Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Cellphones. Can't live with them, can't live without them. At least that's how it is
in the modern world.
Many of us, including myself, use them constantly. For many of us they are tools to help us in our work and to connect us to our loved ones and the world. For some, they are simply tools of entertainment that many of us find it all too easy to become addicted to. And that is a problem that is often true for our campers at Sawyerville Day Camp.
One of the messages I've heard over the years at Sawyerville is don't pull out your cellphone during camp. And it was something I remember one of the camp supervisors mentioning on the second day of camp. If we are on our cellphones, it makes it okay for the kids to be on theirs.
We were being told to lead by example. Since the kids look to us for what to do and how to behave, we need to mirror to them the behavior that we want to see.
God does the exact same thing with us. His hope is for us to behave a certain way, to be together in our daily life and work with each other in a certain way. And to mirror to us what His intentions for us are, He presents Himself to us in Trinity. And this is the lesson we hear in our readings this morning.
We see this first through our reading from 2 Corinthians. Our patron, St. Paul, calls us to be at peace with one another. To live in agreement. And he ends by saying "the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all."
Our peace with each other reflects the peace of God Himself. The peace of God in Trinity.
And Paul calls us to have our harmony reflect His unity as well. Because, of course, the Trinity is not three gods that we worship, but One God in three persons.
Our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures reflects that unity and that plurality. It is in our Genesis reading this morning that we hear God say "Let us make humankind in our own image."
That "us" has been understood by Christians throughout the ages to be a reference to God in Trinity, even though the ancient Hebrews didn't have that concept of God yet. And how could they? God the Son had not yet come to walk among us humans at this point.
This "us" of God's that we hear in Genesis is important because it is in our creation that we hear this word. "Let us make humankind." "Let us make humankind in our own image."
God, in revealing Himself in Trinity, in expressing Himself to us in Trinity, is trying to say something about us as humans. That we are not meant to live alone. That we are meant to be in relationship with one another. That we are meant to be in unity as many. Unity as plurality.
God, as He has revealed Himself to us, is in multiple persons. Multiple persons who work together, perfectly united. Multiple persons who come together as one being. Multiple persons who are in perfect relationship with one another.
This sort of relationship, the one of peace that Paul calls us to this morning, is what God is trying to lead us toward. And By revealing Himself in Trinity, God even gives us an example of what that relationship is supposed to look like.
We often talk about what God does in His attempt to bring us to closer relationship with one another. We talk about the glory that is God's coming into the world as Jesus Christ, the Son. We talk about His love that was so great that He died for us and rose again to renew our relationship with Him and one another.
We often speak of the very events we have celebrated in the past few weeks. That as the Son ascended to prepare a place for us with the Father, He did not leave us alone. That we bear the Spirit of God, given first to the disciples at Pentecost, with us always to help guide us as we share the great mystery of God's love for us in Jesus Christ. And in sharing that love, we become closer to each other as Christ Jesus has brought us closer to Himself.
We talk about what God has done to show and foster relationship. We don't often talk about who He is and how that calls us to further relationship with each other.
Many of us, including myself, use them constantly. For many of us they are tools to help us in our work and to connect us to our loved ones and the world. For some, they are simply tools of entertainment that many of us find it all too easy to become addicted to. And that is a problem that is often true for our campers at Sawyerville Day Camp.
One of the messages I've heard over the years at Sawyerville is don't pull out your cellphone during camp. And it was something I remember one of the camp supervisors mentioning on the second day of camp. If we are on our cellphones, it makes it okay for the kids to be on theirs.
We were being told to lead by example. Since the kids look to us for what to do and how to behave, we need to mirror to them the behavior that we want to see.
God does the exact same thing with us. His hope is for us to behave a certain way, to be together in our daily life and work with each other in a certain way. And to mirror to us what His intentions for us are, He presents Himself to us in Trinity. And this is the lesson we hear in our readings this morning.
We see this first through our reading from 2 Corinthians. Our patron, St. Paul, calls us to be at peace with one another. To live in agreement. And he ends by saying "the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all."
Our peace with each other reflects the peace of God Himself. The peace of God in Trinity.
And Paul calls us to have our harmony reflect His unity as well. Because, of course, the Trinity is not three gods that we worship, but One God in three persons.
Our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures reflects that unity and that plurality. It is in our Genesis reading this morning that we hear God say "Let us make humankind in our own image."
That "us" has been understood by Christians throughout the ages to be a reference to God in Trinity, even though the ancient Hebrews didn't have that concept of God yet. And how could they? God the Son had not yet come to walk among us humans at this point.
This "us" of God's that we hear in Genesis is important because it is in our creation that we hear this word. "Let us make humankind." "Let us make humankind in our own image."
God, in revealing Himself in Trinity, in expressing Himself to us in Trinity, is trying to say something about us as humans. That we are not meant to live alone. That we are meant to be in relationship with one another. That we are meant to be in unity as many. Unity as plurality.
God, as He has revealed Himself to us, is in multiple persons. Multiple persons who work together, perfectly united. Multiple persons who come together as one being. Multiple persons who are in perfect relationship with one another.
This sort of relationship, the one of peace that Paul calls us to this morning, is what God is trying to lead us toward. And By revealing Himself in Trinity, God even gives us an example of what that relationship is supposed to look like.
We often talk about what God does in His attempt to bring us to closer relationship with one another. We talk about the glory that is God's coming into the world as Jesus Christ, the Son. We talk about His love that was so great that He died for us and rose again to renew our relationship with Him and one another.
We often speak of the very events we have celebrated in the past few weeks. That as the Son ascended to prepare a place for us with the Father, He did not leave us alone. That we bear the Spirit of God, given first to the disciples at Pentecost, with us always to help guide us as we share the great mystery of God's love for us in Jesus Christ. And in sharing that love, we become closer to each other as Christ Jesus has brought us closer to Himself.
We talk about what God has done to show and foster relationship. We don't often talk about who He is and how that calls us to further relationship with each other.
The Trinity is the example God gives to us about how to relate with each other. That though we are many, we are all one body, united with each other through Him. As we follow God's example, we will find ourselves becoming closer to each other. And as we grow together through God, we will hopefully find ourselves all also growing much closer to Him.