Trinity Prayer

from the New Zealand Prayer Book:

God of unchangeable power,
you have revealed yourself
to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
keep us firm in this faith
that we may praise and bless your holy name;
for you are one God now and for ever.
Amen.

NZPB p.606

Trinity Sunday (Poem)

Lord, who hast formed me out of mud,
And hast redeemed me through thy blood,
And sanctified me to do good,

Purge all my sins done heretofore;
For I confess my heavy score,
And I will strive to sin no more.

Enrich my heart, mouth, hands in me,
With faith, with hope, with charity,
That I may run, rise, rest with thee.

by George Herbert

Trinity Sermon

Taxiing my kids between sporting event this week, I heard a song on the radio with these lyrics:

I'm still alive but I'm barely breathing
Just prayed to a God that I don't believe in
(Breakeven by The Script)

It is a song about broken hearts, broken dreams, but it is that line about “praying to a God I don’t believe in” that caught my attention. I wondered what God they were talking about. From childhood? From our culture? And then I thought about what our prayers say about us and what we believe. Who is our God?

The author C.S. Lewis tells us what our prayers say...

An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get into touch with God. But if he is a Christian he knows what is prompting him to pray is also God: God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God--that Christ is standing right beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. You see what is happening. God is the thing to which he is praying - the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on - the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. So that the whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers.

The truth about the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is said in our prayers. Its not so much an understanding, a belief beyond us but God within us. As Jeremy Taylor, bishop and one of the authors of the King James Bible, put it this way:

No man can be convinced well and wisely of the article of the holy, blessed, and undivided Trinity, but he that feels the mightiness of the Father begetting him to a new life, the wisdom of the Son building him up in a most holy faith, and the love of the Spirit of God making him to become like unto God.

For St. Patrick and the Celtic Christians, the Trinity was often used in prayers. Patrick said, "I must teach from the rule of faith of the Trinity." As he ministered to the people of Ireland as bishop and missionary, it was the Trinity that he used to confess: of God the Father, Son & HS and the people converted to faith in Jesus Christ and faith in the Trinity. "We confess and adore him, one God in the Trinity of sacred name."

The shamrock has become a symbol of the Trinity and is used to remember Patrick and his work with the Irish and the Trinity to which he confessed. Legend has it that he used the shamrock as symbol of the Trinity with its three leaves. Patrick's life was full of dangers and hardships but his prayers and confession speak of his faith & reliance on the Trinity, on our God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

As Christians, following in the footsteps of Patrick, Jeremy Taylor & C S Lewis, our prayers are grounded in the Trinity even if we are unaware, for the Father who created us, the Son who redeemed us and the Spirit given to us at baptism to guide us now, are still all active in our lives today.

Maybe the best way to understand it all, is through a poem, for maybe it is the poets who can help us best today. George Herbert, priest and poet in the Church of England lived some of his life in faithful service of his congregations in Cambridgeshire and Salisbury. And it is there he wrote his poem for Trinity Sunday. Herbert prays to the triune God, here described as creator, savior and sanctifier, for forgiveness and the power to serve God all of our days. This is a prayer that we can make our own on this Trinity Sunday:

Lord, who hast formed me out of mud,
And hast redeemed me through thy blood,
And sanctified me to do good,

Purge all my sins done heretofore;
For I confess my heavy score,
And I will strive to sin no more.

Enrich my heart, mouth, hands in me,
With faith, with hope, with charity,
That I may run, rise, rest with thee.

Amen.

Two Thoughts on the Gulf Oil Spill

(1) Sins Against Nature and God: We Are All Accountable for Ignoring the Global Consequences of Environmental Exploitation by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

Once again, in a matter only of a few years, the eyes of the world are turned with suspense toward the Gulf Coast. Sadly, the oil spill is following a path similar to Hurricane Katrina and threatening the coast of Louisiana as well as neighboring states.

As citizens of God's creation, we perceive this monumental spill of crude oil in the oceans of our planet as a sign of how far we have moved from the purpose of God's creation. Our immediate reaction is to pray fervently for the urgent and efficient response to the current crisis, to mourn painfully for the sacrifice of human life as well as for the loss of marine life and wildlife, and to support the people and communities of the region, whose livelihood directly depends on the fisheries of the Gulf.

But as the first bishop of the world's second-largest Christian Church, we also have a responsibility not only to pray, but also to declare that to mistreat the natural environment is to sin against humanity, against all living things, and against our creator God. All of us -- individuals, institutions, and industries alike -- bear responsibility; all of us are accountable for ignoring the global consequences of environmental exploitation. Katrina -- we knew -- was a natural calamity. This time -- we know -- it is a man-made disaster. One deepwater pipe will impact millions of lives in several states as well as countless businesses and industries.

Read the whole article here.

(2) A Lesson from the Gulf Oil Spill: We Are All Connected by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

The original peoples of the North American continent understand that we are all connected, and that harm to one part of the sacred circle of life harms the whole. Scientists, both the ecological and physical sorts, know the same reality, expressed in different terms. The Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) also charge human beings with care for the whole of creation, because it is God's good gift to humanity. Another way of saying this is that we are all connected and there is no escape; our common future depends on how we care for the rest of the natural world, not just the square feet of soil we may call "our own." We breathe the same air, our food comes from the same ground and seas, and the water we have to share cycles through the same airshed, watershed, and terra firma.

The still-unfolding disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is good evidence of the interconnectedness of the whole. It has its origins in this nation's addiction to oil, uninhibited growth, and consumerism, as well as old-fashioned greed and what my tradition calls hubris and idolatry. Our collective sins are being visited on those who have had little or no part in them: birds, marine mammals, the tiny plants and animals that constitute the base of the vast food chain in the Gulf, and on which a major part of the seafood production of the United States depends. Our sins are being visited on the fishers of southern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, who seek to feed their families with the proceeds of what they catch each day. Our sins will expose New Orleans and other coastal cities to the increased likelihood of devastating floods, as the marshes that constitute the shrinking margin of storm protection continue to disappear, fouled and killed by oil.

Read the whole article here.

Memorial Day Prayer

ALMIGHTY God, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy and especially for those men and women who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to those who are commemorated on our memorials in Monroe and those written in our hearts your mercy and the light of your presence. And give, O Lord, to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will. And in your name we pray. Amen.

The Winds of God (Poem)

Oh, the winds of God are blowing,
So keep your sails unfurled.
And the winds of God will take you,
To safe harbors of the world.

Forever they’re in motion,
to take you where you will.
Forever full of power,
if there are sails to fill.

But they cannot do their duty,
If you should reef your sail,
The winds would still be blowing,
But they blow to no avail.

So, if upon your voyage,
Becalmed your ship or slow,
Oh, blame it not to winds of God,
He doth not wish it so.

So take the helm, be master.
Unfurling sails your part.
And the winds of God will take you,
to the Harbor of your heart.

[“The Winds of God” By Nellie Olmsted Lincoln - used in my Pentecost Sermon - first came across this at St. Dorothy's Rest in CA.]

Pentecost Sermon

Enter our hearts, O Holy Spirit, come in blessed mercy and set us free. Throw open, O Lord, the locked doors of our minds; cleanse the chambers of our thoughts for thy dwelling: Light there the fires of thine own holy brightness in new understandings of truth, O Holy Spirit, very God, whose presence is liberty, grant us the perfect freedom to be thy servants today, tomorrow and evermore. Amen.

Retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu has observed that “God is continually breathing into our nostrils.” In a wonderful way, Tutu reminds us of the fact that not only is our life the creation of God, but that every moment of our life is also sustained by God. And on this day of Pentecost, we are reminded that the same Holy Spirit that blew at the beginning of creation, where God breathed life into all living beings, into creation, is the same breath God gave to each of us.

Today we celebrate with those who were confirmed yesterday that the Holy Spirit continues to move in their lives as the bishop laid hands on each of them, asking that the Holy Spirit strengthen and empower them for their lives in Christ. It is that same Spirit that will come upon Emmerson, Edward, Caroline and David when they are baptized this morning. In these actions, both at baptism and confirmation, we remind ourselves that God is continually breathing into us, that the Holy Spirit is active in our lives.

Last week, I spoke about the ascension of Jesus. That after his resurrection appearances to the disciples, Jesus ascended to heaven, he was no longer with them, and he let them go, so they could do their work, for it became their ministry and they were entrusted with it. How they were able to do that ministry is the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit that breathed over creation at its birth, is the same rushing wind that is poured upon the disciples in the first reading from Acts of the Apostles:

“Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.”

The Spirit rested on each one, like fire, empowering them to proclaim the Good News in the languages of those who were present in Jerusalem. The people hear about Jesus in their own language and about God’s deeds of power, and they are amazed. The Church continues to bear witness to the world by the Holy Spirit which guides it, strengthens it, reforms it, equips it for the ministry that Jesus has shown us and for which God intends us to live.

In Baptism, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. In Baptism, we become part of the body of Christ, for there is one Body and One Spirit. At confirmation, we recognize those baptismal vows and once again the Spirit is recognized as force in our lives. It is that Spirit that is given to each of us at our baptism and remembered in our confirmation, the Spirit of God that guides us for the common good.

But what does it mean to be led by the Spirit today?

One way to think of the Spirit is like that wind on that first Pentecost. The Hebrew word for Spirit can mean wind or breath. The early Christian community experienced God's spirit as a "wind" propelling the ship, the Church; for they perceived the Spirit in their midst as the very breath of God filling their community with his life and love and animating them to do the work of the Gospel, which Jesus has called them to do.

Today, I think of a young lady who is sailing around the world. Her name is Abby Sunderland and she is attempting to become the world's youngest solo circumnavigator in a sailboat at age 16. The wind is a big deal for her.

In sailing, the best condition is to have the wind at your back; the worst is no wind at all because you don’t move. But the most common situation is a headwind coming at your craft from varying angles. So skilled sailors learn how to reach their destination in a headwind by "tacking" into the wind: setting their sails so they can move forward, indirectly, toward their destination in a zigzag fashion. Progress can be slow, but it is steady, and the best sailors are those who have learned to "read" the wind: who know how to make the best forward progress against the wind's resistance, when to "come about" to make a turn and reset their sails.

The challenge of Pentecost is to sense God's Spirit in our midst. Sometimes the Spirit of God requires us to "come about" and move more slowly, more intentionally, than we'd like; often the Spirit forces us to "tack" in directions that cause us to pause and reconsider our decisions to move forward. It is the Spirit that moves us forward that animates us to do the work of the Gospel, that makes God's will our will, the Spirit of God living in us and transforming us so that we might bring his life and love into our broken world.

But we must do our part, be open to the Spirit blowing into our lives, God breathing into us, to have a sense of God guidance. Let me end with a poem I found a few years ago about the Winds of God:

Oh, the winds of God are blowing,
So keep your sails unfurled.
And the winds of God will take you,
To safe harbors of the world.

Forever they’re in motion,
to take you where you will.
Forever full of power,
if there are sails to fill.

But they cannot do their duty,
If you should reef your sail,
The winds would still be blowing,
But they blow to no avail.

So, if upon your voyage,
Becalmed your ship or slow,
Oh, blame it not to winds of God,
He doth not wish it so.

So take the helm, be master.
Unfurling sails your part.
And the winds of God will take you,
to the Harbor of your heart.

[“The Winds of God” By Nellie Olmsted Lincoln]

Amen.