Matthew 28:16-20- " Trinity Sunday: Holy Dance Divine"

Synopsis:

In what is know by many as the Great Commission, Jesus sends his disciples into the world on mission but not alone. He sends them in the fellowship of the Trinity, in one of the rare moments in scripture where the trinitarian formula is shared. This concept will create the first major theological debates in the Early Church, but the core of the trinitarian controversy is a question of relationship. Is God, how the Greek Philosophers imagined God, a Prime Mover, pure, distance, and untouched by humans suffering? Or, is God as the Hebrews confessed and as Jesus revealed, a God marked by cruciform love, eternally committed to relationship with the children of God and creation itself? Jesus sends his disciples not on a mission to promote a new religion, but to announce the Good News that God invites the whole of creation, neighbors and enemies, strangers and family, into the trinitarian dance of love.

Jeremiah 14:19-22 - "Into Exile: Does God Need Reminding?"

Rembrandt: Jeremiah weeping over the destruction of Jerusalem.

Synopsis: The Judean Temptation to worship false idols is not just an ancient problem. In times of crisis, transition, or need we often turn to (lower-case) gods to solve our problems and assuage our anxiety about the unpredictability of the future. As for the Hebrews going into Exile, Jeremiah challenges them to cast aside their false gods who offer them no solace or success. And yet, we continue to worship our trinkets, screens, and tangible objects which offer us a comfort that is fleeting in the face of real questions like, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” On the other hand, God continues to pursue Jeremiah’s people in grace and love, causing us to wonder the opposite, “Why do good things happen to bad people?”

Keywords: Jeremiah, Exile, worship, praise, truth, grace, justice, holiness, Trinity, incarnation, false gods, temptations, idolatry

1 Timothy 6:6-19 - "Founded for Good Works in 1870"

Synopsis: We conclude our Stewardship Campaign with these words from these words traditionally attributed to Paul writing to his young protege, Timothy. Since her beginnings, the Church has always been a people of not only prayer and faith, but also action and good works. Paul tells young Timothy to remind his people that their security will not be founded on the accumulation of wealth and worldly security, but in lives filled with generosity, commitment, and acts of compassion and kindness for neighbors and enemies alike. This counter-cultural way of Jesus invites us into an abundant life founded for good on the life of Christ and the love of the Triune God.

Keywords: Jesus, Trinity, good works, hands and feet of Christ, stewardship, firm foundation, compassion, justice, joy, love

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 and John 16:12-15 - "Trinity Sunday: All in the Family"

Synopsis: On Trinity Sunday, we hear two distinct images from Proverbs and John bubbling up from the scriptures to spark our imaginations about the invisible, ineffable, eternal Trinitarian family. The image of the woman as the feminine “sophia” wisdom incarnate, begotten before Creation, and eternally dancing in communion with the Creator, sounds mysteriously like the masculine “logos” word in the Gospel of John. The biblical vocabulary describing the eternally mysterious Trinity is illuminated by these images of feminine wisdom and masculine word, to remind us that God is neither male nor female, but gender identity finds it’s genesis in God, who exists eternally in loving, familial-like relationships. The traditional Trinitarian formula of Father - Son - Holy Spirit is not about the gender of God (God is not male, and men are not more like God), but to the nature of the relationships which exist within the Trinity. We use the language of family to describe the Trinity because there is no more intimate, complex, and enmeshed relationship than the connect of the family system (for good or ill). As members of the “household of faith,” we are called to participant in the great family circle of the Holy Trinity by being church family to one another. The metaphors are not meant to hinder, but help us reframe family membership in God’s New Family where everyone is welcome regardless of status, identity, or lineage. This is why the biblical mandate is repeated so often to protect orphans (those without parents), widows (those without spouses or children), the poor (those without a support system), and immigrants (those without a homeland). We are call to be the new human family God is creating through Trinitarian love and Resurrection life.