Trinity Sunday
June 11, 2017
Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Psalm 8; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew
28:16-20
How fitting. How perfectly fitting. Beloved, this is my
last sermon, the last word of God from me to you, and today’s Scriptures are so
appropriate. We follow the lectionary, meaning that I don’t pick out the
Scriptures each week; they were chosen a long time ago (in a galaxy far, far
away?). This morning we read about the beginning of time, creation, “in the
beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth.” And we read about
goodbyes, Paul’s farewell to the Corinthians and the Great Commission Jesus
gives to the disciples, “Therefore, go, and make disciples of all nations…” The
beginning and the end. Creation and instructions to continue to perfect and
transform creation into all that God created it to become. So, actually, not
the end. Just the end of a chapter, of a season. My very first sermon here was
about seasons, a church for all seasons. For all seasons of life, as our
worship includes babies all the way through persons in their 90s. For all
seasons of the church year, as we’ve been through some periods of expectancy,
like Advent, some celebrations, like Christmas and Easter, some rough times,
like Lent, and some ordinary time, like, well, the season called ordinary time.
I am excited for the future. I am expectant, waiting to see what God’s about to
do next through you. I don’t get to
walk with you through this next season, just to the edge of it. I could be
wrong, you may disagree with me, yet what I think is that y’all are about to
enter a season of Advent. A season of waiting, a season of anticipating God to
act, a season of getting ready. God is about to act in a mighty way, and your
job is to get ready. So, a list of final instructions as you prepare for what
God is going to do next in your midst. Here is what Paul tells the Corinthians
at the end of his final letter to them.
First,
“put things in order.” Make sure
things are ready! Advent is a time of getting ready for Christmas, getting
ready for the birth of a baby. And you get ready for a baby with a lot of
preparation. Clothes, crib, bottles, toys, diapers, wipes, more diapers. When I
was pregnant the first time, I even bought Christmas presents ahead of time and
got all my Christmas shopping done before my daughter was born. You put things
in order and get ready. Now, what exactly are you getting ready for? I don’t
know exactly. But you’re getting ready for God to move. How, precisely, I don’t
know. Yet you can still get ready. Put things in order. Tie up loose ends.
Clean the windows. Repair what needs repairing. Continue to study and read
God’s word. Continue to participate in the ministries of the church through
your prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness.
Now,
y’all know that I compare the translations of the Bible because Cowenton and
Piney Grove use different ones. The Good News Bible that Cowenton uses doesn’t
say “put things in order.” It says, “strive for perfection,” which is a bit
different. Even the NIV, the New International Version, says, “strive for full
restoration.” Now that is perhaps a more helpful phrasing, because “strive for
perfection,” at least if you’re a perfectionist like me, that puts a lot of
pressure on you! Perfection is a lofty goal, way up here, and there is always
more to be done to get there! Yet if putting things in order is to strive for
full restoration, then that clarifies things a bit. It’s not this unachievable
ideal, but instead something we can attain. Restoration. Like restoring an old
car. You look at the different parts and how well they work or not and can
figure out from there what you have to do to fully restore the car. Paint job,
new carburetor, tweak the engine, maybe new tires, patch the seat, make sure
the gear box shifts smoothly. Full restoration. Put things in order. Make sure
they work. Get ready.
The
second instruction Paul gives the Corinthians is to “listen to my appeals,” or,
more helpfully, “respond to my
encouragement.” Respond to my encouragement, and not just mine, but all encouragement. Be encouraged! It’s
going to be okay. God will work it
out. God will move. Promise! I may
not be the one you find inspiring, and that’s okay. But there is someone who does inspire you, someone who does encourage you, and I’m not just
talking about the Holy Spirit, either. Be encouraged, by wherever you find that
encouragement. Don’t be discouraged.
That is far too easy and far too common these days. Don’t listen to whoever is
trying to discourage you. Because you can
do it! I believe in you. More than that, I
believe in the power of God at work in
you.
Again,
that NIV translation has a different way of putting it; it says, “Encourage one
another.” It’s not just my
encouragement, or a preacher’s encouragement, or a leader’s encouragement, y’all are to encourage each other. Together you will get through this.
Together, you have already come through a
lot. You’ve been through fire. You’ve been through hell. And here you are,
on the other side. You are survivors. And yet God’s will for you isn’t to just survive. God wants you to thrive. God wants full restoration. Sure, Job made it through all those times of
testing, losing his livestock, his livelihood. Losing his children. Losing his
health. But God didn’t just leave him there at the end with nothing. God restored his health. God restored his livestock, twice as much as he had before! And God
gave him children again. Be encouraged. The goal is full restoration. That’s
what God wants for you. That’s what every pastor who ever graces this pulpit
wants for you. It’s not going to look the same as before. We’re moving forward,
not backward. Job didn’t get the same children back; new children were born to
him and his wife. Creation at the end isn’t going to look the same as creation
at the beginning. Still a garden, but a restored garden. Just like a restored
classic car doesn’t look quite the same as the original car. Restoration brings
something extra with it, some fullness, some completion that you didn’t know was
missing. The garden at the end of time has a city. So encourage one another. It
will be all right.
Third,
Paul says to “be in harmony with each
other and live in peace.” They’re listed separately, but they’re similar
enough we can put them together. Be in harmony with each other. That does not
mean be exactly alike. The bible study leader at Annual Conference said that
“unity is not uniformity.”[1]
It’s being together, but not the same. This is the current ad campaign for
androids. In the tech world, to simplify, basically there are two choices.
There’s Apple, and their iPhone, iMac, iPod, i-everything. And there’s
androids, which is everything else. There are a handful of other operating
systems, but the 99% of the world uses either Apple or android. They are two
different operating systems, two different ways of computerizing. The Apple
technology all looks alike, right? IPhones, iPads, if you’ve seen one, you’ve
seen them all. Androids, however, are customizable in a way that Apple products
are not. So, a couple years ago, Android came out with an ad campaign called
“be together, not the same.” Stick together, as a group, but still be your own
individual self and not blindly follow the crowd.[2]
We are brothers and sisters, all members of God’s family, yet we also still
have our own identities. Paul has already explained this to the Corinthians in
his first letter to them.[3]
Just as our body is one body with many members, like hand, eye, foot, and so
on, and we need all of our parts, so is the body of Christ, the Church. We are
all part of God’s family, yet not the same part. Some of us sing in the choir.
Some of us work with the children. Some of us hand out bulletins before
worship. Some of us answer the phone when the District Superintendent calls.
Harmony isn’t everyone singing the same note, but the
same song. All the sopranos are going
to sing the same note, and the altos may even occasionally sing the same note
as the sopranos. But the tenors will have their own note to sing, and the basses
will have their own note. A harmony is made up of many notes, many people, and
they’re in harmony because their notes sound well together, because they’re all
singing from the same sheet of music. The best analogy I’ve ever heard for the
kingdom of heaven is that of a choir. When a choir practices, you still have to
have sectionals. The tenors have to practice their part together so that it
doesn’t get lost when they join the whole choir. The basses have to know their
part to sing. The altos have to know their notes. The sopranos have to know
their notes. Each church is like a sectional rehearsal, getting ready for the
big concert. We have to know our part, to be able to sing it even when we’re
singing with others who are singing other parts, and not drown out the other
parts or lose our place in the music. Harmony isn’t when one voice is singing
louder than the rest. Harmony isn’t when one voice gets lost. It’s all the
voices singing together, each singing their own part. That’s being in harmony
with one another. And that’s living in peace with each other. Peace, which says
that my part isn’t more important than yours. My voice should not be louder than
yours. Peace is making sure all the voices are heard and all the voices are singing their
part. I can’t sing a bass note. [Try?] That’s not my part. I sing my note and
you sing your note and we both should be able to hear both notes. That’s
singing in harmony, and that’s living in peace.
Now,
in case we’ve forgotten, why is all that important? Why are those Paul’s final
instructions to the Corinthians? Because Jesus sends us, just like the first
disciples, to go and make disciples. Putting things in order, being encouraged
and encouraging each other, being in harmony and living in peace, those are all
so that the world will see the glory of God through us. So that the world will
see God at work through us. It’s our witness. It’s in order that we can go and make disciples for the
transformation of the world. Remember, the goal is full restoration. The goal
is the restoration of creation. The restoration of you. The restoration of me.
There’s
a children’s book that came out a couple years ago called “The Story of King
Jesus” by Ben Irwin. It’s basically the whole bible condensed down into one
children’s story, or as the back says, “The whole gospel in a single story.” It
starts with creation, and how everything began with God and “God made the world
to be his home.” But, people didn’t like doing things God’s way; they wanted to
do things their own way and be in charge. And it goes on through Abraham and
the first covenant and the early kings of Israel and the prophets. Then God’s
plan to send someone special, someone who would rule the world as King, rule
the way God wanted. Jesus. “But some people still didn’t want to do things
God’s way… [And so they] decided to stop Jesus before he could take away their
power.” It goes through the crucifixion and Jesus dying “to make the world
right and good again,” to restore it.
Our job is to “love each other with all we’ve got” as we join God in his work
of restoring the world, restoring creation to be right and good again. God’s
about to act in a mighty way here. I am excited for your future and for
restoration. Get ready. Be encouraged. Know your part in the harmony and listen
for each other’s notes. And remember, God will be with you always, until the very
end of the age. That’s better than any pastor being with you always. It’s God. Who can do more than we can ever
dream or imagine. Thanks be to God.
