What's Your Name For God?

Sermon-Trinity Sunday- June 19, 2011
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
How do you describe yourself? Have you ever been at one of those workshops or programs where you had to stand up and say something about yourself, or say 3 things about yourself, or something like that? In some way you had to explain who you were in a short about of time. And no matter how you did it, you sat down thinking, “man, did I sound dumb, or shallow, or weird” and you feel like everyone is slowly trying to move away from you?
Think about it, think of 3 things that you would say about yourself that would best describe who you are. Do you think of yourself by what you do-a woodworker, a teacher, a secretary-or by who you are-a wife, a dad, a person with a disability? How do you think of yourself-by what you do, or who you are?
Today is Trinity Sunday. And no, it is not a Sunday we named for our church. It has been the name for this Sunday for about 900 years. In Judaism they never ever said the word God. It was forbidden. I’ll never forget I was a resident assistant at a dorm in college and David Bamberger not only wouldn’t say the word, he wouldn’t write it. He would put G dash d. 3000 years ago Jews thought of God as distant, transcendent, powerful-and often angry. They thought of God as the power in the first reading- a God who could fashion a universe and make all creation good. This was a God of power! Over time they began to see this also as a God of justice. But it was not a God they could feel close to, a God of warmth or intimacy.
Then Jesus came along. And he was so different. He did something radical. His disciples came to him and said, “John the Baptist’s disciples know all these great long, powerful prayers-why don’t you teach us prayers like John.” And so he gave his followers a prayer. And the most important thing in the prayer he taught them was this, “Our Father”. Only the word he used wasn’t “father”, it was much more intimate, much more familiar-the closest thing we have to the Hebrew word is “Papa”. Jesus told his followers to call God “abba”. It was a radical thing to do. This was a people, this was a religion that saw God so far away they couldn’t even say God’s name-and here was this holy man, Jesus, telling them to call God. “papa”. It was scandalous, it was revolutionary. And it was very hard for Jews to think of God in this way. But this man that they followed told them to think of a God that was closer than even their skin. Finally they got their heads around the idea that perhaps God was fully in Jesus, and Jesus was fully in God-and then Jesus left. And even though he was gone, they still felt him with them. These people, these followers, these disciples wanted to somehow describe all of these new feelings, these new experiences, these new understandings. But they had never thought about God in this way. Talk about “thinking outside the box”-it was as if they were told there was no box! And they kept working and trying to explain who God was and how God was coming into their lives.
They struggled, they stumbled, they fought with each other. For the first 400 years of this new stumbling church they kept trying to understand and make sense out of their experience. In the 4th century they finally settled on the language that was used in the New Testament. God was a creator, far away, powerful, but distant, yes, -and this understanding of God they decided to call “Father”-because that’s what Jesus called God. But they were convinced that Jesus was God, also. But how to explain him? And finally the only word that could explain Jesus’ intimacy, his relationship with God was as a “Son”. And so that is what they called him. And then there was the feeling, the sensation that God was near, active, working, helping, lifting, strengthening STILL. And so to this experience they used the word “Spirit”. These were the names they used for God, these were the words they used to describe something that was more than they could describe. Words aren’t enough. Nothing is adequate, nothing is enough. Which is why the Jews would not say God’s name-they were afraid that it was trying to contain something that was beyond them. You’ve heard the old joke-the little boy is in Sunday School, very seriously drawing a picture. And the teacher asks him what he’s drawing and he said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” And the teacher spluttered and stammered and finally said, “but Timmy, nobody knows what God looks like.” And he looked up and said, “they will when I’m finished.”
Rev. Rob Gieselmann writes: “The point of Christianity has never been to figure God out by reading and learning, but to experience God. The pertinent question is the same question it always was: how do we find God? Where do we find the love and acceptance and redemption?”
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the traditional way to talk about something that we cannot describe. Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer is another way. Transcendent, immanent, active is another. What word do you use for God? When you pray, how do you begin? How do you address God? Is your God or relationship, like a loving parent? A God of action, like a rescuer? A healer, a friend? How do you talk to God? Someone said to me yesterday, “How come I pray more when I’m driving than any other time?” We are constantly looking at our experience and unafraid to call God different names. As they look at their experience. Rev. Rob Gieselmann again “What is attractive about this redemptive approach is its freshness and flexibility. Like the ancients, people of this generation want to use words that more accurately describe their experience of God. People are trying desperately to understand God. People want to know God.”
Trinity Sunday is the day we devote to thinking about who God is in our lives-how we describe God, how we talk to God, what names we have for God. What is God? Jesus changed the question to “Who is God for us?”
Reverend Brother Tobias Stanislas Haller writes, “The primary difference between Trinity Sunday and the rest of the year is that on this day we focus on God's being rather than on God's doing; on who God is rather than on what God has done. On this day we turn from the "sacred story" to the sacred itself….God is Trinity: above us, and in us, and working through us.
How do you describe God? What word do you use for God when you pray? A relationship word? Or do you talk to God as one who acts? How we address God says a lot about our relationship with God. “God our helper,” “Lord” “Father God” . The New Zealand Book of Common Prayer has a Maori Lord’s Prayer that begins this way:
“Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain bearer, Life-giver, Source of all that is and that shall be, Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, in whom is heaven”…Much of the time I begin my prayers: “Jesus, our companion on the way…”
Trinity Sunday is the one Sunday every year that we stop for a moment and think to ourselves, “who is my God? What is my God like? How do I know and experience this God?” It’s good that we do this every year and that we are freed up to use a lot of other words besides Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to describe our experience with God. Take just a moment today, in the midst of busy, hectic, questioning lives and think about who God is to you. It’s Trinity Sunday. On this day we remember that God is beyond us, God is in us, and God is working through us. Amen.

I Will Not Leave You Orphaned

Sermon-6 Easter May 29, 2011
Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)
Grant to me, O Lord, an eloquence most gentle and wise, that for your good gifts I may not be puffed up and extolled above my brothers. Place in my mouth, I ask You, through your Holy Spirit, words of consolation, edification, and exhortation, that I may encourage the good to better things, and by word and example bring back to the threshold of your righteousness those who walk apart from You. May the words which You give to your servant be as keen darts and as burning arrows to penetrate the minds of those that hear, and inflame them with fear and love of You. Amen.
Do you ever think about your “farewell speech”, you know, your last words? Here are some famous ones: Humphrey Bogart said "I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis." Oscar Wilde said "Either this wallpaper goes, or I do!" When she woke briefly during her last illness and found all her family around her bedside. Lady Nancy Astor asked ," Am I dying or is this my birthday?"

Do you ever think about what you want to say to those closest to you, with your last breath? A million years ago I was sitting with a family waiting for their elderly, and cantankerous grandfather to pass. The large Italian family was sitting around the bed in silence, crying, grieving. Grandpa had been asleep or unconscious most of the day, and the hospital was giving him palliative) care, with painkillers. A nurse came into the room, lifted up the covers, and gave him a shot of morphine in his hip. He turned over, eyes wide open, looked at the startled nurse and said, “WHY THE BLANK DID YOU DO THAT?” The family broke into a great release of laughter, and a few days later after he had passed, at the funeral everyone was quoting grandpa’s last words.
Wellington Burt was in the news this week. He died 92 years ago, and in the early 1900s he was ranked as the 8th richest man in America. He was a former mayor of E. Saginaw and a state senator. But what he is remembered most for was the “spite clause” in his last will and testament. He got mad at his 7 children and put into his will that neither his children nor his grandchildren would ever receive anything from his sizable estate. Instead the will specified that everyone would have to wait 21 years after his children and grandchildren were dead before his fortune could go to any descendants. His last grandchild died in May of 1989 and last week May 2011his great grandchildren were to receive 100 million dollars. He is remembered as a vindictive, bitter old man. That was his real last will.
The season of Easter is 50 days, 7 Sundays long. The first 3 weeks of Easter every year we hear stories of Jesus’ Resurrection appearances. On the 4th Sunday of Easter every year we celebrate Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Then a shift begins every year on the fifth Sunday as we get close to the Day of Pentecost. We begin to hear verses from the Gospel of John from Jesus’ last supper-his last words. Deacon Dick told you about that last week. Today is the 6th Sunday of Easter-and this is what Jesus says to his closest friends at his farewell dinner- “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, …You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you."I will not leave you orphaned;”
Jesus, at that last dinner, knows he will not be able to stay with his friends. He knows that his end is near. But he doesn’t just want to say good bye, and say something memorable. He wants a part of himself to stay with them forever. He wants his last will and testament to be something greater than just “good bye”. He wants them to know that his power is going to be coming to them, strengthening them, inspiring them, convicting them-long after he is gone: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”
Alyce MacKenzie, a preacher I seem to quote a lot tells this story:”I once heard a motivational speaker turned preacher describe why he gave up his lucrative career on the lecture circuit in favor of being a preacher and pastor. He answered‘I realized that, in my motivational speeches, I was telling people to turn up their thermostats and turn up their thermostats and turn up their thermostats. And then one day I realized that I had no furnace. [so he became a pastor]‘Jesus' …address in John 14-16 has a furnace.’”
Jesus is sending his power. To them. It will be like he is with them.
Jesus is telling his friends with his last words that someone is coming that will be with them forever. And they will never be alone-"I will not leave you orphaned…” The problem with these words, like lots of last words-is that his friends, the disciples, didn’t understand them. And they seem pretty hard for us, too.
Kate Huey writes: “But they aren't just pretty words. Jesus backs up his claims with a promise to send the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, to be with these disciples, and with all of us today, two thousand years later. Burridge says that "the word 'Paraclete' means 'someone called alongside' to help or assist," and this helper is our "advocate…Counselor and Intercessor…Comforter." But he draws on the original meaning of the word "to comfort," which is to give strength or courage. Thus the Paraclete is our counselor, advocate, intercessor, comforter, strengthener – an all around helper"
Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphaned”-He will be giving us himself in a way that will never go away. When we are encouraged, strengthened, comforted-Jesus is there. That is what he tells his friends. When we most feel alone, orphaned, abandoned-Jesus is there. Jesus doesn’t say, “I will announce myself, leave clues, spread small hints that it’s me-but it is.” The Spirit is God invisible, powerful, lifting us, helping us, with us-that is what Jesus is promising at his last dinner.
The Rev. Dr. Barbara K. Lundblad has this great quote: "The reason mountain climbers are tied together is to keep the sane ones from going home." Whoever said that was playing with us a bit, for we know mountain climbers are tied together to keep from getting lost or going over a cliff. But there's another piece of truth here. When things get tough up on the mountain, when fear sets in, many a climber is tempted to say, "This is crazy! I'm going home." Jesus promises that he will not leave us orphaned-he will be tied to us on the mountain, and will never let us go. Most days we never realize that there is a Spirit, a breath, moving through our lives. I don’t. I will be lifted up, strengthened, encouraged, someone will stand alongside me and I will just think-“boy, is that nice”. Never wondering where it is coming from, how I am being held. Alice Walker wrote a famous book many years ago called, The Color Purple.
Shug is describing the wonders of God’s creation, and the lengths to which God will go to try and get us to pay attention to it. "I think it really [makes God mad] pisses God off, when you walk by the color purple in a field, and don’t even notice," she says.
The Spirit is always painting the world purple, trying to get our attention, hoping that we will realize that we are not orphans. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever.”
This is week 6 in Easter Season, 2 more weeks to go til Pentecost. This coming Thursday we remember that Jesus ascended into heaven, never to be seen again. But he did not leave us alone. We are not orphans. Unlike people who want to control those they leave behind, or want just the right ext line, Jesus gave away himself. Jesus’ last commandment which runs throughout his final sermon was, “love others, as I have loved you.” Today we hear that we are always and everywhere surrounded with the color purple. Amen.

What's Next

Sermon-7 Easter June 5, 2011
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Acts 1:6-14
So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day's journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves; keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

John 17:1-11
After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

"I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one."
This is known as Ascension Sunday. 40 days after Easter, the Risen Jesus took his friends out to the mount called Olivet. And while they were standing there he said good bye and rose into the clouds. It is recorded that this happened on a Thursday, which makes this the Sunday after Ascension.
It is also the Sunday that we honor all those who have graduated in the past year-whether it’s from high school, college , graduate school, or a specialty program.
So what do Ascension Sunday and Graduation Sunday have in common?
Years ago I was watching a series of university commencement talks and they had one of the graduates give a short speech. He said something like this-he had spent his whole life in school-and now he was finished-and he had NO IDEA what he would do next. He didn’t have a job. He had no prospects. His parents said no more money. And he suddenly realized that even though he had a college degree he had no skills that anyone wanted. Basically he ended his speech by saying that it was a great day and he better enjoy it, because his future looked pretty uncertain.
The disciples were devastated when Jesus died. Then he rose on Ester and their spirits soared. And then he left them, AGAIN, and they were left staring up into heaven. They were on a roller coaster-they had Jesus, they lost Jesus, they had Jesus back, they lost him again. They were now all alone again-and their future seemed pretty uncertain.
Graduation is about accomplishment, it’s the moment when we celebrate hard work and sacrifice and acknowledge that someone has achieved a goal they set out for. Ascension tide, as this 10 day season is known, is about Jesus fulfilling his purpose by returning to his Father.
Graduation is a time of transition, when one thing is finished, and the future is wide open to possibility and potential. Ascension is about Jesus leaving, and the world is now wide open to Jesus’ 12 friends going out in power and enthusiasm to tell the world.
Graduation and Ascension are about change. Which also means they are about fear. They are both about ending and beginning. And they are also both about good-byes.
Sometime during my senior year in college, I realized that the history degree I was working towards, was an ending-not a beginning. And I started wondering, “what’s next?” My senior year at seminary, with no church in sight, I started wondering, “what’s next?” Today, education is much much more career and job oriented and focused than it was 40 years ago-but at every point in our lives after our goals are met we always wonder, “what’s next?”
The disciples never expected Jesus’ returning to the Father. They never expected Jesus to be raised from the dead. They never expected Jesus in the first place. But God kept surprising them. I understand why they stood there looking up into heaven-they never expected so many things, and yet, as Jesus disappeared from their view, I’ll bet you anything that there were 2 words running through their brains-“what’s next?”
God had even more surprises, more opportunities, more bombshells ahead for them-but there was no way they could see them. On Ascension Thursday all they knew was that Jesus had gone back to the Father-and they were left on Mount Olivet. Alone.
It is always scary when we accomplish our goals. The day we have been working so hard for, for so long, finally arrives-and we stop and begin wondering what happens after that. For the disciples, they returned to Jerusalem, to the upper room-and began praying. Unsure of what to do next-they simply waited and prayed.
[We celebrate our graduates today, and we honor them-for all that they have achieved, all they have sacrificed, all they have done to accomplish this important goal. Today while everyone is asking you, “what’s next?”, we just want to tell you that what you have done is wonderful –and we are very proud of you. We may not gaze at you in awe as the disciples did, but we and very thankful and we hold you up in honor. ]
Elizabeth Achtemeier well known preacher and editor writes: “To be faithful messengers of that good news, however, we must learn to wait, as the apostles and disciples waited. Not jumping immediately into the task of each day, not running around in the busyness …. but first praying - praying for God's empowering Spirit that can enable us to be obedient and to do his will and to accomplish the purposes for which he has called us. We do not own the Holy Spirit. For each task given us as disciples, we must ask anew for God's guidance and empowerment. “
For those who are graduating, and for those who are simply living in the season in which Jesus leaves, the advice is the same to the question that keeps running through our head, “what’s next?”-we simply say, “let’s wait and pray. Amen.