Sermon

JUNE 3, 2007

“Advantage:  Us!”

John 16: 12-15

June 3, 2007

Today is the beginning of what the church calls “Ordinary Time.”  For a long time now, the color will be green.  It is the day when Christians are making a transition from the Great Fifty Days of Easter to Ordinary Time.  Today is Trinity Sunday, the only Sunday of the year that is dedicated to a doctrine – the doctrine of the Trinity, the mystery of the Trinity, the three-in-one God – God, the Father, God, the son, and God, the Holy Spirit.  How can all these people be one God?  And just what is the Holy Spirit?  It is fairly easy to understand God as the scouts have defined God – God who created everything, God who calls us by name, God who is mindful of each of us, to whom each one is precious.  It is also fairly easy to understand God who came to us, begotten and not made, in human form as Jesus and set an example for all of us to follow.  But the Holy Spirit?  Just before today’s verses, in John 16:7, Jesus says, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

Advocate, counselor, Holy Spirit; Redeemer, Savior, Christ; God the Father, God the Creator.  Who are all these people?  All of this was settled about 325 AD at the Council of Nicea, as in the Nicene Creed:  “I believe in God, the Father, creator of heaven and earth, and in His son, and in the Holy Spirit.”  Robert Farrar Capon says that when human beings try to describe God we are like a bunch of oysters trying to describe a ballerina.  We simply do not have the equipment to understand something so utterly beyond us.  That, however, has never stopped us from trying!  As soon as we get to seminary, as you can imagine, we try to figure this out!!  One of the reasons that we have so many creeds is that we are trying to figure it out – trying to figure out how to express the many experiences that we have when we are in the presence of God!

Still, after all the efforts to figure it out, it is such a mystery!  We do not really possess the language to describe those experiences.  We do know, however, that God is the Creator and is still creating; we know that Jesus is the redeemer and is still teaching; we know that the Holy Spirit is the presence of God and that God is still indwelling.  That is why when we perform a Christian marriage and the couple exchanges rings, they say, “_______, I give you this ring as a sign of my vow, and with all that I am and all that I have, I honor you, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”  That is why when we baptize, we say, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  Each time I say one of those names, I dip my hand into the baptismal waters – not because there are three Gods, but because there is the part of God that created, the part of God that came to teach and redeem us, the part of God that continues to work in us – three distinct natures of God.  The Scouts are right:  How mindful God is of each of us!  We creatures do have the advantage!

How is it then that at least 1/3 of the world suffers to the point that their lives are not peaceful, that there is no justice in their lives?  Where is their advantage?  On this special day, the United Methodist Church lifts up all of those whose lives are fraught with injustice and violence and poverty.  We designate offerings that will help bring peace and justice.  When citizens of third world countries are being treated as third-class citizens, it is our Triune God who calls us to understand and respond to that injustice and inequity.  We, filled with the Holy Spirit, must strive to see that peace and justice are provided.  I am proud to say that Kids Eat Free is a part of this ministry. 

When I went to South Korea this summer as a delegate to the World Methodist Conference, some of us traveled on Sunday to the DMZ.  Upon arriving, this is what we saw – a field of pinwheels, hopeful signs of peace placed just on the south side of that line.  When the South Koreans saw Americans coming out of the church where the conference was held, they immediately approached us, asking us to pray for peace, offering us a book on which they had spent much time.  The book gave us a history of Korea.  The authors of the book asked us to return to our churches and ask people to become informed, to pray for peace between South and North Korea.  They understood that we were disciples, affirming a faith that calls us to respond accordingly.

Just recently I was talking with an American who came here legally from Vietnam but not without several attempts and many risks to his life and the lives of his family.  He is my friend, and he knows that this congregation has helped the 8-year-old daughter of a United Methodist minister from Liberia travel to the United States and undergo three different surgeries at Mayo Clinic in order that she might live – one very small, dying little girl from West Africa – why was she worth such a price?  My Vietnamese friend always asks me, “How is Korto?”  Last week, I said, “She is fine, but she will have to stay here now.  She cannot go back to Africa with a metal mitral valve.  She would not be able to access the cumidin and medical help she needs to live a healthy life.”  “How is she doing being separated from her parents and living with the nurse and her husband?” he asked.  “Well, she loves being healthy; she loves the nurse and her family; and she loves this country.”  “Oh, this country!” he exclaimed.  “Who wouldn’t love this country?”

When we look at the plot on JFK airport that was revealed just this week-end, it is obvious that that is not entirely true.  Still, it is also obvious that we have a very good life in this country.  As Christians, we want that for others.  We are in a quandary.  Iraq is such a quandary.  We have reached the point where we may differ on our response as to how we should help bring about a peaceful and just environment for others.  Still, as Christians, we must agree that all of God’s children deserve peace and justice, peace for our soldiers and their families, peace for the people of a noble country, and peace between the members of two great religions whose children are first the children of Abraham.  That peace, like the faces of God, is certainly different for each of us.

Two weeks ago, I heard an interview with a woman in a refugee camp in Darfur.  She was asked to define “peace.”  She said, “Peace is going out to get firewood and no one chases or rapes you.”  I would never have thought of that definition!  So little she asks.  So much we should try to do.

Calvin Trillin’s best-selling book About Alice is a tribute to his late wife Alice.  It is lighthearted.  Near the end of the book, Trillin talks about an experience that his wife had while volunteering at a camp for terminally ill children.  Alice buddied up with a young girl, “a magical child who was severely disabled.”  The child was courageous and optimistic.  One day while the little girl was absorbed in a game of Duck, Duck, Goose, Alice spotted a letter the little girl’s parents had written her.  She could not resist reading the first few lines:  “If God had given us all the children in the world to choose from, we would only have chosen you.”  Alice passed the note to a fellow counselor and whispered breathlessly, “Quick.  Read this.  It’s the secret of life!”

As those who have been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, our responsibility to help bring about peace and justice is connected to the secret of life.  We cannot stop trying for peace and justice until every single person, every child of God, knows that he or she is God’s chosen!”  Until the pinwheels on the hill are simply a reflection of the truth.  In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”  In the name of the Prince of Peace!  Amen.