Closer Than Ever

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD

June 15, 2025

Year C: The First Sunday after Pentecost – Trinity Sunday

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Psalm 8

Romans 5:1-5

John 16:12-15

Closer Than Ever 

Well, last Sunday we had a Pentecost celebration that I doubt any of us who were here will ever forget.

So, let’s see, where to begin?

        Bishop Carrie made her first official visit with us, confirming six of our young people at the 10:00 service.

        It was Rev. Amelia’s first Sunday as a priest, and Bishop Carrie very graciously invited her to give the blessing at the 8:00 service and preside at the altar at 10:00. 

        Celebrating your first Eucharist with the bishop beside you! No pressure!

        And then there was the choir. 

        Just when I think they can’t outdo themselves, they outdo themselves. They sounded absolutely amazing. And Nick Corasiniti’s trumpet-playing on Sweet, Sweet Spirit was the sweet Spirit-filled icing on the Pentecost cake.

        Oh, and yes, there was literal cake during fellowship - two of them, actually!

        And lots of people were here, with many of you remembering to wear red.

        Thanks to the faithfulness, talent, generosity, and hard work of many, it really was an extraordinary celebration.

        And now today, as we do every year on the First Sunday after Pentecost, we are invited to reflect on the inner life of God.

        Today we’re invited to reflect on our understanding of God the Holy Trinity - One in Three Persons – Unity in Diversity.

        Now, the great temptation for anyone tasked with preaching today is to try to somehow explain the Trinity. Just how is it possible for God to be both One and Three?

        Fortunately, I’m not going to fall for that temptation.

        Because the Trinity is not a puzzle to be worked over and solved.

        No, the Trinity is a mystery to be pondered and celebrated.

        So, rather than offer some half-baked explanation, here’s what I will say:

        Our understanding of God the Holy Trinity reveals to us that God is a Community of Love.

        This is what God is.

        God is a Community of Love – the perfect Community of Love – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – the perfect Community of Love – Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.

        And I assume that God the Community of Love could have gone it alone forever and ever – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – a perfect circle of love for all eternity.

        But, you know, the thing about love is that it’s not really love unless it’s shared. 

        Love must be shared. 

        Maybe even for God, love must be shared.

        And so, God the Perfect Community of Love creates all of us.

        And, most amazing of all, God invites all of us to join the party, invites all of us to be part of the holy and eternal Community of Love.

        And yes, you guessed it, it’s in the water of baptism that we Christians begin to accept God’s invitation to be part of the Community of Love.

        And, with God’s help, we go right on accepting God’s invitation when we keep our baptismal promises – when we keep gathering here to pray and to sing and to serve. 

        We go right on accepting God’s invitation, when we ask forgiveness for our sins, and offer forgiveness when we’ve been wronged.

        With God’s help, we go right on accepting God’s invitation when we share the joy we experience here, last week, today, next week. 

        We go right on accepting God’s invitation when we try to see Jesus in every person we meet, even the people we don’t like at all, and when we work for peace among all people, even the people we don’t trust one bit.

        And when we try to do these things, with God’s help, we move ever deeper into the Community of Love, ever closer to God.

        Now, even if you are only vaguely aware of the news, you know that it seems that our country and much of the world is moving in the opposite direction, moving away from the Community of Love, away from God.

        Hatred and violence are on the rise.

        With so many wars and threats of war, countries are spending even more precious resources on weapons, taking food out of hungry stomachs, fighting over scraps on our degraded and depleted planet.

        But it’s not so among us.

        Here, we accept God’s invitation to the Community of Love by welcoming absolutely everybody, by caring for children who are not our own and yet are our own.

        Here, we accept God’s invitation to the Community of Love by creating and, just this morning, blessing a new home for people who have traveled far from their war-ravaged land, desperately seeking refuge and peace.

        We’re not perfect, of course, but here at St. Thomas’, we accept God’s invitation to the Community of Love.

        Together, we are moving in the right direction, journeying ever deeper into the Community of Love, closer than ever to God.

        Yes, because love must be shared, God the Perfect Community of Love creates all of us – invites all of us to join the party, invites all of us – all of us - to be part of this holy and eternal Community of Love.

        And one last thing:

        In the Community of Love, the living and the dead are spiritually united.

        I have been here with you for just about four years now, which is a little hard to believe.

        And in that time, several parishioners I’ve been especially close with have died.

        And yet, because we are part of God’s holy and eternal Community of Love, and because their prayers still bathe these old walls, I can still feel Jim Piper and Donna Gribble and I can still feel Beaumont and Sandy Martin here with us – so much so, in fact, that occasionally I catch myself forgetting that they have died.

        I’m sure you’ve had that experience with people you’ve loved.

        Someone else who, to me, doesn’t feel dead at all, is my friend and mentor Dave Hamilton.

        I’ve mentioned him to you many times now. He was the priest who welcomed us to our church in Jersey City.

        His outstretched hand changed Sue’s and my life forever. 

        It was through Dave’s friendship and example that God invited me to a very different kind of life, beginning a journey that led to ordination, a journey that eventually led Sue and me here.

        Dave lived long enough to know about St. Thomas’ and some of what was happening here – and he loved hearing about it all.

        He was so happy and proud that I had landed in such a great church.

        One thing that he didn’t know, however, is that someone he had baptized would become a parishioner – a very active parishioner – here at St. Thomas’.

        Leslie Steele was baptized by my friend Dave Hamilton.

        I’ve known that for a while now – but it still kind of blows my mind.

        And now this morning, I’ll have the great joy of baptizing Leslie and Mark’s son Brendan, who has also become a much-loved member of our community.

        With all of us gathered around him, Brendan will accept God’s invitation to the Community of Love.

        And so today on Trinity Sunday, watched over by a great cloud of witnesses, Brendan and all of us here will accept the most holy invitation.

        Together, we will journey ever deeper into the Community of Love.

        Closer than ever to one another.

        Closer than ever to God.

        Amen.

The God Who Does Not Fall Apart

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD

May 26, 2024

Year B: The First Sunday after Pentecost – Trinity Sunday

Isaiah 6:1-8

Psalm 29

Romans 8:12-17

John 3:1-17

The God Who Does Not Fall Apart

I’ve mentioned to you before that I’ve always been a pretty avid reader – a fact that I’ve been reminded of each time we’ve moved.

All those heavy boxes of books!

Although I read a lot, I’ve very rarely reread a book, even books that I love.

Sometimes I consider revisiting an old favorite, but then I always think of all the books that I want to read but haven’t gotten to, yet – and how there’s only so much time to read.

Actually…there’s only so much time. Period.

But one of the very few books that I have reread, several times, in fact, is the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

Have any of you read it?

Things Fall Apart is set in the late 19th Century, among the Igbo people in what is today Nigeria.

The novel begins by giving us a glimpse into everyday life in an Igbo village, where people’s lives were shaped by the seemingly timeless rhythms of sowing and reaping, births and deaths, war and peace.

This way of life is upended by the arrival of the British, who gradually but steadily introduce and impose their rules, their culture, and, yes, their religion.

A way of life that had once seemed to be as permanent as the sunrise and sunset, turns out to be quite fragile and fleeting.

        For some, this change will be beneficial (like every culture, the Igbo had their injustices and cruelties), while for others it will be devastating, catastrophic.

Things fall apart.

Each time I’ve revisited this book, I’ve gotten something else, something more, from it, probably because each time I’ve brought more years behind me, more and different life experiences, more losses – a deeper and sobering awareness that things do indeed fall apart.

I suppose that this is always true but right now it certainly feels like we are in a falling apart time, doesn’t it?

The horrific wars in Ukraine and Gaza and in smoldering hot spots all around the world, threaten to spark even wider and more destructive conflicts.

In our country, institutions and norms that once at least seemed rock solid are now looking wobbly, fragile, easily manipulated and broken. 

And once things get broken, we all know that it’s hard to put them back together again.

And in our own lives, some of us are facing illness or a rupture in our families. Some are worrying over the loss of a job. And some of us continue to grieve the death of one we love.

And some of us are preparing as best we can for change: transition, retirement, getting ready for kids leaving the nest or for a move halfway across the country, to start over yet again, to become part of a new community.

Things fall apart.

And since things do fall apart, it’s important that we focus on what is forever.

It’s essential that we hold onto the One who is forever.

Today is the First Sunday after Pentecost – Trinity Sunday.

It’s the one day of the year when we are specifically invited and encouraged to reflect on the inner life of God – God who is One in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Trinity is difficult to grasp, of course, and lots of people have wasted much ink and expended plenty of hot air trying to “explain” it.

In fact, in Things Fall Apart, one character describes the Trinity as “madness.”

But the Trinity is not madness.

And the Trinity is not a puzzle to solve.

No, the Trinity is a mystery to ponder and to celebrate.

And whenever I reflect on the Trinity, I’m awestruck by the idea that God is in fact community. 

        Somehow, this is what God is: a Perfect Community of Love.

        And, as if that weren’t mind-blowing enough, we – you and I – all of us – are invited to be part of this Perfect Community of Love.

        Some early theologians described the Trinity as a dance – and you and I – don’t worry, it doesn’t matter whether we can dance or not - we are all invited to join in.

        In today’s gospel lesson we heard the familiar words of John 3:16, reminding us that God loves the world – loves the world enough to send the Second Person of the Trinity, to send the Son, to live among us, to save us.

        God loves our falling apart world.

        God loves each of us.

        And so, Isaiah with his unclean lips, he’s invited to join the dance.

        And well-educated Nicodemus who wasn’t quite ready to fully commit to Jesus, who came to Jesus under the cover of dark, not really understanding or not ready to accept the new life offered by Jesus, he’s invited to the party, too.

        And all of us, no matter how many years there are behind us or how much time is ahead of us, no matter our political leanings, no matter how much or how little money we’ve got socked away, no matter how many mistakes we’ve made, no matter how much of our lives has fallen apart, all of us are invited by the God Who is a Perfect Community of Love, to dance with God forever.

        And that dance doesn’t begin in heaven.

        No, that dance begins now.

        And what might that choreography look like?

        Well, as some of you know, our much-loved parishioners Bob and Carla Kenyon are preparing to make a big move to Kansas.

        I’m happy for them, I guess, but I sure am sad for us.

        It’s bittersweet, for sure, but I’m trying to focus on the sweet part.

        And I don’t know what went on before, but during their years at St. Thomas’, Bob and Carla have certainly accepted God’s invitation to the dance:

        Sharing with us their musical gifts.

        Caring for the environment and urging us to do likewise.

        Pushing us to adapt more modern technology, new ways to stay connected, new ways to share the Good News.

        Welcoming new friends from a faraway land, inviting them over to the house, even driving one of them back and forth to work for many months.

        Walking past the handful of headstones outside the churchyard wall and wondering, and asking, who are these people and why are they here?

        Yes, during their time here with us, Bob and Carla have accepted God’s invitation to the dance.

         And I have no doubt that they will go right on dancing – and singing - with God in the highlands of Kansas.

        So, I’m sorry to say that things fall apart, and they will go right on falling apart.

        So, we have to keep rereading and retelling the story of God and us.

        And it is essential that we hold on to God the Holy Trinity, God Who is a Perfect Community of Love.

        Let’s keep on dancing with the God who will never let go of us, the God who does not fall apart.

        Amen.

The Parable of the Pollinator Garden

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD

June 4, 2023

Year A: The First Sunday after Pentecost – Trinity Sunday

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Psalm 8

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Matthew 28:16-20

The Parable of the Pollinator Garden

In case you were wondering, now almost two years into my Maryland adventure, I’m still in awe that I get to work and live in such a beautiful place.

Many of you know that the rectory sits in what’s like our own personal park, filled with so many green plants and trees.

And there’s a trickling stream and there are birds circling overhead and a variety of woodland creatures bounding all over the place.

It’s pretty amazing.

A couple of weeks ago, here at St. Thomas’, we celebrated Rogation Sunday, giving thanks to God for the abundant and very good creation, and we asked God to help us be better stewards of all that we have received.

On Rogation Sunday, the Green Team led some walking tours of our campus, making their way through the “New Cemetery” and along the quiet nature trail and then back around past the playgrounds and to the parking lot.

It was fun watching parishioners look in wonder at the beauty that’s all around us – seeing some of it for the first time, or maybe for the first time in a long time.

Right in the heart of it all is our Pollinator Garden, just across the driveway in the circle outside the church offices.

I see and think about the Pollinator Garden all the time since it’s where I park my car during the week.

I have what must be the prettiest parking spot in town.

When I began reflecting on what I might share with you today, I kept thinking of our beautiful garden. So, finally, I called our Green Team co-chair, Donna Eden, and asked her to tell me about how the Pollinator Garden came to be.

She told me that a few years ago, several parishioners participated in a program sponsored by Blue Water Baltimore, learning how what we do up here in the County effects water quality downstream, in the City and in the Harbor.

St. Thomas’ became much more aware of water runoff and you began to look for ways to take even better care of our water and our land.

And so, the Pollinator Garden – back in May 2020, on a rainy day during some of the worst of the pandemic – several parishioners – masked and distanced – planted the garden – they nourished it and it took root and grew. 

And by the time I arrived here almost two years ago, it was beautiful and thriving, providing lots of good food for bees and butterflies.

But it was fenced in, preventing us from walking through and fully appreciating all of that beauty.

And so we took down the fence – and, well, you know what happened next.

The deer – starved of habitat and without natural predators – the deer moved right in and treated our garden like an all-you-can-eat salad bar, leaving behind a depressing scene of devastation.

Not wanting that to happen again, few months ago a parishioner generously volunteered to spray deer repellant on the garden several times a week.

        (Don't worry, there are plenty of other plants for the deer to eat!)

        And, later, others did some serious replanting – and, well, the results have been just amazing.

Some dedicated, talented, and persistent people – Frances, Donna, John, and others - took the good gifts that God has given us and nurtured them, creating the conditions that have allowed those plants to thrive.

I think of this as… the Parable of the Pollinator Garden.

Today is the First Sunday after Pentecost – Trinity Sunday.

It’s the day when we are invited to reflect on and celebrate God’s inner life – our understanding that God is One in Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.

Over the centuries, lots of ink has been spilled and lots of hot air has been expended in trying to explain the Trinity.

That is a fool’s errand.

The Trinity is not a puzzle to be solved but a mystery to be celebrated – a mystery that reveals to us that God’s very essence is community.

God is a Community of Love – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bound by love, forever and ever.

And, presumably, this God who is a Community of Love could have gone it alone, perfectly sufficient, forever and ever.

But, instead, God creates all that is – and, in a truly mind-blowing plot twist - God invites us to be part of this eternal Community of Love.

God widens the Holy Circle, welcoming us, and giving us the good – very good creation – that provides all that we need.

And since we are kind of slow to grasp this amazing truth, God came among us in and through Jesus – showing us what God the Community of Love is really like – and then sending us out to invite even more people into the Holy Circle – where all are welcome – where all are able to lay down their burdens – where all are nurtured – where healing and new life are offered – where, no matter the devastation we have endured or perhaps even caused, we can all thrive.

You may remember that a couple of months ago the Rev. Caroline Stewart gathered a group of parishioners to reflect on how we experience and respond to loss and grief.

We offered this group – which we called “We Gather Together” – because several parishioners had specifically asked for it.

And, if we’re honest, we know that all of us who’ve been around for a while have faced the devastation of loss and grief – and we all need help to keep going in the face of such sorrow.

In her usual Caroline Stewart way, we began gently and quietly and thoughtfully, creating a safe space – a community of love – a holy circle - where people could express some hard and painful truths, and lay down, even for just a short time, some heavy burdens.

I knew that “We Gather Together” was going to be rich and valuable but what I didn’t expect was that, really within our first hour together, a community began to form – a community made up of some people who had known each other for a long time and others who had never met.

With God’s help, like good gardeners, Caroline and we had created the conditions that allowed this little community of love to rise from the devastation and grow and thrive, feeding all of us.

And I see that same dynamic happening all over at St. Thomas’ – in the adult Bible Study, at our Wednesday service and Bible Study, at the Thursday Morning Group, among our fabulous choir, among the children and parents hanging out together during fellowship – over and over, God who is a Community of Love is widening the holy circle, inviting us to help widen it even more, welcoming everyone to the place where healing and new life are offered – where, no matter sorrows and burdens, we can all thrive.

The Parable of the Pollinator Garden.

Amen.

Mutual Joy

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD

June 12, 2022

Year C: The First Sunday after Pentecost – Trinity Sunday

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Psalm 8

Romans 5:1-5

John 16:12-15

Mutual Joy

Now, I don’t want to make anyone feel bad, but if you were not here at St. Thomas’ last Sunday, well, you missed something pretty special.

We celebrated Pentecost – we celebrated the gift of the Holy Spirit – with so much joy.

All three of our services were Spirit-filled – so many Alleluias - but the 10:00 service was something else.

It was wonderful to look out in the pews to see so many of you dressed in red – or at least wearing red accents – and to see the choir with their sharp red scarves – and to see the acolytes wearing red cinctures, the cord that we wrap around our robes.

The choir sang nothing but Holy Spirit music.

And then there was the Baptism.

Everything had gone very well during our Saturday morning rehearsal, but when it came time for the baptism itself, two year-old Marcelo had some… very vocal second thoughts.

I’m sure he was a bit overexcited, surrounded by his loving family who filled the first four pews.

And, it pains me to say that he was probably scared of me - wearing both a mask and a bright red outfit, who poured water over his head, anointed him with oil, and then held a candle before him, telling him that he is the light of the world.

At the rehearsal, Marcelo’s parents had expressed some concern about how it would go – two year-olds, you know – but I told them that, just like at a wedding, at a baptism you are surrounded by people who love you so much, so no matter what happens you just can’t go wrong.

And, sure enough there was great joy, even amidst the screaming.

And, I’m happy to report that after the service, Marcelo and I shook hands and parted as friends.

It was an amazing Pentecost.

But there was more – after the service, about fifty of us gathered outside for a delicious lunch – and, yes, there was even an ice cream truck!

I mean, come on, right?

So much love, so much joy.

I feel like I really know what Paul meant when he wrote to the church in Rome, “…hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

Well, after such a big day last week, you might think that things would now kind of settle down around here.

But, you would be wrong!

Yesterday, I had the great honor of officiating at my first wedding at St. Thomas’ – it was actually my first wedding since before the start of the pandemic.

Frances Wells, who grew up in this church, and Braxton DeCamp made some big promises to each other at the altar, and all of us who were here promised to support them in their married life.

I really enjoyed preparing Frances and Braxton for their wedding and for marriage – just as I’ve enjoyed working with Katherine Moriarty and Conor Barr, who will be married here next Saturday.

Just like with every soon to be married couple, we spent time looking at the words of the service, and discussing what they teach about the meaning of marriage.

You may remember that, near the start of the service, the Prayer Book lists the purposes of marriage, and at the very top of that list is this:

“The union…in heart, body, and mind is intended by God for their mutual joy.”

Mutual joy.

The list continues with helping and comforting each other, and the possibility of raising children, but I always remind couples that number one on the list is “mutual joy” – imperfect as we all are, that is what married people are meant to offer each other.

But, actually, mutual joy is not just for married people. 

All of us are made for mutual joy.

Today is the First Sunday after Pentecost – Trinity Sunday - the day when the Church invites us to reflect on God’s inner life – our mind-blowing belief that God is One in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Since the Trinity takes us way beyond the limits of our comprehension, trying to explain it is a big mistake, and even talking about it is notoriously difficult.

All I know is this: the Trinity reveals that God’s very essence is community.

God is a community of love.

And the three members of that community offer each other mutual joy.

And, you know, that community of love – that mutual joy - would have been enough for God.

The One God in Three Persons could have gone on forever and ever, perfect and completely content, in a kind of eternal and divine dance, as some early theologians imagined.

But, instead, and even more mind-blowing than the Trinity itself, God invites us to be part of the community of love.

All of us are made for mutual joy.

Throughout history, our One-in-Three God has invited us to be part of the community of love, sending the prophets to call us back to faithfulness, to demand that we beat our swords into plowshares, to offer a vision of the day when we will all gather together on the holy mountain, beloved siblings at last.

Our One-in-Three God has invited us to experience mutual joy, most of all by coming among us in and through Jesus of Nazareth, who offers the joy of forgiveness, the joy of healing, the joy of welcoming absolutely everybody, the joy of knowing that not even death can separate us from God’s love.

And, throughout our lives, our One-in-Three God offers us signs of the community of love – tastes of mutual joy – so we can know that this – this – is what we are made for.

Falling in love, the look of wonder in a child’s eyes, the bond of a lifelong friendship, simply holding the hand of another, sharing good food and drink, coming together here at St. Thomas’, with all of our different backgrounds and various ideas – joining together, imperfectly, yes, but united as a community of love.

Our One-in-Three God is a community of love, who has made us for mutual joy, inviting us to be part of the community of love.

Unfortunately, with all of the woes of the world and the challenges in our own lives, it’s so easy to forget this great truth.

So, I’m going to try to remember Frances and Braxton, and Katherine and Conor, making some big promises, surrounded by so much love.

And I’m going to remember Marcelo, who was frightened and overwhelmed and screaming – and, especially these days, we all know that feels like – and yet the truth is that he was surrounded by so much love.

And I’m going to remember our Pentecost ice cream truck.

We are made for mutual joy.

Amen.

A Simple Song

The Church St. Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ

May 30, 2021

Year B: The First Sunday after Pentecost – Trinity Sunday

Isaiah 6:1-8

Psalm 29

Romans 8:12-17

John 3:1-17

A Simple Song 

“Sing God a simple song.

Make it up as you go along.

Sing like you like to sing.

God loves all simple things.

For God is the simplest of all.”

“A Simple Song” from Leonard Bernstein’s Mass is one of my favorite pieces of music. Some of you who have been around here for a while and pay close attention to such things may remember that Dennis Doran sang it for us at my service of institution as your rector nearly eight years ago.

The other day I was taking one of my famous morning walks in Lincoln Park when it occurred to me that I would like to include “A Simple Song” at this morning’s service, on my last Sunday as your rector.

Later that morning, I texted Gail that I was thinking of somehow working “A Simple Song” into my sermon and she immediately texted back, “I thought so.”

Which really tells you all you need to know about how we have worked together all these years.

“Sing God a simple song.

Make it up as you go along.

Sing like you like to sing.

God loves all simple things.

For God is the simplest of all.”

Now, saying that “God is the simplest of all” may seem to be an especially strange choice today, on the First Sunday after Pentecost – Trinity Sunday – the one day of the year when the church specifically invites us to reflect on the inner life of God.

We Christians hold the mind-blowing belief that God is one, but God is also three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.

The Trinity is a great mystery – and, as you may have noticed, we humans really like to solve mysteries, and so over the centuries lots of ink has been spilled, lots of hot air has been spread, all in an effort to somehow “explain” this great mystery.

But, explaining the mystery of the Trinity is a fool’s errand, because the Trinity is not a mystery to be solved.

No, the Trinity is a mystery to be celebrated.

So, that’s what we’re going to do today.

We’re celebrating the mind-blowing reality the Trinity – the great and wonderful truth that the very essence of God – God’s very Being – is a perfect community of love.

God – the heart of all creation – the ground of all that is – God is a perfect community of love.

God is the simplest of all.

And, presumably, the Trinity, the perfect community of love, could have spent all of eternity alone - fulfilled, and content, forever and ever. Amen.

But, that’s not what happened.

That’s not what happens.

In a twist maybe even more mind-blowing than the Trinity itself, God not only chooses to create all of this, God not only chooses to create all of us, but God actually invites us you and me –God invites all of us to be part of the community of love.

We’re all invited to be part of God’s community of love – all of us, including Isaiah who felt unworthy because he had unclean lips, just like everybody else, just like all of us.

We’re all invited to be part of God’s community of love – all of us, including Nicodemus who knew enough to recognize that Jesus was a teacher sent by God but, just like us, he just couldn’t quite grasp all of Jesus’ teaching, at least not yet.

Down through the ages, God has invited us to be part of God’s community of love – inviting us in all sorts of ways – by giving us the beauty of creation – by giving us consciences to know right from wrong – by giving us commandments that spell out how we are to live – by giving us the prophets who call us back to faithfulness – and, most of all, by giving us Jesus who commands us to love one another as he has loved us.

Simple, yes, but not so easy – and impossible if we try to do it alone, impossible without God’s help.

Sing God a simple song – a simple song of love.

It’s a song we sing together.

Now, as a glass half-empty kind of person, coming to the end of my time as your rector has meant, among other things, thinking of what I’m leaving undone.

One piece of unfinished business is the mission statement of our unified congregation.

A while back, the wardens, vestry, and I began to work on that, but lots of other tasks - including the stress of trying to keep the church going during a global pandemic - pushed our mission statement – and a lot of other items – to the back burner.

Some of you have heard me say before that I like to think of the church’s mission as one big feeding ministry. We are called to feed people in all sorts of ways. We feed people through what we do here – feeding people with the Word of God and our fellowship and, most of all through the Body and Blood of Christ.

We feed people by literally feeding them – by giving them good food to fill their bellies – and we feed people spiritually through music and art.

And we feed people by taking a stand for what is right, by speaking up for people who are being crushed by our often rotten system, by caring for everyone, especially the people who can never repay us, or even thank us.

Yes, we are a church that feeds people – and I know that this feeding, and more, will continue long after I’m gone.

So, I definitely like the image of a feeding church, but – and I know this is really last minute - I’m going to throw another idea into the mix – maybe our mission is to sing God a simple song.

When I think back over our eight years together, at our best, that’s what we’ve been doing.

We have been singing God a simple song, and, yes, very often making it up as we go along.

We sang God a simple song when we opened our doors during the week, welcoming just a few faithful people to do the church’s work of prayer, and for many months we’ve been singing a simple song when many more of us call in to Church By Phone, praying for all those people on our prayer list, listening out for each other, noticing when someone’s been missing.

We sing God a simple song when we reach out to the people we know are suffering – the sick and the lonely and the mournful - calling them, or sending cards and notes. 

We sing God a simple song when we give our best - to singing in the choir, reading the lessons and prayers, serving as an acolyte, polishing the silver and ironing the linens, attending seemingly endless meetings, by really sacrificing some of our time, talent, and treasure for the good of the community. 

Speaking of time – maybe our most precious commodity – we sing God a simple song just by showing up – by showing up at church even when we don’t feel like it, by showing up at parish events that maybe don’t interest us very much but we know that our presence and support will mean a lot to others.

And, most of all, we sing God a simple song when, like Isaiah, we say, “Here am I; Send me!” - when we go into the world and extend the invitation to God’s community of love – when we welcome people into God’s community of love, making room for anybody who shows up, the people we like the looks of and, yes, the people we’re really not so sure about.

Sing God a simple song – a simple song of love.

It’s a song we sing together.

Today, as my time of singing with you comes to an end, I’m reminded of an image that my friend and mentor Lauren Ackland gave me, an image I’ve thought about and talked about many times over the years.

The old walls of this building have been bathed in prayer and song, and, in some mysterious but very real way, those prayers and songs remain here – and the people who’ve prayed and sang them remain forever part of this place.

So, I trust that my prayers – my simple song – will remain, too.

And, I know that the people of St. Paul and Incarnation, with a new leader, will go on bathing these walls in prayer and song.

You’ll go on singing God a simple song, accepting and sharing God’s mind-blowing invitation to the community of love.

Amen.

God's Open Invitation

The Church of St. Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ

June 7, 2020

Year A: The First Sunday after Pentecost – Trinity Sunday

Genesis 1:1-2; 4a

Psalm 8

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Matthew 28:16-20

God’s Open Invitation

            Well, it’s been quite a week, hasn’t it?

            I don’t know about you, but I feel both exhausted and energized, kind of like when you drink too much coffee to make up for a lack of sleep.

            It’s hard to know where to begin so, if you don’t mind, I’d like to back up to last Sunday.

            It was Pentecost, of course, one of the biggest days of the church year and always a special day for us here, with Dee Dee waving the butterfly at the head of the procession, with a church full of people looking so sharp in their red outfits.

            And, let’s not forget all the great Holy Spirit music led by Gail and the choir.

            We often have a baptism or two – and one time we even had a wedding on Pentecost afternoon!

            And, of course, we always top off the day with our parish picnic. Even when it rains, we always manage to have a good time.

            This year, as you know, was very different.

            Sue and I did our best here but we were really feeling your absence, even more than usual.

            In the afternoon we tried to make up for not having the picnic by getting together on Zoom. While it was good to see your faces, many we haven’t seen in months, and we certainly had a wonderful conversation, it just wasn’t the same – and not just because there were no cheeseburgers!

            In my Pentecost sermon, I talked about how the Holy Spirit wakes us up – pawing art us like a persistent cat ready to start the day – the Holy Spirit calls us to open our eyes - and to keep them open.

            And, while for us it might not have been the best Pentecost ever, the truth is the Holy Spirit has been working overtime this past week – waking us up – especially waking up us white people – waking us up and calling on us to keep our eyes open - and to really see.

            As I wrote to you earlier this week, my eyes were opened on Pentecost afternoon when someone posted on our Instagram some angry and ugly accusations against me and our church, accusing us of being covert racists and declaring that we are the biggest problem in Jersey City.

            It was hard to take and, honestly, my first instinct was to write a defensive reply or to just delete the comment and block him from posting on our page ever again. But over the course of the day it really was like my eyes were opened as I began to see the profound hurt behind those angry words and, while I don’t think everything he wrote is fair or accurate, the pain needs to be acknowledged and respected.

            And on Tuesday morning I was on a call with leaders from around Jersey City and it was heartrending to hear some of our black leaders speak so openly about their pain and frustration – that even after all of these decades of effort, even after all the marches and protests and so much work with elected officials and law enforcement, after all that, a white police officer still seemed to think nothing of forcing his knee on George Floyd's neck, suffocating him, taking his life in just under nine minutes – just the latest example of police brutality.

            And what about everything that is not caught on video?

            Over the course of the week there have been protests here in Jersey City, all very powerful but also entirely peaceful. Thankfully, all of those boarded up store windows seem to have been unnecessary.

I arrived at the protest at City Hall on Tuesday afternoon, frankly a little bit concerned about Covid-19 and the threat of violence. But, those fears quickly faded as I listened to the speakers and as I looked around at the diverse and mostly masked and social distancing crowd, people who were hurting and angry, but also determined that this time – this time - is going to be different.

            Yes, the Holy Spirit has been working overtime this week, getting us to see – to really see.

            And, beyond Jersey City, there have been protests and rallies all across the country and even overseas.

            Most have been peaceful though, yes, there has been some looting, looting done by some of the frustrated and enraged protesters, and also looting done by troublemakers eager to add even more fuel to the fire, always looking for ways discredit the movement and reinforce the worst stereotypes.

            In some cases we have seen members of law enforcement offer cooperation with the protesters and publicly resolving to do better in the future.

            And in other cases, we’ve seen even more brutality – some cops don’t seem to understand or care that being brutal in response to a march against police brutality doesn’t really help to make their case.

            One example that I’m sure many of you saw happened in Buffalo when a member of the elite SWAT team pushed a 75 year-old peaceful protester to the ground, as he was apparently trying to give them back one of their helmets. The officers stepped around him as blood gushed from his wound and pooled around his head. The man’s name is Martin Gugino and he’s a longtime activist with the Catholic Worker. At first the police claimed that Mr. Gugino had tripped but, fortunately, we can see the video with our own eyes – and, even if he had tripped, wouldn’t “public safety officers” or, for that matter, any decent human being, stop and try to help?

            This week the Holy Spirit has been working overtime opening our eyes, waking us up – helping to see our leaders. Some try to bring us together. And, other leaders seem unable or unwilling to put into practice the words found inside the Bible: God’s call to justice and reconciliation and peace – and, most of all, the command to love one another.

            The Holy Spirit has been working overtime this week, opening our eyes to see, showing us that life doesn’t have to be like this, that there is a better way.

The Holy Spirit has been working overtime reminding us of God’s open invitation.

            God’s open invitation.

            Today, on the First Sunday after Pentecost, we are invited to acknowledge and reflect on the Trinity - on God’s inner life:

God is Father, Son, and Holy Sprit – God is Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier – God is somehow one and also three.

            The Trinity is a bottomless mystery and it is a fool’s errand to try to explain it, though that hasn’t stopped lots of people from trying.

            The best we can do is come up with different images and metaphors, like the shamrock, the three-leafed clover that tradition says St. Patrick used to explain the Trinity to the Irish.

            But, trying to explain the Trinity won’t get us very far, so it’s better just to celebrate the mind-blowing and so very beautiful truth that God is community.

 Community is not just a characteristic of God – but God is community.

            And “God is Community” could have spent all of eternity alone – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a community of love spinning forever and ever, perfectly content, in need of nothing and no one.

            But, that’s not what happened.

            Instead, God chose to create – to create all that we can see and the nearly infinite reality that we’ll never be able to see – to create a reality that turns out to be even more amazing the more we learn about it.

            But, that’s not all!

Maybe even more mind-blowing and even harder to explain than the Trinity is that, instead of going it alone forever, God reveals God’s Self to us and invites us to be part of the Holy Community, too.

            Now, considering our rather poor track record, if I were God I’m not sure I would have done that – we sure seem like a lot of trouble – but God offers an open invitation to us – live in the garden with me – let’s live in the community of love together, forever.

            And, when things in the garden didn’t work out, God still didn’t give up on us, kept on inviting us, until offering the best invitation of all: Jesus.

            And, Jesus sends out his disciples to the ends of the earth to share the Good News - to forward the invitation – the invitation to not hate but to love, to recognize that we are brothers and sisters, to practice justice and mercy and to finally lay down our weapons and live in a world where, as the Psalmist writes, the Lord is our governor.

            It’s an open invitation.

            And, it’s an invitation we have rejected so often, more than anybody but God can count.

            And yet, fortunately for us, despite all of that rejection, God has not canceled the invitation.

            God keeps sending the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see that we are invited to a very different way of life.

            So, yes, it’s been quite a week.

We are now in a moment of pain and danger and fear – a moment of truth-telling and reconciliation and increasing unity – it’s both exhausting and energizing.

            We are in a moment when we really see things as they are – and we see things as they can be – as they were always meant to be.

            So, it’s a good time for us to finally accept God’s open invitation, to finally say yes to the Trinity – to say yes to the God who is Community.

Amen.