Atom“God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - Wild About Us!” - Holy Trinity Sunday (Matthew 28:16-20)
“Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
Last week, during VBS, I celebrated my 55th birthday and it brought to mind a “double-nickel” birthday party I was invited to during my first call as a pastor in Southeast Nebraska. I had never heard of such a thing at that point in my life. It seemed rather old…almost retirement age. Funny how it doesn’t seem so old now…
But the birthday also left me reflective…birthdays that end in zeros and now those ending in fives seem to do that to me. And…as it often does, it left me thinking not about how old I was getting, but rather about friends of mine who didn’t get to live even this long here on God’s good earth. And, because it was Bible School week, it took me back to a Thursday morning in Ankeny, Iowa – just before I moved to Detroit Lakes – and to a phone call just as I was preparing to head to the church for Day Four of Vacation Bible School.
“Pastor Wade,” a shaky voice on the phone said, “This is Lloyd…from Nebraska (he was the one whose double nickel celebration I had attended). My nephew, Galen, just shot himself. I wanted you to know.” I was stunned. Galen had been just a bit older than me and had just turned 45. Of all people, Galen was one of the last that I would ever think would take his own life. He was so vibrant and full of life! He was always in church…sat right over there, towards the front of the church with his family. And Galen had rarely missed Adult Sunday School. He would sit right in the middle of the back row – the “heckler’s row” – and always had something to contribute: a question…or a thoughtful comment. I had had all three of Galen’s boys in confirmation. I played softball with him on the church team for most of 10 years, until he hit 40 and had to “retire,” or so he said. Galen was a rural mail carrier, which is an excellent job in a small community. He was on the school board for many years, farmed a little as a hobby, was always full of ideas, and always had a plan. Until he hit the wall: Depression. Severe depression…life-sapping depression where one can hardly get up in the morning…depression wherein one feels worthless and useless.
Galen had told me about it when I went back to Nebraska for a high school graduation the year before. His middle son was graduating so we stopped in. There was always lots of good food and fun in Galen’s house. But there was something different this time. Galen took me aside and said, “Did you know…?” And he told me. His wife said he was terribly self-conscious about it. What brought the sadness on? Who knows? Galen seemed to have everything going for him. Maybe it was a history of depression in his family…maybe. Doctors said, “chemical imbalance…very treatable.” He took medicine. He did counseling. He prayed. His family prayed. But he just couldn’t shake it. It was an emptiness, a sadness, a sickness that just wouldn’t quit. It made Galen feel that he didn’t belong anymore…in his family…in his community…anywhere. Finally, one fine June morning, he stepped out on the back step of his house and ended his own pain and brought a whole new pain upon all those he left. Galen, Galen…so full of life…so vibrant…until the sadness started and took away all that he loved.
And I thought of him again this week, as I seem to do every time I reach an age he did not reach. And I always wonder…could I have helped? What might I have shared…would it have made a difference? I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure that I would have reminded him of our Trinitarian God…the God we celebrate on this Trinity Sunday. Now that sounds pretty academic and hardly encouraging, doesn’t it? But let me tell you what I mean. When we say we believe in a God who is revealed to us – who meets us in these three ways – we are saying something quite powerful about this God we worship and about God’s interest and involvement in our lives!
I think I would have reminded Galen of this God who is like the most loving Father we could imagine…a parent who loves us with astonishing love. Even on this “Father’s Day,” I am not so naïve as to think that all of us have had a wonderful relationship with our fathers. Not all of us know a father’s love. When Jesus told us that we should call God “our Father,” when he used the word “abba” in his own language, which means “daddy,” Jesus wanted us to know that our God loves us with this kind of intimacy, with this kind of passionate love. It is the love of a parent passionately seeking the best for those they love.
We all have stories of mis-placing our children for a few moments of time…in a store or in a crowd at a ballgame and of how anxious we become when we cannot find them. We know of the panic, of the desperate love that charges our souls when we fear the loss of someone so precious to us. God’s love is like that! Passionate love. Astonishing love. Or as our Bible School young people learned last week: Wild love! “God is wild about us!” “Thank-you, God!” (The kids respond at this phrase.)
Because the love of God is not just any love. It is the love of the Creator of the universe…the One who created the sun and the moon, the stars and the planets, the One who created all that we see and don’t see…the One who “made you” (God made you – thank-you God!) in God’s image. Dear friends, the Bible is not a science book…when we argue to that end about the accounts of creation in Genesis, we are missing the point. The Bible does not worry about the science. The Bible wants us to know that all of this (indicate creation) that we see is from God. The Bible…no…God wants us to know that we are not an accident of evolution. We are created for a purpose. We are loved with an almighty love. We believe in God the Almighty Father who loves us with a wild and passionate love. I would have reminded Galen of what he already knew, but may have forgotten.
And…I would have reminded my friend that…we believe in Jesus…whose love is not only wild but who loves us “no matter what.” Our Bible School kids talked about that this week, too. “God loves us no matter what!” (“Thank you God) And we remembered the story of God seeking us in Jesus, taking on our flesh, our bodies to come to our level and to find us. And we relived the Bible story of the disciple Peter, who turned his back on Jesus, but whom Jesus sought out and found and embraced and loved back into the company of his followers. God’s love is like that, wildly seeking, in Jesus showing us that God takes us even in our brokenness and emptiness, even when feel worthless and hopeless, that God loves us not matter what! (Thank-you, God!)
My friend, David deFreese, once a neighboring pastor but now Bishop of the Lutheran church in Nebraska, wrote in his monthly newsletter to the church a reminder that the message of Lent and of Good Friday – of Jesus going to the cross—is the message that “Jesus would rather die than live without you!” Think about that…”Jesus would rather die than live without you.” That’s love desperately seeking us. Jesus came to be one of us, to know our fears, our doubts, and our struggles with self and purpose. Jesus came to enter into the darkness with those he loved and to offer them a light, a way out.
The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans reminds us of this hope that Jesus offers. In chapter 5, Paul asserts that Jesus the Son is our “peace” with God. In other words, if there is anything happening in your life that you believe separates you from God or that God would be angry about and could not possibly forgive, Paul wants you to know that Jesus has made “peace” with God regarding that “thing” in your life—that obstacle in your relationship with your God. “Through him,” Paul says, “we have received access to this grace, this undeserved love in which we stand.” There is no sin—no failing—that need separate you from your God. Jesus would rather die than live without you. Jesus’ loves us no matter what! (Thank you God!)
And…I would have reminded Galen…we believe in God’s Spirit that dwells within us. God gives us good gifts (thank you, God!) and one of the greatest gifts is the gift of the Holy Spirit that means God does not leave us alone, dangling in life and space all by our lonesome. I rode up in the elevator with Pastor Dave’s Mom just before Friday’s wedding. “I don’t usually ride elevators by myself,” she said. “I always worry about getting stuck in one. Has anyone ever been stuck in this one?” I didn’t tell her until we got out that indeed one had been stuck in the elevator…Harriet Barrett, I believe, and it was right after I arrived here at First Lutheran and the building was new and the elevator was new and there were still a few bugs to work out. You can imagine that it is a scary thing to be caught between floors, unable to get out. Some of you have been there. It took a little time to solve the problem. We had to call for help. Help was important, but what was equally important was that while this person was waiting to be released that she knew she wasn’t alone! Of course we couldn’t get in there…that was the problem, but we could talk through the doors – stay near – so she would know that someone was there and she was not alone.
It is of course and incomplete image of what the Spirit of God is about – the Spirit is also the bearer of Christ’s wisdom and power. Jesus tells us about that in another place in John’s gospel. The Spirit will reveal all truth…the Spirit will speak to our hearts on behalf of Jesus. But first and foremost, the Spirit will work to remind us that we are not alone. “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Jesus is with us. Jesus’ followers are with us. I believe it is the Spirit within that sends us to one another with listening ears and caring hearts—with macaroni hot dish and Jello salad when necessary—to remind us that God cares for us and that God would refresh our spirits.
And God would refresh our spirits even as we worship. When we gather together to worship God in the Spirit, God refreshes our faith. When we pray over God’s word and ask the Spirit to guide us, God refreshes our faith. When we trust our concerns to and pray with a trusted friend – one through whom God’s Spirit is working – God refreshes our faith. That is what we believe. We believe in the Holy Spirit…God’s refreshing, strengthening, life-giving Spirit.
I would have reminded my friend Galen of these things that we hold dear and prayed that it would make a difference. It may not have. Sometimes the darkness is so great and the sickness is so profound that even God’s people despair of life and as hard as it may be to accept, they throw themselves finally upon the mercy of God…hoping against hope that God will forgive this last desperate act and receive them home.
I happen to believe that God can and will. I believe that there is forgiveness for all sin – even suicide. Some of us grew up hearing that suicide was the unforgivable sin because those who took their own lives had no opportunity to repent of that sin. But it is not true and great grief has been caused to many families by saying so and by refusing to bury their loved ones within the gates of the Church cemetery. We have learned, have we not, that the forgiveness that Jesus gives covers our sins past, present, and future! According to Jesus the only unforgivable sin is pure unbelief that rejects the Spirit—that rejects this God who seeks us.
Now please don’t hear me wrong on this. I believe that my friend Galen made the wrong choice. I don’t believe that Jesus was ready for Galen to come home. His family wasn’t. I wasn’t. Jesus wasn’t looking for another mail-carrier in heaven. He had much for Galen to accomplish here. But I also have no doubt that Jesus welcomed Galen home: “Come my friend, beloved of my Father, and I will make you whole again.”
I believe it is the same Jesus who meets us here this morning and says to us, “I know what you are going through…your fears, your doubts, your feelings of failure, your uncertainty about growing older, your fear of what lies ahead. I know…and I’m here. Breathe in of my Spirit. Know the love of my Father—your Father. Take the hands of those I have gathered around you. I’ll help you through it.”
If you’re looking for that kind of God, I’m glad you are here. You’ve come to the right place. Please pray with me…
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