God's Faithfulness: The Story of Hagar

 After two straight Sundays of Matthew 10, I decided I wanted to put my attention on another reading. And then I opened the First Reading text and saw it was the troubling story of Hagar. This is one that I imagine other priests using the Episcopal Church's Track One probably thought, "Ummm...let me talk about Paul's Letter to the Romans...or I'll stick with Matthew."

But not this preacher! I couldn't help it. I read the exile of Hagar and Ishmael, and I felt I couldn't ignore her, the Egyptian woman, who was used and then rejected. 

There is simply too much happening in the United States these days with the way women...and most especially black women...have had their bodies ruled by others. 

And the assault on the teaching of history...with concerted efforts to erase the experiences of different groups in the United States...made this story, which we share with our Islamic cousins, an important text to be lifted up on a Sunday morning. 

I wish I could say that I got rave reviews for this one. I did hear a few positive comments. But most said nothing. Oh, well. Perhaps reading the text on your own will make it better. 

Text: Genesis 21:8-21

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Humans love to tell the stories of our lives.

We like to tell the ones where we are the heroes of our stories.

And we try to forget the ones where we aren’t so heroic.

When it comes to the stories in the Scriptures…we get the proverbial good…the bad…and the “oh no, we didn’t do that, did we?”

That last category applies to our first reading from this morning…the account from Genesis of what happened to Hagar and her son…Ishmael.

Those of us who have been raised up in our Judeo-Christian culture and churches know the couple Abraham and Sarah as our biblical ancestors.

We probably remember that from this elderly couple comes Isaac….and then Jacob and Joseph…all the way down to King David.

The promise God made to Abraham that he would father many nations and kings all comes to pass.

We may know that there is a lot of sibling rivalry in the book of Genesis…specifically struggles between brothers for who has the birth right?

Who is favored one of the family?

Who has God chosen?

Often, we learn there are binaries in these sibling relationships.

One brother is more plodding and pedestrian.

The other brother is the one who is “the gift” or the favored.

And it’s the gifted one whose story gets told and we learn about him.

But the Scriptures aren’t some carefully curated history book.

And they don’t let us get away without acknowledging that there’s more to our biblical story than what gets lifted up in Sunday School.

This morning’s reading…where we hear about Abraham’s older son Ishmael and his mother Hagar….is a prime example of the Bible pulling back the veil and showing us a darker side of Abraham and Sarah….and how they treated in the foreigner in their family.

In fact….how Abraham and Sarah used and abused Hagar was pretty rotten.

Our lectionary does a lot of skipping over large sections of the Genesis narrative. So in order to understand Hagar’s plight, we need to know more of the back story.

So here we go.

Hagar is an Egyptian…given as a slave-girl to Sarah.

We don’t know why…we just know that it is what it is.

Sarah and Abraham were both so old that they didn’t believe they could have children.

We heard last week that Sarah laughed at God’s suggestion she would have a child.

Because Sarah didn’t believe she would have a child….she told Abraham to go sleep with Hagar. From that surrogate relationship…Hagar had a son by Abraham and the child was named Ishmael.

After that…Sarah resented Hagar….treated her cruelly…to the point where Hagar ran away.

An angel of the Lord found Hagar hiding and told her to go back to Sarah….with a promise that there would be a way forward for Hagar.

And that brings us to this moment in today’s reading where Sarah spies Ishmael and Isaac playing.

Our matriarch gets enraged.

She demands that Abraham get rid of Hagar and her son.

Abraham complies.

He casts them out.

Sends them into the wilderness with just a skin of water and some bread.

Good luck!!

Hagar and Ishmael were two characters that stood in the way of the story we have come to follow…the one of Abraham…Sarah…and their son Isaac.

This is OUR story because God pledged to Abraham that it would be Sarah’s child who would carry forward the covenant God was making with God’s people (Gen. 17:19-21).

And it’s through Abraham and Sarah…and their creation of Isaac…that we trace the lineage that leads to a young girl named Mary and her carpenter husband Joseph who raided a child they called Emmanuel…..and we know the rest of that story.

Now the Genesis story could have stopped with sending Hagar and Ishmael away.

But that wasn’t the end….at least not for God.

In fact…Hagar gets to do something no other woman at this point in Genesis has been able to do: she converses with God’s messenger…and thus with the God who has kept watch over her and her son through this whole ordeal.

And just when all seems lost…God provides water in the desert for Hagar and Ishmael.

Hagar’s story isn’t limited to our Scriptures.

She and Ishmael are part of the creation story of Islam.

In Islam…she is Hajar.

The way the story is told in the Qur’an centers more on Abraham…or Ibrahim… and his relationship to Ishmael. Instead of wordlessly sending them off…Ibrahim offers a prayer of protection…seeking kindness for them. And instead of a well appearing in the wilderness…it’s Hajar who runs between two mountains in search of water for her son.

In THEIR telling of the story….God sees her desperation and meets her action with one of God’s own: a spring of water comes up when Ishmael strikes his foot on the ground.

Ishmael becomes an Islamic prophet…and the Hajj…the journey to Mecca with this run between two mountains…is one of the five pillars of Islam.

The same story of deliverance told by Muslims is the story told by Jews and Christians.

And in both…we hear that even though Abraham and Sarah are cruel and dismissive….God has not abandoned Hagar and Ishmael.

God sees and hears the cries of the disinherited.

God’s response to their pleas may seem delayed…but ultimately… God will come to the aid of the one who cries out for help.

God is faithful that way…even when God’s people are not.

God watches over all the nations.

God’s love for Israel…extends to the Egyptian.

Because God’s love is unconditional and all-encompassing.

I think it says something that this story of Hagar didn’t land on the cutting room floor.

It shows us that in our biblical ancestry…not all the stories are heroic.

And…especially in the Old Testament…the scribes didn’t feel the need to edit out the less-flattering tales of even the most highly favored.

That this story is part of the cultural heritage of our Abrahamic cousin…Islam…also shows that there are other stories.

We can have different views of the same event…all descending from that singular truth that God is the faithful one.

And in sharing a common story….we are interconnected…and bound together as part of the larger human family.

I think that can serve as a great reminder to us as we live in a time when there is such debate over who gets to tell the story of who we are as Americans and as people.

There’s been so much noise about how and what stories we get to tell about the way this nation came to be that we forget there are many stories…many understandings.

And we have nothing to fear in hearing those parts that are not as flattering.

On Monday…we marked Juneteenth…a new federal holiday which celebrates the delayed news delivered to slaves in Texas in 1865 that they ere now free. Texas hadn’t bothered to let the slaves know about the Emancipation Proclamation signed two years earlier.

Tuesday…we recognized World Refugee Day.

We have 110-million people displaced from their homelands…many of them due to wars in places like in Syria and Ukraine. We still wrestle with the best way to help resettle people who find themselves in peril.

And, of course, this is also LGBTQ+ Pride month… a time that celebrates the three days in 1969 when the gay community…led by Marsha P. Johnson and drag queens and kings…stood up to police violence in New York City and asserted their rights to live free from state harassment and intimidation. The intimidation is on-going…only now happening with school boards and state legislatures.

These stories are all part of the larger narrative about our country and the world.

They aren’t pretty…but they’re still part of the story…the larger story we tell about ourselves.

The biblical account of Hagar has been particularly important to African-American women as her experience speaks to the abuses and tensions between races and genders.

The author and theologian Wilda Gafney notes that Hagar’s story holds up a mirror to the dominate culture to consider how black women’s bodies have been used as commodities.

And ultimately…Hagar becomes the biblical ancestor for the likes of Harriet Tubman…who led men and women to freedom from the bondage of slavery.

The Hagar story…painful as it is…is still a story of hope.

Amidst the pain and division happening between the people of God…God keeps covenant with both…and ultimately from both Isaac and Ishmael comes many nations.

The task for us now and always is to trust in God’s faithfulness…and trust enough that we are willing to listen to each other’s pain…each other’s stories.

And in that listening…may we see that in the holiness of the Divine…we are truly one.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.

Leave the Baggage Behind: A Sermon for 3A Pentecost

 There were a few choices this week for what I could preach on, but in the end, it was the instructions about the disciples preparing to go out to the masses without a staff or two tunics, etc. that caught my attention. And as I read through the commentaries, I found that the practical advice had another underlying thought that was relevant to so many people who I encounter. I have had way too many conversations with people who think they're being helpful to me, but in reality, they're projecting a lot of their own stuff onto me. 

Projection is normal, and it is important to be aware that when we take something from our own experience and try to universalize it, we may be compounding the concerns of the person or group we're addressing. Because they are not us, and we are not them. 

Surprisingly, this sermon seemed to hit a chord with a number of parishioners. Further confirmation to me that the Spirit loves all the commentaries...and still has more to say!

Text: Matt 9:35-10:23

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Anybody who has had to fly on a commercial airplane in the past 20 years knows that it’s a hassle.

Once you’ve dropped off whatever bag you want sent through to your destination…you then have the fun of going through the T-S-A checkpoint.

There… you have to take off your shoes…or not…that seems to keep changing. You have to take off your belt…or not. Again… who knows.

If you have a carry-on bag with any kind of electronic anything…that has to get unpacked and placed in a tray…along with your phone… your keys… your whatever other items in your pockets.

Hopefully…you won’t leave any of that stuff behind as you redress yourself on the other side of the screening machines and conveyor belts.

Then it’s the rush to get to your gate which seems to be on the other end of everything…the getting onto the plane… cramming your one bag into an overhead bin or under your seat…robbing you of whatever leg room the airlines are offering these days.

What was once advertised as an exciting adventure to “fly the friendly skies” is now a gauntlet of misery.

Jesus’ advice to the disciples not to carry too much with them on their journeys sounds like sound reasoning for flying today, doesn’t it?

Of course, flying…and the T-S-A… wasn’t on Jesus’ mind when he was giving his instructions of mission to the disciples.

And it’s interesting that it depends on which Gospel account of this speech we read that we learn what exactly the disciples can or cannot have with them.

For instance… in the Gospel of Mark…Jesus lets them carry at least a staff and one pair of sandals as they go about the villages of ancient Palestine.

Eugene Boring… a noted New Testament scholar… notes that Jesus’ message in giving this directive to the disciples is about the fact that at any moment…those in Matthew’s community might be called upon to go out as the prophets did in the Old Testament.

And like their prophetic ancestors…they were to count on the presence of God among those they were going to to show the hospitality expected of God’s people.

Come as a guest to the village with nothing more than the power to heal and care…and let those in the village show you hospitality.

And if they don’t… then move on.

I think there’s another way we can look at this passage…one that relates to the beginning of our Gospel.

Jesus has gone out.

He’s doing his mission of heading to the people who are sick… the friendless… and the needy. And as he looks around… he sees that the needs are enormous. There are crowds and crowds of people…sheep with no shepherd.

That phrase… “like sheep without a shepherd” has a lovely poetic ring for us.

For the original hearers of this Gospel… it was a reference they’d remember from the Book of Numbers as Moses was nearing the end of his life and preparing for his successor.

Jesus sees the crowds and has compassion for them.

That word “compassion” is more than just a feeling of “Awwwwww…these poor shepherdless sheep.”

“Compassion” conveys that Jesus not only sees the troubled people of these crowds… he’s willing to enter their experience…and truly meet them in their place of sorrow and hurt and illness.

This is a matter of true engagement with wounded people….being fully present with those in need.

Jesus does that work so well.

But the harvest… meaning the vast expanse of humanity before him… was huge. And this is when Jesus looks to the twelve…those fishermen… and hotheads… and well-meaning if confused followers…and asks them to pray that God might find those with the God-given abilities to help.

And…as it happens…those prayers were answered.

The qualified…the right people for this mission to the masses… were those very fishermen…hotheads and well-meaning if confused followers!

Jesus makes them apostles…meaning “sent ones” and they are empowered to go out and do the work among the wounded of the harvest.

There’s some risk in this mission.

Some of these apostles are…as I said…kind of hotheaded…most notably Judas Iscariot.

But still they are “the sent”… the apostles…with a mission to do God’s work among God’s people.

Today…those apostles are you and me.

We’re the ones directed at the end of this worship service to leave here and take the experience of being re-membered as children of God…through word and sacrament…and move back out into the larger community.

And Jesus tells us “Don’t take any baggage with you”…both literal and I would argue…figurative.

Because when we go and enter the space of another person…when they welcome us into their world… we need to remember to leave our own baggage at home.

Whatever our concerns are… even if they seem to be relevant to the encounter we’re having with another person… those experiences are our experiences…not the other person’s.

Some of the most unsatisfying… and hurtful conversations happen when someone who thinks they’re coming to help another… instead burdens them by bringing their own baggage to the situation and spilling the contents of that proverbial suitcase all over the floor.

Being fully present with another person is not easy.

It takes a lot of work.

It takes patience.

It takes listening without judgment to another person’s experience…imagining what it must be to live life through their eyes.

Yes—we might be able to empathize.

We might resonate deeply with that experience.

We might hear in their words the same words we’ve spoken.

So, we know…really know at a cellular level…what a person is going through.

And—still—it’s their experience, their baggage. Not ours.

This type of mission work takes prayer.

A prayer that God’s presence be known and shown through us.

That when we speak, we don’t have to worry about how we “speak or what we’re to say; for what we’re to say will be given to us at that time; for it is not us who speaking, but the Spirit of God speaking through us.”

The author Anne Lamott says she has some very simple prayers.

In her book Traveling Mercies…she said her prayers to God boiled down to: “Help, help, help” and “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” She’d later add “Wow!” to the list. “Wow!” is always a great prayer.

It’s a wonderful prayer for that moment when God’s presence becomes obvious in the giving and receiving in relationship with one who has been hurting.

Just as in the days of Matthew’s Gospel…we’re in a time where showing up and patiently listening to another’s story is so important.

We have opportunities to do that with our sister Episcopal Churches here in Valdosta.

Whether we’re gathering with them to make meals for medical students treating migrant farmworkers… or putting together PB&J sandwiches for the children at Ora Lee West and Hudson/Dockett…we can use that time to reach people who could stand to have an empathetic ear.

The key is to remember to leave our own baggage at home and tread lightly into those spaces…and follow in the path of Jesus…that path of health, healing, and hope with unconditional love.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.

 

"Barnabas and Baptism" A Sermon for the Feast of St. Barnabas

 I've been looking forward to the chance to celebrate our patron, St. Barnabas, at St. Barnabas for quite some time, and was delighted that his feast didn't fall on a Sunday such as Trinity or Pentecost. 

I had initally planned to do just a simple liturgy of Welcoming New Members at the time of the passing of the peace. That's when one of my new members called me over after our Trinty Sunday service.

"Do we have to be baptized to be included?" (Given that I was going to record them under "Baptized Members" the answer was obvious.) 

"I haven't been baptized."

My eyes must've grown to the size of saucers. 

"Do you want to baptized?"

"Yes!" 

"Well, let's do that next Sunday!!!" 

"I don't have to wait until the bishop comes in August?"

"No!" And my "no" probably sounded more like an "are you kidding??" I have so wanted to do a baptism.  

Then...on Saturday...another of my new members sent me an email. She didn't think she'd been baptized. 

Suddenly, we had two! I couldn't have been happier. And on the day we were going to celebrate St. Barnabas, who helped to bring Christianity to Antioch and Cyprus...perfect!

Texts: Is.42:5-12; Matt 10:7-16

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Today is a great day. Not only because we’re celebrating our patron saint… but we are bringing into the larger body of Christ two new members through baptism… and doing a formal welcome of all y’all who’ve been faithful to our congregation in attendance and pitching in to help.

Time to have you on the official team roster for St. Barnabas.

Such a joyous and happy day… and then our Gospel lesson ends with this ominous line…

“I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves…”

Yikes! Oooo-Kaaaaay.

What’s all that about, and what does that have to do with St. Barnabas… the man and our beloved namesake?

Well…a look at his life and ministry might give us a few clues.

Barnabas…whose name means “Son of Encouragement” wasn’t born with that name. He was a Levite…that was the priestly clan in Judaism. He was born in Cyprus… and was named Joseph. The apostles gave him the name “Barnabas” in recognition of his generous commitment to their cause. According to the story told in the Fourth Chapter of Acts…Barnabas sold a field that he owned and turned over all the proceeds to the apostles. He was the one responsible for bringing the newly-converted Paul to the apostles and convinced them that Paul had changed his ways and was no longer a persecutor of the followers of Jesus.

Barnabas would head off to Antioch and would later ask Paul to join him. Together… they began the Jewish outreach to the Gentile populations in the region…and… as we heard in the reading from Acts… that was the beginning of when Jesus followers would be called “Christians.”

Paul and Barnabas had some interesting moments as they went about the missionary work of famine relief.

They started in Jerusalem…went back to Antioch and from there…they were sent on their way to Cyprus. When they were in Lystra, the people mistook them for gods. They believed Paul with his eloquent speaking abilities was Mercury, the messenger of the gods.

Barnabas was Jupiter, the chief of the gods. Scholars think that speaks to Barnabas’ commanding presence.

Unfortunately…Paul and Barnabas would have a falling out over Barnabas’ cousin…the disciple Mark…known as John Mark. Paul didn’t think John Mark was showing enough commitment to their ministry…and Barnabas wanted to give him a second chance.

Their disagreement was so contentious that they decided they could no longer work together.

Paul found another partner…Silas…and went back to the churches he and Barnabas had founded together in Asia Minor.

Barnabas and Mark went on to Cyprus…where Barnabas is honored as the founder of that church….and that is where he would die as a martyr.

We can hear in this history that Barnabas did spend a lot of time going in the midst of uncharted territories to bring the message of Jesus…one that aligns with those words of Isaiah:

“I have given you as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind,

to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.”

While he may have encountered difficulties with others outside of the circle of the church… the proverbial wolves…Barnabas found that sometimes… the toughest challenges come from fellow sheep.

I think that remains true in our own times.

Many times… some of our most intense conflicts and disagreements arise with own families.

Christianity’s history is full of arguments…and splits…over any number of things.

The good news about the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas is that neither of them let their personal disagreement get in the way of their work.

The mission of bringing to people a God of love…and liberation from the darkness that clouds the mind.

In fact…even after their split…Paul told the church in Corinth to keep supporting Barnabas in his work. And I gotta admit I love that our patron saint is the one who wanted to give his disciple cousin a second chance. That shows not only love but a good dose of patience.

I think there’s a lesson there for all of us.

Whatever personal disagreements we might have with one another…our mission…as beloved children of God…ought to be about bringing more love…more compassion into a world that needs that message.

I think that’s vitally important today.

Because there are those in our society who are working against that mission of God.

They keep pushing a narrative that this group or “those people” are to be banned or kept out…and we need to be afraid of “them.”  

Fear is their way to keep us apart…black and white… gay and straight… immigrant and native…and to prevent us from seeing each other as connected and interdependent on each other. Anyone who is different not only can’t be trusted…we need to silence them.

In a few moments…when we do the baptisms… all of us will be asked to recommit ourselves to the basic covenants of our faith. We will be called upon to “seek and serve Christ in all persons…loving our neighbors as ourselves.” All persons does not come with asterisk. We don’t get to opt out and only care for those who look like us… have the same beliefs as us.

Likewise…we will be asked “to strive for justice and peace for all people and respect the dignity of every human being.” Again…not just our own kind; all of humankind. We are making the commitment that Barnabas had to be one who encourages everyone… and seeks a world where all systems and people…provide a justice and peace that lifts up those who feel themselves being kicked around…and dismissed by the world around them.

As the people of St. Barnabas…we make that commitment with God’s help…and trusting that God will help us as God helped Barnabas…to show that love to the world.

May each of us take into our hearts that spirit of baptism and do our part to be that light of Christ in our communities. 

In the name of God…F/S/HS.

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 The history portion of this sermon on the life of St. Barnabas from "Holy Women/Holy Men."

 

 

 

 

To Be A Good Shepherd: A Homily for Linda Heffron

 Today, I returned to my sending parish to preach and co-lead a memorial service for one of the nicest members of the parish who passed away right before I left for France. Linda Heffron had called me almost two years ago to discuss death and her desire to have me involved in her funeral service. At the time I was still a couple months away from my ordination to the priesthood.

"OK, Linda, but...ummm...could you hold off on dying for a couple months so I can become a priest?"

She laughed and agreed to that covenant.

As we prepared for the service at St. Thomas, Thomasville, her brothers were spreading her ashes at a family log cabin by a lake in Ohio. The Spirit of God was definitely upon all of us.

Texts: Psalm 23 and John 10:11-16

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Our scriptures for this service say a lot about God as a shepherd.

God is the shepherd who leads us by still waters… has us lie down in green pastures.

God is the shepherd accompanying us through the darkest valleys.

God is a good shepherd… a shepherd who lays down his life to live among and protect the sheep.

It’s fitting for God to be seen as a shepherd.

Shepherds take great care in seeing that their flock makes it from pasture to pasture and up into the mountains.

They use their rod and staff to gently nudge the slow pokes along… never beating them.

In rural parts of Europe…the shepherds lead the sheep through a town… letting the animals stop to get a drink at a large fountain in the main public square.

The good shepherd has deep affection for the sheep in their care.

Most of the time in churches… the common thought is that it’s the clergy… the priest or the deacon… who takes on the role of shepherd in the congregation.

But really… I think we forget that the first shepherds anyone encounters in a church isn’t the person in the collar.

It’s the usher… standing at the door… distributing the bulletins for the service.

That’s the first person a newcomer to an Episcopal church will see.

And how the usher greets people coming in can make a world of difference about how they feel when they go back out.

Imagine encountering a grumpy, scowling usher… their face full of judgment?

Or one who mindlessly puts the paper bulletin in front of you, barely noticing or making eye contact with you?

What type of a welcome would that be?

Ushers need to be attentive…without prying. Helpful without hovering.  

I think that’s one of the reasons Linda was drawn to serve as an usher here at St. Thomas.

Her natural curiosity…sharp intellect… and kind smile were the perfect combination of gifts that made her a great usher. She could read people.

She was as attentive to the regular attendees as she was to the new person trying out this church for the first time.

And she loved getting to know people… and appreciating them for who they were. It’s what piqued her interest in books and genealogy. And isn’t perfect that she found community not only here at St. Thomas…but in service at the Church of the Good Shepherd?

The end of our Gospel reading Jesus mentions the “other sheep” who don’t belong to the fold… and yet also must be found and brought in by the shepherd.

This is one of those verses in Scripture that resonates with anyone who has ever felt like an “other” or an outsider. Not one of the “in” crowd.

And perhaps because Linda had known pain in her life… it helped make her even more conscious and compassionate toward those who are “othered” in society.

In speaking with a member of Linda’s chosen family… I learned that Linda had served in the AmeriCorps program in Rochester NY before she made her move down here to Thomasville. It was in Linda’s nature to give back to her local community…and AmeriCorps gave her the chance to work with convicts recently released from prison.

Still in the shepherding role… Linda gave her all in helping those who might have otherwise fallen through the cracks learn some new skills… and gain a sense of self-worth. And in that giving… she received the reward of trust and appreciation for having cared enough to make the world a better place for somebody leaving the confining nature of prison.

Shepherds care.

Linda cared…whether it was for a homeless house cat or unlocking the mysteries of fossils. She had a passion to preserve… protect and discover the stories of all the “others.” Because those stories also matter.

The life of a shepherd has long stretches of being alone. And in the time of Jesus… it was not a noble profession. The shepherds were outcasts. They were looked down upon. It wasn’t and isn’t an easy life.

The fact that Jesus uses the analogy of a good shepherd should clue us in on God’s affection for those who are doing the work of God’s mission of inclusion and redemption without a lot of fanfare.

Jesus is encouraging us to hear these words and know that we… no matter who we are … all have the potential to be shepherds.

We all can serve in that role of helping and guiding each other through valleys of life…and being the living, breathing, example of a good shepherd to another.

This is the life that we celebrate when we remember Linda.

A life of fascination in learning and discovering… and showing kindness to strangers.

A life grounded in the confidence that in the end… there is no separation from God…the God of love who shepherds us home.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.

 

The Story of Ourselves

 

Hello again! I've been away for two Sundays enjoying time in France. A post on that later. 

While I was there, it gave me time to rest, relax, and reconnect with nature. My wife's family's home is in a very rural part of the Pyrenees. Day time was filled with the sound of insects, birds and cow bells from the nearby pasture. Night time gave me the chance to see the stars in brighter array than when I am at home in Florida. 

And all of it helped feed me as I thought about our First Creation story slated for the Sunday when I got home. 

Text: Genesis 1:1-2:1a

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I love music.

I can’t play an instrument to save my life, but I enjoy listening to others play.

And as I have gotten older…I have come to appreciate the classics.

Not Jimi Hendrix, but Joseph Haydn.

Particularly Haydn’s masterpiece called “The Creation.”

I first heard this piece about ten years ago when I attended a concert at the Bradfordville Baptist Church in Tallahassee.

For about five minutes… the orchestra plays a through an overture in a minor key that rises with some dramatic punctuations of strings…woodwinds…and brass.

Then it drops to almost a near silence.

We hear a baritone voice sing out…

“In the beginning when God created the heaven and the earth…”

This baritone continues singing a capella…with the occasional punctuation by the orchestra…going lower and lower to match the darkness on the face of the deep.

Then the chorus of sopranos, altos and tenors joins in.

Their multitude of voices become the music of the Spirit moving over the face of the water of this formless void.

And in a quiet staccato they sing:

“And God said, ‘Let there be light.’”

And then…in an explosion of all the instruments and voices…the answer comes

“And there was LIGHT!!!”

The orchestra blasts out an exuberant interlude as we progress along with the singing of creation.

I highly recommend looking up this music… whether you’re someone who likes the classics or not.

It’s a beautiful way to capture the poetry of this opening to our Scriptures and adds an aural dimension to get that sense of what a Trinitarian God might sound like in our ears.

One voice… with many notes and ranges.

This is my best way of describing the Trinity.

Too many people have tried to come up with analogies for explaining the Trinity…like the one about St. Patrick and the three-leaf clover.

But I think obsessing over this doctrine…that really came about as a church festive date in the 14^th century… gets in the way of us having what I think is really supposed to be more of an experience of God than an intellectual argument about God.

And perhaps that’s why our diviners of the lectionary decided that Trinity Sunday is the perfect time to get us back to the beginning and hearing this opening chapter of Genesis.

Because it places us with God… the Trinitarian God…in the act of creation…as it says… in the beginning.

We’re invited into an experience of God… the creator, redeemer, and sustainer… that is all-encompassing.

It shows us that for God… the very essence of our being is the earth.

Because let’s face it: we…the human race… aren’t the beginning of this story.

God didn’t start with creating people… or nations…or even animals.

Out of this formless void of nothingness …God’s spirit moves as a wind…like that mighty wind we heard about at Pentecost last week…a breath blowing  over this vast expanse of what is called “earth”.

God issues the command to have light as a contemporary to darkness.

And… just as Haydn’s orchestration illustrates…it’s an explosion of wonder.

I’ve always loved this first creation story from Genesis… and yes: there are two: the other one is Adam and Eve.

I love it because of how it attempts to tell the story of the world.

An understanding of how we came to know and see…and touch…and smell… all that has come into being.

There are many other creation stories from other cultures as well… each of them a noble human effort to explain where in the heck did this world come from and how did we come to be part of it.

It’s in our human nature to tell stories like this.

I also love it for what it says about God: God is a creator… a cultivator… an artist and… in many respects… a hopeless romantic.

All of what God brings forth is good.

Once God has finished…there is still time to enjoy and delight in the work done in creation.

And perhaps that’s really the most appropriate way for us to mark Trinity Sunday.

Instead of trying to find some rationale for a belief that God can exist as one in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we might instead sit with this amazing and beautiful telling of this creation story and contemplate the meaning of a God who labored with such love to make all of this that surrounds us…including us…and be like our psalmist…taking note of the wonder of God’s works.

Spending time in France with my wife’s family at their home in the country gave me many hours of quiet to take in the sound of the wind blowing through tall grasses…and cows with their bells clanging in what at times sounded like some sort of Buddhist retreat.

Walking along the roadside…I could see little dots of red wild strawberries…ripe and ready for eating.

Not all nature is friendly.

When I stupidly pushed aside a stinging nettle branch in the driveway… my mother-in-law took me back outside and showed me the broadleaf plantain…not like the fruit, but a Greenleaf herb that grows wild in Europe…that had the medicinal benefit of relieving the throbbing pain in my fingers from touching the nettle.

Even when nature produces a villainous plant like the nettle… there is an equal remedy growing only feet away… and it was good!

(By the way…I’ve been told that nettles have good qualities, too. But I’m a little more cautious about that plant.)

All the goodness in this creation story culminates in the last of God’s creative works.

God…the “They”… the plural pronoun God “Elohim” in the Hebrew… brings forth humans in God’s image.

God is both male and female…and every other conception in-between. God is both flesh in Jesus and God is Spirit in that flaming breath that was there at the beginning.

Again…God is an all encompassing in this creative work.

God declares humankind to be good.

So good…that God entrusts humanity with the important task of having dominion over all the rest of creation.

In fact…as the story tells us… God blessed us with this opportunity to enjoy the earth and all that was brought forth from it.

It’s in our second creation story… where Adam and Eve eat of that one tree in the Garden of Eden…that we get the idea that we might be created for good…we might have access to all the good things… and yet we will still always find a way to get it wrong.

And we come back to the nettle plant.

We have those good qualities and we can be good.

But we also prick and hurt one another.

This happens when we make the mistake of centering ourselves in the creation story.

We forget that while we have dominion over all things in creation… we are not separate from it or each other.

We are made of the same dust of the earth…that is in our plants, birds, fish, and animals.

Seriously… we are only some variation of DNA strands apart from all the rest of creation!

We need to remember that the story we tell about ourselves is one that puts us on a continuum of God’s creative action.

And it is God’s creation, not our own.

Fortunately… we have the reminder from Jesus that we are not alone.

We have the promise from our Gospel that in all that we do… we can look to Jesus to be alongside us… and serving as the guide who encourages us to remember who we are created to be.

And it is good.

In the name of God… F/S/HS.