You and Whoever Else

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday June 26, 2011, the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Genesis 22:1-14

Psalm 13

Romans 6:12-23

Matthew 10:40-42

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

When I was in elementary school, one of the little intricacies of grammar we were taught was pronouns. There’s person; first, second, and third. There’s singular and plural. There are the possessive forms too. When the teachers thought we could handle it, we were even given objective forms to go with the subjective ones they had already been teaching us.

I say this because verse 40 waltzes us through this pronoun lesson. “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.” Since Jesus is the one who is speaking, he is the subject of the first person pronouns. In our reading, Jesus is “me.” That one’s pretty easy, but who are “you” and who are “he,” or as it says in the New Revised Standard Version, “whoever”?

“The one who sent me” is an overblown pronoun representing the Father.

To find out who the “you” are in our reading this morning, we need to go back to the beginning of chapter 10. In this passage Jesus was addressing the twelve. This is where Jesus gives the twelve their marching instructions, their mission and authority.

Jesus begins with the ethnic limits of their authority; they are to go to the lost sheep of Israel. Their mission is not to the gentiles; their mission is to the original recipients of God’s covenant with humanity. They are to teach the kingdom of heaven is near. They aren’t to teach that it’s “over there” or “on the other side of life,” it’s near.

They are to heal and cleanse and give freely, as they have freely received they are to freely give. They aren’t to depend on their own wealth or skill or cunning, they are to depend on something else, something far greater than their own wealth or skill or cunning.

They are to find their way in the world; they are to search and find a household worthy of God’s peace and stay there. If the place they find to stay isn’t worthy of this peace, they are to let it return. They aren’t to take it back, the peace will return on its own. Now if they aren’t welcomed they are to shake the dust of that town from their feet and declare a judgment harsher than befell Sodom and Gomorrah.

Jesus tells them that the world will not welcome them, except to devour them. They come as sheep among wolves so are called to be shrewd and innocent at the same time. They will be arrested and brought to testify before the rich and powerful, but they aren’t to practice their testimony like it’s truTV.

They are told to have confidence and be courageous because the Spirit will fill their mouths with the necessary words. There is ultimately no secret that won’t be disclosed. The testimony of Christ will divide families. Because of this, when they are accused in one town, they are to move on to the next. Jesus promises there will be more than enough towns to visit.

Jesus promises they will be hated because of him, but those who stand firm will be saved. After all, while the leaders of this age can destroy their bodies, they should be more concerned with those who can destroy them body and soul. There is no reason to fear mortal men when God is so much greater. With this, Jesus promises to remember them before his Father; and he promises to disown those who disown him. He promises their discipleship will be costly, but he also promises their reward will be great.

Their reward will be their life, life eternal shared with the presence of the Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We know this because we know that life eternal is not the next life. Let me rephrase this, life eternal is not just the next life. In God’s presence we share eternal life right now.

So whoever receives the twelve receives Jesus and whoever receives Jesus receives the Father who sent him.

When hearing the words of God and the words of God in Christ, we often ask ourselves “who am I?” or “where do I fit?” in this reading. This is what truly caught my attention as I was contemplating these verses. In the literal context of the story, except for those who can trace their family history to ancient Israel and Judea, we aren’t in this reading.  Jesus is talking to the twelve about the lost sheep. He makes a special point to exclude the people with whom we share a heritage, the gentiles.

So what does this mean for us as the people who were grafted into the tree of life? I believe it is this. These words were not meant for you and me on that side of the resurrection. Jesus’ first mission was to the lost sheep of Israel. This would seem to be true based on the words found in Matthew 10, but after the crucifixion and resurrection, everything changed. As we read last week, the Great Commission opened the kingdom beyond the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The life that Jesus describes in this passage is now for all creation.

But again, it doesn’t answer the basic question of “who are we?” in this passage.

There are days when we find ourselves in the “whoever” category. Often we are the people who receive the twelve; we receive those who follow Christ. We receive them as they bring the Word of God.

We are the ones who hear, who receive, who respond to the Word of God. When Jesus speaks of “these little ones” he isn’t speaking of children, he is speaking of regular good old-fashioned followers of the Lord God. In the time of the sending of the twelve, the little ones are the lost sheep of Israel; today it speaks to followers of Christ.

The prophet is one who declares the name and works of God to the nation.  In this case the prophet serves as a mediator. The prophet is the one who speaks for God to the world.  The prophet is also the one who represents humanity to God. In this special case, the prophet stands as the pivot point for the word of God and the obedience of humanity. In the “Law of the Messenger,” the prophet carries information in both directions, to God and to the assembly.

Similarly, the obligations of the righteous are related to spiritual obligations, ones of goodness and perseverance, charity and peace. The definition of who is righteous is firmly connected to the judgment of God; it is not up to you or me to determine who is righteous. It is not up to the newspaper, radio, or TV news to tell us who is righteous. The decision is God’s alone. The righteous one satisfies the demands of God, has right on their side, and a righteous cause before God.

As for me, I don’t think I have ever met a prophet; and by definition, since I don’t have the authority to deem who is righteous, I don’t think I have ever met a righteous person either. Who I have met are the wonderful people who have received Jesus. I have met the spirit-filled people who have received the Lord and the one who sent him.

One fine example was just a couple of weeks ago when we welcomed the Spirit Youth Choir from First United Methodist in San Angelo, Texas. They brought the word of Matthew’s gospel in song and story through the musical “Godspell.” I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn saying all who were present were blessed by their offering of the Word of God. So this makes me ask the question, were these young men and women, their sponsors, and their parents prophets or the righteous men and women described in our reading, I don’t think so.

Who I believe they are is a (not the, but a) modern equivalent of the twelve. They are the “you” of our scripture reading, more of that in a moment.

If you have ever wondered where I find the prayers that I use during worship, they come from several sources. The short prayer after Psalm of the Day and the Prayers of the People come from the Presbyterian “Book of Common Worship.”[1] The prayers we use for Confession of Sin and Offering Dedication come from a book called “When We Gather.”[2] The prayers in these books were created for each specific week of the year to correspond to the biblical texts we use in worship. This is why they seem to fit so well.

Another reason these prayers connect to our worship so well is that they were written by Presbyterians. The “Book of Common Worship” was written by a group of people from the PC(USA) and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. “When We Gather” was written by a single Presbyterian Minister.[3]

The Prayers for Illumination come from a different book called “Revised Lectionary Prayers.”[4] If there’s one distinction to the prayers from this book compared to the others it is that these prayers are written by people from many different faiths backgrounds.

The faiths represented in these prayers include Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopal, and Mennonite just to name a few. Ordained lay people and ministers took a place at the table to create these prayers. So the variety of faith traditions that created these prayers is much broader than the other prayers we use.

There’s a sentence in our prayer for illumination that I thought would strike a nerve this morning. It did on Thursday when we discussed this passage. It went like this:

Ruler of the Universe,

you call us to radical loyalty

beyond all earthly claim.

We have been together for nearly nine months now, over a year if you count the time it takes to call a pastor. So as soon as I saw this sentence I knew that it would stir an eye or two in the congregation. I don’t blame you either.

The Random House Dictionary[5] defines radical as an adjective meaning “thoroughgoing[6] or extreme, especially as regards change from accepted or traditional forms.” The next definition says “favoring drastic political, economic, or social reforms.” This sort of “radical” tends toward throwing out the baby with the bathwater; so I can easily see how these meanings of the word radical can make anybody feel uncomfortable. But I want us to consider another definition.

The first definition, the definition that in the opinion of the dictionary editor takes precedence over the other definitions says, “of or going to the root or origin; fundamental.” This first, this primary definition of radical is what I want us to consider when reading this passage. I want us to go back to the fundamentals.

Perhaps the greatest truth in this passage is that there are days when we are “whoever,” we are the people who receive the word of God. On those days, at those times, we are called to receive the word graciously and gratefully. We are called to welcome the prophet because he is a prophet of God. We are called to welcome the righteous because it is God who declared them righteous. We are the whoever who receive Jesus by receiving his disciples, but there is another side of this truth.

The other part of this truth is that there are some days, some times, when we are called to take the word of Christ into the world. We are called to share the presence of Christ to those who so sorely need to hear it. You may be called as a prophet, or you may be called as one who is righteous, and if that happens, fear not because you will be equipped as Jesus equipped the twelve. But there is another way we are called to share God’s love with the world and sharing that love can be easier than we think.

We are called to share the simplest necessities of life in Christ. On a hot day we are called to share a drink of cold water. We may not be able to fill every need in this life, but we are called to do what we can do. We don’t have to do everything, only what God calls us to do. By this we will not lose our reward.

What is glorious is that we who are the Body of Christ receive that reward everyday. We are God’s people who receive God’s blessings in life with Christ. We share with those God sends to us so that we will be richer in the kingdom of God that exists here and now and forever. And we are called to share that same walk with those who need a kind word and a sip of cool, cool water.

There are days when we are called to be “you” taking God’s word into the world; and there are days when we are called to be “whoever else” receiving God’s word sent into the world. This is a part of the master plan of the Lord who is always God, the great I AM. It is when we share in the work of the disciples continuing the radical life-changing blessing of the eternal triune God-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that God changes us, our city, and our world.

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[1] The Theology and Worship Unit for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, “The Book of Common Worship.” Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993.

[2] Kirk, James G., When We Gather, A Book of Prayers for Worship, Revised Edition For Years A, B, and C.” Louisville, KY: Geneva Press, 2001.

[3] Christianbook.com author reference, http://www.christianbook.com/meditations-for-lent-james-kirk/9780664250386/pd/250386, retrieved June 25, 2011.

[4] The Consultation on Common Texts (CCT), “Revised Lectionary Prayers.” Augsburg Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2002.

[5] “Radical” from the Random House Dictionary, 2011, found at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/radical, retrieved June 22, 2011.

[6] Which Random House (Ibid.) describes as 1. doing things thoroughly. 2. carried out to the full extent; thorough. 3. complete; unqualified. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thoroughgoing, retrieved June 25, 2011.

Symbols of the Faith

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday June 19, 2011, Trinity Sunday.

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Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Psalm 8

2Corinthians 13:11-13

Matthew 28:16-20

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

Marie and I went to the Christian store in Longview last week to get Lea and Jerry’s wedding present. While there, I found a couple of neat things at the cash register. Ah, the joys of retail, put it near the cash register and let the impulse buying begin.

What I found were these things, they are a color coded ways to explain the Christian faith. They explain the faith using several concepts with a different color for each. This is the “God’s Plan for Salvation: Bookmark.” On it, sin is represented by the color black; the blood of Christ is red; faith is blue; forgiveness is white; life is green; and heaven is gold.  With each of these colors and concepts there is a scriptural verse.

The other one is called “Colors of THE WORD, A Wordless Book.” On it, sin and the blood are still black and red, but after that it gets different. With this one, white stands for purity and blue stands for baptism. The green and yellow are almost the same. Where green stands for life on the bookmark, on the Wordless Book it stands for new life in the other. Where the yellow means heaven on the one, on the other it represents living forever. I guess if you want to say that there’s no real difference between the green and the yellow I wouldn’t disagree with you. But it makes me wonder whether their respective designers would agree that it’s just splitting hairs.

These tools are given to the people of God as symbols of the faith. These are two ways to tell the story of God, the story of salvation, using colors instead of words.

Symbols are used extensively to help us understand and explain the faith. Our most common symbol is the cross. You’ll notice that in Protestant churches the cross is empty. The body remains on the symbol we call a crucifix. Neither the crucifix nor the cross can be a witness to Christian faith without the other, but the differences between these symbols point to the differences between the Roman, Orthodox, and Reformed churches.

The importance of these symbols to these faiths is tremendous. The crucifix points to the ultimate sacrifice of the Passion of the Christ. The empty cross’ distinction is that it certainly points to the death of the Christ, and even more it points to the resurrection and that death cannot contain God. Artistically it’s one small distinction, theologically it’s tremendous. The difference lands us on different sides of Good Friday, Easter, and the Reformation.

It’s like the two different color coded gospel things; they’re quite similar, but the differences make them distinctive.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) symbol is a cross with its own distinctive elements. Of course it is a cross that points toward the death and resurrection, but on either side of this cross are flames which represent the Pentecost. When you look at the stylized elements of the cross you can find a bird sweeping down from above toward the crossbar which represents the Holy Spirit and the Baptism of the Lord. Below the bird itself is a pulpit that represents worship and the Word of God proclaimed in the church. The crossbar itself is a book that represents Holy Scripture.

Within the dove is a fish, the symbol of God’s plenty from the feeding of the multitudes. The fish was also the earliest symbol of the Church as a worshiping body. In the middle of the pulpit to the spine of the book is a cup representing the Lord’s Supper. Finally, the weakest of the symbols in the PC (U.S.A.) seal is the invisible lines that form a triangle from the tip of the bird’s beak to either side of the flames connecting along the base of the symbol. This three sided shape represents the Trinity.

Of course it might be appropriate that symbol of the Trinity, arguably the most cryptic symbol of basic theology, is the weakest and least obviously definable piece of the denomination’s seal.

I always have trouble getting a handle on Trinity Sunday, especially since our gospel reading, the Great Commission, is perhaps the most evangelistic reading in the Gospel. Celebrating Trinity Sunday with Father’s Day adds its own quirks. So on this Trinity Sunday, what do we say about the Trinity? On this Father’s Day, what do we say about the Father?

Let’s begin here; the word “Trinity” is not found in scripture. It’s a theological term. It’s a way people describe God based on the witness of scripture. One of my theological dictionaries calls the Trinity “The coexistence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the unity of the Godhead. While not a biblical term, ‘trinity’ represents the crystallization of New Testament teaching.”[1] That’s as good as any place to start.

The trinitarian formula used most frequently in worship, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is found in scripture. It was in today’s readings from 2Corinthians and Matthew. In 2Corinthians it is a blessing, a benediction to benefit the recipient. As we prepare to leave the sanctuary, I use this same benediction. In Matthew, it is used to describe the one God in three Persons we worship as we welcome new members into the community in the waters of baptism.

Of course, this formula is not without its critics. As humanity has explored the diverse possibilities for trinitarian images, there is a temptation to try to bring the mystery of God under our control.[2]

Some say it is gender specific; too male, not enough female.  Even though in the Westminster Confession we declare the First Person of the Trinity is a most pure spirit without body, parts, or passions;[3] people get touchy about the maleness or femaleness of God. The quantity of masculine words to identify God in scripture only adds to the controversy.

Others note that people whose fathers weren’t present or were abusive have difficulty seeing God as the figure of a good Father, father with a capital “F.”  On Father’s Day, this is particularly poignant. I can’t disagree with this, after all, earthly fathers are a sin-soaked people; just like everyone else.  But unfortunately, our earthly perceptions of fathers infect our perception of God the Father who we confess is infinite in being and perfection.[4]

Another issue with the history and theology of the Trinity is that some considered Jesus the Christ and the Holy Spirit to be secondary deities, subordinate to the First Person of the Trinity.  But the church affirms that Jesus and the Spirit are not some lackey or servant gods to a supposedly supreme God when in truth all three persons of God are equal to one another.

Additionally, some have renamed the persons of the Trinity based on what we think are their usual roles.  The most common of these is “Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.”  This isn’t good because it tries to cubby-hole the works of God into a specific person of God.  This is not the nature of the Triune God.   For example, our Genesis passage this morning speaks directly to the Spirit’s role in creation as the wind that swept across the face of the waters.  Our Psalm sings of God the Great I AM as the one who protects and sustains us. 

All three persons of God create, redeem, sustain, and so much more.  We need to remember that naming the Triune God by roles hides the truth of the scriptural witness and the nature of the fullness of God. 

Our human efforts to tame the names of God have helped humanity homogenize God into compartments based on our perceptions of what God does.  It has helped us put God into a hierarchy that would make a business tycoon proud.  It has helped us infect the glory of God by our individual perceptions.  By speaking of the Three Persons of God in these ways, in a very human way, we limit God.  But the Triune God is not contained by human frailty. 

Five years ago, the General Assembly voted to accept a report on this issue called “The Trinity: God’s Love Overflowing.”[5] It included this great truth: “Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are, together with God the Father, fully and eternally God.  As the Nicene Creed affirms, Jesus Christ is ‘God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,’ and the Holy Spirit is to be worshiped and glorified as ‘the Lord, the giver of life.’”[6]

All three persons of the Triune God are eternal and equal.  As the Triune God, the three persons cannot be separated from one another yet they are distinct from one another. 

Now, if you think this is beginning to sound more like three Gods than one God in three persons, I can’t blame you.  Perhaps one of the most important things we can say about the Trinity is that the concept of “Trinity” is a model, a way of explaining the mystery of God. 

The PC (U.S.A.) Trinity Report puts it this way, “The mystery of the Trinity is an open and radiant mystery.  It is the mystery of the truth that God is holy, abundant, overflowing love both in relationship with us and in all eternity.  We meet God’s threefold love in astonishing faithfulness of the Holy One of Israel, in the costly grace given to us in Jesus Christ our Savior, and in the new life in communion with God and others that has come to us in the gift of the Holy Spirit.”[7]

The best way I have found of describing how to imagine the Trinity comes from the Swiss theologian Karl Barth who said “in [the Trinity] we are speaking not of three divine I’s, but thrice of the one divine I.”[8]  There is one divine presence who has been shown to us in three distinct persons, shown to us in scripture, and still being shown to us today by grace.  God in three persons is diverse, and in one, the Triune God is united.

The question becomes “What do we do with this knowledge?” The answer is found in our gospel reading, we follow the Great Commission.

The Great Commission tells the church to, go and make disciples. It even tells us how to go and make disciples, by baptizing and teaching. But what shall we teach? I’m pretty sure none of us want to teach people the symbols of the faith using this Trinity-weekend-seminar-jammed-into-seven-minutes I’ve just given you. But there are other symbols.

Today’s Children’s sermon is a great example, by connecting Father’s Day and our Heavenly Father, Al taught the children about who God is. Honestly, because of time restraints and trying to teach kids and youth from Pre-Kindergarten through Junior High; Children sermons are great examples of what and how we should teach.

We have a symbol of the faith we share in the simplest of crosses. We teach that the instrument of the most degrading death the Roman Empire could inflict on another person is the empty threat death has on our lives. The cross is empty; God in Christ has defeated death.

We even have the symbol of the creation story from Genesis 1 that we read today. This story is rich in symbols and symmetry. This story, never meant to be a scientific description of creation, still contains more truth than facts can ever portray. It’s a story that links the creation of our cosmos with the creation of life, all under the gaze of the ever watchful Spirit of God.

The love of the Triune God overflows from the relationship of the three persons.  We were created to share in that love, that glory, that joy.  We can’t repay God for the love we are shown; so what we must do, all we can do, is love in return and share God’s love.  Love God and love one another in word and in deed. This is what we can surely teach. In sharing God’s overflowing love we baptize not with water, but with the love of the Triune God.

This is a daunting command, but with this command we are given the assurance that Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man, will be with us to the end of the age.  Rely on this and rely on the overflowing love in the fullness of the Triune God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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[1] “Trinity,” Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible

[2] Office of Theology and Worship, PC(USA), “The Trinity: God’s Love Overflowing.”  PC(USA): Louisville, KY, 2004,, lines 354-355

[3] Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter II, Paragraph 1. In the PC(USA) Book of Confessions this is found at 6.011.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Note that I wrote “accepted” and not “approved.”  Because of the controversial nature of this report the General Assembly of the PC(USA) did not approve this report but instead voted to accept it.

[6] Ibid, Office of Theology and Worship, lines 217-220.

[7] Ibid. lines 245-249.

[8] Barth, Karl, “Church Dogmatics.”  Volume I.1.Edinburgh: T & & Clark, 1975, page 351