Even God Cannot Be Alone - A Holy Trinity Sermon

Just finished up my draft for tomorrow's sermon at Saint Peter's Church where I serve as Vicar.  It's still a rough draft (particularly the ending), but I'd love to hear what you think:

Even God cannot be alone. Even God cannot be alone… for God only does the amazing work She does, in Holy Trinity, in Community. Even in Her oneness, God cannot be alone, for She only does the amazing work She does in Community. And in giving us just a hint about how that Community of the Trinity works in today’s gospel story by recording some of the final words of Jesus before his betrayal and arrest, Saint John shows extraordinary foresight. He shows extraordinary foresight because he realizes that God’s gathered people on Earth, the people that are literally the Body of Christ, will face new things… they will face new troubles, new challenges and new opportunities. In other words, Saint John knows we, the Body of Christ, will face change, and he knows we need assurance that the Community of the Trinity will be at work in that change.

Knowing that we will face change Saint John highlights the fact that Jesus is sending us an Advocate, a Spirit, the very Breath of God to lead us, to comfort us, to guide us into truth. Just listen again to the words of Saint John crying out to us from across millennia:

[Jesus said to his disciples,] I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The Community of the Trinity is indeed at work in change… the Community of the Trinity is at work through the Spirit guiding us into truth, but there seems to be a big problem with what Jesus said… maybe it jumped out at you right away. The problem is that sometimes, and especially in the most rapidly changing and perhaps troubling of times, Jesus’ promise doesn’t seem to ring true. Whether confronting chaotic change in our personal lives or in the collective life of our faith communities, Jesus’ promise of the Spirit doesn’t seem to ring true… it can feel like there’s no Advocate, no Breath of God leading us into truth.

For many of us, myself included, this past year has been one of those times in particular, a year filled with immense challenge, a year filled with immense change, a year in which drowned in chaos, many of us have strained to feel the Spirit’s presence at all. In addition to whatever was going on in our own personal lives, let’s just do a quick recap of the immense changes and challenges our region, our city and our parish have faced over the last year: This past October many parts of our city and region were ravished by Hurricane Sandy, including many areas to have yet to fully recover. Around the same time we were also facing the anxiety of a bitter presidential election season, only to hear the devastating news a month later of the brutal murder of twenty children and six adult staff just north of us in Connecticut. The winter provided only a bit of a break… while certainly not bad news and in fact a great opportunity, the resignation of Pope Benedict and election of Pope Francis was still major change for a church that many of us hold dear to our hearts, and this thus brought about the stress that all major changes do. Increased tensions with a nuclear-armed North Korea also didn’t help matters. Continuing on, this April we were confronted by news of the Boston Marathon bombings, only to later hear that the perpetrators thought of coming to New York and setting off more bombs in Times Square. Only last weekend our city was rocked by news of the murder of Mark Carson in the West Village, killed out of hate because he was gay. Add onto all this hard decisions about staff reductions and budget cuts here at Saint Peter’s and the loss of our beloved Santa Clause, John Rusinak… folks, its easy to see that its been one heck of a year. It’s been one heck of a year, and many of us have understandably asked at times, “Where is God in all of this?”

Yet, there is immensely good news in such a dire situation. There is immensely good news in the fact that not even God can be alone, there is immensely good news in the fact that that God cannot be alone and that She only does the work She does in Holy Trinity, in Community. And, my sisters and brothers, there is immensely good news in the fact that God does not want us to be alone either. You see we too are invited into Community with God, as the Holy Spirit does the oftentimes slow, careful yet immensely powerful work of gathering us up together into the Body of Christ. While we held each other and wept at John Ruzinak’s funeral, the Spirit was there, gathering us up. While we sat at brunch and comforted folks who were flooded out of their homes or places of work by Hurricane Sandy, the Spirit was there, gathering us up. While we stood in worship doing the hard work of praying for not only the victims of the Newtown shootings and the Boston marathon bombings, but for the perpetrators of those heinous crimes as well as Christ commands us to do, the Spirit was there, gathering us up into the Body of Christ.

And ya know, even in the face of such a difficult year, Saint Peter’s has been doing amazing things in Christ, amazing things that have been celebrated and need to be celebrated, as the Spirit is there, gathering us up. Just look at this past weekend… I mean it was absolutely amazing… the work you folks are doing made the Bishop and many others cry tears of joy at brunch. You made the Bishop cry. And while wiping away his tears, Bishop Rembo said that our local iteration of the Body of Christ, our local expression of the Church here at Saint Peter’s is being exactly what the Church needs to be in this time, in this place, in this city. In a time when it’s trendy to talk about being a multi-cultural church, Saint Peter’s is actually doing the hard work of making it happen. There have of course been difficulties as we’ve entered into our new covenant relationship with Sion, but whether its been working through scheduling problems, surmounting communications barriers or simply dealing with our albs being hung up in the wrong place in the sacristy, those difficulties have been juxtaposed with joyous scenes of members of both congregations worshiping together, talking with one another about immigration reform on a Saturday afternoon and literally dancing with each other during Jazz for All last weekend. And in all these challenges and successes, the Spirit has been there with us, gathering us up into Community, gathering us up into the Body of Christ.

In a time when it’s trendy to talk about being a welcoming church, about being a resource for our local community, Saint Peter’s is actually doing the hard work of making it happen. There have of course been problems here as well, but whether it’s dealing with the frustration of not having enough space, or being extra protective of our communion wine or being rightfully angry about things being taped up on a freshly painted set of doors, those difficulties have been juxtaposed with joyous scenes of the Living Room being filled with folks getting a hearty breakfast on Christmas morning, of five folks showing up early at Federal Plaza to support their fellow congregation member seeking asylum status and this Sanctuary filled to capacity, worshiping together and learning about our heritage at the memorial vespers last weekend. And once again, in all these challenges and successes, the Spirit has been there with us, gathering us up into Community, gathering us up into the Body of Christ.

Even God cannot be alone, and She will not let us be alone either, and that is amazingly good news.  But I’ve been going on for a while already, and could keep going all morning, but we do have some Eucharist and some praying and some singing and the like to get to, so I’m going to conclude not with my own words, but with the prayerful words Christopher Vergara wrote for our Pentecost celebration last weekend, words that couldn’t describe any better how the Spirit has been work at Saint Peter’s over the last few months, gathering us up into Community with the Holy Trinity, gathering us up into the Body of Christ:

Up in the air
almost a 1000 cranes
Up in the air
70 hours of folding
6 emails about what shades of red orange and yellow to use
400 yards of fishing line
12 hrs in the catwalk
Up in the air
More smashed than folded 2yo desire to participate
Up in the air
A seminary field workers last Sunday
Up in the air
A mother and son's competition to see who is fastest
Up in the air
3 angry mothers on Mother's Day
Up in the air
Paper chaperones to teenage courting
Up in the air
Questions...
What are you doing?
What are those for?
Can I help
What is the next step?
What physically happens to us when we die?
Up in the air
Dealing with a parents death
Up in the air
Waiting...
Waiting for mass to end
Waiting for a mtg to start
Waiting for yoga, the opera, for poached salmon
Sitting waiting for another round of chemo
Up in the air
Another bombing
Up in the air
A shooting
Up in the air
A funeral for Santa Clause
Another deportation hearing
Another shooting
Up in the air
the fear that things will never change
Up in the air
The fear that things are changing to quickly
All these our joys and troubles we lift
Up in the air
Into your warm embrace O God
Trusting, trusting....
That there is nothing
Under the sea
On the ground or
Up in the air
That could ever separate us from your love and peace
In the name of our holy advocate, the Holy Spirit AMEN.

God's peace,
Dustin  

Dustin currently serves as Vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

Freed Into God's Song, Advent 4C

What follows is a draft of the sermon I plan on preaching this Sunday at Saint Peter's Jazz Vespers Service. It's on the week's gospel text, Luke 1: 39 - 56. Would love to hear some input from folks... I'm especially concerned that the whole freed to live into God's justice part isn't in the right place.  Should I strength the last couple sentences?

To put it quite frankly, it’s been one heck of a year. In addition to whatever’s been going on in our own lives and the lives of our families and friends, we’ve collectively been hit by crisis after crisis… the threat of Eurozone debt spiraling out of control and our own “fiscal cliff” turning us back from a fragile economic recovery toward another deep recession… ongoing unrest, violence and civil war in the wake of the Arab Spring, as well as in countries like Mali and the Congo… the uncertainty and stress of a critical and seemingly close presidential election season… firm red lines with Iran and fighting in the Gaza Strip… destruction, death and ongoing suffering following Hurricane Sandy. A few weeks ago after Thanksgiving I remember talking with folks, some right here at Saint Peter’s, about how it finally felt like things were starting to get back to normal… and then of course, in the midst of the holiday season, a time we’re told is supposed to be filled with peace and light, we heard the horrific news of twenty first graders and six of their teachers killed by a young man with a high-powered rifle in Newtown, CT. President Obama put it best, I think, when trying to hold back the tears, he said that our hearts are broken. Indeed, our hearts are broken, and burned out from exhaustion, beaten down by the storms gathered round us, we claw for shelter, wondering what we can do in the face of such adversity… we wonder what we can do.


My sisters and brothers, tonight, and in fact at every Jazz Vespers, we are provided with a very powerful model of what can be done in such a situation through the story of two remarkable women, one young and one old. Mary, upon hearing the news of her pregnancy with Jesus, goes with haste to visit Elizabeth, her cousin who is miraculously six months pregnant with John the Baptizer. Mary, in stark contrast to the judgment and distain that was likely to greet her in the coming months as she began to show as an unwed woman, is greeted with joy by Elizabeth, who filled with the Holy Spirit, amazingly exclaims “blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” Even more amazingly, Mary, Mother of God responds with one of the most beloved and powerful songs of the Christian canon: the Magnificat, or Mary’s Song… the song we sing during healing at every Jazz Vespers… “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my Spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

From what I’ve heard, through many other changes, singing the Magnificat has always been a part of Jazz Vespers at Saint Peter’s… and furthermore, it’s been a part of liturgical tradition throughout most of the Church’s history. Since at least the second century, it was sung daily at Evening Prayer, and still is to this day in many of the Western churches. In the Eastern, or what many of us might know as “Orthodox” churches, it’s appointed as part of Morning Prayer. Why though, you might ask, is it sung so frequently… why do we sing it every Sunday… how can it serve as such a powerful model for us, in this place, in this city, in these most troubled of times? The reason, my sisters and brothers, that Mary’s song is so powerful is simply because it’s not really about what she, or any of us, are really doing at all… it’s about what God is doing.

You see, Mary begins her song with a two-line parallelism, a common element of Hebrew prose that provides an important clarification… “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my Spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” The Magnificat is not just a song of Mary’s own soul, her own inner self, but also the song of the pneuma, the Holy Spirit, the very Breath of God upon her that gives voice to the amazing things that God has done, is doing, and will continue doing till the end of the age. And listen to what some of those amazing things are… casting the powerful down from their thrones… lifting up the lowly… filling the hungry with wondrous things… and most importantly, fulfilling promises. In preparing for tonight’s sermon I stumbled upon the amazing story of poor peasants in Nicaragua, campesinos, writing out Mary’s song and wearing it as a sort of amulet during the by the US backed violence of the Contras during the 1980s. Interviewed about the meaning of Mary’s words in 1987, one peasant woman states “Mary calls God 'Savior' because she knows that the Son that he has given her is going to bring liberation… She's full of joy. We women are also that way, because in our community the Messiah is born too, the liberator."

What a powerful message… “We are full of joy, because in our community, the Messiah is born too, the liberator.” You see my sisters and brothers, much like Mary, much like the campesinos in Nicaragua, we too are invited into God’s song. Not just at Christmas, and not just when singing the Magnificat, but each time we gather to worship and sing, and to play and dance to the song of God, through bread and wine, through water, through God’s Word and through community with others, Christ, the Messiah, the Liberator, comes into our midst. Christ comes into our midst; liberating us from the powers sin, death and darkness. Yes, Christ liberates us, freeing us to sing God’s song, freeing us to live into the promise of God’s justice whether it is by sheltering to the needy, standing up for marriage equality, or welcoming in all peoples into our community and country, whether or not they have the right piece of paper. Especially after the recent catastrophe in Connecticut, we’re freed to enter into a conversation where we collectively confess as a country that we have to do more to prevent gun violence, especially against our children and freed to bravely confess that such action does not include bringing more guns in our schools, even if they’re in the hands of the “good guys.” But most importantly my sisters and brothers, we’re freed to sing the song of a God that has promised to forgive us, care for us and nurture us and love us no matter what… a God that we know keeps Her promises.

God's peace,
Dustin

  Dustin is currently a vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

A Prayer for the People of Newtown, CT & All That Suffer This Day

At this time of great despair and heartbreak as I continue watching the news coming in from Newtown, Connecticut, I simply can't find any of my own words that could speak to such a tragedy.  Relying on the words of others however, I found the following prayer from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Pastoral Care to be particularly powerful:

God in heaven, please listen to all those who are praying to you now: those who are sad and crying, those who have lost friends and family, those who are frightened.  Help them to remember that you are there and that you are listening.  In Jesus; name we pray, Amen.

A few Bible verses that I've found helpful tonight as well:

- Psalm 34
- Hosea 11:1, 3-4
- Isaiah 41: 10

May all feel the peace of God's presence this night,
Dustin


Dustin is currently a vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.