Matthew 28:16-20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted.
And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
I have a question for us today. I invite you to consider this question and, I hope, in your consideration, you learn something about this faith of ours. Here is the question: what is essential in Christianity? What is at the heart of our faith?
Phil Hodson, our former conference minister, asked this question at the conference men’s retreat this year. What is at the heart of the gospel, he asked. I was feeling bold and shouted out from the back of the room, LOVE! He made a sound like a game show buzzer, BZZZRT! Wrong, he said. What! That can’t be wrong. Everyone knows that love is at the heart of the gospel. He went on to say, Christianity is about relationships rooted in love.
After I got over my embarrassment that I got the wrong answer, I recognized that he had said a very wise thing. Love, by itself, is a concept, a beautiful concept, but a concept nonetheless. Until love is embodied in a relationship, or even better, in community, it is lifeless. Relationships allow love to live.
The Jesus story is about relationships and how Jesus was always pointing out how God wants us to live love in those relationships. Love one another, not just keep love to yourselves. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. Which begs the question, what does loving God look like? Even this story from Matthew, where we have the Risen Christ appearing to the disciples, even here we have the Jesus message of relationships rooted in love. Go into the world, share what you have heard, bring others into these relationships rooted in love, baptize them, give them a ritual that sets them on a new life-affirming path, and do so in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and, just so you know you are not alone, I will be with you all along the way.
If only it were that easy. What is essentially a message that welcomes everyone, no matter who they are or where they are on life’s journey, this message is habitually co-opted by people in authority or people who have a real strong need to be right and place limits and requirements as to what is acceptable to be a Christian. These limits include language about God and who God is.
A case in point. Recently we had Trinity Sunday in the Christian calendar. It comes a week after Pentecost. This church calendar business is more important to the Catholics and Episcopalians, but we free church Christians get into the act, as well. Just to recap: The Church first celebrated the Easter Event, and, then, after a time, it set aside the Sunday 50 days after Easter to celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit to the disciples. And then, many years later, church councils ratified the doctrine of the Trinity as orthodox theology. One God. Three persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Everybody got that? Cause if you don’t, then maybe you can’t be part of this club we call church.
Just kidding. But only slightly. Because all the well-meaning and faithful work of the church these past 2000 years cannot save us from the human propensity to set up barriers with regard to holy stuff whereby access is restricted to those in the know, or those who follow the rules. But God’s attention to relationships rooted in love is not about special knowledge or achievement of any kind. It is lavished on all creation. Lavished. Like the spreading of seeds on all kinds of ground. Even the rocks and the weeds get the seeds, not just the fertile soil people. All of us. What a messy God we have.
And so, even though we cannot explain the Trinity, three in one, God, Christ, Spirit, we can make some sense of how it is about relationships rooted in love.
Not to say you have to think this way, because you don’t have to, but let’s just say that Jesus embodied the ability to convey a God-relationship rooted in love to others, so much so that his death was not the end of the story, but a new beginning. And let’s just say that those who got it, who recognized God in Jesus, also recognized that same God-ness in one another, especially in gathered community, with the shared breaking of bread and care for one another, and let’s just say, that, over time, these communities gravitated toward a mindset of seeing God and God’s self in a relationship rooted in love that coalesced around a holy fluidity, a Wholy-other love triangle, that allowed communities to see God as active, as ever present, as modeling the giving and receiving of holy love. Let’s just say.
I return to my earlier question. What is at the heart of our faith? Whatever it is, and each of us needs to find the words or the symbols or the stories to answer that question, whatever is at the heart of our faith, is what we are called to live out and live into. This is what gives us strength for the living of these days, this is what sustains us in times of trial, in moments of challenge, in our loneliness, worry and fear.
Scripture has wonderful words of life, yet there is something beyond words that draws us forward, beckons us, leads us. The language of the Trinity is like that. There is a mystery, an unknowing and unknowable element of the Christian story that lies beyond our capability to capture it or contain it. God is like that. Hindus have a phrase that helps describe this phenomenon, Neti Neti. It translates as, Not this, not that. Whatever language we use to describe God is insufficient.
And so we get to choose. Do we live with the paradox, the unknown, the mystery, the not having an answer or explanation for every religious question and, thereby, live by faith alone, or do we do something else? That something else could be just fine, like not worrying about religious concepts and going along with whatever seems to work. Maybe that is where most of us are. Or that something else could be not so fine, like judging others, and maybe ourselves, for not believing the right things and, thereby, feeling not worthy to be a part of the beloved community Jesus intended us to become.
If we choose to live by faith, it does not mean we don’t have questions or doubts about what the church teaches us. Every generation is called to grapple with the mystery. Still, we have God-given minds, free will, and grace. Maybe, at the heart of Christianity is what Paul Tillich wrote in one of his sermons,
You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!
Simply accept the fact that you are accepted. So profound. This is where relationships rooted in love begin. They begin with us, accepting that we are accepted. Even us. Out of that we can find ways to love. Out of that we can accept others. Each of us will do this in different ways because each of us is uniquely created. Some will love quietly, praying for the world, being mindful of how our words and actions are faithful to a God who loves all people. Some will love out loud, sharing the Jesus message of inclusion and care, actively speaking out for justice and peace in a world that desperately needs both.
Go into the world. The good news of Jesus is not meant to be kept a secret. Tell others how God wants us to have relationships rooted in love. Teach and share what Jesus taught and shared. Don’t create barriers to relationships rooted in love where Jesus did not. And, remember, God, in the complexity of God’s self, will be with us always to the end of the age. Amen.