Trinity
Sunday
June 3,
2012
The Rt.
Rev. Paul V. Marshall
In my life in the last two months, I have
experienced the birth of a grandchild, the marriage of a wonderfully Christian nephew
and spouse, and the election of three of my former seminary students as
bishops. The unexpected learnings and
joy of these moments have put me into something of a whirl, and this text from
last week’s readings keeps intruding into my thinking, because as I age, I find
God showing me the world in ways I could not have anticipated, and that I have
to digest and grow into.
So
I am still living with a fragment of last week’s Gospel—one that captivated me
to a level that I didn’t preach on it last week at Mediator. It is this:
John
16:12-15
“I
still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the
Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth;
Jesus words about what we cannot
bear now but will learn later invite us to deeper wisdom about our entire life
cycle.
When a couple learns that they have
a child coming, the excitement of that new life can be one of the most
beautiful things that happen to them. People
celebrate with them…and then some people start giving advice. Some of it may be
useful, some of it may increase fear unnecessarily—but most of it goes unheard
because the couple are in one state of mind and are not yet ready for what
comes next. Even if you happen to be the world’s leading authority on child
development, there is no point in telling a newly pregnant couple the ten most
important points about raising a teenager.
Having
recently watched the awe and love of new parents up close, I knew that the last
thing they need from me was advice about anything. They need my presence, love
and support. And when the time comes to learn about raising toddlers, ‘tweens
and teens, they will learn—and the knowledge they get then may be fresher than
the war stories I could tell them about my mistakes as a father. As a
grandfather I think my role is just to love them all. And speak when spoken to.
Again, all
of this is meant to remind us that there are, in life, all kinds of things that
are true, but depending on where we are, we aren’t ready for them, or as Jesus
told his disciples, there are things we can’t bear to know. Let’s take discomfort
in that one degree deeper, sticking with the life cycle.
It is a bit
of an agony to prepare a couple for marriage: there is so much they cannot
hear. They are in love and can hear very little else. They cannot hear that in
five or six years their safe conversation will be exhausted, opening the door
to tedium and resentment. I cannot tell them that much of what excites them now
in their romantic moments can become dull and limited. I cannot tell them how
much courage and strength will be required of them to be honest and risk-taking
with each other to go to the next level of relationship rather than to sink
into what is quiet, safe, and unexciting. I can only tell them that there is a
100% possibility that there will be new and wonderful joys and that there will
be new stresses and that the church will indeed be there for them when is it
time to grow again.
What this
has to do with Trinity Sunday and baptism and confirmation is very important.
The
teaching that God is three persons yet one God, and that God is essentially
those persons in a constant relationship of creation, love, and outreach, took
about 350 years to develop—the Spirit leads the Church into truth at God’s own
pace. Other things that we now recognize as obviously true were once utterly
unbearable.
An example
of unbearable truth is very American. The Wright brothers had an interesting
dad. He was a bishop in the Methodist church, and something of a public
speaker. He is remembered for giving a fiery sermon on God’s obvious intention
that humans should stay out of the air, because God did not intend us to leave
the surface of the planet, whether by balloon or other means. A few years later
Wilbur and Orville went out to Kitty Hawke and changed the world. His children
had to lead him into truth which was unthinkable to him.
In our own
past, those of us over a certain age can remember a time when it simply was unthinkable that women could be full
partners in human life, unthinkable that they could be assertive without being
called pushy, and that their anger and their special joys were not pathology.
For some folks, and not just men, those have been very hard truths to receive.
This is the
point. One of the most startling things about Christianity for its earlier
competitors was that its God did things, led people to new places, that their
revelation grew. Their God was in motion—the ideal for the Greeks who followed
Plato was that God sat perfectly still contemplating his own perfection—not to
much use for people seeking growth or change.
That idea
that God is in motion throughout our life is why children are brought to
baptism today, and we together thank God that their families want that for
them. And I want to say directly to those young people being confirmed today
that I know that Nativity has is second to none in having a well developed and
challenging confirmation preparation. I say that sincerely, and wish more
people put this kind of energy into preparation. You who are to be confirmed
have had the best preparation for this day, and have come to this day because
you are ready for it, because each of you decided it is something that you
personally are ready to do. That gives me great joy and satisfaction; it is
something to celebrate, and in Sayre Hall we will continue to celebrate it.
At the same
time that I congratulate you on being informed and clear about what you are
doing, I just want to plant the same seed that Jesus did: there is a great deal
more to learn. The one that is guaranteed is that life still has many stretches
and challenges and perhaps some pain ahead. Sometimes you may have to struggle
to make sense out of things. Those are precisely the times when you want to get
closer to God and be very attentive to where the Spirit may be leading you. The
more you know, the more you can learn.
It is
precisely at the moments where religion may seem boring or irrelevant that you
may be God’s instrument for leading the rest of us to something new. Boredom is
not a cue that somebody should entertain you: boredom is a cue that your mind
needs to do something. Use boredom or discomfort in school, marriage, job,
religion, as a cue to listen hard to what the Holy Spirit may be saying not
just to you about your job or marriage, but to all of us.
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