Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Matthew 28:16-20

Today, the Sunday following Pentecost is traditionally known as Trinity Sunday. If we did not confuse you enough last week with talk of Spirits and whatnot, this Sunday, we confuse you even more with a doctrine that people have been trying to explain since the 1st century. Is there any wonder the Gospel passage contains the phrase, “but some doubted.”

Looking through the pages of Scripture, we cannot find literal examples of the Trinity, the idea that there is one God with three distinct persons, God, Son, and Holy Spirit. However, since the 1st century, this idea of how God relates to the Son and to the Holy Spirit has been used, but it was not until the First Council of Nicaea in 324 that the so-called Doctrine of the Holy Trinity was established. Do the math; it took three centuries to come up with and 18 centuries to try and explain it.

Now, I am not going to wade into the waters of trying to decipher this for you, I do not truly understand it, and we do not have that kind of time. However, I think it is essential to know that we, as a denomination, and I, as your pastor, are Trinitarian Christians. I believe, as the Creed says, there was never a time when the three did not exist. They were all present at Creation and continue to work in the world today.

But there are some, perhaps some of you, that doubt, and as we heard from the Gospel of Matthew this morning, doubt is not a bad thing. Doubt allows us to ask questions. Doubt pushes us beyond what we might have been taught in Sunday School. Doubt equals growth. But doubt only truly works if you ask those questions. So go ahead with doubt but ask your questions as well.

The first place in Scripture where Trinity is encountered is at the beginning of the Book of Genesis in the creation story. Today, I chose a different translation than the typical, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.” These few words fit the idea that God created the universe, ex nihilo, out of nothing. That one day, God decided I needed a universe, snapped his fingers, and created it.

I chose the more nuanced “When God began to create the heavens and the earth.” As I understand it, this is closer to what the Hebrew text says.

Since I do not read Hebrew, I asked for a ruling from my friend Rabbi Erick Berk at Congregation Sha’aray Shalom in Hingham, who wrote, In the Hebrew, in my opinion, it’s more literally something like, “In the beginning, God having created the heavens and the earth — and the earth was unformed and void [confusion and chaos], with darkness over the surface of the deep….”

Let’s unpack this a bit.

Almost every civilization has a creation story, which is not unique to the Judeo/Christian context. However, in all the other creation stories, Creation happens out of violence. The other creation stories are stories of the destruction that precedes the Creation. What is presented here has to be destroyed and annihilated before the Creation of something beautiful can take place.

The Genesis story is a story of reconciliation. Opposites exist alongside one another: order and chaos, land and sea, heavens and earth, light and dark, fish and birds, male and female. Yet, the existence of one does not subjugate or eliminate the other but co-exists in a reconciled balance that God repeatedly affirms as “good” and, finally, as “very good.”

So, before the Judeo/Christian understanding of Creation, the world existed, and God brought order out of chaos. God confronts chaos, a universe that cannot find peace and rest, and brings what the universe longs for, not in some sense of existential eschatological supremacy but rather in the sense of a calming presence that has not come to condemn but to reconcile.

The importance of using “when God began to create” is to show that Creation, as we understand it in the traditional formula, has not ended but continues. Ordering of the universe did not take place in six days, either literal or otherwise; the ordering is continuous, ongoing not only in the world around us but also in us.

As I have said before, Scripture is neither history nor science but a record of a people’s faith journey; as such, the stories contained are there to help them, and by extension us, make sense out of that journey. Many forms of literature are included in the pages of this book, and Genesis is poetry rather than history.

Each stanza has a matched pair except for the 7th, which is humanity’s response to Creation. 1st and 4th = God creates Day/Night and celestial bodies to rule them. 2nd and 5th = God creates sky and waters, and then the inhabitants of each. 3rd and 6th = God creates sea and dry land, and the vegetation, animals, and humanity, who “have dominion.” Neither dominates the other. Instead, they exist in a sort of symbiotic relationship where one needs the other and vice versa.

In the 31st verse, we read, “God saw everything God had made: it was supremely good.”

This good is not a moralistic good but rather an intrinsic good. All of Creation is good. God has blessed all of Creation, and not part of Creation exists separate from God; Creation and the Creator are connected. Light is connected to the tides, which are connected to the plant, which are connected to the animals, which are connected to humans, which are connected to God. There is no isolation in Creation.

So, what does all this mean for us?

God is not some distant ogre sitting on a cloud smiting things. Regardless of what you hear from the evangelicals and the TV preachers, God truly loves us just as we are. Of course, God desires that we change and live to our fullest potential, but God does not judge when we fail; we do that.

From the very beginning, God came in peace, not in violence. God came in love to order all things and to reconcile all things. God came to teach us how to live with one another, not in the sense of hierarchy or one is better than the other or more superior to the other, but rather how we can live together in a relationship and need each other to flourish.

God loves all of Creation and makes room for those who doubt. Notice from Matthews’s Gospel that the believers and the doubters worshipped together; there was room for everyone. Seekers, doubters, and believers are all welcome at God’s table, where we work together rather than against each other.

I mentioned that God did not finish Creation on that six-day; instead, Creation is an ongoing action, which is essential. The idea behind this story of Creation is not to prove or disprove anything. The idea is that God came and brought chaos into order, and God continues to do that on a personal level.

God can bring order to whatever chaos rages inside of each of us. All we need to do is ask. But, unfortunately, many of us grew up with an image of God that was, what can I say, less than helpful to our long-term mental health and spiritual growth. We grew up with this idea that we had to be afraid of God, and if we did not fit into a particular mold, we would be sent damnation in the fires of hell. Nothing, and I mean nothing, could be further from the truth.

In a few moments, we will gather around this table, this table that was and is the greatest expression of love. We share the common elements, invite the Holy Spirit to come and bless them, and share them equally, and there is enough for all.

Jesus came not to condemn this world we live in nor to condemn us but rather to show us a better way, the way of Creation, the way of reconciliation with all, and how to live with and love each other. The story of Creation and the story of Jesus are connected by love. For God so loved the world that God did not leave us alone but is right here with us to bring us peace and comfort.

Amen.

Acts 2:1-21

On May 24, 1738, John Wesley attended a meeting at Aldersgate, London, where he received an assurance of his New Birth. This was a pivotal event in the life of Wesley that would eventually lead to a movement called Methodism in England and North America.

Wesley had been feeling a bit down on that day in May of 1738. The Spirit had stirred him to preach a more robust, more enthusiastic Gospel message that had been all but rejected by his Anglican brothers and sisters. So he reluctantly attended that meeting at the Moravian meeting house on Aldersgate Street in London. There, he felt a strange warmth in his heart and soul.

He described the event in his journal:

“I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

On October 11, 1962, in Vatican City, the newly elected Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council with the words, “it is time to open the windows and let the fresh air in.” John felt that the Church had become stagnant and closed to what was happening in the world around them. He thought that the Church was out of touch and that the Church needed to get off the sidelines and into the world in hopes of making a difference.

It was too much for some, and for others, it was not enough. But like Wesley’s experience in 1738, this experience of John in Rome was the spark that lit the fuse of Reformation. Reformation usually happens when we humans get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit run things.

Today is the Feast of Pentecost. We had come 7 Sundays of 50 days since Jesus’ Resurrection, and today, Jesus’ promise is fulfilled when he said he would send another after him, the one who would be a comforter and give them strength for what lies ahead.

We heard from Luke, the writer of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, tells the story of how they were all gathered in the Upper Room. It is supposed that this is the same place where they gathered after the Crucifixion and where Jesus appeared to them. But there they were, gathered. It had become their custom to do so. Then, suddenly, there was a sound like a great “rushing of wind” filling the entire house.

After the wind had ceased, fire descended and hovered over their heads, and it was at this moment that the Holy Spirit arrived.

In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Trinitarian Christianity, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as an agent of divine action or communication. In the Baha’i Faith, the Holy Spirit is seen as the intermediary between God and man and “the outpouring grace of God and the effulgent rays that emanate from His Manifestation.”

But this is not the start of the Spirit’s work in the world. If we go back to “in the beginning,” we encounter the Spirit a few times. During the early stages of creation, the Spirit hovers over the water, and after God creates humanity, God breathes into humanity’s lungs God’s “ruach elochim,” the very breath of God. God creates, but it is the Spirit that animates, that gives humanity its purpose, and that is what we see here.

Sure, the Apostles have done some pretty cool things up to this point. We hear stories of Peter healing, and people want to be near him, hoping his shadow will fall upon them and heal them. But what is coming next for them will be greater than all that has come before.

In the Acts of the Apostles, we hear that they spoke in tongues after the Spirit came upon them. Now, a great deal of time and energy has been spent trying to figure this out. I know people who claim to be able to “speak in tongues,” but they always manage to leave out one thing, the interpretation of what is being said.

When the Apostles were able to speak in various languages, others were able to understand them. Now, we have to go back to the Hebrew Scriptures and the story of the Towe of Babel. You will know the story. The inhabitants of Babel wanted to build a tower so high it would reach God. God does not want this to happen; he “confused their language” so they would no longer be able to work together. At this time, anyway, everyone spoke the same language. My guess is it was English; I mean, why wouldn’t it be?

But I digress; language was confused, but in this act of the Holy Spirit, the language was no longer confused. Each person heard the message in their own language, and they understood it. Was Peter speaking multiple languages? No, certainly not. Peter was speaking in whatever language Peter spoke, probably Aramaic; however, all those listening could hear him and understand. No longer was the message of Jesus reserved only for the Jews; the message of Jesus was now to be universal, for all the world to hear and understand. The Spirit has not just descended upon the Apostles but upon all of those present.

But what or who is this Spirit?

As we have already mentioned, the Holy Spirit is not just reserved for Christianity. However, in Christianity, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, not in a hierarchical sense that any one of them is greater than the other, but rather three distinct persons or personalities that all share the same essence. Don’t worry if you don’t understand; people have been fighting about this for centuries, and we will certainly not crack that code today.

It was, in essence, anyway, three words about the Holy Spirit that divided the Universal Church between East and West in the 11th century. The words “and the Son” relate to the progression or who the Spirit proceeds. Does the Spirit come from God alone, as those in the East profess, or does the Spirit proceed from the Son? But, again, we will not find the answer to that question today.

So, what does all of this have to do with us? Are we supposed to see fire on each other’s heads? If we did, we would rightly run for the closest fire extinguisher. Like John in Rome, do we throw open the windows and allow the fresh air in? Maybe all of these.

The Spirit does not always come as a rushing wind; most of the time, the Spirit comes as a calming presence, as Jesus did when he first appeared after the resurrection. Jesus’s first words after his sudden appearance was, “Peace be with you.” Yes, the Spirit brings boldness and Reformation, but the Spirit also brings peace. When the Spirit hovered over the waters at creation, it was to bring order out of chaos, not the other way around.

The Christ who came to them and breathed on them is the one who comes today into our broken lives and broken world and offers us that same grace and that same peace. So we need to make room for that same Spirit to come and bring peace to folx who are hurting or afraid and into a community where there has been conflict or concern, in other words, into our lives and the lives of those in our community.

But the Spirit is also a unifier. We heard how everyone could hear the message in their own language; the Spirit unified them to make this possible. We need that Spirit of unification. Our Church and our nation are all being pulled apart, and we need to unify our prayers so that we all start to listen to one another and, rather than focus on what divides us, work for what brings us together.

But all of this begins with us and our relationship with God and our relationship with one another. If we desire to be agents of change, then we need to be willing to change. If we want peace, we need to be peaceful and work for things that bring peace. If we want the world to be more loving, then we need to work for things that bring that love. All of this is possible with the help of the Holy Spirit.

The Apostles were all gathered in that Upper Room. They were scared and confused. Sure, Jesus had returned and brought his peace, but now he was gone again. Just a few days ago, he had left them, and they were once again on their own. But Jesus promised that the Spirit would come and bring them peace and bring them strength. So did their life get easier? Nope, in fact, it got worse.

The promise is that God will always be with us in the good times and the bad. I hope we truly believe that. Will the Spirit help us to change the world, maybe? But the world that needs to change is inside each of us. So let the Spirit warm your heart, and that spark of warmth might just change the world.

Amen.

One of my favorite buildings in Washington, DC, is The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, or the Washington National Cathedral. The Cathedral is the second-largest Church building in the United States. In New York City, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the largest. The Cathedral is also the third largest building in the City of Washington.

Although it is the Cathedral Church of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC, by Congressional Charter, it is a house of worship for all people.

It is an imposing structure. Construction began on September 29, 1907, with the laying of the cornerstone after a ceremony attended by President Theodore Roosevelt. Construction ended in 1990 at a ceremony attended by Present George HW Bush. If you have not done the math, that is 83 years. We replaced the floor in the first Church I served in, which took two weeks, and I thought that was a long time.

I have visited the Cathedral several times, and two of those visits stand out in my mind. The first was when I was able to step into the Canterbury Pulpit. The Pulpit stands six steps above the congregation and is an imposing carved stone structure. Standing in the pulpit, you get a sense of history and can feel the spirit and energy of those who have stood there before you.

But the most memorable occasion for the consecration of my friend Joe as bishop. During the consecration, I was honored to serve with him at the High Altar. It was an amazing and spirit-filled day that I think I will remember for my entire life.

Cathedral Churches are important places in the lives of people. Yesterday, we witnessed the Coronation of the King of the United Kingdom, an event that has not occurred for 70 years. Westminster Abbey, The Cathedral Church in London, hosted this event. The Abbey has been the place of Coronations for at least 1,000 years, so it’s been around a long time.

Like cathedrals, the coronation ceremony blends the sacred and the secular. The King cannot be legitimized until he is anointed. It is that anointing, and not the crowning, that makes him a King. And notice that the crown is not placed on the sovereign’s head by some government functionary. Instead, the crown is placed on the King’s head by the Archbishop of Canterbury after a prayer is said over that very same crown. Of all the oaths sworn by the new King, the most poignant is the one when he swore to protect the faith of the Church and the faith of his subjects.

But why all this talk about the cathedrals and kings, after all? We are Americans; we have thrown all of that off. Our denomination doesn’t have cathedrals or anything close to them, but we do have sacred space.

One common thread in all cathedrals is stones. Stones make up the construction of the walls of most cathedrals. From those ancient buildings in Europe to that one in Washington, DC, one stone was placed upon another stone until the building was complete.

Each stone is handled by a skilled craftsman and fitted perfectly into place. No two stones are alike; that is why it took 83 years to build. Yesterday, after the Coronation, I continued working on my Cathedral, which I hope does not take 83 years to finish.

Yesterday, I was closing in a few walls that we had to open to fit the plumbing in. As anyone who has worked on old structures knows, nothing is straight or plumb; everything seems to be a little off. As is fitting for the cottage, I am closing in the walls with wood. In new construction, one would cut a bunch of pieces all the same length, and off you go. In an old structure, each piece must be measured, cut, and sometimes recut to get it to fit. Sometimes, I would cut a piece twice, and it was still too short.

Unlike wood, stones do not burn or rot. If the foundation of a stone structure is done correctly, that structure should remain standing for thousands of years. Another Cathedral, Notre Dame in Paris, is a good example. We all witnessed the devastating fire a few years ago that destroyed that beautiful place. When the fire was out, the stones remained somewhat weakened because the structure holding them together was gone, but they stood there in defiance of the trauma that the fire caused. Stone lasts a long time.

In today’s reading from the First Letter of Peter, we hear a lot about stones. The writer of the Letter refers to Jesus as “a living stone.” The author later quotes Jesus himself when he mentions, “the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

One thing I should have mentioned was rejection in the building process. Not all stones are acceptable for building in their present state; most, if not all, need to be worked, especially the cornerstone. The foundation is the most crucial part of any building project, whether a cathedral or an outhouse. Get it wrong, and everything will be wrong. But get it right, and you have a masterpiece. And the cornerstone, the first stone laid, is the most important, for all others are placed of that stone.

But Peter is not writing about building; Peter is writing about faith, your faith, and my faith and how it should be built.

We need to begin with a solid foundation. Usually, this starts when we are children, but not always. However, what we learn as children needs to be updated. Children think in concrete terms; they do not understand allegory and nuance, so we tell them stories that they can understand. Two people in a garden eating fruit. A boat filled with animals and a few people, etc. But as we get older and understand more, how we understand those things needs to change. But a solid foundation is essential.

What we put on top of that foundation is also essential. We need to use the best materials and take our time assembling them. If you use junk, junk will be produced, and you will spend many hours fixing things. If we take time, we will build it right the first time. And, like any old structure, our faith needs renovation and sprucing up occasionally. Maybe we have outgrown our faith or need to make more room. So, we renovate, remove walls, and fix broken things. Just because something worked for you years ago does not mean it works today. It is okay to undertake a renovation.

Here we sit inside a building only partially made of stone. Those who came before us worked hard to build this place of worship that they have left in our care. But this building is not the Church, something COVID reminded us. Although I appreciate the simple beauty of this place and the magnificence of Cathedrals, they are not the Church either, and if they were to all crumble tomorrow, the Church would continue because we are living stones.

On Easter night, the Presbyterian Church in Cambridge burned and cannot be used. However, the congregation did not disperse; they found alternative ways to worship. When Communism rolled across Eastern Europe and destroyed most, if not all, churches, faith did not disappear as they had hoped it would. Faith in Eastern Europe went underground and became stronger, and when the Church emerged after Communism fell, it was stronger because the people were the stones, and they rebuilt.

But Peter also cautions us in his Letter, for he says that sometimes, stones cause others to stumble, so we can either be a path of safety or a path that makes others stumble; I hope we are working towards being a path of safety.

Just like the construction of the Washington National Cathedral, our faith can take a lifetime to build. We have to sort through many different stones to find the ones that fit together perfectly. We have to move things around and renovate from time to time. But, just like we need to change out the avocado bathroom fixtures, we need to update our faith, and we cannot be afraid to do just that. Amen.

In the Presence
John 9:1-41

How do you see the world? This is an interesting question to ask right after we hear the story of the man born blind. Until he encountered Jesus, he had not seen the world. Sure, he experienced the world through his other senses, but he had not seen the world. He had only imagination and the description of other people to inform him of how things looked. So he saw the world in a certain way.

When Jesus and his disciples first encounter the man, they ask, who sinned him or his parents? 1st-century medical knowledge was limited in relation to what we know today. It was thought that disabilities such as being born blind were a reaction to sin rather than some medical explanation. Obviously, it was someone’s fault, and the disciples wanted to know the answer.

If we see the world in black and white, we always look for the cause, but if we see the world as shades of gray and other colors, a world of opportunity opens to us. It is no longer good vs. evil or us against them; it becomes something much more.

There is an interplay here between light and darkness. In one sense, the man born blind is symbolic of the world. Jesus has encountered a world that is blind, blind to the suffering of others and he hopes to change that. Jesus is bringing light not only to the man born blind but, through his actions, to the entire world. He is opening not just this man’s eyes but the eyes of all of humanity.

As you have heard me say in the past, very often in Scripture, when a person is not named, it is because the person represents something larger than themselves. In a sense, we are all born blind. Although we can see we need someone to care for us in every way and provide all that we need. As we age, those needs change, and we become more resilient.

Not long ago, Nicky and I switched out Oonagh’s crib for what we call her big girl bed. Physically it is the same bed with a different side. She was so proud that first night and a little concerned when she saw the larger piece at the bottom of the stairs. She entered her room, looked at it, and then looked back at me. I told her it was ok, and she ran over and climbed in. As a result, our evening ritual has changed; she can now climb into her bed by herself and does not need me to lift her in any longer. She is moving too fast for me anyway, from dependence to independence.

But back to the blind man.

A couple of things to notice. The first is Jesus does not ask if the man wants to be healed. In fact, he announces that this man exists solely for the purpose of this moment in time. Jesus says, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind, so God’s works might be revealed in him.” So he does not ask permission to heal; he just gets to work.

Healings in Scripture take on many forms. Sometimes Jesus is present, and sometimes he is not. Sometimes he touches the person, and sometimes, the person touches him. He heals with words, with his presence, and his touch. But his time, Jesus goes a little further and uses an outside element to heal. He uses dirt and spit.

Remember, there is symbolism in everything.

Dirt is, well, dirty. If it gets tracked into your house, you sweep it out. So one of the first things that would happen when you entered a home in Jesus’ day is your feet would be washed to remove the dust and dirt from the road. Dirt is what is under our feet, but dirt also provides life.

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring, the day of equal light and darkness. In the Norse and Celtic traditions, it was also the day that seeds were planted, and prayers were said that the harvest would be plentiful and get them through the long winter ahead. Seeds hold life, but that life only begins when buried in dirt or soil. The very thing that is alive must first die to be born.

Jesus stoops down, gathers dirt on the road, spits in it, makes a paste, and places it on the man’s eyes. This should remind us of the creation story from Genesis. God fashioned humanity out of the dust of the earth. We began the season of Lent with the words, “you are dust, and to dust, you shall return.” Jesus is using the elements of creation that makeup humanity to restore humanity to what it was created for, to worship God!

But it does not end here.

Another first. This is the first time that the person being healed has to do something; Jesus tells the man to go and wash in the pool, not just any pool, but the pool of Siloam, which means sent. The base elements of creation have been applied; the man has been told to go and wash after he washes; he can see. The one sent by God has come not to judge, not to save the world from sin, but to restore humanity to that relationship that existed in the beginning. Jesus has not come to save us from sin but to save us from blindness.

Jesus came to open our eyes to another way of seeing the world. We no longer see the world through the lens of rules and regulations, but we see the world as God sees the world with mercy, compassion, and love. Rather than destruction, God chose love, God chose to send Jesus into the world, not to condemn the world, but to show the world a different way. To open the world’s blind eyes and point them away from the darkness and towards the light.

But the story does not end there.

Our friends, the Pharisees, witnessed this little miracle and have some questions. Talk about a group so blind by their own rules that they cannot see the glory of God! Anyway, they hall the man in to question him. Of course, Jesus cannot be who he says he is because not only did he uses dirt and spit, he did this on the Sabbath. Jesus knew what he was doing when he did it. Jesus knew what day it was and that his actions would invoke a response. In a sense, Jesus was poking the Pharisees in their collective eyes!

The Pharisees don’t believe him and actually get enraged when the man, “formally born blind,” presumes to teach them. They don’t believe his story, so they haul his parents in. His parents throw him under the bus and say he is old enough to answer for himself. So they ask the man again, who asks them why he is asking again since they did not answer the first time. Then he gives the best sarcastic answer in all of Scripture, “why do you ask?” he says, “Do you also want to become his disciples?” They become unhinged and throw him out of the temple. They call him a sinner and banish him forever. They think they are casting him into the darkness, but he has witnessed the light, and darkness will never overcome it.

He encounters Jesus and tells his story. Jesus asks if he believes in the Messiah, and the man asks who that is. Jesus tells him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” And the man believed.

The Pharisees question Jesus and insist they are not sinners. Jesus tells them that those who see and reject become blind. Those who cannot see the suffering of others, those who set up rules to keep others out rather than welcoming all, are the ones who are blind, and the sin of ignorance causes their blindness. There are none so blind as those that refuse to see.

What blinds us today? Do pride and arrogance blind us? Does a lack of knowledge blind us? Is it fear that blinds us? Whatever it is, Jesus can and will heal us from that blindness and bring us back into the light.

Amen.

Genesis 12:1-4a
John 3:1-17

It was Christmas Day 1989, and I imagine my family, like most families, was settling in for Christmas dinner. It was just another Christmas for us, but across the world, the Romanian Dictators Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were being executed, after a hasty trial, for crimes against the Romanian people. The entire nature and horror of those crimes would not emerge for months and years, but for the first time in a generation, the Romanian people could breathe the breath of freedom.

It was January 1992, and I was finishing my studies at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy. One of my last requirements was a missions course that was being offered during the January term. J-Term courses were intensive, three-weeklong courses that met every day for those three weeks. The course was taught by Nazarene missionaries from the Azores who was home on leave. I had to take the class as a graduation requirement, so I signed up.

The first day of class arrived, and I went to the appointed classroom full of suspicion. I wondered what these Nazarene missionaries would teach this nice Catholic boy. Little did I know that one class would change the direction of my life.

The class would focus on world missions but with a particular emphasis on the work in the orphanages of Romania. The course instructor, who remains a very dear friend to this day, would be bringing us firsthand accounts from the field. Her daughter and friends were in Romania on a mission trip to bring what aid and comfort they could to the children in a particular orphanage far away from the media attention in the Capitol City of Bucharest.

Remember that this was back in the day before Al Gore invented the internet, so communication was difficult. But we heard stories of the work being done there, and something inside me stirred. I had felt this stirring before, but this was new. This was to leave my comfort zone and “Go from my own county.”

Today we have two stories of movement and change. We begin with the story of Abram from the Book of Genesis. Abram, who would later become Abraham, is called by God to leave everything he knows, his family, his home, his flock, everything, and go to a place he has never heard of.

It is an interesting use of words here. God does not call Abram to a particular place; nope, God calls Abram to leave everything for a “land that I will show you.” Abram does not know the destination. God is calling Abram not only to leave everything but to trust in the destination that is not certain. God calls Abram to step into the dark without light and trust that God will guide him along the right path.

Abram is like most of the people God calls ordinary. Abram is home, doing a job living a life he has chosen, and, by all accounts, is pretty happy. They were not native to the land they occupied, but people traveled in those days to find better land to graze their livestock and raise their families.

I am sure Abram had dreams and aspirations, but this call came along and changed it all. Genesis tells us that God called Abram, but what does God’s voice sound like? A couple of weeks ago, we heard of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and God’s voice coming from the sky, saying, “this is my son in whom I am well pleased.” Was it that sort of voice? Did anyone else hear it, or was it just Abram?

How did Abram, or for that matter, how do we know it is God’s calling and not us sounding like God, calling us to do something? We want to be sure; we need to be sure. That thing was stirring inside of Abram to Go and do. So Abram started listening to that still, small voice inside of him and tested it to see if it was God. Abram determines it is God’s voice, he listens to God, and his life changes forever.

Abram is called to change his location; Nicodemus is called to change his mind.

Not all of God’s calls are to do extraordinary things like found nations of people or raise the dead. Sometimes, God calls us to change our minds. God calls us from the wilderness of ignorance and darkness into the bright light of knowledge and love.

In the Gospel passage, we hear from John Jesus meets Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a teacher and a council member, so he has to come to Jesus in secret. Nicodemus is afraid of what will happen if he is found out. Many people feel this way and are uncertain about stepping out of their comfort zone to ask another to come to church. What will they say? What if they ask me questions I cannot answer? My faith is private, and I want to keep it that way.

Nicodemus was not afraid of discomfort; he was scared for his life. If he were found out, he would be put out of the Temple and shunned, basically ending his life. But he desired knowledge and sought out Jesus for the answers.

Nicodemus was an educated man and believed a certain way. Some people like things in black and white, and they do not want to think about things differently. Because of their privilege, some people want things to remain the same as they have always been, and when challenged in their narrow belief, they make fun of those who believe differently and call them things like woke.

Change can be difficult, and realizing that the way you have always thought about something is not necessarily that way can be jarring to one’s system, and we do not always react as we should. But then enter outside forces that think like you do and constantly preach the message you want to hear. Maybe your church does or the news network you listen to. You are so deep in the belief that the very thought that you might be wrong seems impossible.

Then along comes this guy named Jesus who says we have to love everyone. Surely, he does not mean everyone. He must mean people who look like me, talk like me, love like me, and think like me. Surely, he will allow me to continue to hate and persecute those who are different. Surely, he will let me hate people I do not understand because I am so unsure of my own skin that I have to persecute them to feel better about myself. Surely, he means that I can persecute those who do not think the same way I do and force them to believe the way I do. Jesus is not saying that everyone deserves to be loved and forgiven; he cannot be saying that!

But that is precisely what Jesus is saying. I mentioned last time that if your God hates the same people you do, it’s time to find a new God.

The call to discipleship is a call to change. Once we decide to follow Jesus, we must do just that; follow and following requires action. We must be willing to see things differently and through this lens of love for God and everyone. We do not have to like others or support their actions but must love them.

In January 1992, I felt something that I determined was God’s voice. I left all that I knew and all that was comfortable and, for a short time, put myself into an uncomfortable position. I left my country and traveled to Romania, where I worked for a month doing what I could. As I said earlier, that yes to that stirring changed my life in ways that I still have not figured out. It opened my eyes and my perspective and changed the way I thought and think about so many things.

Abram listened to God’s voice and became the father of a great nation that changed how we now look at the world. We are, in a sense, inheritors of that call to Abram and are part of that great nation of believers. Like Abram, we are being called to “Go from our own country” of darkness and ignorance. We are being called into the light and to help others find that light. We are called to come and see what God is doing in the world and what our part in that is. The critical piece is that we are looking, listening, and not standing still.

We have questions like Nicodemus, and we can find the answers. We are being called to challenge our beliefs that we thought were true and might have been at the time, but now, not so much. We are being called to examine and reexamine our beliefs and our thoughts. St. Paul said that when he was a child, he thought and acted like a child, but now that he is an adult, he needs to think and act like an adult.

We must be open to the idea that not everyone thinks the way we do and that we might be wrong. We must be open to the concept of change. As much as we want them to, things cannot remain the same forever; things must change. Faith is not a static practice; it is ever-moving and ever-evolving. Nicodemus asked questions, and although he did not get a direct answer from Jesus, he was put on the path of enlightenment and discovery. But it began with questions and seeking answers. Do not be afraid to ask questions and challenge the answers and your beliefs.

Don’t worry about having all the correct answers or doing things the right way; God does not call the equipped; God equips the called. If we say yes when God calls, we will be prepared, and there are a ton of examples in scripture to back that up. So don’t worry about your preparation or lack thereof; just say yes to the call and enjoy the ride.

Amen.