From
all accounts, I believe that I can honestly say that our trip to
Driving in
All of our adults were invaluable. As I mentioned, Nita was our navigator and
was able to guide us to our destinations using their global positioning system
and a series of maps even when they were counter indicative. Karen Sorenson kept us on point with her
strict but loving “no dawdling policy” and Montese
Schider demonstrated the wisdom of that old adage,
“Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have
it!” I can’t possibly say
that she over-packed because I was the one borrowing all of her stuff.
But the real standouts on our trip were
the kids! You would have been so
proud of each and every one of them.
Taylor Sorenson, still recuperating from extensive surgery, walked for
miles without one complaint. Tanner
Sorenson tripped over himself helping all seven women with their baggage. Kora Brown made the
healthiest food choices of anyone on the trip and Krista Lau soaked up the
diversity of the
I believe that all of us gained a great
deal of insight from our experience.
The Imam at The Mosque Foundation met with us for 40 minutes before we
observed afternoon prayer service and provided us with a very informative power
point presentation about the Islamic Faith. I left with such admiration for people who are
so dedicated to their faith that they submit themselves to God in prayer six
times each day…literally from daylight to dark. At KAM Isaiah
And we ended our trip by attending
the 11:00 worship service at Trinity UCC on
At each place of worship we were
enthusiastically welcomed and encouraged to focus on what unites us rather
than what divides us. I truly believe
that so many of our problems in this world stem from ignorance as well as
arrogance. We seldom get the opportunity
to know others and so we tend to distrust them.
This trip was an important reminder to me that Muslims, Jews and
Christians share the same Abrahamic roots and that we
study many of the same Holy Scriptures.
But today is Trinity Sunday, and this is the perfect day to
recognize that we Christians are those who believe that we haven’t said
“God” until we’ve said “Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.” For all of the
similarities between Muslims, Jews and Christians this is where the
rubber meets the road. The Trinity is at
the very center of our particular claims about the God who has met us in
Jesus Christ. The Trinity is that which
makes clear that whoever we mean with the name God we’re not
talking about us. Yet most important for us this morning, the Trinity is that
which indicates the sort of lives we are called to live if we are to worship
the true and living God.
As
masterful interpreter of the Trinity,
David Cunningham puts it this way: In the Trinity, Christians attempt to
account for the complex biblical testimony that, “(1) God remained
all-powerful and transcendent, and yet (2) Jesus, who died and was raised by
God, was somehow also God; moreover, (3) the Spirit, poured out on the Church,
is also God, and yet (4) there is only one God.” God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our life
together is a play upon the world stage in which God is simultaneously the
author, the main actor, and the director. God writes the script, performs the
play, and directs the play, bringing in a host of other actors whom God prompts
to ensure the enactment of the drama
Or as Augustine writes, God is the
lover, the beloved, and the love. You
and I are created by the Trinity to be transcripts of the Trinity. God is
writing a message to the world upon us … God is speaking to the world through
our lives that are formed in the likeness of the Trinity. The Trinity stresses that God, and all
reality, is relational in nature.
The Trinity is complete …
mutual … self-giving love. Christians are called to define that slippery
word “love” through the Trinity. Too often, in our culture,
“I love you” can mean, “I love me and want to use you to love
me even more.” Too often, love is self-receiving rather than self-giving.
But because we have met a God who is complete, mutual, self-giving love, we
become more loving in our relationships with others. This is what we mean when
we say, “God is love.” We do not just “have”
relationships, relationship is who we are. One of the most critical things
that a church asks you to do is to be a Christian in community with people whom
you did not even know before you joined this church and people who, when you
get to know them, you may not particularly like! We really believe that there
is no way for you to grow in Christ when you are alone. You need relationships
with other Christians in order to grow in your faith in Christ. Christianity
can never be a solo experience because we are Trinitarian.
The Trinity is an affirmation that,
at the heart of God, at the center of God’s Creation, is relationship. In
fact, you’re here this morning because our relational God, the Trinity,
has drawn you toward itself. And this relational God living in you keeps
putting you in contact with others, keeps enabling others to get through to
you, and you to them. This God is always
reaching toward you … even when you’re not aware of it …
always speaking to you … even when you don’t listen … always
reaching for you in love.
We are not permitted, as Christians, by
our Trinitarian doctrine to refer to God as absolute transcendence, or even as
simply Jesus of Nazareth, or as some vague cosmic or inner
“spirit.” We must always
affirm these three are one. We can’t speak of “God” as one
without intending also to say these three. And we can only participate in who God is, as
God is. We must recognize that God is
not for hire to implement our fantasies or demands…that God is not an
undefined sort of energy or function in place somewhere waiting for us to show
up with the right technique or the correct password.
God is already active … enormously
and incessantly active … creating and saving … healing and blessing
… forgiving and judging. God was active in this way as Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit long before we showed up on the scene, and God has clearly made it
known that our participation is not only invited…it is required! God
does not delegate. God does not manage from an impersonal position. God is not
separated from us by ranks of angel-secretaries through whom we have to arrange
an audience. The more we understand God
as Trinity, the more we realize that we are welcomed as participants in
everything that God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is up to.
And what’s more, every act of
participation is unique – God has not enlisted us in a regimented
army marching in lockstep. We are immersed in particulars, not absorbed into
generalities. Each of us is called by
name to care for the least and the last and the lost…and more. Each of us is called by name to visit the
sick …to feed the hungry …to bring comfort to the
captives…and more. Each of us is
called by name to be the church…the Nekoosa United Church of
Christ…and more. In short, we are each
called to follow the great commandment… “to
love the Lord your God with all our
hearts, with all your souls, with all our mind, and with all your strength, and
to love your neighbor as yourself.”
That sounds like a tall order
doesn’t it? … and it is…but it can be done … it is possible
through the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
May we pray?
Lord God, come to us in all your delightful difference and complexity. Come
to us as Lover, Beloved, and the Loving. Come to us as Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Save us from our futile attempts to try to tame your immensity, to
worship you as less than you are. Enable us to grow up toward you rather than
to try to shrink you down to our limits. Come to us, we pray, so that we might
come to you as you are. Amen.
Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa