May 18, 2008
Holy Trinity Sunday
Pastor Anita Hill
Creating, Caring, Comforting
Genesis 1:1-2:4a; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20

Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

World crises are on my mind this morning: The cyclone in Burma, the earthquake in China, tornadoes with twelve inches of rain in my childhood home in Louisiana, the immigration raids in Postville, Iowa. Devastation. Chaos. Worry. Wonder.

Tens of thousands are dead; maybe hundreds of thousands of people are dead. Politics make it impossible for aid workers, food, medicine, and other help to be delivered to those most in need. The palpable pain can be seen on the faces of parents still waiting for the body of their only child to be found in the rubble of their school. A cracked dam is sitting above the whole area in China, which might bring further devastation and a massive watery grave. Church people in Iowa have taken in children who are US citizens of immigrant parents, who have little information if any about what has happened to their parents.

Communities are struggling across the globe. Afghanistan is on the edge. Pakistan is not far behind. In African countries, people are facing starvation. Iraq will take years to rebuild, and our children will be paying for it to the seventh generation and more. Recession is here and interlinked global markets put the world economies at risk.

The whole world is hurting. If we are not hurting, too, we are missing something about the nature of humanity and our connection to God.

That’s quite a backdrop for hearing the Genesis story today. Creation came on the wind of God out of chaos from the formless void. And day by day, God made order. And God saw that it was good. We are seeing chaos now and it is not so good.

Unfortunately, the instruction that humanity is to “subdue the earth and have dominion over it” has been taken so literally that we are facing the threat of ecological destruction of the earth.

Subduing the earth. Whoa. Have we ever taken that too literally! “To subdue suggests bringing order out of disorder, drawing the world to its fullest potential.” (T. Fretheim) I believe we are to suppress chaos, to discipline ourselves, and to have dominion over as a monarch cares for a beloved community. Dominion does not equal domination. It doesn’t mean exploitation. God’s dominion is the model for a realm of care for the common good of all that is.

The creation myth does not press us to use up the earth’s resources until it is out of oil to ease its aching joints. We’ve missed the import of being created just a little below the angels with responsibilities and opportunities as human beings created in the image of God. We are to continue God’s creation as partners in relationship with God, our Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit.

We can’t over focus on just one of the parts of the trinity. On Pentecost last Sunday, we focused on the Spirit of God. At Easter, God is all wrapped up in Jesus death, in Christ’s resurrection. When we limit the names we use for God, we limit the Creator and box God in. If we neglect any part of the Trinity, our God is a very small God indeed.

The Trinity as a concept is not well developed in the Bible. Yes, we have the words of Jesus in Matthew, saying to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Paul references three facets of God in the statement that has become part of our liturgy: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Even now, the Trinity is a difficult concept to describe. Three in one and one in three; and still the Lord our God is one God.

I’ve seen children’s sermons focused on 3 leafed clovers. One suggests slicing an apple to show its three parts, the peel, the meat, and the core. I’ve peeled a boiled egg’s layers to show the shell, the white, and the golden yolk. But none of the analogies is adequate to describe God fully. Developmentally, kids don’t understand analogies very well until they are 8-10 years old.

The best example of the Trinity may be an illustration on an old catechism, that shows three interlocking triangles with the German words, Deus ist, in the center. Deus ist means “God is.” To push God into only one of the three is to put off kilter our understanding of God. We push beyond mystery and cut ourselves off from the fullness of God’s holy kiss when we try so hard to parse apart the Trinity to fit our human minds.

If it’s about anything, it is about God wanting to share power with humanity, as in giving us dominion over creation. Hoping we will make wise choices. From the beginning, God shared creative power and the capacity, and obligation, to use it. God gives us the model of choosing to share power; our dominion is to be shaped by that model.

God has given people as much freedom as possible. We even have the freedom to wreck our world. That’s free will.

What if rivers are tears flowing across the face of the earth? Cyclones like temper tantrums of an overtaxed and exhausted body? Volcanoes like the eruptions of a sick child across the living room floor of the world? Earthquakes like a seizure caused by the rising medication levels found in our drinking water and even in the oceans?

On this Trinity Sunday, when we affirm that the “Holy Spirit” which Paul associates with community is the same Spirit of God that moved over the waters at the beginning of creation, we are reminded of God’s desire to extend wholeness and peace to all parts of creation.

It’s my firm belief that God does not want cyclones of destruction. God does not want death by earthquake. God feels the pain of grief even before we know it’s upon us. God is with us always.

God wants wholeness for us. God created a paradise for the first two human beings. God wanted it perfect for us. But, we’ve had free will, too. And free will led us out of God’s garden.

I’m not saying that natural disasters are the fault of humankind. I am saying that our contributions to the imbalances of the earth have led to difficulty. Only God knows how much what we have done has led to enormous natural disasters.

God wants goodness, order, wholeness, and the chance for abundance to reign. God knew this was a tall job, so God utilized three different functions to create it, redeem it, and to sustain it. Keeping the world going is a lot of work. The good news is that we can help.

As partners in God’s ongoing creation, we can take steps to subdue chaos, to embrace community with God’s holy kiss, and to serve God’s dominion that sees creation as good and not to be abused. We can participate in God’s creating, redeeming action, comforting the world.

To embrace our role as disciples is to live as Jesus commanded us. It is to be close to creation. It is to remember we are not alone. Whenever and wherever we work to realize God’s love and peace, among all nations, and throughout the earth, God looks and sees that it is good.

Amen.