Year A
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Psalm 8
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 28:16-20 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before we ever feel an earthquake\u2026 incomprehensible tension has already built up across ridge lines or tectonic plates\u2026 deep under ground\u2026 until the earth itself can no longer resist the tension\u2026 can no longer bear it any longer\u2026 and that tension can sometimes be released violently\u2026 knocking homes off their foundations\u2026 splitting highways\u2026 ripping chasms into the ground\u2026 shaking up and disrupting lives\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before a volcano erupts\u2026 incomprehensible pressure has already built up under the earth\u2026 the lava dome does all it can\u2026 to hold back the mounting pressure rising up from the magma chamber\u2026 until eventually\u2026 like a balloon blown up past its limit\u2026 the volcano explodes\u2026 causing destruction and damage\u2026 the molten lava flows\u2026 burning up everything in their path\u2026 searing and disrupting lives\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do you remember that Palm Sunday story\u2026 when Jesus rode into Jerusalem\u2026 and the gathered community began to praise God loudly\u2026 singing Hosanna\u2026 Hosanna\u2026 Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord<\/em>\u2026 and some Pharisees told them to be quiet\u2026 because if Pilate and his men\u2026 who were parading into Jerusalem then too\u2026 overheard the ruckus\u2026 they might use tear gas\u2026 and flash bangs\u2026 and rubber bullets to disperse them\u2026 but Jesus\u2026 knowing that God\u2019s Truth cannot be suppressed\u2026 said that if silence was forced upon them\u2026 the very stones would shout out\u2026 for justice\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our reading from Genesis\u2026 David Bland\u2026 preaching professor at Harding University in Memphis\u2026 clarifies for us\u2026 that God is a universal God\u2026 not a God of any one people\u2026 or nation\u2026 or race\u2026 the Bible begins by announcing\u2026 In the beginning when God created the world<\/em>\u2026 not \u2026 In the beginning when God created Israel\u2026<\/em> God\u2019s creational activity is inclusive\u2026 God makes the sun to rise not just on Christians or Americans or Europeans\u2026 God causes the sun to rise\u2026 and the rain to fall\u2026 on all humans\u2026 animals\u2026 and plants\u2026 and God blesses all creation\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I believe\u2026 that what we\u2019ve been experiencing since Memorial Day\u2026 since the murder of George Floyd\u2026 what we\u2019ve been experiencing\u2026 really began in August 1619\u2026 it was then\u2026 that the White Lion\u2026 a 160-ton English privateer ship*\u2026 landed in VA at what was then known as Point Comfort\u2026 on board were more than 20 captives seized from the Kingdom of Ndongo in Angola\u2026 and transported across the Atlantic\u2026 this dislocated\u2026 unwilling\u2026 violated group were the first enslaved Africans to set foot in English North America\u2026 ushering in the era of slavery in what would become the United States\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so\u2026 the civil unrest that we\u2019re experiencing now\u2026 the protests\u2026 the violation of curfews and property rights\u2026 the destruction\u2026 are the earthquakes and volcanoes of hundreds of years\u2026 of increasing tension and pressure\u2026 against the systemic evils of genocide\u2026 and racism\u2026 and disenfranchisement\u2026 and white supremacy\u2026 that what we\u2019re experiencing now are the earthquakes and volcanoes\u2026 not of God\u2019s doing\u2026 but of our own doing\u2026 and scripture lays it out quite plainly for us\u2026 as you sow\u2026 so shall you reap<\/em>\u2026 and the sowing and the reaping applies much more to the nations\u2026 than it does to individuals\u2026 where the collective consciousness\u2026 where the consensus of a county\u2026 is more powerful than one person\u2019s preference\u2026 and so if there\u2019s any insurrection going on\u2026 it\u2019s God\u2019s insurrection against human sin\u2026and the very stones\u2026 God\u2019s children\u2026 are shouting out\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last Sunday\u2026 Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said that we\u2019re living in a pandemic of self-centeredness\u2026 which he said may be even more destructive than a virus\u2026 he described it as a reverse<\/span>\u2026 Copernican<\/span>\u2026 revolution<\/span>\u2026 that is\u2026 when the sun is not at the center\u2026 but when people believe that they\u2019re at the center of the universe\u2026 and every other person\u2026 revolves around them\u2026 and the trap\u2026 is that they come to believe that their perspective is the only one that matters\u2026 it reminds me of that commercial where a boy asks his father\u2026 Dad\u2026 why can\u2019t I see my eyeballs<\/em>\u2026 why can\u2019t I see that with which I see\u2026 why can\u2019t I see that my perspective isn\u2019t the only one that matters\u2026 and Bp. Curry said that this self-centeredness is the root cause of every humanly created evil\u2026 that has ever hurt or harmed any child of God\u2026 and even the earth itself\u2026 and he affirmed that love is the antidote\u2026 the cure\u2026 that can help us heal that mistaken way of living\u2026 but we must first lament of how we miss God\u2019s mark for us\u2026 before we can repent\u2026 so our eyes can be opened to other ways of seeing\u2026 we need trusted others who can lovingly describe us to ourselves\u2026 human mirrors who can reflect us back to ourselves\u2026 so that how we see ourselves\u2026 and how others see us\u2026 reveal the same self\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Greg Carey\u2026 professor of New Testament at Lancaster Theological Seminary\u2026 writes\u2026 the key to proclaiming the Trinity\u2026 is to remember that it is Good News\u2026 the Nicene Creed may set boundaries protecting the licit from the illicit\u2026 such as “begotten, not made”\u2026 “of the same essence”\u2026 “proceeds from the Father\u2026” but while it rules out wrong ways of imagining the Godhead\u2026 it does not specify precisely how these essences\u2026 identities\u2026 and relationships work\u2026 instead\u2026 the Creed tells a story\u2026 that the one God created everything\u2026 Jesus Christ lived, died, rose, and will return for us and for our salvation\u2026 and the Holy Spirit has spoken through the prophets, has formed the church, and grounds our hope\u2026 our confession\u2026 story-shaped as it is\u2026 testifies that one God is fully present in creation and in Israel\u2019s journey\u2026 in the ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus\u2026 and in the Spirit\u2019s empowerment of the church\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Normally\u2026 on Trinity Sunday\u2026 we\u2019d affirm our faith in the words of the Athanasian Creed\u2026 but we won\u2019t today\u2026 it\u2019s long\u2026 and since I can\u2019t see you\u2026 you might just get up and go get another cup of coffee instead\u2026 but in Athanasius\u2019 description\u2026 what stands out for me\u2026 one of the most important take-aways I think\u2026 is that the Holy Trinity is about relationships\u2026 because the principle of one is lonely\u2026 the principle of two is oppositional and moves us towards choosing sides\u2026 but the principle of three is inherently dynamic\u2026 moving\u2026 and generative\u2026 and as the Three-in-One\u2026 and this Godhead can be described as a sphere\u2026 whose center is everywhere\u2026 and whose circumference is nowhere\u2026 that\u2019s a great image I think\u2026 and that\u2019s Mystery\u2026 because it means that God is centered within each and every one of us\u2026 that Jesus is centered within each and every one of us\u2026 and that the Holy Spirit is centered within each and every one of us\u2026 and all three as Trinity\u2026 move selflessly in dynamic response to the movement of each other\u2026 modeling how we have been created to move in response to the needs of each other\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Richard Rohr writes\u2026 inching ourselves closer to creating a community of kinship such that God might recognize\u2026 we imagine a circle of compassion\u2026 then we imagine no one standing outside of that circle\u2026 and we move ourselves closer to the margins so that the margins themselves will be erased\u2026 we stand there with those whose dignity has been denied\u2026 we locate ourselves with the poor and the powerless and the voiceless\u2026 at the edges\u2026 we join the easily despised and the readily left out\u2026 we stand with the demonized so that the demonizing will stop\u2026 we situate ourselves right next to the disposable\u2026 so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Holy Trinity is God\u2019s ineffable Mystery\u2026 a Mystery so far beyond us that\u2026 like God\u2026 it cannot be expressed in words\u2026 so can we just let it be\u2026 as God intended it to be\u2026 and if we can\u2026 I think\u2026 we can let go of the fear which compels us to control that which we can\u2019t understand\u2026 and try in vain\u2026 to silence\u2026 living stones\u2026 who shout out for justice\u2026 Amen\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n *an armed ship owned and officered by private individuals holding a government commission and authorized for use in war, especially in the capture of enemy merchant shipping.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year A Genesis 1:1-2:4a Psalm 8 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 Matthew 28:16-20 May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026 Before we ever feel an earthquake\u2026 incomprehensible tension has already built up across ridge lines or tectonic plates\u2026 deep under ground\u2026 until the earth itself can no longer resist the tension\u2026 can no longer bear it any longer\u2026 and that tension can sometimes be released violently\u2026 knocking homes off their foundations\u2026 splitting highways\u2026 ripping chasms into the ground\u2026 shaking up and disrupting lives\u2026 Before a volcano erupts\u2026 incomprehensible pressure has already built up under the earth\u2026 the lava dome does all it can\u2026 to hold back the mounting pressure rising up from the magma chamber\u2026 until eventually\u2026 like a balloon blown up past its limit\u2026 the volcano explodes\u2026 causing destruction and damage\u2026 the molten lava flows\u2026 burning up everything in their path\u2026 searing and disrupting lives\u2026 Do you remember that Palm Sunday story\u2026 when Jesus rode into Jerusalem\u2026 and the gathered community began to praise God loudly\u2026 singing Hosanna\u2026 Hosanna\u2026 Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord\u2026 and some Pharisees told them to be quiet\u2026 because if Pilate and his men\u2026 who were parading into Jerusalem then too\u2026 overheard the ruckus\u2026 they might use tear gas\u2026 and flash bangs\u2026 and rubber bullets to disperse them\u2026 but Jesus\u2026 knowing that God\u2019s Truth cannot be suppressed\u2026 said that if silence was forced upon them\u2026 the very stones would shout out\u2026 for justice\u2026 In our reading from Genesis\u2026 David Bland\u2026 preaching professor at Harding University in Memphis\u2026 clarifies for us\u2026 that God is a universal God\u2026 not a God of any one people\u2026 or nation\u2026 or race\u2026 the Bible begins by announcing\u2026 In the beginning when God created the world\u2026 not \u2026 In the beginning when God created Israel\u2026 God\u2019s creational activity is inclusive\u2026 God makes the sun to rise not just on Christians or Americans or Europeans\u2026 God causes the sun to rise\u2026 and the rain to fall\u2026 on all humans\u2026 animals\u2026 and plants\u2026 and God blesses all creation\u2026 I believe\u2026 that what we\u2019ve been experiencing since Memorial Day\u2026 since the murder of George Floyd\u2026 what we\u2019ve been experiencing\u2026 really began in August 1619\u2026 it was then\u2026 that the White Lion\u2026 a 160-ton English privateer ship*\u2026 landed in VA at what was then known as Point Comfort\u2026 on board were more than 20 captives seized from the Kingdom of Ndongo in Angola\u2026 and transported across the Atlantic\u2026 this dislocated\u2026 unwilling\u2026 violated group were the first enslaved Africans to set foot in English North America\u2026 ushering in the era of slavery in what would become the United States\u2026 And so\u2026 the civil unrest that we\u2019re experiencing now\u2026 the protests\u2026 the violation of curfews and property rights\u2026 the destruction\u2026 are the earthquakes and volcanoes of hundreds of years\u2026 of increasing tension and pressure\u2026 against the systemic evils of genocide\u2026 and racism\u2026 and disenfranchisement\u2026 and white supremacy\u2026 that what we\u2019re experiencing now are the earthquakes and volcanoes\u2026 not of God\u2019s doing\u2026 but of our own doing\u2026 and scripture lays it out quite plainly for us\u2026 as you sow\u2026 so shall you reap\u2026 and the sowing and the reaping applies much more to the nations\u2026 than it does to individuals\u2026 where the collective consciousness\u2026 where the consensus of a county\u2026 is more powerful than one person\u2019s preference\u2026 and so if there\u2019s any insurrection going on\u2026 it\u2019s God\u2019s insurrection against human sin\u2026and the very stones\u2026 God\u2019s children\u2026 are shouting out\u2026 Last Sunday\u2026 Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said that we\u2019re living in a pandemic of self-centeredness\u2026 which he said may be even more destructive than a virus\u2026 he described it as a reverse\u2026 Copernican\u2026 revolution\u2026 that is\u2026 when the sun is not at the center\u2026 but when people believe that they\u2019re at the center of the universe\u2026 and every other person\u2026 revolves around them\u2026 and the trap\u2026 is that they come to believe that their perspective is the only one that matters\u2026 it reminds me of that commercial where a boy asks his father\u2026 Dad\u2026 why can\u2019t I see my eyeballs\u2026 why can\u2019t I see that with which I see\u2026 why can\u2019t I see that my perspective isn\u2019t the only one that matters\u2026 and Bp. Curry said that this self-centeredness is the root cause of every humanly created evil\u2026 that has ever hurt or harmed any child of God\u2026 and even the earth itself\u2026 and he affirmed that love is the antidote\u2026 the cure\u2026 that can help us heal that mistaken way of living\u2026 but we must first lament of how we miss God\u2019s mark for us\u2026 before we can repent\u2026 so our eyes can be opened to other ways of seeing\u2026 we need trusted others who can lovingly describe us to ourselves\u2026 human mirrors who can reflect us back to ourselves\u2026 so that how we see ourselves\u2026 and how others see us\u2026 reveal the same self\u2026 Greg Carey\u2026 professor of New Testament at Lancaster Theological Seminary\u2026 writes\u2026 the key to proclaiming the Trinity\u2026 is to remember that it is Good News\u2026 the Nicene Creed may set boundaries protecting the licit from the illicit\u2026 such as “begotten, not made”\u2026 “of the same essence”\u2026 “proceeds from the Father\u2026” but while it rules out wrong ways of imagining the Godhead\u2026 it does not specify precisely how these essences\u2026 identities\u2026 and relationships work\u2026 instead\u2026 the Creed tells a story\u2026 that the one God created everything\u2026 Jesus Christ lived, died, rose, and will return for us and for our salvation\u2026 and the Holy Spirit has spoken through the prophets, has formed the church, and grounds our hope\u2026 our confession\u2026 story-shaped as it is\u2026 testifies that one God is fully present in creation and in Israel\u2019s journey\u2026 in the ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus\u2026 and in the Spirit\u2019s empowerment of the church\u2026 Normally\u2026 on Trinity Sunday\u2026 we\u2019d affirm our faith in the words of the Athanasian Creed\u2026 but we won\u2019t today\u2026 it\u2019s long\u2026 and since I can\u2019t see you\u2026 you might just get up and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":829,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions\/829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}