Rise Up

Sermon for the First Sunday after Pentecost

June 7, 2020

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church

The Rev. Canon Michael J. Horvath

Gospel: Matthew 28: 16-20

A few years ago, the Church of England took a survey of its clergy on various topics.  Regarding the topic of preaching, I’d like to share with you some words by the survey’s author, the Rev Dr. Stephen Dawes, in his report to the committee. He said this, “It won’t surprise you that today, Trinity Sunday, is, statistically, the day most preferred by preachers for a Sunday off. Perhaps it’s because they are confused by the esoteric mathematics of three in one and one in three? Perhaps it’s because they have used the famous Irish flora illustration - the three in one of the shamrock leaf – and can’t find another one? Perhaps it’s because they know that the Doctrine of the Trinity has created more heretics, more schisms and more martyrs than any other doctrine and don’t want to take the risk? Perhaps it’s because they like to preach about the Bible, and find that the Bible has very little to say on the topic of the Trinity? Or perhaps it’s because they just don’t want to add to the levels of confusion about, boredom with or incomprehension of [the Trinity] that are already dangerously high?” End of quote.   

The more I preach on Trinity Sunday, the less I preach on the doctrine of the Trinity.  After the many years of listening or pretending to listen to preachers preach about this doctrine, do you feel that you know any more about it?  And has that understanding given you a better understanding of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit?  I’d venture to guess, probably not.  I also think that the mental gymnastics we have been performing around this doctrine hasn’t served to bring God closer into our lives and leaves God as something to be studied, rather than experienced.  

Don’t get me wrong, I love thinking about God and all that God is and means in a world where God is increasingly sidelined for the idols that are readily available to us.  And we need to continue to reassess and find new ways of understanding God as we age or else we will only ever have a child’s Sunday School understanding of God, and that’s not going to get you very far unless you only have a child’s Sunday School understanding of the world and human nature.  I think being curious about God and our relationship with God, is necessary, but we also need to experience God.  

You see, simply thinking about God will always create a relationship where God is out there, separate from us.  But the divine mystery is that we are able to experience God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – directly, through being filled by the presence of all three every day, at every moment. There is no duality that separates us from God.  

Think about those you love in your life – spouses, children, friends.  I suspect that for many of you, when you think about the most meaningful experiences with them, you’re not breaking it down into doctrinal data.  It’s not about the “what” of them that makes a loving experience, it’s their presence, their entire being that creates this mystery of love.   When you are truly present to one another, it just feels good, feels right, and the experience is one that is not overthought or stiff or formalized. That’s what true love feels like.  We “feel” love, we don’t “think” love.  Here’s the unlocking of the divine mystery for you – that’s also when we are truly present to God.  Love fills us when we are truly present to God, we don’t need to analyze it.  We don’t need to look at presentations of the Trinity, in which various examples have been used to explain what it means  - I even heard one preacher use a yo-yo to explain the Trinity – God’s love is and God’s love is us.  We are made in God’s image – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and we are called to live into the fullness of what that mystery is. 

I won’t go as far as petitioning the greater Church to remove Trinity Sunday as an overly wrought, overthought doctrinal party, but let’s not use the doctrine as a barrier to what is truly important.  

We’re really good at spouting about the “hows” and “whys” in order to avoid the ultimate truth about something.  How many times have you had a conversation where you danced around something that really needed to be talked about for fear of actually making a connection and having a meaningful dialogue around it.  You end up saying lots of words and eventually say nothing at all.  At its most insidious, it’s called avoidance.

The many protests that have erupted around the world after the death of George Floyd and in support of justice and equality for black lives has been one of these topics.  For many years, article upon article have been written trying to explain why we are in the state we are in when it comes to race and racial injustice in America.  And we need to understand that history, we need to know what role was played by people and systems that have kept down African-Americans at all levels of our society.  But we also need to say out loud why we are having these conversations – namely, that African-Americans are being killed at an alarming rate; that their blackness makes them walking targets for undue force, subjugation and increased marginalization.  Don't forget that.  Don’t let the statistics, the numbers, the pundits, etc. let you forget that.  Our world is crying out because people of the same flesh and blood as you and me are dying for no reason other than their blackness.  And how does the Trinity speak to that?

It was encouraging to see a Black Lives Matter march here in Bristol yesterday, in which many young people took part. One of the smokescreens that folks, usually white people, like to throw up when it comes to Black Lives Matter protests and marches is that the violence and anger is diluting the message.  “The purpose is being lost in the violence,” they like to say.  This talk about peaceful riots, looting, curfew restrictions reminds me of the mental gymnastics we perform around the doctrine of the Trinity.  Cries that “the message is being lost in the violence” just doesn’t ring true to me.  Now, I don’t condone or support violence in any manner, but this argument is a line of avoidance so that we don’t have to actually talk about the heart of the matter. 

I think there is always the risk of folks misappropriating a bad situation for their benefit. But I also think that some of the protesters causing violence and destruction are doing so from the same source of pain as those who are "peacefully" protesting. I try to put myself in their place and wonder what kind of anger I might hold if, not only me, but my entire race was deemed to be second-class, even third class, citizens? I wonder how I might react when I pass by stores in which black people are regularly racially profiled as a group likely to steal and where they would be followed by store employees like hawks? I wonder what anger I would feel looking at the glass fronts of buildings housing billion-dollar corporations where none or only a handful of its executives are African-American? If we're talking Fortune 500 companies, how angry would I be knowing that only 4 of those companies are headed by an African-American? 4 out of 500. How angry would I be as an African-American if I knew that police forces kill black people at a higher rate per capita than white people. Anger, I would argue, fills the heart of many of those we want to label "rogue" protesters and I think that anger is well founded, to be honest. The purpose of these protests is not lost, as this is not based simply on a few racial injustices that happened over the last 2 or 3 years, but repeated injustices over 400+ years. Believe me, African-Americans will never let that purpose be lost.  Indeed, they will always strive to find ways for the love of God to be present in their lives.  Because love, or more specifically the denial of love for black Americans, is the unspoken heart of the matter, isn’t it? A matter we need to come to terms with. 

God, in all of God’s forms, is calling out to be heard in this time, through anyone who is raising their voice or fist in protest.  The love of God is always seeking to rise to the surface and it may not look like your Sunday School understanding of love, because the world is too complicated, our lives are too bound together, for an understanding that simple.  And just like the Holy Trinity, love is not a concept to be explained, data to be analyzed, or a problem to be solved. It is a life to be lived, a state of being to be shared, and a beauty to be revealed. Live the life, share the love, reveal the beauty – that, my friends, is the true trinitarian understanding of God. 

Amen.