Ormond Beach Presbyterian Church - Sermon May 20, 2007

                                                               I Believe…
                                                         Genesis 1:1 - 2:4a
                                                        Matthew 28: 16 - 20
                                                            May 18, 2008

          Opinion polls tell us that 90% of Americans say that they believe in God which is a rather astounding degree of consensus. If we were to probe beneath the surface and ask what we mean when we say “I believe in God”, how many of us could give any detail about our belief in God and describe how that belief inspires our action, our worship and our basic commitments? Today is Trinity Sunday and our scripture readings invite us to take a closer look at what Christians mean when we say, “I believe in God.”

          The place where these scriptural statements about God are synthesized and expressed most fully in our worship service is the Apostles Creed. Quit often when we say the creed and talk about our Christian belief in God we use the Trinitarian formula of God as Father or Creator, as Son or Redeemer, as Holy Spirit or Comforter. And the symbolic way of picturing this Trinitarian understanding of God is a triangle - which is our way of saying that we believe in One God who reveals God’s self to us in three persons or three manifestations. Just as a triangle has three equal sides and three equal angles so this Trinitarian way of speaking of God invites us to consider how God reveals God’s self to us the Father and as the Son and as the Holy Spirit - each revelation of God is equally important and essential to a full understanding of the Holy God whom we worship and serve. The mistake that is often made is ignoring this triangular understanding of three and one and viewing God as hierarchy with the Father or creator at the top and the Son or redeemer as second in command and the Holy Spirit at the bottom. There is one other big mistake that is made and that is turning our triangle with three equal sides into a scalene triangle which has one long side and two shorter sides and none of angles are equal. What this scalene triangle suggests is that sometimes we overemphasis one person of the trinity and minimize the importance of the other two.   If I have not already hopelessly confused you or lost you, my purpose this morning is to invite us to explore how we express our understanding of God and how that understanding translates into lived belief.

          The Apostles creed begins with the statement: “I believe in God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” The Genesis story and Psalm 8 sing praise to God whom we know as creator. It is my hunch that many of us sitting here carry around in our heads two views of the beginning of the heavens and the earth. One is the scientific view, be it Darwin or the Big Bang theory, and the other one is the Genesis account. Whatever your views on this supposed conflict or controversy I would suggest that the Genesis account was never intended to be interpreted as science or be used to explain how creation happened. Its intention was to begin the biblical story by talking about the characteristics of the God of Israel whom they knew as Yahweh. What is the first thing that God does in the Genesis story? “Then God said, let there be light and there was light and God saw that the light was good.” Israel understood God as a God who makes light shine in the midst of darkness -not light that we know as sunshine (that happens on day four) but light which is the first sign of the creator’s presence. Throughout their long journey with God they experienced the presence of God as light shining upon them as they fled their Egyptian captivity and crossed the Red Sea, then again as they languished in Babylonian captivity and listened to the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”   The next thing which Israel understood about God is that God subdues chaos and orders all things for God’s purpose. The Genesis story pictures this ordering of chaos as separating the waters and forming sea and dry land so that life can begin to find a foothold. Israel knew the work of God subduing chaos and ordering all things for God’s purpose in the giving of the law which defined holiness from chaotic lawlessness and informed them of an ordered way of living together. This God gives life to all living things and blesses them and plants them in creation and calls them good and commands the human couple to be the custodians and stewards of that creation. But the seventh day where God rested may in fact be the most significant statement about the character of God. Some scholars have suggested that the reason we have this creation story is for the purpose of explaining the origin of Sabbath.

          The second article of the Apostles creed states: “I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord.” The gospels, each in their own unique way sing praise to God whom we know as Jesus the Christ, Jesus our Savior and Lord. Go back to the beginning of Matthew’s gospel - to the story of Jesus’ birth. In the first chapter of Matthew, Joseph discovers two things that are true and one thing that makes no sense at all.

           Mary his betrothed is pregnant - this he knows to be true.

           Joseph is not the father - this he also knows to be true.

When Joseph adds two and two - what makes sense to him is that Mary his betrothed has been messing around with another man and that he must dismiss her quietly. What doesn’t make any sense and doesn’t add up is what the angel tells him - that the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. And then the angel gives Joseph and us a way of naming what is happening in the birth of this son of Mary:

        “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means God is with us.”

When we read the gospel, with this interpretive lens helping us to see and hear and understand, we realize that the story of Jesus of Nazareth is a story of God with us. This story of God with us is, from beginning to end, a story shrouded in miracle and mystery. Disciples wonder in the midst of a storm-tossed sea, “who is this that wind and wave obey” and Pilate wants to know what kind of King Jesus is and where he is from. As Jesus dies on the cross only the Roman soldier seems to understand that Jesus was the Son of God. When we say that Jesus is Son of God, the emphasis is not on gender but on his role and purpose which is to reveal what God is like. All of his words, all of his miracles, all of his actions are intended to reveal what God is like. God is like a shepherd who seeks out lost sheep.   God is like the father in the story of the prodigal son waiting anxiously for the wayward son or daughter to come home. God experiences the torment and torture of the cross watching a beloved child crucified and God is ready to forgive because of the Son’s prayer. God is in the silence of the tomb calling forth life and casting the stone of death and despair aside.

          The third article of the creed focuses on God as Spirit - I believe in the Holy Spirit. If I were to point to any one place where Presbyterians seem to be weak, it is our understanding and appreciation of the God’s Holy Spirit working in our life. Read carefully the Genesis story again and we hear that brief reference to “a wind from God that swept over the face of the waters.” This wind from God that swept over the face of the waters swept over the church at Pentecost and descended on Jesus like a dove at his baptism. Wherever you find the Holy Spirit in the story watch how life begins and is renewed. It is the spirit of God that empowers the church. It is the spirit of God that meets us in worship with a presence that quickens faith, confronts us with the truth of our life in it beauty and its distortion, opens our minds and hearts to repent and return, comforts us in our deepest pain, and prays in us when we cannot find the words. It is the promised Spirit which becomes sign and witness to Jesus’ promise on the mountain top, “And lo I am with you to the close of the age.” We cannot live or follow or obey without the Holy Spirit prompting and empowering.

          Does this stuff make your head hurt?   I think I understand why some people are satisfied saying, “I believe in God” and leave it at that. Once we try to say anything else we are in deep water. You are probably wondering - so what? Why am I bothering you with this theological mumbo jumbo?   Because an informed faith is an important step toward a living faith. It is not enough to say I believe in God or I have Jesus in my heart. What we believe about God as creator of the world and God as redeemer of the world and God as sustainer spirit guides us as we seek each day to live with and for God in the world.