Word – Salvaged Faith

True Worship

Posted on May 31, 2015Leave a comment

“We keep a troubled vigil at the bedside of the world,” writes Howard Thurman, “Thus we clutch the moment of intimacy in worship when we become momentarily a part of a larger whole, a fleeting strength, which we pit against all the darkness and the dread of our times.

I want to invite you to think for a moment about some of the darkness and dread that hangs over our world today…

When in worship have YOU felt a part of something bigger? When have you been given the strength to face those struggles in the world?

The idea that worship itself is a moment of intimacy when we become part of a larger whole is a powerful and timeless truth.

In our scripture this morning, we read about Isaiah, and the very reality of reality was presented to him when he met God in his vision of worship.

To set the stage, to understand just how important his experience was, we need to look at the first words of verse 1:

In the year King Uzziah had died…

King Uzziah was ruler over the southern kingdom of Judah and he came to be king at only 16 years of age. According to both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, he did what was right in the sight of God and had a powerful and successful reign over Judah for fifty-two years.

But then something happened. All of the success that God had brought the nation went to King Uzziah’s head. In the wake of military victories, Uzziah provided top of the line armor and weapons for his soldiers and fortified the city of Jerusalem with towers and archers and traps. But in these things, he was demonstrating trust in the hands of man, rather than in the power of God.

Our God is on that would take a whole army of the ready and send only three hundred into the battle. When you fight on God’s side, you don’t have to fight with anything else!

But King Uzziah forgot this. His pride became such a problem that he entered the holiest place in the temple… that special room at the very center that only the high priest was allowed to enter and he walked in like he owned the place and burned incense to the Lord.

Now, today, we wouldn’t consider that a big deal. But in the days of King Uzziah, there was a strict boundary between the people and God and just as important of a boundary between the authority of the priests and the authority of the King. This was the separation of church and state for its time… and Uzziah crossed the line.

He snuck into the temple and had just lit the flame to burn incense to the Lord, when 80 priests came pouring into the room. The chief among them cried out, “Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed! You shall have no honor from the Lord God.”

Instantly, leprosy came upon Uzziah as a consequence of his prideful action and he was a leper until the day of his death.

It is in the midst of this culture of pride and success that Isaiah receives his vision from God.

Beginning in chapter 1 of the book of Isaiah, we hear…

What should I think about all your sacrifices? says the Lord… ¹²When you come to appear before me, who asked this from you, this trampling of my temple’s courts? ¹³Stop bringing worthless offerings. Your incense repulses me. …¹⁵When you extend your hands, I’ll hide my eyes from you. Even when you pray for a long time, I won’t listen. Your hands are stained with blood. ¹⁶ Wash! Be clean! Remove your ugly deeds from my sight. Put an end to such evil; ¹⁷ learn to do good. Seek justice: help the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.

True worship, worship that is pleasing to God, is a moment of intimacy.

It is a moment where we are connected, as Thurman writes, to a larger whole.

It is a moment not where we show God how great we are, but we offer ourselves, with all of our flaws and weaknesses, and let God’s greatness strengthen us.

After Isaiah has vision after vision of the failings of his nation, of the people and the bloodshed and the oppression his people have created, King Uzziah dies and Isaiah – in the midst of this moment of transition and change – is mystically transported into God’s presence.

In eight verses, we receive the pattern of a life of worship. We find the structure we need in order to let the spirit of God connect us with reality at large.

These four movements help us keep worship from being all about “me.” They pull us and stretch us and teach us what it means to be faithful.

I want to invite you to pull out your bulletin and look with me at the headings for each section. Each one of these represents a movement we discover in this passage from Isaiah this morning.

We begin with Gathering Together… a time of praise .

I saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne, the edges of his robe filling the temple. ²Winged creatures were stationed around him. Each had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew about. ³They shouted to each other, saying:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of heavenly forces! All the earth is filled with God’s glory!”

Isaiah finds himself in the temple and he is not alone. The seraphim have joined him and they sing praise to the one who has gathered them all together.

Most importantly however, worship begins with the presence of God.

As we gather with one another, we do so in the name of God, in the presence of God, and in our call to worship, we remember that God is here before us. Whether we are worshipping in the sanctuary or outside or in the park or at home, we gather in God’s presence.

But another key aspect of this gathering is that we are praising God. We acknowledge… no, we can’t ignore WHO it is that is before us. The seraphim are moved to sing in this awesome presence. We, too, begin our time of worship with a song of praise.

Each week, as the hymns and songs are chosen that will begin our time of worship, the first one we sing always points to the God who has called us here.

As we think about what this gathering time means, we can see clearly just how far King Uzziah crossed the line. He entered the temple for his own selfish reasons, rather than to praise and honor God.

As we return to our bulletin, the next heading is a time of confession…

The doorframe shook at the sound of their shouting, and the house was filled with smoke.

⁵I said, “Mourn for me; I’m ruined! I’m a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips. Yet I’ve seen the king, the Lord of heavenly forces!”

How many of you have had worship moments where you felt God’s glory filling the room?

Maybe it was during a hymn being sung or a scripture passage or some moment of prayer… whatever it was, in the presence of God’s glory we can feel so uplifted and close to the Lord.

But the flip side of being in God’s presence is realizing just how NOT like God we are.

When Isaiah stood there in the temple with the hem of God’s robe surrounding him and the seraphim singing and the sound of it all so overwhelming that the door frame shook… he felt pretty small.

Instead of trying to prove ourselves to God, like King Uzziah, instead of trying to stand on our own righteousness, true worship is a time to confess who we really are – both individually and as a community.

Confession is a time to lay bare the truth about ourselves. It is a time when we don’t have to pretend. It is a time when we are forced to see difficult truths about ourselves we might not otherwise admit.

We are human. We are weak. We are selfish. We need the Lord.

And in worship, we experience the Lord our God.

Then one of the winged creatures flew to me, holding a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs. ⁷He touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips. Your guilt has departed, and your sin is removed.”

⁸Then I heard the Lord’s voice saying, “Whom should I send, and who will go for us?”

After we stand before God, vulnerable, open, knowing fully who we are and how not like the Lord we are, we hear God’s word proclaimed.

You are forgiven.

I love you.

I have a job for you!

Now… these might seem like simple words – and they are! – but they are also words we proclaim in our time of worship in a hundred different ways.

Through song and scripture, through the cross above us, through our actions and bodily motions, through painting and dance, through sermons and images, through the smell and taste of Holy Communion, through the touch of a neighbors hand or the smile on a strangers faice, through a burning coal that touches our lip and makes us clean… This is the gospel that is proclaimed over and over and over again:

You are forgiven. I love you. And I have a job for you!

You see, in the very same moment God is helping us get over the past and our failings and weakness, God is getting us ready for the future God has planned.

In the words of Anne Lamott – God loves you right where you are and loves you too much to let you stay that way.

And when we come face to face with God in Christ, we hear that message, too. When we are touched by Christ in the breaking open of the word, we are forever changed.

Worship, therefore, is a time when we let God set the agenda, rather than barging in to tell God what we think, as King Uzziah did.

Finally, we respond in faith.

I said, “I’m here;

send me.”

God said, “Go…”

When we open ourselves up and let God in, when our lives start to change – then we can’t help but respond to God’s call.

In our response to God’s word, we begin to realize that it is not about us. Isaiah’s plans don’t matter anymore.

His problems and failings don’t matter any more

The money he was saving to buy a new donkey doesn’t matter anymore.

When God asks, Isaiah responds – Yes.

In worship, we respond to God’s invitation with prayers. We lift up our own lives and those of others that God has called us to care for.

In worship, we respond by offering our whole selves in love and service and by giving back even a piece of what we have been giving.

In worship, we hear hymns that call us back into the world that is full of darkness and dread with a renewed strength and a word of hope.

In worship, we are sent out into the world, not alone, but with the Holy Spirit as our guide.

Ships, Horses and Tongues

Posted on September 16, 2012Leave a comment

Jesus and the disciples were traveling along the road when he asked them a question: Who do you say that I am?

We heard how Peter spoke out, “You are the Christ!” … but we also heard how merely moments later, Peter began to speak again. He was wavering in his faith, resisting the reality that was setting in, unwilling to believe what Jesus was saying about the work of the son of Man. With the slip of his tongue in protest, Peter went from being the man with the answers to being stumbling block sent straight from the devil.

Our words matter. They reveal who we are. They can be used for healing or chaos. As James writes in his letter to the people of God: A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything – or destroy it!

All of the carelessness of our speech, James embodies in our tongues. He compares it to the rudder on a ship or the bit in a horses mouth. Our tongues guide our futures, direct our paths, and lead us… whether we want them to or not!

If you don’t believe our tongues are important – talk to a politician. They know, perhaps better than anyone, how every single word you utter can be taken out of context… or how the off-hand remarks you make can come back to haunt you.

If you don’t belie

ve our tongues are important – ask Ben Bernanke. In coded terms and subtle turns of phrase, the entire global market reacts to the words that roll off of his tongue.

Our tongues are muscles – and the strongest muscle in our body at that. In fact – a man once lifted a 24 lb. 3oz weight using ONLY his tongue. But for being such a strong muscle, it is also extremely flexible.

But one interesting fact I learned about tongues is that out of all the muscles in our human body – the tongue is the only muscle not connected on both sides. Think about it… our biceps connect at the shoulder and elbow, our calves do work through tendons connected to the bones in our legs. In fact, the work of a muscle is to contract or release and thereby move our bodies.

But the tongue is only connected at one end. With the other, it is free to roam. Free to do great good or fantastic harm. In fact, our tongue is the only muscle that can get into trouble all by itself. Like a flame of fire it is wild and unpredictable and can easily get out of control.

: photo by S. Braswell

As The Message translates the passage: you can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue.

But really, when you think about it… just like the rudder of the ship is controlled by the captain and the bit in a horses’s mouth is directed by the hands of the rider, our tongues are not autonomous creatures… they are a part of us. They are directed by us. And it is our minds and our hearts that the words of our tongues reveal.

We heard this morning a rather challenging passage of scripture from the book of Proverbs. Lady Wisdom, the Spirit of God personified, is standing in the middle of the street calling out to the people. Unlike last week’s verses from Proverbs – which are the familiar short and pity sayings, today we hear a rather dramatic warning to those who will not listen.

Lady Wisdom seems to be distressed. No one is listening to the voice of God and she is just about ready to give up all together. In our General Board of Discipleship helps for this week, they write: “So she changes tactics, from calling people to wisdom and the fear of the Lord to making sure everyone knows the ruin they are heading for if they do not start paying attention.”

As parents or aunts or big brothers – certainly you have tried that tactic yourself. When the children don’t answer when they are nicely asked, you pull out the big guns: You had better do it right now OR ELSE!

We could read this whole passage from Proverbs 1 as a great big “OR ELSE” from God…

But what are we being warned about? What have we done so wrong?

As the last two verses tell us:

Waywardness kills the simple,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;
But those who listen to me will be secure
and will live at ease, without dread of disaster. (NRSV)

Our Lord doesn’t want us to be wayward and complacent, going this way and that, controlled by nothing but the whims of the world and our hearts desires.

God wants us to listen to the Word, listen to the Spirit that speaks in our hearts. God wants to guide our thoughts and actions. Our meandering and wandering to and fro is dangerous to our souls.

Like the rudder of the ship needs a strong captain, like the bit of a horse needs a discerning jockey, so our tongue… and the brain connect to it… needs some wise direction.

The problem is, on our own we are wayward and complacent and that tongue isn’t going to tame itself.

As Lady Wisdom stands in the intersection, crying out, there are three particular groups she calls upon to respond and repent and receive the wisdom and the grace of God. I think that these are three traps that we all have fallen into from time to time… but if we see them and understand them, perhaps we can also avoid them and turn back to our Lord and Savior.

The first of these traps is ignorance and naïveté.

Too many of us are wandering about aimlessly because we have never stopped to look at the map. We haven’t opened our bibles. We don’t spend time every day in the word of God. And because we don’t know the Word… we haven’t passed on that saving Word to our friends and family and neighbors and children.

This is one of the most biblically illiterate times in the history of the United States. In many cases, we can’t fault people for not doing God’s will – or for not knowing how to listen to God – because they have never been taught.

To use another sort of metaphor of the tongue – they are like children who are starving. They do not have good food set in front of them, if any food at all.

What goes into our bodies past our tongues is not healthy and so why are we surprised when it does not lead us in good directions?

The best remedy for the trap of ignorance is to seek out knowledge and to share it. Once we realize how hungry we are… how much we have been missing… and how much abundance of knowledge and wisdom is at our fingertips… we will realize that we never need to starve our souls again.

Sometimes, it is difficult to find a place to start when you didn’t realize how much you didn’t know. This year, on Wednesday nights, there is a bible study that is doing an overview of the entire bible. Each week they will cover the story of one book of the bible. This is an excellent place to start for those of you who are looking for your first taste of bible study!

The second trap we fall into is cynicism.

When our cynical sides come out, we doubt that God’s word will have any impact on our lives. We look out on all the problems of the human race and we have little hope that things will change. Sometimes, we even begin to be skeptical about God.

We read the scriptures that are before us and laugh – yeah, right, like anyone is actually going to live that out… like someone could actually choose to abide by the rules and regulations and lifestyle the bible proscribes. It’s just good poetry, words to make us feel better, nothing more.

If the ignorant were starving children, then the cynic is a picky eater. They move around the items on their plate, but only eat a small amount. They complain about what they get and want something else.

And so our faith is cold and stale, picked apart and unbalanced. We do not delight in the law of the Lord, but look upon it as a burden that is getting us no where. We let the pain of the past dictate our future.

Katherine Kehler wrote: the only cure for cynicism is to cultivate a habit of thankfulness. Thoreau wrote about reviving his senses by walking. In fact, as Wen Stephenson writes about Thoreau in his article “A Walk and a Talk” he says that the remedy for cynicism is action, engagement, awareness of this moment that is around us.

In many ways – thankfulness and engagement are two sides of the same coin. We need to open our eyes and see the gift we have been given. We need to live into this moment and cherish it with our whole lives.

Whether you walk through nature, or feast with friends around a table, or spend time in God’s word – look upon each moment as a chance to encounter our Lord and Savior and give thanks for what you find there.

The final trap we fall into is pride and the refusal to learn.

Our pride tells us that we can do it on our own. Our pride makes us believe that we don’t need anyone or anything and we are fine just the way we are. We turn away from advice, scoff at help, and stubbornly stand still.

In fact, this is one of the primary things James writes about. We cannot see our own faults because we are so focused on who we think we are and where we want to be. We let the desires of our own heart rule the day and shut the door on anything that is contrary to those desires.

We may not be starving children or picky eaters, the prideful are the ones who have a plate of good and delicious food set before them and stubbornly refuse to eat. They don’t need it. They aren’t hungry. They are just fine on their own.

But without the word of God to nourish us and give us strength, our own devices quickly fail. We stumble and fall.

Humility is the only thing that will tame a prideful tongue. Our boasting brings us low when reality sets in. We get to decide whether that humility is on our own terms or if we are destroyed by our own smugness.

Humility means that we ask for help. Humility means we admit that we need to grow. Humility means recognizing that we were not meant to go it alone and finding a group to study with, friends to lean on, and a God to depend upon.

Pay attention to me FIRST, Lady Wisdom calls from the streets…. Then relax – you are in good hands.

Good hands indeed. James tells us that the wisdom from above is pure. It is gentle and reasonable. God overflows with mercy and blessings. And in a community that is healthy and robust and depends upon God for direction, your tongue will be anchored in the life-giving Word.

After all, our friend Peter found. As much as he stumbled and faltered with his words… as much as he let his own pride and doubts get in the way of God’s work… he was not abandoned by God. And when the Holy Spirit poured into his life, the Apostle Peter found the right words to say every time.

The good news is that Lady Wisdom is ready to pour out her spirit upon us. If we let go of our ignorance… if we shed our cynicism… if we abandon our pride… we will find direction in God.

Amen and Amen.

Proclaiming the Word

Posted on August 23, 2009Leave a comment

In our passage from Ephesians this morning, we hear two very important, complimentary lessons.

First – God is One. There is One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One Spirit, One Hope, One Body, ONE!

A few weeks ago, as I first introduced these elements of worship, we looked at the very simple message that Isaiah heard proclaimed in his vision. I forgive you, I love you, and I have a job for you. It’s short, It’s simple, in some ways, It is a summary of the entire Biblical tradition. Repeat it with me. I forgive you, I love you, and I have a job for you.

All of those “ONE’s” that we just heard about – they each have to do with this core message. We are forgiven by One Lord, through our One Faith, and in our One Baptism. We experience God’s love through the One Body. And empowered by the One Spirit, we are called to One common Hope.

That call is the Second lesson for this morning. The Word of God gave each of us a gift – a task – a calling… and these gifts, though united in purpose, are as varied as we are.

At annual conference this year, our resident artist, Ted Lyddon Hatten, created a color wheel out of chairs. Each one of the 16 chairs represented a different part of the color wheel.

Now, when we talk about light and color, we may remember from our childhood that white light is made up of many different wavelengths. Blues and Reds and Greens and Yellows all come together to create what we see as white. But in certain situations, that light is broken up, it is refracted, and we see a rainbow. We see the beauty of difference in what once appeared to be unified.

The color wheel is in some ways like that. If we mixed them all together, we would get a muddled and icky brown color – but individually, if we allow them to be in relationship, to compliment one another, our pictures become more vivid and brighter and full of life.

God’s Word – rather than being black and white words on a page that never change – is alive and varied and moving among us – as different as each of these sixteen chairs and sixteen colors. And the Word of God who is Jesus Christ chose us to carry the word to one another.

As The Message translation interprets this passage: You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly… BUT that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift.

In different times, in different places, and to different people, the Word of God is revealed.

In part, that’s what we saw in our children’s time today.

Each one of our senses, though different, experience the same God – they just do it in different ways.

Each sense is like a chair around this table. And when we put all of those messages together: the smells of Christmas, the taste of bread, the sight of the empty cross, the feel of cleansing water, the sounds of love – we find we have written one story: We are forgiven, We are Loved, and We have a job to do.

The One Body of Christ is a lot like this circle of chairs also. Because each of us are different people. We are each called and gifted and blessed in different ways. We each have unique and beautiful life experiences to share. Some of us have spent our whole lives working with the soil. Some of us have spent our entire lives helping and serving others. Some of us are young and have fresh eyes with which to look at the world. Some of us have experienced profound pain in our lives. Some of us work with machines, and others of us work with our minds.

And in all of those very different experiences, we have each felt the love and grace of God, although none of us in quite the same way.

Because of our difference – we are all a part of the Body of Christ. Because of our difference – we all have a seat at this table. Because of our difference – we all are called to proclaim the Word of God.

What I notice about this list of gifts here in Ephesians, is that none of these gifts call for silence. As Paul begs the people of Epheses to live up to their calling, he says that some of us are apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers… but NONE of us are benchwarmers. NONE of us get to watch. ALL of us have something to share in ministry, all of us have to build up one another up, all of us are needed. The circle of chairs isn’t complete without the Word that each of us has to offer.

When Paul writes this letter to the Ephesians, he’s locked up in jail because of proclaiming the Word. And what does he have to say as a word of encouragement: Get out there and walk – better yet, run! – on the road God has called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes no where… Grow up! Know the truth that is in your heart and tell it in love. (adapted from The Message)

In many ways, that is what the Roundtable Pulpit conversations are about every Tuesday morning. It’s a chance to sit together with the scriptures and for me to hear the truth that each of you has to speak around that table. It’s an acknowledgement that even though I am the pastor, I don’t have a monopoly on the Word of God – we all have something to contribute.

It is the same spirit behind a very old tradition called Lectio Divina, or Holy Reading, that has been transformed into a new practice in some congregations. All of those who gather around the table are invited to hear the word of God, ponder it in their hearts and then speak the truths that they have received. And as we celebrate the word this morning, I want to invite you to practice this with me.

First of all, I need for all of us to find here in the sanctuary a small group of people – five or six is a good size, and make sure you are close enough to hear one another speak. Once we are all settled, I’ll have a few more instructions =)

Lectio Divina has four parts and the easy way to remember is that they all have something to do with eating. First, we take a bite of the scripture, we pay attention to a word or phrase that jumps out at us as we hear and read it. Second, we chew on that word or phrase as we hear the scripture a second time – why did it speak to us? what does it have to say? Third, we savor and celebrate the Word that has come to us by sharing it with others. Fourth, we digest the Word and make it a part of our lives.

We will go through each of these four stages together, and before each one, I will read our scripture, and then invite you to share with those around you how you would respond to the question on the screens.

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

Posted on May 18, 2008Leave a comment

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.