DO TELL!
Sermon, Trinity Sunday, June 15 (Also Father's Day) Genesis 1:1-2:4a AND Matthew 28:16-20
Grace to you and peace, from God the Creator, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, three in One.
I am so thankful that we are here in this place. We may have come to church today for a number of reasons. We may have come to witness and be part of Lilja's baptism. We may have come because we know the community and have friends here. We may be drawn to this community by the music. We might even desire to hear God, to receive God's ongoing blessings. Or, we may have come because it's Father's day and that day somehow draws us to worship. We may have many different reasons for being here. Whatever our reason/s, it is good we are here!
Have you ever reflected upon the reality that each of us is a uniquely fashioned miracle of God? I don't just mean our DNA, although our genetic code is amazing. Each of us is created by God. The entire universe is also being created by God. This is MIRACULOUS.
Regardless of how we feel - whether we are on "top of the world" or in the "depths of despair" we are still created by God. This means that we are not just OK or even somehow merely "passable". God doesn't make junk. We are of God or as the first Genesis account of creation puts it, "made in God's image". This is good. We must know this as we watch Lilja being baptized . . .
Yet, even in this that is good, there is not smooth sailing. Reading a bit farther in the Genesis account we encounter Adam and Eve. They are part of that which is of God, that which is good. But they still want MORE. They want to be . . . LIKE GOD. This creates incredible problems. As a result it's not long before Adam throws Eve "under the bus". In what seems like merely a few moments more their first born son Cain kills his brother Abel. Unfortunately this reality of violence and hatred continues to be played out both among and by us.
So it is, WE NEED TRANSFORMATION, even in, especially in the midst of our personal uniqueness. Whenever we find ourselves wanting to be like God, wanting what we want, when we want it, we need forgiveness, hope, new beginnings.
Miraculously, God refuses to give up on us. So, God becomes human in Jesus. Many doubt this – it seems so very unlikely. Is it possible for anyone to love us that much – to become one of us, to show us in the midst of our worry, our violence, our refusal to accept him, that He steadfastly loves us? Can anyone love us that much? . . .
Many of us know the story. But do we know THAT THIS STORY IS OUR STORY? Jesus' life, death, suffering and resurrection, His call to follow Him is our very gift of life from God!
God becomes human by being born to an, oh so young girl, in a back woods town in a seemingly insignificant country. This baby boy, God in the flesh, grows up. He reaches out to people in unprecedented ways. He accepts them. He is honest with them. He moves them to love themselves and then to begin to honestly care for and with others. This One's living, dying and resurrection shows us the face of God. In Jesus we are being encountered by God's power - not in the sense of "yah better look out!" but rather in the sense of, "Here I am. See me!" In seeing me, behold my love for you and this world. –In me all things can be made new, including you.
What will we do we do? Some of our forefathers and foremothers wouldn't trust him. They couldn't stand him. They kill him. Their refusal to trust isn't really so different from ours – we who won't listen or can't listen because we are so frantically trying to "survive" or "make it".
But God refuses to give up on us. Neither death nor the forces of evil can keep God from reaching out to us in Jesus Christ.
On the third day God raises Jesus. The risen Jesus has a body that can be seen, touched and held onto. But his risen body doesn't have the limitations of our bodies. The risen Jesus speaks to all who will hear. Through some of the women he tells his disciples to go back to Galilee where he had first met them. They go. Once in Galilee they see him! They even worship him but some doubt....
Do you know their experience? In those moments when we glimpse him, sense his presence, his direction – we too sometimes worship him. How sweet that is: to sing, to pray, to receive the bread and the wine – to greet the other with God's peace, touching hands, sharing a smile, a hug. But there are also other times when our other realities swamp us: our personal failures, the pain and loss of death, betrayal. Sometimes, we too are consumed by doubt.
But he is not deterred. He speaks truthfully. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples (learners/followers) of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
It is here that we so often get stuck. We, that's YOU AND ME, are to go and make disciples of others - any and all others? Our friends, our colleagues – even the others in our family? How can we? How dare we? So many have their own ideas, their own "gods" or just as likely, none at all! And they know us – our inconsistencies, our hypocrisy!
We are so far from perfect. Sometimes we too forget God. Like Adam and Eve we wish things were "easier" for us, that we could do whatever we want. Some days we are just trying to get through today. So, sometimes we also doubt, God.
We are not so different from those earlier disciples. Thankfully Jesus doesn't give up on them. Nor does Jesus give up on us. We too are called to go, to follow him, to baptize and teach all that He has commanded us. We do not live alone, nor do we follow this living Jesus alone. He is with us. That is His promise.
Dear people – today Lilja is baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God marks her with the sign of the cross and seals her with God's own Spirit. What a promise from God to each of us, all of us. It is our distinct privilege and responsibility to tell her about and show her, this loving, holy, merciful and just God who continues to fashion us and the universe.
This is our purpose our reason for being anywhere: to bear God's creative and redeeming word to the world. So, Jesus sends us to each other and to others. God in Jesus Christ loves us, has died for us and is alive. DO TELL in our own unique ways, for the sake of Christ and the world. Amen.