Very Truly, Indeed
“Very Truly, Indeed”
Trinity Sunday, Year B May 26, 2024
Isaiah 6:1-8 Psalm 29 John 3:1-17
First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho
Pastor Andy Kennaly
Memorial Day Weekend. Here we are on the verge of a holiday that commemorates those who have died in military service for the United States of America. We honor the fallen veterans who gave their lives, we honor the families that suffered their loss most directly, and we are mindful that communities throughout the nation felt the void that would have been filled had they survived. This holiday is a recognition that life and death are linked. This becomes an invitation to not take life for granted, but as a gift, a reminder to cherish freedom.
Someday there will not be Memorial Days, for there will be no militaries, nor death from war. The Bible talks about that, earlier in Isaiah chapter 2, where it shares about God’s judgment, that God “shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
But how we live in the meantime, in a world that still does have Memorial Days, still pours energy into weapons, and still fears the enemy? Curious.
How do we live with a vision that we know is true, that God’s rebuke is toward those who hold weapons, and in this rebuke there is a change toward peace? How do we live in a culture that has not caught that vision, nor heeds the rebukes, and seems to fortify the bunkers?
This type of curiosity drove me down the road the other day. I was heading up Highway 95, just beyond the city limit of Ponderay. I saw some movement on the west side of the road, and it caught my attention. I’d just clicked on the cruise control, set at the speed limit, not rushed because I towed a trailer full of debris loaded for the transfer station. Just a few seconds to make sense of what I saw, and I could be wrong, taken things in incorrectly, or filtered through my biases. But what I saw made me curious, and started a scenario in my mind.
I wrote a reflection based on this experience, and I tried to weave in themes of Trinity Sunday. Not sure I succeeded, and it is a rough draft, but I’d like to share it with you. It may come across as judgmental, and has an element of reactivity, and, like I say, I could have it all wrong. But my larger intent does involve curiosity; an exploration in learning how to live within the confines we are given in our context, yet express that which is not confined and pulls toward a larger spaciousness, toward life, and even life abundant, as created beings.
I call it, What’s Going Down.
I saw
a woman yesterday
by the gate she guarded,
a gun slung over her shoulder,
billed hat down tight on her head,
like a kid who played dress up with adult clothing.
A pickup truck
had stopped, the driver
got out and seemed to pass
the first test because the big dog ran
back through the entrance of the privacy
fence, the tall barricade to the world,
deflection for highway frontage traffic like me.
I drove within the limit and between the lines, but
glanced and craned my neck on my way
to the dump to contribute
some metal to the scrap pile, to recycle
and save the planet as I drove
my hybrid with cruise control set on the mark at 60.
That driveway gate scene passed through my mind,
replayed as the metal crashed and I threw another
chunk onto the heap. On my way back,
I was even more curious, and I noticed
another truck, two now, with drivers who sat
and blocked the entrance, signs
covered in STOP, NO TRESPASSING,
and too much fine print to read
at highway speed, but I got the gist.
I wondered…is it paranoia? fear? ignorance?
a race to the bottom of human potential? Odd
how I can preach liberation, celebrate diversity,
serve in one of the most progressive churches in town,
proclaim power to change the world as only love can do,
and three miles down the road God seems co-opted by warriors. Is it
a militia on maneuvers? Preparing
for society’s fall into anarchy and ruin? Armed, weapons
loaded to defend ideologies promoted and protected,
non-critical thinkers become lost to blindness
of absurdities.
I pray for them, if
it is us and them. Jesus told us
to do this, to love the enemy,
pray for those who persecute us. I do
suffer, feel the wound of a painful twinge of emotion,
sad that they bought in to the illusion of separation,
the erection of barriers, the impenetrable
fence, signs of warnings and threats
of violence that try to keep others out.
The world suffers by othering, objectifying
everything in reference to hypertrophied egos
that defend limited perspectives
as totalized truth. People identify
as their thoughts, and get swept away
as fools who assume they gain,
but actually lose their freedom.
The best critique is to practice
better, to learn the art of letting go,
to hold loosely even our own thoughts, for we may be wrong. It helps
to look deeper at what connects all things together;
the Christ within, the divine soul, the sacred Spirit
that enlivens, fills, and unifies.
The Trinity of the Godhead.
Three natures, one Essence.
Life in relationship, balanced, and connected.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a blend
of gender yet beyond distinctions
to show that Love is primary,
unity is Reality, and consciousness
is invited to expand and explore new dimensions.
Guns are distractions for minds not in touch with creativity
and imagination for what makes civilization
worth living in. Weapons and violence are signs of obsolete
thinking. “Jesus wept” for those
who didn’t know what makes for peace;
the shortest verse in the Bible, perhaps
because it is not worth sustained focus,
and this momentary trouble gives way
to fruits that will last, and that list is much worthier;
Love, unconditional, eternal, unitive;
Trinity’s dance sweeps us off our feet
to join the melody with joy that is complete.
My curiosity continues. Is this what it looks like
when species go extinct?
Homo Sapiens fade, Homo Integer emerges,
the Integrated Human Being.
Future humanity calls out, helps us
navigate the chaos, to order
the past and shape the present, to learn
and unlearn as needed to be clear
in the Christ we’re called to embody
as a people sent
not as servants, but friends,
those who reside in the large
arch of history and Mystery
of the Holy as we cry out, Glory!
Fling wide the portals of your heart.
That’s the end. Again, it’s a rough draft, but certainly a sincere reflection on how God doesn’t send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through the Living Christ. It is an attempt to trust that Isaiah’s vision holds true, that “the whole Earth is full of [the LORD’s] glory,” and when we answer God’s call and say, “Here am I; send me!” we open ourselves to share God’s word and way, to touch spiritual depth, and share holy visions. God’s sovereignty, like the Psalmist proclaims, is a blessing of peace and gives people strength; so, on this Trinity Sunday, we all give thanks to the Lord, and shout out in the temple of our heart, Glory!
For very truly, indeed, God is glorified, now, and always, Amen.