"The Dance of Love," a sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church on Trinity Sunday

"Hospitality of Abraham" ("Holy Trinity"). Hand-painted icon by Andrei Rublev.

"The Dance of Love"

Isaiah 6:1-8; John 3:1-17

Over the years, I’ve had a number of front porch theological conversations with Muslim neighbors, in which they’ve asked about the Trinity.  I’ve been asked, “So, about the Trinity: One God or three? These kinds of questions have led to some interesting theological conversations about the nature of God over the years

            In the Christian calendar, this is Trinity Sunday—the only Sunday in the church year dedicated to a doctrine of the church.  

            For centuries Christians have sung, confessed our faith, prayed, baptized, received new members into our community in the name of a Trinitarian God who is traditionally Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  But for many Christians in our time (and for some in earlier times) the doctrine of the Trinity has been a problem.

            How many of us have heard a conversation in a church school class or study group that goes something like this: “Do we have to believe in the Trinity-- that God is three-in-one and one-in three--to be a Christian?” “What does it mean? How can you put three persons together and get one, or divide one into three and still have one?”

            If you think about it, you can understand why our Muslim and Jewish friends have a problem with the Trinity and wonder if we really do worship one God.

            The defenders of the faith--the traditional faith--might blunder through a fuzzy explanation and then conclude: “There’s a reason we call it a mystery that no one can fully understand.” Maybe they say, “We just have to accept it by faith.”

            I agree that the Trinity is a mystery no one can fully understand.  The doctrine of the Trinity reminds us that there is always more to God than we can conceive… always more of God than we can explain… always more than we can sing or preach or prove.   

            So—what do we do with the Trinity? 

            I think theology is important.  I think bad theology can hurt people…and hurts the church.  The language we use when we speak and sing of God is important.

            Apparently, some ordinary Christians in ancient times knew this.  Theologian Elizabeth Johnson observes how fascinated people of the late fourth century were with speaking rightly about God.

            She quotes a famous remark by Gregory of Nyssa that describes the situation: “Even the baker,” he said, “does not cease from discussing this.  If you ask the price of bread, he will tell you that the Father is greater and the Son is subject to him.”[1]

            It’s difficult for many people today to grasp how bitterly this conflict divided the Christian world for several centuries.  The Nicene Creed was hammered out to defend the faith tradition against the Arian claim that Christ was not eternal, but created. 

            The burning big QUESTION in the ancient church was “Who is Jesus Christ, in relation to God the Father and Creator?”

            The Nicene Creed was the ancient church’s answer to the questions of its time, using the best philosophical constructs and language available to it at that time. 

            As (the late) theology professor Shirley Guthrie wrote, the doctrine of the Trinity is “the church’s admittedly inadequate way of trying to understand the biblical and Christian understanding of who God is, what God is like, how and where God is at work in the world, what God thinks about us human beings, does for us, requires of us, promises us.”[2]

            We need to be clear with ourselves and in talking with others that we don’t “believe in” the Trinity. We believe in and trust in God, and the Trinity is a way Christians think about and speak of God.

            During times of controversy, the church has found it necessary to re-interpret the gospel for new times, in response to new situations and questions.  If you look through our Book of Confessions,[3] you’ll see that the “Scots Confession,” “the Heidelberg Catechism,” the “2^nd Helvetic Confession,” and the “Westminster Confession” were worked out during the Reformation period, in response to concerns particular to that time.

            In 1934, the Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church met in Barmen, Germany.  They “sought a common message for the need and temptation of the Church” in their day. The threat was the way the Christian church was cooperating with the Nazi regime.  The resulting confession of faith was what we know as the “Declaration of Barmen.”

            The 1960’s were turbulent times, and the “Confession of 1967” was adopted by the Presbyterian Church “to call the church to that unity in confession and mission which is required of disciples…”[4] The theme of the Confession of 1967 was the church’s ministry of reconciliation, which has been a strong theme in the mission of this congregation for several decades.

            The Presbyterian Church had split at the time of the Civil War, over the issue of slavery, and it took over a hundred years for the northern and southern Presbyterian churches to be reunited.  At the time of the reunion, the General Assembly voted to re-state the faith as a way of affirming what we believe together.  The result was “A Brief Statement of Faith of 1991,”[5]  which we often say together in worship.  The “Brief Statement of Faith” is a Trinitarian statement, which begins by stating that we trust in the one triune God, whom alone we worship and serve.

            The 2016 General Assembly made history by voting to add the “Belhar Confession” to our Book of Confessions.[6]  Belhar is a moving call for reconciliation and a condemnation of racial injustice written in South Africa during the struggle against Apartheid, to be a resource to the church during a time when racial tension, injustice and violence in the United States make headlines nearly every day.

            We are part of a living, growing tradition, and we continue to address new situations and questions by re-stating our faith.  One of the great themes of our Reformed Tradition affirms the church reformed, always being reformed, according the Word of God, as led by the Holy Spirit. 

            I believe that the controversies of our time over sexuality issues are finally being worked out after decades of conflict.  I hope this frees us to work through other important questions for living faithfully in our time. For instance, how do we confess and live our faith in Jesus Christ in a pluralistic world?  How do we speak of God in conversations with our neighbors who are Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, or “spiritual but not religious” or the “none’s” or “done's”?  If we trust in a God who creates every person in the image of God, a God who calls us to love our neighbor and to live together in Beloved Community, what does our faith require of us in our relationships with those who are different and those who are marginalized? 

            When we struggle over theology, important things often get worked out.  We often learn something—sometimes in spite of ourselves.  Even though we might want to dig in and defend what we have always believed to be true, we have the Holy Spirit nudging us, reminding us of what Jesus did and what he taught.  We learn and grow, as the Holy Spirit leads us further into the truth—just as Jesus promised

            Jesus told his disciples that he still had many things to say to them, but that they weren’t ready to hear them yet.  He promised that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, would guide his followers into all the truth.[7]

            But from the earliest centuries of the church, discerning theologians have stressed that all our language about God, including the Trinitarian symbols, are inadequate and relative. The Bible uses many images or metaphors for God, and other theologians have offered a number of possibilities for speaking of God.[8]

            I believe God continues to speak a new word to us in new times--things we weren’t ready to hear before.  We still have many things to learn, so we need to be learners--theologians. We need to listen for what God’s teaching Spirit has to say to us.

            In my study this week, I was reminded that the Western Church’s model of the Trinity has typically looked like a triangle, while the typical model in Eastern Orthodoxy is a circle.

            John of Damascus, a Greek theologian who lived in the seventh century, developed the understanding of the Trinity with a concept called perichoresis.  I don’t bring a lot of Greek words into sermons, but this one gives us such a beautiful picture of God. “Peri”-- as in perimeter--means “around.”  “Choresis literally means “dancing” -- as in choreography.

            This isn’t an approach to the Trinity that most of us in the Western part of the church are as familiar with, but some contemporary theologians, like Jürgen Moltmann and Mirosalav Volf, have written about it.

            Father Richard Rohr has written a very accessible book: “The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation,” that invites us to take a closer look at the mystery of the Trinity.  He says we need a larger God than the understanding that seems to dominate our culture.  God is not what most people think.  God is not an angry, distant moral scorekeeper or a supernatural Santa Claus handing out cosmic lottery tickets to those who attend the right church or say the right prayer.  God isn’t a stern old man with a white-beard, ready and eager to assign condemnation and punishment.[9]

            I find the metaphor of a dancing God beautiful and life-giving, and I think it is more faithful to the story of God’s self-giving love we hear in the scriptures. Imagine it: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-- or Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer-- the three persons of the Trinity are like three dancers holding hands, dancing around together in harmonious, joyful freedom.

            In today’s Gospel lesson, we heard, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” God is not vengeful, not demanding of judgment or appeasement, not angry--but loving. The cross is a sign of just how far God will go to show us that God already loves us.  

            How do we proclaim the good news of God’s love in our time? To those who have been baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we need to proclaim the new, open, love-filled space of our Triune God, the space where we are to love God with all we’ve got and to love our neighbors--all our neighbors-- like ourselves.  

            Our God is a relational God, and the Trinity is all about relationship. I think the Trinity matters, because--without the Trinity, some people can make claims that justify the hatred of entire groups of people and call them animals. Without the Trinity, some churches will claim to be church but carry on with self-centered, individualistic, fear full messages, rather than a gospel of love and community.

            On this Trinity Sunday, what really matters is being led further into God’s truth and God’s way of love.

            Maybe, as Father Richard Rohr suggests, we need to push back the furniture a bit and make room to dance with the divine. Maybe that’s a better way to teach us all about God’s self-giving love and how we can be part of the dance-- God’s dance of love and life.

            The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you!

            Amen.

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

May 27, 2018

           

           

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[1] Elizabeth A. Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. 

[2] Shirley C. Guthrie, Christian Doctrine, Revised Edition (Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), p. 71.

[3] https://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/oga/pdf/boc2014.pdf

[4] The Confession of 1967, article 9.05 in Book of Confessions of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

[5] https://www.presbyterianmission.org/what-we-believe/brief-statement-of-faith/

[6] https://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/theologyandworship/pdfs/belhar.pdf

[7]John 16:12

[8] See William C. Placher, Narratives of a Vulnerable God: Christ, Theology, and Scripture (Westminster John Knox Press, 1994).

[9] Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation.  (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge / Whitaker House), 2016.

"Traveling Light". A sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church on Luke 10:10-20.

"Traveling Light"

Luke 10:1-20

A short story by Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried,” has often been assigned reading for high school or college students.  It’s filled with descriptions of the things the soldiers packed in their gear in combat zones in Vietnam.  They carried pocket knives, letters from girlfriends, cigarettes and C-rations.  They carried diaries, photographs, binoculars, socks, and foot powder.  They carried compasses, maps, and weapons.  What they carried was partly what they thought they needed to survive and partly an expression of their combat mission.  “They carried all they could bear,” writes O’Brien, “and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.”

            More recently, there have been several exhibits of photographs and artifacts dealing with this theme.   One of them is currently at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, focusing on the experience of Iraqi and Syrian refugees, most of whom traveled with little more than the clothes on their back and some small memento to remind them of home.  

            To document their life-changing journey and shed light on the trials and trauma refugees experience, Jim Lommasson has created a traveling exhibit on what it means to leave everything behind, “What We Carried: Fragments from the Cradle of Civilization.”  He invited refugees to share a personal item that was significant on their journey.  Some shared a family snapshot, an heirloom dish, or a childhood toy.  The project is about what’s worth holding onto when you have to travel light.

            I don’t know what kind of a packer you are, but I keep trying to travel lighter when I go away for a conference or on vacation.  My tendency is to try to have all the clothes I may need—appropriate clothes for each kind of activity and weather possibility, something to read, groomintg and health supplies, and so on.  It all adds up.

             But I hear what Jesus said to the seventy:  “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals…”  In fact, carry nothing, not even what prudent people would pack for a trip—no money, no extra pairs of shoes—nothing.  Disciples are to be utterly dependent upon God and the hospitality of others.  Disciples are to carry only the gospel and our trust in God.

            Jesus has appointed these seventy or so to go on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he plans to go, as kind of advance teams.  “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.  Go on your way.

            “See,” cautions Jesus, “I am sending you like lambs into the midst of wolves.”    This is important work, with high stakes.  Travel wisely.  Travel light.   

            Hearing and sharing the gospel require as few distractions as possible in any age, in any place. 

            Consider how much bigger the average size house is today than a generation or two ago.  We have bigger houses, with bigger closets, so we can have more stuff.  We have to pay more to use more energy to heat and cool the bigger houses and to run all the appliances and electronic gadgets we’ve come to see as necessities.  A bigger house with more stuff takes more time and energy money to maintain and clean and secure.   

A wealthy businessman who had grown up poor said in later years, “Life gets complicated when you own more than two pair of pants.” 

            Jesus sent the seventy disciples out and told them that wherever they were welcomed, they Lukewere to eat what is set before them…to cure the sick…and to tell people “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”  Wherever they were not welcomed, they were to go out into the streets and announce that they were protesting the lack of welcome, as they wipe the dust off of their feet.  Yet they were also to tell those who didn’t welcome them: “The kingdom of God has come near.” 

            I believe that all these details are included in the gospel story to show that something big, something risky and dangerous was happening. 

Like the early disciples, we are also sent out.                         

Another thing today’s gospel story tells us is that being sent out in mission requires letting go of a lot of baggage.  We need to be able to move quickly, without unnecessary hindrances or distractions.  We can’t be free of all burdens, but we need to bear the right burdens.  It’s a question of priorities.

During the Protestant Reformation, part of the work was to discern what was essential for Christ’s church and what needed to be left behind because it got in the way of being faithful for that time. 

John Wesley always insisted that his Methodist circuit riders have few possessions.  He knew that our possessions have a way of hindering us.  So the circuit riders were expected to travel light.

Those of us who have been life-long church members have been spiritually formed by worship, Christian education, participating in mission, and being a part of the faith community.  Some have cherished memories of how things used to be.  Others who came to Littlefield from another faith community may have memories of what was especially meaningful to them in another congregation.  Others may have a vision of what church can be in this new time. 

As much as we might want everybody to be happy and to have all the things they feel would make them comfortable on the journey, that’s not the life to which Jesus calls us.  We’re called to faithful service, and Jesus tells us we need to travel light.  We need to discern what’s essential for the church’s mission today.

            We live in troubling, sometimes scary times, and it’s easy to be pessimistic and fearful about our nation and the world, and about the church.  We know that in the North American church, membership has been declining.  The Presbyterian Church and other mainline churches have been downsizing their national organizations due to financial constraints.  Some congregations have left the denomination, in response to previous General Assembly actions on GLBTQ ordination and same-gender marriage. 

            The theme of the 2016 General Assembly was “The hope in our calling,” and from what I’ve heard and read, this was a hopeful assembly.  The commissioners worked hard, studying, listening to testimony, praying, worshipping, struggling with complex and difficult issues.  As always, they did everything “decently and in order,” because that’s how Presbyterians do things. 

            I posted some reports on Facebook during GA, and I recently emailed a summary of what happened at GA to you.  I hope you’ll read them, and that we can talk about anything you have questions or concerns about.

            There were several things that made this Assembly both historic and hope-full.  First, for the first time, a co-moderator team was elected to share the leadership equally:  Denise Anderson and Jan Edmiston, both pastors, both women, elected in the year that marks the 60^th anniversary of the ordination of women to Word and Sacrament and the 85^th anniversary of the ordination of women as ruling elders. 

            Second, the Assembly adopted the Confession of Belhar into our Book of Confessions, which is part of the Constitution of the PC(USA).  Belhar emerged in the Dutch Reformed Mission Church of South Africa, post-Apartheid.  It confronts the sin of racism and calls for reconciliation, unity and peace.  Following the vote, someone from the Assembly floor began to sing “We Shall Overcome,” and others joined in.  By the second verse, the body had joined hands, and then lifted them upward as they sang together. 

            It was moving to see this in a video, but as I read peoples’ reports of moments like this, I couldn’t help wishing I could have been in Portland for GA.  These moments remind us that when we follow Jesus, liberation, justice and redemption, peace and joy and hope are all part of the journey. 

            South African theologian Alan Boesak who helped to write the Belhar confession, was in Portland for the vote.  He reminded the church that we are called to more than simply say the words of the confession; we are called to live them, embody them.  As Belhar affirms, “We believe . . . that the church as the possession of God must stand where the Lord stands, namely against injustice and with the wronged.”

            On Friday, the Assembly elected J. Herbert Nelson, a third-generation Presbyterian pastor, an African-American man, and prophetic voice for justice, to the office of Stated Clerk, which is our top ecclesiastical and constitutional office, representing the denomination in interfaith and ecumenical settings.

            Rev. Nelson challenged Presbyterians to stop focusing on internal church disputes, numerical survival, and labeling each other as progressives or conservatives.  He said, “Nowhere in holy writ do I read the terms ‘liberal, moderate, or conservative.’” 

I believe this is true.  These are not biblical categories.  They foster conflict narratives about “us” and “them” with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and should not define our identity as followers of Jesus Christ.

            As J. Herbert Nelson said, we need to focus on “the impact God can make through us” in a broken world.  He said of the Presbyterian Church: “We are not dead, we are reforming, we are alive and we are well.”   But “To only think about the survival of the Church is to set our aim too low.” 

            Much of what happened at General Assembly gives me hope.  In the midst of all that’s going on in the world, God is up to something and wants to use us to bring about good.  As today’s gospel lesson reminds us, we need to travel light.  So we need to leave behind our worries about survival, our resentment or mistrust of people who aren’t like us or don’t believe exactly the same things we do.  We need to stop hauling around our nostalgic longings about how we used to do things, and pack for the mission we have today. 

            When we trust that God will provide what we need for the journey, that will free up room for us to carry the good news of God’s love and freedom out into a world where God calls us to bring healing and peace and restoration.

            Jesus sent out the seventy in his name, but it became clear that they were part of a larger mission—a mission that is not yet completely unfolded, a mission whose final goal is even yet unfolding, a battle against evil, against the powers and principalities of this world. 

            There is still more teaching, more witnessing, more healing, to do.  There are still hungry people to be fed.  The poor still need to hear good news…captives and oppressed people who need to be freed…blind who need to recover  their sight.[1] 

The GOOD NEWS is that God has graciously claimed us in your baptism and chosen us and calls us to help to transform the world. 

            Somewhere along the way, we will be called to leave our excess baggage behind.  We will be sent out to places we never imagined we’d go in the name of Christ.  We will carry the one important thing:  a gospel of love and justice and peace.   The way will be hard and the path will be uncertain, but by the grace of God, our work will become a part of God’s work and will help to knock the powers of evil off the throne,  and our names will be written in heaven.

            Thanks be to God!

            Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

July 3, 2016

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[1] Luke 4

"Beloved." A Sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian on Trinity Sunday, May 22, 2016.

"Beloved"

John 16:12-1512-15

A Baptism on Trinity Sunday

We sang “Holy, Holy, Holy” this morning,  because  today is Trinity Sunday—the only Sunday in the Christian year devoted to a doctrine of the church.  The Trinity is one of two doctrines we share with the church catholic—with a small “c”—the church universal, along with the Incarnation. 

            So…  how do we speak of the Trinity?  What does it mean?

            The Trinity is not in the Bible—though the images and ideas on which it was based is there to develop what we sang about as  “God in three persons, blessed Trinity.”

            Jesus didn’t talk about the Trinity.  Neither did Paul.  It wasn't until the fourth century-- “ 300 years after Jesus”--  that Christian leaders formalized the idea of the Trinity at the Council of Nicaea in 325, in what we know as the Nicene Creed.  

            The Apostles' Creed, in its original form, is even older, and has been associated closely with the Sacrament of Baptism in many parts of the Christian faith—which is why we’ll say it today-- in continuity with the historic church and in community with the church universal.

            I like what David Lose says about the Trinity.  He says he thinks the church has gotten a little off track with our thinking about the Trinity.  He thinks “the Trinity was the early church’s way of trying to grapple with a monotheistic belief in one God,  in light of their actual, lived experience of God’s activity…in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and after an encounter with the power of the Holy Spirit.  And the Trinity provided an answer…of sorts.  An answer often couched in the language of fourth-century metaphysics….But somewhere along the way the Trinity because less about describing an experience of the living God and more about accepting metaphysical doctrines and definitions of God.”^[1]   I think that’s where we got off track.

            It’s a new day, and it’s time for us to be the church for a new time.  I think Karoline Lewis is right when she suggests that nobody cares about doctrine if it’s left behind in the 4th or any other century.  Nobody cares about doctrine when it is preached from the pulpit as if it is law….”^[2] 

            In the gospel lesson we heard today, we heard Jesus telling his first disciples,  "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.  For all that the Father has is mine." 

            The Nicene Creed was the ancient church’s answer to the questions of its time, using the best philosophical constructs and language available to it at that time.  Who is Jesus Christ?  How do we speak of God? 

            The Creed and the doctrine of the Trinity were worked out at a time when the church was being transformed from a movement—a network of house churches in which people gathered for prayer and table fellowship—into something much more institutional and connected with the power of the empire.

            During times of controversy, the church has found it necessary to re-interpret the gospel for new times, in response to new situations and questions.   We Presbyterians have a whole Book of Confessions!  

            The “Brief Statement of Faith” of 1991 is the most recent confession in our Presbyterian Book of Confessions and one we use often in our worship at Littlefield.   It’s a Trinitarian statement, which begins by stating that we trust in the one triune God, whom alone we worship and serve. 

            The Presbyterian Church is in the process of adding the Confession of Belhar—from South Africa— to our Book of Confessions, out of the church’s desire to affirm our commitment to unity, reconciliation, and justice.  General Assembly approved in 2014 in Detroit, and the majority of presbyteries have affirmed it.  The final step is for it to go back to the 2016 General Assembly when it meets this June in Portland.  If the General Assembly approves it, there will be a new edition of our Book of Confessions that includes the Belhar Confession.

            I don’t believe that the “Belhar” is the last confession of faith the Presbyterian Church will ever adopt, because I trust that the Spirit will lead us into new truths that we haven’t even imagined yet. 

            I don’t claim to fully understand the mystery of the Trinity, and I don’t trust those who say they do.   Basically, the Trinity is our best but inadequate attempt to describe the mysterious nature of God in the language of metaphor. 

            The traditional formula of the Trinity is:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and there are times when we use the traditional language as an expression of our unity with the universal church.    For example:  We always baptize “in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” because we are commanded to do so by Jesus in the Great Commission, and also because it’s an expression of our unity with the universal church. 

            But in our own time, some have been exploring a variety of alternative, more inclusive ways of describing the Trinity, like “Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.”

            All of the metaphors are inadequate to define or explain the mystery of God.   The doctrine of the Trinity reminds us that there is always more to God than we can comprehend… always more of God than we can explain… always more than we can sing or preach or prove.   

            Whenever we find ourselves digging in to defend what we’ve always thought about who’s in and who’s outside of the circle of God’s love, whenever we think we have God all figured out,  we need to remember in humility and openness what Jesus said:  "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into the truth.

             I think the language of the Trinity points us to relationship and mutual devotion.  A twelfth-century scholar, Richard of St. Vincent, reflected on this    and spoke of God in terms of shared love, and a community in which that love is expansive and generous.  

            The good news is that God is love.   God loves the world and chooses to create and redeem you and me and each and every person.   God chose to come in the person of Jesus, to live among us, full of grace and truth, to embody God’s love for us and teach us what it means to be beloved children of God.

            In the Gospel accounts of the baptism of Jesus, we hear the words spoken from heaven to Jesus:  "You are my beloved.   With you I am well pleased."    In our baptism,  these words are meant for us as well: "You are my beloved.  With you I am well pleased.”

Beloved.  Child of God. 

What difference does it make in our lives when we come to believe we are beloved children of God?  What difference does it make in how we treat each person we meet, when we believe that they are also God’s children?  

In a culture of individualism and competition, it’s a counter-cultural idea to stake our lives on the amazing, gracious love of God, freely given to us—unconditionally.

The early church marveled at this gift when they wrote in First John:  ^“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God--  and that is what we are!”[3]

We believe that.  If you hang out with us at Littlefield, you’ll be issued a name tag that says you are a “Child of God.” 

As followers of Jesus, we believe we are called to love God and our neighbors, to work for peace and reconciliation and justice for all, to embody the love of Jesus Christ in all our relationships. As we grow in faith together, we trust in the Holy Spirit to guide us, to lead us further into the truth, and to empower us to live into God’s Kingdom.   Through the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit, we teach and encourage each other to live in the way of God’s love, the way of God’s wisdom.

One of the great joys of the Christian life is when parents present their children for baptism.  This is their public declaration that they want their child to be a part of the church and to have a ministry in it.

            Baptism is central to our identity as Christians.    As we live into our baptism, we learn who we are and whose we are.  We are nurtured to see ourselves as beloved children of God, and that can make all the difference!

            The baptismal font stands at the front of sanctuary to remind us that we’ve been initiated into this congregation, as well as into the universal church of Jesus Christ.

            In our Presbyterian and Reformed tradition, our understanding of baptism emphasizes God’s initiative.  God reaches out graciously to us, and offers us the gift of life in the kingdom as a free gift.  We respond by dedicating our lives to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and committing ourselves to follow him.  Baptism is the beginning of our life in the church…a first step in a journey that takes a lifetime.

            When we baptize children, we promise to teach them who they are in the light of God’s truth.  We promise to teach them what makes them different as part of a holy people…a royal priesthood…consecrated to God’s service. 

            When parents present their child for baptism, they promise to live the Christian faith themselves, and to teach that faith to their children, by word and example.  To grow up in the faith, we and our children need to worship and learn together—in our families, and in the faith community which is the church. 

            Today, we’re inviting Dominic to be part of the great adventure we call church. What God will make of Dominic’s life, or where God will lead him, we don’t know. But what we do know-- what we can say with certainty, because we have God’s promise—is that God is with us every step of the way.

            May God bless Dominic and his family and all of us on our adventure in faith, as we live into God’s Kingdom together!

            Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

May 22, 2016

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^[1] David Lose, “Trinity C: Don't Mention the Trinity!”.  http://www.davidlose.net/2016/05/trinity-c-shh-dont-mention-the-trinity/   

^[2] Karoline Lewis, “Trinity Talk.”  https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?m=4377&post=4648

[3] 1 John 3:1