(organ playing)
(Reverend Willimon mumbles)
-: This evening aside from the hymn, the (mumbles) ensemble
will be giving a free concert
as part of our summer arts program.
Also, on June 14th at five p.m. (mumbles)
giving a demonstration (mumbles)
You can see for yourself on June 14th.
(Reverend Willimon mumbles)
Dr. Peter (mumbles) from Johannesburg, South Africa
will be visiting and preaching in our Sunday service.
And, now let's continue our worship of the Lord.
(traditional hymn singing)
(organ playing)
(traditional hymn singing)
-: Let us pray together, the opening collect.
Holy God, You have given us grace by the confession
of the faith of Your holy church to acknowledge the mystery
of the eternal trinity, and in the power
of Your divine majesty to worship the unity,
keep us steadfast in this faith and worship,
and bring us at last to see Your eternal glory,
one God, now and forever, amen.
-: Let us pray together.
Open our hearts and minds, oh God.
By the power of Your Holy Spirit so that
as the Word is read and proclaimed, we might hear with joy
what You say to us this day, amen.
The first lesson is taken from the book of Deuteronomy.
For ask now of the days that are passed
which were before you since the days that God
created humanity upon the earth, and ask from one end
of heaven to the other whether such a great thing as this
has ever happened or was ever heard of.
Did any people ever hear the voice of a God speaking out
of the midst of a fire as you have heard and still live?
Or has any God ever attempted to go and take a nation
from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs,
by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand
and an outstretched arm and by great terrors
according to all that the Lord, your God did for you
in Egypt before your eyes?
To you it was shown that you might know
that the Lord is God.
There is no other.
Out of heaven, God spoke to you in order to discipline you,
and on earth, you saw God's great fire, and you heard
God's words out of the midst of the fire,
and because God loved your ancestors
and chose their descendants after them,
and brought you out of Egypt with God's own presence
and great power, driving out before you nations greater
and mightier than yourselves to bring you in,
to give you their land for an inheritance as that this day.
Know therefore this day and lay it to your heart
that the Lord is God in heaven above
and on the earth beneath.
There is no other.
This ends the reading of the first lesson.
Thanks be to God.
Man: Let us stand and chant responsively to song.
♪ Rejoice in the Lord, all you righteous ♪
♪ Delight in praise, oh You are bright ♪
♪ Praise the Lord ♪
(traditional hymn singing)
♪ Sing to the Lord our new song ♪
♪ Play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts ♪
(traditional hymn singing)
♪ The Lord loves righteousness and justice ♪
♪ The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord ♪
(traditional hymn singing)
♪ The Lord gathers the waters of the sea as in our pardon ♪
♪ And puts the deeps in stored houses ♪
(traditional hymn singing)
♪ For the Lord spoke, and it came to be ♪
♪ The Lord commanded, and it stood forth ♪
(traditional hymn singing)
♪ The council of the Lord stands forever ♪
♪ The thoughts of God's heart to all generations ♪
(traditional hymn singing)
Man: Be seated.
-: The second lesson is taken from Paul's second letter
to the Corinthians.
Examine yourselves to see whether you are holding
to your faith.
Test yourselves.
Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?
Unless indeed you failed to meet the test.
I hope You will find out that we have not failed,
but we pray, God, that you may not do wrong.
Not that we may appear to have met the test,
but that you may do what is right, though we may seem
to have failed.
For we cannot do anything against the truth
but only for the truth, for we are glad when we are weak
and You are strong.
What we pray for is your improvement.
I write this while I am away from you
in order that when I come I may not have to be severe
in my use of the authority which the Lord has given me
for building up and not for tearing down.
Finally, my friends, farewell.
Mend your ways, heed my appeal, agree with one another,
live in peace, and the God of love and peace
will be with you.
Greet one another with the Holy kiss.
All the saints greet you.
The grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
This ends the reading of the second lesson.
Thanks be to God.
This reading is from the gospel according to St. Matthew.
Now, the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain
to which Jesus had directed them, and when they saw Jesus,
they worshiped Jesus, but some doubted,
and Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven
and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe
all that I have commanded you, and I am with you always
to the close of the age."
And, this, my friends, ends the reading of the gospel.
Thanks be to God.
(organ playing)
(traditional hymn singing)
-: "Did any people ever hear God speaking out of the midst
"of a fire as you have heard?
"Or has any God ever attempted to go and take a nation
"for himself?
"Out of heaven, he let you hear his voice."
In a pastoral counseling course in seminary,
some professor told me that a mark of good counseling
was distance.
A counselor has got to be close enough
to the counselee to care,
and yet distant enough,
objectively, dispassionately,
to reflect and to advise.
Professional distance,
isn't that what they call it?
It is that distance assumed by doctors and lawyers
and ministers who work with people,
so that they're involved but not too closely involved,
and I confess that
I've never been too good at professional distance.
A while back, a senior came by the office to tell me
that he had decided to apply to seminary, and he said,
"I know that you can't tell me what to do,
"but I'd be interested if you've got any suggestions
"about which seminary I ought to attend,
"and I said well, you're right, I can't tell you what to do.
"It's your life.
"You're a member of a denomination other than my own.
"I can't tell you what to do.
"By the way, which seminary are you thinking of attending?"
And he said, "Union, in New York,"
and I said "No, no! That's all wrong for you!
"You wouldn't like it there!
"You're supposed to go to Princeton!
"Your theology would be better suited to there.
"You would like Princeton much better!" and he said,
"I'm glad that you can't tell me what to do."
(laughter)
And, I said look, "I flunked non-directive counseling
"in seminary."
I've never been too good at professional distance,
and I guess, I hope the reason is that I care.
Distance, nearness.
At the risk of you losing you before the sermon begins,
I want to lay my cards on the table and say to you
that this is to be a sermon about the Trinity,
and therefore, about God.
I know that the British preacher Colin Morris says
that any preacher with a grain of sense will call in sick
on Trinity Sunday, and under no circumstances,
would you attempt to preach on the doctrine of the Trinity,
but throwing caution to the wind, here we go.
The Trinity, the affirmation that God is Father,
and Son, and Holy Spirit,
strikes many people as some kind of
mystery of mathematics.
How can one God really equal three persons?
But the truth is not a mystery of mathematics,
it's a debate about who God is,
and I'm betting, I'm hoping
that that's why you're here today.
Even if you don't know that's why you're here today,
you're wondering who God really is,
and how it stands between us and God.
That was the first question of the Hebrew children
after they were free, liberated from Egyptian slavery,
they were free, yes, but also hungry,
and out of their hunger, they asked,
"Is God among us or not?"
Exodus 17.
And that, I'm betting, is your question
this Sunday morning: is God among us or not?
Now, Professor Steinberg from Temple University,
after studying hundreds of teenagers and their parents,
has developed a theory of responsive parenting.
Simply put, Dr. Steinberg believes
that the single most important key
to good relations between parents and teenagers
is the parents' constant ability
in word and deed
to respond to the behavior and personality
of the adolescent child.
In fact, Dr. Steinberg claims that
the more loquacious the parent--
the more time the parent spends talking to
and listening to the teenager--
the better adjusted the teenager.
And that confirms an opinion of mine,
namely, that there is some kind of relationship
between good teaching and a lot of talking.
The best teachers always seem to be the biggest talkers.
I mean, take Sandy Cohen,
Durham County Teacher of the Year,
or Star Braswell
over at Hope Valley Elementary.
If you visit their classrooms, as I did, you will find
that from the time the bell rings at 8:00 a.m.
until the bell rings again at 2:30, it's:
"Class, today, we're going to study prepositions--
"that will be enough, John,
"would you please get your book and sit down?
"So, is this Monday morning or something?
"Come on, somebody tell me something about prepositions--
"I don't know,
"Gloria, can you?
"John, why are you still walking around?
"Oh, that's good, Gloria, very good.
"Now, somebody else tell me something else
"about prepositions--
"John, any time you wanna sit down,
"that'll just be fine with me,
"we're only having school here--
"Okay, Sharon, good."
Communication is the single most important factor
in marriage, says counselors David and Vera Mace.
I'll go a step further to say that communication
is marriage.
Marriage is communication--and so is faith.
As believers, we can be glad that, as Deuteronomy says
our God is among all Gods distinguished
for his loquaciousness.
Israel's God loves to talk, likes nothing better than
in word and deed to communicate, to have communion,
to make community, divine closeness.
Has their ever been a God, Deuteronomy asks,
that wanted to have a people like you,
that spoke out of the heavens to you?
Paul says that faith comes through hearing
-: -and so does the church.
Presumably, if God had not wanted to talk,
we wouldn't be here.
We, the church, Israel, are the result of
divine communication,
divine closeness.
Now, come with me to the fourth century,
and let's listen in on a debate
between Athanasius
and Arius.
Here is the heart of the debate
between Athanasius and Arius:
is Jesus Christ really God or not?
Athanasius affirmed the Nicene Creed when it said
that Jesus is indeed begotten of the Father, God of God,
light from light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.
In other words, Christ was not made out of nothing,
as are we,
but he was begotten.
He was generated from the very substance of God.
When we look at Jesus, we're looking at God.
Jesus is God's full communication of himself.
When we look at Jesus, this Nazarene,
we're seeing as much of God
as we ever hope to see because in this One
is the One who is of one being with the Father.
Begotten, not made--
and that was the affirmation which was too much for Arius.
Arius rejected the notion that Jesus was fully divine
in this way.
"After all," asked Arius,
"what makes God, God?"
"God is God because the great, high, distant, lifted-up God
"can never be fully communicated.
"Divinity is self-contained.
"Divinity is fully complete within itself;
"it doesn't need anything else.
"Being completely sufficient, self-sufficient,
"the Deity has no need to extend itself
"or to communicate itself.
"Divinity is absolute."
Arius rejected the notion
that so exalted and self-contained a God
should directly involve himself with his creatures,
because to do so would be to dirty the hands
of this absolute, pure God--
to risk this great God's becoming dependent upon
or involved with his little lowly creatures.
For Arius, God is more like Roger,
the President of General Motors,
who deals with people only through his receptionist
than like Chrysler's Iacocca,
who walks up and down the assembly line
and makes commercials.
A recent American researcher with the Sony Corporation
found that just by daring to ask
to speak to the president of Sony,
a vice president can be fired.
This distance, distance,
that's what Arius wanted to maintain.
The Trinity is a result of a debate
about God's distance or nearness.
Is Jesus God,
or is he only a kind of intermediary?
For Arius, the Nicene Creed and its delineation
of the status of Christ and the Holy Spirit
as integrally connected,
intimate natures of God
was a kind of pagan vulgarization of the righteous God.
God, God is great, God is up on high, not dependent,
not derived, not divisible, not deficient.
Arius asks, "who would want a God
"who needs us for anything?"
"The Son," said Arius, "is not equal to God in any way,
"but he is made out of nothing by God.
"The Father is alone God,
"completely alien to the Son in essence."
I suppose in all of Christian history,
there has probably never been
so noble or exalted a depiction
of God's supreme otherness,
God's holy distance,
than that of Arius.
His whole concern was to honor God, to set God up on high
where God ought to be.
Lifted up high above the contingent, contaminated world
of his creatures.
Distance, distance.
Enter Athanasius, who argued against Arius
that Christ's complete, total dependency upon God
was supreme validation
that Jesus was indeed God.
"Being self-contained, superior, distant, is not
"the essential mark of divinity," said Athanasius,
"but maybe we make distance the mark of God
"because above all things, we, human beings,
"treasure independence and detachment."
I think we would bow before independence
before we would bow before God.
We imagine that God relates to the world the same way
that we would relate to the world if we were God,
and for us humans, there can be nothing any worse
than to be relegated
to dependency on somebody else.
"I'm just not ready for marriage 'cause I don't wanna be
"dependent on somebody else.
"I got to keep my options open."
Saving for retirement?
"Oh yes, yes, we certainly don't want to be dependent
"on our children in our old age."
"I'll be glad when I get my degree,
"and I can stop being dependent on my old man."
It's a fearful thing to us humans to realize
that there is another person
who can't keep her distance from me, who needs me,
and maybe even more frightening
is the realization that I need her.
Oh, the great comforting distance.
Arius felt that the Nicene Creed had dangerously compromised
the notion of a distant, absolute God
with its affirmation that Jesus,
as the Son of God, is dependent to,
answerable to, generated by God.
Arius asked what kind of God needs manifestations of himself
in order to be God?
What kind of God would lure himself
to dirty His hands in human flesh,
to walk the dusty streets of a place like Nazareth?
If absolute distance, independence,
is the decisive mark of divinity,
if it is not the decisive mark of divinity,
if distance is not the true Godness, then what is?
Here's a clue.
The gospel of John says that
everything the Father has has been given to the Son.
Or in chapter three of John's gospel:
because the Father loves the Son,
he has given everything to the Son, everything.
According to John's gospel, then,
what is the decisive mark of God?
Giving, self-giving.
It is the love by which this God is constantly, effusively
communicating himself to his beloved Son.
Between this Father and this Son,
there is complete, total, mutual self-giving,
and so when we look at the Son,
we're really looking at the Father as well (John 12:44).
Arius' God is a distant God who tenaciously
holds on to his divinity, keeping his distance
from contingent, painful world of humanity.
But Athanasius' God, the God of the Creed,
is a dynamic God, eternally engaged
in self-giving, self-disclosure, self-communication.
The Father holds nothing back from the Son.
All the glory that God has got is given to the Son,
and the Son, in turn, gives all glory back to the Father.
The Holy Spirit, linking the two together,
constantly giving.
When Arius charged that Athanasius
was decimating divine distance,
Athanasius counter-charged that
Arius' God is an agonos theos.
An agonos theos, a sterile God, a sterile God
who doesn't generate or beget anything, who doesn't shine,
who doesn't reveal--
but the close, triune God of the Trinity
is always communicating and shining and giving.
When we look at Jesus, we see as much of this God
as we hope to see because Jesus is totally
one with this God.
On the other hand, Jesus is constantly turning us back
to God because Jesus is busy giving back to the Father
the glory that's been given to him,
and that's why our frequent symbol for the Trinity
is three interlocking circles,
constantly turning within themselves,
showing love coming from and going back,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Trinity is not some mathematical absurdity
that one plus one plus one equals one.
The Trinity is a grouping to try to talk about God.
What makes God, God?
God's perfection is precisely in God's closeness
rather than in God's distance,
in God's continual communicativeness
rather than in God's inscrutable silence.
Closeness, closeness--
and this was a God revealed to us in Jesus--close.
Remember Jesus told a popular story
about a father, had two sons?
One asked for his inheritance, and what did the father do?
He just gave it to him, and when this prodigal son
has blown all of his inheritance, the father welcomed
him back home and then gave him a party.
And when the older brother pouted
because he wanted a party, the father didn't just give him
a party, the father gave him absolutely everything,
and then, that story worked out so well.
Jesus told about another one about a man who was going down
from Jerusalem to Jericho, he fell in a ditch.
He was beaten up, left for half-dead, and he was passed by
by all the good religious people because they had to
keep their distance,
but then, there was a Samaritan, and he stopped,
and he looked down at the man in the ditch,
and he gave him a quarter to call the highway patrol.
No no, that's what we might've done.
No, Jesus said the Samaritan not only stopped,
he not only risked his own life,
but he ripped up his Brooks Brothers suit
and made bandages out of it.
He put the bleeding man on the leather seats of his BMW.
He took him down to the hospital.
He gave the hospital every dime he had, and he said
"When I get back, spend anything you need,
"I'll give you even more money."
You see, when this God gets to giving,
he just doesn't know when to stop.
Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit,
is our daily experience of God's communicative extravagance.
Oh, but we are so often like Arius.
Our God is high and distant, exalted, and lifted up.
Our God does not dirty his holy hands in human affairs.
Our God is exalted and honored and on high
if we've got to nail him up there ourselves,
and that's just what we did.
We nailed him up there ourselves, hands and feet,
and after we got him so high and lifted up off the earth,
he turned around and said, "When I am lifted up,
"I'm going to draw everything to myself."
We don't offer this God any compliment
when we impute to this God the same distance
through which we encircle our lives.
Here's a God who's always willing to stoop,
who never stops giving, a God who welcomes, even seeks
our prayer and our praise, our good deeds,
and yes, even our sin.
In the 55th chapter of the prophet Isaiah,
the prophet hears God say,
"My thoughts are not your thoughts.
"My ways are not your ways.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways
higher than your ways and my thoughts
deeper than your thoughts,
which would lead us to think,
"You know, maybe Arius was right.
"God really is distant and far.
"God's ways, God's thoughts, are just high, and they're up,
"and they're distant.
"How could we ever presume to know such a God,
"much less speak to such a God?
"How impudent of us little earthlings to presume
"to know anything, much less talk to and serve such a God!"
But you need to read on in Isaiah 55 to the passage
that's not often quoted, where after God talks about
how his ways are so different says,
"Just as My rain and My snow come down to the earth
and water your dry fields,
so my Word shall come down
and accomplish that that I want from it," says God.
You see?
God's greatest Godness
is that God is so unlike our idea
of who God ought to be.
Our God, our triune, Trinitarian God is unlike us
in that he is so close, so self-giving, so extravagant,
just holds nothing back,
offers us everything.
In the name of the Father, and the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, amen.
(organ playing)
(traditional hymn singing)
Reverend Via: The Lord be with you.
Congregation: And, also with you.
-: Let us pray.
Would you be seated?
Oh mighty God, You are the God of the heavens above
and the earth beneath.
We stand in awe of Your wondrous works of creation
and redemption.
Blessed be Your name forever.
In the days of old, You came to Your people in faithfulness
and power promising more than they could ever hope for.
As we come to You in this place of beauty, we are reminded
of the heritage which is our.
We give You thanks for the church of Jesus Christ,
which has been a light in the world, for all the saints
who have served faithfully throughout the ages,
for those in this community and this chapel
who are dedicated to the work of Your kingdom.
Make Yourself real to us now,
more real than we are to ourselves.
Remove the blinders from our eyes to see our needs
and those of the world.
Loosen our tongues so that we may voice prayers
for ourselves and for others.
Touch the brow that is furrowed by anxiety
and make it smooth.
Touch the heart that is troubled by loneliness and distress
and make it full.
Touch the body that is broken by illness or exhaustion
and make it whole.
Touch the spirit that is hungry for your presence
and make it glad.
Give to our country and to all the nations, we pray
a greater capacity for peace.
Give to the leaders of the world clearness of vision
and hearts full of mercy and compassion.
Let those with power care about the suffering peoples
and those who are grasping for a new life of freedom.
Let the planners of the future make a place for the people
who cannot pay or hope.
Make us all sensitive to each other and to where
you are moving and working in us and in our world.
Let the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms
of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
In the name of the triune God, we pray, amen.
Great is God's mercy to us, and great is the need
of the world around us.
Let us respond to our gracious God and to the needs
of the world with our offerings of our lives and our gifts.
(organ playing)
(traditional hymn singing)
♪ Hallelujah ♪
(traditional hymn singing)
(organ playing)
(traditional hymn singing)
♪ Hallelujah ♪
(traditional hymn singing)
-: Oh eternal God whose mystery is unfathomable
and whose Holiness is awesome.
Were it not for your manifestations in Jesus Christ,
we would not dare approach You.
In Him, Your love is compelling, Your mercy boundless,
and Your nearness irresistible.
You speak to us in all Your creation, in all that is
beautiful, good, and true.
Our lips and our voices can never give You the praise
and thanksgiving you deserve.
As a symbol of our gratitude, we raise to You these gifts
of toil and love.
Bless them for service in Your eternal kingdom.
Bless the giver.
Oh God, by Your spirit, free us to live better
than it is in us to do and to walk faithfully with Christ,
our Lord and Savior, who has the words of eternal life
and who has taught us to pray saying
our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, They will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those
who've trespassed against us,
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory
forever and ever, amen.
And, now, oh eternal God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
You have gone before us in wind, fire, and cloud
throughout the ages.
Go before us now in peace and joy, nourishing us
with the sunlight of Your holly presence
so that we may grow in all spiritual graces,
full of victory and hope this day and forever more, amen.
♪ Amen ♪
(organ playing)
(traditional hymn singing)
Reverend Via: Let us go forth in the name of Christ.
Congregation: Praise be to God.
(organ playing)