Sermons by Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Trinity Sunday, June 6, 2004
Sermon by Bishop Paul Marshall
Cathedral of the Nativity, BethlehemJohn 16:12-15
"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 youJesus words today about what we cannot bear now invite us to deep wisdom about our entire life cycle.
When a couple learns that they have a child coming, the excitement of that new life can be one of the most beautiful things that happens to them. People celebrate with them.and then some people start giving advice. Some of it may be useful, some of it may increase fear unnecessarily - but most of it goes unheard because the couple are in one state of mind and are not yet ready for what comes next. Even if you happen to be the world's leading authority on child development, there is no point in telling a newly pregnant couple the ten most important points about raising a teenager.
When the time comes to learn about raising teens, they will learn - and the knowledge they get then may be fresher than the war stories I could tell them about my mistakes as a father.
Again, all of this is meant to remind us that there are, in life, things that are true, but we aren't ready for them, or as Jesus told his disciples, there are things we can't bear to know. Let's take discomfort in that one degree deeper.
It is a bit of an agony to prepare a couple for marriage: there is so much they cannot hear. They are in love and can hear very little else. They cannot hear that in five or six years their safe conversation will be exhausted, opening the door to tedium and resentment. I cannot tell them that much of what excites them now in their romantic moments can become dull and limited. I cannot tell them how much courage and strength will be required of them to be honest and risk-taking with each other to go to the next level of relationship rather than to sink into what is quiet, safe, and unexciting. I can only tell them that there is a 100% possibility that there will be stresses and that the church will indeed be there for them when is it time to grow again.
What this has to do with Trinity Sunday and baptism and confirmation is very important.
The teaching that God is three persons yet one God, and that God is essentially those persons in a constant relationship of creation, love, and outreach, took about 350 years to develop-the Spirit leads the Church into truth at God's own pace. Other things that we now recognize as obviously true were once utterly unbearable.
The Wright brothers had an interesting dad. He was a bishop in the Methodist church, and something of a public speaker. He is remembered for giving a fiery sermon on God's obvious intention that humans should stay out of the air. A few years later Wilbur and Orville went out to Kitty Hawke and changed the world. His children had to lead him into truth which was unthinkable to him.
In our own past, those of us over a certain age can remember a time when it simply was unthinkable that women could be effective priests. When the time was right, the Holy Spirit led us, and some of us were led with heels dragging, led us into the next truth, which now seems so obvious.
This is the point. One of the most startling things about Christianity for its earlier competitors was that its God did things, led people to new places, that their revelation grew. Their God was in motion. The ideal for the Greeks who followed Plato was that God sat perfectly still contemplating his own perfection-not much use for people seeking growth or change.
That idea that God is in motion throughout our life is why these babies are brought to baptism today, and we together thank God that their families want that for them. And I want to say directly to those young people being confirmed today that I know that Nativity has is second to none in having a well developed and challenging confirmation preparation. I say that sincerely, and wish more people put this kind of energy into preparation. You who are to be confirmed have had the best preparation for this day, and have come to this day because you are ready for it, because each of you decided it is something that you personally are ready to do. That gives me great joy and satisfaction; it is something to celebrate, and in Sayre Hall we will continue to celebrate it.
At the same time that I congratulate you on being informed and clear about what you are doing, I just want to plant the same seed that Jesus did: there is a great deal more to learn. The one that is guaranteed is that life still has many stretches and challenges and perhaps some pain ahead. Sometimes you may have to struggle to make sense out of things. Those are precisely the times when you want to get closer to God and be very attentive to where the Spirit may be leading you. The more you know, the more you can learn.
It is precisely at the moments where religion may seem boring or irrelevant that you may be God's instrument for leading the rest of us to something new. Boredom is not a cue that somebody should entertain you: boredom is a cue that your mind needs to do something. Use boredom or discomfort in school, marriage, job, religion, as a cue to listen hard to what the Holy Spirit may be saying not just to you about your job or marriage, but to all of us.
That can be a little unsettling, that thought of going to a new place. So there is a little prayer I wish I could find a place for in the liturgy. It is this: "Guard us from contempt for what is old and from fear of what is new." Honoring the old and welcoming the new is a spiritual discipline that works for marriage, job, religion and most of all, for your own life and God leads you through what you may not think you can bear to what you will come to treasure. God who has brought you this far will indeed stay with you for the rest of the journey.
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