Trinity Sunday (5/18/08)                  Gen 1:1-2a; 2 Cor 13:1-13; Mt 28:16-20

Trinity Church, Niles                                           Fr. Joseph Neiman

Theme: “Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Mt 28:20)

What are we to make of the catastrophic events we have witnessed this month and before?

First working backwards, we have been confronted with news of many more tornadoes ravaging our country that in previous years. Secondly the totally devastating news out of China of an enormously massive, deadly earthquake with almost unimaginable death and destruction challenges our comprehension. It is difficult to grasp the extent of this devastation. Third then there was the cyclone in Burma, again with devastation far beyond what we saw with the hurricanes that struck Louisiana and Mississippi. Fourth we continue to have the suffering from elements of war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, the Sudan, and numerous other places. Plus the devastating effects of radical poverty and starvation throughout the world. In short millions of people in our world are suffering seriously this weekend.

Earlier this week, as I was in a waiting room preparing to see a doctor for the results of a test, a woman next to me starting talking. Recognizing me as the priest previously from St. Mark’s, she cited some of these disasters and asked if I thought the end time was coming soon with all the chaos predicted in the Bible. While I have no real way of knowing, I surmised that she had read the Left Behind series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins and was perhaps wondering if she was about to be taken up into the clouds as described in them building erroneously on a passage from Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians describing what some Christians call “the Rapture” (1 Thes 4:13-18; also 2 Thes 2). Writing about end time is called apocalyptic.

World renowned theologian, Jurgen Moltmann tells us: “Apocalyptic fantasy has always painted God’s great final Judgment on the Last Day with flaming passion: the good people will go to heaven, the wicked will go to hell, and the world will be annihilated in a storm of fire. We are all familiar too with images of the final struggle between God and Satan, Christ and the Antichrist, Good and Evil in the valley of Armageddon – images which can be employed so usefully in the political friend-enemy thinking.

“These images are apocalyptic, but are they also Christian? NO, they are not; for Christian expectation of the future has nothing to do whatsoever with the end, whether it be the end of this life, the end of history, or the end of the world. Christian expectation is about the beginning: the beginning of life, the beginning of God’s kingdom, and the beginning of the new creation of all things into their enduring form…God’s great promise in the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, is: ‘Behold, I make all things new’ (Rev 21:5)”[1]

A few moments ago, we heard this wonderful account of creation from the Book of Genesis. Let me clarify at the beginning, it is not about science, it is not a literal account by an eye witness, it is not history but a theological poetic reflection on the purpose of creation by an all loving God.

There is a strain of biblical passages which suggest the world will end in great tragedy and chaos, but it is not the main story. This theme was derived in  some respects from the time when our ancestors in faith, the Jews, were in captivity in Babylon, what is now modern day Iraq. There is prison camps they learned about the religion of their captors who annually celebrated the victory of Marduk over Tiamet, the god of goodness over the god of evil, so-to-speak. The ritual they heard annually portrayed a great battle in which Marduk overcame Tiamet and out of the remains of her body created the world as they knew it, the lands, the seas, the heavens, and all the earth (google "enuma elish").

The priestly authors who wrote the first chapter of the Book of Genesis did not set out to tell us exactly what happened, but to give us a very different image of God and of the purpose of creation. The key phrases which run through the account of creation are the very ones we skip over as we try to compare what was created when with our knowledge of evolution. Those phrases are: “God said….. and it was so…..and it was good.” The account culminates with the powerful verse: “God saw everything that God had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Gen 1:31).

Two additional comments: First the current cultural discussion about teaching evolution versus creationism in public schools is wasted energy. Evolution is verified by science, creationism is verified by a correct reading of the Bible, and this chapter does not intend to tell us what happened but why God created and what God expects of us in caring for creation.

Second, note how the Bible says, if we stay away from our language deficiency of having only a male pronoun for humanity, that men and women are both created in the image and likeness of God. The better Hebrew translation would read: “So God created humankind in the divine image, in the image of God, God created them, male and female God created them” (Gen 27). Male and female are equal partners in the image of God.

Let’s move on to the next statement we need to reflect upon this morning, namely, verse 28, which follows the creation of humankind: “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Gen 1:28). Our marching orders as members of the human race are to care for all creation as persons created in God’s image.

The Gospel narrative we heard a few moments ago builds on these teachings. Matthew tells us the disciples “went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus has directed them. When they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Mt 28:18). Clearly we are being told that God is in Jesus, and that Jesus now speaks God’s commands, God’s intent for getting humankind and creation back on the right path after the mess humanity has made of both because of human sin.

Matthew continues to quote Jesus: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt. 28:19-20). Our marching orders are confirmed and now under the direction of the risen Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Bishop Nicholas Thomas Wright of Durham England, a prolific Biblical writer and teacher, says this: “God ordered his world in such a way that his own work within that world takes place not least through one of his creatures, in particular, namely the human beings who reflect his image. That, I believe, is central to the notion of being made in God’s image. God intends his wise, creative, loving presence and power to be reflected – imaged if you will – into his world through his human creatures. And, following the disaster of rebellion and corruption, he has built into the gospel message the fact that through the work of Jesus and the power of the Spirit, he equips humans to help in the work of getting the project back on track”[2]  

We heard about that means of equipping us last week in the Pentecost reflections. Remember John told us appeared to the apostles after his resurrection, he breathed on them and said to them: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any they are retained” (Jn 20:22-23). That curious statement, “he breathed on them” I told you last week is recalling the second chapter of the Book of Genesis when God breathed a soul into Adam (Gen 2:7). In effect, Jesus is recreating the disciples, giving them a fresh start so as not to repeat the sin of Adam and his descendants.

A quick note about sin. The word for sin in the Bible means in our terms: “missing the mark” or “off center” or “off the goal”. The mark or goal is clearly to walk in the path in which God intends us (all humanity) to walk which will be for our well being, for our fulfillment in body, mind and spirit. It is we who get off the path into the swamp with the alligators by putting our selves and our visions at the center of our lives rather than God and God’s visions for us, all humanity, and all creation. The risen Lord in recreating us brings us forgiveness and teaches us to extend forgiveness to others.

We celebrate this every week in our Eucharist when we remember his words at the Last Supper: “This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me” (BCP p. 363). We’re also reminded of our role in shaping creation when we pray the Lord’s Prayer: “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven” (BCP p. 364). God’s vision rules heaven, and we pray that it will rule the earth as well, and we are given the mandate to work to bring that about.

The Great Commission, as this passage from the Gospel of Matthew is often called, is about so much more than recruiting new members for the church. It is about that, but it means when they seek to become disciples, they are baptized, that is, they experience forgiveness and the personal presence and power of the risen Lord in their lives and are equipped, therefore, to take part in Christ’s mission and ministry in the world.

What is that mission and ministry? Our Catechism tells us: “The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ” (BCP p. 855). Who carries our that mission? Our Catechism tells us: “The Church carries out its mission (i.e. Christ’s mission and ministry in the world) through the ministry of all its members.” Who are the ministers of the Church? “The ministers of the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests and deacons” (BCP p. 855). That’s us! That’s you and I gathered here today. We are called to carry our Christ’s mission, and that means caring for not only one another, but the earth itself. Paul told the Romans and us: “For creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God” (Rom 8:19).

For your homework this week (I give homework and let the good Lord do the testing), I ask you to carry the suffering of so many of God’s people, our brothers and sisters in Christ, carry their suffering at this time in your heart and let it be reflected in your prayers throughout each day. (I trust you pray daily. If not, why do you consider yourself a disciple of Jesus?) But more than this. Start becoming informed about the crises facing our environment, about global warming, about pollution and such. These are moral issues as well as political issues. We are called to teach the nations what God would have us teach about caring for the earth and our impact upon it.

At this time most of us are planting flowers and/or enjoying the rebirth of creation. We should always as a disciple of Jesus leave the places where we live, our surroundings and the larger world we can influence a better place because we have been there. Waste, pollution, greed and violence – these are sin and keep us off the path God intends us to walk on.

We heard that this morning also in Paul’s final words to the Corinthians: “Finally brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you” (2 Cor 13:11).

God bless you and keep  you this day and always, and remember the good Lord has forgiven you all your sins, and loves you more that you can ask for or even imagine. Do you believe it?