4th Cut for Trinity Presentation

 Rahner’s rule (but ag/LaCugna) -God's mission is intertwined within and without

Pcusa God’s Love Overflowing with its emphasis on worship has a sense of 

Lex orandi lex credendi (law of prayer is law of faith) got a lot of pushback in the death throes of the internal liberal and conservative struggle  since the 60s.

We worship a large complex capacious God

Triple helix

Examine the elements of trinity toward the others in relationship Lose from Working Preacher-The three members of the Trinity do not -- cannot --define themselves over and against each other but in, with, and through each other. We do not define the Father as the One who is not the Son and who is not the Spirit (a typical set of binary power plays). Rather, we understand the Father in and through the Son and the Spirit. Or, even more radically, God the Father cannot be Father apart from Son and Spirit. It is Son and Spirit that give context for, make sense of, even make possible the Father. This mutual, free, and shared interdependence is a wholly different kind of relationship than those that govern our world.

God as trinitarian love see ND scholar-LaCugna-Living trinitarian faith means living God’s life: living from and for God, from and for others. ... Living trinitarian faith means living together in harmony and communion with every other creature in the common household of God... Living trinitarian faith means adhering to the gospel of healing fractured relationship-Trinity names how God is God for us. It reminds us that while we experience relationships as something that we are always either moving into or withdrawing from, God does not enter into relationships. Indeed, God does not have relationships at all; God is perfect relationship. "Moreover, if God is perfect relationship, and we are created in the image of God, then the doctrine of the Trinity is concerned with our life as well. We are called by divine God whose being is characterized by an eternal movement toward us, if you will, in redeeming love. Yet LaCugna also insisted that the Trinity names our graced movement toward God, grace to enter into that mode of loving relationship that defines God's very being.

God is love-distinct modes, aspects,  of it, but still it is love.

The spirit of life

God unveiled in part in bible big complex elusive ineffable (sublime in hymn)

Holy Spirit as  anonymous “person”

Use as ordination sermon

Hendry dialectic of ID and distinction

God open in relationship open to influence a la process 

Tanner and Rowan Williams God not another being so can’t be compared-God not in competition with creation tanner uses non competitive power toward christian ethics

Please do not try to make it a mathematical relation of 3=1 and 1=3.

Richard Rohr seizes on a triad as involving participation and community in his Dance 

Pcusa God’s Love overflowing-good on pg 10 perichoresis dance of relationships Perichoresis has gotten popular due to its dance image. It may well find its route in choreography, but more likely it comes from a sense of encompassing of making space for. If a dance, a circle dance perhaps. Bruce dancing in the dark, for in even trying to speak of God we will always fall short.

Its danger lies in imagining three people dancing, so it slides into tritheism

On the other hand we could isolate the dance itself with a couple nicely  but still the danger is there, but looking at a mixture of a solo dance may work better. A Fred Astaire clip may work. Dance is movement, often a structured movement with elements of freedom. Moves with a beat, a rhythm. 

It works toward the social Trinity of co-operation and mutuality, again as one is chary about separating the elements into 3 distinct, unrelated beings.

Show one of those dance clips beat, style-movement

If you are celebrating the Lord’s Supper on Trinity Sunday, this could be a great opportunity to speak of it in a Trinitarian fashion (see20-1 f God’s Love Overflowing)

Tanner and Rowan Williams- God not another being so can’t be compared-god not in competition with creation tanner uses non competitive power toward Christian ethics

Is. 6:1-8, -this is a worship vision. It invokes a large God whose hem fills the temple area. (church sanctuary is larger than the temple area).Worship reaches for the ultimate, contact with the beyond. God, God is present in this place. God allows us the space to be in contact with the divine. worship is our response to a God we cannot grasp or control. We worship then a large complex god, not a small The Isaiah passage brings to light an important feature of discussion of divinity: holiness. Holiness is distinct from the everyday, as it is in the realm of the sacred. In our time what does holiness mean in terms of separation for a special purpose? 

This could be a fine time to work with the  transcendent God as a corrective to our God as buddy or instrument of our desires.

In a related vein, how do you see the lips being touched, maybe purified by a coal from an altar.  This could be a great place to discuss how we use our lips, or how we do not speak of God at all.

Again, one could align this purification with congestion and Forgiveness in the liturgy.

The seraphim may well have been more fearsome than our domesticated  imagination. William Placher bemoaned our puny religious imagination in an age when our imaginations are able to be seen with the magic of CGI in movies. 

Brunner- “Human reason cannot figure its way to such a God, since a God we could figure out, a God fitted to the categories of our understanding, would therefore not be transcendent in an appropriately radical sense. We can know the transcendent God not as an object within our intellectual grasp..” 

Glory has a sense of presence for me, but it also has a sense of gravity, weightiness, splendor as would befit the divine.

For Trinity Sunday, this is an image of a God who breaks all of our boundaries, a God who cannot be boxed in by our mental or emotional containers. 

1. The Isaiah passage brings to light an important feature of discussion of divinity: holiness. See David Willis. Notes on the Holiness of God, or the standard, Rudolph Otto’s book, The Idea of the Holy. In our time what does holiness mean in terms of separation for a purpose?

2. In a related vein, how do you see the lips being touched, maybe purified by a coal from an altar. Which altar?  This could be a great place to discuss how we use our lips, or how we do not speak of God at all.

3. It brings up the related issue of transcendence, when we are in an immanent period.

4. To get a handle on holiness and clean/unlcean, boundaries could come into play.

5. Glory has a sense of presence for me, but it also has a sense of gravity, weightiness, splendor as would befit the divine.

6. For Trinity Sunday, this is an image of a God who breaks all of our boundaries, a God who cannot be boxed in by our mental or emotional containers.

7. Here I am, send me. Is it always a good sign when someone is anxious to be a speaker for God?

I realize that it has not been long since we have encountered this passage, but perhaps we could consider its Trinitarian structure for Trinity Sunday.Jn 3:-17--new birth/life not to condemn but to save/heal. Perhaps that is a good divine image to consider. How does it affect the more punitive figure that lurks within many of us? Later in John 15,16  we read of the spirit as advocate, helper comforter. Placher spoke of a God of reckless love, whose presence in the life of Jesus still confounds our capacity to fully grasp, even speak clearly about. It leaves Nicodemus stammering, how can this be? He is face to face with a love so divine that it is incarnate in this Jesus with his baffling words about new birth and Spirit.

John 3:16 has become a label. I am intrigued that it is selected as a Trinitarian reading, as it does include the work of God. here it goes beyond natural procreation to the divine rebirth through and in the spirit of God with all of its force beyond easy comprehension or control. We encounter aspects of God in different forms, but they are always related to each other. That is one of the foundation points for this sanctuary and our style of worship to approach the unapproachable god in ways that always realize that distance between the divine and the human

Spirit here is agent of new creation (hovering over the waters) born again/anew/from above

Compare 3:8 with Gen. 1, 2 and Ec. 11:5. Note that Jesus sees it as more free-wheeling.

Spirit as self-effacing, the go between, divine mediation -spirit points to the future and continues the sender and the Sent

One preaching wedge would be to use some prepositions God with us , for us, through us.

Rom. 8:12-17 (and extend if one wishes)-a god of interaction and sympathy with this creation, Paul later says even God’s spirit cannot find words for interceding for us in our need.

If you wish to do a doctrinal sermon, maybe one on sanctification as Trinitarian action. One could even search for a phrase that gets at its depth, as did Tillich with acceptance for justification.

We see the interaction of God’s work in this section, a weaving image may work well, as in intertwining.

We are brought within the Trinitarian orbit with this language of adoption. One could speak on the distinction of being born into something and adopted. That would fit the Reformed idea of election nicely.

Indwelling

Spirit of life

Spirit of guidance

Bearing witness with us We make a spiritual error if we insist that we can capture the ineffable one within our fragile minds and hearts.At the same time, the spirit allows us to co-operate with the purposes of God-co-operate, not fight against. Given fallen nature, one could speak of that capacity as a gift of the spirit, instead of being co-opted or in conflict with the ways of God.Abba is Aramaic for pappa. We have it on the lips of Jesus. I would guess that the Our Father, started as Abba.A term of intimacy, but it may be also a term of respect. Maybe a  mixed community of Gentiles and Jews in the early Christian community is in itself a sign of harmony amid distinctions in the new community that reflects the “divine community.”

If you are looking for a lectionary reading for creation, here we are. In John 1, Jesus is the logos, the wisdom of God’s creative plan and work (see Prov. 8), and the Spirit “brooded over the waters” (Gen. 1) Ps. 29-Psalm 29 is considered to be ancient, an adaptation of a Canaanite hymn to Baal, a god of weather and fertility. Israel was bold enough in its theology to adapt a good prayer to its own use and place it in the five little books of the psalter itself. It sees nature as a vehicle for god in a display of awe-inspiring wonder.

(see NIB, p. 792)

Its global reach goes to both heavenly beings and to all peoples. One is left to wonder if these are angels, lesser gods, heavenly forces, stars. It sounds like the divine council perhaps of Job or Ps. 89.

My sense of ascribe to to offer what someone is due.

Glory is a tough one too, I tend to use it as a sense of God's holy presence. It has a sense of gravitas, of weight.

Worship here has the sense of bowing before the throne.

Voice is sometimes thunder, another sign of God's presence as in Exodus 19.

I tend toward seeing the waters mythically, as a sign of chaos, anything that opposes God's order.

Amidst all of the storms of life, God remains stable.

This has a rare use of the word flood (mabbul).

The blessing is shalom=peace, well=being, health, harmony.It has a creation/environment push for all of the world, not just the good, not just human beings, but creation.

The reflection question at 793 of the NIB is a good one on seeing creation material reminding us of our limits to power, especially technology or even fully understanding the intricacies of nature.

I often sneer at people equating god with the beauty of a sunset alone, but with Ps. 19, I do see the handiwork of God in nature. One could work with panentheism here as well as in “God in whom we live and move and have our being.”

Some scholars see a link to Canaanite patterns of prayer reflected in this psalm. This shows the boldness of Hebrew worship as it was willing to use other models to proclaim a prayer. On the other hand, it shifts the image of Baal’s contest with the waters; they are mere instruments at God’s power.The storm language also resonates with the storm at Sinai before the giving of the 10 commandments. God’s power and purpose g can be glimpsed in nature.

 

Mays is quoted from 138 of his Psalms Commentary. The linkage to baptism is appropriate. "Christology is not adequate unless is setting in cosmology is maintained. The OT doxology is necessary to the gospel." In other words, the incarnation and work of Jesus becomes the incarnation of God's glory, work, and goals.

1. For Trinity Sunday, one could see it as an example of worshipping a capacious god. 

2. I assume the heavenly beings are more than angels. It reminds me of Ps. 89 or Job 1 where god is pictured as the CEO of lesser divinities. One could be bold and see this as an early entry in thoughts of divinity seen in different guises as well.

3. One could speak of the trinity of relation with God, each other, and with nature. See Douglas John Hall Imaging God.

4. Older pastors recall that Biblical studies drew a sharp contrast against linking God and nature. In an ecological age, this has changed. Indeed one could do a nice job on ecology as connections with creation.

Ps 89 for Advent

 Maybe the preacher could take on the role of Ethan the Ezrahite. It could be useful to think of him within the words given us, or the entire corpus  of the psalm. It ends book 3 of the Psalms (a la Leviticus???).

Our broken selections start out with the steadfast love (hesed) /loyalty/fidelity of God. Later the psalm struggles with the seeming end of the promise, given the demise of the monarchy.

Clearly, well to me at least, this psalm is a pastiche of different materials from different times that then serve to ask deep abiding questions about God’s engagement with our lives and times. In that sense it is a great Advent selection.

Son of God had a royal referent to the king as God’s representative, or image, on earth in the Near East. How well do we capture it with Christ the King? 

How could we continue to use this idea of divine representative to examine Jesus Christ? See Douglas John Hall on Christ as representative in the 2nd volume of his trilogy, Professing the Faith.

This psalm refers to the national trauma of the fall of Jerusalem. Much work has occurred in trauma studies and good be a good entry point for this psalm, including the virus.

The father son language could be explored. While I concur with our current look for other divine role relationships and divine metaphors, we may well be in a time to assess this language in light of new conceptions of fatherhood. Clearly our psalm does not consider a biological relationship. So, what would be some  good ways to explore Jesus Christ as Son of God?

One could examine the ways that we could read Christ into the words of the psalm that we have been assigned, in both sections but especially lining it up with the gospels.

I would think a Lutheran would be able to use this to discuss theology of glory and theology of the cross.

At v. 19, we have a good deal of disagreement in translating faithful one/holy one or faithful people.

The creation v. chaos material on river and sea could be an allusion to Christ on the sea.

One could also explore this element of the mythic background of the OT, as other nations employed similar notions.

2 Samuel 7 for Advent 4

 Messianic promise in 2 Sam 7 Just a note on the hope here. We do not know how much hope was placed in a new David, a Messiah over the years. Our passage goes back 1000 years before the birth of Christ. If Luke is using it, others must have continued to hold the promise dear for many years.

Qumran had a dual messiah, a priestly one to reform the temple and a political one. Indeed some  more mystical Jewish sects had a deep messianic expectation of their leader just recently in New York. Followers of Moon see him as a new Christ  figure. 

From the reading on David, we get a good sense of how expectations can change over time. the word messiah and therefore Christ means anointed one. In Reformed tradition we notice that priests, prophets, and kings were anointed. 

This is a good Advent text as it links, past, present, future. I like how God, with a moreover, reverses David’s request and decides to be the giver, not receiver of gifts. Again, the issue of giving or receiving gifts is a good piece for spiritual growth.

The promise fell with the temple and the monarchy, no? It took some real interpretive magic to recast the messianic hope.

God treads lightly here with David’s desire to link church and state as a legitimation tool. If one feels bold, the right wing church embrace of the president fits into this passage.

God prefers the nobility of the tabernacle. One could work with this image as Jesus himself is a mobile tabernacle of divine presence.

One could go further and link God’s mobility to Emmanuel quite directly. The evocation of God’s solidarity offer  a great way to mention current events and seek  the divine presence within them, or over and under them

Ps. 126 for Advent 3

 Psalms of ascent may have been recited one at a time on the Temple steps. They may also be examples of internal steps within a psalm, perhaps as an aid to memory.

James L. Mays sees the psalm as “joy remembered and joy anticipated.” It is a psalm perfect for Advent in a tension between past and future.

The translation of restoration/release from captivity/returning are nettlesome and depend on which verb we are using from Hebrew. (see working preacher 20  ).

The alarm goes off. You murmur to yourself, but I was having such a good dream. (I won’t dream of going into any detail about the content of an especially good dream for some of us) Ps. 126 imagines what it would be if life could look like a Christmas dream. (A Christmas dream could make for a good sermon).

This is a dream not only of the future but one that would make up for a missed past, for the hurts, wrongs, pain of the past. It imagines a great reversal where tears are replaced by laughter. Instead of being paralyzed by fear, they act to do one of the great acts of confidence in a future to be willing to go out and sow seed., like contemporary farmers facing the crop for next year.

We try to decorate our lives now with so much tinsel, to act as a cover for troubles. Sometimes I think we want a white Christmas to cover over our sins and disappointments with a holiday that cannot bear the weight we place on it. 

It may take the position that the future  has happened in the first verses, but then pleads for change at the end. I like that perspective on prayer that one day a better future will be our past.

The emphasis here of the joy of a dream come true is linked to the English etymology of rejoice where re may have been an intensive for joy. See McCann’s refections in the NIB.

He also finds a link to Joel that never occurred to me

Is. 61 for Advent 3

I'm not going to judge if this is indeed a different section following 40-55, in making clear demarcations in the edited book that is the final form of the prophet. It clearly is in deep conversation with those preceding chapters. If you see this as separate in 3rd Isaiah, then this section speaks to people disappointed that the Promised Land being returned is a not an Eden.

This forms most of the "mission statement" of the inaugural sermon of Jesus in Lk. 4

The Spirit is allied with the servant, (see 42:1-4). Anointing has messianic meaning for 

many, as the word itself attests.. Priest, prophets, kings were anointed-anoint is related to the noun, messiah/christ/anointed one. repair and restoration key words at v. 4. this is a joint project. they act because they are empowered by the spirit.

Look, at this season, to whom the work is directed. It is not destructive work but healing and liberating work. Oppressed=anawim that could also be afflicted or quite simply the poor. Release can't help but bring up thoughts of Jubilee (see the Mary Chapin Carpenter song) from Lev. 25.

The year of the Lord's favor could be directed to this or to 49:8 that the time of favor/grace has come. In v. 4, it seems to lead to rebuilding, but notice the sense of age, many generations-the year of the Lord’s favor could be jubilee. the word vengeance could also be rescue perhaps?

 

All of the recipients are in trouble. Most of them are political/governmental victims, but brokenhearted stands out to me. It reminds me of Lincoln speaking of binding up our nation;s wounds. This is a hard time of year for the grieiving-look at what is offered them in this passage. We want the holidays to be free from trouble and grief, a vagrant hope certainly. Notice how mourning takes up vv 2,3. On the other hand, v. 3 and 10 have decorations of the heart and spirit for the season don;’t they?

 

I like this phrase-oaks of righteousness-especially when we recall that it is a relational word more than following strictures.  

 

The lectionary then skips, for some reasons, but one can always restore the verses, to v. 8. Textual issues it could be wrongdoing or it could be robbery with an offering, that would be a nice entry into worship v. social justice. Also God loves justice. Note the word, not charity, but justice.

Shame is a sense of public exposure, so it is being transformed by public acclaim.

v.10 If one wants to talk about holiday spirit, the sense of one's whole being exulting is a good place to start. Clothing image in v. ten is often picked in the NT as baptismal imagery. This reflects bridal imagery of ch. 52.

We have a natural image of new growth, a victory garden (see William brown in his cosmos book) Please note the agricultural metaphor in v. 11. In v. 3 we have plantings. This is a victory garden, see Brown's Ethos of the Cosmos

Christians are wearing our baptismal robes of the new self. Here the servant/prophet is clothed in salvation and righteousness. These are not burdens but festive garments.

 

Please note the agricultural metaphor in v. 11. In v. 3 we have plantings. This is a victory garden, see Brown's Ethos of the Cosmos

Now we have a great reversal. I am not sure who the object of derision is foreign oppressors alone or maybe internal tricksters. Notice the character of God here loving justice, hating wrongdoing.

We may be unfaithful. God remains faithful. The God of creation is continuing to be creative and will continue to pay attention to getting people back on their feet to exercise power for themselves.

Mark 1:1-8 notes

 

1.  Mark does not mess around. He announces good news/gospel. One could easily focus on needing good news in the face of lies and fake news and propaganda.

2. With son of God and no birth story, I assume he is working off the OT images in Ps, 2, 89, 110 of a representative, an image of God in our world.

3. Messiah=anointed=Christ. Calvin points to the anointed tripartite office of priest, prophet, king.

4.  The quote attributed to Isaiah is a composite quote from the Septuagint. Regard well the dirty little secret that the NT usually quotes the Greek OT, not the Hebrew. Mark uses Both Ex.23 :20 and Mal. 3:1 to create the first passage (for this see Hays in Echoes....in the Gospels: ). Both of these passage offer hope for a better future after judgement is threatened or occurs. This may be a touch on what some see as the new exodus theme in Isaiah, although this has been questioned. Mark slightly alters the Greek text to allow him to link the Lord with Jesus, but also continuing the promise of the presence of God through the wilderness.To what extent can the gospel be ready as amplifying the liberating and comforting concerns of Is. 40? The promised deliverance is not embodied in Jesus.

II Peter 3:8-15

 I just read a piece in working preacher that does not see this as apocalyptically charged. I don’t buy it, but I do agree that it touches on moral life in the long interim between the two advents of Jesus Christ. Rather, the writer here has an intersection between apocalyptic and moral life. The time gap between the promise and its fulfillment of God’s agenda is to give us time to live properly in anticipation and embrace of God’s way in the world. In that way, it has a sense of Judaism that we are to practice tikkun olam, the healing of all to make the world ready for Messiah.

I see this as an apocalyptic text since it uses elements of it to alert the reader to the oncoming, onrushing new age. 

At the same time, it may be adopting Stoic ideas and transforming them into the emerging Chrsitan context. (Some date this letter as late as 140-160). They held, after all, that the worlds begin and end in a cycle of fire. Indeed, they also linked ethics and physics into a system.

Advent is a reflection on time, and we get a vital one here on God’s sense of time (and timing) in relation to our own. Adopting Ps. 90, it shows that the divine conception of time differs from ours. If one is feeling ambitions, one could go into chronos v. kairos times a la Tillich.

Here we get some Advent virtues to live pure, blameless, peaceful lives. One could put some meat on those bones and make a fine ethical sermon for this time of year.