Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Trinity Sunday, 6/16/19. The text was John 16:12-15. This is Holy Trinity Sunday. What comes to mind when you think of the Trinity—questions, confusion, a puzzle, a mystery? It seems to me that just when you think you have a bit of understanding, it all starts to unravel as you think of something else. This is a difficult concept to wrap our minds around. For centuries, the early church struggled with a right and proper interpretation and understanding as they formulated the doctrine of the Trinity. The more I read, the more I see the wisdom of Dr. Jerry Christianson who taught The Early Church and its Creeds my first year of seminary. He explained the Trinity as a love relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Just as God is all about relationship, so too the Christian life is all about relationship: our relationship with God, our relationship with each other and our relationship with our community. ...

This is the reflection that was sent electronically to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church. Any thoughts? Gospel: John 16:12-15   [ Jesus said,] 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Sunday, we celebrate the Holy Trinity. Scripture only hints at the nature of God being one in three and three in one. Each of the readings for Sunday portrays these various aspects of God. In our gospel reading, we have Jesus, the second person of the trinity speaking of the Spirit, the third person of the trinity and of God, the Father, the first person of ...

This is the message I preached Sunday, 5/22 at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran Churches . The scripture text was  John 16:12-15 . Today’s gospel text made me scratch my head. Today, we celebrate the Holy Trinity, but this passage’s emphasis on the Holy Spirit sounds more like Pentecost. After digging a bit deeper, my light bulb came o n. Jesus taught his disciples about the role of the Holy Spirit in relationship to the Father and to himself. Just as the Christian life is all about relationship to God, relationship to each other and relationship to our community, so the Holy Trinity lives and works in relationship and community. In the final verses of today’s gospel, we get a clearer picture of this text’s bearing on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Jesus taught his disciples that the Holy Spirit does not act independently of the Father or the Son. The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ and only reveals what comes from the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit ...