Out of the Mouths of Babes – or – What I learned from VBS

We all know that kids say the darndest things… but they also speak deep truths and absolutely astound me with their questions.  They are unafraid to wonder, not shy with their uncertainties, and will ask until they get a satisfactory answer.

Although I have been a pastor for five years, I have not spent very much time at all teaching little ones.  My church has some dedicated Sunday School teachers and I have been blessed by their work.  I do make the time and effort to lead the children’s sermon each week – in part because it is important for the little ones to know me and for me to spend some time talking on their level.  But two-five minutes a week is nothing compared to the opportunities I had last week to teach students at Vacation Bible School.

Our community Presbyterian, Catholic and United Methodist churches sponsor a community wide VBS each year.  The program was up and running long before I showed up and it is absolutely wonderful.  Working together, we can do so much more than we could apart.  And this year we had 65 students ages three through fifth grade.  For the past two years, I participated as a shepherd for the 3 and 4 year olds.  I moved them from station to station (crafts, music, snack, lesson, games), watched over potty breaks, wiped away tears, had little ones sitting on my lap and we played LOTS of “duck, duck, goose.”  It was fascinating to watch them think, to get to know each of them better, and to love on them.

But for each of those years, I didn’t have to teach.  I didn’t have to answer questions.  I was hands and feet and eyes and ears and didn’t have to say a whole lot.  Which was kind of nice.

This year, I was recruited to lead the lesson time for all of the students.  In 20 minute blocks, students came to me in my basement forest campground and we told stories around my “campfire.”

Let me tell you, 20 minutes is NOT enough time to tell a story. Especially with the questions and insights these kids have.

Our very first lesson: Jesus calming the wind and the waves.  I have my script in hand courtesy of the prepared and purchased VBS kit and launch into the story about how Jesus, God’s Son, had fallen asleep on the boat.  A hand shoots up among from amongs the first and second grade class.

“But, I thought Jesus was God…”

I get my bearings… “Yes, Jesus is God.”

“But you said Jesus was God’s Son.”

“Yes, I did.  And Yes, he is.”

“But…”

“I know… It’s confusing.  I’m confused, too!”

These kids don’t miss a beat.  And they are asking the exact same question their parents and grandparents are often afraid to ask.  Questions that simply can’t be answered in twenty minutes when we need to tell a story, pray, memorize a bible verse, and hit home the point of the theme for the night.

“How do we pray?”

“How does God answer my prayers… will God talk to me? How long will it take?  Do I just wait until I hear him?”

“What is the Holy Spirit?”

“How did Jesus die?” (as I’m holding up the empty wooden cross… try explaining capital punishment to a three year old in thirty seconds!)

“If Jesus is God, then did God die on the cross, too?”

“If Jesus forgives me, why do I still have to sit in time-out?”

“Are angels real?”

Those kids kept me on my toes!  They wracked my brain, theologically speaking.  Especially one little girl who had lots and lots of questions about prayer.  We talk a lot about praying to God and praying to Jesus, and she had just reached this stage in her development where saying a wrote prayer wasn’t enough.  She wanted to know how prayer worked – how it could change her life – how it could really and truly make her feel better when she was scared.  We talked about how prayer is a conversation, how we can close our eyes and clasp our hands to pray or stand outside and shout to the skies.  But then she wanted to know about how God answers… what does God do to make us feel better?  Does he talk to us?  Does he fix things?  Does he send people?  I wanted to wrap her up in my arms and thank her for all of her amazing questions and sit and talk with her for hours…

I learned from Vacation Bible School that we have some amazing little kids in our community.

I learned that the simplest questions are the hardest.

I learned that I felt very uncomfortable trying to use substitutionary atonement (the predominant theology of the materials) to explain why Jesus died for us to the little ones and did much better with the “Christ as King” metaphors… although it took me two classes to get to that point.

I learned that with a few sheets and some plants and ceramic animals, a basement can transform from a lake to a field to a desert… and that the kids will go right along with you.

I learned that telling stories is a lot of work and exhausting for my body and my voice.

I learned that there have got to be better ways of teaching prayer to kids than having them close their eyes and clasp their hands and repeat after us.

I learned that I have a lot to learn about teaching children.

I learned that dried allium makes excellent tumbleweeds and a card table with some pillows and a blanket makes a very convincing bear/lion cave.

I learned that kids would much rather be sheep and lions and camels than kids.

I learned that the allure of a “bear cave” or an open tent flap is just too much for some little ones to take 😉

I learned that even at four and five, we have a hard time admitting that we are sometimes bad and make mistakes and get into trouble.

I learned to be grateful for all of those people, everywhere, but especially in Marengo last week, who teach our little ones.

A Love Letter from God

Dear Church,

I’m not often in the habit of writing letters. My apostle, Paul, loved to write letters and you have quite a few of those contained in the scriptures. I guess I did write seven letters some time ago – to seven different churches… but I digress…. This isn’t something I do a whole lot of.

Let me properly introduce myself. I am God.
The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
One in Three and Three in One.
I know that sometimes that gets confusing. I know its down right difficult to understand. I designed those brains of yours. I know it is not easy.
So, here is a simple word of advice… don’t try to understand my Triune nature… you can’t. It’s not a puzzle to be solved or a question to be answered. It is a mystery. And that is okay.
Here is what you do need to understand however:
The basic truth about me is love.

I love you and I want you to love me and I want you to love one another.

That’s it.

Seems simple enough, doesn’t it?

A long time ago, the ancient world understood that I was triune… that I was three and that I was one… because they understood me as love.

As the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I am perfect and wholly and beautifully complete. Love between and throughout and within. My unity means that I am love.

And all of that love within me poured out into creation.

One of your modern day pastors put it well… although I’m going to put it into my own words:

I love you enough to be the Creator who created the whole universe and every creature, I am the one who created you and gave you the very breath of life.

I love you enough to be the Redeemer who has saved and redeemed the world from sin, sorrow, and separation so that you might be joined to my love forever…

And… I love you enough to be the Spirit/Guiding God who is at work in you inspiring, strengthening, guiding, advocating, and illuminating you in your being. (Rev. Dr. James B. Lemler)

Everything that you know of me… everything that you have experienced of me…. Is love.

Think about it.

The very act of creation was the love within me as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit bubbling over and outward.

Your very life is an expression of my love.

From the very beginning I have been calling your brothers and sisters, and now you, by name… beckoning you into a relationship with me.

From the beginning I created you to be in relationship with other people – loving them, caring for them. And I know this because I created you to be just like me… capable of loving and uniting yourself with others.

And through it all… no matter how many times you turned away and your love faltered and puttered out and got angry… I stayed there.

With the love of a father and a mother, I sometimes used harsh words. I sometimes used thorough punishment.

But just like you know that the mouth in the soap or the spanking from your earthly father or mother was meant out of love… so too, my actions have always been out of love for you.

I want you to hear this very plainly: I love you.

I know that you are messed up and make mistakes and that there are a thousand reasons I shouldn’t.

But guess what.

I. Love. You.

Just as you are. With all of your issues and flaws.

I created you. I breathed into you my life. And no matter how many nicks and scratches you have – You Are Mine. And I love you.

Don’t you remember what John told you?

I’m sure that you can even say it by heart…

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” NKJV

It’s true!

I loved you all so much that my very life was outpoured and given out and broken for you. There is this fancy word for that… kenosis… but it really just means that I emptied myself for you… just like the wine that pours out of the jug – the blood of the new covenant poured out for you.

I didn’t go through all of that just to point a finger and tell you how awful you were… I did it to show my deep, abiding, steadfast, forever love for you.

I did it to put you back on the right paths, to give you a chance to start fresh. I did it because I loved you.

Because even though you are awesome just the way you are… I also love you too much to let you stay that way. (Anne Lamott)

The life I poured into your life… it wasn’t a one time offer. Every day, every hour, every minute you can come to me… pray with me… talk with me… and my Spirit will encourage you and enfold you in my love an grace and help you to find peace in this world.
My love transforms. It changes lives. It is powerful.
And you know what, church?
I put that love inside of you, because I want you to help me to spread it.
This great and awesome mystery of my love is not something for the pastors and the academics to hole up and discuss… it is meant to be shared. This mystery is YOURS.
I want you to baptize others into this love. I want you to welcome others into this love. I want you to let this love be a part of your life… every single day.
Do you remember my faithful friend, Paul, and all of those letters he wrote?
Well, something that was very important to him was to begin and end every letter with encouragement.
Take one of his letters to the people of Corinth for example. He wrote to them:

…brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. 13The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

Isn’t that nice?

With simple words, he reminded them to live with one another just as I live. Ordered. Listening. Responsive. Peaceful. Open. Loving.

Those words describe how I am… how I can be three and one all at the same time. It describes what it takes to live in unity.

And then he closes his letter by praying that my love and grace and communion – my fellowship – might be with you.

That is the most powerful thing that anyone can write.

Because in doing so, he is reminding you that only in my love are you fully alive. And his is praying that my love might pour out again on you.

You see, that is my mission. That is all I want to do. To pour out my love upon the whole world and to gather it all up in that love.

And I created you to do that also. I created you to pour out my love and grace and fellowship upon other people. To invite them into that love. And to love them the way that I loved you.

Church – can you do that?

Let me rephrase the question… because I know you CAN do it… I gave you the power to do it.

Church – will you do that?

Love, God.

Doctrine of God… or something.

When I submitted my candidacy papers, I had just finished Constructive Theology.  I was in a totally heady space, although I also had a lot of practical application involved. 

In my first round of papers, here is how I talked about God:

We have come to know and trust in God primarily through scripture – which holds the accounts of faithful witnesses to God’s work in history. There we learn that the God we worship is not a passive entity, but jealous, powerful, and always seeking relationship with creation. While some theologians begin with the via positiva or via negativa to describe God, Wesleyan theology begins with the scriptures and from that place, redefines the “natural characteristics” of God. We come to know God’s nature through the covenant made with the Hebrew people and the new covenant of Jesus Christ, as well as the continuing witness of the Holy Spirit. Above all, these actions tell us that God works in ways that invite human response and gives us the power to respond in faith. This is particularly true in regards to God’s power – which Randy Maddox argues must “not be defined or defended in any way that undercuts human responsibility.” God seeks to work in co-operative ways; ways that build, rather than destroy, relationship…

In his own time, Wesley was familiar with not only the Western notions of the divine, but also explored Eastern conceptions as well, which Maddox claims influenced his theology in subtle, though profound ways. Though he never directly claimed the Eastern Orthodox understanding of perichoresis as a description of the Trinity, it is not disconsonant with other of his claims, and in fact helps us to comprehend the relational nature of God. If our sources and the ways in which God is revealed are diverse (the economic Trinity) and yet always in need of one another, it would make sense to assume that God’s internal relations (the immanent Trinity) are likewise diverse and in need of a constant dance.

I still remember one of my Board of Ministry team members saying:  I was a little worried about you after I read the answers to your first question… but then you got more practical. 

Note to that team member:  I actually did teach perichoresis… in a children’s sermon, nonetheless… we got up and danced in a circle and it was fabulous.

The ordination papers as I understand them are meant to be more practical and experiential.  So here is my answer to the question:
How has the practice of ministry affected your experience and understanding of God?
I have always firmly believed that God is relational and so it will come as no surprise that I have found and experienced God in the midst of the congregation. The lives of my parishioners carry on the story of God that was begun with the Hebrew people and we weave together our experience of God with the scriptures that have been passed on to us for future generations.
That understanding of God, however, has been most directly challenged and stretched in the practice of ministry through encountering over and over again the via positiva. So many in my congregation experience God as omnipotent, omni-present and omniscient and therefore see every minute detail of their lives as having been directly set into motion by the God of the universe. On the one hand, it gives me pause as I think about how various pieces of my own life have fallen into place by the grace of God. On the other hand, as a Wesleyan theologian, I also want to fight against determinism. I still hold firmly an understanding of God derived from scriptures – that God works in ways that invite human response and gives us the power to respond in faith, a god that allows it to rain on the just and unjust alike. I recoil when I hear a congregation member talk about how God caused something to happen in their life in order to bring them to faith. While it may be the result of such a time of tragedy that brought about their faith, I refuse to believe God causes pain and suffering in one person in order to reach another.
As I work with congregational members as their pastor and teacher, being able to talk about our Triune God, is immensely powerful. I can share with them my firm belief that in all situations, the Father of us all has always desired a relationship with each one of us. I can talk with them about the sacrificial love of Christ Jesus who died so that we might live… who died to bring us faith so that others do not have to die or suffer for that reason. I can talk about the Holy Comforter walking with each and every single one of us through the valley of the shadow of death. Our encounter with God in the scriptures is so much richer and deeper than any attribute we might postulate about our creator and redeemer and sanctifier.

Photo by: William Vermeulen

Moltmann Conversation – Breakout Workshop on the future that is coming towards us

Finding the Future Session:

• Recognizing wisdom in the gathered congregation – tool for genereative listening

• Cataphatic = likes images, sensual concepts; apaphatic = way of negation

• Website – blog Sabbath journey (typepad) http://web.mac.com/terrychapman/A_SABBATH_JOURNEY/BEGIN_HERE_files/Moltmann%20Breakout%20Group%208-26.pdf

• Icarus – Matisse… Sabbath is a way to a safe place in the heart of creation (6 stars/birds) – when we stop to rest, God is there for us. Life is not endless productivity! We don’t have to opt into Pharoah’s plan of endless productivity.

• Gospel of Evacuation (the chasm, the bridge) – future was always important to him in his history

o Moltmann – this gospel draws love away from this life to the hereafter, spreading despair in this life, we only live here half-heartedly – sell off these treasures cheap to heaven – in theory it’s a refusal to live, a religious atheism
o Subjects eschatology to chronos – flattens the big picture – the dance of God in 4 steps (1) creation, 1a) the crisis, 2) covenant, 2a) conversation. 3) incarnation, 3a) gospel/cross 4) resurrection 4a) easter, the beginning

• Cardiography – scientific monitoring of the heart – measure the heartbeat of what is wanting to be born

• The telos, the future that wants to happen is also moving towards us… so he’s not a cartographer, not a map-maker .. this measures the heart, more of noticing our posture as we face the future

• Metaphorical tool to carry over God’s unfolding future into our lives so that we can build a praxis for our congregations

o God as wholly other – the canvas of all that is – the zinsum, the self-restriction = separate and different, but encompassing all (he can still hold all of the omni’s – because within God there is self-withdrawl… kenosis!!?!!) (chora – empty space in the middle of the perichoretic dance) God created us and set us in the place that he had

o In the eschatological moment, God fully dwells back into that space and is all in all – primordial time and space of creation will end when creation becomes the eternal temple for God’s Shekinah. (Moltmann)

o Center of the circles – mandorla (almond) – overlapping of realities – al lot of Christian art is framed in this image, the almond… (heaven and earth, good and evil,)

o Add temporal dimensions – chronos (temporal time) – aeon (eternity – fullness), mandorla = kairos! – the moment that is pregnant with opportunity, the aha!, that of eternity that we experience now – the time and place of transformation!

o Does time happen in creation, or creation in time? Moltmann – time happens in creation – time is created.

o Biblical God is in time and beyond time (chronos, and aeon)
• Sabbath = a broad place, kairotic Sabbath place – two pillars of sabbath: covenant and creation, from both the chronos and aeon
• See slide 11 for covenant – incarnation (shekinah – assumption… God’s revelation in history) on the chronos side, and creation – resurrection on the aeon side (god as all in all)
• Generative idea of the Sabbath – in stopping, there is a memory of covenant that is renewed
• Early Christians practiced both Sabbath and lord’s day for 200 years – because both were important!

o Trinity same way (but I might disagree here, we need 3 circles)

o Praxis rooted in presence: present – absolute future – mandorla = epiphany of the ordinary = transformational osmosis – moment where the spirit seeps into our lives, from a region of higher concentration to that of lower concentration through a semi-permeable membrane – human soul into all of creation

o EVERYTHING CHANGES in Epiphany

o Within our chronological sphere – field of freedom, field of awareness conscious/intention. NOT Autonomy. Free when we confess the sacred bounds – bounded by love and justice and our covenant relationship. We don’t like bounded freedom, we would rather be unbounded Conscious/Intentional vs. Unconscious/Conventional

o John 3:16: the Aramaic and the Hebrew word for love is rechemet – womb (sounds a lot like zimzum) God created a place in God’s self for love, for creation – move into this space in order to be reborn (the part of freedom that is in the mandorla) so that we are transformed!

o Inconsumation (Rholheizer?) – the place of beginning of longing and restlessness – it is in the torment of the insufficiencies of everything attainable in this life that we come to realize that all symphonies remain unfinished. – we can never satisfy that longing in this life, we need a mourning of that loss (Jephthah’s daughter) – the only hope is God, but it’s an infinite horizon… don’t try to fill it with things, feeling of desolation

o Inconsumation and Kenosis, through transformation we experience discernment – innovation, breakthrough, co-creation – 8th day of the new creation

o When we are far away from the kairotic moment, time seems driven and chaotic, – when we get to the intersection, time seems to stop… crises can move us into these kairotic moments – instant community can form, sometimes we stumble onto kairotic moments but we look for intentionality – how we can move into these places

o We normally operate without going deep into this transformative kairotic moment – we talk-judge-pray-act-talk-….. and we bump up against that sacred/future, but never enter it. we restructure, reengineer, rearrange and are stuck

o Theory U (slide 23) – Shirmer
• On the edge = downloading, operating only from the assumptions from the past, living conventionally and unconsciously
• Open mind
• Open heart
• Open will
• Allow inner knowledge to emerge and act in an instant

o Learn by reflecting on past (downloading)

o OR learn from the future as it emerges (presencing)

o Applying theory U to the mandorla = downloading on the blindspot – moving through open mind (go to the limits), heart (step out of self), will (letting go) to the center. New information, relationships, letting go of it all – trust into the place of transformation…

o out of this place of transformation comes discernment. – new choices based on a new perspective = practice becomes the 8th day – co-creation… so our discernment gives us the power to innovate/participate…

o but this is a journey, so we always need to begin this cycle again

o RESISTANCES
• To the open mind = voice of judgment, we need to suspend these voices
• To the open heart = voice of cynicism, the emotions of disconnection that keep us from going forward, requires commitment to love
• To the open will = voice of fear, fear of letting go of familiar, fear of surrendering into some unknown, requires commitment to courage, letting go of the things that we think are our “selves” to open ourself up to the Self.
• Many obstacles to discernment (crystallizing for Shirmer)
• Need for a holding space – world café, open space, spiritual direction

o Agricultural metaphor for this process in Psalm 126 “those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.” Farmer has to take the grain that could be used for bread now, has to sow for the future, memory of the “harvest” enables the letting go of the “seed”

o Language of our experiences – we tell our stories, “what was that like? – metaphor, to the ineffable – the wordless/place of transformation/sit in silence/cry/joy, to the mystery….
• As people in our congregations tell their stories, tease out the metaphor, help them to stay with that for a while – if they are open to God’s presence, they will move to a place of kairos

o Movement – Brueggemann (slide 44) – OT paradigm Psalm 30 or 73… life, death, resurrection

o Eastern tradition of deification, the impossible/possible, God all in all as the spheres merge

o Kairotic moment of possibility that comes in crisis is very narrow – but through intentional movement of transformation and deliberately letting go creates a wider space for transformation.

Moltmann Conversation – 1: Method/Life

• Talking about theological method is like listening to someone clearing their throat – if you do it too long, people will leave

• Easy to tell, difficult to live through these years. Born in 20’s in Hamburg, secular family of educators, no connections to a church – NO church in Hamburg,

• Went to Christmas eve not to celebrate birth of Christ, but to celebrate the holy family: father, mother and first child

• Wanted to study physics – @ 16 started studying quantum physics, but then drafted into German army

• Royal Air Force came and destroyed Hamburg w/ “firestorm” – 14,000 (40,000?) people died on these nights at the end of July, mostly women and children b/c the men were already on the front lines… person standing next to him was bombed, and he was spared – “inconceivably”

o Two questions – Where is God? Why am I not dead like the others?

o These two questions followed him and tortured him for years

• Became a prisoner of war – spent time asking those questions

• My return to life from completely desperate, all prisoners in the camp were trying to conceal their wounded seals by an armor of untouchability

o Blooming cherry tree: overwhelmed by this demonstration of life that he nearly collapsed – still feel the weakness in his knees as he remembers it

o Scottish brothers were so kind to them as their enemies – looked at them like human beings – sensed forgiveness of guilt without confessing

o Distributed bibles (would have expected cigarettes!) and found the psalms of lament – esp Psalm 39.. lost his interest in poems of gothe and faust and started reading the psalms and the death cry of Jesus “my God, my God, why have your forsaken me” – found a fellow sufferer who understands

• Felt jesus in his life and felt like he was taking him (a lost prisoner) up to the resurrection… lost interest in math/physics and wanted to find the truth of Christian faith – seeking God

• Education camp for teachers in post war germany – funded by an American businessman

• First theology book he read was Nehibors “nature and destiny of man” then learned Hebrew and greek… first contact with the church

• Returned hom in April of 48 – his soul was healed from the wounds of the war in the post war time – had come together with Jacob through the struggle with the dark side of God. Experienced the dark sides of God and that experience was also the warmth of his love, the presence of his countenance, the shining face.

• Met wife @ school… passed doctoral examinations and a wedding in same year

• Impression after reading Barth that there can be no new theology, so turned to study of history of reformed theology.

• Began as a pastor in a rural congregation – I had a PHD, but was trying to bridge life experience to life experience – but couldn’t build a connection with them – they were all with their cows! More interested in the 10 commandments than in existential self-understanding problems

• As a pastor had young/old/all the problems of life – as a professor had only young students and a distance between him and the others – hard to bring life into this more distant way of doing theology than he experienced in his congregation

• Guest prof at Duke – differences between German and Duke students… G – What is the church?, Duke – How to run the church?

• Saw race relations in the US in the 60’s – MLK Jr. shot when he was at a conference – “was this the end of my American dream?”

• Began to love America after witnessing a sit-in, people standing up for what they believed in, holding on to hope, “We Shall Over Come”

Conversation pieces:
The significance of what it meant for him to convert from a secular culture is hard to imagine… what is the message of Faust, Gothe – what was the appeal of it: do good, love the beauty of nature, follow your instinct for adventures of life – humanism, freewill of reason and emotions. Gothe was convinced God is present everywhere and everything is divine – with this supposition, you can’t go through war, and imprisonment and suffering – it collapses very quickly.

In the war you had close friends die right in front of you, you learned Hitler was exterminating Jews, were these some of the events that caused that to collapse: There were no words for these experiences of forsakenness and destruction – I found the words in the psalms of lament and in Jesus

“all the best theologians were pastors” Do you continue to draw on those years of pastoral ministry?: when a theological thought occurs to me, I ask what would the people think about it, what would they make with it. Then of course, the people of my congregation appear in my virtual eyes and react to it. Listen to the people’s questions and their answers. The people should not be shy and get away from “professional theology” but should take responsibility for their education – they have connections!!

Can you tell us the story of being in Latin America: I cam by chance to live there, was invited to give lectures in Buenos Aires and then went to other schools there. Managua, Nicaragua which had been destroyed by war – very self-conscious people, had won their freedom by themselves. Story of how his book “the crucified God” fell out of the bookshelf into the blood of Sobrino when he was killed.
o Conference with liberation theologians – comparison with Marxism, labels thrown around… He knew Marx very well, but he was not a Marxist – the next day, realized all the liberation theologians in Brazil were white! Not black! Then someone from Cuba looked around and said more than a half of humankind is female – there are no females in the room!

Franke read from EinT, my favorite is intro to the Trinity and the Kingdom of God. You write in preface that after talking to liberation theologians, you realized you were a white, German theologian – so talked about 6 contributions. Impact of burgeoning liberational theology world: Started in theology of hope – resurrection of Christ; then turned b/c antinomianism to the experiences of the cross; book on the crucifixion only – Jesus as son of God and God the Father and we asked where is the Holy Spirit? I found it and wrote this social doctrine of the trinity because since Augustine, we have a psychological doctrine of the trinity – his image is the subject of will and reason – Christ and H.S. – This I found misleading ecause then the misleading b/c then HS only the interrelationship – but they are already interrelated! If the HS is the relationship, then the HS is not a subject! In the Western tradition in the icons of the Trinity – two persons and the dove… in the Eastern tradition – three angels sitting around the table. For a complete doctrine of the trinity, we need the idea to create the social doctrine of the trinity – F/S/HS interrelated, perichoresis, mutual indwelling… then it is completely clear that the Christain congregation is a good image of the Trinity… we are one and we are in one another. Holy Trinity as most basic community. It’s not a mystery – it’s very simple. If you come to fellowship with Jesus, you come into fellowship with the God he called Abba-Father, and you feel the life giving energies of the Spirit. Before we developed the doctrine of the trinity, we lived already in God, surrounded by God – we don’t believe in the Trinity, we live in the Trinity

Appreciate the way you have helped us talk about the unity of the trinity. Jesus said I and the father are one – not one and the same. DS comes from a non-doctrine based church… their unity comes not from their doctrine but through Christ who provides the unity. As pastors of congregations where there are disagreements – this unity that is not sameness is important: Jesus addressed God as Abba-Father, Paul heard the abba prayer in Galatia and Rome, but after the first century, the prayer disappeared and was replaced with “Our Father who art in Heaven” with a great distance, patriarchalism… if we would use the Abba prayer, we would feel the presence of Jesus in that moment! Tried to convince congregations to replace Lord’s Prayer with Abba prayer – because then you are already in the Trinity. Not just three persons, but three rooms- they give room for the other persons within.

If the man was right.. the world would be too

In the beginning…. Before even this world was created… from the very start of it all… there was God.

I don’t know about you, but thinking about what was going on before our world was created gives me a headache. It makes my brain go all fuzzy. Because we don’t know and we can’t know what God was doing, what God was thinking, and what God was feeling.

If we look at the beginning of Genesis, we can figure out a few things… the earth actually did exist in the beginning… it was a mushy, gushy, blob of matter, but there was something there. And there was darkness… lots of darkness… everything was dark. And there was water. “The deep” is what Genesis calls it… the bottomless, endless, Iowa River out of its banks kind of water.

And… there was God.

Now, I’m going to think of this purely from a creative and imaginative perspective. If all that surrounded me was a blob of shapeless matter, utter darkness, and water, water, everywhere, I’m not sure that I would be a very happy person. It would be kind of depressing. It would be so dark and damp and cold. Part of me thinks – well, no wonder God created the heavens and the earth – just for some company! Just for something to do!

But if we think this way – we are ignoring the fact that God wasn’t alone. God wasn’t unhappy. God didn’t decide to create the heavens and the earth to make some friends or to play with us. God was perfectly complete already.

Do any of you remember what I showed to the kids a few minutes ago? What did I say that God was like? (ROUND DANCE)… Round Dance, that’s right… Now there is actually a big fancy word for that round dance that is God… and it’s called Peri-choresis… say it with me now: peri-choresis.

Now, this can be a really strange concept to understand, but it describes the way that the three persons of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all relate, all dwell with one another. Just listen to these scriptures for a glimpse of what I mean:

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. (John 1:1-3)

”I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17: 20-26)

“I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Therefore, “whoever sees me, sees the Father,” for “I and the Father are one” (John 14: 9-11, 10, 30).

How this happens is a complete mystery to me, but over and over again, we are told in the scriptures that the Father and the Son are one, along with the Holy Spirit. Together, within each other, moving in unison, with one will and one desire, the Holy Trinity is complete, perfect, and needs nothing else.

I guess another way to say it is that before creation, before you and me, before this planet was formed… there were relationships and there was love. Jurgen Moltmann writes in The Living Pulpit that “achievement, individualism, independence, and self-assertion are contrary to the very nature of reality— for all that God has made reflects the character and nature of God.” Our God is not a single, solitary, God… no, with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit together, our God is a community.

And the world that God creates is meant to be about relationship as well.

You see, from the very beginning, we were created as an extension of God’s love and relationship. We were created to participate, to share, in God’s love.

Each and every thing that is created by God has a place…. the earth and its vegetation relies upon the light of the sun for its food and energy… the creatures of the earth rely upon that same vegetation for their food…. I’m reminded of Disney’s movie – The Lion King, and Elton John’s song… the Circle of Life

“From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun
There’s more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There’s far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round

It’s the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life”

As someone who studied science for a brief while before venturing back over into the world of religion, I am always amazed at how fragile and delicate that circle of life is. How intricate the relationships God created in this planet are. How this earth holds just the right balance of sun and water and air to sustain life. And how all of it is God’s doing.

You, know we could spend hours debating which of the two creation stories (yes, there are two versions within our very bibles) are the most accurate… we could launch into a huge discussion about the bible verses science or creation and evolution… but I am not really sure that any of those debates matter. Because the one thing we know is that God has a hand in our creation… and we are made for relationship.

After the rest of the world was finished… God look around and saw that it was good. But then God decided to make one more thing… to make humankind… to make us… in the image of God.

This week in the roundtable pulpit group, we talked a little bit about what that image of God might mean. And we talked about our ability to think and to reason. We talked about the power that we are given to care for other things.

The image of God can also mean that we have been stamped, have been marked as belonging to God. In much older days, a messenger would carry the image of his master in order to prove to another person who he belongs to – who he represents. And so for us to be created in the image of God, means that we represent God to the rest of the world – and to one another.

On this Trinity Sunday – on the day that we remember and celebrate that God is Three-In-One… I think that the image of God and what we represent takes on a whole new meaning.

The image of God means that we are created for and in relationship.

If we jump ahead to the “other” creation story, God actually creates only one human being. And that being is made out of the earth and God breathes life into this human. But then God realizes that it is not good for the human to be alone – that like the divine God – the human needs a partner, needs a relationship with others to be complete, to be whole.

In Genesis 1 we read: So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Unique, distinct, and yet the same – created to be one.

And created with a job to do. This world is not our playground – it is not a treasure chest of goods that we can plunder… it is given to us to take care of. When we think today of the words subdue and dominion we often think of power and tyrants… but we have to think of “dominion” from the perspective of Israel… where the King had dominion over the people – but that also included a responsibility to care for those he ruled. We are to be stewards of the creation, to care for it and tend it, because after all, it does not belong to us – but to God. We are merely servants of God.

Within our United Methodist Church, today is not only Trinity Sunday, but also Peace with Justice Sunday… and it is also a reminder that we are created to care for one another – to be in relationship with one another.
In the resources for Peace with Justice Sunday, there was this story of a father and a son…

A father was minding his son while trying to study. The boy simply would not leave him alone.

In desperation the father thought of a plan. Thumbing through a magazine, he saw a map of the world and explained to his son that this was a picture of our hemisphere. Tearing the picture into pieces, the father said if the boy would put it back together, he would reward him with a surprise. The father left the room, confident he would not be disturbed for the rest of the afternoon. Imagine his surprise when his son soon called him to the other room to see the finished puzzle.

“How did you do this?” the astonished father asked. “You don’t know what the world looks like.”

“No, Daddy,” the boy replied, “but when you tore it out of the magazine, I saw a picture of a man on the other side. I know what a man looks like, so I put the man together. If the man was right, the world would be right too.”

What a profound truth: “If the man was right, the world would be right too.” With God’s help, we have the power to make the world right.(–Jeanie Stoppel)
Peace with Justice Sunday reminds us that the power we have is a gift from God and we are to use to towards the same ends God desires for the world. We are to love with the same kind of love as God. We are to see others as fellow beings, who are created for relationship with us. And we are to see this world as a gift, as God’s holy place, as the place where we are meant to live and grow and thrive.
Let us live our lives as good stewards of this creation. Let us live our lives as brothers and sisters with all of our fellow human beings. Let us live our lives always searching for God’s will. And let us live our lives representing the one who created us… the three-in-one triune God… let us live our lives in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Gracious God,
Thank you for this new day.
Thank you for the opportunity to worship as your body of Christ.
Thank you for the Holy Spirit who fills us with the truth and wisdom.
Holy one, we pray for those who are suffering in China from Earthquakes, Myanmar from the Cyclone, and those who suffer from starvation.
Lord we pray for your peace with justice throughout your whole world.
And now;
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Amen.