Homily - 4 June2023
Genesis 1:1-2, 4a
Psalm 8
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 28:16-20
Do you remember how you thought about God when you were a child? Did you believe that God was close to you, or did God feel far away, a distant grandfather in the sky? I expect for many of us as children God seemed a vague, remote figure, even if we believed that God noticed everything we did, especially when we were naughty and doing what we ought not to. As for me, while God seemed apart from my everyday life I don’t think I ever did not believe. With a child’s simplicity, I accepted what I was told about God. God was real, if remote.
I once asked a three-year-old girl where God was. She replied, “God is in my tummy.” Obviously someone had told her that God was in her. A daughter of family friends was very impressed with her Sunday School lessons. One day she asked her mother, “Does God live in heaven?” and on being told that yes, God lived in heaven, she said indignantly, “What’s the matter with Him? Isn’t Saskatoon good enough?” We may chuckle at this, but perhaps that little girl was more aware of God’s immediacy than many adults are.
When we become adults, our minds have expanded and our intellect can grasp more complex ideas. Yet many adults do not move on from their naïve, child’s ideas of God. They may view such concepts as too simple to be believed and discard God altogether. In a world of political disillusion, wars and climate change, we live in a time of transition where life on every level is changing. How can they find their way to God?
Today we celebrate the Trinity, God who is three in one. God is eternal. God was at the beginning of time, is now and will be forever. This God may seem remote from our reality. God took on human life in the birth of Jesus Christ. Through Christ’s very human life God can fully understand our human joys, sorrows, challenges and suffering. Christ’s life and death offer us the assurance that God knows our human struggles, and Christ’s resurrection gives us the hope that this life is not all there is. When Jesus left his disciples, he said, “I am with you to the end of the age.” And so we believe that we are not alone, that Christ is near to us. Christ assured the disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit to guide and support them. So we know that the Holy Spirit will come to us when we are in need.
When I was a theological student, I took several units of CPE, Clinical Pastoral Education in hospital settings and the BC Cancer Agency. My first unit was exciting and stimulating. I found the work challenging but I enjoyed the work, particularly with patients who were critically or terminally ill. I tended to eat a quick lunch, then work through the lunch hour. I became exhausted, and my supervisor ordered me to take two days off. In our student group was Christine, a young woman very different than our rector Christine, whose theological ideas were very different than mine. I saw her as rigid, narrow and judgemental. In one confrontation with her, I shouted, “How can you call yourself a Christian?!” During my time off, I wasn’t thinking of Christine or anything in particular. Suddenly the thought was in my mind, ‘Have Christine lay hands on you and pray over you.’ I was astounded. This was so far from my usual way of being and doing. I had always shied away from the laying on of hands, feeling that it was often used to manipulate people and exert undue power over them. And to make myself vulnerable to a person I disliked and mistrusted was quite a leap. Yet it was easy for me, because I trusted that it was indeed the working of the Holy Spirit. I returned a day early to the unit, to my supervisor’s amusement. I asked Christine to lay hands on me and pray over me. Everyone was thunderstruck. It was a moment of transformation and certainly has changed my life. For me it was proof that the Holy Spirit can indeed come to us when we need guidance.
Over the years in my counselling work with clients I came to realize that the work of change can only begin when there is a relationship of trust. We must trust in God’s abiding care, we must trust that the Holy Spirit can work in our lives. In our world we face constant change and challenges. The reality of the Trinity offers us the hope and encouragement that our God is a God of dynamic change. Nothing in life stands still. When we are gripped by fear and anxiety, we cannot do our best thinking. We may feel paralyzed and see no way ahead. The reality of the Trinity is that God has always been and will always be, that God works in our lives and will always help and support us, and that where we are in the time of adversity is not where we will remain. Our God is a God of dynamic energy and change, as we understand from the very beginning of Creation.
When you are troubled and anxious, it may help to remember that God will be with us. Christ is near us and the Holy Spirit will come to us when we are in need. May we always remember this hope and this encouragement.