Serve With Joy!

This article appeared in the September 2014 edition of the Wheatland Parish newsletter.

As some of you know, one of the things I enjoy most about summer is riding my bicycle around town.  I did that every day that I had time to do it this summer.  It’s good exercise, but there’s more to it than that.  It’s the one exercise that I actually enjoy doing.  There’s a feeling of freedom in riding a bicycle.  It makes me feel energized.  It makes me feel like I’m a kid again, riding my bike without a care in the world.  It’s been a really fun thing.

But, of course, summer is coming to an end.  There will still be some days when I can ride my bicycle, but it won’t be long until it’ll be too cold to do so.  Pretty soon, it’ll be time to put the bicycle away for the winter.  I’ll have to do my exercising indoors.

I don’t like to exercise indoors.  I know I still need the exercise, I know it’s a good thing for me to do, but I don’t want to do it.  It’s not fun.  It’s boring.  I have to force myself to do it.  In fact, the only way I can make myself exercise indoors at all is to record baseball games over the summer and watch them while I’m exercising in the winter.  I still don’t like the exercising part, but I can make myself do it because I give myself the treat of watching baseball while I do it.  So, while the actual exercise may sometimes seem like drudgery, I can still find some joy in the process.  I can make the experience positive for myself.

It strikes me that what God asks us to do is kind of like that sometimes.  Some of the things God asks us to do are things we enjoy doing.  Yes, they’re good things for us to do, but there’s more to it than that.  We like doing them.  They make us feel good.  They make us feel energized.  They’re really fun things for us.

But sometimes, God asks us to do some things we don’t like so much.  We know we need to do them, we know they’re good things for us to do, but they’re not fun.  We don’t enjoy them.  We have to force ourselves to do them.

And yet, if we try hard enough, if we can be creative enough, we can find a way to make ourselves do those things and not have them be unpleasant.  We can find a way to get something positive out of them.  We still may not want to do the thing itself, but sometimes we can find some joy in the process.  We can make the experience positive for ourselves.

Sometimes that joy, that positive aspect to the experience can come simply from the appreciation of the person or persons we’ve done something for.  Sometimes it comes from having learned something or accomplished something we did not think we could accomplish.  Sometimes, that positive aspect simply comes from knowing we’ve done what God wanted us to do.

If God is asking you do something you enjoy, that’s great.  But if God is asking you to do something you don’t particularly enjoy, be creative about it.  Try to find a way to enjoy it.  Try to find a way to get something positive out of it.  God does not ask us to do things to make us miserable.  God asks us to do things because they need to be done and we are the people who can do them.  And God wants us to feel joy in doing them, even if they’re things we wouldn’t have chosen to do on our own.  So let’s do them, and let’s find a way to enjoy them.  

            Remember, God does not want our grudging service.  God wants our loving service.  When we serve God out of love, we can always find things to enjoy.

The Giver of Life

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, September 28, 2014.  The Bible verses used are Acts 2:1-21.

            We’re in the middle of a sermon series called “Theology 101”, where we’re trying to learn more about God, because after all, that’s all theology is, trying to learn more about God.  So far, we took at general look at the trinity, then we looked at God the Father, then we looked at God the Son.  So, as you’d expect, today we’re going to look at God the Holy Spirit.

            We said last week that God the Son, Jesus Christ, is the member of the trinity we feel like we know the best.  God the Holy Spirit is probably the member of the trinity we know the least.  God the Holy Spirit is kind of the forgotten person of the trinity.  We know the Holy Spirit is there, and we believe in the Holy Spirit as part of the trinity, but we don’t really understand who the Holy Spirit is or what the Holy Spirit does or how the Holy Spirit does it, so we really don’t talk about the Holy Spirit a whole lot.

            In the back of our hymnal, there are some creeds, some statements of faith that all Christians pretty much agree on.  Two of the most famous creeds are the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed.

            If you look at those creeds, you see statements of our beliefs about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  They talk a little bit about God the Father, talking about how God the Father is the maker of heaven and earth.  They talk quite a bit about God the Son, Jesus Christ, as we might expect because again, he is the member of the trinity we feel like we know best.

            And then you come to God the Holy Spirit.  Know what the Apostles Creed says about the Holy Spirit?  It says “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”  That’s it.  Nothing about who the Holy Spirit is.  Nothing about what the Holy Spirit does.  Just “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”  The Nicene Creed is a little better, but not much.  It says, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.”  That tells us where the Holy Spirit comes from, that the Holy Spirt is to be worshiped, that the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophets, but still it does not tell us who the Holy Spirit is or what the Holy Spirit was.

            Except for one thing.  The Holy Spirit is called “the giver of life”.  What’s that mean?

            I think it means a few things.  Maybe you can think of more, but here are some of the things it means to me.

            For one thing, it is through the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ came to earth.  In both Matthew and in Luke, when Mary finds out that she is going to have a child, we’re told that the child is from the Holy Spirit.  We don’t know exactly how that worked and I’m not going to guess at it.  But somehow, the Holy Spirit was involved in Mary giving birth to Jesus Christ.

So that’s one way the Holy Spirit is the giver of life:  the Holy Spirit helped give earthly life to Jesus Christ.  But of course, there’s more to it than that.  Luke says that at Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove.  Luke later tells us that the Holy Spirit was with Jesus and helped him resist Satan when he spent forty days fasting in the wilderness.  There are other times that were told the Holy Spirit was with Jesus, too.  So not only was the Holy Spirit involved in Jesus’ earthly birth, the Holy Spirit was involved in all of Jesus’ life.

And the Holy Spirit is involved in our lives, too.  That’s another way the Holy Spirit is the giver of life.  The passage we read in Acts today talked about how the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and led them to testify about Jesus.  There are lots of other passages in Acts that talk about the Holy Spirit coming upon people or into people to help them, to guide them, to encourage them.  The Holy Spirit helped people in all sorts of ways.

And that’s not something that just happened a lot of years ago.  It happens to us, just like it happened to the disciples.  Paul tells us that our bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit.  He says, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

“Honor God with your bodies.”  That does not just mean honoring God with physical things.  Our minds and our hearts are part of our bodies, too.  Every part of our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.  Our brains, our hearts, our eyes, our ears, our mouths, our arms, our hands, our legs, our feet, even our big toe.  The Holy Spirit is a part of all of it.  The Holy Spirit is involved in every part of our bodies and every part of our lives.

Remember, last week we said that Jesus told us that following him is not just supposed to be our top priority,  It’s supposed to be our only priority.  The Holy Spirit, by being in every part of our bodies and every part of our lives, helps us do that.  The Holy Spirit helps us follow Jesus with every part of our bodies and every part of our lives.  We could never do it by ourselves.  We’re not good enough.  We’re not strong enough.  But when we let the Holy Spirit guide us and direct us, when we listen to the Holy Spirit and do what the Holy Spirit tells us what to do, we can.  We can follow Jesus the way we’re supposed to.  Not because of how good or how great we are, but because of how good and how great God the Holy Spirit is.  The Holy Spirit is the giver of life because the Holy Spirit gives meaning and purpose to our lives and helps us follow God in our lives the way we’re supposed to.

And of course, there’s another way in which the Holy Spirit is the giver of life.  Remember another thing we said last week:  it’s through Jesus’ life and death that we get eternal life.  We are sinners.  God’s sense of justice demands that there be a punishment for our sins.  But because of God’s love and mercy, God does not punish us for our sins.  Instead, God himself took the punishment for our sins.  God, in the form of Jesus, God the Son, took the punishment, the pain, the death, that we should get.  That means we can have forgiveness and eternal life.

So that’s another way the Holy Spirit is the giver of life.  It may be the most important way of all.  God the Holy Spirit, acting through the earthly life of God the Son and acting through our lives, gives us eternal life.

And so, just as we said at the start of this sermon series, we see the members of the trinity working together, in unity and harmony.  God the Father created life through God the Son and with God the Holy Spirit.  God the Father sent God the Son to earth to take the punishment for our sins.  God the Holy Spirit was with God the Son as he did that.  God the Father and God the Son sent God the Holy Spirit to come into our lives and guide us and direct us and lead us so that we can follow God the Son the way he told us to.  God in three persons, but acting as one God, in perfect unity and harmony, with the goal of saving us from the consequences of our sins and giving us eternal life.

The Holy Spirit helped Jesus, God the Son, do all the things he was sent to earth to do.  Some of those things he had to do and had to face were hard things.  I suspect there were times when he wished he did not have to face them or do them.  Those temptations he felt in the desert were real, and resisting them was not easy.  But he was able to do it because God the Holy Spirit was with him, to guide him, to help him resist temptation, to face the things he had to face and do the things he was supposed to do.

Sometimes we have to do hard things and face hard things, too.  Sometimes we wish we did not have to face them or do them.  But we can do it.  We can do it because God the Holy Spirit is with us.  God the Holy Spirit will guide us.  God the Holy Spirit will help us face the things we have to face and do the things we’re supposed to do, too.

Let’s not allow God the Holy Spirit to be the forgotten person of the trinity.  When we do that, we’re hurting ourselves.  God the Holy Spirit was sent to earth as a gift, for our good.  God the Holy Spirit is here to help us.  God the Holy Spirit is the giver of life.  The giver of meaning to life on earth, and the giver of salvation and eternal life in heaven.

Faith and Trust

The following is adapted from the September, 2014 issue of the Wheatland Parish newsletter.

Summer is over.  The kids are back in school.  We’ve started church school, too.  In Gettysburg, church school is called “Faith Builders” and is Wednesdays after school.  It began on September 3.  In Onida, church school is on Sundays during church and began on September 7.

That’s not all that started in September.  Confirmation class started September 3.  So did senior high youth group in Gettysburg and CCYG in Onida.  The Gettysburg UMW and Manor Circle began after taking the summer off.  The church councils resume meeting on a regular basis.  The Gettysburg church choir will started practicing on Wednesdays and will soon be singing on Sunday mornings again.

In one way, it’s always sad to see summer come to an end.  In another way, though, it’s kind of fun to see fall come and a new church year start.  Anything new contains all kinds of possibilities, and that’s true of all our church activities.  It’s especially true this year, because we’ve had a prayer emphasis for the last few months on the unchurched children of our parish.  Will that prayer emphasis show itself in more kids in our church schools and youth groups?

Well, maybe, maybe not.  After all, we have not been praying for God to give us big church schools and youth groups.  We’ve been praying for God to help us reach the unchurched children of our parish.  If the way God chooses to answer our prayers is through our church schools and youth groups, that would be great.  I’d like that.  But if God chooses to answer our prayers in some other way, that’s great, too.  

We have not been selfishly praying for a big church school or a big youth group.  We’ve been praying for God to help us reach the unchurched children of our parish.  Any way God chooses to answer that prayer will be fine.  If we reach those children, and they end up going to another Christian church, that will be fine.  If we reach those children, but their faith does not show itself in our time but in God’s time, that will be fine, too.  But we know that if we continue to pray, and if we continue to open ourselves to God’s leading and God’s guidance, God will answer our prayers in some way.  And we trust that whatever way God chooses will be the way that’s best.

That needs to be the way we always approach prayer.  We pray for God to answer our prayers.  We should not, however, demand that God answer our prayers in a certain way.  It’s okay for us to have a way we’d like God to answer, but we need to trust that God knows better than we do.  So, any way God chooses to answer our prayers should be fine with us.  We simply continue to pray, to open ourselves to God’s leading and God’s guidance, secure in the knowledge that if we do, God will answer our prayers in some way.  And we trust that whatever way God chooses will be the way that’s best.
           

So please keep praying that God will help us reach the unchurched children of our community. Trust that God will answer our prayers.  Trust that God will answer our prayers in the way that’s best.  And trust in something else, too.  Trust that when we open ourselves to God’s leading and to God’s guidance, some really unexpected, but really wonderful things will happen!

Who Is This Guy?

This is the message given in the Wheatland Parish Sunday, September 21, 2014.  The Bible verses used are John 1:1-18.

            We’re in a sermon series called “Theology 101”, where we’re trying to learn more about God.  We’ve been starting out by looking at the trinity.  In the first week we took an overall look at the trinity, and last week we talked about God the Father.  Today, we’re going to look at God the Son, Jesus Christ.

            In some ways, this seems like the easiest person of the trinity for us to get to know.  After all, Jesus, God the Son, actually walked on the earth.  And while none of us was around back then, we do have eyewitness reports from people who were.  

And those reports are familiar to a lot of us.  We know a lot of the stories.  We know a lot of the stuff Jesus said.  We know a lot of the things Jesus did.  In fact, some of them have become common phrases, used by people who are not Christians and in fact may not know where the phrases come from.  “Turn the other cheek.”  “Seek and you will find.”  “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.”  “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

And it’s the same thing with the stories.  The Good Samaritan.  The Prodigal Son.  Healing people.  Feeding people.  We feel like we know that stuff pretty well.  And so, we feel like we know Jesus pretty well, too.

And you know, the disciples thought they knew Jesus, too.  And they should have.  They were with him all the time.  They heard him say all kinds of things.  They saw him do all kinds of things.  They thought they knew him.  And then, all of a sudden, Jesus would say something extraordinary, or he’d walk on water, or he’d heal someone with just a word, and the disciples would be standing there with their mouths open.  And they’d say “Who is this guy?”  They thought they knew him so well, and yet they realized that did not know him at all.

This was not a faith issue, really.  The disciples believed in Jesus Christ.  They believed he was the savior.  But at the same time, he looked just like them.  He talked just like them.  He walked just like them.  He ate and drank and did everything just like any other human being would.  And so, even though the disciples knew better, they’d start thinking of Jesus as just another human being.  They’d forget that Jesus truly was Emmanuel, God with us.  And then he’d work a miracle or something, and the reality of who Jesus was would hit them.  They’d realize that he actually was God with them.  And they just were not ready for it.

And you and I do that sometimes, too.  We know Jesus is God, but sometimes we’ve heard those gospel stories so many times that that’s all they are to us, stories.  We forget that the words Jesus spoke truly are the words of God.  We forget that when Jesus was speaking, it was actually God speaking.

And because we forget that, we sometimes take the words of Jesus as just advice.  It may be good advice, but it’s still just advice.  We don’t really believe we have to follow it.  We don’t really believe we have to do what Jesus said.  I mean, Jesus lived two thousand years ago.  Things were different then.  Maybe those things worked back in Jesus’ time, but they would not work today.  No one could live their lives the way Jesus told us we should live them.  It sounded good and all, and some of it might be okay, but some of that stuff just is not practical in this day and age.

We forget that Jesus is God, God with us, God the Son.  Jesus’ words are timeless because Jesus himself is timeless.  That’s why we read the passage from the gospel of John this morning.  Jesus is referred to in that passage as “the Word”.  We’re told that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made.  Without him nothing was made that has been made.

Jesus is God.  God is timeless.  Therefore Jesus is timeless.  Therefore the words Jesus said are also timeless.  They did not come with an expiration date.  We can choose not to follow them, but if we do we’re choosing not to follow Jesus.  So in other words, if we choose not to follow Jesus’ words, if we choose not to follow The Word, we’re choosing not to be Christians.

Jesus chose his words carefully.  Jesus said what he meant.  And Jesus meant what he said.  And some of the things he said are not easy for us.  But they are the words of God.  They’re the words of God the Father, and they’re the words of God the Son.  They’re the words of God the Holy Spirit, too.  And they’re not always easy words for us to deal with.

Jesus said we should love our enemies.  Do you feel love for your enemies?  Do you?  All of them?  If you do, you’re a lot better than I am.  Jesus said we should pray for those who persecute us.  Are you doing that?  Are you, for example, praying for the ISIS terrorists?  Do you feel love for them?

Jesus said absolutely nothing should get in the way of following him.  Not our jobs, not even our families.  Jesus said that not only should following him be our top priority, it should be our only priority.  Is that true for you?  Is following Jesus the only priority in your life?  Or is it just one of the many things you do in your life?

Now look, I’m not judging anyone here.  I don’t know what you feel.  I don’t know who you pray for.  I don’t know what your priorities are.  And I certainly don’t claim to follow all these things perfectly, either.  I don’t always love my enemies.  I don’t always pray for people who persecute me.  I let other things get in the way of following Jesus.  I’m not proud of that, but I do, and you know me and you know that I do.  I’m not any better at this than you are.

But the thing is, we convince ourselves that it’s okay.  We’re like the disciples.  We start thinking Jesus is just this guy.  Yeah, he’s a good guy, and he’s smart, and we like him.  In fact, we’re kind of proud to be with him.  But we forget who Jesus really is.  We forget that this is Emmanuel, God with us.  And then, something happens to get our attention.  It may be a good thing, or it may be a not-so-good thing.  But somehow, something happens, and it gets our attention, and we suddenly realize who Jesus is.  And we’re standing there with our mouths open.  We think, “Who is this guy?”  We think we know Jesus so well, and then we realize that we really don’t know Jesus at all.

Jesus, God the Son, Emmanuel, God with us, told us that he was sent here by the Father.  He was sent here to say some things, and he was sent here to do some things.  And the hardest thing that he was sent here to do was to die.  And not just to die, but to be killed.  And not just to be killed, but to be killed in a very painful way.  He was sent here to do that as a punishment.  Not as a punishment for what he’d done, but as a punishment for what we’ve done.  You, and me, and everyone else who has ever walked on this earth and who ever will walk on this earth.

What that means is this.  God sees that we are sinners.  And God is a just God.  God’s sense of justice demands that there be a punishment for our sins.  But God is also a loving and merciful God.  So, because of God’s love and mercy, God does not punish us for our sins.  Instead, God himself took the punishment for our sins.  God, in the form of Jesus, God the Son, God with us, took the punishment, the pain, the death, that we should get.

And because God took that punishment, we don’t have to.  We can have forgiveness.  We can have eternal life.  We get off scot-free.  It’s God’s gift to us.  All we have to do is accept it.  And the way we accept it is simply to believe that it’s true.  The way we accept it is to believe that Jesus is, in fact, God the Son, and is the Savior.

So let’s accept it.  Let’s believe in Jesus as God the Son.  Let’s believe in Jesus as the Savior.  And then, let’s live in such a way that we truly can be considered followers of Jesus.  Will we fail sometimes?  Yes, probably, because we’re human.  But let’s not use that as an excuse, either.  Let’s do all we can to live in such a way that we truly can be considered followers of Jesus.  And let’s quit asking “Who is this guy?”  Let’s know that Jesus Christ truly is Emmanuel, God the Son, and is our Savior.

First Among Equals

The message given in the Wheatland Parish Sunday, September 14, 2014.  The Bible verses used are John 12:23-33, 44-50.

            Welcome to week two of our sermon series “Theology 101”, where we are trying to learn more about God.  Last week we talked about the trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  We talked about how each person of the trinity is fully God, and yet it takes all of them together to be fully God.  God in three persons, as the hymn goes, and yet there is only one God.

            This week, we’re going to look at one of the persons of God, God the Father.  As we do, let’s talk about a couple of the problems inherent in using that term.

            One of them is that saying “God the Father” implies that God is male.  And we know that God is not male.  God is not female, either.  God has what have traditionally been considered male characteristics, and God has what have traditionally been considered female characteristics.  God is both, and God is neither.  God is beyond gender.

            Another problem inherent in using the term “God the Father” is that some people’s fathers are not all that good.  Some people have fathers who did not or still don’t treat them well.  Some people have fathers who deliberately made themselves absent, for whatever reason.  If the idea of a father does not bring to mind good things or good feelings for us, then referring to God as a father may not make us think very well of God.

            So why do we use the term “God the Father”?  Well, for one thing, Jesus used that term.  Not just once in a while, either.  Jesus referred to “God the Father” a lot.  The gospels record Jesus using the term “God the Father” over one hundred seventy-five times.  He taught the disciples to refer to “God the Father”, too.  So that’s one reason we refer to God as the Father--because Jesus taught us to.

            And in saying “God the Father”, we refer to God as a father far greater than any earthly father ever has been or ever could be.  No matter how we may think of our own fathers, they are still human beings, with faults and weakness and shortcomings.  Those of you who are fathers probably are painfully aware of just how many faults and weaknesses and shortcomings you have as a father.  But God the Father is far greater and wiser and more loving and more caring than any earthly father ever could be.  Even if our thoughts of our own father are good, God is better.  And if our thoughts of our own father are not so good, just know that God the Father is good.  The best.  God the Father is everything a father should be and more.

            And there really is no other term we can use that describes this person of the trinity any better.  “God the parent” sounds rather impersonal and formal.  “God the mother” would probably not be any less accurate, but it would not be any more accurate, either.  But if it helps you to think that way, there’s nothing really wrong with it.  Sometimes “God the Creator” is used, but while God certainly is the creator that’s really not getting across the same idea as saying God the Father, is it?  Other terms are sometimes proposed, but they never really quite get the idea across, either.  So, I am going to continue to use “God the Father”, and I hope anyone for whom that might be a stumbling block will understand my reasons for using that term to refer to this person of the trinity.

            Having said all that, though, we’re still not really any closer to understanding just who God the Father is and what God the Father’s role is in the trinity.  So let’s talk about that.

            As we said last week, when we talk about these things, remember that there is no such thing as “the answer”.  What I’m going to tell you is things that I’ve read or heard that make sense to me.  They may or may not be right.  God does not really explain to us how the trinity works.  If some of this does not make sense to you, or if you disagree with it, that’s fine.  You may be right.

            God the Father is sometimes referred to as the first person of the trinity.  Understand, though, that this does not necessarily mean that the Father is greater than the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Again, the Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, and the Holy Spirit is fully God.  One is not greater than the others, and all are necessary for God to be fully God.

            While the Father is not greater than the others, there does seem to be some sense in which the Father seems to be first among equals.  Jesus says repeatedly that he was sent by the Father and that the words he says come from the Father.  Jesus also refers to the Holy Spirit as being sent by the Father.  

Now, we don’t think that means that the Father can boss the others around or that the Father forces the Son or the Holy Spirit to do things against their will.  Again, because God is one, that would make no sense.  It would mean that God is fighting against God or acting against God.  It seems logical that the persons of the trinity act in consensus and unity, that there’s no such thing as dissension within the trinity.  It does not seem likely that the trinity takes a vote and that it could come out two to one.

But while the trinity acts in consensus and unity, there does seem to be some order to the trinity.  Each of the persons of the trinity seems to have a specific role to play.  It’s been said that there may be a sense in which the Father operates as the “Chairman of the Board”, so to speak.  The chairman of a board may appear to have more power than the other members of the board, but the chairman only has that power as long as the other members of the board agree to give that power to the chairman.  So, in one sense the chairman has more power than the rest of the board, but in another sense the chairman really does not.  Thus, we can say that the Father “sends” the Son and the Holy Spirit, using the Father’s apparent power, but in fact all of the trinity is still acting in unity and harmony.

It appears that perhaps the Father is in charge of overall planning.  For instance, when the Son came to earth to save us from our sins, we’re told that this was done to fulfill the Father’s plan.  And yet, this was not solely the Father’s plan.  The Son and the Holy Spirit are equal partners in the plan and have their roles to play both in forming the plan and in fulfilling the plan.  Again, the persons of the trinity act in unity and harmony, with each playing a specific role.

The creation of the world appears to work the same way.  Creation appears to have been done by God the Father, but at the same time, we’re told that the Son was with the Father at the creation, and that it was through the Son that all things were made.  We’re not told exactly what the Holy Spirit’s role in creation was, but we can be confident that the Holy Spirit had some role.

The reason this is so hard for us as humans to understand is that there’s really no good analogy to it in human understanding or experience.  Human beings are not particularly known for our ability to act in unity and harmony.  If you don’t believe me, just turn on the news some night.  Or, just log into facebook sometime.  Whether we’re talking about the world situation, the national situation, or just our individual human relationships, we seem to have constant debate and argument and turmoil.  The idea of three persons making joint decisions in unity and harmony with no one person having more power or authority than any of the others, with no one person having to give in to preserve the peace, with all of the persons acting out of love for the good of everyone, does not really compute very well for us.

But it should.  Because that’s the way it’s really supposed to be.  That’s how all of us should be.  It’s especially how all of us as Christians should be.  We should work together.  We should not act out of power just because we can.  We should not have to give in or be afraid to give our opinion just to keep the peace, either.  We should all be able to work together in unity and harmony for the good of the church and for the good of everyone.

And sometimes, we do.  But a lot of times we don’t.  And don’t get me wrong, this is not me standing up here criticizing everyone else.  I’m as guilty of this as anyone, probably more guilty of it than some.  I’m human, you’re human, we’re all human.  And we all make mistakes, and we all want to give our opinions, and we all want to have our way.  That does not make us bad people.  It makes us people.  It makes us human beings.

And God understands that.  Whether we’re talking about God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit, God understands that.  And you and I understand it, too, at least to a certain extent.  We understand that we are human, and that others are human, and that human persons are never going to be able to act in the kind of unity and harmony that the persons of God act.

But that should still be our goal.  In everything we do, that should be our goal.  It should be our goal in everything we do as a church.  It should be our goal in all of our relationships with others.  And it should be our goal in our relationship with God.

So the next time we pray, let’s pray about that.  Let’s pray that God will help us act in unity and harmony with God.  And let’s pray that God will help us act in unity and harmony with each other, too.

Three of a Kind

This is the message given in the Wheatland Parish Sunday, September 7, 2014.  The Bible verses used are John 14:15-31.

            Well, the kids have gone back to school, and we’ve started our church school program and our confirmation class, so I thought it was time for all of us to go back to school.  Today we start a sermon series called, “Theology 101”.  We’re going to look at some of the basic theological concepts that we claim to believe as Christians.

            Now, don’t let the name scare you.  “Theology” is really just the study of God.  And you already know some things about God.  After all, God is who we claim to worship.  We’re just going to look a little bit deeper at who God is and what God does and what that means for us, not just as Christians but as human beings.

            As we do that, understand that you are not going to hear “the answer”.  When it comes to theology, there’s often no such thing as “the answer”.  We will always be able to ask more questions about God than we’ll be able to come up with answers for.  That was true in Biblical times, it’s true now, and if the world is still around two thousand years from now it’ll be true then, too.  No matter how much we know, we will always have the ability to ask questions we cannot answer.  But there’s nothing wrong with wanting to know more.  And that’s all the study of theology is:  wanting to know more.

            One of the ways we use to describe God is to describe God as “the trinity”:  the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  We use that all the time.  When we baptize someone, we say we’re baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  In the Apostles’ Creed, the earliest statement of faith of the church, we say that we believe in God the Father, that we believe in Jesus Christ the Son, and that we believe in the Holy Spirit.  When we sang “Holy, Holy, Holy” this morning, we sang “God in three persons, blessed trinity.”

            We’ll be looking at the individual persons that make up the trinity in the next few weeks.  But today, I want to look at the trinity as a whole.  What does we really mean when we talk about the trinity?  We say God in three persons, and yet we say there is only one God.  How’s that work?

            Well, first of all, there is only one God.  God is God.  That’s it.  We do not worship three Gods.  We worship one God.

            And yet, we do say “God in three persons”.  We believe in God the Father.  We also believe in God the Son, Jesus.  And we also believe in God the Holy Spirit.  They are three, and yet they are one.

            And it’s not like each person of the trinity is one-third God, either.  Each of them is fully God.  God the Father is fully God.  God the Son is fully God.  God the Holy Spirit is fully God.  And yet, it takes all three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to be fully God.

            And at this point, you’re probably thinking that I’m talking in circles.  And maybe I am.  Because this is not easy to explain.  When I was in seminary, I read a book by Saint Augustine, one of the greatest of the early church fathers, called The Trinity.  It’s about an inch thick, and it has pretty small print.  Four hundred thirty-seven pages of small print.  And you get through all those four hundred thirty-seven pages, and at the end Saint Augustine says, in effect, “You know, we really can’t explain it.”  We can label the persons of God, we can try to describe them, but we really cannot explain them or how they relate to each other.  We really cannot explain how it all works.

            To give old Saint Augustine credit, though, he did come up with the best analogy to it that I’ve heard.  He said, think about the sun.  We have the light of the sun, we have the warmth of the sun, and we have the sun itself.  The sun cannot exist unless all three are there.  We cannot have the sun without the warmth of the sun and the light of the sun.  We cannot have the warmth of the sun without the sun itself and without the light of the sun.  And we cannot have the light of the sun without the sun itself and the warmth of the sun.  And yet, there are not three suns in the sky.  There’s only one sun.  And we cannot separate that sun into three parts.  The sun is one unified whole.

            In the same way, Augustine said, we cannot have God the Father without God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  We cannot have God the Son without God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.  We cannot have God the Holy Spirit without God the Father and God the Son.  And yet, there are not three gods.  There’s only one God.  And we cannot separate God into three parts.  God is one unified whole.

            So, is that what the trinity is like?  Well, no.  But if it works for you, then yes.  Because, as we said earlier, there really is no good way to explain the trinity.  If thinking of the trinity in this way helps you understand it, then great.  But the fact is that how the trinity works is beyond our understanding.  “God in three persons” sounds great in a song, but when we come to actually describe how that works in God’s divine world, we cannot do it.  It’s one of those things that we just have to take on faith.  

            And for some people, that‘s a big stumbling block.  They ask, “How can you believe in something you cannot explain?  How can you believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the trinity, the three in one, if you don’t understand what you’re saying when you say that?  How can you believe in something you don’t understand?”

            And it’s a good question.  But on the other hand, we believe in all kinds of things we don’t understand, don’t we?  I wrote this message on a computer.  I have no idea how a computer works.  But I believe that it does.  I have no idea how my car works, either.  When I take it to the repair shop, for all I know they may recite a magic incantation and wave a magic wand over it.  I don’t know how it works.  But I believe that it does.

            You say, well, but that’s different.  You have experience with that.  You know it works, even if you don’t know how.  Well, I have experience with God, too, but let’s take a different approach.  The nearest star, other than the sun, is Alpha Centauri.  According to Wikipedia, it’s 4.37 light years away from the sun.  Now, do I know that’s true?  No.  If the article had said 5.23 or 3.1416, I would not know the difference.  But I believe it.  I accept it.  I take it on faith that the person who wrote that knew what they were talking about.

            We do that all the time, and with things that are much more important to our daily lives than how far Alpha Centauri is.  I go to the doctor and he writes a prescription for medicine.  Do I know what that medicine is?  No.  Do I understand how it works?  No.  Do I believe it works?  Yes, because I trust the doctor.  There are all sorts of things that we do and use and experience every day of our lives that we don’t understand.  But we trust that they’re true.  We take them on faith.

            And when it comes to how God works, well, how could we possibly expect to understand how God works?  The definition of God is “the one Supreme Being, the creator and ruler of the universe.”  You and I cannot expect to fully understand the one Supreme Being.  If we could understand God, God would not be the one Supreme Being.  A Supreme Being, pretty much by definition, is one who is beyond our ability to understand.

            When you think about it, it’s really only out of love for us that God allows us to understand anything at all about the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit.  It’s only out of love that we know anything about God at all.  God could simply rule us through divine power, ignoring our prayers, acting in whatever way God chose to act, having people live or die or suffer or be blessed simply on a whim, without any regard for us at all.  When we think of the vastness of the universe, and then we think of what it means to be the Supreme Being who created and rules over the universe, and then we think of all the power it would take to do that, and then we think of how weak and small and puny we are in comparison to that, it’s amazing that God takes any notice of us at all.  In the book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah says we’re like grasshoppers compared to God.  Grasshoppers are pests.  God is so great, and we are so small, that it would be perfectly understandable if God thought of us that way, as pests.

            And yet, God does not think of us that way.  God calls us children.  And God loves us, the way good parents love their children.  And God helps us, and encourages us, and supports us, and guides us, and helps us through life.  No matter how disobedient we are, no matter how many dumb things we do, no matter how many times we ignore God, God never gives up on us.  And when we do those things, all we need to do is sincerely ask for forgiveness and God will forgive us.  Time after time after time.

            We’ll talk about the individual persons of the trinity over the next few weeks.  But if you don’t understand how it all works, that’s okay.  God does not say we have to understand.  In fact, God knows we cannot understand.  So, God simply asks that we trust.  God simply asks that we have faith.  God simply asks that we believe.

            We accept mundane things on faith all the time.  Don’t be afraid to accept God.  Because, after all, God has accepted you.