Sermon

St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Durham, NC

May 18, 2008 - Trinity Sunday (Year A)

The Rev. M. Jonah Kendall

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Today is Trinity Sunday, the day we celebrate the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, God, three in one, united forever.  And I bet something like 95 percent of the preachers in the pulpit today will say something similar to this one preacher who said, “The Trinity is like E=MC2.  I have no idea what it means, but it’s magnificent.”

But I can’t do that today because I feel inspired.  Yes, that’s right, ever since this little child of mine’s been born, I have been inspired.  And I got to tell you, I hoped this would happen.  I was praying for it.  But what’s got me is how it happened.

You see I thought I would feel touched by God in that very moment my child was born, and I, for the first time would know the wonder of beholding bones of my bones and flesh of my flesh.  And to tell you the truth, that was and is something.

But what really moved me, what really opened my eyes, what’s changed me, inspired me and made feel close to God was not Scout, but Caty, my wife.  I mean I can’t tell you how it affected me to watch how this woman for some 40-odd hours lovingly, quietly, humbly, and faithfully brought this child into the world.  I mean, my God!  You want to talk about a miracle!

And in that moment, what has inspired me so was that I had encountered the essence of that lesson we heard from Genesis — that we are not created out of nothing, but out of love.  That creation is God’s labor of love.  For if I could see this through Caty’s love, which is a human and imperfect love, how much more is it with God?

Here I want to say a word about the Trinity, but as I said before I want to come at it from an angle you may not have heard before.  And it’s got something to do with what the theologian Karl Barth said about God.  And as far as I know I think he’s the only one who ever has.

And that is that God is not a being so much as an event, a dynamic, a work of love.  God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit is an eventful reality, which creates, redeems, and sanctifies out of love.  In this, God is love at work in the world.  It’s so simple, but it’s true.

We hear this echoed in today’s Gospel where Christ gives the great commission.  Go out and baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  For me the whole thing hinges on the word, “Go!”  Go — join God in God’s own activity by bringing life to things through your love.  For what is baptism, but the sacrament of new life?

And so the question before us is, will we?  Will we love?  Will we be an event of love?  I’m seriously asking this.  Because I think in our efforts to make something out of ourselves – even ironically in our desire to be close to God – we look right past it, thinking it can’t be as simple as that.  No, if it’s going to have meaning, if were going to, it’s got to be E=MC2.

And this is what the Church has been getting nailed on for centuries, not living its own message — the Crusades, selling of indulgences, support of slavery and segregation, even now sexuality.  But thankfully this isn’t really a church issue, but a human one.  Yes it’s alive and well outside the church;  I mean just consider Myanmar.

But that’s a lot to take in right now.  So let me just make it a little more everyday by telling you, how it almost happened in an average person on an average day.  You see even though at the beginning of this sermon I said how inspired I was by this love I encountered, the truth is I almost gave up on it.

On Wednesday night, I was in my office, this sermon was laid out in my mind and I though no, that can’t be it.  I mean look at all these books, is this really what I took systematic theology for, to say God is love and in love we join God.  I mean we learn that in Sunday school.  Who needs a rector for that?  Jonah, you’ve been away for four weeks, you better have something to say!  And I started to get frustrated and angry.

But then something happened.  I looked out my door’s window and there was Freda Tucker standing there – her presence inviting me to join her.  And so I went out there and we began talking.  We talked about the Millennium Development Goals.  We talked about Scout.   We talked about Liberia, the Catholic Church, the A.M.E. Church, the Episcopal Church, St. Philip’s, and her faith.  Yeah, we talked about a lot!

And what got me was that about four or five times throughout the conversation she put her hand to her chest and said, “It’s from here.  It’s all from here.”  And with that, the pathway was clear.  I mean you want to talk about an event of God’s love.  Here were two so very different people bound together in that moment of sharing and love.  And so today I say, Amen, Freda, Amen.

And my friends, in the name of God, go!  Go love!  For from here God created you [touching my chest with my hand as Freda did].  From here God in Christ redeemed you.  And from here God the Holy Spirit uplifts you and empowers you.  And so I say, Go! Go! Go!

In Christ’s name, Amen.

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