Sermon 5/30/2021
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Sermon Trinity Sunday 2021
Scriptures: Romans 5:1-5, Proverb 8:1-4, 22-31
Two weeks ago I got a call no one wants to get. It was after dinner on a Sunday night and we had just finished clearing the table when my phone rang, I looked at the number and did a double take, it was my dearest friend Sara who lives in Sweden. We keep in touch through texting and Skype but in all the years we have lived in separate countries she has never called me. I was instantly delighted and then immediately concerned. Maybe this means something bad has happened. As soon as I heard Sara’s voice I knew something had happened. Sara had called to tell me that her husband Pasad had died suddenly of a heart attack in Sri Lanka, his funeral would take place the next day and they would not be able to attend. All I wanted to do in that moment was rush to their side. We raised our children together and I feel about Sara’s children as I do my own. In the hours and days that have passed since that phone call, I have struggled to find ways to offer love and support across the distance and to honor Pasad’s life. One of the things I did was change my phone lock screen to a photo of Pasad with their 3 daughters. I was already carrying their pain in my heart, but the photo was for me a helpful way to take time throughout my day to be in relationship with their family through prayer and loving thoughts.
This experience has caused me to reflect more on how we cultivate the primary relationships in our lives and foster love. I want to spend the next few minutes examining how we cultivate the most important relationship in our life - our relationship with God and how this relationship informs all of the other relationships in our life.
The most helpful way I know how to do this is by looking at Jesus and how he maintained his relationship with God. What can we learn by observing his intimacy with God? First and foremost Jesus shows us that alone time with God is essential. Throughout the gospels the writers tell us that Jesus would often go out to a deserted place to pray. As Bill Gaultiere wrote on his soulsheperding website:
The priority of Jesus’ solitude and silence is everywhere in the Gospels. It’s how he began his ministry. It’s how he made important decisions. It’s how he dealt with troubling emotions like grief. It’s how he dealt with the constant demands of his ministry and cared for his soul. It’s how he taught his disciples. It’s how he prepared for important ministry events. It’s how he prepared for his death on the cross. - Bill Gaultiere https://www.soulshepherding.org/jesus-solitude-and-silence/
The second important insight we learn from Jesus in how to cultivate our relationship with God, is to keep it real. Our relationship with God is one of total honesty. How many relationships do you have in your life that you can say are lived in total honesty? Three, One, None? My money is on none. As close as our closest relationship is, say with a spouse, partner, family member or friend, my guess is we don’t tell them EVERYTHING. And that is not a bad thing. We should not expect another person to carry around our burdens and fears. But to live in true freedom and peace we need to be able to go somewhere with our heavy sorrows, anger, shame, bitterness and fear.
In the hour of his greatest suffering: in the garden of Gethsemane and from the agony of the cross Jesus bared his soul to God holding nothing back. In one breath Jesus cried out, “my God why have you forsaken me” and in the next breath he prayed “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. In this moment on the cross, Jesus teaches us the greatest mystery of being in relationship with God - is that we can know love even in the midst of suffering. This is how I understand Paul’s words about “boasting in our suffering”. We are able to remain hopeful and loving - because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. hope does not disappoint us, - Romans 5:4
It is one thing to maintain loving relationships with those who love us, but to show love towards those who intend us harm requires a love greater than our own, it requires the love of God. The agape kind of love that sees the face of Christ in the other and desires their wholeness.
It reminds me of the love and forgiveness exhibited by the well known WWII American soldier and olympic runner Louis Zamperini whose life was documented by Laura Hillenbrand in the biography “Unbroken”. Zamperini endured great suffering as a prisoner of war, particularly at the hands of a guard nicknamed “the Bird”. After the war, Louis was consumed by hate for his enemy and wanted revenge. He was plagued by nightmares of taking the life of his captors. His wife persuaded him to attend a Billy Graham event and he entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Experiencing God’s forgiveness set Louis on a journey to forgive his wartime enemies.
Four days before his 81st birthday in January 1998, Zamperini ran a leg in the Olympic Torch relay for the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, not far from the POW camp where he had been held. While there, he attempted to meet with his chief and most brutal tormentor during the war, "the Bird", who had evaded prosecution as a war criminal, but he refused to see him. However, Zamperini sent him a letter, stating that while he suffered great mistreatment from him, he forgave him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Zamperini
Author Laura Hillenbrand[33] wrote a biography of Zamperini entitled Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (2010)
Zamperini’s story reminds us of what amazing things can happen when we cultivate our relationship with Jesus Christ. It is in and through the loving, healing, forgiving, redemptive love of God that we are able to show forgiveness and love in all of our relationships.
What practical things can WE do to cultivate our relationship with God?
One is to find ways to set up visual reminders. Ways to remind ourselves of our identity and primary relationship in and through God. We already do this for other aspects of our identity and relationships. We wear wedding rings as signs of our marriage covenant relationship. We set our phone screens with photos of people that are important to us.
Jewish people hang mezuzahs on the doorposts of their houses. Every time they enter or leave, the mezuzah reminds them that they are in a covenant relationship with God https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/mezuzah/
The other practical step we can take is setting aside time for quiet and solitude. We all like to think we can handle the demands placed on us without any help - but can we, really? Let’s be honest, if Jesus, fully human and fully divine, needed to go away to pray, I’m thinking you and I for sure need some one-on-one God time. We can also try to incorporate small moments of connection throughout our day such as: saying a pray before we pick up the phone or after, saying a prayer before we have a difficult conversation.
Be attentive to the nudgings on our hearts and minds. In my personal experience, I have found that the Spirit is a nudger. That insensitive or inappropriate thing we said to our coworker that has been nagging at us? - That is the Spirit nudging us to own up and apologize, to restore that relationship. That bitterness we’ve been harboring against a wrong that was done to us? take it to God, total honesty.
The final practical suggestion I really don’t need to mention because it is something you already do. I know this because if you are hearing my voice you are doing it right now. You have set aside time in your week to worship. By beginning our week with worship we are making a bold statement about the centrality and priority of our relationship with Jesus Christ, about our need for God. It is through the blessings we receive here in our time or worship that equips us to share God’s blessings throughout the week. This is why the final act of worship each week is always the same - a benediction and blessing. This worship act has three purposes:
It serves as One final reminder as we begin our week:
1. Who we are – children of God and joint heirs with Christ
2. What our purpose is – to show the world God’s love
3. Receive strength and power to do the work God is calling us to do
And so I leave you today with this blessing and benediction from St. Paul to the church at Corinth.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. - 2 Corinthians 13:13