Participation—Thoughts on a Trinity Sunday with reference to Genesis 1, 2 Cor 13 and Matthew 28

Another something I might have said had I been the preacher this morning…

Jesus is the Grace-giver according to “The Grace” we say to close many of our meetings and which comes from the last verse on 2 Corinthians—this morning’s Epistle: 

2 Corinthians 13:14 (ESV): The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you (us) all. 

Notice the Trinitarian formula: Father, Son and Holy Spirit—which is why this is one of the readings on Trinity Sunday. I’m going to leave the Holy Trinity to brainier folk than I. I believe it but I don’t quite understand it—one of those wonderful mysteries which contain more truth than I can quite get my tiny mind around or articulate. Today, I’d just like you to notice, in addition to the aforementioned Jesus, the Grace-giver, that God the Father is the lover and the Holy Spirit is the fellowship provider—or the communion-giver, depending on your Bible translation—with whom, in the love of the Father and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we get to participate according to what St Paul wrote in Philippians chapter 2, viz.…

Philippians 2:1–2 (ESV): So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit…

Participation here is the same Greek word translated as fellowship or communion in the 2 Corinthians reading. This kind of participation with the Spirit is to be desired and carried out so that—jumping ahead a few verses…

Philippians 2:10–12 (ESV): at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

Which is a good thing and is what the Father had in mind from the beginning when he got the whole thing going by setting his Spirit to hovering over the face of the waters in Genesis chapter 1, verse 2—part of the Old Testament lesson for today and the second verse in the whole Bible. The Holy Spirit has been the hovering, sweeping wind of love, grace, truth and resurrection, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, ever since. 

Jesus saying “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” in the last verse of Matthew’s gospel—our gospel lesson this morning—is just a continuation and intensification of that participation as the Holy Spirit brings orderly beauty, form and shape out of our present chaos. God’s creation continues to unfold in the new creations (2Cor5.17) we become in Jesus. The Holy Spirit fills our empty voids with the fullness of Jesus. The Holy Spirit illuminates our dark places with the light of Jesus so every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

And whenever we get stuck in the dark and formless voids of grief or addiction or disobedience or prayerlessness or broken relationships or sin—the Holy Spirit is The One who blows in to hover over our hearts, souls, minds and bodies bringing truth, order, light, resurrection life, power, ability and relief. This is the Holy Spirit with whom we have fellowship, communion and with whom we participate as he guides, comforts and moves us along. He will give Holy and Godly form to your formlessness. He will fill your emptiness with all the goodness and love of God. He will fill your dark corners with the light of the world—your Lord, Saviour, Spirit-breather and Master, Jesus.

Jesus is LORD! Thoughts on a Lenten Ember Day 3

Jesus is LORD! And he will remain so no matter what. Councils of the Church come and go as do General Synods. We get it right and we get it wrong. Consistently. Participating in the Councils of the Church can be discouraging.

Not long after we accepted the call to St Barnabas in Medicine Hat in 1999 I decided (I hope with The LORD’s prompting) I needed a Spiritual Director. Since I could find no one who had set up shop in The Hat and didn’t want to drive to Lethbridge or Calgary, I decided I’d just approach one of the Roman Catholic priests in town and ask if he’d take me on. Why Catholic? Because Spiritual Direction is in their DNA. When a postulant for the priesthood arrives at a Catholic seminary he is assigned a room and a Spiritual Director. So I approached Fr Wendolin Rolheiser at what was then Christ the King Roman Catholic Church. He wasn’t keen on the idea and no wonder. Catholic priests tend to deal with huge congregations. They have more than enough on their plate. Eventually, praise God, he agreed to take me on and he was excellent. A great blessing.

Why am I telling you this story? Because, in one of our early sessions he gave me a book to read that his brother, Ron, had written. “Oh, no!” I thought. Now I have to read this book by somebody I’d never heard of and I probably wouldn’t like it and I’d have to say nice things about out of politeness for Fr Wendolin’s sake. The book was Seeking Spirituality: Guidelines for Christian Spirituality for the Twenty-First Century (Hodder & Stoughton, 1998) and it was excellent! Ron Rolheiser is also a priest. He and Wendolin were born and raised in Saskatchewan. Fr Ron is now the President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas, and the author of many books. He continues to write columns of spirituality and faith on his blog (http://ronrolheiser.com/en/) and for publications all over the world.

In a recent column Rolheiser wrote about how a group of Christians were discouraged when something they’d planned didn’t work out whereupon William Stringfellow, a lay theologian and activist of the time, told them that in their disappointment he wasn’t hearing anything much

about the Lordship of Jesus. We talk as if we need to save the world, as if everything depends on us. Well, it doesn’t. In the resurrection of Jesus the world is already saved, the powers of death and darkness have already been vanquished. We, we only need to live in such a way so as to show that world that we believe this. (Read the whole column here.)

It’s true, of course. The Lamb wins. So let’s enjoy that truth as we pray through Lenten Ember Day 3 today. The Church waxes and wanes in its faithfulness. So do you and I, but never Jesus.