Rector's Sermon - Sunday, June 15, 2003

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Isaiah 6:1-8	Canticle 13	Romans 8:12-17	John 3:1-17

    This morning we have read of the call of the great prophet Isaiah. Prophets pretty much operated outside the political and religious structures. There was no recognized place for them within the religious hierarchy. As independent thinkers, they were often viewed with suspicion and fear by those in authority and control. Often they exposed a truth those in power would have preferred to have remained hidden. They were the public conscience of their society.

    Uzziah ruled for approximately 42 years, from about 783-742 BCE. It was a period of relative peace and prosperity for this tiny kingdom with its capitol in Jerusalem. Later generations would consider his reign the zenith of the southern kingdom’s power, second only to Solomon's. In the year King Uzziah died, everything would change, marking a period of transition and insecurity. Hence Isaiah was called to be a prophet in a very dangerous time, clouded with the smoke of uncertainty.

    Isaiah initially experienced his call while he was experiencing grave personal doubt. He felt lost among a culture that had lost its bearings. Commentators have noted that nevertheless in the depths of his despair, God's grace touched him and his lips were unsealed. Then and only then did he hear what God was saying to him. Then and only then did he discover the confidence to speak and to volunteer “Here am I, send me.”

    The lessons after Easter open up to us the wider and new possibilities of God working in the world and lead up to the climax of the gifts of the Holy Spirit being clearly and dramatically given to the church. The speech of many tongues, while implying a universal mission, is also are telling us that the Holy Spirit bestows a great variety of gifts and the grace of the living God is multidimensional. Disease is often rooted in healthy internal processes that run amuck. Something grows so fast that it takes over and suffocates everything around it. One organ over-functions so that the other organs cannot function at all. The healthy equilibrium of the body is thrown all out of balance and the body as a whole cannot properly fight disease or even perceive when something is a danger to its life. Cults and unhealthy religious communities are often rooted in a one-dimensional view that represses all other aspects of God. Trust, for example, becomes slavish obedience, or repentance becomes morbid recrimination. Trinity Sunday reminds us to be expectant and open to all the aspects of God, and to realize that a relationship involving faith comes in stages and in different pieces that we then need to assemble or process.

    One of my favorite railroad stories is about an incident on an unnamed Pennsylvania Railroad local on the way to Harrisburg one hot, late, August afternoon. During the days of steam these short haul trains were not air-conditioned although you could open the windows. The conductor was passing through the crowded, hot coaches collecting tickets. "You will have to take your suitcase off that vacant seat,” he said to one of the passengers. Without looking up, the passenger just shook his head. "People still need seats; remove it now, and put it up on the rack or I will put it off the train,” the harried conductor repeated. The passenger frowned and continued to shake his head. All right, snapped the conductor, and with that he tugged the huge suitcase off the seat, forced the window up all the way, and with considerable effort and stuffing, shoved the suitcase out of the moving train. The case hit the side of the roadbed, bounced a few times and burst open, leaving a trial of clothes from Paoli to Lancaster. Straightening up his uniform the conductor asserted his authority. “There, let that be a lesson to you.” "Wasn't my suitcase,” said the passenger, shaking his head again.

    Often when we are frustrated and huff and puff with God, I wonder if a major part of the problem is that we are concentrating our hopes and attention too much on one thing. Like the harried conductor, we don’t take care to get the whole story. If we took time to process the many gifts God offers and are available to us, perhaps a lot of unnecessary effort and worry would be avoided. That’s what this day reminds us. When we say, “God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit,” we are speaking, of course, in analogies and reminding one another that God is best perceived in relationship and God’s love has more than one face and more than one form.

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