Trinity Sunday, Year B: June 3, 2012

Holy, Holy, Holy

• Isaiah 6:1-8
• Psalm 29 or Canticle 2 or Canticle 13
• Romans 8:12-17
• John 3:1-7

Trinity Sunday is different from most feast days on the liturgical calendar because it celebrates a doctrine of the Church rather than an event in Jesus’ life. The Trinity is the Church’s answer to theological questions that were raised during the first three centuries C.E. and still persist today. Even after the formulation of all the Creeds, much remained to be done to reach a full definition. Scripture contains hints of the threefold nature of God; but nowhere in the New Testament is there a complete, explicit statement that tells us everything there is to know about the Trinity. However, today’s texts give us some understanding of the mystery of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Our Old Testament reading is a compelling vision of the Prophet Isaiah, who gives the date for the beginning of his ministry as the “year that King Uzziah died” (v. 6:1) which was probably around 736 B.C.E. This vision unites heaven and earth, as Isaiah sees the Lord enthroned in the temple. But this temple is more than an earthly building, as the train of the Lord’s robe is enough to fill the structure. The Lord is attended by six-winged seraphs who sing the familiar threefold Sanctus we sing at every Eucharist: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.”

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, we receive a different picture of God – one of parent. Paul begins by stating that we are flesh, but God is Spirit. God has given us the gift of the Spirit, thus by adoption we become children of God. By being present with us, the Spirit enables us to know and to call upon God as Abba, our Father, just as Jesus did.

Through Nicodemus’ dialogue with Jesus, we learn that as Father, God offers us boundless love (John 3:16). God the Son is the one who came down from heaven and through whom we have eternal life (3:11-15). And finally, God the Holy Spirit infuses our lives in mysterious and surprising ways (3:3-8).

The doctrine of the Trinity is our human attempt to translate our experience of God into a theological statement. It is one of the great mysteries of faith in which we attempt to describe the many aspects of God that continually works in our lives and in the world.

For reflection:

• How have you personally experienced God as Father (or parent), as Son, and as Holy Spirit?
• In what sense do you feel wind aptly describes being born of the Spirit? What is your experience with such wind?

Related articles:

• Trinity Sunday, Year A
• Holy, Holy, Holy (str.typepad.com)

The Day of Pentecost, Year B: May 27, 2012

Filled with the Holy Spirit

• Acts of the Apostles 2:1-21
• Numbers 11:24-30
• Psalm 104:25-35, 37
• Romans 8:22-27
• John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

With the wind and tongues of fire, the Day of Pentecost is upon us, as we experience the glorious climax of the Easter season. The lessons for today manifest the creative power and presence of the Holy Spirit both in the Church and in our individual lives.

“It is to your advantage that I go away.” (John 16:7) These words must have greatly disturbed the disciples. They could not see any advantages in being separated from this one whom they loved. The “Advocate,” the Holy Spirit, who would not come unless Jesus went away, was only a vague notion to them. How could they imagine replacing the flesh-and-blood Jesus with something as nebulous as a spirit? So Jesus gave more concrete information about the work of the Holy Spirit in order to help the disciples grasp the reality of this Advocate who was to come.

According to Jesus, the Holy Spirit would do five things:

• The Spirit convinces the world of sin (16:8). While the Spirit is the advocate/defense attorney for believers, the Spirit is the prosecuting attorney for unbelievers. This was a turnabout. The world has accused Jesus and his followers of sin. The Spirit rises to their defense by showing where the guilt really lies.
• The Spirit would convince the world of righteousness (16:8). The Spirit opens people’s minds to enable them to perceive that Jesus is the right, that his words are true.
• The Spirit convinces the world of judgment (16:8). Evil is unable to defeat Jesus, to keep him from the grave. As a result, the Spirit is able to persuade people that since Jesus is the victor, judgment on all that is not surrendered to him will be real.
• The Spirit guides the believers to know the truth about that is to come (16:13). This is not so much the ability to foresee the future as to be able to understand the meaning of events as they happen.
• The Spirit glorifies Jesus and delivers to believers that which Jesus wants them to know (16:14). Verses 14 and 15 together show how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are intertwined. The three persons of the Trinity all work with that which belongs to the Father: “All that the Father has is mine. [The Holy Spirit] will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (And we continue that next week, Trinity Sunday.)

For reflection:

• What is it better to have the Spirit’s presence than to have Jesus’ physical presence?
• What things has the Spirit declared to the Church that Jesus could not tell the disciples then?
• Has the Holy Spirit dealt with you in any of the five ways listed above? Which one(s)? What was the result?
• Try to imagine the scene as the wind and fire appeared to the disciples on Pentecost. What do you think is the significance of the fact that a tongue of fire rested on each of the individuals present? How do you think they might have felt at this time?
• What is the significance of this event for us today?
• In what ways do you feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in your own life, in the Church and in the world?

Related articles

• “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (worryisuseless.wordpress.com)
• The Coming of the Holy Spirit – Pentecost (ptl2010.com)
• Pentecost
• It’s Pentecost – Let’s Party (buildfaith.com)
• A Litany for Pentecost (buildfaith.com)

The Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year B: May 20, 2012

The Church as the Body of Christ

• Acts of the Apostles 1:15-17, 21-26
• Psalm 1
• 1 John 5:9-13
• John 17:6-19

In his final time with his disciples, Jesus intercedes for them with the Father, though prayer. He affirms the completion of his mission with them. His mission included many things, but it did not include finding disciples. The disciples first belonged to the Father – they were men and women who belonged to God and who recognized Jesus’ manifestation as one who came from God.

Today’s lessons focus on the nature of discipleship and life in the Christian community. We hear of the selection of a new member of the ‘inner circle’ of Apostles to replace Jesus. The Epistle shows that the community of faith is based upon the acceptance of Jesus as the Son of God. The Gospel recognizes the reality of living in a hostile world without the physical presence of Jesus. The Psalm illustrates the blessedness of living a righteous life – what a Christian community is called to be.

This is the Sunday before Ascension Day (on Thursday), so it is fitting we recall our mission going forth as Christ sends us: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.” (John 17:17-19).

Now that Jesus prepares to leave his friends, after caring for them like a shepherd for several years, he reminds the Father of haw the has done for them:

• Jesus has revealed God’s name by teaching the disciples about God’s nature. God’s name represents the fullness of God’s character. Though the depths of God will never be exhausted (Ephesians 3:19), the yet undiscovered truths about God will not refute the fullness of Jesus’ revelation (John 17:6, 26).
• Jesus has given them words of God. God has a message for all people, and that message has been delivered in Jesus’ life and teachings (John 17:8, 14; Hebrews 1:1-2).
• Jesus kept the disciples, guarding them from evil and helping them to remain faithful (John 17:12). Judas also witnessed Jesus’ work, but his choice destined his fall, as scripture had prophesied (John 13:18, 17:12; Psalm 41:9)

The Body of Christ becomes a living sacrament to the world, an “outward and visible sign” of Christ’s redeeming presence in history through the Church. On the eve of the Ascension, we are called to reflect upon how the Church is poised to proclaim God’s love to the world. As the truth was entrusted to the disciples, so too are we bestowed with this same holiness as we are sent out into the world to bear witness to the truth.

On this last Sunday of the Easter season, the foundations of the Christian community are prepared for empowerment by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

For reflection:

• What do you learn about belonging to God from these verses? In what sense do you think the disciples were the Father’s? In what sense did the Father give them to the Son?
• Reread the verses that mention the name of God. Read Exodus 3:1-15, looking for the way God’s personal name is revealed to God’s people. What do you learn from this Old Testament passage about the character of God? How does an understanding of God’s name affect your understanding of John 17:6-12?
• In the prayer of Jesus in the Gospel, what does Jesus ask the Father for his disciples? How would you describe the relationship between Jesus and the disciples in this passage? How does this relationship extend to us today?
• In your own life, what are the challenges you face as you attempt to live as a Christian in our contemporary world?
• What do you understand to be the life of discipleship in the community of faith?

The Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year B: May 13, 2012

Love One Another as Friends

• Acts of the Apostles 10:44-48
• Psalm 98
• 1 John 5:1-6
• John 15:9-17

Today’s theme is of the new community formed out of the resurrection and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the life of that community that is grounded in love. Today’s Gospel and Epistle (Letter of John) emphasize the relationship between Christian love and obedience. It all begins with the love of God for us – love that comes to us through the Son. By entering our lives, Jesus brings the love of the Father to us.

We know that we are children of God by loving and obeying God’s commandments. These commandments are not burdens to be born, but the way of life and fulfillment (1 John 5:3). Trust in Jesus as the Messiah also brings privileges of adoption – of being made a child of God. As members of God’s family, disciples learn how to keep the commandments.

Loving like Jesus makes the disciples (and us) more than learners or followers; it qualifies them (and us) to be Jesus’ friends, his beloved companions. The obedience that he asks us to render is not the obedience of coercion, like a servant’s, but the obedience of confidence and loyalty.

Many may focus today’s readings on the gift of love as we remember mothers. For many, Mother’s Day is a day of sorrow – for a mother departed, for a mother never known, for a mother who was not affiliated with the “apple mom” image. So . . . tread lightly.

For reflection:

• How would you describe the relationship between Jesus and the Father as expressed in today’s Gospel? How is this relationship a model for us to follow in our own lives as well?
• Jesus gives us a new commandment, that we love one another as he loved us (John 15:12). How have you experienced this love yourself? How can we, both as individuals and as the Church, demonstrate God’s love in the world?
• What is the nature of friendship with Jesus? What specific qualities of friendship does Jesus emphasize?
• Describe a friendship that has been especially meaningful for you. How do the unique qualities of this relationship help you to understand more fully the love of God? When have you experienced Jesus as friend?
• What is the relationship of fruit-bearing and prayer as suggested by John 15:16? How does this compare with your experience in prayer?

The Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B: May 6, 2012

Vines and Branches

• Acts of the Apostles
• Psalm 22:24-30
• 1 John 4:7-21
• John 15:1-8

What is to be done with branches that bear no fruit?

Jesus’ seventh, final “I am” statement is featured in today’s Gospel. The desired relationship between Jesus and his followers is more easily illustrated that explained.

Not only did the disciples understand the image of a vine in its natural setting, they also understood the rich significance it carried from its use in Old Testament writing. The figure of a vine had often been used by the prophets to symbolize Israel and to demonstrate the relationship between Israel and God (Psalm 80:8-16 and Jeremiah 2:21). Isaiah’s song of God’s vineyard is perhaps the best known and demonstrates God’s sorrow over the failure of the vineyard to produce good grapes (Isaiah 5:1-7). What Israel, as God’s servant, was called to be (Isaiah 49:6), Jesus now is.

As the vine, Jesus is the sole source of nourishment. A branch has no existence apart from its attachment to the vine. Nor does it have a purpose apart from the vine. Nobody grows grape vines merely of ornamental purposes. The purpose of a branch is to bear the fruit, but the work of the branch is simply to remain connected with the vine. The vine, in processing the nutrients of the sun, soil and water does all the work and supplies all that the branch needs to bear fruit.

The fruit-bearing branch is pruned, which makes it even more fruitful. The Greek word used in 15:2, kathaira, translated “prunes,” has the same stem as the word “clean” in 15:3.

The promise of answered prayer appears again (15:7), and once again it is tied to doing the work of Jesus (bearing the fruit of the vine) and to the Father’s glory (14:13). This fruit-bearing process is the second sign of a follower of Jesus (13:35).

The Father is the gardener who does the pruning and careful tending. The branch need never worry about the gardener’s neglect or the vine’s inability to sustain the branches.

The end result of such dependence will be the enjoyment of God’s love and the fullness of joy. This joy lacks nothing and is the same joy that Jesus experiences. This joy is completely independent of any circumstances, external or internal, for its source is the communion of love between the Father, Jesus and the individual; this love is sustained by obedience.

For reflection:

• What meaning does the word abide have for you?
• How does the image of branch and vine apply to your own relationship with Jesus?
• What is the nourishment that the Christian receives from begin attached to Christ?
• What kind of fruit is God looking for from those who grow from the vine that is Jesus Christ?
• In what sense have the disciples already been pruned?
• What other ways do you think God prunes us?
• What happens to those branches that are attached to the vine but do not bear fruit? What would keep a branch from bearing fruit? What do you think this passage says about judgment?

The Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year B: April 29, 2012

Let us love

• Acts of the Apostles 4:5-12
• Psalm 23
• 1 John 3:16-24
• John 10:11-18

We know love by this, that Jesus laid down life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. 1 John 3:16-18

This Sunday is often called “Good Shepherd Sunday.” So many reflections and studies on this day will focus on the Gospel. But what if we were to focus on the meaning of the cross and the mission of the church? Our text in 1 John tells us that we, as recipients of the redeeming sacrifice of the shepherd who will lay his life down for his sheep, out in turn to “lay down our lives for one another” (v. 16). We should show as much love as Christ showed for us through self-giving and care for others. This love should be expressed through “truth and action” (v. 18), not mere words.

Some reflections from others:

“I have often been threatened by death. Nevertheless, as a Christian, I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I shall arise in the Salvadoran people. I say so without meaning to boast, with the greatest humility . . . Martyrdom is grace of God that I do not belief I deserve. But if God accepts the sacrifice of my life, let my blood be a seed of freedom and a sign that hope will soon be a reality. Let my death, if it is accepted by God, be for the liberation of my people and as a witness of hope in the future. You may say, if they succeed in killing me, that I pardon and bless those who do it. Would that thus they might be convinced that they will waste their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never perish.” Archbishop Oscar Romero, in speaking over the telephone to Jose Calderon Salazar, Guatemalan correspondent of the Mexican newspaper “Excelsior” about two weeks before his murder. 

“The meaning of the cross, of redemptive suffering, also appears in a different light for those who suffer and are killed as part of the struggle for justice. Too often Christians have treated the suffering Christ as some kind of cosmic legal transaction with God to pay for the sins of humanity, as though anyone’s sufferings and death could actually “pay for” others’ sins! Christ’s cross is used to inculcate a sense of masochistic guilt, unworthiness and passivity in Christians . . . . [Thus] to accept and endure evil is regarded as redemptive . . . . Solidarity with the poor and with those who suffer does not mean justifying these evils, but struggling to overcome them. As one struggles against evil, one also risks suffering and becomes vulnerable to retaliation and violence to those who are intent on keeping the present system intact . . . . But risking suffering and even death on behalf of a new society, we also awaken hope.” Rosemary Radford Ruether, “To Change the World: Christology and Cultural Criticism” (Crossroad Publishing, 1981)

For reflection:

• How are we called to be shepherds to others?
• How does your congregation serve others?
• How do you “lay down your life” for others?

The Third Sunday of Easter, Year B: April 22, 2012

Being known and proclaimed

• Acts of the Apostles 3:12-19
• Psalm 4
• 1 John 3:1-7
• Luke 24:36b-48

Bishop John Shelby Spong writes in Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (HarperCollins, 1992), “God has been met and known, even in a human life that was once a helpless infant. In a human life the limits of finitude have been broken, including the ultimate barrier of death, that is the story we have to tell . . . [But] we do not capture Christ. Our minds do not embrace Christ. Our words point to Christ. Our images interact with Christ. . . . Who is Christ for our day? What images can we employ that will enable us to be the body of Christ with integrity while remaining women and me of relevance in our generation?

Our readings today ask us to look around and notice that which we may not be able to see, but to pay attention to the signs that tell us that confirm the Risen Christ. Through the most physical and human of ways – eating with friends – we can experience a brief glimpse of the real presence of redemption. By reading the scriptures we can hear the proclamation of the Resurrection.

What we are to be had not yet been fully disclosed. Yet we do know that when Christ is someday revealed in his glory to us, we will know our relatedness to him. What we do comprehend is that throughout this life we well be undergoing a developing likeness to Christ. The words of the Psalmist in Psalm 4 gives us assurance and confidence in God’s redemptive love. The Lord does wonders for faithful people, acts that false gods cannot accomplish. The Lord puts gladness in the heart of the worshiper that is greater than the joy of any material prosperity.

We can rest assured knowing that through the sacrifice of Christ our Lord, we are redeemed and forgiven. Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The song, “Haleluya! Pelo tea rona” (Halleluia! We Sing Your Praises) is a South African freedom song.

• Verse 1: Jesus Christ said to us: I am wine, I am bread, I am wine, I am bread, give to all who hunger and thirst.
• Verse 2: Christ now sends us all out, strong in faith, free of doubt, strong in faith, free of doubt; tell to all the joyful Good News.

For reflection:

• As Jesus talked with his disciples he “opened their minds to understand the scriptures” (v. 45). What do you think he wanted them to understand, and why was this important at this time?
• How has being open to the scriptures made a difference in your own faith journey?
• How do you experience Jesus?
• How do you bear witness to the power of forgiveness and proclaim the Risen Lord?