Trinity Sunday,

Just a few thoughts concerning Trinity Sunday:

Ø     Trinity Sunday is about the three persons as one God.  This is a fact that is central to our Christian faith. 

Ø      If we look at the Gospel according to John we see that it opens with the words:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Ø      Jesus Christ is biblically said to be the Word so John is telling us that Jesus and God the Father are one and the same.

Ø      The Nicene Creed states that “…I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.”

Ø      A three person God is clearly stated and our faith leads us to believe this mystery.

Ø     It is proper and fitting that Trinity Sunday includes the whole first chapter of our bible.  It represents a nomadic tribe known as the Hebrews trying to make sense of a world that appeared to be a generally ordered world, but had some disastrous surprises. 

Ø     They attributed the natural world to a single God. 

Ø     The New Testament informed that there were three persons in that single God. 

Ø     Some of our Christian brothers believe that the earth was formed just as the bible says.  

Ø     In the Episcopal Church many biblical scholars hold that rather that this literal interpretation of creation the ancients were more akin to today’s scientist.  Seeing what appeared to be an orderly world they felt that some one must have caused it to be the way it appeared.   They reasoned that this person must have been God.

Ø      The first chapter of Genesis is a statement of our belief that God created us.  In Matthew 28 Jesus the Son tells us that we are to go forth and make disciples of all nations in the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Ø     Jesus is stating unequivocally that there is but one God but three persons within the Godhead.

Ø     This is the very center of what it means to be a Christian.  We are directed to a triune God.  A God who is always with us in the three persons since the creation of the universe.

Ø     The church has set aside the Sunday after Pentecost as a day in which we restate our belief in the three in One and the One in three as the God we believe in.  God in all three aspects has been with us since before the big bang that science marks the beginning of our universe.

Ø     The mystery of a three person God is something we must believe in and not even try to explain.

Ø     We live our lives on our Island earth amid the unimaginable expanse of the universe.  Let us be thankful for a loving and benevolent God who has seen fit to enjoy our brief time on our mote in God’s eye.

Ø     AMEN

Pentecost Sunday

What follows is a few thoughts on what Pentecost Sunday is all about.  It is also the skeleton of my sermon for Pentecost
 Ø      Happy Birthday – Today marks the birthday of the Christian Church.  This implies that there is only one Church all of us Episcopalian, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Pentecostal,  any of the various sects within Jesus’ Church are in reality only expressions of the oneness of Christianity. 

Ø      All that’s required of us to be Christian is baptism coupled with a belief in the risen Christ.

Ø      50 day’s ago on Easter Sunday we received the risen Ones’ gift of the Holy Spirit.  Traditionally baptisms are held on Easter, baptism after all is when the Spirit of Jesus comes to us.  Baptizm gives each of us the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Ø      Today, Pentecost Sunday, the Law of the Jews is replaced by the gift of the Spirit.  It is the basis of the life in a new community.  We are told that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Ø      Pentecost is a proclamation of the birth of the new order, a community based on love rather than fear.

Ø      Many of us are going on vacation this summer.  Vacations are often thought of a time of recreation.  Recreation is a contraction of re creation as such it carries the idea that we will change as a result.  Remember the summer after high school graduation when we went on a glorious vacation to celebrate the beginning of adult life.  How naïve we were.      

Ø      How many of you remember the late 1960’s and the song the Age of Aquarius?   The Age of Aquarius was supposed to be the dawning of a new creation!   Unfortunately, the new age rather than being utopian as the song promised was an age of continued war, mass murder and hatred of those who are different than us.  

Ø      As individuals and as a church it is time to give up the old wishful thinking and rethink the possible.  Turn ourselves away from hatred and distrust and toward Jesus who gave his life to save us.

Ø      Every year at Pentecost the Church marks the beginning of a new age and reminds us that the way of Christ is inclusive.  It doesn’t promise a magical new world without hatred rather it tells us how to live with love.

Ø      The English term “good news” which is translated from Greek word kerygma is used in association with the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.  Kerygma is more correctly used to express the message of Jesus’ whole ministry.  The meaning of the crucifixion is central to the concept of Kerygma. 

Ø      Peter tells us in Acts that by virtue of the resurrection, Jesus has been exalted at the right hand of God as messianic head of the new Israel.  Further, the Holy Spirit in the church is the clear sign of Christ’s power and glory.

Ø       Paul tells us that the only way we can say “Jesus is Lord” is as a gift of the Holy Spirit.  He goes on to say that each of us has gifts of the Holy Spirit but these gifts are manifested in different was in each of us.  As Christians we are all baptized into one body whether we are Episcopalian or any other sect; and we all nourished by one Spirit.

Ø      God loves us and we must find a way to love one another.  Pentecost is the time to begin to rethink our world and hope to make a difference.  Great movements often start with one person’s activity.  Remember Rosa Parks who’s simple action of refusing to move to the back of the bus ignited the road to real integration.   We as individuals and as a small church can make a difference if we rethink the possible.

Ø       Let us each in our own way give thanks for the birth of our Church as the body of Christ on Earth.

Ø   Amen.

June 5, 2011

The seventh Sunday after Easter is known as pause Sunday.  The church is telling us to pause and reflect the lessons we have learned from Jesus’ death and resurrection.  We should do this in preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, seven days from now.

Jesus’ states in today’s gospel, “Now they know everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them.”  This means that the work of God has passed to the disciples through Jesus and from the disciples to us.   Are we as Christians living up to what Jesus tells us in this prayer?  This prayer and its promise were given extra emphasis when the disciples witnessed Jesus’ ascension into heaven.  The apostles, their wives and Mary the mother of Christ were left to reflect on what they had been taught during Jesus ministry on earth.

Do we Christians live up to the demands made in Jesus’ prayer offered the day prior to his death on the cross.

Peter reminds us that being a Christian is no easy task.   If God loves us why does God permit us to suffer?  In answer to this, Peter reminds us that God allows pain-and-suffering to fall upon us as a reminder that we share in Jesus’ death and his glorious resurrection.  Peter states rather forcefully that we must remain steadfast in our faith no matter how great the pain.  The grace of God will be with us and give us enough strength to sustain no matter what difficulties are encountered.

St. John's Marlinton has for the few last years found itself with huge losses in membership.  This is extremely painful to members of his congregation.  We have never lost faith that and we continue worship Jesus and try to spread his word in our community.  This is as it should be.

Remember, that on the day of ascension, Jesus promised the apostles that they would receive power and the fortitude to be Jesus’ witness in Jerusalem, and all of Judea, and Samaria.  Further, they would bear witness to the ends of the earth.  Out of this reflection the entire Christian community grew.

We Christians are a brotherhood of faith in Jesus and trust in a merciful God.  As members of the mystical body of Christ we must have faith.  Our own hard work to make St. John's a success coupled with faith in God will allow us to overcome and continue our mission here in Marlinton.

Recently our parish as tiny as we are, embarked on an outreach mission that met a need of the children in this town.  A church with a functional size of two produced nine people, many of them not even Episcopalian, to lead 200 children in activities which allowed them to explore the world of art.

All three of today's readings have a theme of optimism.  We must survive because we believe that Marlinton and Pocahontas County needs us.  The role of our ministry is to be of service to the City and County.  With God’s help and our continued faith in Jesus, we will continue our mission and hope for the growth of our faith community.

It is my fervent prayer that all of us working together in Christ's name will continue to make a difference.