Rector's Sermon - Sunday, May 26, 2002

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Genesis 1:1-2:4a	8:1-10	2 Corinthians 13:11-13	Matthew 28:16-20

      The text of the creation story read today dates from the sixth century, BCE. By that time, the nation of Israel had been overrun, Jerusalem destroyed, and a portion of the people had been taken into exile in Babylon. It looked as if the gods of Babylon controlled the earth and its future. Yet those who edited and composed this beautiful saga, claimed, not so! Only God is the creator and giver of life. The world may appear to be under the power of Babylon, but ultimately that will change and prove to be a delusion.

      In Babylon, the creation was a result of strife and enmity among the various competing gods. In contrast, Genesis holds that God created the earth as an act of love. God creates a complex web of relationships and connects them all together. The water, the soil, the night and the sun are all related to each other. In turn the plants, creatures of the sea, land, and air, and finally humankind are all linked in relationship. The mention of humankind having dominion over the animals was not used in terms of tyrannical power or abuse, but in terms of being a guardian. The assumption was that all of creation was to be regarded with reverence because it came from God and was good. Humankind was given the role of being responsible for the well-being of the world and in being created in the likeness of God was expected to exhibit a like love for the earth's welfare.

      This Sunday is called Trinity Sunday to emphasize that God the Father, God the Son, and God The Holy Spirit, refer to one God, even when we use language to distinguish between them. Many battles and bitter arguments have been fought over precise definitions, yet I wonder if understanding the Trinity as another example of God offering us a model of relationship is more important. It is more than a little ironic that creation was not a result of strife but out of a desire for God to establish caring relationships, but the history of the formulation of the church's doctrine of the Trinity reflects centuries of conflict.

      Central to the image of the Trinity, is the different manifestations of God supporting and enhancing the understanding of each other. There is no sense of the territory of one part of the Trinity being invaded by another or power plays of one over another. Jealousy, competition, and envy while very much a part of the history in formulating the church doctrine of the Trinity, are far removed from the Trinity's mode of operating. Paul's famous words about the nature of love also seem to fit the nature of the Trinity: (1 Corinthians 13:4) "Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." That's the model of relationships God offers us. The aspects and attributes of God operate to enhance and support each other.

      In baptizing three siblings of one family (at our 10:30 service) I wonder if we are not building on this ancient gift of relationships. God is not three individual persons and so I don't won't to be misunderstood as comparing three children of a family to the attributes of the Trinity. Nonetheless these three children are one unit. Within that unit they will forever be oldest, middle and youngest child to each other, no matter what. They are certainly individuals, but they are also connected. Baptism is a sign that God values them and surrounds them with the spirit of grace, equally. An important part of growing up for them will be learning to live as sister and brother, and then learning to make the connections between them and the family of faith, and then between them as the family of faith and the larger world. Maybe, just maybe, sometime in the future they will be worshipping God on Trinity Sunday, and realize, as the story of Genesis is being read, that this was the Sunday of their baptism. And perhaps the connections with creation, the Trinity, their baptism and their family will make them aware anew of the promise of outward signs signifying the inward gift of God's grace.

      And I offer this to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen