Defining the Trinity

For the last couple of months we have been celebrating specialty designated Sundays on the Christian calendar. Each of these designated Sundays are ways in which we are reminded of specific Biblical events which are important to our faith. It follows a very rich tradition which comes from the commands of God to the Hebrews which commanded them to hold annual festivals to remember important events in the lives of the Hebrews and their journey with God. Last week I mentioned that the Hebrews celebrated many different festivals , not just Passover and Pentecost.
The one we are probably most familiar with is Passover where the Hebrew people remember the night the death angel came to Egypt and killed all the 1st born - except in the homes of the Hebrews who had smeared lambs blood on their door posts. We may be familiar with Hanukkah were the Jews remember the time God created a miracle and 1 days worth of oil last 7 days in the temple which is why Hanukkah is a 7 day long festival. But there are several other feasts and festivals God commanded the Jews to participate in each year such as Purim - when they remember the work of Esther as she saved God’s people in Babylon or the Feast of Unleavened Bread or the Feast of Weeks. Probably the one I think is the most unique is the Feast of Tabernacles where Jews live in tents for 7 days to commemorate their 40 year journey through the desert. Many orthodox Jews still continue this practice today setting up a tent at the local synagogue and families come and spend some time in the tent!
In the same way we Christians of the Presbyterian heritage designate specific Sundays in our church calendar year to do the same thing. Designated Sundays remind us of important events or ideas which are crucial to our understanding of who we are as people of God. So we have Advent and Christmas and Lent and Easter. We even have lesser known designated Sundays such as Baptism of the Lord Sunday remembering Jesus’ baptism and the beginning of his earthly ministry or Transfiguration Sunday where we see Jesus on the mountain transformed as he hears the voice of God affirm who he is as the Messiah. Recently we celebrated Ascension Sunday and last week Pentecost - all to help us focus on those important aspects of the stories which form our beliefs.
Today we have the last designated Sunday in the life of the church until October. We enter a season of the church year known as ‘Ordinary Time’ which is a season which reinforces our understanding that God is a God of our ordinary, day-to-day lives.
Today is known on church calendars as Trinity Sunday and it is always the first Sunday after Pentecost and is a Sunday where we recognize our belief in a Triune God - a God who is one but yet exists in three ‘parts’. I am not going to pretend we are going to really ‘understand’ the Trinity, because as humans we can never really ‘understand’ what Trinity is. In fact the word Trinity does not even appear in the Scriptures. The idea of Trinity has been a puzzle and it is just part of our faith that we have to accept - knowing that we cannot figure it out. We can, however, define it. Trinity is God the father, God the son and God the Holy spirit - but to get a grasp on what the Trinity really means is difficult. I have heard through the years many ways off trying to figure out this concept - the concept of how you can have one God but that one God is three. Again not 3 Gods but 1 God defined in 3 different ways. Over the years People has used all kinds of ways to try and explain it. For example your body, God the father is your head, God the son is your heart and God the Holy spirit is your hands or think of it like water which exists in three states, ice, liquid and steam or think of the roles you play - mother, wife, employee, father, husband, grandfather…. You will often hear it as God the creator, the redeemer the sustainer.
I had a teacher one time who said “We will never understand Trinity, but what it teaches us is that we have a God who is so big and so all encompassing he has to reveal himself in three different ways.
However you can make the Trinity make sense to you - it is a fundamental part of our faith. We as reformed Presbyterians believe in aTriune God - a God who exists as three, but is one. The idea of Trinity has been a puzzle and it is just part of our faith that we have to accept - knowing that we cannot figure it out. We can’t understand it - but we can have faith that this is the way God relates to us - as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. On Ascension Sunday we talked about how the Apostle’s Creed taught us about the Ascension of Jesus. But the Creed also leads us to affirm our faith in the Trinity. It is what is known as a Trinitarian Document because what the Creed states is related through the recognition a God with three parts. I believe in God, in Jesus Christ his son and the Holy Spirit. As we say the creed, we are saying that we believe in the Trinity.
The Apostle’s Creed is an ancient document. It dates back to the 1st Century but not in the exact form we have today. Legend says that the reason it is called “The Apostle Creed” is because it was actually written by the Apostles. The story goes like this - Jesus commissioned the apostles to go into all the world and preach the gospel and after Pentecost, with the reception of the Holy Spirit to guide them, they began their ministry. Legend says that they met together before they departed and dispersed over the world and discussed what they were going to do. They were very concerned that they all were preaching and teaching the same message. Because they understood that after they broke ties here, they would probably have every little contact with one another. And they wanted to make sure that their message stayed the same. We know how easy it is to lose the integrity of a message if it isn’t reinforced. Did you ever play that game where you sit in a circle and the first person whispers a secret to the second who passes it to the third and so on around the circle? the point of the game, and it always works, is that by the time the message gets back to the original person, the message has changed. This is what the disciples wanted to prevent, so legend says the they gather and wrote the Apostle’s Creed so they would all be preaching the same message, and would have someone in hand to use as the basis for what they taught.
I guess they were good Presbyterians because the disciples had a committee meeting before they did anything! Anyway, this is a legend and explains why this creed has the name it does. The words of the creed were used in the early church and were used originally not so much for the congregations to stand up and recite as we do, but was used as the confessional statement for those who were joining the church. In the early first centuries, in order to join a church, you were required to take a class, much like our confirmation classes for your children, Usually this class lasted through the period of Lent and then on Easter Sunday the person would stand and recite the creed, be baptized and then would become a member of the church.
Later, instead of reciting the creed, when people would join the church, the creed was used in a question and answer format:
“Do you believe in God the father almighty”…. and then the answer was the rest of that paragraph. “Do you believe in Jesus Christ” and the answer was that paragraph and so forth.
The creed has continued to be an educational tool throughout the centuries to help us all as the church stay on the same page in our fundamental beliefs. Another interesting things is that it has 12 different statements. Short enough to remember but long enough to contain everything you need to know.
When we say the creed every Sunday during worship we are participating stating what we believe with believers for thousands of years. It can be a wonderful tool for us in our personal life as a reminder of those times when we have doubts, when we aren’t really sure what we do believe - the creed is there to fall back on, to reassure us that there are absolutes in our life and to help us confirm where our lives are really to be focused. It can also be an evangelistic tool as we talk about our faith and people say “What do you believe” - right there are the words we need!
So that brings us back to the Trinity because our understanding of God as a Triune God - a God who is three in one - is defined in these words of the creed.
I believe in God the father - a loving caring father - in fact the Hebrew word often used for God the Father is the word that is actually translated ‘Daddy”. That gives us a more intimate picture of God as our Father - a loving, caring, Daddy who provides for us but who also scoops us up on his lap and holds us.
God is son - God the Father’s son is Jesus the Christ, who gave us a means for our salvation in his death and resurrection and ascension - who sits at the right hand of his father advocating for us. Jesus is our friend that takes up for us - but he is also the means to allow us to have a relationship with his father…
God is Holy Spirit - God living inside of us which helps us live and work as the people of God.
One God - revealing himself to us in three ways.
Today is Trinity Sunday - a Sunday to reflect on one of the great Holy Mysteries of God - yet the wonderful, caring loving nature of God who comes to us as we need him.

Amen.

THE STORY OF PENTECOST - 2021

Last week, we left the disciples on the mountain having just watched Jesus ascend into heaven. As Jesus, ascended, angels appeared to the disciples and told them to go back to Jerusalem and to wait because Jesus was going to send them the Holy Spirit. The disciples didn’t know what the angels were talking about - they didn’t understand what this Holy Spirit was or what it had to do with them, but they did as the angels told them to do. They went back to Jerusalem, back to the room they had been hiding in since the crucifixion and they waited some more.
It is important for us to remember that the disciples were Jews - they were faithful Jews who still observed all the Jewish laws; they were faithful to observe the Jewish Sabbath and they were faithful to practice all of the Jewish festival days. In the Torah - the first 5 books of the Old Testament - God instituted for the Jews days and seasons that were to be set apart and were times when the Jews were obligated to stop and to observe these days. Most of the time the purpose of these days was, and still is for practicing Jews, to remember important events in Israel’s history and/or to dedicate or thank God for something in particular. It is the same reason we have special days and special seasons in our church year - each one of them is designed to remind us of a significant event in our history as the people of God - most of those days for us, however, are important events in the life of Jesus; events that are important for us to understand our faith.
When we think about the Jewish feasts and festivals, Passover is the special festival we are most familiar with and was designed to remind the Jews of how God rescued them from slavery in Egypt. But there were several others feasts and festivals that were given to God’s people and the Jews emphatically were told by God they were to participate in these special times. And the people took this seriously - God set up these special times and told his people to do what he told them - and they did! And orthodox Jews still do!
During the time we call Holy Week and Easter, the Jews are participating in the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We are familiar with Passover but not so much this Feast of Unleavened Bread where Jews would gather at the end of Passover to thank God for a successful barley crop. The people gathered with a loaf of unleavened barley bread and a sheaf of barley and dedicated them to God, understanding that God was the one who helped them have a successful crop. 50 days after this Feast of Unleavened Bread was the Jewish festival called Pentecost - so keep in mind there is the Jewish festival of Pentecost and a Christian celebration of Pentecost and they are two totally separate celebrations. While our Pentecost began at the Jewish Pentecost, we remember them for two very different reasons! The Jews celebrated Pentecost 50 days after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It celebrated two things - one was the dedication of the harvest and to ask God to continue to bless their crops. But this festival also celebrated the law of Moses all 613 of them -found in the first 5 books of the Old Testament - what the Jews called Torah. For Jews the Torah is the most sacred book - for them it contains the actual words of God written down by Moses. The Torah was their life - it told them who they were as a people, it told them how to live and it identified them as belonging to God. At Pentecost, the Jews came together to remember that God loved them so much that he gave them his words in the Law.
On Pentecost - 50 days after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Jews gathered on Sunday morning - all the Jews from around the world . Each Jew would bring a loaf of leavened Barley bread and at exactly 9am they would raise their loaf of bread to heaven, the Priest would pray thanking God for the harvest and asking for a successful crop to come - and at the end of the prayer the loaves would be left behind and given to the poor.
This particular Pentecost that we remember today, the Pentecost that occurred 10 days after the ascension of Jesus, as all the Jews gathered at the temple, including the disciples of Jesus which we are told numbered 120 persons - something different happened. Now remember that this is a feast of obligation - 1000s of Jews from around the world were at the temple because during this time in history there were Jews living as far away as Spain, all the way around the Mediterranean Sea, up as far as northern Greece, down through Africa as far south as Ethiopia, over to Libya, in Egypt. All of these Jews traveled to Jerusalem and were there at the temple to present their offering. But this year as they raised their loaf of bread and the priest began the prayer, they heard a loud ‘boom’, and violent wind began to blow through the temple and for a moment everything stopped. Everyone dropped their loaf of bread and began to look around. What was going on? Then fire came down out of the sky - the Bible calls it tongues of fire - came down and landed on the shoulders of not only the disciples, but also the other 108 faithful followers of Jesus. The wind stopped and immediately the disciples began to turn around and tell the people around them about Jesus Christ.
Now think about how amazing this is.First we have the disciples who have up until this moment been hiding for fear that someone would find out they were disciples of Jesus - because they figured if the Jewish authorities found out they were followers, they would meet the same fate as Jesus. And now, in front of everyone, they are testifying about Jesus. The second miracle here is that all these people from around the world are hearing the disciples in their own language. So while the disciples are speaking in Aramaic, everyone is hearing the message in their own language - Egyptian and Spanish and Latin and Greek, Ethiopian - whatever their native language was.
These tongues of fire represented the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised to the disciples that day on the mountain as he ascended into heaven. He said, “I am going to send you my spirit to help you!” And we see the remarkable change in these disciples that this spirit caused. These fearful, timid fishermen were boldly preaching the gospel of Jesus not caring who heard them or who knew they were followers of Jesus - and the spirit was transforming their words so that all could understand what the disciples were saying.
You see the stark contrast to the story we read in Genesis? The story of the tower of Babel? Here people have decided to build a tower to the heavens - not to go see God, but to show God that they could do all this great work without God’s help. They were sort of thumbing their noses at God saying, “See we don’t need you. We can do great things on our own!” So God said, “Think so? Well how’s this for you then?” So God ‘confuses’ their language - meaning all of them started talking in different languages and they could no longer communicate with each other enough to continue building the tower.
But now, thousands of years later, the spirit of Jesus comes to the people and on this day, through God’s miraculous power, people begin to understand each other. Jesus is bringing back together what was once torn apart. God makes all things right!
Think about God’s work here and God’s impeccable timing. Such a God plan. When Jews from all over the world are gathered together, God’s spirit comes down and gives the disciples the courage and the confidence to begin to teach people about Jesus. God makes it possible for everyone to understand what the disciples are saying. And 3000 of those who heard the gospel that morning believed in the saving power of Jesus Christ.
Now, all of these people, the 3000 who came to believe, also received the spirit of God and when they leave the Temple they are going to go back to their homes - in Spain, Rome, Africa all around the world - with the spirit giving them the courage and confidence to teach those in their home towns about the Good News of Jesus Christ. So with this one event, God has begun the spread of the story of Jesus around the world. And in these home communities, groups of believers begin to come together into churches which begin to do the work of God in their local areas. And these churches then begin to teach and more people heard and the spread of Jesus began! What a wondrous event!
This is why Pentecost is often referred to as the Birthday of the Church because it is the coming of God’s spirit, just as Jesus promised as he ascended into heaven, that inspired these 120 people, which then inspired the 3000, who then inspired countless others in their home towns and the people of God, the followers of Christ begin to let their light shine wherever they went!
So today we celebrate the coming of the holy spirit, the tongues of fire that came down and began the spread of Christ’s message around the world and we celebrate the beginning of Christ’s church which is the vehicle by which Christ’s work could be continued. And even more important, we celebrate God’s spirit which has come to live in each of us - to inspire us and motivate us and uplift us and give us the courage and the confidence to continue this work began 2000 years ago. To continue the spread of God’s message, to continue Christ’s work of healing and reconciling this broken world.
Celebrate the spirit with each and every one of you, and if you just let go and let that spirit work, God can continue the amazing work began in that temple on Pentecost Sunday with a loud boom and a strong wind and tongues of fire! And you can join those disciples in the spread of Christ’s salvation.
Amen!

THE ASCENSION

As we begin Let us say together the Apostle’s Creed (recite the creed). The creed was written in order to give people a concise understanding of the faith - short enough that people could memorize it but comprehensive enough that everything that essentially we need to know and believe to follow God is included. There were no Bibles available for people to look at so they needed a way to get the facts about the faith. Originally it was a baptismal creed - those adults being baptized would learn it in question and answer form and then recited it at their baptism.
So let’s think about this creed and what the early church fathers felt was import an for us to know…..
First that God created heaven and earth - short and sweet and essential for us to believe. The last paragraph gives us some one sentence essentials - The Holy Spirit, that regardless of tradition, or denomination, we are all one church in Jesus Christ, that we are all part of the communion of believers - living or dead, that our sins are forgiven, that we will be bodily resurrected and will live forever. The middle paragraph, the longest one, tells us what we need to know about Jesus - the basics. That Jesus was the son of God, that his birth was a miracle, that he was crucified and died, that he rose from the dead and that he ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of the God the father almighty.
And that last little section is what we need to talk about today - he ascended into heaven…..
Today is referred to as Ascension Sunday. Today however is not the actual day of the ascension, but the Sunday right after that event. A little over 40 days ago, we recognized the death of Jesus and his resurrection. Jesus remained on earth for 40 days after the resurrection, spending time with the disciples - teaching them and encouraging them in the role they were going to have to fulfill as the Apostles of Jesus. We had our Christ Candle burning in the sanctuary to remind us of the special presence of Jesus during these 40 days. During these 40 days Jesus was also trying to prepare the disciples for the fact that he was going away - for good this time. Our Christ Candle is gone now because Jesus no longer remains on earth, but has in fact ascended into heaven.
We see our common number 40 as the ascension was 40 days after the resurrection. So actual Ascension Day is always on a Thursday -the Resurrection is always on a Sunday so reason follows that 40 days later is always a Thursday. So last Thursday, a few days ago, is the day about 2000 years ago, that Jesus ascends into heaven. A miraculous and wondrous event. And of course you need to hear my annual rant about how we as the church should be making a bigger deal about commemorating this important day in the life of Jesus; this important day in helping us understand all of what Jesus has done for his people. We make a big deal about his birth; we make a big deal about his death and resurrection; Christmas we celebrate God’s coming to earth in the form of a human named Jesus so that he could take on our sin for us. We make a big deal about his death and resurrection celebrating Easter Sunday where we remember how he suffered and died on the cross to forgive our sin; he rose from the dead to give us eternal life ---- but without the ascension we never make it to live with God. We would remain here on earth just as we have been talking about for the last 40 days. Jesus spent the 40 days after the resurrection on earth. But through his ascension where he rises to sit at the right hand of the Father, we too, get to go and spend eternity with God. The ascension is the completion of the work of Jesus which insures our eternal life in the presence of God - and that should be a big deal!!
So This is Ascension Sunday - the day set aside to recognize that essential section of the Apostle’s Creed - that Jesus ascended into heaven. On the 40th day after the resurrection, Thursday, 3 days ago, Jesus gathered the disciples on a mountaintop, and told them that this was it. That this was the moment he was leaving - he told them not to worry. He was going to heaven, but he was going to send his spirit back and the spirit would live in them and give them the power they needed to do the job God had assigned them. Their job was to go out into the world and teach everyone what he had taught them. The disciples were to take everything that Jesus had taught them and now teach it to the rest of ‘the world’. Go back to Jerusalem, and wait. When the time is right my spirit will come to you. Which by the way we will celebrate next Sunday - as we remember the event known as Pentecost. Don’t forget to wear red!
So as the disciples are standing there on that mountain, they watch as Jesus literally, physically, ascends through the clouds and on to heaven. They just stood there mesmerized. Can you imagine? (Pause * Just like you did just now. The disciples stood there long enough staring up in the sky that an angel came and said, “Don’t just stand there looking up into heaven!” Go! Do what Jesus said! Go back to Jerusalem and wait for the spirit Jesus will send you. Off they went, singing and praising God and they did what Jesus told them - they went back to the upper room and waited expectantly for whatever this spirit might be!
(White helium balloons are traditional on Ascension Sunday because they remind us visually of the lifting up of Jesus)
1 Corinthians 1:18 says (read). Paul says that the good news of the cross is foolishness for those who don't believe, but for followers of Christ is represents the power of God. In other words, the stories that are so much a part of who we are, just seem silly to unbelievers, almost like fairy tales. The stories that are essential to our faith; the stories that teach us and instruct us about God are pretty unbelievable to those who are not part of the church. Think about the Biblical happenings from an outsiders view point; from someone who didn't grow up with Moses and David and Joshua as part of their basic teachings; who don’t have faith in who God is and what God is capable of doing. We have a guy being swallowed by a fish? How about Elijah riding to heaven in a chariot of fire? We have Jacob wrestling all night with an angel. Doesn’t sound like something that is very real. Yet these preposterous accounts are integral to our faith and our understanding of God. And from a practical, scientific, believability viewpoint, even the life of Jesus is just as absurd; dead people rising from the dead, multiplying food, disease healing. An outsider would just shake their head and say "You believe what?". To someone not grounded in our faith, it just seems like foolishness - just like the Apostle Paul says. But as believers we understand that God’s work is all about miraculous happenings; incidents that are hard to believe. Jesus was born of a virgin. His ministry began with the voice of God calling out from heaven. Jesus spends three years healing people, raising people from the dead - performing miracles. He then gets killed and unbelievably raises from the dead and comes back to life. And today, we celebrate another in the strange but true stories of Jesus - his ascension.
Picture the disciples as they watch Jesus bodily ascend into the heaven. Another of the wondrous, hard to believe moments in the scriptures. It is hard to explain a man bodily rising up into the sky all on his own. But sometimes I think this directive of Jesus to go out and do his work is sometimes harder to believe than the amazing hard to believe miracles and events; harder to believe that this amazing moment of watching Jesus ascend into heaven.. Sometimes it is easier to believe Moses really parted the Red Sea than to believe Jesus really expects us to do what he did. Maybe we fit in here with the unbelievers the Apostle Paul talks about when he mentions that the stories are folly to unbelievers. It is so hard for us to really think that Jesus wants us to share the Gospel and to teach the good news to the world? Are you thinking “Surely that doesn’t mean me?” But the answer is, Yes – it does. For we have to grasp the understanding that we here in this congregation are the chosen people of God – chosen not only for Salvation, but chosen to be set apart for the express purpose to be agents of God in this world. That is what this story is truly all about. Reminding us that Jesus’ ascension was not only the completion of his work for our salvation, but the beginning of our work as God’s people. Unbelievable to think God wants us to do the work of Jesus.
Jesus makes one more statement before he flies into the sky – He said, “This is going to seem like an awesome responsibility. This is going to seem like an overwhelming task. But don’t worry. I’ll be there for you.” And this is what he says to us. Jesus says, “I expect you to do this. To carry my message to the world. – But don’t worry. I will equip you. I will give you what you need. You don’t have to do it on your own.” And so for us, the first step is believing that first and foremost we are supposed to go out and teach those who don’t know about Christ the things he taught and secondly – and most important – Jesus really will help you do it. The secret to being able to fulfill our responsibility is faith in the living power of Jesus. Jesus may have bodily ascended into heaven but he promised he would give us the power necessary to do what he asked us to do. This is not folly, this is not a fairy tale, this is not just some inspiring speech, this is not for someone else, but real power to do the work of Jesus for each and every one of you – you, the chosen people of God. We cannot just be recipients of salvation; we cannot be spectators as others heed Jesus’ words – this is not an option. It is the will and direction of God for us. Go and teach the world what it means to be a believer in Christ. Believe that and believe in the power Jesus will give you to do it.
Today we celebrate the ascension! We celebrate the ascension as people who have found the stories of the Bible to be true, to be reliable and to reveal to us who God is and who we are. The result of that ascension is our everlasting life with God and the challenge to live as if we really believe we receive everything we need to do God’s work. Christ has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God!Amen!

A MOTHERING SPIRIT

In Hickory there is this nifty playground for kids with a very long slide. When our grandchildren come to visit we always took them to that park and I must admit it I do miss that playground as it had a water park attached to it as well as this great playground.  The kids play area is one of those really nice, plastic, well designed playgrounds made specifically for young children, not too high with all the ground rubber to make falls pretty painless.  There are safety nets and rails, everything possible to make the playground safe for the young ones playing.   To get to the slide there are probably 50-60 steps up the hill to get to the top. When the kids get to the top you can not see them for a few seconds as they round the corner to get to the top of the slide.  It is a tense couple seconds as you wait for the kids to reappear as they round the corner to get on the slide. 
Our Grandkids loved running around on this playground, climbing and sliding, laughing and playing with the other children.  They are so absorbed in having fun, they don't realize that their Grandmother is hovering. But she wasn’t the only one… there were other grandmothers doing the same thing - hovering around their grandkids -   Walking around the slides and bridges, keeping the kids in their vision at all times, close enough that they could jump at the slightest hint of a misstep or a fall or a problem with another child.  And while the other mothers there might not have been hovering as closely as our grandkids grandmother,  they were every bit as attentive to their children.This is often the picture we have of God in the Bible – this mothering spirit hovering over us, ready at all times to reach out and catch us when we fall, or snatch us into his arms when we need his comforting presence. We understand God just as the mothers on the playground, watching, keeping track, diligently ready to help his children whenever they may need him.
The Hebrews who wrote the OT scriptures certainly had this idea of God’s mothering nature. In the Hebrew language, all words have gender, all words are either masculine or feminine. This is shown by putting various combinations of letters at the end of the words. They didn’t have any words which were neutral – or a concept of ‘it’ rather than ‘he’ or ‘she’. So every word has a gender to it. Understanding how great and large is God, the Hebrews tried to show how great God was by giving him different names which showed different characteristics of God. One of the most common names used in OT for God is Elohim. Interestingly enough, Elohim is one of the rare Hebrew words that has contained within it both masculine and feminine endings. Trying to get across the idea of God’s inclusion of both masculine and feminine characteristics. One of the other names for God is El Shaddai. El means God and Shaddai refers to the birthing and nurturing nature of a mother. El Shaddai actually means God who is mother, not really referring to God as woman, but the mothering spirit, the mothering nature of God. El Shaddai – the God who cares for us like a mother cares for her young…….
The Psalms are often where we see this picture of God’s nurturing motherly spirit. The Psalmists often portray God with the same characteristics we see in the mothers around us. This is especially true in Psalm 139. As we read this Psalm, listen to the descriptions used to describe this nurturing, caring nature of God. The Psalmist says, “Whither shall I go” – nothing we may do can cause us to lose God, “Whither shall I flee” – no bad choices or wrong decisions can take us away from God. “Ascend into heaven” – the good is our life is because of our God, “Bed in hell” – even in the ugly, sinful moments of our life, God loves us and is ready to come and snatch us back to his arms, “Wings of morning” – God helps us to soar above the fray of our daily life, “Dwell in the sea” – we can never hide where God cannot reach us, “Even there thy hand will lead me” – God is everywhere, guiding us through, “Right hand shall hold me” – God sustains, nurtures, comforts, embraces us. Can’t you see that same picture of the mother (or grandmother) on the playground – hovering right there, able to see. Even when that child tries to hide, that mother knows where they are, even when they try to do something they shouldn’t, or isn’t able to do something, Mom is right there. Even when she falls, the Moms hand reaches down and brings that child into her arms. And when playground time is over, you see the child holding onto their Moms hand as they go to leave……………. That is the picture of God in our life. That hovering, caring, ready mother – never far away and always ready to reach and grab.
The Psalmist is helping us to see that God’s nature is much like the nature of your mother – as you trusted your Mom to always be there – God is there. As you trusted your mother to care for you, God cares for you. As you trusted your Mom to always love you, regardless of where you found yourself, God loves you regardless of the poor or wrong decisions when you end up in desperate places. Like you mother loved you, God loves you.
Julia of Norwich is one of the saints of the Catholic church. She lived in the 14th century. In the Catholic tradition, every saint has a day and Julia of Norwich’s day always falls close to Mother’s Day. She wrote extensively about understanding the nature of God. Julia contended that by understanding mothers, we could better understand what God is like. At the age of 30, Julia entered the convent to become a nun. Speculation is that she lost her family – her husband and children in the black plague – which is why she entered the convent to become a nun at an age older than most women who usually joined as young girls. She became what was known as an anchoress – the anchoress was a nun who devoted her entire life to God in solitude and prayer. During her time as an anchoress, she became very ill. Interestingly enough she had actually prayed for God to make her ill, because then she could truly experience the love and compassion of God. During the illness she had visions which she wrote down. It was in these visions that she expressed her understanding that God is not limited to our earthly understanding of God. God is so much more than any understanding we could ever have, so much greater than any words our language can use to describe him. Julia wrote that not only could we come to a more well rounded understanding of God by remembering the love and nurturing care of our mothers – but that we need to remember that a mother’s purpose is to bring new life into the world. Just as our mother has given us life – Jesus Christ has given us a new life! Jesus told us that we needed to be born again – our mother’s gave us our first birth and Jesus Christ gave us our second. God in Jesus Christ is the very essence of motherhood – we owe our earthly lives to our earthly mothers and our spiritual lives we owe to God in his son Jesus Christ.
I remember growing up and the flurry of activity that happened whenever someone was coming over to visit. My mother would rush around the house, dusting and fluffing pillows, making sure there was some food to eat and coffee made, making sure everything was just right. That practice of hospitality, of making sure visitors and guests felt welcome and comfortable and had everything they needed was a practice that I then learned from my mother and I imagine that most of you had the same experience – and finding yourself doing the same thing! Hospitality as seen by my mother’s work to make visitors feel welcome is another trait of God’s found in scripture. In the OT stories we often read about how strangers are brought into homes and invited to share a meal or lodging with the host. This hospitality is always explained as an act of gratitude because of the hospitality of God – God brings us into his home and makes us welcome and comfortable, with everything we need. This act of hospitality was the emphasis in the story we read today about the woman, Lydia. The Apostle Paul and those who were traveling with him on his missionary journey went to the city of Philippi. When Paul first entered a town, he would always go to the synagogue first. Even though Paul’s mission was to the Gentiles, he loved his own people and wanted them so much to believe in Christ, so he would go to the synagogue first and preach the gospel to them. But when he got to Philippi, he couldn’t find a synagogue. He asked around and found out that there were so few Jews in the city, that there wasn’t a synagogue, but there was a place of prayer down by the river and the few Jews would go down there to pray. So Paul heads off to the place of prayer down by the river. He didn’t find any Jews, but he did find several women who had gathered there to pray. These were Gentile women who believed in the God of the Jews, but had not heard of Jesus Christ. Paul talked to them of Jesus, and one of them, Lydia, a wealthy woman who lived in Philippi, did believe and invited Paul and his companions to come and stay in her home and use it as a ‘base of operations’ as they preached in the city of Philippi. And they did. Throughout their stay in Philippi, Lydia cared for Paul and those traveling with him. Lydia is forever remembered for her hospitality to Paul and reminds us again of that hospitality of our God, who invites us in and cares for us and sends us out to preach the gospel message of Jesus Christ. A hospitality we see in our mothers who want everyone to feel comfortable and well taken care of!
This Mother’s Day, we remember and honor our mothers – mothers who cared for us and loved us and picked us up when we fell down, mothers who hovered over us as we ran oblivious on the playground, mothers who were there when we did wrong, or when we needed a hug. While we remember our mothers, we are reminded that as our mothers loved and cared for us, God loves us and cares for us in the same way. A God who reaches out with the air of hospitality, inviting us to come to him where he will love us and comfort us and hover over us as we run oblivious around the playground of our lives. A mothering spirit who loves and cares for each and every one of us. Amen!

The Report of the Guard

We tend to shoulder responsibilities and to own their outcome. We are responsible people and whether something works out or doesn’t work out is all up to us. At least that is what we think. If something doesn’t work out it is our fault and we shower ourselves with guilt - if it does work out we tend to pat ourselves on the back and say, “What a good thing I have done”. But in Jesus Christ, we should do neither - in Jesus Christ we don’t have to shoulder all the responsibility; in Jesus Christ we don’t have to worry about the outcome; in Jesus Christ we don’t get the credit either. What we are called to do is to listen, to do what God asks us and to trust. God’s in charge and God knows the outcome and God can do amazing things.
This time of year is known as the Season of Easter. As we talked about before, the Season of Easter lasts from the day of the Resurrection - Easter Sunday - to the day of Pentecost. This is a 50 day season from Easter to Pentecost. For 40 of the 50 days during the season of Easter, Jesus spends time with his disciples. He teaches them, he guides them, he reassures them. And that is what we have been talking about since Easter, these times when Jesus has appeared to his disciples. On the 40th day, Jesus ascends into heaven. During this Season of Easter, we spend time talking about the events that occurred from the Resurrection to the time of the Ascension. We talk about how the events from the Resurrection to Pentecost shape our knowledge of Jesus and our Knowledge of what Jesus wants us to know.
Today we continue our learning about this time period between Easter and the Resurrection with an event that happened immediately after the resurrection.
We all know the story of the events leading up to the Resurrection. Jesus dies on the cross and is buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimethea. The Jewish leaders were concerned about Jesus’ claim that he was going to raise from the dead so they placed a large stone in front of the entrance to prevent any such event from occurring - and if he did raise from the dead he wouldn’t be able to get out of the tomb! And just to make sure nothing could happen, two guards are placed at the tomb to keep an eye on things.
Because Friday was the Passover, the customary burial procedures were not able to be done. Saturday was the Sabbath so no work could be done either, so it was Sunday before the women had an opportunity to get to the tomb to do what needed to be done to Jesus’ body. Early Sunday morning they made their way to the tomb and when they got there, the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty.
The book of Matthew also gives us a glimpse of something that happened on Saturday. Saturday morning, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to meet with Pontus Pilate. This is kind of ironic since one of the biggest complaints the chief priests and the Pharisees had against Jesus was that he did things he shouldn’t have done on the Sabbath - and here you have the leaders of the Jews, the ones who are suppose to be the perfect example of what to do and not do, the ones who are suppose to enforce the law, are now breaking the law by visiting Pilate on the Sabbath.
At any rate, the religious leaders remind Pilate that Jesus predicted he would raise from the dead. They wanted Pilate’s help in assuring that the disciples of Jesus wouldn’t steal the body and then claim that Jesus had resurrected. The religious leaders knew that the people were expecting this resurrection; they had heard Jesus say more than once that he was going to be resurrected and they wanted to make sure that nothing could happen that would continue this Jesus movement in Jerusalem. They had the stone, they had the guards and now they had a seal put on the stone as well to make sure that no one could break in, steal the body and replace the stone. Pilate and the religious leaders thought they had everything taken care of!
But we all know that nothing can stop the plans of God and God doesn’t care much about guards or stones or seals and Jesus was resurrected and the stone was rolled away and Jesus was gone when the women got there on Sunday morning. An angel was there and told them what happened and the women started to run back to the upper room and according to Matthew, Jesus met them on the road and told them who he was, they saw the nail holes in his hands and feet which proved who he said he was, and he told them to go and tell the disciples what had happened and they did.
But the disciples told the women to be quiet because the disciples didn’t believe the women. The disciples in their own way tried to stop the message of the resurrection.
Meanwhile, the guards who are guarding the tomb really have a problem. They had one job to do - to be sure that Jesus stayed in that tomb. But here it was morning, and even though they had been diligent all night, the stone was magically rolled away, they saw the empty tomb, they heard the angel tell the women that Jesus was resurrected and that he was alive, and Matthew writes, “The guards were so afraid that they tumbled and became like dead men.” In other words, they were scared to death.
For a couple reasons, not only were they frightened by the events - after all Jesus is gone and they saw an angel - but their lives were on the line because they had failed at their job. And in the Roman army failure at your job - especially one as important as this one - often meant death.


Now we know that at least one of the guards was a Roman and some of the guards were from the Jewish army - the Romans allowed the Jewish religious leaders to have their own army with soldiers who would enforce Jewish law - the Jewish guards went back to the chief priests and told them what had happened. Well, as you can imagine the religious leaders were livid. What were they going to do now? Their whole focus was on getting rid of Jesus and on squelching this teaching of Jesus that he would raise from the dead. And so his body was gone, the guards are talking about angels, this problem is spiraling out of control. There was this secret meeting with other religious leaders trying to decide what to do and what they decided to do was to basically pay the guards off.
So they go back to the guards and Matthew tells us they paid the guards a large sum of money - hush money. So this is three times the religious leaders have paid money to try and get rid of Jesus - they paid Judas to turn Jesus in, they paid two individuals to falsely testify against Jesus at his trial and now they have paid off the tomb guards.
The trade off for the tomb guards was they were to say that they had fallen asleep and Jesus’ followers had stolen the body. Now the problem with this solution was the guards were putting themselves in jeopardy. There would be consequences for their falling asleep while on duty - and I kind of think these guards don’t want people to think they fell asleep when they didn’t. So the guards are worried about what this lie is going to do to their career - this could mean firing for them and jobs for guards who had been fired for dereliction of duty would be hard to come by. But the religious leaders assure the guards that they would take care of that and not to worry. They didn’t need to worry about their jobs or their reputation - just stick with the story. Remember, Jesus’ followers stole the body when you fell asleep and then they claim that Jesus was resurrected. That is all you know…..
Once again, the religious leaders thought they could stop the spread of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Once again, the religious leaders thought that they could stop the message of Jesus.
We have no power to stop the message of Jesus. Remember on his ride into Jerusalem during the Palm Sunday celebration when the religious leaders tried to stop the people from talking about what had happened Jesus had said that if you try to stop his message even the stones would cry out. Jesus had told his disciples in Matthew 24: And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world.
When you look at the history of the spread of the gospel people tried their best to stop the message of Jesus - all the disciples but John are martyred to keep them quiet, John is locked away on an island to keep him quiet, the Apostle Paul is beaten and imprisoned and killed to keep him quiet, Christians are thrown to lions to keep them quiet….
And here we are today - talking about the gospel message of Jesus Christ. No matter how they may have tried; no matter how many times they tried, the message of Jesus could not be stopped and it changed the world in spite of the opposition.
That message is for us today - our job is to tell others of the message of Jesus - that in Jesus Christ we can have a relationship with God forever - but it is not our responsibility to worry about whether a person or a group of people receive that message. God will take care of that.
I remember when I was a teenager in a decade that seemed to live by one line slogans; by words on bumper stickers - one of the slogans said, “We have to go preach the gospel because we are one generation away from message dying out.” It was an attempt to guilt people to share the message of Jesus - but if we truly believe our life is better because we are the chosen people of God and because of the work of Jesus Christ why do we need to be guilted into telling others about this wonderful gift of grace we have received?
But more importantly, why do we think that the gospel message lives or dies on what we do or don’t do. We can’t let guilt dictate why we do things - the spread of the gospel will not stop just because we don’t do what we should. God will not let the truth of Jesus die - God will make sure the gospel is spread.
Are we called to spread the gospel - yes. But are we responsible for it - no. Is the weight of the God’s message on our shoulders - no. Don’t let the worry of whether or not you will be successful in your willingness to teach the gospel of Jesus keep you from telling people about the great gift you have received.
You see how many times just in the first 100 years of the good news people tried to stop it and yet the message of Jesus survived.
The women saw the empty tomb and ran to tell people what had happened and were told to be quiet, the guards saw the empty tomb and were told to cover it up. And the Gospel message spread anyway! And it will continue, regardless. Amen!