Trinity Sunday, Yr A (2023) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Trinity Sunday, Yr A (2023) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Genesis 1:1-2:4a St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 28:16-20
In the name of the one, holy, and living God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
Our reading this morning from Genesis reminded me of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, God’s Grandeur.
I would like to share it with you.
God's Grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
“The Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.”
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,
the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep,
while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”
Or, as the NIV translates “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
“Hovering”…
or perhaps brooding with warm breast.
Some years ago a friend of Ray’s made a 2-foot hollow ball out of grapevine.
He wove together these grape vines and placed a foot-long wire with a hook at the top so that we could hang it.
I took a string of Christmas lights and wove the lights throughout the grape vine
so that it has now become a “light ball.”
When we moved here,
there was a cup hook attached to the edge of our front porch ceiling.
It was the perfect place to hang our light ball!
A few weeks ago,
when I walked out the front door,
a startled little bird flew out of the light ball!
Since the bird was gone,
I peered into the light ball and saw a lovely little nest she had built there.
How perfect!
The sturdy grapevine was protective for the home she had built for her new family.
Perfect, except perhaps, for the location by our front door!
Every time we come or go, the little bird flies off to watch at a safe distance.
“And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.”
This week she has baby birds in her next over whom to hover
and to feed and tend…
just as our Creator hovers over and tends to us.
In Genesis we hear that everything that God made,
God declared as “good.”
And in reading this story in Genesis, we hear of the magnificence of God’s creation.
However, if we read or hear the news
or even look with our own eyes,
it appears we are not doing such a grand job of tending God’s creation...
we inhabit a “bent world” indeed!
I wonder why…
Why are we not doing so well at taking care of God’s creation?
I wonder if it is because the God of creation that we hear about is a transcendent God…
a God we think of as somewhere “out there.”
And yet this God of creation
imbues the whole of creation with God’s very being.
God is transcendent,
yet God is also immanent.
God is right here…everywhere…
God is as close as our very breath.
How can we see creation and not understand that?
Perhaps if we truly let God’s nearness into our hearts and minds,
then maybe we would treat the whole of creation with deeper respect.
Maybe…
Hopefully!
In our second reading today, Paul is speaking to the church at Corinth,
a church embroiled in bitterness and dissension.
Paul makes an appeal for reconciliation among the church
so that they may be of one mind and live in Peace.
And then he ends his letter with an appeal to a trinitarian benediction:
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Love, grace, and communion…
I can think of no better way to give words to the Trinity!
As a mark of reconciliation,
Paul encourages the members of the church to “greet one another with a holy kiss…”
in other words, to greet one another with a sign of honor, respect, and kinship.
Let us now circle back to the beginning…to creation…
the beauty of God’s grandeur embodied in the whole of creation.
If the God of love has created not only humankind
but the whole of creation,
what is our calling but to treat every person we meet
and every part of creation with honor, respect, and kinship?
Love, grace, and communion would abide!
A couple of months ago I started reading a remarkable book by Robin Wall Kimmerer called Braiding Sweetgrass.
The author is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
She tells stories of her own life, the world of plants, and her Indigenous culture.
It is a beautiful book.
One chapter is entitled, “Allegiance to Gratitude.”
She relates what is known as the “Thanksgiving Address” of the Onondaga Nation.
I share with you small snippets as translated by John Stokes and Kanawahientun in 1993.
These words sound to me like the calling of the God of love, grace, and communion.
“Today we have gathered and when we look upon the faces around us we see that the cycles of life continue.
“We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things.
“So now let us bring our minds together as one
as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People.
Now our minds are one….
“We are thankful to our Mother the Earth,
for she gives us everything that we need for life.
“She supports our feet as we walk about upon her.
“It gives us joy that she still continues to care for us,
just as she has from the beginning of time.
“To our Mother, we send thanksgiving, love, and respect.
Now our minds are one….
“We give thanks to all the waters of the world for quenching our thirst,
for providing strength and nurturing life for all beings….
“We turn our thoughts to all of the Fish life in the water….
Now we turn toward the vast fields of Plant life….
“With one mind,
we honor and thank all the Food Plants we harvest from the garden….
“We gather our minds together to send our greetings and thanks to all the beautiful animal life of the world, who walk about with us….
“We put our minds together as one
and thank all the birds who move and fly about over our heads….
“We now send greetings and thanks to our eldest brother the Sun.
Each day without fail he travels the sky from east to west,
bringing the light of a new day….
“We put our minds together and give thanks to our oldest Grandmother, the Moon,
who lights the nighttime sky….
“We now turn our thoughts to the Creator, or Great Spirit,
and send greetings and thanks for all the gifts of Creation.
“Everything we need to live a good life is here on Mother Earth.
“For all the love that is still around us,
we gather our minds together as one
and send our choicest words of greetings and thanks to the Creator.
“Now
our minds
are one.” (Kimmerer, pp. 107-115)
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Amen.
