The Day you Got all that you need

Peace With Justice Sunday 2 Corinthians 3:11-13 Trinity Sunday June 7, 2020 The day we got everything we need Children’s Sermon Object: A pair of boxing gloves Lesson: ... agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Good morning, boys and girls. Do you see what I have with me today? (Hold up the boxing gloves.) That's right. I have a pair of boxing gloves here. As you know, boxers use these when they fight. Do you think that these can hurt you if you get hit with one? (Let them answer.) People who wear these are usually out to hurt another person, so if you don't want to get hurt, it's best to stay away from people who are wearing boxing gloves. Did you know that there is something else that can hurt you even more than these boxing gloves? (Let them respond.) Well, there is. Let me tell you a little story and maybe you can guess what it is that can hurt more than boxing gloves. Once upon a time there lived a family -- a mom and dad and six children. From the time they got up in the morning until they went to bed again, these people were always arguing with each other. The father usually started it all by yelling at his wife to get breakfast ready. Then she would start throwing things in the kitchen because she was so angry at her husband. When the kids came down to breakfast, the dad would yell at them for being too noisy or too quiet, for not eating enough or for eating too much. They couldn't do anything to please him or their mother. So, when they left for school they started to argue with each other. Either they would steal one another's lunch, or call each other names, or do lots of nasty things that brothers and sisters sometimes do to each other. Do you think this sounds like a happy family, boys and girls? (Let them answer.) No, this family wasn't a very happy one. Well, one day there was a knock at their door -- and were they ever surprised when they opened it! There stood Jesus. He had come to visit them. In fact, he asked if he could join them for supper. What would you do if Jesus come to visit for supper? (Let them respond.) Yes, you would probably be very happy and do everything you could to make him feel at home. Well, this family tried very hard to do just that. When they were all seated at the table, Jesus looked at each one of them and said, "My friends, I have come to remind you of my special commandment. Love one another as I have loved you." Naturally, every person at that table felt very uncomfortable because everyone knew that this commandment had been totally forgotten. The members of this family were not hurting each other with boxing gloves. What were they using to hurt each other, boys and girls? (Let them guess.) Very good. They were using nasty words. Words can hurt people more than anything else, can't they? So this week I want all of you to remember this unhappy family and to try very hard to make your own family a happy one. God bless you all. Amen. CSS Publishing Company, WE ARE THE CHURCH, by Wesley T. Runk Welcome and opening prayer – stay tuned for announcements INVOCATION Sovereign God, We give thanks For the majestic creation that you called good. Open our hearts and minds to be creators of your peace with justice. Remind us of the responsibility with which you entrusted us to care for the work of your hands. Move us to repair what is broken in your world and to plant holy seeds so that your garden will flourish once again. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Stewardship Moment – Peace with Justice Sunday God created a world that was in balance. A world where we have enough if everyone lives fairly and with respect for what God created. How do we restore the dignity of those who experience injustice, acknowledging that each person is of sacred worth, made in the image of God? As bearers of God’s image, we know the magnificent power of the one who created us. We celebrate that God’s love was powerful enough to resurrect Jesus after the Roman government executed him. The good news is that God’s love is so powerful that, together, as people created by God, we can repair the damage being done to creation. In recognizing the image of God in our neighbor who is weighed down by injustice, we can begin the process of restoration. We can respond with healing in places where slavery, racism, environmental pillaging and political corruption have interrupted God’s vision of a flourishing garden. Today, we have an opportunity to do that as a congregation. The Peace with Justice Sunday special offering allows The United Methodist Church to repair the harm in communities that face systemic injustice. When we are part of building gardens of Peace with Justice, we honor the divine goodness in one another. God made each of you. And God said you are good. Please turn to the person next to you and say, “God made you. And you are good.” (God made you. And you are good.) Thanks be to God Scripture 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 New International Version (NIV) Final Greetings 11 Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13 All God’s people here send their greetings. OUR SOCIAL CREED We believe in God, Creator of the world; and in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of creation. We believe in the Holy Spirit, through whom we acknowledge God’s gifts, and we repent of our sin in misusing these gifts to idolatrous ends. We affirm the natural world as God’s handiwork and dedicate ourselves to its preservation, enhancement, and faithful use by humankind. We joyfully receive for ourselves and others the blessings of community, sexuality, marriage, and the family. We commit ourselves to the rights of men, women, children, youth, young adults, the aging, and people with disabilities; to improvement of the quality of life; and to the rights and dignity of all persons. Sermon The 3 Rs of a Holy Life – 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 by Leonard Sweet An old adage warns, “bad things always come in threes.” Have you found this true in your own experience? That bad things (and good things) like to happen in community, in bunches? You say: we invent this connection by suddenly realizing that we got a flat tire on the same day that a computer glitch devoured our hard drive, shortly after our last contact lens just slid down the drain. I say: there seems to be something significant about the power of three. Today the church celebrates the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—on this “Trinity Sunday.” We recognize God as power (the Father), God as person (the Son), and God as presence (the Holy Spirit). Paul’s final benediction to the Corinthians switches this order a bit to better express each person’s unique experience of the divine. For Paul, Jesus Christ comes first, for it is through the grace of his life, death and resurrection that humans may be reconciled to God. Only grace enables us to experience “the love of God.” As we stand renewed and redeemed before this loving God, yet another gift is made available, “the communion of the Holy Spirit.” The person, the power, and the presence of God come to us in a threefold design-package. Those forces that work AGAINST the divine have also traditionally been divided into the “big three.” How many of you remember preachers warning their flock to be on guard against the three evils—“the world, the flesh, and the Devil.” If we really do experience bad things in clusters of three, it is the result of these Big Three: The World, The Flesh, The Devil. The Trinity of Evils The World: This is not the world that the God of Genesis brought forth at creation. This is the “world” that turned deadly force against tens of thousands in Myanmar (Burma) this past week. This “world” is the broken world where tsunamis and cyclones and tornadoes and hurricanes pulverize the landscape. This “world” is the barren world where food disappears and famine grips every living thing. This “world” is the bleak worlds where pestilence hunts its prey. The Flesh: This is not the Adam-flesh created in the Garden of Eden by the God of Genesis. This is the “flesh” that now knows disease and death and decay. This “flesh” is fragile, subject to infection, physical fodder for plagues and pandemics. This “flesh” breaks down, breaks apart, and breaks our hearts and spirits with its decay. The Devil: There is no Devil, no antithesis to God’s creative power in the first creation story (Genesis 1:1-2:4a). This Devil doesn’t make an appearance until the second creation story, the tale of the serpent and the forbidden fruit and the draw-down of desire. Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit so that they might become “like God,” knowing good from evil. Willful disobedience, a passion for power, seeking to de-throne God, this was the origin of the Devil. Our own irrationalities, hatreds, fears, and despairs bring the “devil” to life. These three evils—the world, the flesh, and the devil---look like an unbeatable team, dooming humans to a mere scratch-and-claw existence. It was subservience to this spirit, to this “tooth and claw” combativeness, that kept the Corinthian community from experiencing the full embrace of Christ. The apostle Paul was so troubled these caustic Corinthians that he penned at least two (some say three) lengthy letters to this community, offering advice, admonitions and out-and-out orders. The world, the flesh, and the Devil were doing a booming business in Corinth. In his final letter, in his final words, in his final benediction, to this contentious community, Paul offered a positive, powerful, alternative Trinity to this struggling church. Paul’s closing command lays out a new kind of three-fold pattern, a pattern that will lead to wholeness and holy living. I call them the 3-Rs of holiness, or the 3-Rs of godly living. Here are the 3 essentials of holiness: Respect, Responsibility, and Relationship. If you want to live a holy life, a life of godliness and truth, you must learn the elementary but elemental 3-Rs of life: Respect, Responsibility and Relationship… If bad things can come in three’s, we can also think of good things that come in 3’s. We naturally think of things in triangles, to three’s. If you look at the celtic knot – it is a trinity knot with three strands of rope that are intrically connected together. So it is natural that we think of the trinity – the father, the son the holy spirit. Mentioned only twice in the bible. Jesus did not specifically mention the trinity. But is it a concept mentioned 12 times in both the old and new testament. This is the only festival day in honor of a church concept. It is interesting that there are twelve places in the New Testament where the three names are grouped together. They are arranged in six different ways, and each of the three names occupies each of the three places twice. There is nothing sacred about the order. We must not think of any person in the Godhead as being inferior to the other one, or in any way less than fully God. We all know that the Lord is God. 1 Kings 8:60 says, "all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other." But Phil. 2:11 says that "every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." In 2 Cor. 3:17 it says "the Lord is the Spirit." Well, is the Lord God? is the Lord Jesus? or is the Lord the Holy Spirit? The answer is yes. Paul mentions that concept in our scripture for today. This is a very short bible verse, but it is a powerful message for today. Paul founded churches all over Europe. But it seems that the Corinthians church was his problem church, he was always having to write letters to them in order to correct come problem. Paul says that he had to write three specific letters to them. Today, we can only find two of those letters, 1st and 2nd Corinthians. This was a very contentious congregation, they were always fighting with each other, and Paul had to remind them of the peace that Christ gave them and all of us as a gift. The primary message of second Corinthians are: 1. Put things in order This is Paul's attempt to get the Corinthians to prioritize. When we put our lives in proper order, "last things" (the things that "last") will go "first." That which is important will separate out from the extraneous "junk" we find cluttering up our lives. We can't "sleep loose" if our beds are hidden under piles of this junk. 2. Listen to my appeal The most important word here is listen. We can't hear if we won't be quiet and tune in. Listening saves us from the risk of going off half-cocked, misinformed and misdirected. To "sleep loose," we must listen for the message of God's love which comes to us through the sounds of the Holy Spirit. 3. Agree with one another We are not just to tolerate each other's company (some of the Corinthians apparently could not even do that). We are called to celebrate one another. Since God's love extends to each of us, there is reason to celebrate every individual. Instead of criticizing shortcomings and highlighting the negatives of each other, try emphasizing the positives. Just because we have differences doesn't mean we can't agree to disagree in love. 4. Live in peace When differences are celebrated instead of castigated, we can experience harmony instead of discord, shalom instead of shouting. "Sleeping loose" takes place in such peace and quiet. 5. Receive the gift of love Susan Stiles' 4- and 6-year-old daughters are probably better at receiving love than we are. Children receive love graciously and unselfconsciously. For adults, it is more difficult to relax and "sleep loose" in the offer of God's love after we have spent the day keeping our vulnerabilities tightly locked away from view. We can accept that God is love, but it is far more difficult to accept that God is love for us. The joy and bliss of the Holy Spirit is ours. 6. Join the cloud of witnesses Paul invoked the presence of "all the saints" in his farewell to the Corinthians. Likewise, we must feel a part of all the saints, the entire community of faith. It is in feeling the strength of all that support that we can relax and "sleep loose." We too are living in perilous times, and we too are looking for answers. We started out with a killer virus, and the whole nations closed down, and then there were the killer hornets, earthquakes, the riots , the marches, a very exciting presidential election and if I am not mistaken there is supposed to be an asteroid that comes dangerously close to earth this year. But seriously, we are all looking for answers and understanding as we watch the whole word marching to speak out about racism that has plagued our nation for years. The anger and pain the we see freely expressed today has always been a part of our community life, it is always just beneath the surface, waiting for a reason to come out, and it is coming our now in full force. This is an opportunity for our church, our community, our nation to have some honest dialogue about our relationships. The things that separate us, the things that we have in common the solutions, the answers that we all need to move forward. In a Peanuts cartoon, Peppermint Patty steps up to the store counter. "Yes, sir, I need some school supplies: some pencils, some paper, a loose-leaf binder and some answers. I need lots of answers." Perhaps we feel a little like Peppermint Patty on Trinity Sunday. We need answers! Lots of answers! Or, do we? A Chinese proverb says, "The bird does not sing because he has an answer. He sings because he has a song." We may not have all the answers we need but we do have a song. We are all asking ourselves where is God in the midst of this situation. When a small business owner looks at the shop that they worked all of their life to build falling apart in shambles, they can easily ask where is the God in this situation. When we look at our lives, we all are looking for the presence of God. And as we look through the eyes of faith, we realize that God comes to us in many ways. We find God in our relationships, we can find God in church, we can find God in nature, we can also find God in the tough times in our life. We can find God in people and cultures that we do not understand. The is the point of the trinity – God is present in the world in three persons in three different ways – the father, the son the holy spirit, - the creator, the sustainer, the redeemer. All of them represent love that comes to us in different ways. All of them represent the mystery of God. In preparation for ordination, I had to explain the concept of the trinity, I said it is like having three different snickers. They are in three different packages, but at the factory it was just one batch of snicker mix. Basically, God is such a big concept, that we have to use three different ways to explain the presence of God. Augustine was walking along a beach one day puzzling over the Trinity, when he observed a young boy with a bucket running back and forth pouring water into a little hole. He said, "What are you doing?" The boy said, "I'm trying to put the ocean into this hole." Augustine said at that moment he realized he had been trying to put an infinite God into his finite mind. My friend, you cannot do that. The infinite will not fit into the finite. You really can never understand the Trinity, but as one person has wisely said: "Define the Trinity, you will lose your mind, but deny the Trinity, you will lose your soul." As we look at the events of the day unfold, it is not a problem to unfold, but a mystery to behold. It’s a Mystery, and Always Will Be Garrison Keillor, modern American prophet from the radio show “A Prairie Home Companion,” said of love, “We should not think that we have figured this out, because it is not a problem, it’s a mystery and always will be.” “It is not a problem, it’s a mystery, and always will be.” Doesn’t that offend you just a little — the suggestion that there are those things in life we have not, and furthermore, will not ever, figure out? Now that we’ve become so advanced that we can put fax machines in cars and can send ourselves messages back from Venus, we are not really open to the suggestion that there are those things that always have been and always will be mysteries to us. We assume that our only limitations are time and energy, and, given enough of the two, there is really nothing we can’t ultimately know. So when we come to a doctrinal matter like the Trinity, the temptation is to want one neat analogy that will make it all clear, one concise statement on the Trinity that will settle it for us and allow us to move on to the next problem. Well, I hate to disappoint you so early in my sermon today, but if that is what you are expecting I suggest that you join those of your friends who are already daydreaming this time away. You see, it’s just not all that easy. It’s not so simple to describe the Trinity in any meaningful way. The Trinity just isn’t one of things we can settle in short order. Maybe if we can’t figure out the Trinity in these few brief minutes (and, given that the church in two thousand years hasn’t been able to get it straight, it’s a fairly safe bet we won’t have the last word on it today,) if we can’t settle the issue today, maybe we can at least try to point to what the doctrine of the trinity is attempting to say about God and how we experience God. James C. Leach, Naming God, Pulpit Digest, January / February 1991, p. 55. THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. In this last chapter of the severe letter Paul finishes with four things. (i) He finishes with a warning. He is coming again to Corinth and this time there will be no more loose talk and reckless statements. Whatever is said will be witnessed and proved once and for all. To put it in our modern idiom, Paul insists that there must be a show down. The ill situation must drag on no longer. He knew that there comes a time when trouble must be faced. (ii) He finishes with a wish. It is his wish that they should do the fine thing. If they do, he will never need to exert his authority, and that will be no disappointment to him but a deep and real joy. Paul never wanted to show his authority for the sake of showing it. Everything he did was to build up and not to destroy. Discipline must always be aimed to lift a man up and not to knock him down. (iii) He finishes with a hope. He has three hopes for the Corinthians. (a) He hopes that they will go onwards to perfection. There can be no standing still in the Christian life. The man who is not advancing is slipping back. The Christian is a man who is ever on the way to God, and therefore each day, by the grace of Christ, he must be a little more fit to stand God’s scrutiny. (b) He hopes that they will listen to the exhortation he has given them. It takes a big man to listen to hard advice. We would often be a great deal better off if we would stop talking about what we want and begin listening to the voices of the wise, and especially to the voice of Jesus Christ. (c) He hopes that they will live in agreement and in peace. No congregation can worship the God of peace in the spirit of bitterness. Men must love each other before their love for God has any reality. (iv) Finally, he finishes with a blessing. After the severity, the struggle and the debate, there comes the serenity of the benediction. One of the best ways of making peace with our enemies is to pray for them, for no one can hate a man and pray for him at the same time. And so we leave the troubled story of Paul and the Church of Corinth with the benediction ringing in our ears. The way has been hard, but the last word is peace. Imagine if this was your last sermon that you ever heard. What if you this was the last word that you heard. This is actually the final words of Paul’s letter, just before this Pauls tells the Corinthians that he will not be with them much longer, he must leave them – he says finally brethren….may the grace of God, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. I call trinity Sunday to the Sunday that God gave you everything that you need for faith. God tells us to go on with our lives, go forward in the confusion, the questions, the pain. We have everything that we need in order to face whatever comes next in life – which at this point no one knows. But we can know that the we the father, the son, the holy spirit. The creator, the sustainer, the redeemer = all forms of the love that will bring us through. Let us pray……. Prayer Today is the day God embraces all hues of humanity, delights in diversity and difference, favors solidarity transforming strangers into friends. And so shall we. Today is the day God cries with the masses of starving people, despises growing disparity between rich and poor, demands justice for workers in the marketplace. And so shall we. Today is the day God deplores violence in our homes and streets, rebukes the world’s warring madness, humbles the powerful and lifts up the lowly. And so shall we. Today is the day God calls for nations and peoples to live in peace, celebrates where justice and mercy embrace, exults when the wolf grazes with the lamb. And so shall we. Today is the day God brings good news to the poor, proclaims release to the captives, gives sight to the blind, and sets the oppressed free. And so shall we. From The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church — 2016. Copyright 2016 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Used by permission. Time of meditation Announcements Church council meeting on Thursday at 7pm. We will talk about what it means to reopen the church. Probably will still be a few weeks before open. At moment, only 10 people in the building. Want input from everyone. Will have to social distance. If want the zoom link to the meeting, call the office and you will be sent one. Also survey about what it takes to make you feel safe, encourage everyone to fill out and return to the church. Normally communion Sunday – will have communion on some way in July. Scripture for next Sunday will be Pray for peace and justice Benediction BENEDICTION Friends, go from here filled with the breath of our creator, plant a garden of justice and peace and infuse the earth with the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit.