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Mamaroneck United Loving God and Neighbor...
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MUMC |
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Mamaroneck United Loving God and Neighbor... |
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Trinity Sunday Into the World’s Fire Philippians 2:1-13; Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Matthew 28:16-20 The Reverend Richard E. Allen, Jr.
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At first it seems strange where you see the logo of the New York Fire Department these days: on a the cap of a hiker in Yellowstone Park; on the t-shirt of a tourist waiting to get onto Old Ironsides in Boston harbor; in a market in Leon, Nicaragua. It shouldn’t be a surprise, I suppose. The defining image of this decade is thus far the flames and smoke of the twin towers in lower Manhattan, and their memory evokes the image of firefighters hurrying into those doomed building past the coughs of exiting office workers.
They are called “New York’s bravest” now, and perhaps that’s true. And not just in New York City. There is something a bit odd about rushing into a burning building, whether you are paid for it or you volunteer. Risking one’s life for the good of others can’t be compensated, so I suppose both professional firefighters and volunteers deserve both thanks and admiration.
Today the firefighters of the village of Mamaroneck gather to remember their dead. So I bring them to your attention partly for that reason. But the very act of risking your own life to save the lives and property of others, suggests something of the same kind of sacrifice that is at the core of faith and theology.
Risk is at the core of faith, I believe, because ultimately we have to invest our lives somewhere. And the Christian faith is, for us here at least, the place where we believe such a risk makes the most sense. We give our lives for something greater than ourselves, and commit to give heart and soul and mind and strength to love the God who touches our lives in various ways but who ultimately calls for complete trust. As in any loving relationship, only giving your heart completely ever makes any sense. But giving our hearts completely makes no sense, too. It’s too scary. So loving completely requires absolute trust in the other. Such total giving, such trusting giving, is our only hope, and it is a foolish hope. It’s a risk not unlike rushing into a burning building, though the trust needed is needed over a lifetime. Loving God is meant to be a slow, burn, I suppose, a lifetime of burning.
And risking one’s live is at the core of theology, too. At least the giving of a life is at the core of our common faith. Christianity in all its various shapes looks back to one pivotal event: the cross of Christ. And whether we carry a crucifix or we find ourselves honoring an empty cross, either way, the cross is at the center of our devotion.
Either way, the cross is quite crucial to our faith. Indeed, the very word, “crucial,” quite literally points to the Latin word for cross. For Christians the cross has been at the center of our faith since the time of Paul – and even before. And the epistle lesson I chose for today is one of the oldest statements of faith in Christ. I hope you noticed that it points to a God who, in Jesus, was also one of the world’s bravest. Not unlike a firefighter, Christ risked everything of his own for the sake of a world in figurative flames.
Listen again to these words from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, words that some scholars say are from an early Christian hymn that Paul is merely quoting. Beginning with verse 5: “Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave (or servant), being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8)
There you have it, some Christian scholars: the core of a faith that transformed history, impacting both those who made history and the rest of us who are merely shaped by it. But here is the thing. The life of Jesus the Christ so impressed the earliest followers of Jesus that these hesitant followers found themselves transformed. What seemed to impress them the most is this notion of God rushing, as it were, into a world aflame with its own destructive selfishness. It is not too much to compare Christ’s birth for us to the work of men and women running into a burning building rather than fleeing it.
The notion of God’s loving the world in this way was a new notion, even shocking. And scholars still shake their heads that his followers, all faithful, God-fearing Jews, could almost overnight come to see God in Christ – a notion that was unsettling to the Jewish notion of one God, and one God only. Every day Jesus and his disciples had prayed, as faithful Jews continue to pray: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is One.” (Deuteronomy 6:4) Those words on the little scroll in the mezuzah attached to the door of a Jewish home.
But though they prayed that prayer, too, the earliest followers of Jesus, still trying to be faithful Jews, yet saw in him something of all they had seen in God. Beginning to see in Christ Jesus “the form of God,” and praying to Christ, worshiping Christ was a crucial difference dividing first and second century Christians from their Jewish family and friends. (For more on how surprising was this early Christian transformation of Jewish monotheism, see Larry Hurtado’s How On Earth Did Jesus Become a God?)
I have labored to make that point for a reason, and that is this. Today is Trinity Sunday, and the beginning of our Christian notion of Trinity was born first with the notion of Jesus as Christ, one who was also and equally God.
But because it’s Trinity Sunday, let’s now drop back and remember that we celebrate not only Christ as Lord, but also God as creator. Or, to use my original image, if Christ is that person of our God who runs into the burning world, disregarding his own needs and safety, then God the creator is and was the builder of the house in the first place.
That’s why we listened to this long lesson from Genesis, of course. It is the story of how we came to live – and it’s the story of how we came to life, and not just humans, but all life, and the very planet, and even our very universe.
Just remember, though, that the creation story of the first chapter of Genesis is 2,500 years old. It is not science, nor was it ever written as a scientific purpose. It is poetry and theology, meant to tell us a different kind of truth. Genesis 1 reminds us that we are not our own, but God’s. We did not make ourselves, God made us. And we are part of a holy, good place, meant to live in harmony with our surroundings – and meant to worship our creator.
And, because it is Trinity Sunday, let’s remember as well the spirit of God, hovering like a wind over the face of creation’s waters. If God is the creator of this worldly home of ours, and Christ is the servant who risks all for our sakes on the cross, then the Spirit is the laughter and the joy without which any house is merely a home. God’s spirit makes us alive to all that is good and holy in our world. God’s spirit reminds us that we are brothers and sisters with each other. And God’s spirit calls us to follow the example of Christ, who “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…” (Philippians 2:7)
I suppose every Christian’s calling is not unlike that of every good firefighter. We are to follow the example of Christ, who risked all for us and for our world. We are to become, like Christ, servants of others for the sake of God, who loves the world without reserve. And, in doing so, we will remember who and whose we are. Forgetting that we are not God is not only a mistake, but a sin. Rabbi Abraham Heschel speaks to us all in two of his very memorable sentences: “Humanity’s sin is our failure to live what we are. Being the masters of the earth, humanity forgets that we are servants of God.” (I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology, edited By Samuel H. Dresner. I have made his language more inclusive, but kept his thought.)
Today we celebrate God who is God, as Creator, Redeemer, and Spirit. In service to others, may we live our beliefs so that others will see God’s love reflected in us. And in humble adoration, will you stand with me as we affirm our belief in this one God, whom we know in three persons.
Amen.
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