That We All May Be One

As the only “holy day'” set aside to celebrate a “doctrine” rather than an event in Jesus’ life or a sainted person, Trinity Sunday does not lend itself so much to sermons about the Trinity, but rather invites us into standing before our  God in reverence and in awe.  God is ultimately unknowable, even though  revelation  has come to us  through  scripture, tradition, and reason, giving us glimpses — and more than glimpses — of the divine nature.
And so the biblical texts today describe Isaiah’s experience of his call to be a prophet in the midst of temple worship ( Isaiah 6:1-4). In the second reading, St. John the Divine holds up a vision of heavenly worship in order to sustain his community as they were facing persecution in the early days of the Church’s life (Revelation 4:2-6). And the Gospel lesson quotes Jesus in what is perhaps the perfect text for Trinity Sunday: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now!” (John 16:12)

In an earlier posting about Anglican and Orthodox relations, I mentioned a wonderful new resource entitiled “The Church of the Triune God.” And I would commend it to anyone for use in the classroom, for study and discussion, for theological reflection, even as a focus for meditation on the mystery of the Holy and Undivided Trinity.

Today, I hope you will simply join with fellow Christians in quiet and splendid beauty, listen to the descriptions of heavenly worship, sing the words of hymns exalting the Triune God in poetic phrases which lift the mind and heart, pray “in spirit and in truth,” and receive in faith the sacrament of Bread and Wine.

And, after you have so worshiped, say with Isaiah, “Here am I…send me!”

Today, we commemorate the first official use of the English Book of Common Prayer. It came into use on the Day of Pentecost 1549. And I think our two texts from Scripture today really are illuminating as to the way Anglicans understand the Prayer Book.

In the Gospel, Jesus is in dialogue with a Samaritan woman and the conversation gets around to worship, and to where and how proper worship ought to be conducted. Jesus concludes his observations like this: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” Now, he obviously wasn’t talking about the Book of Common Prayer (although there really are some similarities between it and the synagogue worship with which Jesus would have been familiar!)

No, he was talking about the need for piety, for devotion, for what we sometimes loosely call today “spirituality” in worship. But also the need for “truth” at the heart of worship. “Sincerity” or even “passion” in worship is not enough if you turn out to be worshipping the wrong thing! Our worship is of the true and living God, not just any old god! And yet worship which is absolutely, theologically-correct but has no fervency or passion can be just as absolutely deadly!

You and I have probably experienced both of those modes of worship, perhaps even in services using the Book of Common Prayer (!). But, at its best, the Prayer Book is intended to balance those things. Even though the 1549, or even 1662, Prayer Book would look to us pretty dry and very priest-centered (with much less congregational participation than we will experience today), in its time the Book of Common Prayer was pretty radical in putting the same book into the hands of the people as in the hands of the priest! And, in a language “understanded” of the people as they would have said in those days!

It was, and is, participatory in style and the written prayers beautifully crafted to lift our hearts to God. But it is also truth-full. It’s a theological document as well as a worship guide, and Anglicans have always looked to the Prayer Book almost as much as to Scripture to inform their theology. In fact, much of the Prayer Book is Scripture – verses and passages of Scripture, set forth as prayer.

Our First Lesson today, from Acts, concludes with this familiar line about worship: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers.” We know that line from our Baptismal Covenant, but it originally described the activities of the earliest Christians. It is also a fair summary of Prayer Book Christianity! We appropriate apostolic teaching in this church as much by immersing ourselves in worship, listening to the Bible read and expounded upon, singing the hymns and chants, and joining in common prayer as we do in reading theological tomes or memorizing confessional statements.

We engage in fellowship…in communion…in koinonia by coming together Sunday by Sunday and day by day in corporate worship – not only by praying alone in our prayer closets or appreciating God in the beauty of nature.

We participate in the Breaking of Bread, using this Prayer Book. The Holy Eucharist is “the principle act of Christian worship on the Lord’s Day” and Prayer Books have always emphasized that, in one way or another, even when weekly celebrations were less frequent than they are today.

And, of course, the Prayer Book helps us pray! Written prayers are not intended to substitute for, or get in the way of, our personal, extemporaneous prayers. I think Episcopalians are actually a lot more comfortable with that kind of praying today than in the past. But beautiful, time-honored, theologically solid prayers like one finds in the Prayer Book can instruct us about prayer. And make even our personal prayers – if not as beautiful – just as well-grounded.   

So, as we continue to bask in the glow of Pentecost this week, let us give thanks on this day for our Prayer Book heritage. One of the ways we try to observe our Lord’s instruction to “worship in spirit and in truth!”      

Jesus came from farming country in the northern part of Palestine. The land is fertile and crops grow well there. I remember sitting on a hillside once looking down on some farmland up in the Galilee, and thinking how much it looked like some parts of the Midwest! And, while we think Jesus grew up in a town, perhaps not far from the “big city” of Sepphoris, he would have been surrounded by farmers and farm land.

That undoubtedly accounts for the frequency of agricultural images he uses – such as those in today’s Gospel – about scattering seed (“broadcasting” as it is known) and about the mystery of life and growth which all good farmers understand. Farming is not all about technique and expertise. A lot of it depends on geography and on the cycles of weather – God’s grace…or
Providence…or good luck (depending on your theology!)

In any event, harvests are often unpredictable and a yield of abundant crops is always an occasion for gratitude and for celebration.  Farmers know something about such things. Which, I suppose, is why the Church sets aside the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Day and calls them “Rogation Days.” Days on which we “ask” – ask for fruitful seasons, ask for a blessing on commerce and industry, and commit ourselves to be good stewards of creation.

It was a lot easier for me to get “into” the Rogations Days when I was the Bishop of Iowa! Every week I drove hundreds of miles through fields of corn and soybeans and watched the natural cycles of plowing and seedtime and harvest, and of letting some fields lie fallow for re-creation. Most of us in big cities are far removed from such considerations – and it is no joke than many of our children think that fruit and vegetables spring forth, full grown, from the grocery shelves at Gristedes!

But we can be involved in agriculture. Even here in the city. And we can make a difference. Our church is trying to make a difference. According to a recent ENS press release: “As Congress begins the work of reauthorizing the US farm bill, more than a dozen Churches and faith based organizations, including the Episcopal Church, have come together…to urge major changes in US agricultural policy aimed at reducing hunger and poverty, and promoting the livelihood of farmers and rural communities in the US and around the world.”

“The ‘Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill’ which includes Christian denominations, major faith based organizations and the National Council of Churches…has developed a statement of legislative principles for farm bill reform.” According to those principles, the 2007 farm bill should:

*Increase investments that combat rural poverty and strengthen rural communities

*Strengthen and expand programs that reduce hunger and improve nutrition in the US

*Strengthen and increase investment in policies that promote conservation and good stewardship of the land

*Provide transitions for farmers to alternative forms of support that are more equitable and do not distort trade in ways that fuel hunger and poverty

*Protect the health and safety of farmworkers

*Expand research related to alternative, clean and renewable forms of energy

*Improve and expand international food aid in ways that encourage local food security.”     (April 24, 2007)

It’s too soon to know how fully the new farm bill will incorporate these principles but, as the former bishop of a rural diocese, I’m grateful to our church for such efforts.

I invite your prayerful support of such principles. Maybe we can do that by offering once again the prayer for this Rogation Monday:

“Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray that your gracious providence may give and preserve to our use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper all who labor to gather them, that we, who are constantly receiving good things from your hand, may always give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord…”