Trinity

TRINITY SUNDAY, First Sunday after Pentecost Year A
June 15, 2014
Parish of Ss. Peter & Paul
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We know that nature can be vicious and violent. In the winter, in some parts of our country, a blizzard comes and encases the trees with ice, and they grow heavier and heavier until a limb as thick as a telephone pole breaks loose and crushes the spine of a 44-year-old woman; she dies instantly while her two grade-school children stand by in unbelieving shock.

But when you think about nature as you experience it year by year, the thing that stands out is the good, the dependable, the trustworthy. The bad things are real, but they are the exception. For the most part, nature is lovely, trustworthy, even lavish. Good, and not only good, but very good.
But there is still a puzzle: what does the created world have to do with the yearning for justice which is so much a part of our teaching about being Godly and Christian? What does the lying peacefully under the full moon have to do with the cry for community and liberation?

Many have travelled to Africa where they see people so malnourished that they were more like stick figures than human beings.
We love "...the easy wind and downy flake" of Robert Frost's poem. But what do they say to these cries for justice?

We love the fire crackling in the fireplace. But what does that offer to someone who is alone and alienated? We love the sunlight refracting through the ice on the window. But what does that do for the victims of poverty or racism or sexism or sexual violence?

And certainly a part of all this is what we experienced this past week, not far away from here, at Reynolds High School. Our son Christopher is a teacher at Walt Morey Middle School, just down the road from the high school, and his school served as a gathering-point for students to obtain their possessions a few days after the tragedy. Our Bishop Michael said in his weekly message to clergy on Thursday, "I would remind you that one of the responsibilities we have in our communities is to provide a sense of safety. A reminder that God is fully present in the life of Christians as represented in the Trinity might be a good addition to your preaching this week." And so I do now, and ask: What does all of our basking in this glorious (mostly) Oregon June weather have to do with Emilio Hoffman or Jered Padgett or the teacher who was injured? What does it have to do with us who have to cope with tragedy and help our children understand?

When you go back and read Genesis 1 with all these questions in mind, you begin to notice fascinating things that help answer the questions.

On each of the seven days of creation, God creates according to the same pattern. God commands, "Let there be ..." The command is executed. "... and there was ..." God assesses what happens. "And God saw that the light was good." And the text states the time, "And there was evening and there was morning ..."
This symmetry suggests that the world itself is predictable and trustworthy.

In addition to having its own integrity, each created thing is alive and responsive to God and to all the other things. We can see this clearly enough in animate things--dogs and raccoons and parakeets. But according to the Bible, it is true of all created things. To us, a rock is inert. But in the Bible, there is a sense in which it is alive. That's why the Psalmist can say, "Let the sea roar and all that fills it ... Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills sing together for joy" (Ps. 98:7-8). And in our day, the philosopher Charles Hartshorne points out that since all matter is composed of whirling atoms and subatoms, it is all truly alive. Even the bricks and blocks form which a building is built.


Do you notice this? God creates a place for each thing and frees it to be what it is to be. God places each thing so that it is related in just the right way to all the other things.

The key word is relationship. God creates all things in positive relationship with one another. As Genesis 1 comes to its majestic conclusion, everything is in a community of mutual support, mutual encouragement, mutual lifting up and building up.

We know the word does not occur in Genesis 1. But isn't this a picture of "justice"? In the Hebrew tradition, after all, justice is first and foremost a matter of right relationship, of things holding one another up as God intended from the very beginning.

The will for justice is built into the very fabric of things. The power of life itself seeks for all things to live together in community. So the Psalmist says, "The heavens proclaim [God's] righteousness" (97:6).
Now this may seem a little far-out, the frog croaking for justice. But some of us have experienced this: nature bearing its own witness, calling us to community and support in relationship. A family several years ago began a backyard vegetable garden. The father of the family says:

"At first, the garden was just a place to work. You turn the soil and water it, and things grow. But, to use Martin Buber, the famous Jewish philosopher's expression, I gradually began to sense that the garden was a kind of "Thou." I began to sense that the garden was a genuine Other. I became aware of the constant presence of the life-force and the dazzling diversity of the vegetables. And when things grow together at their best, the garden is a picture of what God intends for all.

"I got a lot of help with sermons out there, talking things over with the potatoes. Actually, I talked with the corn (since it has ears), but the potatoes did look over my notes (with their eyes)."

So, on your way home from church today, look around. Smell the fresh air. Take a look at the trees. Taste a glass of fresh, cool water. Listen to the birds. Witnesses. At their best, they are signs of God's presence and God's grace and God's will. Partners in the search for justice. And if you listen carefully, maybe you can hear them speak to you.

In the Beginning, not in time or space,
But in the quick before both space and time,
In Life, in Love, in co-inherent Grace,
In three in one and one in three, in rhyme,
In music, in the whole creation story,

In His own image, His imagination,
The Triune Poet makes us for this glory,
And makes us each the other's inspiration.
He calls us out of darkness, chaos, chance,
To improvise a music of our own,
To sing the chord that calls us to the dance,
Three notes resounding from a single tone,
To sing the End in whom we all begin;
Our God beyond, beside us, and within.
(Malcolm Guite)

Phil Ayers+, June 15, 2014