Trinity Sunday: I am Nicodemus

A sermon for the First Sunday after Pentecost

Pentecost!

Happy Pentecost! Pentecost is one of the three most important festivals in the church year: Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. Christmas celebrates the incarnation of God in this world in the person of Jesus Christ. Easter celebrates his resurrection from the dead. And Pentecost celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, empowering them to go out into the world and be the Church. We tend to think about the first two as being about Jesus and this one being about the Spirit. Though, the reality is that the Holy Spirit is moving through all three of them.

For instance, at Christmas, while we are all focused on the the cute baby in the manager, it is the Holy Spirit working to make it all possible. At the annunciation, when Mary objected to the impossibility of this pregnancy, the Angel Gabriel said that it was the Holy Spirit that was going to make the incarnation possible. The Holy Spirit makes Christmas happen. With God, all things are possible, because the Holy Spirit makes things possible.

At Easter, we are rightly focused on Christ being raised from the dead, but it was the Holy Spirit bringing Christ up from the dead. We heard in our first lesson today that powerful vision from Ezekiel of resurrection, a lesson we normally hear at the Easter Vigil, the first service of Easter, the first service of the Resurrection, but it is also rightly read today because it is a reading about the Spirit. In this vision that Ezekiel experienced, it says that the bones were raised, but they had no life, until the breath came into them. In Hebrew, the word breath is ruach, which is also the word for Spirit. It was the Spirit that brought about the resurrection. The Spirit is the Breath of God working in the world, bringing life where there was no life. As true for the vision of Ezekiel as it was for Jesus’ at the first Easter: It is the Holy Spirit bringing about resurrection.

And then, of course, today, we all know that today is all about the Spirit, as the Holy Spirit comes down like a rushing wind, and lights on the disciples like fire, empowering them as we heard about in the reading from Acts. And this amazing thing happens: Everyone begins to understand the message, despite all of their linguistic and cultural differences. The Holy Spirit is working to make sure people understand each other across their differences. The Holy Spirit doesn’t erase their differences, the Holy Spirit builds bridges across their differences so that the Good News can be heard and understood. The Holy Spirit brings this vision, not of unity through erasing difference, but of a unity across those differences. Each person staying the way that God made him or her, but the Holy Spirit working to bring understanding across the divide.  

That same Spirit that brought Jesus into the world, that same Spirit that brought Jesus up from the dead, is the same Spirit now pouring out onto the disciples, sending them out into the world to bring the Good News of God’s love to a broken world. So, all three of these festivals are linked to the Holy Spirit; they are all festivals of the Spirit. But they are all also Festivals of the Body of Christ. For while we celebrate God being born in a body at Christmas, and we celebrate that body being raised on the third day at Easter, on Pentecost, the disciples are sent out in to the world to be the Body of Christ. Christ’s body born at Christmas, raised at Easter, is now sent into the world through us. All of which is made possible... by the Holy Spirit.

A few weeks ago, we had a baptism here at St. Mary’s. And as we blessed the water, we said those words that we always say: “We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water…” And we retell the story of salvation through the lens of water, talking about the Spirit moving over the waters at the beginning of creation. And we talk about the children of Israel moving through waters out of their slavery and again moving through waters into the Promised Land. And we talk about Jesus’ own baptism in the River Jordan. We offer our gratitude to God for the baptismal waters, in which we are buried with Christ in his death, by which we share in his resurrection, and through which we are reborn by the Holy Spirit. Reborn by the Holy Spirit. Pentecost teaches us that the same Spirit that came down upon Jesus at his baptism and declares Jesus as God’s beloved Son, comes upon us and declares us to be God’s beloved children as well.                        

Reborn. Given new birth. New life. In the Spirit. The German theologian, Jürgen Moltmann compares this new spiritual birth with our original physical birth. He says of when a child is born: “Life begins, the senses awaken. The child opens its eyes and sees the light. It begins to breath, and feels the air. It cries, and hears the sounds. It lies beside its mother and feels the warmth of her skin.” The same is true when we are reborn by the power of the Spirit. He says, “Our senses are born again too. The enlightened eyes ... wake to the awareness of God. The beating heart experiences God’s love. The experience of God’s Spirit is like breathing the air: ‘God is continually breathing ... upon the soul, and the soul is breathing unto God.” God’s Spirit is life’s vibrating, vitalizing field of energy: we are in God and God is in us.”

The experience of a newborn reminds us though, that this initial awakening is not the end. The senses continue to grow. We continue to grow in life AND in faith. Even as sense of sight awakens at birth, it takes months to develop, as the child learns to distinguish shapes and colors and get depth perception and see far distances. The awakening of our spiritual senses are the same, they develop and grow over time as we grow in our faith. As we train our spiritual eyes to be aware of God’s presence with us, as we train our spiritual hearts to know God’s loving heart, as we train our spiritual lungs to breath in God’s spirit, that ruach, that Breath of God that brings life to this world, even in places of utter death like a Valley of Dry Bones.                                          

As we celebrate today the coming of the Holy Spirit at that first Pentecost after Christ’s resurrection, we also celebrate the Spirit coming into lives every day, awakening our spiritual senses to feel and to know God’s loving presence with us, and empowering us to go into the world, bringing the Good News of God’s love found in Jesus Christ, helping bring up resurrection, new life, to all of dry bones we come upon, transforming the world by helping get our heartbeat to align with God’s. Amen. 

7 Easter: Journeying from Christmas through Easter

6 Easter: Whatever is Born of God Conquers the World

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD!

1 John: God’s commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.

 Whatever is Born of God Conquers the World

When my granddaughter Eva was born ten years ago, her parents decided they wanted her to bond with me in a particular way. When she was only a few hours old, still in the hospital, they had me lay down and they laid her on me, skin to skin, her little head tucked beneath my chin and her heart next to my heart.

 We lay like that for what seemed an eternity. And you know what happened? Our hearts synchronized. Our breath became one breath. We breathed one another in and slowly, surely found a rhythm that was unique in all creation, her and me, me and her. We became one being, outside of time. Someone took a picture of us, and it’s a marvelous picture. Every time I look at it, I think: this is what I look like fully present. Fully conscious and connected. This is what I look like.

 What’s more, this is now the normal way to connect for Eva and I. Whenever we have been apart for more than a few days, when we first get back together, we move into that same position. She comes right up to me and we look into one another’s eyes and smile, then she closes her eyes and tucks her head under my chin. I wrap myself around her, and we travel again to that holy place where we flow into one another, and soon we are breathing as one. Our hearts synchronize. We are two and we are one at the same time.

 We all have a roadmap inside us for this, an ancient blueprint for this kind of connection, for bonding deeply. It’s part of being human.

 This bonding experience is my way into Jesus, and into his relationship with God. This is how I resonate with Jesus, why he is so real for me. He was human. He had a human mother, who most certainly connected with him the way I connected with my sons when they were born, and my granddaughter.

 Jesus says, in the translation of John’s gospel you heard this morning: As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. I prefer another translation of the word “Father” that helps me relate to Jesus’s relationship with God more deeply. Jesus’s mother-tongue was Aramaic. In Aramaic, Father is “Abba” which is closer to papa.

 So now the reading becomes: As Abba God has loved me, so I love you. Further, in Aramaic, “Amma” is mama. I borrow from the Circle Service theology when I call God Abba/Amma.

 The reading now becomes: As Abba/Amma God has loved me, so I have loved you.  

 This rendition gives me a vision of two things that make me smile, the same deep, outside-of-time smile of my original bonding with my granddaughter, that special and deep knowing. Because here is how I see it in my mind’s eye: First I see and feel and smell how Jesus is related to God. Jesus is curled up on Abba/Amma God’s chest, his head tucked under God’s chin, and they are breathing as one, their hearts beating together. In some cosmic way, they are curled up together.

As Bishop Spong puts it: “Jesus was the place where the human and the divine flowed together as one.”

 The opening of John’s gospel confirms this intimate connection between God and Jesus. John’s prologue says, “No one has ever seen God, it is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart.” Or, translated from the Greek, close to the Father’s breast or bosom.

 And the second thing I see in my mind’s eye is how Jesus loves me. He loves me like Abba/Amma God, like a grandmother. Jesus loves me like that, and you like that, and you and you. As Abba/Amma God has loved me, so I have loved you.

 Jesus goes on to say in today’s gospel: This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you. Commandment can be a scary word, all those “thou shalt nots.” But all the word command means is to say with authority, with confidence. Jesus says with full confidence, love one another as I have loved you. You are my friends if you do what I command you. Love one another.

 And the Epistle, First John, gives us further insight and instruction: God’s commandments are not burdensome. They are not difficult to carry out. For whatever is born of God conquers the world. Whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Here when we say the world, we are not talking about creation, which we do not want to conquer or dominate, but about the overculture. What Paul calls the powers and principalities, the spiritual forces of evil.

 Whatever is born of God conquers the world. Love is born of God, connection, forgiveness, and courage. Our faith is the victory that conquers the world. Our love is bigger than the forces of evil.

 You have tremendous power given to you by God, through Jesus the Christ and through the Spirit. It was not just Jesus who had this power. Jesus showed us how to access it. He understood that he and God were one. But this is true of you as well. You have full access to Abba/Amma God, to your grandmother God. You have the power to love, you have the power to bless, you have the power to change everything that needs changing. You have the power to conquer the world with your faith, not with manipulation and domination, but with love.

So may it be for you, and so may it be for me. Amen

5 Easter: God is Love

Imagine if you will a little girl who is 7 years old. She is the eldest of 4, a sister 5 years younger and twin brothers that are 7 years younger. With 3 babies under 2 years old there was no time for this little girl. She learned that she needed to place herself in the midst of caring for the babies is she wanted to be included, but it made no difference. She felt alone, played alone and felt she was outside of the family. She felt she had no worth and wanted deeply to have her mother’s approval.

Fast forward to Middle school. She is the new girl. She wanted to fit in with these new people and did things that got her in trouble with both the school and her parents. She felt that if she did what these kids said that she would have friends and acceptance. But they only got her in more trouble and made it clear to her that she did not fit in with kids who have been going to school together since kindergarten.

They really did not like her but had fun making her do things that were questionable.

In high school, she met a man and married him in the fall before her senior year. She got pregnant. Her pregnancy was hard, so she quit school to rest and take care of herself. She had the baby and her mom said she would never make anything of herself and that she ruined her life. The girl graduated from high school a year late and had another baby. She had gained a lot of weight and was told she looked bad. She went on fad diets to try to lose the weight, but she only yo-yoed. Her weight would go up and down and even when she was thin there was always criticisms.  She graduated from college twice, with two degrees, one in medicine and one in criminal justice.

She was the first woman in her family to go to college and graduate, but all her mom could say was, “okay, well, what’s next?” This girl was devastated, she and cried and yelled and wondered what she had to do to be accepted, approved of and worthy in her mom’s eyes.

This cycle continued until I was 38 years old. You are probably wondering what changed? Well, I gave my life to the Lord! I prayed, I talked to God like an old friend and I started talking to a Christian councilor who gave me passages to read from the Bible. All these passages reinforced that God is love.  That I did not need any human being’s opinion, approval, acceptance and that I was worthy.

We were created in God’s image.

God breathed life into each and every one of us.

Our names are tattooed on God’s hands. I don’t know about you but if I am going to tattoo someone’s name on my body then they better be extremely important to me.

I learned that God is Love and that means that we are accepted just the way we are. God knows us and our struggles as well as our shortcomings and successes, and God has given us the ultimate unconditional love. We are accepted right where we are. We are worthy of doing anything that glorifies God. When we do God’s work we become extraordinary even if we feel ordinary. When God puts a call on our hearts, we must listen.  Don’t ask why, or how or think, I can’t do this, I’m not worthy. God doesn’t want us to be perfect because if God wanted perfection God would have made us perfect.  We must remember that all things are possible through Christ. If you feel called to be a lay leader step up, God is love. If God is calling you to join a ministry way to go, God is love. Or if you are called to have input on how to make that ministry better then go for it. God is love. If you are called to start a new ministry, go forth and prosper. God is love.

The call may be tugging harder at you and God may want you to pursue an ordained call, such as to be a priest or deacon, follow the call to see where it leads. God is love. If this feels outside your comfort zone it may be that call from God because God loves putting you outside your comfort zone to do God’s work. Do not fear because God is Love.

God calls all of us into our Baptismal Covenant. Calls us to be like Jesus. Which means to open our hearts and love each other as He has loved us this means God does not care what we look like, how much we weigh, how much we think we are unworthy, God just wants us to remember that we are beautiful in God’s sight and to be confident for whatever God calls us to do because God is love. There is a saying out there, “We only accept the love we think we deserve…” Well we deserve much love because we are loved by God.                                                                  

Amen