Holy Trinity, but the Spirit still moves…and is dominant…and makes us uncomfortable, and yet joyous!
The congregation will experience at both services, an interactive Sermon because for us to understand the Word, we must experience the Word. Therefore, imagining a line from the altar all the way to the back wall; closest to the table would be the beginning of our timeline (our birth, our consciousness and first time we were exposed to the faith of our families) to the end of our timeline which would be the present moment of today. I encourage movement for people to place themselves on that timeline as I ask these three questions:
1. Where, along your life’s journey, did you fall in love with God, with Jesus or with your faith?
2. When did you experience the moment where you questioned your faith, or got angry and frustrated with the Creator God or even wrestled with the idea of walking away from your faith because things such as the conception of Grace, or Freedom or manifestations like the Holy Trinity made no sense or impacted little in the face of systemic oppression that seemingly the Church was co-opting or co-signing onto
3. Where have you either found new meaning, new fires along your faith journey or where has the Holy Trinity, because of your struggles and triumphs along your faith journey, taken on new meaning to bring about healing of oneself, of those you love or pushing against the violence upon broken and Sacred Bodies?
4. What one word, one emotion or even one food or color could sum up these questions for you right now?
After all has been shared, invite the congregation to sit back in the pews, and take a moment of meditation and prayer.
(pause)
Grace and peace to you,
My sisters, brothers and siblings in Christ
As we wrestle with this presence
Of the Triune God
And how complicated the Blessed Trinity
Is not just an abstract meaning in our chaotic life,
But how its presence can fuel into action
About how we are called, to live out our witness and testimony
Because we not only remember our Risen Lord,
Jesus Christ
We also follow Him,
To do
Fueled by the manifestation of the Holy Spirit
In our wake,
Because of the Love unending
From the Creator,
Always
Amen.
(pause)
I know this is Holy Trinity Sunday,
This is usually the Sunday where we uplift this image
This concept
Of what all this means,
Father, Son, Holy Spirit
Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier
But it seems She, the Holy Spirit
Continues to take center stage
As if She refuses to release Her grip
That She hovers overhead as a Phoenix
Overwhelming us with Her presence
Coming so dangerously close
Sending us into chaos-
Where we are emboldened
Excited
Shouting and sharing
About the Good News
About what God has done for us!
(pause)
We,
As people of faith
Suffer greatly
From memory loss
OR maybe its perhaps,
The lessons and the meanings of what these liturgical seasons
Really mean
As markers along our spiritual journey
Disturb us.
We treat them,
As another to do list
So when seemingly the season of Pentecost wanes
And like clockwork, we shift so easily into ordinary time,
What of those embers that perhaps remain?
Or do we find Pentecost continually burn within us?
So much so that we just can’t shut up testifying
To not only share the Good News of Jesus Christ
But how the Gospel’s presence, impacts this world?
I can only speak from where I stand,
The complexity of where I feel that the Triune God is pulling me
To be immerse and challenge, that which we consider ministry
And in what places,
I should be immersed.
(pause)
Many of us too, may have this experience
Where we can’t sit still;
That fire is shut up in our bones
That when we witness
Suffering,
Pain
Exclusion
Devastation
We are overwhelmed
Proclaiming
“Here I am, send me!”
(pause)
Do we claim then, the responsibility?
Do we acknowledge the bond that flows from She,
The Holy Spirit
Because of the reasons the Creator sends us out
Into that same wilderness
That God sent the Risen one,
Is because there is a lack of
Truth Telling.
(pause)
While I was a captive audience
On the 8th floor
Of the University of Chicago’s Center for Care and Discovery,
Cementing my health status,
As yes,
Having epilepsy
I saw my Facebook feed overflow,
With Words
With testimony
From the Festival of Homiletics
I was surprised because in years past,
Who they had invited
Would not be people
Who would understand how the Word impacted the struggle
Of communities and bodies ignored
Or
Fill my soul
But with Elders such as
Samuel Cruz from Union Seminary
Bishop Yvette Flunder from City of Refuge, UCC
And Rev. Otis Moss from Trinity UCC
They were feeding those who were present
With TRUTH
(pause)
“There are church institutions
that have cracks in them
because they were not ready when change came.”
(pause)
“To what degree
Are we defending things,
By custom or tradition,
That we no longer believe?”
(pause)
“The church in its recent days,
Has abdicated its moral responsibility
To get to work
And stop gazing.”
(pause)
“In order to prepare for an authentic encounter with another
we acknowledge our own sinfulness
and approach out of our own confession and conversion”
(pause)
“We must hug (the poor) so deeply
that they still feel God’s love when we let go.”
(pause)
“To say Jesus had no interest with politics
is to say Jesus had no interest with common people.”
(pause)
Truth-telling
(pause)
There’s been a lot of vulnerability that has erupted
because perhaps there is a paradigm shift.
Or
maybe perhaps the
anger,
frustration,
and oppression
that many of humanity
have experienced in our lifetime.
Or even,
because we realize of the responsibility
that our Ancestors have placed upon us
and we can no longer afford to shrug it off,
expecting someone else to pick it up.
We realize that what the Risen Christ said to us
about “loving one’s neighbor”
means beyond the surface;
it means going deeper
and actually,
making an effort to put our bodies physically on the line
for those as advocates, allies and co-conspirators.
In other words, if we cannot see ourselves immersed
Into the ethos and the rhythm of community
that we work tirelessly to strive for that community
who has been invisible, visible
then, what are we doing?
Why are we even bothering?
How can we continue to spout things as the Holy Trinity,
If we are not living and doing,
And manifesting what that means?
(pause)
In other words, if we come into these sacred spaces
expecting the same rigamarole
and become irritated because something in Scriptures
or someone sobbing during a prayer,
or someone that cannot contain the fire shut up in their bones
and is shouting for joy
and agitating the people towards working against inequality and injustice,
is bothering you and your comfortability?
The ugly truth is,
Then
we are nothing more
than dry bones
(pause)
What do we hear in Isaiah,
When the prophet cries out,
“Here I am,
Send me?”
(pause)
Truth Telling.
I mean seriously,
What is this whole identity
What does the Holy Trinity
Even mean for us
Now!?
(pause)
Why are we under the false assumption
That the experience here in Isaiah,
Or in Acts
Is a onetime thing?
That what is sung in the Psalms,
Is impassioned?
That the Word doesn’t disturb the stillness in our spirit?
(pause)
Here I am,
SEND ME!
(pause)
Is this not a manifestation,
Of a part of the Holy Trinity?
Of She,
The Holy Spirit
Whom we routinely
Ignore?
“Who shall I Send?”
We treat this as a metaphor,
Instead of a calling
A Commandment
(pause)
What does the Holy Spirit,
She
Mean to you?
What is your experience when She comes?
Or do you try to stuff Her down
Because being possessed,
By She
By the Spirit
By Ancient Spirits
By Ancestral Spirits
By the most Ancient Cosmos
Means you encounter the Creator
Means that suddenly you have no control
That you then see everyone else gathered with you
Whether they are:
Disabled
Trans
Muslim
Palestinian
African Descent
First Peoples
Sex Workers
Homeless
Atheist
Pagan
Christian
Questioning
(pause)
Suddenly,
no matter how we communicate
it is through the Holy Spirit,
that we realize how much we are human
and how much we are bonded to the Creator God,
because of the love of the Risen Christ
Truth Telling.
(pause)
We’ve forgotten the fires of Pentecost behind us
We subject Pentecost to one day,
And then completely miss the Word
When we acknowledge,
This Holy Trinity
In our lives.
(pause)
Pentecost then,
Is regulated
To this liturgical holiday,
Just as the Holy Trinity,
Is the day we acknowledge the 3-in-1
In our lives,
Stuff it back in the box,
And move on.
(pause)
Truth telling
(pause)
We refuse to allow the Word,
The Water
The Spirit
To move us
That for some Christian traditions,
we frown on self-expression
and lean toward controlling how we worship.
We even question theologically this idea
of the entrance of the Holy Spirit
of its IMPORTANCE
For us
into us,
as we experience a holy possession
because sometimes it is through that possession,
we find the power to move us into action.
(pause)
Action to challenge the policies
and legislations
that attempt to destroy places in Creation
for the sake of capitalism
or against the eradication of a people
because of religious racism
or to voice the sins of white supremacy
or violence against bodies
who have been pushed into poverty and hunger further.
(pause)
My beloved Sister, Tuhina
Spoke truth
When she said “You cannot have love without justice.”
(pause)
You cannot have the Creator,
Without the Risen Savior
Without the Holy Spirit
(the rest of my message was moved and led, by the Holy Spirit)
Thanks Be to God.
