Down for the count
Commentary
Object:
All of my life, as I am sure of that in most of your lives, I have had to live by the
numbers, and it has only gotten worse. There was a time when if you could manage to
keep your social security number and telephone number in your head you could pretty
well count on getting through the day unscathed. Those days are gone forever. I believe
that the downward slide began with the invention of the area code. All right, I innocently
went along believing that little harm would come and that could even be some benefit.
What did I know? It did not take long for the postal service to get into the act with the
addition of the zip code. Now, when I make a purchase I feel like a prisoner reciting
home phone, business phone, cell phone, zip code in five and nine number versions, PIN
number, and credit card number. All of this has left me in the dust a long time ago. Is
there no mercy? Is there no relief from the torrent and tyranny of the numerical? No!
Of course, there have always been those who have done their religious believing by the numbers, by finding all sorts of hidden numerical meanings in the prophets and apocalyptic writings. Needless to say, if this form of religiosity had prevailed, I would have said good-bye to Christianity a long time ago.
As pastor in the mainline tradition I have found myself struggling with the kind of numbers that suggest that we are down for the count. I have learned more sociology and economics by the numbers than I had ever planned to do before I left seminary. I did not plan to have the number of ministers below the age of forty in our denomination in my head, the number of congregations that have plateaued on my mind, or on my heart the number of parishioners in my tradition who cannot name more than one of Jesus' parables. I am not entirely convinced that these numbers help my pilgrimage anymore than the arithmetic formulas of the numerically avid biblical scholars.
As one who is sufficiently numerically challenged to find painting by the numbers challenging, I find myself wary of these texts. It seems that the lectionary concocters have used Trinity Sunday to throw a lot of baseline numbers at us so that we can get the big picture. The Genesis text paints a picture according to the numbered progression of creation that culminates in the special blessedness of the seventh day. Along the way, humankind is enjoined to engage in being fruitful that will lead to their efforts being multiplied through the divine economy. With the steady progression of the process, our minds are challenged to find how this all adds up and where the bottom line rests for creation and God's creatures.
Paul's instructions to the Corinthians seem to follow a mathematical equation that challenges the heart as much as the mind. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you." Now, as I remember from my struggles with algebra and chemistry you are going to find yourself in real trouble if you eliminate any of the factors in the equation. Now, what would happen if you left out any of the elements in Paul's formulation of well wishes to the Corinthians? Could you make up for a lack of the love of God by doubling the amount of "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? If you ran short of grace and love, could you cover for it with extra measures of the communion of the Holy Spirit?" Certainly, Paul is not expressing here the highly nuanced reflections of later Christianity on the meaning of the Trinity and the nature of God. However, he gives us enough here to ponder just how formula adds up in our lives.
Matthew applies familiar Trinitarian formula to the commission to go out and "make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." If all the trefoils, fleur-de-lis, and triangles disappeared from our church buildings and vestments would anyone notice? Recently, one of the major circus troops went from three rings to one because in the three there was too much distraction and competition for the audience's attention. No doubt many of us experience the church as a three-ring circus but I am sure it is not because our church's excessive devotion to a Trinitarian understanding of God. Would the faith add up if we subtracted the Trinity from our daily life?
Perhaps this ought to be called "Math Sunday"!
Genesis 1:1--2:4a
The creation story from the book of Genesis moves through six days of vigorous successful activity and culminates on the seventh day on which God rested, thus making it a hallowed day. Of course, much depends on how you picture the God who rests. Some have suggested that the language comes closer to meaning God was rested after the six days of intense activity. At first, this does not seem to add up. However, we all know the difference between a good tired and a bad tired. The latter leaves us restless, agitated, and feeling the pinch of work to be done, rather than luxuriating in the work that has been accomplished. The former enables us to let ourselves drift off into a renewing sleep that is not marred by our worries.
It often seems that church life leaves us hungering for the rest that renews rather than being free to let go of our burdens. There are two ways to overcome our inordinately agitated common life. Perhaps we are carrying around self-images that drive us into states of exhaustion. For clergy, it is going to be difficult to convincingly proclaim a day of rest on the one day that they most visibly do their work. No wonder that it does not add up for many lay people. The church's agenda itself is so heavy and urgent -- the salvation of the world; the bringing in of the kingdom; the conversion of the sinful, that we can work ourselves up into quite a tizzy. Often though it is the minutia of church life, just managing property and balancing church budgets, that leave us exhausted following many church committee meetings.
For many "My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give unto you" does not seem to add up. For all of us, this suggests that we may need to shed some self-images we have carried if we are to conform to the image of God in which we were created.
For others of us, the rest will be less like the feeling of release that comes when you have been able let the burdens slide off your back and more like the exhilaration that comes from having run a couple of miles with a good sweat and sense of accomplishment.
Jesus said, "My burden is light my yoke is easy." Perhaps our exhaustion comes from not picking up his burden: church meetings that do not begin in prayer, congregations that have at best only a passing acquaintance with the witness of scripture, folks who are more concerned with maintenance than mission, faith communities that are willing to live with a spirit of enmity and strife rather than follow the lead toward the peace and community.
There is no rest for the idle or the indolent. It is time to pick up the burdens that are light and easy and put your head through the yoke that is easy -- certainly lighter and easier than the ones that we often choose to pick, instead. Either way, the words of Genesis do not compute unless we are prepared to do some trimming and some considering of what we need to make things add up.
As I write this, believe it or not, National Public Radio is airing a special raising the question of whether intelligent design should be taught in the public schools as an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution. It does not take long before I am ready to scream. Much of the recent conversation about this text has revolved around whether it confirms some secular understanding or theological understanding of how creation came to be. I am sure that the participants in this spiritual tug of war believe that much hangs on their theological and scientific wrangling and believe that something will come of it. However, if they think this text is the primary battleground they have missed the mark.
Scholarly consensus places the origin of this text in the sixth century and its audience as those who are living in exile in Babylon. The text affirms a countercultural message to live out the image of God in a culture that is engaged in much false image making to the profits of the powers that be and the denigration of being created in the image of God -- we are placed in God's garden that will supply enough for human need and never enough for human greed. The rhythm of day and night, light and darkness, is a good thing, not to be defiled by many hours of overtime or the pursuit of billable hours. Sexuality is to be the source of joy, not the source of enmity, strife, popularity, or self-gratification. If we live by the numbers offered in this text we will find ourselves reflecting the image of God in which we were created. Our bottom line will be far different than the surrounding culture. The primary interest of the text is where our bottom line is as we seek to make things add up in our lives.
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
I hear the warning voices of seminary professors ready to pounce lest I take some missteps in the dance of explaining the Trinity. Of course, who is able actually to explain the Trinity or what its implications ought to be for believers? The church has not really gotten the ball down the field on this one much past using clovers, triangles, and fleur-de- lis in conveying what it is getting at. I hear the potentially censorious voice when I consider this text. "Mr. MacCreary, remember that what we have here is only a primitive expression of the Trinity awaiting further development!" Poor Paul, what did he know of how much further elaboration awaited his words?
I do remember a wonderful triangular representation of the Trinity in German from my confirmation book. It made the point that the Spirit is not the Father, nor the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit or the Father and the Father is not the Son or the Spirit, either. However, at the center of the triangle was the word Deus with lines to each of the points of the triangle Deus ist. It made it very plain that if you pulled apart any part of the triangle the entire idea of Christianity would fall apart.
While Paul's words may be a primitive formulation at best, the triangle test can be applied with some geometrically significant results. What would happen if we tried to tease apart Paul's phrases? I suspect a lot would come tumbling down.
There are many churches that are fairly Christ-centered in their worship and mission. To subtract the love of God or the communion of the Holy Spirit leaves us with Jesus as teacher, healer, and redeemer. No doubt that these are good things but what of the Jesus that is part of a plan that includes the extension of God's realm to economic, political, and social life? What of the Jesus who not only walks and talks with us but who suffers and dies for us as an expression of God's love? Can we, as Christian people, speak of a God that is above us or beside us that does not somehow get on the inside of us and move us?
In my wilder moments, I visualize a church agenda not replete with the usual items of maintenance money woes. I see the head of the page carrying the triangle from my confirmation book. The headings are grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit. The question under each heading would be how well we have maintained the triangle.
Imagine for a moment a church council, consistory, or vestry meeting taking up the question, "Have we relied too much on the communion of the Holy Spirit to the detriment of love of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ?" Are we avoiding our mission because we do not believe that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is not strong enough to turn even our failures into something that would glorify his kingdom? Do we fail to plan for the future because we do not perceive a loving God who has plans for his creation? Are we plugged into the seemingly random movements and chance encounters portrayed in the gospel that we do not see a larger pattern? Have we attempted to do anything let alone too much without having among us the mind which was in Christ Jesus? It would certainly be quite a different kind of meeting if the basic agenda item was how much damage we have done to the meaning of the Trinity in our shared life.
However primitive Paul's understanding of the Trinity might or might not be, there is blessing for any church that upholds his Trinitarian thinking.
Matthew 28:16-20
One of the great unsung inventions of recent times is the cash register that shows how much change you should get back. This has saved me on numerous occasions from being shortchanged. Such an observation is usually followed by the observation that we would not need such things if we taught the basics in school so that store clerks would not go apoplectic at the thought of having to handle anything more than a twenty-dollar bill.
Yet, before beginning a defense of modern pedagogical methods, I suspect that the place where most folks are being shortchanged may not be the store counter or at the fast food outlet. The local church may be as much of the culprit. Matthew's account of the great commission is probably read with a fairly high level of anxiety by most churches and pastors. Many churches find it hard to make disciples at all let alone do it in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. If anything, most have fairly well soft-peddled the idea of the Trinity as the main talking point for calling people to discipleship.
The text challenges us to move the Trinity to the front burner. Note the context of Matthew's writing. At the outset, verse 16 thrusts into the reality that we have only eleven disciples to account for. At this rate of loss, the church will be over and done with before the year is out. The condition of some of the disciples that remain is not too promising either. As The Message translation puts it, "Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally." This seems far from an auspicious beginning. One can imagine what the response of many churches is in such a moment, "We need more programs," "We need more potlucks and fellowship," or "we need more self-study." Now these things are not without value, but who would expect that the disciples would be sent out armed primarily with a doctrinal understanding of God in which to baptize their converts. Most of us want to have something more going for us.
I suspect that if it were up to us, most of us would go easy on the doctrinal by cutting the potential new disciple some slack where it comes to the Trinity. Many of us would no doubt find identifying Jesus as friend sufficient grounds to admit one into full membership. Yet, such an approach has often left the church disconnected from seeing God's activity in the life of the historical Jewish community or oblivious to the plan in which Jesus shall return at the end of history. Others are so focused on God the Father that the sense that there was a historical Jesus slips through our grasp. Many of us are so enamored of the Holy Spirit and its gifts that we have lost sight of what they are for as instruments of creation and redemption.
We tend to see our comfort zone protected by soft-peddling one or more of the elements of the Trinity. I suspect that we have shortchanged many in doing so. The great commission in Matthew says our greatest comfort is in holding together the elements of the Trinity no matter how mysterious or challenging. Let no one put asunder what God has joined together, lest they be shortchanged.
Application
Preachers have two options before them as they consider this Sunday. One is to take the texts as instruments of furthering the church's ongoing conversation about the Trinity. The second option is to dodge the bullet and take some element of one of the texts and expound on that. I imagine that hardly a reader could get this far without having a fairly clear sense of where I come out on this question. Preach on the Trinity. I know on the surface that for many congregations it feels unappealing in the midst of all the claims on its agenda. However, I suspect that many are curious as to what the repetition of three in the architecture and the blessings is all about. There is some evidence in the writing of Dianna Bass and others that churches are hungering to see themselves as part of a historic tradition. Our ancestors did believe in the Trinity -- Great-grandmother and Great- grandfather did. How did they find meaning in it? Certainly, while we do not have a full- blown understanding of the Trinity, we do have the beginning of the conversation that requires our response.
Surely, no congregation is ready for a seminary lecture. However, I believe that most congregations will be shortchanged if they cannot be part of the ongoing conversation about the Trinity. Preach the Trinity. Go down for the count and you will come up ready to fight the good fight.
Alternative Application
2 Corinthians 13:11-13. Okay, maybe you are not ready to take a whack at the Trinity. One of the things that jumped out at me reading through the texts was Paul's admonition to the Corinthians, "Finally, 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." It is not likely that we will agree with one another on everything. However being in harmony with each other is possible despite disagreements. Living in peace may mean cleaning out the things that we have hung onto that may get in the way of peace. Letting go of a lifestyle that makes us too tired, too angry, and physically at risk helps prepare the way for peace. Ordered meetings, clear goals, and sound communication are prerequisites for the kind of peace that we need. Our lack of peace may have less to do with our orneriness than our forgetfulness concerning the things that may get in the way of our relationship with God.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 8
This psalm always causes a little consternation. It is one of those passages that seldom finds its way into a sermon. Oh, it gets quoted now and again, but exploring this exposé of the human condition is always a tough thing to do from the pulpit. No good word for the week here. No sage advice or witty metaphor to ease life's struggles. The words here describe an existential truth that rides with each person throughout his or her lifetime, and it is not an easy truth to embrace.
Human beings are somehow "a little lower than God," and simultaneously in charge of business on the planet earth. Above the "creatures," and below God. It's a no-win situation. No matter how hard we may try, we are not possessed of the simple creatureliness that comes, well, with all God's creatures except us! And on the other side of the equation we are not, no matter how hard we may try, even close to being God. Yet here we sit, sentient beings caught in the cosmic in-between.
It is disconcerting.
However, this psalm seeks a way out of this existential mire. This psalm turns our cosmic isolation into a blessing. Is that reasonable? Is that even possible? "What are human beings that you are even mindful of them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands...." Yes. This much is obvious. What are human beings that God should pay attention? A cursory glance will show a rebellious, quarrelsome, and violent species, bent on their own destruction. Yet, they are crowned with God's glory; given a responsible job and a position of honor.
Sometimes a pastor will invite a person in the congregation to do some work that he or she knows she is not presently capable of achieving. The agenda has to do with the person rising to the level of expectation. It has to do with pulling excellence from the shadows of someone's soul.
Could it be that this is the case with humanity? Could it be that we are indeed capable of the job before us as stewards of God's creation? Could it be that God has called us to a job that demands more of us than perhaps we think we can do? Could it be that our existential location is a blessing from God; a challenge from the holy calling us forward?
In a word, "Yes." This could be the case. Indeed, it may well be our reality. So praise God for the challenge and the calling. Praise God for expecting great things of us.
Of course, there have always been those who have done their religious believing by the numbers, by finding all sorts of hidden numerical meanings in the prophets and apocalyptic writings. Needless to say, if this form of religiosity had prevailed, I would have said good-bye to Christianity a long time ago.
As pastor in the mainline tradition I have found myself struggling with the kind of numbers that suggest that we are down for the count. I have learned more sociology and economics by the numbers than I had ever planned to do before I left seminary. I did not plan to have the number of ministers below the age of forty in our denomination in my head, the number of congregations that have plateaued on my mind, or on my heart the number of parishioners in my tradition who cannot name more than one of Jesus' parables. I am not entirely convinced that these numbers help my pilgrimage anymore than the arithmetic formulas of the numerically avid biblical scholars.
As one who is sufficiently numerically challenged to find painting by the numbers challenging, I find myself wary of these texts. It seems that the lectionary concocters have used Trinity Sunday to throw a lot of baseline numbers at us so that we can get the big picture. The Genesis text paints a picture according to the numbered progression of creation that culminates in the special blessedness of the seventh day. Along the way, humankind is enjoined to engage in being fruitful that will lead to their efforts being multiplied through the divine economy. With the steady progression of the process, our minds are challenged to find how this all adds up and where the bottom line rests for creation and God's creatures.
Paul's instructions to the Corinthians seem to follow a mathematical equation that challenges the heart as much as the mind. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you." Now, as I remember from my struggles with algebra and chemistry you are going to find yourself in real trouble if you eliminate any of the factors in the equation. Now, what would happen if you left out any of the elements in Paul's formulation of well wishes to the Corinthians? Could you make up for a lack of the love of God by doubling the amount of "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? If you ran short of grace and love, could you cover for it with extra measures of the communion of the Holy Spirit?" Certainly, Paul is not expressing here the highly nuanced reflections of later Christianity on the meaning of the Trinity and the nature of God. However, he gives us enough here to ponder just how formula adds up in our lives.
Matthew applies familiar Trinitarian formula to the commission to go out and "make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." If all the trefoils, fleur-de-lis, and triangles disappeared from our church buildings and vestments would anyone notice? Recently, one of the major circus troops went from three rings to one because in the three there was too much distraction and competition for the audience's attention. No doubt many of us experience the church as a three-ring circus but I am sure it is not because our church's excessive devotion to a Trinitarian understanding of God. Would the faith add up if we subtracted the Trinity from our daily life?
Perhaps this ought to be called "Math Sunday"!
Genesis 1:1--2:4a
The creation story from the book of Genesis moves through six days of vigorous successful activity and culminates on the seventh day on which God rested, thus making it a hallowed day. Of course, much depends on how you picture the God who rests. Some have suggested that the language comes closer to meaning God was rested after the six days of intense activity. At first, this does not seem to add up. However, we all know the difference between a good tired and a bad tired. The latter leaves us restless, agitated, and feeling the pinch of work to be done, rather than luxuriating in the work that has been accomplished. The former enables us to let ourselves drift off into a renewing sleep that is not marred by our worries.
It often seems that church life leaves us hungering for the rest that renews rather than being free to let go of our burdens. There are two ways to overcome our inordinately agitated common life. Perhaps we are carrying around self-images that drive us into states of exhaustion. For clergy, it is going to be difficult to convincingly proclaim a day of rest on the one day that they most visibly do their work. No wonder that it does not add up for many lay people. The church's agenda itself is so heavy and urgent -- the salvation of the world; the bringing in of the kingdom; the conversion of the sinful, that we can work ourselves up into quite a tizzy. Often though it is the minutia of church life, just managing property and balancing church budgets, that leave us exhausted following many church committee meetings.
For many "My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give unto you" does not seem to add up. For all of us, this suggests that we may need to shed some self-images we have carried if we are to conform to the image of God in which we were created.
For others of us, the rest will be less like the feeling of release that comes when you have been able let the burdens slide off your back and more like the exhilaration that comes from having run a couple of miles with a good sweat and sense of accomplishment.
Jesus said, "My burden is light my yoke is easy." Perhaps our exhaustion comes from not picking up his burden: church meetings that do not begin in prayer, congregations that have at best only a passing acquaintance with the witness of scripture, folks who are more concerned with maintenance than mission, faith communities that are willing to live with a spirit of enmity and strife rather than follow the lead toward the peace and community.
There is no rest for the idle or the indolent. It is time to pick up the burdens that are light and easy and put your head through the yoke that is easy -- certainly lighter and easier than the ones that we often choose to pick, instead. Either way, the words of Genesis do not compute unless we are prepared to do some trimming and some considering of what we need to make things add up.
As I write this, believe it or not, National Public Radio is airing a special raising the question of whether intelligent design should be taught in the public schools as an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution. It does not take long before I am ready to scream. Much of the recent conversation about this text has revolved around whether it confirms some secular understanding or theological understanding of how creation came to be. I am sure that the participants in this spiritual tug of war believe that much hangs on their theological and scientific wrangling and believe that something will come of it. However, if they think this text is the primary battleground they have missed the mark.
Scholarly consensus places the origin of this text in the sixth century and its audience as those who are living in exile in Babylon. The text affirms a countercultural message to live out the image of God in a culture that is engaged in much false image making to the profits of the powers that be and the denigration of being created in the image of God -- we are placed in God's garden that will supply enough for human need and never enough for human greed. The rhythm of day and night, light and darkness, is a good thing, not to be defiled by many hours of overtime or the pursuit of billable hours. Sexuality is to be the source of joy, not the source of enmity, strife, popularity, or self-gratification. If we live by the numbers offered in this text we will find ourselves reflecting the image of God in which we were created. Our bottom line will be far different than the surrounding culture. The primary interest of the text is where our bottom line is as we seek to make things add up in our lives.
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
I hear the warning voices of seminary professors ready to pounce lest I take some missteps in the dance of explaining the Trinity. Of course, who is able actually to explain the Trinity or what its implications ought to be for believers? The church has not really gotten the ball down the field on this one much past using clovers, triangles, and fleur-de- lis in conveying what it is getting at. I hear the potentially censorious voice when I consider this text. "Mr. MacCreary, remember that what we have here is only a primitive expression of the Trinity awaiting further development!" Poor Paul, what did he know of how much further elaboration awaited his words?
I do remember a wonderful triangular representation of the Trinity in German from my confirmation book. It made the point that the Spirit is not the Father, nor the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit or the Father and the Father is not the Son or the Spirit, either. However, at the center of the triangle was the word Deus with lines to each of the points of the triangle Deus ist. It made it very plain that if you pulled apart any part of the triangle the entire idea of Christianity would fall apart.
While Paul's words may be a primitive formulation at best, the triangle test can be applied with some geometrically significant results. What would happen if we tried to tease apart Paul's phrases? I suspect a lot would come tumbling down.
There are many churches that are fairly Christ-centered in their worship and mission. To subtract the love of God or the communion of the Holy Spirit leaves us with Jesus as teacher, healer, and redeemer. No doubt that these are good things but what of the Jesus that is part of a plan that includes the extension of God's realm to economic, political, and social life? What of the Jesus who not only walks and talks with us but who suffers and dies for us as an expression of God's love? Can we, as Christian people, speak of a God that is above us or beside us that does not somehow get on the inside of us and move us?
In my wilder moments, I visualize a church agenda not replete with the usual items of maintenance money woes. I see the head of the page carrying the triangle from my confirmation book. The headings are grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit. The question under each heading would be how well we have maintained the triangle.
Imagine for a moment a church council, consistory, or vestry meeting taking up the question, "Have we relied too much on the communion of the Holy Spirit to the detriment of love of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ?" Are we avoiding our mission because we do not believe that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is not strong enough to turn even our failures into something that would glorify his kingdom? Do we fail to plan for the future because we do not perceive a loving God who has plans for his creation? Are we plugged into the seemingly random movements and chance encounters portrayed in the gospel that we do not see a larger pattern? Have we attempted to do anything let alone too much without having among us the mind which was in Christ Jesus? It would certainly be quite a different kind of meeting if the basic agenda item was how much damage we have done to the meaning of the Trinity in our shared life.
However primitive Paul's understanding of the Trinity might or might not be, there is blessing for any church that upholds his Trinitarian thinking.
Matthew 28:16-20
One of the great unsung inventions of recent times is the cash register that shows how much change you should get back. This has saved me on numerous occasions from being shortchanged. Such an observation is usually followed by the observation that we would not need such things if we taught the basics in school so that store clerks would not go apoplectic at the thought of having to handle anything more than a twenty-dollar bill.
Yet, before beginning a defense of modern pedagogical methods, I suspect that the place where most folks are being shortchanged may not be the store counter or at the fast food outlet. The local church may be as much of the culprit. Matthew's account of the great commission is probably read with a fairly high level of anxiety by most churches and pastors. Many churches find it hard to make disciples at all let alone do it in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. If anything, most have fairly well soft-peddled the idea of the Trinity as the main talking point for calling people to discipleship.
The text challenges us to move the Trinity to the front burner. Note the context of Matthew's writing. At the outset, verse 16 thrusts into the reality that we have only eleven disciples to account for. At this rate of loss, the church will be over and done with before the year is out. The condition of some of the disciples that remain is not too promising either. As The Message translation puts it, "Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally." This seems far from an auspicious beginning. One can imagine what the response of many churches is in such a moment, "We need more programs," "We need more potlucks and fellowship," or "we need more self-study." Now these things are not without value, but who would expect that the disciples would be sent out armed primarily with a doctrinal understanding of God in which to baptize their converts. Most of us want to have something more going for us.
I suspect that if it were up to us, most of us would go easy on the doctrinal by cutting the potential new disciple some slack where it comes to the Trinity. Many of us would no doubt find identifying Jesus as friend sufficient grounds to admit one into full membership. Yet, such an approach has often left the church disconnected from seeing God's activity in the life of the historical Jewish community or oblivious to the plan in which Jesus shall return at the end of history. Others are so focused on God the Father that the sense that there was a historical Jesus slips through our grasp. Many of us are so enamored of the Holy Spirit and its gifts that we have lost sight of what they are for as instruments of creation and redemption.
We tend to see our comfort zone protected by soft-peddling one or more of the elements of the Trinity. I suspect that we have shortchanged many in doing so. The great commission in Matthew says our greatest comfort is in holding together the elements of the Trinity no matter how mysterious or challenging. Let no one put asunder what God has joined together, lest they be shortchanged.
Application
Preachers have two options before them as they consider this Sunday. One is to take the texts as instruments of furthering the church's ongoing conversation about the Trinity. The second option is to dodge the bullet and take some element of one of the texts and expound on that. I imagine that hardly a reader could get this far without having a fairly clear sense of where I come out on this question. Preach on the Trinity. I know on the surface that for many congregations it feels unappealing in the midst of all the claims on its agenda. However, I suspect that many are curious as to what the repetition of three in the architecture and the blessings is all about. There is some evidence in the writing of Dianna Bass and others that churches are hungering to see themselves as part of a historic tradition. Our ancestors did believe in the Trinity -- Great-grandmother and Great- grandfather did. How did they find meaning in it? Certainly, while we do not have a full- blown understanding of the Trinity, we do have the beginning of the conversation that requires our response.
Surely, no congregation is ready for a seminary lecture. However, I believe that most congregations will be shortchanged if they cannot be part of the ongoing conversation about the Trinity. Preach the Trinity. Go down for the count and you will come up ready to fight the good fight.
Alternative Application
2 Corinthians 13:11-13. Okay, maybe you are not ready to take a whack at the Trinity. One of the things that jumped out at me reading through the texts was Paul's admonition to the Corinthians, "Finally, 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." It is not likely that we will agree with one another on everything. However being in harmony with each other is possible despite disagreements. Living in peace may mean cleaning out the things that we have hung onto that may get in the way of peace. Letting go of a lifestyle that makes us too tired, too angry, and physically at risk helps prepare the way for peace. Ordered meetings, clear goals, and sound communication are prerequisites for the kind of peace that we need. Our lack of peace may have less to do with our orneriness than our forgetfulness concerning the things that may get in the way of our relationship with God.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 8
This psalm always causes a little consternation. It is one of those passages that seldom finds its way into a sermon. Oh, it gets quoted now and again, but exploring this exposé of the human condition is always a tough thing to do from the pulpit. No good word for the week here. No sage advice or witty metaphor to ease life's struggles. The words here describe an existential truth that rides with each person throughout his or her lifetime, and it is not an easy truth to embrace.
Human beings are somehow "a little lower than God," and simultaneously in charge of business on the planet earth. Above the "creatures," and below God. It's a no-win situation. No matter how hard we may try, we are not possessed of the simple creatureliness that comes, well, with all God's creatures except us! And on the other side of the equation we are not, no matter how hard we may try, even close to being God. Yet here we sit, sentient beings caught in the cosmic in-between.
It is disconcerting.
However, this psalm seeks a way out of this existential mire. This psalm turns our cosmic isolation into a blessing. Is that reasonable? Is that even possible? "What are human beings that you are even mindful of them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands...." Yes. This much is obvious. What are human beings that God should pay attention? A cursory glance will show a rebellious, quarrelsome, and violent species, bent on their own destruction. Yet, they are crowned with God's glory; given a responsible job and a position of honor.
Sometimes a pastor will invite a person in the congregation to do some work that he or she knows she is not presently capable of achieving. The agenda has to do with the person rising to the level of expectation. It has to do with pulling excellence from the shadows of someone's soul.
Could it be that this is the case with humanity? Could it be that we are indeed capable of the job before us as stewards of God's creation? Could it be that God has called us to a job that demands more of us than perhaps we think we can do? Could it be that our existential location is a blessing from God; a challenge from the holy calling us forward?
In a word, "Yes." This could be the case. Indeed, it may well be our reality. So praise God for the challenge and the calling. Praise God for expecting great things of us.
