Holy Trinity Year B- Many Persons in one God

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Homily preached On Trinity Sunday  by Br. Andrew 5th June 2012

Many Persons in one God

Today is Trinity Sunday and in the readings today Father Son and Spirit have been revealed to us, the Trinitarian blessing pronounced for the first time. God is three and God is one!

I have had difficulty in committing this homily to paper, not because the subject is necessarily impossible but too many pathways’ bring us to this point of Revelation of Trinity and just as many proceed from it.

I have chosen, wisely, I think not to delve into the quagmire of the dogma of the Trinity rather to speak of God and how it makes itself known to us..

God is not the name of our Creator; we worship God, with a capital “G” to differentiate our God from other gods which we consider false, none existent and their representations Idols. The Deity has revealed to us its name and in doing so has entered into Covenant with humanity. In ancient times to know someone’s name was to know the source of their secret strengths or life, to reveal your name to another was a huge step towards being in relationship with that person.

Our Creator, through a burning bush that would not burn revealed The Name on mount Horeb to Moses, a lonely shepherd, revealing something of Divine mystery: –

 “ I Am that I Am” – Yahweh, Y’hw’h without its now unknown vowels the  Hebrew consonant’s when spoken together Yoh- hey, vah, hey—almost sounds like we are  breathing. The Name is the very breath we take to sustain life. Moses was alive because he breathed the breath of Yahweh.

I Am forever fully present I AM the One who makes all others things be.

In the reading from Deuteronomy Moses extolls the WORD, and reminds them that the LORD has created them; redeemed them from slavery in Egypt, breathed into them his breath of life and makes them whole and in return asks only that they love him. To be responsible!

Yahweh is forever fully Triune; yet at that point in time humanity’s capacity to believe, even in a single faceted deity, was impeded by recent history, the pollution of belief by their Slavers,  with the forgetting of their religious roots and Practices.

 Yahweh reveals only enough about the One who Is as the current paradigm will allow us to have the wisdom and courage to believe.

We could say of an Anthropomorphic God that in choosing to enter into a relationship with us Yahweh became vulnerable.

The Jews of old knew Yahweh as a Father (Ex.4:22), a Shepherd (Psalm 22/23:1), a Husband, (Is.54:5-8), Potter (Jer.18:6), and Vineyard owner, (Ps.80:8-13) they did not as yet know him as a brother; nor would they believe, in a hurry that their Father, would take a wife or sire a human child.

In his humanity Yahweh God was vulnerable because as soon as he entered into intimate relationship with us he knew that one day, when the time was right he, the Word would be born into the world to die for us; to save us from sin and death.

Moses said to the Israelites “Was there ever a word so majestic, from one end of heaven to the other? Was anything like it ever heard…” (Deut.4:32) When we remove the veil from our Eucharistic elements we say – In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. Through the Word all things were made. The Word was made flesh and lived among us. (John 1:1-4 NJB) This Majestic Word is Jesus, the second divine personality in Yahweh who became one of us.

While Jesus the Christ was with us he taught us more about Yahweh than was ever yet revealed because He is Yahweh, standing in the flesh beside the people of his time and yet seated in heaven taking care of the world.

There are too many verses to cite the love that Jesus has in his heart for us or to truly understand the terror of execution and the darkness of the grave.

St. Francis of Assisi places the following words on Christ’s lips in the time between the time in the grave and his assumption into heaven – curious that Francis uses the term Assumption as if Christ were being received back into heaven rather than leaving his disciples.

8.    But I have slept, and I have arisen, and my Most Holy Father has taken me up to glory.

9.    Holy Father, You have held me by the hand, you have willed to lead me out, and You have assumed me into glory.

10. For what have I in Heaven, and what have I on earth apart from You? (Psalm 6:8-10)

Before the most Holy Father assumed Jesus into heaven  , Jesus said to his Apostles  'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.' (Matt 28: 17b-20 NJB)

This Holy Spirit, the ruach-hakodesh is the third personality in Yahweh, like the Father and the Word it has always been there brooding over the earth during creation, given to the 72 elders,(Num.11 : 14-17,24-29 NJB) reserved for anointed kings, given to Prophets but not always permanently, the Holy Spirit left King Saul ( I Sam 16:14 NJB) who went mad. After sinning with Bathsheba king David prayed. “Do not thrust me away from your presence; do not take away from me your spirit of holiness. (Psalm 51:11 NJB)

In our time  the Holy Spirit is given to all who believe in Jesus - after Pentecost when the disciples were thought to be drunk Peter says “On the contrary, (they are not drunk)this is what the prophet (Joel) was saying: “ In the last days -- the Lord declares -- I shall pour out my Spirit on all humanity. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young people shall see visions, your old people dream dreams.” (Acts 2:16,17:cf Joel 3 NJB)

We alive because we breathe the Spirit of Yahweh

When the Holy Spirit comes upon us it melds with our own Spirit to testify that we are now sons and daughters of Yahweh, inheritors of all good things, brothers and sisters of Christ, one with Yahweh in a multiplicity of Personalities, thousands and thousands of Personalities but one God. Unity in multiplicity.

And the self-revelation of Yahweh to his people goes on!

Loving Words and Strong Actions

“Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,

either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10

Lent 3B: Loving Words and Strong Actions

 This Sundays scripture readings could make some people feel uncomfortable. The first from Exodus (20: 1-17) contains what is usually called "The Ten Commandments." In the Hebrew text they are not called "Commandments," but the "Ten Words." Our spiritual ancestors saw them not so much as laws and regulations, but more as a guide to understanding the will of God. They tell us what God rejects and what we should as well. The 'Ten Words' don't cover a lot of everyday life; instead, they deal with situations, like idolatry, murder and violation of property. They are a light to guide our journey with God and our neighbour. We observe them not to earn God's pleasure, but to know the direction our lives should take, so as to live as God's holy covenant people.

The second difficult reading for some is from the gospel of John (2:13-25) which reveals an angry Jesus "cleansing the Temple" at the beginning of his ministry. The passage shows Jesus fulfilling the prophetic hopes of the ancient prophets. The prophets Malachi (3:14) and Zechariah (14: 1-21) had anticipated the messianic age when God would "suddenly" come the Temple to "purify and cleanse it." Jesus' true messianic ministry will overturn the religious laws and drive out greed, hypocrisy and the crippling legalism in religious practice. He was going to establish the new and holy temple of his body. In this new body, God and humanity would be able to meet and enter into a new relationship.

The scene of the cleaning, takes place in the outer courts of the Gentiles, where animals were sold for the Passover feast to about 300,000 thousand pilgrims who had travelled to Jerusalem. The moneychangers would exchange foreign coins for the acceptable Temple ones. They were known to defraud or scam people in the exchange for the 'sanctuary shekel'. In a subtle touch John describes Jesus as having a milder attitude towards the sellers of doves which were the offerings of the poor. The anger of Jesus here is not motivated by self-interest but by a healthy holy righteousness.

In reality Jesus will replace the Temple built by Herod, with himself. Jesus says; "Destroy this sanctuary (temple) and in three days I will raise it up." The religious authorities did not understand his words. John makes it clear that "He was speaking of the sanctuary that was his body ..." So, where will people now go for a full and welcome reception by God? To Jesus, whose resurrected body will be that new temple. Later in the gospel Jesus will offer himself as a new 'Passover Meal' through which we can share fully in his resurrection life (6:30ff). When we eat the body and drink the blood of the Lord we become aware of our need for forgiveness and the cleansing. The risen Lord enters our lives, forgives our sins, cleansing us so we can give fitting worship to our God. Through boundary-breaking Jesus, the "temple raised up" in three days, we have been given forgiveness and freedom. We don't receive these gifts of grace because we have followed and kept perfect rituals, but because we are loved by a jealous God.

Jesus' angry actions might make some of us uncomfortable. Sometimes the gentle images of Jesus as the healing man of compassion, risk making him seem too soft. But today's depiction shows us how the strong convicted Jesus could ruffle the Jewish religious and Roman authorities. In the temple cleaning we confront our temptation to turn Jesus into a manageable deity. The cleansing of the temple is a warning against any and every false sense of security. Misplaced values, religious presumption, pathetic selfish excuses, smug self-reliance, spiritual complacency, nationalist zeal, political idolatry, and economic greed are only some of the tables that Jesus would overturn in his own day and in ours. What was it, apart from the money changers and merchants, that stirred Jesus' anger? Perhaps it was the fact that the Temple was not open equally to ALL PEOPLE. If this is true then Jesus' attitude, challenges the openness and hospitality of our places of worship? Do we lack "zeal" for our worship community? Our goal should be to make our personal and communal lives true "houses of prayer", places of generous welcome and prayer for ALL peoples, like the zealous Jesus desires. A place where we can worship God in 'Spirit and in Truth'. May we continue to 'follow him'.

4th Sunday of Easter - Br Andrew

Andre-Rublev's Saviour 

Homily preached at Winmalee on Sunday May 11th 2014

Fourth Sunday of Easter Br. Andrew

Here is something to think about:

In his “The Axioms of Religion” professor E. Y. Mullins’s: sates that "Whenever a church interposes between the child and the Father, through sacrament, through human priesthood or hierarchy, through centralized government, through authoritative oligarchies of any kind in spiritual affairs, it ceases to conform to the kingdom of God, and becomes a juvenile court or orphanage instead.” 

This quote, in its turn appeared in a pamphlet written by a Baptist by the name of Carolyn D. Blevins entitled “The Priesthood of All Believers”
http://www.baptisthistory.org/priesthood.htm

The Priesthood of All Believers

I Peter 2: 1-10


Today I shall be focusing on this verse from our second reading 1 Peter 2:9;
9 "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

Jesus has given us the gift of new life, as a priest offering his ultimate sacrifice, he sacrificed his life for us and he chose us, His believers to be priests. 
When we think about a priest, we tend to think of some one who believes in a Eucharist wherein the elements of bread and wine are somehow changed into flesh and blood.
We are a Non-denominational Sacramental Community but the Sacrament does not reside on the Table or in the beliefs of the one leading the service but in the heart and Spirit of those remembering Jesus through it.  

So for us being members of a royal priesthood, being priests has far more meaning than perhaps it does for members in the more traditional denominations, because the Sacrament is within our relationship with the Father rather than in a Doctrinal statement, place, person or ritual. Our priesthood sits within our relationship with the Father and with his Word the Lord Jesus

We are a community of Priests each ministering and shepherding one another not because of any special training, but because Jesus says we are; and through the Holy Spirit has given us various gifts to use to do so. Our priesting is an everyday sacrifice of joyful praise and service as we take up our various joys and burdens each day. We are always priests, not just on Sunday and we do have the Good shepherd to help us.

Let’s examine the Gospel now and see how the Master does it. 

Gospel John 10:1-10

Even in Palestine today several flocks of sheep may be sheltered in the same fold for some short time. A gate man – one of the other shepherds will sit at the entrance to the fold to guard it and will allow the other shepherds to enter. When that shepherd takes his sheep out of the fold he has a special call for them and all the sheep follow him, he has given them all a name and they come when they are called and the shepherd knows instantly whether any are missing. They will run from a stranger.

Jesus is the doorway both into and out of the fold and we wait his bidding before we come in or go out and we trust him to lead us to good pasture and fresh water. Jesus knows us by name, so intimately that he knows when we are distracted and out of full communion with him in our Relationship with him. Whenever we become so seriously lost as to miss curfew then Jesus who instinctively knows our absence knows just where to find us and comes and does so.

As priests in his new kingdom we need to practice our shepherding, getting to know those with whom we interact, the special words that will draw them to God through our Priesting. Their bolt holes when times are bad; the kinds of nourishment they need; to know our own limitations; to recognise when a relationship with Jesus is faltering and with prayer, practise and consultation with other priests pray out what might be done or not.

Jesus’ disciples didn’t understand the analogy but we are to Jesus as our fellow community members are to the sheep and the sheep need their shepherd. Greater than this:
Since we are all members of a royal priesthood, what is very interesting about this concept is that each one of us is both Shepherd and sheep – we are all Christs and all in need of Christ at one and the same time. Like a neatly woven sheep fold pulling together to keep ourselves safe from the robbers and daemons who would wrench us apart.
Priesting is a vocation we are called to, if necessary 24/7, there can be no Roster, whenever we find ourselves called, we priest & Shepherd.

 In celebrating Liturgy; priests such as Sr. Agnes finds pleasure in the Prayer Table, Lee as Parish Secretary, Ashley our fund raiser, Stephen our Mr. Music. .. We all serve each other in our various ways, we are a fold of shepherds & sheep sometimes each one of us is at once Shepherd sheep and priest-

At our lowest & most fearful we are only sheep- & if we have learned well at the Master's feet; we will know our own voices.

I feel we have an interesting time ahead.