complexity. And still gives you a laughing piggy back ride! By the way, it is helpful and instructional for us Christians to sometimes think also of God as loving mother, the one who birthed creation, who continues to nurture it along with guidance, care, and discipline and love. Or we talk of Jesus Christ conceived by the Holy Spirit but born of the virgin Mary part divine and part human. Which is why we pay such close attention to the things he said and did. He is the pioneer and perfector of our faith. So we follow this man who is also God. Two natures at once and we shrug and say, yes I know my faith is mystifying, but I like it like that. It s complicated, but so is this grand universe! We talk thirdly of the Spirit, the breath and energy of God who gets us going, reminds us, teaches us, advocates for us, sighs too deep for words for us. Describe the Spirit someone might say, and we again shrug and say we can t. But we can describe what the Spirit does among us. A pastor friend of mine was talking about his new mission start down in the south part of the metro. This was a few years back in a meeting, but he shared that at the launch, at their very first worship experience, there was a precocious little boy of 2 named Micah who wasn t sitting still very well. Now they happened to be using as a theme in that worship a well-known passage from the Old Testament: what does the Lord require of you but to act justly, love

5 mercy, and walk humbly with your God. That s from the prophet Micah the 6 th chapter. This pastor was preaching away on the text, hoping to make a good impression on this first ever Sunday. The people in attendance were showing up and deciding whether this would be a church they could help start, and whether this was a pastor they could listen to. He s preaching, he s making points, he s trying to connect. But that little two year old has come out into the aisle and is talking back out loud to the Pastor. Very distracting, but he tries ignoring it; keeps on going. The kid keeps talking, gesturing back at the Pastor even. Micah s father tries to corral him without drawing too much attention away from the preacher. But the boy eludes his grasp running further down the aisle up toward the front, and keeps yelling back to the pastor. Who finally stops, a bit exasperated over all these interruptions. The father scoops up little Micah and starts to take him out of the room until Micah says in a clear voice, loud enough for everyone to hear: Don t take me away, Daddy. He s talking about me! No, he was talking about the prophet Micah, but the boy kept hearing his name and was believing that the message at church, the sermon, the Gospel good news of Jesus Christ was being spoken directly to him, for him. That, you see, is the work of the Spirit. To remind and teach you all that Jesus wants you to understand. All that God would want to place within your own heart. I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear, said Jesus in our text today. And that s because our minds cannot grasp every mystery that is before us. But the Spirit helps us in our weakness. And we learn, and grow, and stretch, and keep being students who have a heart for knowing the ways of God. He will guide you into all truth, said Jesus. So happy and holy Trinity Sunday to you, as we join with believers worldwide to contemplate the generous mercies of our incomprehensible God. As we give our holy shrug, not knowing everything. But what we do know, we sit up and listen for our names being called! As if God were talking right to you, and for you. Calling you to take notice. To pay attention!