Sermon: Trinity Sunday in Berkeley, California...Statement on definition

“For God so loved the world...”

                           (Jn. 3:16)

Trinity Sunday    

Jan Robitscher
St. Mark’s Church
Berkeley, CA
June 3, 2012                                                                  

Isaiah 61-6                                                                                            

Psalm 29                                                                                                                                               
Romans 8:12-17
John 3:1-

In the Name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

                                              

Today is Trinity Sunday. It has come to be seen as the logical conclusion to the celebrations of the half of the Church Year, beginning in Advent, when we hear again the story of our salvation,  through Christmas and Lent, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost last week.

In some parishes, there is a curious tradition on Trinity Sunday. You see, nobody wants to preach on this day because the doctrine of the Trinity is so complex, indeed, such a great mystery that it is impossible to preach on it without falling into one or other heresy!

So this impossible task is usually given to the youngest or most recently ordained person on the parish staff. Well, I am none of those, but  I’ll be brave, trusting that God: Father, Son and Spirit, will keep me on the right path.

This day has been called an “idea feast” because it celebrates a doctrine rather than a person or historical event. I remember seeing a stained glass window once which was the ancient  symbol of the Trinity.  In the middle was a circle “God”. Then there was a triangle: at the top, “Father”; at the bottom left, “Son”; at the bottom right “Holy Spirit”. 

On the connecting bars of the triangle were the words (all in Latin) “IS NOT”  On the bars connecting Each part of the Trinity to God, the word “IS”.  So, while the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Spirit, they are all God.  Confused?

The window is essentially correct in it’s theology. But I would say that this is NOT an “idea feast”. The reasons why we are confused are at least two. First, that wherever we are on the religious spectrum, we are all products of good old rugged American individualism. We can’t help but think of the Trinity as three individual beings.

This is where, if we kept going, we would fall into one or other heresy, and, if we struggled at it long enough, it would surely end in an argument. But let’s not go there. The second reason we are confused is that we think that “mystery” is something we don’t understand, or a riddle to be solved. In Christian theology, “mystery” means “a divinely revealed reality that words can never fully express.”1  Perhaps a little history might help. 

            Though the Bible [teaches] the truth of the Trinity of God implicitly 

            in both Old and New Testaments, the development and delineation of this doctrine was brought about by the rise of heretical groups or teachers who either denied the deity of Christ or that of the Holy                      Spirit. [They actually had “hymn wars”--the Christians won!] 

            This caused the early church to formally crystallize the doctrine of the [Trinity]. Actually, Tertullian in 215 A.D. was the first one to state this doctrine using the term, Trinity.2 

By the early sixth century, the Rule of St. Benedict speaks of ending the Psalmody of the daily Offices with the Gloria Patri--Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit... and the prayers of Celtic Christianity were strongly Trinitarian. By the 11th century this feast was sometimes celebrated on the Sunday before Advent--at the end of the Liturgical Year.3 

But we owe it to no less than St.Thomas Becket for obtaining permission to celebrate a Feast for the Trinity, his first act after his consecration as Archbishop of Canterbury on the Sunday after Pentecost, and this practice spread quickly through England and beyond so that by Pope John XXII in 1334 Trinity Sunday became a universal feast. OK.

So if the history, though interesting, does not provide us a way into this Feast, what about today’s lessons?

Isaiah and Nicodemus each had encounters with God. Isaiah’s call was in the  course of a vision of the heavenly court: angels calling out so that their sound shook the air, incense, and the very hem of God’s robe. Rightly, Isaiah feels himself unworthy to be there.

Yet in love God does not condemn him, but rather sends an angel to touch his lips with a live coal. It must have been terrifying, but Isaiah seems to have survived unhurt. With this “absolution”, God asks for a volunteer to deliver a very strong, prophetic message, and Isaiah answers, “Here am I; Send me.” 

Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. He is a Pharisee, of some learning, and he came to “sound out” Jesus as far as his questioning faith would take him. With more questions, Jesus begins to teach him of “being born of water and  Spirit”. This makes little sense to Nicodemus. Although Jesus seems a bit exasperated, he does not send Nicodemus away, but, in love, the passage culminates in perhaps the best known verse in all the Scripture: 

          “For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son,

            so that everyone who believes in him may not perish,

            but may have eternal life.” (Jn. 3:16)

I like to think that Nicodemus eventually got, by faith, what Jesus was trying so hard to tell him...

Each of these encounters with God shows a part of God’s love for, “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:16). Love is that force that differentiates and unifies.4  That’s how God can be three persons while being one.

The persons of the Trinity give themselves to each other in love,  and God shows us that love in different ways. We are invited to enter into that love through the Incarnation. It is Jesus who showed us the full extent of love, giving himself in death and resurrection.

This is not the mushy, fickle love we know, but it is a reflection of the self-giving love that dwells between the persons of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; 

So where does that leave us, right here in the community of St. Mark’s? Whether we know it or not, we are surrounded by the Trinity and we see many reflections of this expression of God’s love. And this love affects us in both an “inward” and an “outward” way.

Although we do not have a Trinity window here, we have only to look around and count three’s to remind ourselves that God the Trinity is here. Or we can listen to the choir or as we sing the hymns to hear the Trinity expressed in poetry (perhaps the only way possible), and the notes of chords blend to form beautiful music that is a reflection of God’s love for us. Perhaps the poet George Herbert said it best:

My music shall find Thee,

and ev'ry string Shall have his

attribute to sing;

That all together may accord in Thee, 

And prove one God, one harmony.

Although we need the Scripture, history, charts, music and poetry, ultimately all of these fall short of naming the mystery that is God the Holy Trinity. However we try, from the traditional Father, Son and Holy spirit to Dame Julian of Norwich, who (as we will hear in today’s anthem) attributes feminine qualities to the Trinity5, in the end we are left in that silence which is our “wonder, love and praise”.

But this silence is the beginning of our deepest relationship with God. For the way into this mystery is in the Christian life, itself. From birth--and rebirth in the waters of baptism--to death--we are signed with the cross--that very ancient representation of Jesus’ sacrifice for us and reminder of the Trinity.

And this liturgy, from beginning to end bears the Sign of the Cross. We speak the Trinity in the Nicene Creed and we will hear it when the choir sings the Te Deum: “We praise thee, O God...”  Bread and wine are blessed to become for us the Body and Blood of Christ, using a prayer that is addressed to God, includes Jesus’ own words and invokes the Holy Spirit.

And we sign ourselves at various times as a way of saying “Yes, I receive this blessing and gift and remind myself of the Trinity”. All these are the “inward “ reflections of the Trinity. But every act of love we do here, whether in worship or with and for each other or at Hot Meals or the Prayer Shawl group or any other ministry we do--all of these are outward reflections of the love of the God the Holy Trinity. As a fellow preacher put it,

         

          The loving mutuality of the Church has its source in the loving

            mutuality of the eternal Trinity.6 

So I invite you: Look around and see God’s creative acts!  Hear the music! Receive God’s redemptive acts: the Life of Jesus in bread and wine-become the Body and Blood of Christ! Feel the power of the Holy spirit’s sanctifying acts to console us, guide us, gifts us and lead us into all truth as we are sent out to “love and serve the Lord”! Feel the baptismal water as you go by the font! Know that, while we can never exhaust the reality of the Trinity, this Love of God, that we live. 

This one-day season of Trinity Sunday is far more than an “idea feast”, or the celebration of a theological doctrine. It is a “Faith Feast”--a recognition that the Trinity--God the Three-in-one--the love of God--surrounds us on every side. It is the air we breathe and in all creation; the water in which we “swim” in baptismal rebirth; the Eucharist, in which we receive the very life of Jesus; the gifts of prayer and service poured out upon us by the Holy Spirit,who will lead us into all truth as we take the next steps in our life together.

All of these are the reflection of God’s love in and with and for us, here in the community of St. Mark’s. And in this creating, redeeming and sanctifying love of the Holy, Triune God we are sent out to the wider Church and to the world, and this is Good News, Indeed!

To God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit be glory for ever and ever.

AMEN.

Homily: Jan Robitscher speaks Sunday, Easter IV on 'I AM the Good Shepherd' in Seattle, WA

“I AM the Good Shepherd”

(Jn. 10:11)

Easter IV, Year B    

Jan Robitscher

Trinity Parish
April 29, 2012
Seattle, WA

Psalm 23
1 John 3: 16-24
John 10: 11-18
Acts 4: 5-12

(Sung) I AM the good shepherd, I pasture my sheep,

For them I lay down my life. Alleluia!

Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Wanted: One Good Shepherd. Must have strong skills in spiritual, temporal and community leadership, be a person of prayer, a leader of worship, a lover of liturgy and music--did I mention being a strong supporter of the music program?--help the flock to grow and to be a positive force in the community. Does this sound familiar? Yes, it comes from your Rector Profile, and it could have come from ours at St. Mark’s in Berkeley, California, for we, too, are in the midst of a rector search.

It seems obvious, doesn’t it? The Good Shepherd is a leader, almost always a religious leader, whether deacon, priest or--and especially--bishop. That’s what we want, right? A Good Shepherd; someone who will lead us (and yes, we are like a flock of sheep in many ways) into green pastures and beside still waters where we will live happily ever after.

Guide Dog 'Lenore' with lambs
on Good Shepherd Sunday

But is that really what this Sunday, the Fourth Sunday in Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday, is all about? Let’s look again at our readings. All of them speak of leadership and two of them deal specifically with leadership in terms of “The Good Shepherd”. The image of the Shepherd is a recurring and familiar one throughout the Bible. Sometimes it refers to real people who were really shepherds, as, for example, David was when he was called to be anointed king of Israel (1 Samuel 16). David was, by all accounts, a “good shepherd”. He did all that was required to care for his real flock of sheep. As king, he was not perfect by any means, yet he is still well remembered.



And if David was a good shepherd, it is easy to see how we can fall into thinking that our last Rector--or our next--is the Good Shepherd. But we have strayed (like lost sheep) from our readings for today.

There is much more to this image of the Good Shepherd. We have only to look at Psalm 23, which is by tradition attributed to David. I suspect we could all recite by heart:

                   The LORD is my shepherd;*

                                    I shall not be in want.

Quire, Trinity Parish, Seattle, WA

Here God (the LORD) is the Good Shepherd and God’s people, the flock, depend on God for everything, just like real sheep. Whether by still streams or in the darkest valleys, the Good Shepherd, God, is there.

But is is Jesus who takes on this image in the deepest, most profound way. He claims

                   “I AM the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays

                        down his life for the sheep. ...I know my sheep and

                        my own know me... and I lay down my life for the

                        sheep.”  (Jn. 10:14 )

Here is the real Good Shepherd, as Jesus identifies himself with God. Here is the one whose voice the sheep of the human “flock”-recognize. Here is the One who, like a human shepherd, leads by following (yes, shepherds lead from behind their flocks), asserts authority by serving, is “The Door”, laying across the entrance of the corral, and is even willing to lay down his life for the sheep.

The Easter story is just as Jesus said in our Gospel reading:

                   For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay

                        down my life in order to take it up again...”

Jan Robitscher and 'Lorelle'

We are here today because Jesus, the Good Shepherd, willingly gave himself to death on the cross and rose again, all in obedience to the Father’s command. 

I AM the good shepherd, I pasture my sheep,

For them I lay down my life. Alleluia!





So, if Jesus is the one and true Good Shepherd, where does that leave us “sheep” today, and those who are our human “shepherds”?

We of Trinity, Seattle and St. Mark’s, Berkeley, both as communities and as individuals, and many in other places, are in times of transition. Like the earthquake that struck here on Ash Wednesday of 2001, the earth moves beneath us, people we know and love leave us, and we are left wondering if there is any stability at all.  But this is the very time we need Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Search Committees need to listen for and to his voice. Each of us--and all of us together--must be willing to follow where he leads. But how do we do this?

It is here that the other readings today speak. For it is Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, who testifies that healing comes in Jesus name; there is help in no other. It is the voice of the Holy Spirit that will become our “Good Shepherd” after Jesus ascends to the Father. It is the Spirit who will be poured upon us with the gifts we will need to follow in “The Way”, the earliest name for the Christian life. It is the Spirit who will lead remind us of all that Jesus, the Good Shepherd said, who will lead us into all truth and who will comfort us--literally--give us strength--to continue to be Jesus’ hands and feet, eyes and heart in the world.

And what of human shepherds? Are there any human “Good Shepherds”? How will we know? At best, we are but faint reflections of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. But there is encouragement for us. Listen again to some words from the First Letter of John:

          We know love by this, that he [Jesus] laid down his life

            for us--and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.

            Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in

            truth and action. ...And by this we know he abides in us,

            by the Spirit that he has given us.

It is by love that we reflect the way of the Good Shepherd. And it is to the extent that we love one another in truth and action that we reflect Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

I AM the good shepherd, I pasture my sheep,

For them I lay down my life. Alleluia!



[Note: This paragraph is special to the day.]



Jan Robitscher and Fr. Paul Collins

Dear friends in Christ, and especially my friend, Fr. Paul--How can I ever thank you for the opportunities to preach and teach over all these past almost 20 years, some 14 of them here at Trinity? More than that, it has been an honor and privilege to have watched you; to watch the “flock” of St. Hilda’s-St. Patrick’s and then here at Trinity Parish grow and flourish; to have participated with you in retreats; to share with you the Word of God and to give into the hands of this community the very life of Jesus the Good Shepherd. Fr. Paul, you surely deserve a rest from your responsibilities, which have been a true reflection of the Good Shepherd. I am confident that you will go forward with whoever comes next to even more glorious worship and to greater ministry. 

But in the meantime, follow Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Listen for his voice. Welcome the Holy Spirit. Use all of the gifts bestowed upon you, and Jesus, the Good Shepherd, will lead you to just the place you need to be.  Let us pray:

         

                   O God, whose son Jesus Christ is the good shepherd

                        of your people: Grant that when we may hear his voice

                        we may know him who calls us by name, and follow

                        where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit,

                        lives and reigns, one God for ever and ever. AMEN.

Homily: Monday in Holy Week, CDSP Chapel April 2, 2012...We have completed the forty days...

“...and Lazarus was one of those at table with him.”
(Jn. 12: 2)


Monday in Holy Week      
Jan Robitscher
CDSP Chapel 
April 2, 2012

                                                                                                                              

                        Isaiah 42:1-9                                                                                                                                                                     

                        Psalm 36:5-11                                                                                                                                                                   

                        Hebrews 9:11-15

                        John 12:1-11

In the Name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

                We have completed the forty days 

                that bring profit to our soul.

                Now we ask you in your love for us: 

                Grant us also to behold the Holy Week

                of your suffering and death,

                so that in it we may glorify your mighty acts

                and your purpose for us, 

                too great for words.

                May sing with one accord: 

                O Lord, glory be to you.    

                                                                        The canon on the Resurrection of Lazarus by Saint Andrew of Crete,                                                                                      chanted at Vespers the night before Lazarus Saturday.1 

The Saturday before Palm Sunday is, for our Orthodox counterparts, devoted to this story of Lazarus. It is celebrated as a day of joy, with hymns with resurrection themes.  Wine and oil are allowed on this day, and special spice breads called Lazarakia are made and eaten. It is also a custom to make elaborate crosses of palm leaves or olive branches which are used on Palm Sunday. For the Orthodox, Lazarus holds a central role in their celebrations of Holy Week.

Orthodox Easter is not until a week after ours, and we, in the West, have not quite completed the forty days, but we are at the beginning of Holy Week. And we celebrate it knowing the end of the story. But between here and there is something like a labyrinth, or the road we must walk, which begins at the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry and ends at the beginning of his new  resurrected life.  So let us begin with the scene from today’s Gospel.

Two memories come to mind. The first is a poster I had in college, the one with bread and wine and the words:

                                                JESUS OF NAZARETH REQUESTS 

                                                THE HONOR OF YOUR PRESENCE

                                                AT A DINNER TO BE GIVEN IN HIS HONOR.

The second is that I once saw a painting or an icon representing the dinner party Mary threw for Jesus in the home of Lazarus. Jesus was there, and Mary and Martha. and Lazarus. What was striking about the icon was that Lazarus was depicted as being green--resurrected and yet still corrupted, unbound by the shroud that encased him when Jesus called him forth from the tomb.  It was about as strange a picture as this story is--and yet it spoke a deep truth.

The story of the raising of Lazarus, which just precedes today’s Gospel, is Jesus’ final miracle before his Passion. In the earliest lectionaries for Lent, it was read (and still is in Year A) proclaimed on the fifth Sunday, the climax of the miracles which were meant to help prepare candidates for baptism. It is also the fifth of the I AM sayings of Jesus, 

                “I AM the resurrection and the life. Those who believe

                in me, even though they die, will live.” (Jn. 11:25)

Today’s reading happens just after that, and features two elements: that Lazarus, called from the tomb, is present at the meal as a guest(the meal is in Jesus’ honor) and the anointing of Jesus by Mary. 

The raising of Lazarus is the culminating miracle, revealing both Jesus’ humanity (he wept at the tomb of Lazarus) and that at death, as we say, “life is changed, not ended”, showing Jesus’ divine sovereignty over time and space, life and death. But it is also the immediate and precipitating cause of Jesus’ death; it is the final sign that attracted crowds of believers, convincing the authorities that they must kill Jesus, setting in motion all of the rest of the events of his Passion.  

The focus of the dinner party, however, is not the miraculous presence of the “risen” Lazarus, but Mary, presumably the sister of Martha.  

Mary’s act of anointing Jesus was, for her, an act of adoration, an expression of her love for Jesus. But, whether she knew it or not (and clearly those hearing this story were intended to know) her anointing of Jesus was a prophetic act. For what she did confessed Jesus as Messiah and was also a preparation for his burial. She knew Jesus was to die. Moreover, she used very expensive nard, made from the plant and  probably imported from India. Little wonder that Judas objected, albeit for all the wrong reasons. Mary held nothing back and was not afraid to touch Jesus and to show her devotion to him. This act also foreshadows Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet. The fragrance from the nard filled the whole house.2 

And what of Martha, ever the busy one? Without Martha the dinner would not have happened. Without Mary, Jesus would not have been anointed for his burial. Without Lazarus, loved by them all, they would not have seen Jesus as the Lord of Life. All of them are necessary to the story. Each of them calls us to a different aspect of our walk through Holy Week.

What draws all of these people and actions together is the lesson Jesus taught by his own life, Passion, death and resurrection: that if we want to have life, we must be willing to die; to ourselves, to all the powers that draw us from God, to this very life, itself.  And this Holy Week Jesus imvites us to walk with him through his Passion and death, all the way to the empty tomb of Easter morning.

In the recent experience of my mother’s death, I knew the “long good-bye” of her dementia. I knew there there was a finality about her death. No resurrection dinners as Lazarus had. But I also had the experience that “life is changed, not ended” and I am certain in the knowledge and faith that Lazarus’ brief resurrection was but a faint echo of Jesus’ resurrection and our eternal life with him. 

                                               

                                                JESUS OF NAZARETH REQUESTS 

                                                THE HONOR OF YOUR PRESENCE

                                                AT A DINNER TO BE GIVEN IN HIS HONOR.

We are invited to the dinner given in Jesus’ honor. Here, at this table we will receive the food that will sustain us on our Holy Week walk through the story of Jesus’ Passion and death and resurrection; here we will remember Jesus’ death and receive his Body and Blood, food to sustain us now and to eternal life.