SERMON ~ 03/10/2013 ~ God of Trinity and Mercy

03/10/2013 ~ Fourth Sunday in Lent ~ Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32.

God of Trinity and Mercy

“All of this is from God, who reconciled us to self through Christ and made us ministers of that reconciliation.  This means that, through Christ, the world was fully reconciled to God, who did not hold our transgressions against us, but instead entrusted us with this message of reconciliation.” — 2 Corinthians 18-19.

If you are my friend on Facebook— and I know some of you are friends on Facebook— you realize I do not post a lot or comment a lot.  Many weeks the only post I have is my sermon.

In part, that’s because of the office I hold.  You see, when one holds the office known as pastor, one does have to be careful about how one behaves in public.  If you’re on Facebook whatever you post or comment is in public.

There is no such thing as private on Facebook.  Do nothing on Facebook you would not do in the middle of West Park, right outside the church building.  I am often surprised at how many people don’t get that.

Now, part of the problem with Facebook for pastors is things can be taken the wrong way when seen only in print.  Or as I like to say, “Where is my irony font when I need it?”

In person you can say things in a tone that drips with irony.  When people hear that, they know what is being said is a joke.  An ironic tone does not translate into print.      Now, that some people who hold a specific job might need to be careful in public is actually a fairly common occurrence.  One example— when smoking was more popular, Major League Baseball players, even ones who were in tobacco advertisements, would not be seen smoking in the dugout.  It looked bad.  But between innings a lot of players would sneak back to the clubhouse and there they would puff on a cigarette, unseen.  See— there’s that public presence and then there’s what you do in private.  Sometimes they’re different, aren’t they?

Coming back to the office of pastor, let me tell a story about a misdeed committed by a pastor friend who served a church in New York City.  She committed this misdeed despite being a pastor.  And she would be the first to tell you (if I had not already said it) that because one holds the office of pastor, one does have to be careful about how one behaves in public.

To be clear, she herself, did tell this tale about her breech of behavior, so I have no hesitation in using it.  (Slight pause.)  My pastor friend had just had some foot surgery.  So, with her foot in a cast, she hobbled on to a subway train and felt very lucky to find a seat right next to the door.

Getting that seat seemed like a fortunate coincidence, since the seat she took was the last one available in that subway car.  She found herself next to a twenty-something, well dressed businessman whose head was buried in a book.

At the very next stop the train got quite crowded.  No seats were left which meant people had to stand and hang onto the rails above the seats.  A woman who was clearly pregnant got on with that crowd, passed by my friend, hung on to the rail and stood over that well dressed man who was reading.

With my friend’s foot in a cast, she felt it was unwise for her to get up and give this woman a seat.  Thinking the fellow next to her was simply so engrossed in the book he was oblivious to what was going on around him and that it might be polite for him to offer the woman who was pregnant a seat, my pastor friend nudged this fellow.  He looked up.  My friend pointed to the woman.

He simply looked back down to the book again without saying a word.  Two stops later as the train pulled into a station, the man stood and the pregnant woman immediately sat down, a grateful look on her face.

The fellow had not decided to become suddenly chivalrous.  The train had come to his stop and he was about to get off.  Since my friend was sitting next to the door and since she did have a cast on the foot which was next to that door and since that man was obviously about to go out through that door, she— a pastor— somehow decided it would be all right if she— a pastor— perhaps accidently, perhaps on purpose, held her foot out, encased as it was in a cast, just enough to trip that fellow as he got off the train.

The door opened.  Out he went, tripping on her cast as he moved forward.  He landed face first on the platform.

The doors closed.  The train took off.  She never saw him again.  She did, however, exchange contact information with the woman who had taken that seat next to her.

The woman became a parishioner.  My friend Baptized her newborn child.  And that was certainly a new and innovative and different way of doing evangelize. [1]  (Slight pause.)

Confession, of course, can be cleansing, and in that sense good for the soul.  So, by way of confession, my pastor friend did use that story in a sermon, which gives me carte blanche to repeat it.  (Slight pause.)

And these words are from Second Corinthians: “All of this is from God, who reconciled us to self through Christ and made us ministers of that reconciliation.  This means that, through Christ, the world was fully reconciled to God, who did not hold our transgressions against us, but instead entrusted us with this message of reconciliation.”  (Slight pause.)

I’ve mentioned this before: I had another pastor friend who had a ‘T’ shirt made up for himself.  The shirt read: “Dear God, when I die and go to heaven, please let me not be standing in line next to Mother Teresa.”

The point is we are all good in some way but we are all also flawed.  No one is perfect.  Now, in this passage Paul tackles and answers some very central questions.  These include: “What is the meaning of good?” and “Who is Jesus?”

Second one first— as to “Who is Jesus?” in the Epistles Paul often and in many ways asks that classic Christian question: “Who is Jesus?”  The Gospels also ask the question when Jesus says, “Who do you say that I am?”  What we moderns do not understand is the way in which Paul and the early Christians heard that question, “Who do you say that I am?”

We hear the question as being about our own perception of Jesus.  But for those who first heard the question it was not about their perception.  They knew who Jesus was.

Many had met Jesus or had met someone who had met Jesus.  They knew who Jesus was from first or second hand testimony.  So, they heard this “Who is Jesus?” question as being about how God and Jesus were related, how they related, about how God and Jesus interacted.  The question wasn’t about us.

Paul gives us that answer about that relationship and that interaction (quote): “...through Christ, the world was fully reconciled to God,...”  The language the church has historically used to express that relationship and that interaction is to say Jesus is the Second Person of the Trinity.  God is Trinity.

Now I think the more important point Paul makes is the message God gives us concerning that relationship called Trinity.  The message is about us.  We are reconciled to God.  (Slight pause.)

Now, I know what some people think.  Some people think life is a buddy movie.  So their reaction to being reconciled to God will be, “Well, I am reconciled to God because it’s all about God and me— we are tight.  We are buddies.”  (Slight pause.)

Well, how much of a buddy are you, really, if let’s say you are a pastor but you go around tripping people on the subway?  Yes, the action my friend took may have been— let’s say ‘in a good cause.’  But it was still just a tad over the top, was it not?  (Slight pause.)

So, reconciliation is not about our wrongdoing or even our right doing.  We all do some things which are at least inappropriate, if not downright wrong.  We all do things which are wonderful.

Reconciliation is about empowerment— our empowerment.  Reconciliation is about the covenant with God and the empowerment God wants us to have.  All of which is to say, reconciliation with God is not a result, not a goal, not an end thing.

Reconciliation with God is a journey.  Reconciliation with God is about our journey with God.  Reconciliation with God is about our journey through life.  Or, as our denomination likes to put it, reconciliation is about the idea that God is still speaking with us.  Reconciliation is about the idea that God is still speaking through us.  Amen.

03/10/2013
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction.  This is an précis of what was said: “Church Historian and Theologian Karen Armstrong says this (quote): ‘If your understanding of the divine has made you kinder, more empathetic and impelled you to express sympathy in concrete acts of loving-kindness, this is good theology.  But if your notion of God made you unkind, belligerent, cruel, self-righteous or if it led you to kill in the name of God, it is bad theology.’”

BENEDICTION: Let us seek to love as we have been loved by God, welcoming our brothers and sisters.  Let us rejoice in God’s goodness and steadfast love.  Let us follow where God leads.  Let us go on our way with Christ as our companion.  And may the steadfast love of God and the peace of Christ, which surpasses understanding, keep our minds and hearts in the companionship and will of the Holy Spirit, this day and forever more.  Amen.

[1] It should probably be noted that there was much laughter among members of the congregation as the pastor told this story.