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Trinity Sunday
June 11, 2006
Given at St. Joseph�s Church in Mullen |
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I want to thank you for asking me to come back here to preach and to celebrate the Eucharist. It is such an honor to be here with the people I have known all my life. It�s been a fun weekend, seeing all the people I grew up with, coming back to my home town. Didn�t get much sleep, but I�ve had a lot of fun! It�s like going back in time, back to where I started. In today�s Gospel, Nicodemus asks, "Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answers �Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born anew.' The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit." |
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Jesus is telling Nicodemus that the Spirit that came on Pentecost will cause a person to be born anew. Today is Trinity Sunday, the day we talk about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We understand The Father, the Creator. Now, God the Son, Jesus, who is the Son of God, but is also God�that gets a little harder for us to wrap our heads around. And the Holy Spirit seems completely incomprehensible! There was once a little girl who came out of Sunday school. Her mom asked her, �Well, what did you learn in Sunday school today?� The little girl said, �We don�t have to worry, because we�re gonna get a quilt.� Confused, the mother asked the Sunday school teacher about it the next time she saw her. The teacher said, �Oh, we were studying the text where Jesus says, �Be not afraid, for I am sending a Comforter!�� |
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Some people have a huge emotional life-changing experience of being �born-again�. Others grow into their faith slowly, like a child growing into his daddy�s boots, and both those experiences are valid. I guess I would put myself in the latter category: I can never remember a time my church didn�t play at least some part in my life. When I was in college, I didn�t go to church too much. But every now and then I�d run into Ron Roseberry on campus, and he�d say, �We should go to church sometime. I�ll pick you up at a quarter till 10 on Sunday.� And we�d head off to church. |
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So I grew into my faith. But sometimes, we go at too slow a pace, or in the wrong direction. Then the Holy Spirit gives us a little nudge. Or maybe a swift kick. I can�t say that I�ve had a �Born-again� experience. But I have had an experience with the Holy Spirit, a �swift kick� if you will, and I�d like to tell you about it. |
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Seven or eight years, ago, there were two programs that burst forth into the Diocese of Nebraska. One, as you know, was Total Ministry. Canon Tim Vann was traveling across the diocese talking about this exciting new program to help all people realize their ministries and assume important roles in the church. I heard him more than once say, �Now the folks at St. Joseph�s in Mullen really get it. They said, �But isn�t that what we�ve already been doing?�� |
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Meanwhile at St. Mark�s in Creighton, we had meetings and classes and gift discernments and I had come to believe that my role in the church might be preaching--not every week, mind you, but once in awhile. Somebody else could do the sacramental stuff, but I like to teach and Heaven knows I like to talk, so preaching seemed to be a logical outlet. Under the guidance of Mercy Hobbs, the missioner at St. Mark's, I started giving a sermon or two. |
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The other program that was going on at the time was Women of Vision, a program designed to help us learn more about our gifts and talents, and how to discern just what God intended for us to do with them. I attended a Women of Vision weekend at the House of the Transfiguration in Bayard, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A few months later, I was asked to go to St. Louis to a Women of Vision training session, to become a leader. Sure, why not. I wouldn�t mind giving those sessions across the state. Sounded like fun. |
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So I headed off to St. Louis. As soon as we got there on a Thursday night, and got settled in, we were invited to sign up to assist in the Holy Eucharist service on Sunday. Another lady and I signed up for preaching. This will be great, I thought. With two of us, we could do a dialog, or a skit, or any number of creative things with a sermon. |
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Then we started our Women of Vision sessions. They were quite intense, we were getting �on the job training� by presenting some of the modules. I had so much to remember and think about, I forgot all about this upcoming sermon. Finally, at noon on Saturday, our leaders mentioned that all the committees who had signed up for the service on Sunday needed to be getting things organized. I found the other lady who had signed up for the sermon. She told me, �Oh, I changed my mind. I�m on the music committee now.� |
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Oh.
In the meantime, I had met many of my fellow participants. These training sessions were held all over the country, and St. Louis was the only one in the Midwest. So I assumed that the women attending would all be from the Midwest. Well, not all�There were some ladies from the Dominican Republic, planning to take the Women of Vision program back to their country. There were at least two people who had served on the Executive Council at the National Church level. There was one woman who was on the committee to write a new prayer book. There were women who held offices in the national ECW. In other words, the movers and shakers of the Episcopal Church were there. A couple of movers and shakers of the Southern Baptist Church were there, too, hoping to take the program to their women�s groups in North Carolina. |
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And there was me. And I --a small town Nebraska girl--was going to preach to them!?! I was way out of my league. A cold panic started to set in. |
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Well, we continued our sessions. The final module of Women of Vision is called Getting Your Act Together and Taking it On the Road, a way to prayerfully discern just how we�re being called to use our gifts and talents. The session started after supper on Saturday night, and I remember thinking, �I hope this doesn�t last too late. I have a sermon to write!� |
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| To St. Mark's |
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To Page 2 |
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