Sunday, May 30, 2010

Father, Son and Holy spirit May 30, 2010


“Father, son and Holy spirit.”
RUMC Trinity Sunday (Rylan Cole Fogt’s baptism)
May 30, 2010

 The English preacher, Colin Morris, has said that any preacher with good sense will call in sick on Trinity Sunday.   Well maybe I don’t have enough good sense to make change for a nickle, because this is Trinity Sunday and I am here.

The problem for preachers is that doctrine of the trinity- “Father, Son and holy spirit,” three in one // One in three: is frankly a little hard to grasp, a little hard to express.  It has been passionately debated for 2000 years and the debate has not always been polite.  It has led to divisions in the church, excommunications, even name calling; Unitarians (people who don’t believe in the trinity) accusing Trinitarians of worshipping three gods. The Trinitarians accuse the Unitarians of not being Christian.  Therefore, the debate goes on even today.
Let me say I am Trinitarian and I know that most of you are too.  We believe in one God known in three equally divine and eternal persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
If I were to get into all the debates and name calling today, there is a pretty good chance that by time I was done you would wish that I had called in sick today. 

So let me tell you two stories: and try to pull a couple of things together. 

In the beginning was the word.  And the word was with God and the word was God.  And God spoke forth that word saying “let there be”- and all that is came into being.  The air, the sky the clouds, and all the birds and butterflies and bumble bees of the air.   The word went forth and the waters of the seas and rivers were created along with the fish and whales, and choral, and platypuses and starfish of the sea.  Everything that swims was created by God sending forth the word.  And then the land and hills and valleys and mountains and canyons and caves.  And soon came by that same word the cows, and rhinoceros, the snakes and the deer, the bear and the buffalo.  All these things came into being and lived in the world created by the word that was with God and was God.
But God wanted more.  God said, let US make man in our own image.  (US is the Bible’s word, not mine)  So, THEY went to where the dry creation and the wet creation  and the airy creation all met and found mud.  They created Man,  but man was kind of lame.  He was just like all of the other creatures.  He ate and moved and talked, but something was still missing.  God wanted a creature with whom they could have relationship. So THEY  (the creator and the word)  gently picked him up I imagine by the scruff of the neck his arms and legs flailing and yelling put me down, put me down.  They cradled him gently in the palm of their hand and puffed into him-  They breathed into him the breath of life; the spirit of life.  The Ruach or breath of God.    The spirit that made him not just a creature, but a being just a little lower than angels because he was indeed the image of the one God known in creation as creator, word and breath.  The God we know as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  And God again spoke saying, this is very good.
Something was still missing though.  It is not good that man would be alone.  Man needed a partner so God created woman and so in doing created family and community and relationship.   Community was created.  Relationship was created.  Man is incomplete without community.  Outside of relationship to God and others man is not complete.
We are Made in the image of the God’s very essence is community, We are made in the image of God who seeks relationship; We are made in the image of God who is in his very being is found in the relationship between Father, son and Holy Spirit. One God three persons, blessed trinity,

Jump forward to Jesus time.
That same word that was in the beginning with God and was God- that same Word became flesh and dwelt among us as Jesus the Christ.  Sent by the creator, conceived by the Holy spirit, Mary sang, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me,” and she bore a son.  A real live flesh and bone human son who was not just in God’s image, but was God himself.  
When he was about 30 human years old, the eternal word went to the river; again where the land and water and air all meet.  John baptized him in the Jordan River.   When the word arose from the watery tomb the breath -- or spirit-- of God blew the breath of life into his lungs and alighted on him light a dove.  While simultaneously the voice of the divine creator was herd to say “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”
Finally the perfection of creation was in the world.  The word spoken by God,  into the flesh of creation, filled by the spirit of God to be more alive than any being before or since.   Jesus was not just made in the image of God he was and is God.  Jesus was not just the fruit of the Word of God, he was himself the word.  Jesus was not just filled with the spirit; he was at his deepest core the spirit of God. -- Father, son and Holy Spirit. One God three persons, blessed trinity.

Flash ahead 2000 years. 
From the love of family and the miracle of creation comes Rylan Cole Fogt  for Christian baptism. 
What are we doing today?
I think there is a clue in the very words of baptism that we use as given to us by Jesus- “You are baptized in the name of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit.”    Do you recognize the trinity from the previous stories?  “You are baptized in the name of the father, of the  Son and of the Holy spirit. “

I have trouble wrapping my mind around everything that this means.  Baptism  is more than a miracle of God. Baptism is a Mystery of God.  I have come to see this week that the mystery may lie not in the definition of trinity, not in the technical details of the essence and the homousis, not in the distinction between essential and economic trinity but in the smallest word in Jesus’ Command. “IN”  As in “Baptize them IN the name of “
That “in” is the greek word eis.  Eis is also commonly translated  “INTO.”   I think that sheds a whole different light on baptism.  “Go and baptize them INTO the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit.”  “You are baptized into the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit.”  Not just baptized by the authority of God.  Not just baptized in response to the command of God.  But actually baptized into the holy mystery of God himelf.  Baptized into the Holy mystery of the God who is one in three and three in one.  The God who is at one and the same time the Father who spoke Rylan into existence, the Word or son who  is the creative and recreative power of God’s love in flesh, and the spirit that leads us forward from baptism In new life as part of the new creation.

In baptism we don’t just join the church, we don’t just dedicate a baby, we don’t just go through a ceremony.  In baptism we are taken into the mystery.  In baptism we become part of the mystery.  In baptism the mystery of God’s love and God’s salvation become part of us.
The mystery is this
1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a]have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. … because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

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