Trinity Sunday Sermon Notes

Some time ago, our lovely youngest daughter told me that at my advanced age, i needed to start checking things off the bucket list. I took it seriously and noticed that national parks dominated my bucket list. I went Yosemite. I merely wanted to see the original 4 mile trail, one that has now been adjusted to five miles,. The ranger asked, you’re not planning to try that trail are you?Facing trinity sunday, to even inquire into the depth of god brings that old question to the surface.

In the two basic creeds we use do not try to explain the Trinity as much as report on activity within     God toward us.On Pentecost we acknowledge the continuing presence and labor of the spirit. In the deep recesses of our faith, we try to come to grips with the God of all time and space and God’s relationship to us. We try to get a peek at the inner life of god on Trinity sunday.When I was young we started speaking of an environmental movement. In church we speak of creation. Gen. 1-this is in most of our memory banks. We have other creation accounts and allusions in the bible, but this stately evocation of creation is the introduction to scripture.see William brown- orderly progression-linear leaps god involved in creation still-culminates in Sabbath-, Shack movie-all inhabit different dimensions of the same god-(By the way the Wisdom figure in Scripture is female)Most of us have little   trouble with God the creator and Sustainer, and with Jesus Christ of course, but the Holy Spirit  is more elusive.I think it is always a mistake to take the ancient bile and try to shoehorn it into contemporary science. It does give us a perspective on our scientific pursuits and observations. It may be helpful to be reminded that this account may well have been a direct counter to the reigning religion of babylon in the exile. Babylon’s story of creation was a bloody battle between the gods. The religious figures of the exile would not hold to that. They saw God working through non-violent movements in succession.

A name and more than a name.The same god is the creator and redeemer.

Gen. 1 is a hymn to orderly movement. The issue of randomness in nature comes into play then.this is a god who makes space for others. (Alvin Plantinga award)Wild is in the midst of the order and interlocking progression-sea monsters-

God of time

What god is not through jesus Christ-not vindictive-not violent-not controlling-healing-

Ps 8, cassini spacecraft-Rudolph Otto on the holy religious ecstasy captured by a special moment overwhelming-powerful-awe-inspiring-dreadful-eerie, uncanny, god as wholly other,but Incarnation

dominion/caretaking image? Not exploit, but farm if you will. A caretaker of a property

William C. Placher's book, "The Triune God," and every year it offers a new nugget pointing to the importance of the triune nature of our God. This time around I came across this, "In the incarnation, the three show that there is always within God a space large enough for the whole world, and even all its sin: the Word's distance from the one he calls Father is so great that no one falls outside it, and the Spirit fills that space with love. The Spirit maintains ... the space that Christ opens up 'at our disposal, as a new, open space.'" We can use that new, open,free,  love-filled space. The Trinity tells us that god is wide and limitless, in other words, god. That same god makes room for all of creation.that same god not only makes room for us but calls us ever more fully into the divine life.

Juneteenth Column

Juneteenth was celebrated on Saturday in Upper Alton’s Salu Park. The celebration is said to have begun when Texas slaves were told of their freedom at the end of the Civil War. In some locales, the Emancipation Proclamation is read and includes theses words:  “I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; …And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.”

The slaves did not know of their proclaimed freedom, as Texas was on the outskirts of the war, and slaveholders had flocked there from Louisiana and other states. To be proclaimed free and to not know of it would be an wound. Not long before the last declaration of freedom, the 13th Amendment, written by Lyman Trumbull, who lived in Alton for some time, passed the Congress.Later the same year, the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery would be ratified.

History is a prized possession. I am delighted that Juneteenth provides a way for people to engage in local links to national events. It  provides examples of a people downtrodden who could rise through dint of character, aspiration, education, and perseverance, then and now. What a mixture of elation and confusion, celebration and anxiety must have greeted the news of emancipation.I did not realize that many former slaves changed their names to one that they selected, “because that is what a free person can do.” Here’s an excerpt from the Federal Writers Project collection of narratives of former slaves during the Depression:And I ain’t goin’ to get whipped any more. I got my ticket, Leavin’ the thicket, And I’m a-headin’ for the Golden Shore!” ... Everyone was a-singin. We was all walkin’ on golden clouds. Hallejujah! “Union forever, Hurrah, boys, hurrah Although I may be poor, Shoutin’ the battle cry of freedom!” Everybody went wild. We all felt like heroes and nobody had made us that way but ourselves. We was free. Just like that, we was free...right off colored folks started on the move. They seemed to want to get closer to freedom, as they’d know what it was ⎯ like it was a place or a city. . . . We knowed freedom was on us, but we didn’t know what was to come with it. We thought we was goin’ to git rich like the white folks. We thought we was goin’ to be richer than the white folks, ’cause we was stronger and knowed how to work, and the whites didn’t and they didn’t have us to work for them anymore. But it didn’t turn out that way. We soon found out that freedom could make folks proud but it didn’t make them rich. FELIX HAYWOOD, enslaved in Texas, interviewed in Texas, ca. 1937 „

The summer solstice sits around the celebration. Freedom’s light beckoned.  In my lifetime, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 transformed us by stopping state-imposed discrimination. Stubbornly, so many measures of equality elude us, in terms of economic security, educational opportunity.Early last week, we had the opportunity to hear Old Crow Medicine Show (Wagon Wheel) perform Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde. One of their final songs was his  Blowin’ In the Wind.”Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist/ Before they're allowed to be free/Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head/And pretend that he just doesn't see.” The road to freedom is a long one, sometimes unseen and it requires much light.

Reflections for Week of June 18

Sunday June 18 -Ps.116 is a song of answered prayer. At the same, it sees the response to that as more prayer, including ones of thanksgiving.What is your best prayer of thanksgiving?

Monday-“ the poet Rilke writes: 'Fear not the pain. Let its weight fall back into the earth; for heavy are the mountains, heavy the seas.' The next time you are amongst the trees, see if you might imagine laying your heavy burden down and let the mountains or seas carry them. This is what gets us in our own way, the endless burdens we carry, the stories we tell ourselves that pull us away from the divine creatures we have been created to be.”--- Christine Valters Paintner

Tuesday-Stanley Hauerwas,:why there is suffering, “What I have learned over the years as a Christian theologian is that none of us should try to answer such questions. Our humanity demands that we ask them, but if we are wise we should then remain silent. . .When Christianity is assumed to be an ‘answer’ that makes the world intelligible, it reflects an accommodated church committed to assuring Christians that the way things are is the way things have to be. Such ‘answers’ cannot help but turn Christianity into an explanation. . . .Faith is but a name for learning how to go on without knowing the answers.”

Wednesday-Merton writes: “Forest and field, sun and wind and sky, earth and water, all speak the same silent language, reminding the monk that he is here to develop like the things that grow all around him.”... I am reminded here of the poet Rilke’s line “no forcing and no holding back.” Merton would find in creation the very source of his prayer, describing that as he seeks silence and solitude he discovers that everything he touches is turned into prayer: “where the sky is my prayer, the birds are my prayer, the wind in the trees is my prayer, for God is in all.” Practice awakens us to this reality slowly and allows love to seize us, rather than fear or worry.

Thursday-The Quest of the Historical Jesus: He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lake-side, He came to those who knew him not. He speaks to us the same word: "Follow thou me!" and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time.... And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, he will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts and the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an [awesome] mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.

Friday-You have traveled too fast over false ground;Now your soul has come, to take you back.Take refuge in your senses, open up To all the small miracles you rushed through.Become inclined to watch the way of rain When it falls slow and free.Imitate the habit of twilight, Taking time to open the well of color That fostered the brightness of day. Draw alongside the silence of stone Until its calmness can claim you. John O'Donohue

Saturday-When we love, we are tapping into that mighty rushing stream of God's essential being, that same power that created all things and holds all things in being, that same love which seeks to draw us into loving relationship with one another.Whenever we respond to God in prayer - listening to God, opening our hearts to God - we stand in the face of a tsunami of God's love. Whenever we attend to one another, forgetting ourselves in the act of listening to someone else open their hearts, we are giving ourselves over to the outgoing tide of God's love. Jinkins

Sermon Notes Gen. 18,21 June 18

June 18-Births are common, but never commonplace. Abraham was already old when he was told to go to a new place. He was already old when told that he and Sarah would have a child, long after the time for conception had past. Every month, like clockwork, they were disapointed again. Sarah grew past the time to have children. Gen. 18, the visitor and the miraculous birth some see it as a Trinitarian image- is he being judged on his hospitality ( see janzen) p,55-  in the spring, in the time of life (Heb)after I am worn out shall I pleasure (ednah) as in eden word play Is anything too difficult for God-repeated by the angel for the possibly too youthful Mary-God is not talking to Abraham alone but also to her-she is being revivified- Yiddish fears compliments, as if it is daring fate to strike.and Torment comes in many forms, but it often comes in 2 guises (Wex) children.Wp-It might seem there is something dishonest about telling the visitors they will only receive a little water and a bit of bread, when something far more lavish is what he has in mind. This could be explained away under the rubric of humility, that Abraham did not want to be arrogant about his ability to provide. Or, perhaps Abraham wanted to pleasantly surprise his visitors by not getting their expectations up. One ancient rabbi explained that this story illustrates how those who are righteous speak little, but do a lot.They were facing mortality, even as these patriarchal ages go longer than ours.So would they have the promised legacy? Is a dream a lie when it doesn’t come true, or is it something worse (the river) How many times did his new name, father of many taste like the ashes of death in his mouth? When did they both think that they lacked the energy to handle a baby, a toddler, a child?

Continued creativity is possible in old age. Old dogs can learn new tricks and demonstrate new capacities.Older Adulthood may and can be marked by industry, creativity, and using our learnings to teach others.  We need to do much better in providing a forum for that sharing than the monastic isolation we place the elderly. Of course, youth sees the aging as hopelessly outmoded, so they choose to miss the chance.

-integrity and despair -replay of the previous virtues and challenges How does hope endure in the face of repeated disappointments?

Shakespeare winter’s tale-thou meets with things dying things I with things being born Melancholy sets in when you do not see a way to even try to change a situation.Where does hope go when you reach the winter of life? Month after month, the hope for a child waned for the old couple.A dream deferred-does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?“Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive. If life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trus we continue to find options and potential, despite loss.t impaired.” Capps hope fights shame, apathy, and despair: all of which hit us hard as we age.Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?the name the child laughter,

Were some disciples elderly?, exorcism and healing time is right for doing kingdom work.

Aging as sabbath time and closures.In the face of too many losses and limitations, old age draws on a lifetime of experience in the embrace of hope for themselves, for their legacy, and a world to come.

2017 Father's Day Prayer

“The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,

and he who begets a wise child will delight in him.” (Proverbs 23:24)

The book of Proverbs presents fathers as teachers of wisdom.

May all fathers be able to transmit hard-won or inspired wisdom.

May the ears of children, no matter their age,

Be attuned to the wisdom of fathers.

“I believe that what we become depends

on what our fathers teach us at odd moments,

when they aren't trying to teach us.

We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.” ― Umberto Eco,

May those bits of wisdom

Reach beyond the grave,

If it need be so.

We certainly need wisdom

As we rewrite the role of fathers.

May we forgive the errors of fathers.

May we  cherish favored memories.

May we gain the maturity to learn

What to accept from fathers,

What to adjust,

And what to reject in our own lives.

May we see fathers in full,

As complete human beings beyond a role.

May fathers grow into becoming grandfathers,

To see legacies move to another generation.

May they look through the ties and clumsy cards

To the deep sentiment that runs beneath them.

Jesus called God Father in John’s gospel.

Jesus taught us to pray, Our Father.

On this day, may we

Celebrate the fatherhood of the Holy One.

His love was not divided, nor should ours be.

May we all have hearts spacious enough

To contain multitudes of loves.

Pentecost column

Pentecost is the long season of the church year, as some would count it as moving all the way to the end of the church year in the fall. The season of the spirit, of the spirit touching the church, stretches out in time. Its start often seems forced to me. We move easily into Christmas and Easter, but not this core Sunday of the Spirit touching the disciples and their hearers. We may wear red; the hymns are always good on the spirit of Pentecost, but it van seem a vain attempt to try to manage the energies of the spirit into one special day, instead of seeing the spirit permeating life every single day.    .

Some speak of the day as the church’s birthday, or coming out party. No longer were the disciples locked in fear behind their private gathering, but moved out into a public profession of their way of life. Of course, the distribution of the Spirit rested on each gathered disciple. then, we have the remarkable vista of people with the babble of different languages all understanding the words of Preterit is as if a spirit t United Nations translator allowed them to hear the same message in their own capacity.

I see Pentecost as the opportunity for diversity to be centripetal. Instead of differences making it seem that we fly off in all directions, Pentecost accepts differences but creates relationship. The assigned lectionary readings illustrate this. In Numbers 11 Moses finds that the spirit has spread to other speakers in the camp, beyond the seventy elders God had touched. . Instead of seeing it as a threat, Moses is more than happy to share the spirit of God. This follows Moses realizing that the burdens of leadership were too much for one person to bear. In I Cor. 12, Paul exalts the presence of different gifts in a community, if they can channel those gifts for the common good (v.7).  On a weekend after our partial moving from a worldwide climate agenda, Ps. 104 stands on a simple religious principle of god the Creator. The teeming diversity of life it celebrates is a sign of divine preference. There God’s spirit, the breath of life, animates and renews all things (v.30). I’m struggling through an allegedly simplified book by the physicist Brian Greene. One of the few things I am grasping is that the universe works with a good deal of precision and latitude at the same time. God has built in tolerance into the natural order.

Listen to an eminent theologian: “The gift and the presence of the Holy Spirit is the greatest and most wonderful thing which we can experience - we ourselves, the human community, all living things and this earth. For with the Holy Spirit it is not just one random spirit that is present, among all the many good and evil spirits that there are. It is God himself, the creative and life-giving, redeeming and saving God. Where the Holy Spirit is present, God is present in a special way, and we experience God through our lives, which become wholly living from within. We experience whole, full, healed and redeemed life, experience it with all our senses. We feel and taste, we touch and see our life in God and God in our life.” ― Jürgen Moltmann, The Source of Life:

Life is rarely, if ever, static. The spirit of Life then is always on the move. The spirit adapts to our time in life. the Spirit pervades all of creation. Yes, we are a vital part of that creation.  We are not on our own. We live in a web of enspirited relationships.

week of June 4 reflections

June 4-Ps. 104 :24-34 speaks of God’s continuing care for creation. Of special note is the fearsome leviathan, that plays in the deep ocean, both symbols of dread. Pentecost can well be called a time of new creation. It is an example of the renewal of v. 30. The psalmist knows that the spirit of God animates all animate things.

Monday-"In the Hebrew Scriptures the promise of God's abundance is often conceived of as blossoming in the desert. In that harsh landscape, a flower bursting forth from the dry land is a symbol of divine generosity, fruitfulness, and hope. Hope is a stance of radical openness to the God of newness and possibility. When we hope, we acknowledge that God has an imagination far more expansive than ours."--- Christine Valters Paintner,

Tuesday-The band Waterdeep has a song that begins, “You talk of hating war. But where’s your own peacetime?” I can get caught up in big ideas of justice and truth and neglect the small opportunities around me to extend kindness, forgiveness, and grace.-.from ESL epistle Tish  Harrison Warren

Wednesday-Aldous Huxley-at every moment we are called upon to make an all-important decision  to choose between the way that leads to death and spiritual darkness, and the way that leads towards light and life; between interests exclusively temporal, and the eternal order; between our personal will, and the will of God.

Thursday- the still point within each of us where God and the true self dwell.  Quoted in Kerry Walters’s Soul Wilderness, Roman Catholic theologian Karl Rahner refers to ‘the call of the inner desert as divine grace, the hushed summons of divine mystery.’  The starting place of the desert is our experience of being at risk.”--- Christine Valters Paintner, PhD

Friday-Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.John Milton

Saturday-(We have) anticipations, the conversations we might have, the occasions we might entertain. The "what ifs" of the future rise up in our minds connected to dread or hope, anxieties and fears. And rising in our minds (promising to help prepare us for a future engagement or conversation), in fact, they sap our energy.Whether seemingly positive or positively awful, anticipations fixate us on an endless array of unrealities, worries and aspirations, when mostly we need to collect ourselves and entrust ourselves to God. Moments of imagined triumph that will finally prove our worth compete with imagined catastrophes that will prove too great for our abilities. Records of things that have never happened or will never occur play incessantly in our minds. Michael Jinkins