We had about 20 people today at our last Zoom Mass and if you couldn’t be with us, we missed you but hopefully, the message here will be of comfort. –Pastor Kathy

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May 30, 2021

   My friends, my homily of three years ago has some thoughts which I don’t think I could say better, so will repeat today with some updates.  Each year, our Church sees fit to celebrate a Sunday that not only allows, but actually implores us to look deeply at who God is for us.  The word, “trinity,” we all know, speaks to the phenomenon of a God who is present to us in theology and in other ways too, as three distinct persons, yet comprising one God.

   We are asked to believe this whether we can fully understand it or not.  And when it comes to matters of faith, things that we can’t really get our minds around; I think it is best to come at them with our hearts.  Our hearts are wiser.

   Whether we can truly understand the concept of three persons in one God is not as important, I think, as understanding the idea that we are truly loved by our God.  And how do we know this? We know it because of Jesus, who as the second person of this Triune God became one of us humans in time.  That too; we can’t truly understand, but we can understand the motive behind the action—LOVE.

   Contrary to an older theology, still touted by some today that Jesus came primarily to redeem us from the fires of hell by dying on the cross; Jesus actually came as many present-day theologians suggest, and I agree, as a direct and pure expression of a God, who as Creator, loved creation beyond all measure.  Jesus lived, loved, taught, and shared life with us humans, always showing us the way to be our best selves. And in time, he died a cruel death designed for those who didn’t follow the rules. He died because of how he chose to live, demanding that all were equal and that we, as his sisters and brothers, must do the same. Understandably, his demands were met with some push-back, especially from those in power. 

   Now, to design a theology of errant humanity in need of redemption is perhaps an easier way to go than to give humanity the true picture of a God who loves over-the-top.  When we teach the later, that of a God who loves without end, our task in this world becomes much more pronounced too—we can hardly do less!

   Today’s readings give us three pictures of God.  It is important, I think, to see them in progression to get the full image of who God truly is for us.  If we were merely to stop with the first reading from Deuteronomy, we might tend to see our God as exclusive, choosing a small band of Israelites over all of creation. Better that we continue on through to the New Testament readings from Paul and Matthew to see the completion in Jesus who said upon leaving the earth, “I will always be with you, even to the end of the world!” 

   Now that having been said, the writer of Deuteronomy says this: “Know this today and take it into your hearts.”  And from there, the Deuteronomy writer seems to be saying, in my understanding, “God has basically walked with you and will remain with you.” 

     Paul fleshes this out for us in his letter to the Romans expanding the theology.  He says that through the Spirit, our God has adopted us, adopted us all—we are heirs, with Jesus, in the great family of God.

   Now the notion of God choosing us as a people in Deuteronomy is a good starting place as long as we see the completion of that in Jesus’ stories of the Prodigal and that of the shepherd leaving the 99 to go in search of the lost one. Both stories depict the over-the-top love of the Creator for the created! —a love intended for all!

   So, on this Trinity Sunday, a day that calls us to consider who God is for us; I will share who God is for me.  I often speak of God in the Trinity as Creator, Savior and Spirit.  This concept is devoid of gender, per se, except in the person of our brother, Jesus, who when you think about it, probably gave us the most androgynous view of the good of both genders, female, and male.  I can most effectively have a relationship with Jesus because of his presence, in time, as a human being, and I believe this was the wisdom of our God in appearing in human form—to tell us in a way that we could understand, how much we are loved and cherished, each one of us. 

   God as Creator, I choose to see in all of created life—in all the beauty, the joy, the attempts to be people of peace and understanding.  And when, in our world did we ever need those two traits more? The psalmist today speaks of God beautifully as the Creator and prays— “May your faithful love be upon us, O God, as we place all our hope in you.” 

   The Spirit, for me, is that force within that gives me the courage to say the hard things, to do what I might not always want to do for fear of being rejected.  The Spirit is really the life of Jesus, in a new form. 

   To this point I would like to give a concrete example out of my life.  You all know that the organization, GRASP (Great River Asylum Support Partners) is working diligently within our community to make safe and secure and loved, our first family from Honduras. 

   To this noble endeavor, each of us brings all that we have as persons. Some of us see the small picture (this family, which, by the way, is no small task) and others see a larger picture (helping more families in the future, thus planning facilities for them).  Some of us see that we can do both, others are more conservative and basically fear what we don’t know.

   As one of the pastors in this group, I for one, challenge us toward “balance” (somewhere between fear and passion, fully expressed) and perhaps more importantly, faith, as most come out of some sort of faith background.  You will be hearing more on this in future. 

   Suffice to say that on this Trinity Sunday, when we are asked to reflect on who God is for us—how in fact God has revealed the Godhead as suggested above through Creation –Love-over-the-top in Jesus and the Spirit who, “keeps” as another writer has suggested, “Jesus’ presence before our eyes, in a new way; we might look again, and again at Jesus’ way in the world. 

   Jesus challenged systems that were unfair and unjust toward the poor, the marginalized—such as women.  The powerful of his time objected as they were content, but Jesus said basically, no, until all are content, I won’t be silent. 

   My friends, you know as I do, that there is much injustice in our world.  One of those injustices I addressed here—that of our fractured immigration system.  Our world and especially, our country, struggle with racism and all its ramifications.  We struggle too in our country defining what freedom is—on the one hand, as a friend said recently; we demand, and rightly so, that babies and young children be in secure and safe car seats and on the other hand, nearly everyone who wants to have a high-powered gun in this country, can have one!  We could go on…

   But on this Trinity Sunday, let us pray for each other that we can come to an ever larger idea of who our loving God is—first in Jesus and in how he attempted each day in his earthly life to challenge people to their best—because of a Creator God, he lovingly called, “Abba” –equivalent to our “Daddy or Mama” and then sent his Spirit, like unto himself, only different—to continually remind us of all that Jesus taught in his life among us.  Life can only ultimately be good for me; if in fact, it is good for all others too!   Amen? Amen!

Dear Friends,

As I said in the bulletin this week, Pentecost signals the time when we need to truly “walk the talk” of our journey with our brother, Jesus. The Apostles were strengthened in the Spirit and we should realize that we as confirmed followers of Jesus have that same strength to calm our fears and more fully do what is “right” in our world. My prayer for each of us is that we would always know that what we do that is good in this world is always supported by our brother Jesus, in his Spirit. Peace and love, Pastor Kathy

P.S. Never hesitate to give a call, 507-429-3616 or email me, aaorcc2008@gmail.com if I can help in any way, or even if you would just like to chat.

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Entrance Antiphon

The love of our God has been poured into our hearts by God’s Spirit living in us, Amen.

Let Us Pray

Opening Prayer

God of Light, from whom every good gift comes, send your Spirit into our lives with the power of a mighty wind, and by the flame of your wisdom open the horizons of our minds.  Loosen our tongues to sing your praise in words beyond the power of speech, for without your Spirit, we could never raise our voices in words of peace or announce the truth that Jesus lives and loves us with you and this same Spirit—one God, forever and ever—Amen.

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Readings:

• Acts 2: 1-11
• 1 Corinthians 12: 3-7, 12-13
• John 20: 19-23

Homily:

Friends, Pentecost is our clarion call to “walk the talk” of Christianity—Pentecost is for grown-ups in their faith—it is about action, about moving out of our comfort zones, not looking to anyone else for guidance, but our brother Jesus, who truly showed us the way to go, even to the cross. Now, you might be wondering, why would I want to do that, especially the cross part? And, I can only answer, because that was what you and I signed on for on our confirmation day! 

   That day was not just about getting a new set of clothes, having a party with family and friends, receiving gifts, but about making a conscious effort to live more from our hearts, than our heads.  The heart will lead us out of our comfort zones, whereas the head, alone, will never do that. If our confirmation day was the beginning of us as individuals, living more from the heart, then, that was something worth celebrating! And, it is never too late to start! What things in today’s world are in need of this “heart-kind” of living?

   I came upon a real, life example a few days ago that really threw me and I have to admit; I didn’t know how to handle it.  At the end of it all, my “head” was probably more in gear than was my “heart.” As I was leaving the grocery store, in a hurry to my next errand; I became aware of something out of the ordinary.  I heard running water and turned to see a disheveled man, dressed in probably all the clothes he had in the world, urinating on the ground in front of the store. I looked back a couple of times to confirm that I was seeing what I thought I was seeing.  When he was finished, he returned to a bench in the front of the store and sat down. 

   When I got to my car, I sat there for a bit and thought about so many things.  This was surely a homeless man, perhaps with some mental illness, apparently alone in the world, without family or friends.  I thought about whether he was hungry and about returning and giving him some money, which, by the way, I didn’t.  My thinking included, why didn’t he use the rest room in the store? Was that even part of his consciousness?  Had he lost all dignity about his personal self? And finally, how do we as a society, as individuals, let our people come to such an end?

   For all the groups in this town that I have been part of, trying to make a difference in getting the basics of a home, food, clothing and healthcare, to our sisters and brothers who share this community with us; here was yet another one who had fallen through the cracks. 

   I have been reflecting on this poor man, realizing that giving him some money would only be a temporary fix to his problems and would have worked at easing my conscience more than it would have helped him.  Additionally, it comes to me, as I write this—should I/we look at the problems of others as simply their problems, or should we see them as ours too, in the whole scope of our lives as Christians? 

   So, when we think about leading with our hearts, instead of our heads, what do we come to?  “Walking the talk” about being Jesus’ followers, as a true, “grown-up” in the faith—what does that truly mean? 

   Many of us support organizations that help with food and overnight shelter, especially in the colder months and while good and certainly something that we should continue to do, should we not also support legislation and legislators in our city and country that get at the root causes of poverty, homelessness, and all the scourges associated with the above two?  Yes, we should and we must! Unless we didn’t take our confirmations seriously and then, I guess, we don’t have to worry. At the very least, it seems to me, that people living without the basics in this incredibly rich country, should trouble us!

   Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians today, says, “To each person is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”  In other words, if we are going to claim “Christianity” as our own, then our baptisms and confirmations call us to do our part!

   So, this causes me to wonder—if each person is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good—are some of us not accepting the gift? 

• When people are in positions of power, like our Congress and fail to work for the common good, for law and order and safety for all, many of them supposedly Christians, what is going on there?
• In our world, is the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict, an ages-old dispute by supposedly religious groups, over the right to a respective homeland, something that should continue over-the-ages with no permanent fix?

Wouldn’t these be places for “hearts” to kick in over “heads” and justice be realized for all?

   Luke’s account in Acts today speaks of many different people gathering in Jerusalem all speaking in differing tongues, yet all being able to understand what the apostles were saying about the wonders of Jesus, the Christ. It would seem, in the presence of Jesus’ Spirit, there can be, “understanding,” when we truly “listen” to each other—probably the larger message here for all of us to grasp—when we take the time to hear another’s story, find out why they feel and act as they do, perhaps more understanding and peace can come.

   So, my friends, with so much in our lives as Christians and deciding what might be the right thing to do in any given situation, we can look to our brother Jesus for guidance.  Where Jesus leads the way, the end result is usually, “peace” – maybe not at first, but throughout the struggle – peace does come. 

   In John’s account of Pentecost, Jesus simply “breathes” out his Spirit upon them, with the words, “peace be with you.”  Shouldn’t we too, as Jesus’ followers bring peace and well-being into the places and spaces that we live?  A huge task, we might think, but together and with Jesus’ Spirit—my hope and dream is that we can all become more “heart” and less “head” people in our response to our world.  Amen? Amen!

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Prayers of the Faithful:

Response: “Come, Spirit, Come!”

1. Jesus, thank you for the gift of your Spirit among us—help us to always remember that in this gift you fulfill your promise to always be with us, we pray in your Spirit—Response: “Come, Spirit, Come!”

• O God, let peace reign in our hearts and give us the strength and grace to be people of peace, we pray in your Spirit—Response:  “Come, Spirit, Come!”

• Jesus, you who said that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend, give us hearts that strive to love unconditionally, we pray in your Spirit—Response: “Come, Spirit, Come!”

• Jesus, give the gift of hope and a light at the end of the tunnel for those suffering from job loss at this time, also be with all new college graduates looking for work, we pray in your Spirit—Response: “Come, Spirit, Come!”

• Jesus, you have called us friends—enable us to extend that relationship in our world to those who most need friendship, we pray in your Spirit—Response: “Come, Spirit, Come!”

• Jesus, you no longer have a body in this world except through us—help us to be your hands and eyes and ears and heart for our world , we pray in your Spirit—Response: “Come, Spirit, Come!”

• Jesus, your words in Scripture today remind us that we are sent forth—give us the strength to follow your lead in our world and speak truth to power through your Spirit, we pray—Response: “Come, Spirit, Come!”

• Jesus, in your loving Spirit let us as members of this community, All Are One, always find room at our table for all your people, we pray—Response: “Come, Spirit, Come!”

•  Loving Jesus, be with all families who have lost loved ones this week, from COVID and all other causes—give them your peace, and help them to find their way through their grief,  we pray—Response: “Come, Spirit, Come”

***Let us pray for the silent petitions on our hearts—pause—we pray, then response

Let Us Pray

   Jesus, be the strength we need each day to be Pentecost people –true to our calling to be people of peace and of love. Let us never falter in our commitment to you and your world. Let us look at your people, always with love, remembering that you have called us friends—that you have given all that we might have eternal life with you. Let us always remember your never-failing love for each person and that because you have loved us so fully, we too must love fully in return.  We are grateful for the gift of your loving Spirit in our lives. Through that same Spirit, give us renewed hearts, strong in our commitment to speak truth to power wherever and whenever needed. Give us what we most need today so that we can more effectively be your body in our world. We ask all of this of you, our Brother and with the Creator and your loving Spirit— all, one God, living and loving us forever and ever, Amen.

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Let Us Pray—Again, we can’t be together to receive from the table, but do know that Jesus is always with us!

Prayer of Communion

Loving Jesus, keep within us the vigor of your Spirit and protect the gifts you have given to your Church, Loving Creator—all one God living and loving us forever and ever—Amen.

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