SERMON FOR TRINITY SUNDAY

14^th June 2014

Rev. Margaret Raven

Isaiah 40:12-17,27-31 - those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength

Mathew 28: 16-20 – in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit

“The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”               Isaiah 40: 28b-31

You would expect the disciples to collapse from stress, depression –maybe even post-traumatic stress disorder wouldn’t you?!  Over the last 6 weeks,the readings here in church have catalogued their experiences:  the betrayal, death, resurrection appearances and ascension of Jesus followed by the coming of the Holy Spirit………The Holy Spirit described variously as flames hovering over the disciples’ heads, peasantdisciples suddenly fluent and speaking inthe foreign languagesof countries all around the Mediterranean Sea and, finally, Jesus appearing out of nowhere to breathe peace on the men and women huddled together, praying, in the upper room.

What must it have been like to have lived through all that?!

The disciples have had to live through God’s idea of what needs to happen to bring in the kingdom of Heaven on earth. It turns out God’s strategy involved a lot of personal stress and a series of mind-boggling events. Considerable attitude-adjustment was needed!

Now Isaiah in the passage Douglas just read says that God’s“understanding is unsearchable”. So it has proved: The events the disciples have just lived through show a pattern and strategy beyond all expectation; one unexpected thing after another. No wonder Jesus, prior to his betrayal at Gethsemane asked for them to have an enhanced prayer life with God- one very like his own…..and no wonder the resurrected Jesus told them to stay together as a group and wait where they were. ……Isaiah also says “those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength”……...  Stability and routine are restful and conserve emotional energy. Staying in the familiar group builds on learned, mutual relationships. Praying together provides mutual support, intimacy, intuitive understandings and, enhanced trust. 

So, for the disciples those weeks have meant one emotional trauma after another: shock, grief, terror, mind-boggling experiences, hiding from Temple and Roman authorities ,being stranded in the big city, dependent on friends of Jesus  who are willing to risk hiding them at their house, sole responsibility for the group of faithful women who have been with the disciples and with Jesus since the beginning….never knowing whom to trust. People are living through this kind of abrupt polarization of society right now in Syria or Ukraine. People compelled to live their emotional, religious and political life underground in Burma, Iran, Egypt, Libya or anywhere where there is mental oppression…..such people live on their nerves and become exhausted very quickly. They lose resilience.

“Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint”.

The disciples had their upper room provided by friends, their prayer life with God, the companionship and compatibility of their group as well as the instructions provided by Jesus to do nothing – to wait until the Holy Spirit was sent to them as Comforter. They had a common understanding, a structure and a discipline. They did not “faint and grow weary”. instead they renewed themselves and their strength so that when the Holy Spirit came in its many and bewildering forms they were ready and able for the next exertion…..the next leap into the unknown. As Isaiah had understood it they were able “ to mount up with wings like eagles”. In concrete terms they now became public speakers able to present coherently the new understanding of past prophesy and salvation history to Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles. They healed. They could hold their own with learned men as they explained the Jesus Way and the meaning of the events they had experienced. They had become apostles capable of taking these understandings to the Mediterranean world and beyond.

In time the Jesus Way became the Jesus Movement. The Apostles died. The other eyewitnesses died. A canon of approved writings became essential.

It emerged around 180 AD. It is our Bible. It contains the Old and New Testaments as we call them…  Core Jewish Scriptures  plus a deposit of the legacy of memories of Jesus – 4 gospels, the story of the Acts of the Apostles, some hymns and set speeches for explaining the content of the Christian faith, the writings of Paul, apostle to the Gentiles and, key apostles’ responses to  the inevitable fractious controversies that took place in the cities, ports and towns of the Mediterranean world as Christian communities established themselves and grew. Inevitably the letters and the new groups of emerging Christians had to deal with the growing pains of local community group and a religious movement!..... we know all about these don’t we:  internal scandals, inter-ethnic disputes, cross-cultural issues, organizational problems, conflicting theologies and, personality clashes …..

Remember also, the Mediterranean world was a sophisticated place: there were challenges to emergent Christianity from philosophy, science …the whole intellectual world……and from differing worldviews.

In essence the challenge to simple witnessing to experiences of Jesus as seen and heard by disciples and apostles became:Who, Why, What, When, How, Where is this God you proclaim?It took almost 350 years to hammer out a sophisticated answer to that question. It’s complicated. We will parse it out in a few minutes when we say the creed together.It’s complicated.

Thanks be to God the Apostles who walked, talked and ate with Jesus identified and used a simpler formula earlier. We hear it clearly coming down  over 2000 years: the witnesses’ experience& understanding of God: as Father, as Son Jesus and, as Holy Spirit: all equal, all God , all having distinct functions,  communicating among themselves. A mysterious Trinity of three in one and one in three. 

2 Corinthians 13:11-13 written much closer to the apostles’ time already has the content of the faith worked out and communicated pithily - in shorthand – easy to memorise - for our benefit: “Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord JesusChrist, the love of God and the communion/fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you”.  

God’s strategy and plan for bringing in the Kingdom to this world as well as for our personal salvation: Grace; Love; Community. A blessing in every sense of the word.