The Waking Dreamer: Trinity

Showing posts with label Trinity. Show all posts

Thursday, June 11, 2026

The Power of God's Love

The Power of God’s Love

Psalm 8, Matthew 28:16-20[1]

We have a complicated relationship with power. On the one hand, we seem to be fascinated with those whom we consider to be the most “powerful” people. Even to the point that our admiration can at times approach a kind of “worship.” There are many powerful people in this world who have an almost “cult” like following among their fans. On the other hand, we seem to be inherently distrusting of power. Especially when we believe someone is abusing their power. Anytime someone in power “bullies” those who are more vulnerable, we think of it as an abuse of power. And in our world we may see that kind of thing so often that we become distrusting of all power, regardless of how it’s used.

Our Scripture lessons for today speak to us about God’s power. The creation story in Genesis portrays God’s power to simply “speak” all things into existence. That’s a kind of power that most of us may want, but I dare say none of us would use well. But God most certainly used it well. That’s the point of the refrain that occurs throughout the creation story: “and God saw that it was good.” God used his extraordinary power to create a world and all the living things in it that was not only “good,” but indeed “very good,” as God observes at the end of the process (Gen 1:31). It may be hard for some people to imagine even God using that magnitude of power for good, but that’s precisely what the Bible teaches us! God always uses his power for good!

In our reading from the Psalms, we find this perspective on God’s power confirmed. Like many of us, the Psalmsinger found himself confronted by the majestic power of the God who created all the heavens and the earth simply with a word. I would say that the more we understand about how vast this cosmos really is, the more we are confronted by God’s majesty and power in creation. Even in ancient times, a simple glance at the night sky led the Psalmsinger to wonder, “what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:4). And yet, despite the fact that he frames his faith in the form of a question, we shouldn’t overlook the affirmation that lies behind it: God is mindful of us all; God does care for us, both deeply and continually. That is also the nature of God’s power!

The Psalmsinger had good reason to believe this. It’s the heart of what Hebrew Bible affirms about God: “I am the Lord God. I am merciful and very patient with my people. I show great love, and I can be trusted” (Exodus 34:6, CEV). It is the revelation God gave to Moses in the “cleft of the rock” when he asked to see God’s glory. And it echoes like a refrain throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, because it is the truth that serves as the foundation for biblical faith. The message of the Scriptures is that God’s power points us to the fact that God loves us with a love that will never let us go. It may be difficult for us to grasp, but the truth of our Scripture lesson is that we are constantly surrounded by the love of the God who is powerful enough to create all things simply by speaking the word. As one of our affirmations of faith puts it, the Bible leads us to believe in a God whose love for us is “powerful beyond measure.”

We see this theme of power reflected a little differently in our Gospel reading for today. It’s the story of Jesus’ final appearance to his disciples according to Matthew. When he appeared to them on a mountain in Galilee, he said something that would have been startling for them. And it should still catch our attention today: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Mt 28:18). We’re used to hearing that language because it’s part of the “Great Commission.” But in that day, “all authority” belonged to God. Any human being claiming “all authority in heaven and on earth” would have been viewed as directly contradicting God’s authority. In fact, there are many in our world to this day who struggle with the image Jesus as having “all authority in heaven and on earth.”

I think what made the difference is that it was the risen and living Jesus who made this startling claim. They had seen him die, and they had seen him alive more than once after he rose from the dead. It was the resurrection that confirmed that this authority had come from God. I think we could say that Jesus received this authority in response to the fact that he had “fulfilled all righteousness” as Matthew’s Gospel puts it (Mt 3:15), or in other words that he had carried out God’s plan to “set right” all things and all people by his death and resurrection. Because of that, God himself gave this authority to Jesus. So it is that, in the New Testament, there is no contradiction whatsoever between the affirmation that all authority belongs to God, and that God has given that authority to Jesus Christ.

One reason for that is because Jesus uses that authority to carry out God’s purpose in the world. That’s not something we expect these days. It goes against the norm in our day. In our world, “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”[2] That’s the way we view power. Many of those who have the most power in our day use it to benefit themselves. But Jesus used the authority given to him by God not for his own benefit, but to extend the peace, justice, and freedom of God’s kingdom to all people. And he continues to use that authority to fulfill God’s work of “making all things new” (Rev 21:5). And at the end of it all, Paul said that Jesus would surrender all authority back to God, so that God “will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere” (1 Cor 15:28, NLT), bringing the new life of God’s kingdom to everyone and everything!

I think the point of all this was to inspire confidence in those of us who follow Jesus in a world that is set against God’s authority and power, in a world that remains set against the peace, justice, and freedom of God’s kingdom to this day. We see that opposition almost daily. Part of the assurance that God’s love triumphs in this world through Jesus lies in the promise that “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). Yes, we live in a world where the work of God’s kingdom isn’t complete. Yes, we live in a world where people continue to abuse power for their own benefit, and they hurt innocent people in the process. But rather than letting that cause us to doubt God’s purpose, or cause us to question Jesus’ power and authority, we can be confident because Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord is the one to whom God has entrusted “authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world” (Dan 7:13, NLT). And with that authority, Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord rules right now over “everything in heaven and on earth, everything seen and unseen” (Col 1:16, NLT). And the promise is that “His rule is eternal—it will never end” (Dan 7:14, NLT).

When we get caught up in what’s happening around us in this world, we can easily lose sight of all this. We can wonder where God’s rule, God’s power, and God’s authority are in this world. It’s still there! Jesus the Christ and our Savior and Lord is reigning with “all authority” at the right hand of God, right now! And he promised that he would be with us until the end of the age, continuing to fulfill the promise of God’s kingdom with the authority and power that God has given him. And part of the promise is that the power of God’s love will never fade. The promise is that the rule of love that Jesus carries out in our lives now will never end. One day, the power of God’s love, the rule of love that Jesus carries out in our lives now will extend to all people and encompass everything. On that day, then the whole creation will return to where it was in the beginning, when God “spoke” it into being, and everything was “very good.”

[2] Famously penned by Lord John Dalberg-Acton, Letter to Mandell Creighton (5 April 1887), referring to the declaration by Pope Pius IX of the Roman Catholic dogma of papal infallibility. He said, “I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. … Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. … There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. That is the point at which … the end learns to justify the means.” Cf. Historical Essays and Studies, by John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton (1907), edited by John Neville Figgis and Reginald Vere Laurence, Appendix, p. 504. Accessed at http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_Acton.

Monday, July 21, 2025

Partners

Psalm 8[1]

I think many of us wonder about the meaning of our lives. That’s not just something that we do when we’re young. Through all life’s changes, we can find ourselves wondering what our lives are about. For some of us, we find meaning in our families and our homes. For others, our lives are more geared toward our careers. For others, it’s all about community involvement. For still others, the meaning of life may be focused on the experiences we have the opportunity to enjoy. For many of us, we find meaning in life by trying to balance a combination of these factors. Life’s changes also mean that our quest for meaning in life is a moving target for most of us. At the different stages of life, we can find ourselves wondering “who am I?” and “what is the meaning of my life?”

The psalm singer who wrote our lesson for today reflects on that very question. Like anyone else, the psalm singer apparently was moved by the vastness of the night sky to wonder about our place in all of that. He asks, “When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?” (Ps. 8:3-4, NLT). It’s a common experience to feel a sense of awe when you see the beauty of a clear night that seems so full of stars. And it’s common to wonder at our place in the universe when we feel that sense of awe.

But there are several ways in which the questions “Who am I?” and “What is the meaning of my life?” are framed in a unique manner by the Scripture lesson. First, the wonder at our place in a universe that can seem overwhelmingly immense is framed by an affirmation that it is God who rules over all of it. The James Webb Space Telescope recently discovered a galaxy that is 45 billion light years away! As our technology has improved our understanding of just how vast the universe is has increased dramatically. It’s only natural that we should wonder at our place in this overwhelmingly immense universe. And yet, the scripture affirms that God rules over all of it! At the beginning and the end of his reflections, the psalm singer affirms, “O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!” (Ps. 8:1, 9, NLT). I think he could have just as easily said “, “O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the whole universe!” The questions “Who am I?” and “What is the meaning of my life?” begin and end with the affirmation that God is the one who reigns over all creation. While God’s great majesty may lead us to wonder at our place in things, at the same time, because we are God’s creatures, our lives are by definition endowed with significance.

The second way in which the psalmist frames the questions “Who am I?” and “What is the meaning of my life?” is by placing them in the context of God’s care for all people. Notice that the psalmist doesn’t simply ask “What are mere mortals?” Rather, he asks, “what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?” (Ps. 8:4). Literally, in the Hebrew Bible the psalm singer wonders why God “remembers” and “visits” mortals. The acts of “remembering” and “visiting” sum up God’s works on behalf of his people Israel throughout the Hebrew Bible. That’s the language of God’s care. God continually made the people of Israel the object of his attention and care. But the psalm singer extends that care to include all mortals, the whole human family. Again, the thought that God pays attention to and cares for every human being is one that we might find so amazing that it’s hard to believe. But the psalm singer insists it’s a vital part of the answer to the questions, “Who am I?” and “What is the meaning of my life?”

The third way in which the psalm singer frames these questions is by affirming the dignity of all human beings as partners in caring for God’s treasured creation. He says it this way, “You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority” (Ps. 8:6, NLT). It seems clear that the psalm singer is reflecting here on the description of humanity as a part of creation in Genesis chapter one. Unfortunately, however, the ideas of “ruling” (Gen. 1:26) or having “authority” (Ps. 8:6) over creation have too often been misconstrued. The point is not that this world and all that is in it is ours to do with as we please. Rather it is that we are called to be partners with God in his ongoing project of creation. Yes, there is a sense in which God “rested” on the seventh day from all that he did in creation. But Jesus could say in John’s Gospel that “my Father is working to this day” (Jn 5?), which alludes to the sense in which creation itself is an ongoing project. It can be awe-inspiring in and of itself to think that we mortals have been entrusted with caring for what is most dear to God’s heart: the natural world in which we live and all the people who life in it! In a very real sense, we are partners in the ongoing work of creation by the way in which we do simple things like planting a garden. Those tomatoes that will be turned into pasta sauce and salsa at the end of the season are still growing right now. Some of them are just flowering. That’s creation unfolding right before our eyes. And those who are involved in caring for those gardens are partners in God’s ongoing work of creation. We have all kinds of ways that we can exercise that partnership with God, including recycling and conserving resources.

There are many ways we could approach the questions “Who am I?” and “What is the meaning of my life?” We could approach them functionally, based on what we do. We could approach them philosophically, or from the perspective of psychology. And those approaches have important lessons to teach us about what it means to live fully as a human being. But from the perspective of the psalm singer, one cannot fully answer the question of the meaning of our lives apart from the God who created us and who reigns over all things.

It is fitting on this Trinity Sunday, the day when we remember that we worship the God who is not remote, but rather became one of us in order to redeem us, and who is with us through the Spirit’s continual presence, that we remember we are the objects of God’s unfailing love and care. Always and continually. That has a lot to say about who God is: not a God who is distant and absent, but a Creator who takes great delight in every detail of creation, including the flowers that will become tomatoes and peppers and zucchini our gardens. We see that in Jesus our Savior, and in the work of the Spirit as well. But the fact that God takes such great interest in us also has a lot to say about who we are: we are an important part of God’s project. All 8.2 billion of us are beloved and cared for by the God who is beyond the vast universe. However we answer the questions “Who am I?” and “What is the meaning of my life?”, we cannot leave God’s love out of the equation. God loves us all, and that’s a very important part of answering the questions, “Who am I?” and “What is the meaning of my life?” We are not “mere” mortals who live out our short lives with no significance, but rather we are partners with God in the ongoing project of creation and redemption. I think all of this challenges us to take our place joyfully in the ongoing work of creation and redemption as God’s partners. And we do that as we hold firmly to our confidence that God cares for us, and that we are valued, perhaps beyond our imagination.

Tuesday, June 04, 2024

Dancing With God

Dancing with God

Romans 8:9-11[1]

Last week I mentioned that there is a reason for the things I say and do every week in worship. And it’s not just about taking the easy way out. As I mentioned last week, I frame every sermon with a reference to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I do that because, believe it or not, I think that our faith in the one God who is revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is essential to our understanding of God, of salvation, and of our place in God’s work to redeem the whole creation.[2] We understand that God truly entered this world to become “God-who-is-with-us” based on our belief that Jesus God the Son. It is that same belief that enables us to understand, based on Jesus’ life and death, that God is also “God-who-is-for-us.” And God the Spirit makes all the amazing things God has done for us real in our hearts and lives to this day.

So, yes, it is my heartfelt conviction that a Christian view of God is only possible through the lens of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the one triune God working together to gather us all into the love that defines God’s very being.[3] Without the creation of all things in love, we would not have the assurance we do that God loves us all. Without the sending of Jesus the Son of God to show us God’s love, we could not be sure that God loves us all. Without the constant presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, our faith in God’s love would be based solely on stories of events that happened a very long time ago. It’s only the love of God as revealed in creation, as demonstrated by Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to new life, and continually poured into our hearts through the Spirit that gives us confidence to trust that God’s love for us never fails!

This isn’t just some abstract conclusion based on ivory-tower speculations of theologians. It is written into virtually every page of the New Testament. The word “Trinity” may not occur in the Bible, but the idea is written into virtually every page of the New Testament. We see it especially in our lesson from the book of Romans for today. There’s one verse in particular that has always fascinated me. It’s Romans 8:11: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” St. Paul is talking about the new life that we all have through our faith in Jesus Christ. But he makes it clear that this new life in us is the result of what God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit does in our lives.

Notice that it starts out with a reference to “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead.” Well, the one who raised Jesus from the dead is always God in the NT. So Paul starts this beautiful declaration by talking about what God does in order for us to experience new life. He’s the one who sent Jesus to demonstrate his love for all people by his life and death. God is also the one who raised Jesus from the dead to make it clear that our new life was not just intended for this world alone. And God brings us to new life by giving us his own Spirit within us. All of this originates in God’s very being, which is defined in the Bible as “love.” God’s love is a love that reaches out to claim us all, and God never stops reaching out to us all to claim us in his love.

St. Paul also refers to the role of Jesus Christ, the Son of God in our experience of new life. Jesus the Son of God is the one who came forth, bearing God’s love into the world in human form. Everything he did and said was to demonstrate God’s love for us all. Particularly the fact that he refused to exclude those whom the religious people of that day would normally exclude from God’s love. Of course, his death was a decisive demonstration of God’s love for us. Indeed, it has been said that in Jesus’ death on the cross God was present, drawing the whole world into his love.[4] And the final demonstration of God’s love reaching out to us to bring us new life took place when Jesus rose from the dead. Every aspect of Jesus’ life happened the way it did to demonstrate God’s love for us all.

St. Paul’s description of the new life we enjoy through our faith would not be complete without the work of the Holy Spirit. It’s because the Holy Spirit “dwells” in us that we have this new life. In the NT, the fact that the Spirit “lives” in us, or “dwells” in us is not a reference to some kind of “come-and-go” presence. Although we don’t always “feel the Spirit moving” in our hearts, make no mistake: the Spirit is always there! That’s one reason why I like Gene Peterson’s translation of this verse in The Message: “It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s”!

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that this is hard to wrap your head around. Some of the most brilliant theologians throughout history have tried. Having read some of them, I’d have to say that I’m not sure their efforts always shed light. Many times they only make it harder to understand! I think what might make the most sense of “trinity” is the idea that the varied ways in which God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit works in our lives are all expressions of God’s love that seeks to draw us to himself. We know God’s love through creation, we know God’s love in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and we know God’s love through the presence of the Spirit within us.

There have been a lot of analogies that have been used to illustrate the idea of “trinity” throughout history. There is one analogy that makes sense to me. It is the analogy of dancing. We sing about it in our hymn “I Danced in the Morning.” The analogy is an ancient one. The idea is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are joined in an eternal dance by the love they share for each other.[5] But love always seeks out others, and so the purpose of this eternal dance of God’s has always been to draw all of us to join that dance. The God who has loved us from all eternity not only became one of us, but also continually takes us by the hand, leading us gently but persistently into this ongoing dance. I’m not much for dancing myself. Unless it’s a wedding for one of my children, my grandchildren are there, and I’m feeling particularly silly, I’m probably not going to join in the dance. Someone would have to take me by the hand and pull me out there. Being that kind person, I’m grateful that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, keeps reaching out to all of us, drawing us into God’s love, continually teaching us all what it means to join in the dance of love.

[2] Cf Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 53: “the church can only understand its own position or abode in participation in the movement of the history of God’s dealings with the world, and therefore as one element in this movement. Its attempts to understand itself are attempts at understanding the movement of the trinitarian history of God’s dealings with the world; and its attempts to understand this movement are attempts at understanding itself.”

[3] Cf. Moltmann, Church in the Power, 56: “A Christian doctrine of the Trinity which is bound to the history of Christ and the history of the Spirit must conceive the Trinity as the Trinity of the sending and seeking love of God which is open from its very origin. The triune God is the God who is open to man [sic], open to the world and open to time.”

[4] cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God, 208. He quotes Cyril of Jerusalem as saying “On the cross, God stretched out his hands to embrace the ends of the earth.” In fact, Cyril was speaking of Jesus (“He stretched out His hands on the Cross, that He might embrace the ends of the world”), and it would seem that Moltmann is giving his statement a trinitarian interpretation. Cf. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 13.28 (NPNF 2.7, 89).

[5] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom of God, 174-75. He quotes John of Damascus, a 7^th century Greek Father, who said that the unity between the Father, Son, and Spirit is the relationship of love that they share with each other. His term for it was perichorēsis, a Greek term that literally means “rotation,” to describe the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Moltmann (ibid.) interprets it this way, “The Father exists in the Son, the Son in the Father, and both of them in the Spirit, just as the Spirit exists in both the Father and the Son. By virtue of their eternal love they live in one another to such an extent, and dwell in one another to such an extent, that they are one.”

Tuesday, June 06, 2023

All Authority

Matthew 28:16-20[1]

Many of us grew up in a time when authority was either being questioned or flat out rejected. The scandals that broke open during the 1960’s and 1970’s rocked our confidence in all authority figures, from top to bottom. The “Pentagon Papers” demonstrated that the US government had secretly provided funding for the Vietnam war going back to the time of President Truman. And they proved that President Johnson had lied to Congress and to the American people about the level of US military involvement. Of course, all of this led up to the Watergate scandal, where President Nixon conspired with those who organized the burglary of the Democratic National headquarters. Needless to say, in the wake of all that, people’s confidence in authority figures—all authority figures—was shaken.

Fast forward to the present time, and the pace of change, along with a fear of unknown “threats” in our world is driving people in this country to seek safety at the hands of authoritarian figures. This is a global trend, as people all over the world are putting their faith, their hopes, and their longing for security in the hands of leaders like Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Recep Erdogan, Viktor Orban, and Narendra Modi.[1] Having lived through both eras—the time of questioning authority, and this time of turning to human authoritarian figures for security—has been more than ironic to me. I have to wonder at people’s ability to so quickly forget their own recent past.

That might seem like a strange way to introduce a sermon on Trinity Sunday. The reason is that I want to call attention to the way that our lesson from Matthew’s Gospel concentrates God’s authority in the person of the risen and living Jesus. When he appeared to his disciples on a mountain in Galilee, he said to them something that would have been startling for them. And it should still catch our attention today: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Mt 28:18). We’re used to hearing that language because it’s part of the “Great Commission.” But in that day, “all authority” belonged to God. Any human being claiming “all authority in heaven and on earth” would have been viewed as directly contradicting God’s authority.

I think what made the difference is that it was the risen and living Jesus who made this startling claim. They had seen him die, and they had seen him alive more than once after he rose from the dead. It was the resurrection that confirmed that it was God who had given him this authority. I think Matthew means for us to remember the “tempter” had taken Jesus up on a “very high mountain” and offered him “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” (Mt 4:8). As I mentioned earlier when we looked at that passage, I don’t believe they were the “tempter’s” to give. But here, in response to the fact that Jesus had “fulfilled all righteousness” as Matthew’s Gospel puts it, in other words he had carried out God’s plan to “set right” all things and all people by his death and resurrection, God himself had given all authority to Jesus. And there is no contradiction whatsoever between the biblical affirmation that all authority belongs to God, and that God has given that authority to Jesus Christ.

One reason for that is because Jesus uses that authority to carry out God’s purpose in the world. Of course, that goes against the norm in our day. In our world, “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”[3] But Jesus used the authority given to him by God not for his own ends, but to promote the peace, justice, and freedom of God’s kingdom. And he continues to use the authority given by God to “unite all things” (Eph 1:10, RSV), to “make peace with all things” (Col 1:20), and to fulfill God’s work of “making all things new” (Rev 21:5). And at the end of it all, Paul said that Jesus would surrender all authority back to God, so that God “will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere” (1 Cor 15:28, NLT), bringing the new life of God’s kingdom to everyone and everything!

All of that may seem overwhelming to us “normal folks.” But I think that Matthew wanted those who would read and hear his Gospel to come away from the story of Jesus with complete confidence that they had entrusted their lives into the hands of one who would not only be “God-who-is-with” them, but also one who had God’s own authority to empower them to carry out the task of making disciples of all nations. You may remember that in my sermon last week I said that it is the Spirit who empowers us. But we should note something about the way the New Testament speaks about God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Here, all of God’s authority is concentrated in Jesus; elsewhere we see it concentrated in the Father, or in the Spirit. And again, the first Christians could affirm all three without any contradiction. As John Calvin says it, (but not quite this succinctly), Trinity is how God operates in the world![4]

I think the point of all this was to inspire confidence in those who would follow Jesus in a world that remains set against the peace, justice, and freedom of God’s kingdom. And part of the assurance lies in the promise that “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). We can be confident because Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord is the one to whom God has entrusted “authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world” (Dan 7:13, NLT) as well as over “everything in heaven and on earth, everything seen and unseen, including all forces and powers, and all rulers and authorities” (Col 1:16, NLT). And the promise is that “His rule is eternal—it will never end” (Dan 7:14, NLT).

In this world where we see so many people looking to authoritarian figures to provide them with safety, hope, and confidence about the future, I think we would do well to remember what the Psalmist said, “Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; … . When they breathe their last, … all their plans die with them.” (Ps 146:3-4, NLT). Rather, we look to Jesus, to whom God has entrusted “all authority.” We look to him for our confidence, because the one with “all authority in heaven and on earth” will empower us to carry out the work of God’s kingdom. We look to him for our ultimate safety, because his rule is eternal, and his kingdom will have no end. His rule is God’s rule, and he works to accomplish no other kingdom than God’s kingdom. In this world full of people who would claim our hearts and minds with their empty promises, their selfish use of power to benefit themselves, and their inevitable personal corruption, we can look to the one who rules with true authority, all the authority of God.

[2] Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries, “Why the World Is Attracted to Neo-Authoritarian Leaders,” INSEAD, 26 Sep 2022; accessed at https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/why-world-attracted-neo-authoritarian-leaders

[3] Famously penned by Lord John Dalberg-Acton, Letter to Mandell Creighton (5 April 1887), referring to the declaration by Pope Pius IX of the Roman Catholic dogma of papal infallibility. He said, “I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. … Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. … There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. That is the point at which … the end learns to justify the means.” Cf. Historical Essays and Studies, by John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton (1907), edited by John Neville Figgis and Reginald Vere Laurence, Appendix, p. 504. Accessed at http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_Acton.

[4] Cf. especially John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, I.13.17, where he quotes Gregory of Nazianzus (4^th Century), “I cannot think on the one without quickly being encircled by the splendor of the three; nor can I discern the three without being straightway carried back to the one.”

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

God's Love Overflowing

God’s Love Overflowing

Proverbs 8:1-11, 22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15[1]

When you think about religion as our human efforts to worship and serve God, you would think that a concept so basic to the human experience would be consistent across the board. But the opposite is true. The cultures of the world throughout history have held many beliefs about “God.” In ancient religions, the “gods” were simply a picture of human impulses on a large scale. But while the “gods” may have embodied the best human qualities, they also embodied the worst. Other cultures have approached their understanding of “God” through nature, and some even found their way to a “benevolent” notion of God. But our notions of “God” have always been as varied as the human family is.

Even in the Christian faith there are very different images of God. Some see God as a stickler for rules, always eager to punish those who go astray. And in many cases, those who understand God like that have come up with all kinds of things you have to do in order to stay on God’s “good side” so you can go to heaven when you die. Others have such a casual view of God that they turn the creator of the vast universe into their “buddy.” And they think this “buddy” of theirs is a personal “genie in a bottle” who will make their every wish come true. How you understand God makes a difference!

That’s why we observe “Trinity Sunday.” It’s a day for us to recall that there are important reasons we worship one God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I realize that may sound like a “stretch” to some. A lot of people these days think it doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you have some kind of faith. But I would insist that the Bible bears witness to God in this unique way of understanding that we call “Trinity.” And it’s not just about making sure we follow the Bible. Believing in, worshipping, and serving God as “Trinity” makes a big difference in what your faith and your life look like.

Our scripture lessons for today point out some of the reasons why it’s important that we understand God in this way. In our lesson from Proverbs, we get a better glimpse of what it means to say “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” There is something intimidating about the notion that God created all the galaxies we can see with the new James Webb Space Telescope. But our lesson shows us a different side: God enjoying creation and delighting in the human family. Creation was not only an expression of God’s power, but also of God’s love, overflowing in the beauty of the world that is “very good” (Gen 1:31). Part of what it means to believe in “Trinity” is that we see God not only as all-powerful but also as one who takes great delight in loving all creation.

Our lesson from John’s Gospel reminds us of what it means to say, “I believe in Jesus Christ God’s only Son our Lord.” As we’ve seen in our journey through John’s Gospel during Easter, Jesus’ whole life was one act of demonstrating God’s love for us. By coming in human flesh, he showed us what God’s love looks like. By serving “the least of these” (Mt 25:40), he demonstrated God’s love for everyone. And by giving his life on the cross, Jesus revealed just how far God is willing to go to draw us into the embrace of love shared eternally by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Part of what it means to believe in “Trinity” is that we know God’s love for us through Jesus Christ.

Our lesson from Romans reminds us of what it means to say, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” God not only poured out his love when he created all things “very good.” And God not only poured out his love by sending Jesus to show us what love looks like in real life. God also continually pours out his love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Again, as we have seen in John’s Gospel, the Spirit is our constant companion, the one who leads us to faith, who shows us the truth of what God is doing in and among us, and who guides us daily. Part of what it means to believe in “Trinity” is that we trust that God’s love for us means that he continually accompanies, guides, sustains, and empowers us.

In the Bible, it takes all three, God the Creator, Jesus the Redeemer, and the Spirit who sustains us, to fully understand who God is. If it’s true that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), it should come as no surprise that the one God who is three—Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer—exists in a relationship of love and community. This is the image of God in the Bible: God in relationship, God in community, God involved in our lives. This is central to our faith, because the love shared between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the basis for everything God does in our lives, for all that God does in our community of faith, and for all that God does through us as we serve others.

The point of the Trinity is that God is a God of love—not just love that observes from afar, but love that reaches out to us and seeks a relationship with us. The God who creates and redeems and sustains us is a God who shows us a love that is constantly present among us, that gets involved in our lives, and that takes action to fill our lives with love. About twenty years ago, the PCUSA commissioned a study of our understanding of God as “Trinity.” That doesn’t take any kind of stretch of imagination! The (inevitable) report encouraged churches to explore ways to include affirmations of our faith in God as “Trinity,” using the range of expressions in the Bible and in the history of the Church. And the overarching theme was framed in the title of the report: “The Trinity: God’s Love Overflowing.” I can think of no better way to understand God: love overflowing in and through all creation and in and through every one of our lives!

[1] © 2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm Ph. D. on 6/12/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/q6bP3CkiA0Q

Monday, June 08, 2020

Made for Relationships

Genesis 1:26; Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18[1]

One of the challenges of this time of separation from others is that we don’t have nearly as many face-to-face contacts with people. Of course, we do get to see each other on the screen with our Zoom gatherings, but it’s just not the same as being together. Believe it or not, I’m actually an introvert. I love being around people, but I need “alone” time to re-charge. Even those of us who are introverts need to see the people in our lives. I think part of the stress we’re all feeling is that we don’t have the same level of personal interaction with co-workers, friends, family, and the church family.

One of the main motivations for being a part of a church like ours is the relationships we form. As we heard earlier in our service, many times the church becomes an extended family for those whose are away from their family members. I don’t know about you, but that’s one of the things I miss most about being able to gather together in person. At the same time, I have a deep concern for your safety, and I don’t want to leave anybody out of our worship. For now, it seems that the best course is to continue to gather on Zoom, and to have regular opportunities for us to “meet and greet” one another in safe ways.

The fact that relationships are so important to us is, I think, something that is true by design. In the creation story in Genesis, God says, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). This passage is the basis for the idea that we as human beings are created in the image of God. Throughout the ages, theologians and scholars have debated precisely what that means. Some have said that it is our capacity for reason, others that it is our ability to “have dominion” over the rest of creation, and others have even said it is the fact that we walk upright!

I would say that the Scriptures point us in a different direction. Understanding God is in some ways straightforward, and in other ways it is complicated. Especially in the New Testament, as in our Gospel reading, the language for God is the language of “Trinity.” This is one of the most complicated aspects of our faith. As I understand it, Trinity means that God does not exist in a solitary condition. Rather, God is “God in three persons” who are bound together by love. God is “God in relationship,” “God in community.” The very statement that “God is love” implies that at the heart of who God is, there is relationship. For there to be love, there has to be an “other” to love. That love starts with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who are bound together by the love they share for one another. And so it is that I think we are meant to read the creation of humankind in the image of God in part as a statement about who God is: God is “love overflowing” to all of us, and the whole creation.

“God’s love overflowing”[2] reaches out to all created things, and especially to the human family. As I mentioned, that we are created in God’s image means that we are made for relationships. We are designed to respond to the love that God has poured out in our hearts. The primary way in which we do this is in our relationship with God our Creator. We are to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5). That means seeking God, following God’s ways, honoring God with our lives, and serving God by serving others.

That last part points us to the other essential way in which we respond to the love God has poured into our lives. Just as God exists in the community of love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so we are made to love others. We are created to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). We love God by loving others through the relationships we build with them. Just as God exists in a fellowship of love, so also we who are created in his image are made for relationships.

We’ve been given an amazing gift: we’ve been designed to relate to God and one another with love. And we’ve been given an amazing task: we’ve been created to share God’s love with one another and with those around us. To be this kind of people, people who are fundamentally shaped by God's love, people who share God’s love with all those we encounter, is more than we can do by ourselves. Fortunately, we have an example of what that looks like in human terms in the person of Jesus Christ. And we have a “helper” to guide us and empower us in the person of the Holy Spirit. We who are made for relationships can look to God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sustainer to live out the love we have been given by sharing it with all our fellow members of the human family.

[1] © Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D., on 6/7/2020 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] See the PCUSA statement on the Trinity entitled “The Trinity: God’s Love Overflowing” at https://www.presbyterianmission.org/resource/trinity-gods-love-overflowing/.

Saturday, July 06, 2019

God's Delight

God’s Delight

Prov. 8:22-31[1]

I’ve spoken before about the problems of our “virtual” culture. Most of us are constantly staring at some kind of screen or other. On the one hand, I’d have to admit, that I really appreciate the access to information, photos, and videos from around the world. Having spent a fair amount of my life hunting down a book in a library somewhere, it’s really nice to be able to look up the information I need on the web. Having instant access to pictures and images from around the world makes the news seem somehow more real. And, of course, I myself am a connoisseur of internet music, movies, and TV.

I think, however, that the problem with our “virtual” culture, is that we may be in danger of losing our ability to just enjoy the beauty of life. We get conditioned to having a certain level of stimulation from the screens we watch, and that makes it harder for us to just “be still” and watch a sunset, or children playing, or simply to cherish the company of another person. Although it has been disproven that we humans now have a shorter attention span than a goldfish, there is an abundance of information available that makes it clear that the way we pay attention is changing. Primarily, it shows that, with so much more information available, we are more likely to lose interest in some activities more quickly.

Our lesson from Proverbs presents us with a beautiful image of a very different approach to life. It depicts God creating all things like a master craftsman or a skilled artist. If you’ve ever tried to create something in that way, you know that it takes sustained and careful attention. That’s the way God relates to his creation. After all, Creation comes from God’s desire to have a relationship with those who can choose to return God’s love and share God’s love with one another. And like a skilled artist takes delight in a sculpture or a painting, God takes great delight in all creation. That means that all creation, including the human family, continues to be the object of God’s sustained and careful attention.

Though the book of Proverbs pre-dates Jesus by several centuries, there is already hint here of God being more than a single solitary being far removed from anyone or anything. In Proverbs God has a counterpart and God is actively involved in our lives. In our lesson “Wisdom” is God’s counterpart, not only applauding with joy at every aspect of creation but also working with God to make sure everything fits—as a master craftsman. I like the way Gene Peterson translates it in The Message: “I was right there with him, making sure everything fit. Day after day I was there, with my joyful applause, always enjoying his company, delighted with the world of things and creatures, happily celebrating the human family” (Prov. 8:30-31).

The interesting thing about “Wisdom” as God’s counterpart in Proverbs is that Wisdom is personified as a woman! “Lady Wisdom” gets involved: she cries out in the streets, seeking those who are simple-minded and going astray from the truth and calling them to return and live the life God intended for them. In the New Testament, Jesus pretty much assumes this role. He is the one who calls all people to God’s love and God’s life. And as we are reminded on Pentecost, God has another counterpart that gets overlooked at times—the Spirit. In the Bible, it takes all three, God the Creator, Jesus the Redeemer, and the Spirit who sustains us, to fully understand who God is.

This is the image of God in the Bible: God in relationship, God in community, God involved in our lives.[2] If it’s true that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), it should come as no surprise that God has counterparts in the Bible, since love requires a counterpart, an “other” to love. This one God who is three—Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer—exists in a relationship of love and community within Godself. This is central to our faith, because the love represented by the relationships in the Trinity is the basis for our community and for everything God does in our lives.

In our day, not many people have much use for the idea of God as Trinity. It seems an abstract and far-fetched concept for theologians to debate. To those of us in the church, it may seem like just words we recite in the Apostles’ Creed that don’t really affect us in real life. But the point of the Trinity is that God is a God of love—not just love that observes from afar, but love that reaches out to us and seek a relationship with us. The God who creates and redeems and sustains us is a God who shows us a love that is constantly present among us, that gets involved in our lives, and that takes action to fill our lives with love. [3] The ultimate goal is that our lives might reflect that same love in our relationships with one another.

As our affirmation of faith for today puts it, our God is the “One God who is the Creator and Sustainer, the Savior and Lord, the Giver of life within, among, and beyond us.”[4] If we understand this image of God through the lens of our Scripture lesson, we see God as one who takes great delight in the beauty of the natural world, and takes great delight in the human family. That’s right—all this talk about Trinity means that each one of us benefits from God’s unfailing love and care, God’s constant presence and support, and even more than that, we are all people in whom God takes keen interest and great delight.

[1] © Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 6/16/2019 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. Based in part on a sermon by the same title from 5/26/2013.

[2] Jürgen Moltmann, God for a Secular Society: The Public Relevance of Theology, 101: The biblical image of God is “God in community, rich in relationships. ‘God is love.’”

[3] Jürgen Moltmann, Science and Wisdom, 185: “According to Wisdom literature (Ecclesiasticus, for example), this creative Wisdom can also be called God’s Word or God’s Spirit. But what is meant is always the presence of God immanent in the world and present in all things.” Cf. also Jürgen Moltmann, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, 46.

[4] Presbyterian Church in the United States. A Declaration of Faith. 117th General Assembly (1977), reissued by Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1991.

Monday, September 17, 2018

Full of Glory

Isaiah 6:1-8[1]

The temptation to narrow our focus to the confines of our own self-interest is one that I think we all have to face. I find that ironic, especially in this age when we have access to a broad range of information on an unprecedented scale. Our seemingly unlimited reach doesn’t necessarily result in our being more connected with the human family in all its diversity. Instead, we tend to limit our horizons to those who look like us, who talk like us, and who think like us. And the end result is that as our view of life becomes small, so our experience of life becomes small.

Our lesson from Isaiah for today takes us out of that narrow, limited view of the world and places us in the presence of the God who not only inhabits “the whole earth” (Isa. 6:3), but who is also at work among the whole human family in ways we may not even be able to imagine. The vision of our “holy, holy, holy” God whose “glory” fills the whole earth necessarily broadens our perspective on life. We cannot remain in the confines of our own self-interest when we catch a glimpse of this vision. And when the call comes, “Who will go for us?,” a broader vision of what God is doing in our world will compel us to answer, “Here am I; send me!” (Isa. 6:8).

On this Trinity Sunday, it’s important to remind ourselves that the Christian view of God as three-in-one places our understanding of who God is and what God is doing in the world in the broadest possible perspective. Trinity says that God is the one who created all things and all people, and that he made them very good. Trinity says that God entered into our struggle in the person of Jesus in order to heal our brokenness. And Trinity says that as the Spirit is always among us, working to make all things new, this is God’s doing. As a result, it only makes sense to affirm that “the whole earth is full of God’s glory” (Isa. 6:3).

This may be no big deal to you. You may take all that for granted because you’ve spent your whole life in the church. But there are many people in this world who do not have this view of God. Some think our world sort of “happened” on its own, which means that any “God” we might believe in is merely a spectator. Some may affirm that God truly created all things, but the notion that such a God would actually enter our experience to do something about it is completely foreign. Then there are those who think that God may have done some wonderful things in the past, but that was a long time ago. In other words, whatever God may be out there is basically irrelevant to real life.

As we’ve seen, Scripture articulates a far-reaching perspective of who God is and what God is doing by speaking of God’s “glory.” I realize that “glory” is a word that we don’t much use in our everyday conversations. I would say that “glory” is a word that we say only in church, and then it really doesn’t mean much to us. But in the Bible, the notion of “glory” is a wonderful image of our three-in-one God. In some contexts, the word glory seems to refer to the “beauty” of God. In others, it has the notion of God’s “majesty.” And I think that everywhere the word glory occurs, it has the implication of God’s “mystery.”

I think the best way to illustrate this is with nature. This, of course, is not original to me. That creation bears witness to God is a timeless insight. Think about a breathtaking mountain vista with its seemingly immovable firmness and crisp clarity. Imagine a vibrant sunset that re-defines the spectrum of colors from red to purple and stretches across the vast expanse of the sky. Recall a spectacular seascape that gives only a hint of the power that moves such incalculable volumes of water down to the murky depths of the oceans. Visualize the amazing beauty of a nebula in space, massive and stretching its colors over unimaginable distances. These and many other images bear witness to God’s “glory.”

Of course, the first thing that comes to my mind in this is the beauty of it all. When the Bible speaks about God’s “glory,” it presents God as the author of beauty—all beauty. But perhaps in the same breath, when you speak of the beauty of creation, you also immediately perceive the amazing power that is behind it all. From this perspective, the Bible ascribes “glory” to God as the source and highest embodiment of the power behind all that exists. And behind the breathtaking beauty and the awe-inspiring power there is a “something more.” It is the mystery behind and through all mystery, and we perceive that this presence is what we affirm as God’s “glory.”

I hope this gives new meaning to the affirmation “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost” we sing every Sunday. When we do so, we are affirming that God’s beauty, power and mystery are all around us, all the time. At the same time, we are recognizing that our lives in this world are a part of something much larger than can be contained in our limited horizons. That means we cannot help but say “Here am I, send me!” when we hear the call to join God’s work of sustaining the beauty and life all around us. It means we will look for ways to join in the work of establishing God’s kingdom of justice, peace, and freedom, as well as God’s work of “making all things new.” And as we do so, we will recognize we and all those around us are always “full of God’s glory.”

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Surrounded by Love

Psalm 8; Matthew 28:20[1]

One of the blessings of information technology is that the world has become a much smaller place. We can learn about what is going on in around the country and even around the world almost as soon as it happens. That can be a very good thing. It means that we get to see up close and personal how much of a resemblance we bear to our sisters and brothers in the human family. One of the curses of information technology is that the world has become a much smaller place. That means that we also get to see—up close and personal—all the cruelty and violence and hatred and injustice afflicting the human family. In the face of overwhelming cruelty and violence and injustice, it can seem incredibly naïve to believe that God surrounds us continually with love!

On the surface of things, it would seem that the reality of our world contradicts the message of our Scripture lessons for today. In our reading from the Psalms, we find ourselves confronted with the majesty of the God who created all the heavens and the earth. And the more we understand about just how vast this cosmos really is, the more God’s majesty and power in creation is magnified. Even in the Psalmist’s day, a simple glance at the night sky led him to wonder, “what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:4). And yet, despite the fact that the Psalmist frames his faith in the form of a question, we shouldn’t overlook the affirmation that lies behind it: God is mindful of us all; God does care for us, both deeply and continually.

The Psalmist had good reason to believe this. It was the heart of the essential affirmation of the Hebrew Bible: “I am the Lord God. I am merciful and very patient with my people. I show great love, and I can be trusted” (Exodus 34:6, CEV). It is the revelation God gave to Moses when he asked to see God’s glory. And it echoes like a refrain throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, because it is the truth that serves as the foundation for the faith that God loves us with a love that will never let us go. It may be difficult for us to grasp, but the truth of our Scripture lesson is that we are constantly surrounded by the love of the God who created all things.

In our lesson from Matthew’s Gospel, we see this truth reflected in a little different light. The risen Christ is giving his final instructions to his disciples. And in the midst of it all, he gives them the promise “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mt. 28:20, Today’s NIV). Jesus promised his disciples that he would always be with them, no matter what. If you look at what happens to them in the course of their lives of service to Christ and his kingdom, we might wonder about that: imprisonments, beatings, shipwrecks, and even martyrdom. But Jesus didn’t promise them that his presence would spare them from opposition in this world. He promised them that he would always be with them.

I guess I would have to say that I would expect the world to look a lot different if we’re to believe that we are always surrounded by God’s love, and that Jesus is always with us. We might think that a world in which we are all constantly and continually surrounded by God’s loving presence should bear a whole lot more evidence of peace and compassion and love! This question has vexed the minds and hearts of believers throughout the centuries. If God is so good and loving, why is there so much evil in the world? And some of the best minds through the ages have diligently sought answers.

But I’m not so sure that the answer is all that complicated. It seems to me that God’s presence in this world is no more complicated than giving and receiving compassion. I would think it stands to reason that the way we experience God’s loving presence is in the small acts by which we share kindness and love with our fellow human beings. And I would say that when we open ourselves to our sisters and brothers all around us, we find that there is actually a great deal of love in the world—even in the midst of suffering and injustice. Precisely in the midst of suffering and injustice.

I heard an interview several years ago with Sarah Shourd, one of a group of American hikers who were arrested and imprisoned in Iran, accused of spying for the U. S.[2] At first, she was alone, and she didn’t have any contact with anyone outside her cell. During that time she said that all she did was cry and beat at the walls. What sustained her through her ordeal was the compassion of Iranian women who were her fellow prisoners. When they heard Sarah crying, they would sing songs to her in English to comfort her. In the depths of Sarah’s despair, they would cry out to her in English, “We love you Sarah!” There she was, surrounded by some of the worst human injustice and cruelty, and in the midst of all that suffering, the voice of compassion came to her, “we love you Sarah!”

I think for most of us, the reality of our world makes us tend to isolate ourselves from those around us. We stay safely detached from everything and everyone in our world, walking around with earbuds, comfortable in our cars, withdrawing to our homes to engage with virtual reality over one kind of screen or another. And it’s no wonder we look at our world and wonder, “Where is God?” On the other hand, when we open ourselves to those who are around us and allow ourselves to experience their suffering and share compassion and kindness with them, then we experience God’s loving presence in our own lives. That’s when we discover the truth of the promise that, no matter what may come, we are always surrounded by God’s love.

[2] Sarah Montague, Interview with Sarah Shourd, “Hardtalk,” June 10, 2011; accessed at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/9508967.stm

Saturday, June 06, 2015

The Lord Reigns

Psalm 29[1]

I’ve lived most of my life in places where people are fond of saying, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait, it’ll change.” We certainly know about that around here. Especially at this time of the year. Those of us who live in “tornado alley” know all about flooding rains, high winds, and tornadoes that can come seemingly out of nowhere and catch us off guard. The weather forecasters do their best to give us as much warning as they can, but ultimately all they can do is make educated guesses. That’s even true in the case of my primary experience with unpredictable weather: hurricanes. The weather service knows they can’t be sure where the storm will make landfall, so they have a “cone of probability” that extends to five days out. With many storms, the “cone of probability” can cover the whole Gulf of Mexico!

The unpredictability and volatility of the weather are potent reminders that we are not ultimately in control of our lives. Not nearly as much as we’d like to think. Those of us who make a living working the soil know that perhaps better than most. In this day and age, with all our satellites and computer models and sophisticated gear for trying to predict the weather, I sometimes wonder how much it helps. It at least creates the illusion that we know what’s going to happen, and can make preparations. I guess that makes us think our lives are a little more safe. But when a storm comes out of nowhere and turns your life upside-down, that illusion gets blown away.

Our lesson from the Psalms for today may seem a shocking reminder of that reality. The Psalmist uses the awe-inspiring and terrifying experience of a massive storm as a reminder that God is greater than anything we can even conceive.[2] The description of the storm is something that those of us who have lived through will readily understand. The Psalmist speaks of the voice of God flashing forth in lightning and overpowering in thunder.[3] He also speaks of the powerful winds that breaks the mighty cedars—which could be as large as the redwoods in California. The storm is so massive that it makes the mountains “skip like a calf” (29:6), shakes the wilderness (29:8), and strips the forest bare (29:9). And the Psalmist adds that those who witness these things from the relative security of the temple cry “Glory!” I would imagine those who were caught in the worst of the storm cried out other things!

We may wonder why in the world the Psalmist would pick such a frightening image in order to demonstrate the awesome greatness of God. In fact, there was a very good reason for it. In the religion of the people of Canaan, the god Baal was the one who controlled storms. People made sacrifices to Baal to try to ward off the storms.[4] In fact, however, in their mythology, the people believed that Baal had to battle the elements of wind and water in order to control them. And so you couldn’t be sure whether your offering to Baal would actually protect you from a storm!

In the midst of that kind of thinking, the Psalmist depicts the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as the one who “sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever” (Ps. 29:10). I like the way Gene Peterson puts it in the message translation: “Above the floodwaters is God’s throne from which his power flows, from which he rules the world” (Ps. 29:10, The Message). In contrast to Baal, who must constantly wage a battle for control of the elements, the Lord God Almighty calmly rules the world from his throne on high. While Baal’s power is uncertain, it is clear that God’s power is beyond question.[5]

Now, I want to make it clear that I don’t believe the Psalmist is telling us that God sends the storms and the floods. I find that notion offensive. When our brothers and sisters in the human family suffer the effects of natural disasters, whether flooding, or tornadoes, or hurricanes, or even earthquakes and tsunamis, I don’t believe that God somehow sent that tragedy to teach them a lesson. The point of the Psalm is something altogether different: it means to call attention to the fact that while the power of nature is awesome and at times terrifying, God’s power is greater still. God calmly reigns over not only the forces of nature, but also our lives.

If we still can’t get past the notion that God must somehow cause natural disasters, take a look at what the Psalmist says about how God exercises his reign: “The LORD gives his people strength. The LORD blesses them with peace” (Ps. 29:10). The message of the Psalm is that God’s power is beyond anything we can even imagine—even the most powerful storm. But the message of the Psalm is also that God exercises that power to “bless” his people with “peace.” God doesn’t cause the natural disasters that can completely upend our lives. But God is there with us to give us strength and peace, and his power is greater than that of the most fearsome forces of nature.

I think one of the main motivations behind this message is to remind us why we come to worship. We do so in order to experience the awe-inspiring greatness of God in our lives and to cry “Glory!”[6] The Psalmist reminds us that the ultimate reason for being here is to be reminded that we worship the God who “rules over the floodwaters,” the Lord who “reigns as king forever.”[7] We’re here because the God who reigns over all things has summoned us. And we’re here to bear witness to the truth that the Lord reigns indeed, and his reign gives us strength and peace to face whatever may come our way.[8]

[2] Cf. James L. Mays, Psalms, 136, where he says the “organizing motif” of the Psalm is “glory”; here it is a “summary term for the attributes of the Lord as king” but also “a term for the manifestation, the display of the Lord’s divine royalty in the world.” This sermon focuses on the display of God’s reign in the world. For a treatment of God’s attributes in this Psalm, see Alan Brehm, “Awesome God,” a sermon delivered on 6/7/2009 at First Presbyterian Church, Dickinson, TX and at A Community of the Servant-Savior Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX. See http://thewakingdreamer.blogspot.com/2009/07/awesome-god-isa.html .

[3] Cf. Mays, Psalms, 136; while the phenomena described are those of a storm, this is also the language of a theophany (manifestation of God). He reminds us that “here its purpose is simply to evoke the power and majesty of the Lord as the ruler of the universe.”

[4] Cf. J. Clinton McCann, “The Book of Psalms” New Interpreters Bible IV:793, where he says that “the religion of Baal asserted what humans are all too inclined to believe in any era, that ultimately we are in control and that our efforts can ensure security. While Psalm 29 is not anti-science or anti-technology, it does suggest definite limits to both. The universe is the sphere of God’s reign.”

[5] Cf. Mays, Psalms, 137: “The name of Israel’s God appears in eighteen of the psalm’s twenty-three measures, as if to say by its constant repetition that it is the Lord, not any other deity, whose power rules the world. Where in Canaan’s myth sea and river were the opponents of Baal in his battle to gain kingship, in the psalm the mighty waters and the flood are simply subject to the Lord’s power as symbols of his everlasting reign.” Cf. also McCann, “The Book of Psalms” NIB IV:792, where he says, “Yahweh’s sovereignty—not Baal’s—is absolute.” Cf. similarly, H.-J. Kraus, Psalms 1-59, 351, who says that Ps. 29 presents the claim of the creator in the midst of competing claims: “Yahweh appears. Yahweh’s kabodh [glory] radiates forth. Yahweh’s voice resounds. Yahweh makes heaven and earth quake. To him all powers must bow in homage, and him they must serve.”

[6] Cf. Mays, Psalms, 137. He says that the Psalm is an indication of the importance of worship, describing it as “the marvelous possibility” of the “use of time and space and sound” to create a situation “in which ‘Glory!’ is uttered in response to the one true God.”

[7] Cf. McCann, “The Book of Psalms,” NIB IV:793, where he says that the Psalms “speaks eloquently what Christians affirm regularly in the conclusion to the Lord’s prayer: ‘for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.’”

[8] Cf. Anthony B. Robinson, Transforming Congregational Culture, 79: “worship is not an informational event. It is not a time to inform people about the church; it is not a time to inform people about the Christian faith; and it is not a time to inform people about God. It is a time to experience God, to experience the sacred, in ways that are life-changing.”

The Waking Dreamer