Father Riley's homily for July 12, 2020

PROPER X - A - 20 - IS. 55.10-13, ROM. 8.1-11, MATT. 13. 1-9, 18-23

Today’s parable calls to mind my last visit to the Holy Land where I stood on the shore of the Sea of Galilee on a beautiful spring morning. The bus was up by the road. Several of us pilgrims walked down to where the lake was glistening in a misty sunshine. It was peaceful and still.

The ground slopes up steeply from the seashore in several places and curves sharply around several narrow inlets just to the west of Capernaum. Our guide told us that the steep banks of the inlet act like a well-designed theatre with perfect acoustics.

If he were to get out a little way on the water in a small boat, he said, we would be able to hear his every word. He was referring to today’s parable and Jesus’ ability to speak to large crowds by doing that very thing. When Jesus told them to “listen”, they became silent and could hear his every word.

Hearing is one thing, understanding is another. He spoke to them in parables. Parables are stories in word pictures, revealing spiritual truths. The Hebrew and Aramaic word for parable means “allegory,” “riddle,” or “proverb.”

The scriptures, especially the gospels, are filled with parables - images drawn from daily life in the world to represent and communicate the deep things of God. Parables give us a glimpse of Him “whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways.” (Is. 55. 8-9)

As the mission of Isaiah in the Old Testament was to open the eyes of Israel to see the acts of God, so the parables of Jesus are intended to open the eyes of his hearers to the truth and lead them to produce the fruits of righteousness.

Parables challenge the hearer and call forth faith to perceive the mysteries of the kingdom of God. The mysteries of the kingdom are not merely obscure concepts or some religious truths only for the elite, nor is the understanding of the parable simply an intellectual process.

Remember the Pharisee Nicodemus’ dialogue with Jesus? His intellect took him only so far in his understanding of the idea of new birth. Even the disciples find the message hard to understand. While Jesus taught the same message to all, it is the simple and innocent who seem to be open to it.

As he said in last week’s gospel, God has hidden the mysteries from the wise of the world because they choose to trust in their own fallen wisdom and judgment rather than God’s. Spiritual enlightenment is essentially a connection of faith in the Person, words, and deeds of Jesus the Christ.

In today’s parable, Jesus teaches how the kingdom comes and why, in some cases, it is not received. It is a story of failure and success. Just like seed in the field, some was going to waste, but at last, some would bear fruit.

His was a cryptic message. Jesus wanted his hearers to struggle with what he was saying, to talk about it among themselves, to think it through. When he said, “If you have ears, then hear!” What he meant was, “I know it is not obvious; you are going to have to work it out for yourselves.”

Jesus speaks God’s word, the word which announces the kingdom. As Isaiah saw, the word that goes out and does its own work in people’s hearts and lives. That is what some kind of words do; they change the way people are inside.

But not everyone who heard Jesus’ words uses them like this. Still, today, not everyone who hears them has the right reactions. Christ’ interpretation of the parable is, therefore, both very specific to Jesus’ own context and very relevant to Christian practice in our own day. What he said was this.

Some allow the evil one to snatch the words away at once. Most of us have experienced cynical and sneering reactions. Some seem to be enthusiastic, but when the gospel starts to make demands on them they quickly show that the word never really went down and became rooted in their hearts.

Some really do have a deep rooted hearing of the word, but then allow other things to take root in their hearts as well; like thorns the other things choke the delicate plant of the word. These are all ways of getting stuck, if you will, in one’s faith journey. Others might call it reaching a plateau.

As we hear today’s parable, we should ask ourselves: are we, too, stuck somewhere in our journey to God? Are we in danger of these reactions? How deep are our spiritual roots? Are they sturdy enough to withstand the present crisis?

However, today’s parable is one that ends on a happy note in spite of much apparent loss; there will be a glorious sure crop. Jesus is warning the disciples and the future church of these pitfalls, and at the same time encouraging the disciples and the church. Their work and hope as well as Jesus’ work and ours will not be in vain. The emphasis is on “understanding” the Word.

Like the crowds on the lakeshore that day who listened to Jesus, our task again and again as we read and hear scripture and think about God’s work in our own day, is to think it through, to figure it out, and to ask ourselves what does it mean to me? What does it tell me about God? What does it tell me my relationship to God should be?

The way to bear fruit is to hear and understand. This takes time, and sometimes hard work. A quick glance at scripture, an occasional sitting in church, or a study group and being entertained by some new idea, is probably not enough.

We have to hear and understand until God’s word takes proper root. Christianity is not about nice little stories to make us feel better. It is about what God is doing in the world, what he has already done in Jesus and what He wants to do through us today.

In opening to us the door to the kingdom of heaven, the parables of Jesus help us to love God and to know Him, to understand and believe His grace, mercy, and forgiveness, and to order our lives according to His Word.

When hearing brings understanding we have become kingdom - people, bearing fruit in our own right. Yielding “in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” AMEN+

Christ Episcopal Church, Saint Joseph, Update

In person services are again discontinued at Christ Episcopal Church, Saint Joseph, until further notice.  Please see update from Bishop Owensby below.  Also, Church of the Holy Cross, Shreveport offers daily Evening Prayer on their Facebook site Monday thru Saturday at 6pm.  Father Garrett also offers Morning Prayer on Facebook at 11am each Sunday in addition to Bishop Owensby 10am MP Sunday service on Facebook.  Father Riley's homilies will continue to be posted on our BlogSpot each week.

Updated Policy and Procedure for Gathering During the Pandemic

An Important Message From Bishop Owensby:

Dear Friends, I pray that you and yours are well. These are trying times, and I appreciate your calm, faithful leadership. As you know, the pandemic continues to change local circumstances, and prudence requires that we respond sensibly as needed. In his briefing today Governor Edwards reported that, with respect to the spread of the virus in our state, we have lost all the gains we had made in May. Infection and hospital rates are climbing to new heights. Now this spread is no longer contained within hot spots like Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Instead, the entire state is experiencing an increase in infection and hospitalization numbers. Accordingly, I am now reiterating and amplifying my current requirements in the following manner. 1. All previously published requirements for gatherings for worship or any other purpose as a congregation remain firmly in effect. This includes mandates regarding social distancing, the wearing of masks, the limits on attendance numbers, sanitation, and the like. Singing continues to be forbidden. For clergy these policies are a mandatory pastoral direction. 2. Given the increased incidence of infection, I strongly urge that all worship or other gatherings be outside or virtual. If your congregation is unable to provide virtual worship, please send members to my FB Morning Prayer (Sunday, 10:00 a.m. CDT or the saved video at a later time). I will continue to offer weekly worship as long as we are in pandemic conditions. 3. The safest form of worship during a time of increased contagion is Morning Prayer. Accordingly, I urge you to revert to Morning Prayer until we see significant improvement in the rate of infection. Neither #2 nor #3 are requirements at this stage. However, I will continue to monitor the metrics and will issue revised policies as needed. Remember, we take these measures to protect the most vulnerable among us and to flatten the curve of infection so as not to overwhelm our medical facilities while we develop, mass produce, and administer a vaccine. The vaccination process will take time. You all remain in my prayers. And to my delight and surprise, we are seeing a significant rise in the numbers of those seeking worship and learning opportunities because of our new virtual ministries. The love of Jesus finds a way! Stay safe. Be well. And remember that you are loved. Peace, +Jake

Father Riley's homily for July 5th, 2020

PROPER IX - A - 20 ZECH. 9.9-12, ROM.7.15-25a, MATT.11.16-19, 25-30

Today’s collect is very timely in light of our current situation as a nation. I am not referring to the pandemic that continues to plague us physically, but the divisions that continue to beset us along the lines of race, religion, and politics.
Love God, and love your neighbor are the two elements of the Summary of the Law as taught by Jesus. The other commandments hang on these two. A simple command but one that is extremely difficult to put into practice when we allow human emotions like anger and frustration and prejudicial attitudes to get in the way.
When we do we cannot be “devoted to God with our whole heart,” nor can we be “united to one anther with affection,” as the collect prays. Jesus gave us the Summary of the Law in response to his being asked what was the greatest commandment.
It was a test of his knowledge of the Law (the commandments) that God had given his people to live by. Those of his generation were just as frustrated and even angered by their present situation, as many seem to be today. They were equally divided over race; Jew verses Gentile for example, and over politics, Roman rule verses home rule as well as religion.
“To what will I compare this generation?” Jesus asked. His question follows his just having spoken to the crowds concerning John the Baptist, who was by this time imprisoned. John was important because he introduced the “coming of God’s kingdom.”
But he like Jesus was misunderstood. His words caused divisions among the people and brought ridicule from the mouths of the religious leaders of his day. He was imprisoned by a politician and eventually beheaded for speaking the truth.
Jesus follows his question of the present generation with reference to a Jewish children’s game. The participants would divide into two groups: those who pretended to play musical instruments or singing, and the other responding in a manner opposite of what one would have expected. “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.”
Of course, Jesus is referring to himself and John as the “we.” Those religious leaders who heard John down by the Jordan preaching repentance and watching him baptize in preparation for the coming of Messiah, did not respond the way one would expect one would who was eagerly looking for God’s promised salvation.
Neither did they respond the way one would expect towards Jesus who in his ministry revealed the deep mystery of God’s kingdom and put God’s love to work in healing, forgiving and bringing new life.
Obviously, Christ realized that other people he met, including the religious leaders of his day, his own followers and the ordinary people, did not have the same awareness of his father that he did. Many had a skewed idea of God and the kingdom concept, many still do today.
Jesus’ preaching and teaching presented a direct challenge to their way of life, their thinking about God, and the commandments. Some resisted him outright; others made excuses for not believing him or following him.
God had chosen to hide the mysteries from those who had rather trust in their own wisdom and judgment rather than God’s. How Jesus must have felt to discover that most of his contemporaries did not want to hear what he was telling them.
Which raises the question how can we continue, as his modern day disciples, to live and teach God’s kingdom in a world that basically does not want to know? To what can we compare this present generation?
Yesterday we celebrated the anniversary of our independence as a nation. The freedoms and rights we enjoy as citizens of this nation were born out of struggle. The rights and privileges we hold so dear have served us well for some two hundred and forty plus years.
However, in just the past few weeks we seem to have lost the vision that the founding fathers created when they established our nation based on Christian principles of freedom and justice, peace and love.  Like the game the Jewish children played during the time of Jesus, many in our country today seem to be playing the same game based on race, politics and religion.
We are divided. Some would say into two groups. Those who wish to continue to celebrate and enjoy the freedoms initially won and maintained through the decades at a great cost, and those whose actions are opposite to what one would expect in the use, rather the abuse of those same freedoms. 
We are a nation based on laws. During the time of Christ God’s people lived under the Law of Moses, for example, the Ten Commandments. The rabbis of his day spoke of the “yoke of the law” as the glorious obedience to God, which freed man from obligations to the world, and gave rest and peace of mind.
Jesus criticized this yoke as heavy and wrong. He presents his own teaching as an alternative. His yoke is characterized by humility. Zechariah predicted Messiah would come in all humility bringing peace and setting prisoners free. Jesus fulfills the prophecy.
Christ concludes today’s gospel by telling the crowds that he is the one whom God has sent to reveal the kingdom. To come to him is to have one’s burdens lifted and to find rest. “Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Jesus was, and continues to be a window into the living God. Through him, his works and actions, people come to see who the father really is. His life, death and resurrection unveiled the truth about God. It is through Christ we come to know God to be a God of Love, a God who forgives, restores and gives us the Peace that passes all understanding.
Christ’ invitation in today’s gospel passage is still the most welcoming and encouraging ever offered. The welcome he offers, for all who abandon themselves to his mercy, is the welcome God offers through him.
This is the invitation that pulls back the curtain and lets us see who the father really is. It is an invitation to discipleship that unites rather than divides and gives us the means to live and teach God’s kingdom in a world that does not want it, but desperately needs to know it. AMEN+

Holy Eucharist July 5th, 2020, Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph

Father Riley will lead Holy Eucharist at Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph, July 5th at 10am.  All in attendance are expected to wear face masks and maintain "social distance" as directed in diocesan and state guidance.  

Father Riley's homily for June 28, 2020

We will meet June 28, 2020 at 10am at Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph with Father Riley for our first service since the covid19 crisis stopped our services.

PROPER VIII - A - 20 - Gen. 22.1-14, Rom 6. 12-23, Matthew 10. 40-42

In today’s short passage from St. Matthew; Jesus is concluding his instructions to the 12 prior to his sending them out on their first solo mission. His instructions have included dos and don’ts, as well as the challenges they will face. Not all they encounter will be receptive to their message. They can expect opposition.

However, his words to them also contain promises that only God can make. Jesus makes four such promises in his instructions to them in the tenth chapter of St. Matthew. Jesus chose these 12 for a purpose. They are to be true emissaries in the sense that Jesus and the Father are identified with them.

“He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent me.”

The Apostles are to be ambassadors who represent the Lord. Their reward will be granted them through their faithfulness. Today’s short passage gives weight to their mission and a promise of reward to those who receive them as well.

In today’s first lesson from Genesis, we see that Isaac was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah. It was the hospitality of Abraham that resulted in the promise. God’s covenant with Abraham was established in Isaac, because his birth was based on a promise of God. It was not based on physical lineage, for Abraham and Sarah were past the age of childbearing at the time.

In today’s lesson God put Abraham’s faith to the ultimate test. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son. Isaac meant everything to Abraham, yet Abraham seems to be willing to do what God asks of him. He was obedient from the heart.

Abraham took Isaac up on the mountain and prepared to sacrifice him as the Lord had directed him. At the last moment, having proved his faithfulness, and his willingness to be obedient to God, the promise is returned to him. God spared his son.

Salvation is based on the promise of the Word of God. Abraham was willing to make a total offering of his only son, the one thing that meant the most to him in life. The gospel of Jesus Christ is one of invitation to a total offering of self to God.

This invitation is given not merely to the individual disciple but also to the Church as a whole, to that community of disciples who profess to live out the dying and rising of Jesus, the Christ, in a definitive way.

The Church is a credible symbol insofar as it incarnates the very message it proclaims. However, the Church, as an institution is not perfect. It too needs to die to those things that are not of God, to adjust its priorities so that its mission is clearly focused, to let go of all that distracts it from its one true purpose. This is never been truer, than in the present environment.

The same goes for each of us. We must remember that individually and corporately we are ambassadors for Christ. The world looks to us, as Christians, to see who Jesus really is what he is all about.

Isaac was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah. God called Abraham to sacrifice his only son as a test of his faith. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all God’s promises to mankind.

God did not spare his only son, but sacrificed him on the hardwood of the cross that all might come to know him, and love him. In Jesus, we are called to sacrifice self, to die to self, in order to live to God.

As we lift up our hearts to God in our worship, we are reminded of God’s gift of new life in and through His Son, Jesus, as we hear the Word of God proclaimed in Holy Scripture.

Moreover, in our receiving the sacrament of Christ’ most sacred Body and Blood we are reminded of the price that was paid for our salvation. Today’s celebration of the Holy Eucharist should bring us to a renewed awareness of the meaning of our call to discipleship.

However, as Jesus told the 12, to follow him will not be easy. There will be times of rejection and disappointment, division and unrest. There will be times when our faith and our allegiance is tested to the limits, when we have to decide whether those persons or things in this life we consider most important, are more so than our life lived to God.

To follow Jesus requires a steadfast faith. One must be willing to sacrifice whatever stands in the way of one’s taking up his or her cross and following Him. Nowhere along the road to God will we be told we can put it down.

However, the challenge of Jesus’ sayings is marked by the promise he makes in today’s gospel to those who accept them and live by them. “He who endures to the end will be saved…whoever acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven…he who loses his life for my sake will find it…”

And at the end of his sayings in Matthew’s tenth chapter, we find the remarkable chain reaction, if you will, of those who serve their fellow human beings out of love for Christ, out of obedience of the heart.

“And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward”

When we do, we are serving Jesus and whatever we do for Jesus, we are doing for God. If we could relearn this simple but profound lesson, and put it into practice, what a different world we would live in.

For it is not only a message that would challenge, but also one that would change people’s hearts. AMEN+

Father Riley's homily for June 14, 2020

PROPER VI - A - 20 -             Gen 18.1-15, Rom 5. 1-8, Matt 9. 35-10.8 -23

“Then Jesus went about all their cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”

Today’s gospel picks up following Jesus’ having healed a variety of illnesses and exorcising many demons. He has even opened the eyes of the blind. Matthew tells us that Jesus is moved with compassion for those to whom he has been sent. He sees them floundering about like so many sheep without a shepherd.

He says to his followers that the harvest is plentiful in reference to the people, but the laborers are few. So pray, Jesus tells them, that the Lord of the Harvest will send out laborers into the harvest. What follows is Christ’s choosing 12 men from among those who have been with him up to this point to do that very thing.

These 12 Jesus empowers to heal and teach and to cast out demons. In other words, to do what he has been doing all along. However, he warns them that not all who hear their words or witness their deeds will welcome them.

More than that, there will be those occasions when they will undergo persecution. Their words and actions will stir people up and cause divisions even among families. However, he promises that those who endure to the end will ensure their salvation.

Jesus summoned the 12 and gave them power to heal. God’s love is a transforming power to the extent that it is shared in God’s manner of sharing. God’s power is a transforming love when it is exercised in the manner of Jesus Christ’ use of power.

Such power begins and ends with love shared as revealed in Jesus Christ who while we were yet sinners loved us and died for us. It is a mystery we are invited into by virtue of our baptism. That ideal of Christ’ power, the power of compassion, the power to share the good news, and the power to love and reconcile, is not and has not been the power that mankind has and is used to welding.

Just look at our world today. Look even closer at our own society, especially in the past few weeks. Power over others rather than power for others has been and is more typical. The tension between Christian power and abusive power has always existed from the time of Christ to the present day.

It is even evident among those who call themselves Christians, and for all whom Christ died. A warring power has taken over the hearts and minds of many today causing even further divisions. “Might is Right” has become the underlying slogan. This abuse of power has opened a Pandora’s Box giving some the excuse to abuse others in the name of justice.

That, however, is only one story. The Christian story of power, the power Jesus Christ has shared with his Body the Church, is a different story. His is one of “Might for Right,” of power for caring and of reconciliation.

The mystery of the power of God’s love is found in our sharing Christ’ gift of reconciliation. When we do, we discover that we receive more of that gift each time we share it.

Jesus had the power, the power of God to do the things he was doing that left some speechless and awed at his ability to do so while others viewed power strictly from a human point of view. In that, nothing has changed today. That left people with a choice, still does. Either to accept Jesus as God’s chosen deliver or else to believe that he was in league with the devil.

Sadly, Jesus was anything but in league with the enemy. What he was doing sprang from a deep compassion and sorrow he felt in his own heart as he looked at his fellow Jews wandering about as if they were lost sheep without a shepherd attending to their needs.

He changed the imagery to a farming one. They were like a field full of wheat or corn with nobody to harvest it. They were eager for God’s kingdom, but did not know where to look to find it. They were ready and waiting for God to act, but who was going to tell them he already had.

Jesus tells us in today’s gospel that we are to pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send laborers into the harvest. His disciples did not understand that he meant them for he had not yet sent them out. Jesus tells us to pray the same prayer and if we do, we need to see the answer comes back to us as well.

We are the answer to Christ’s prayer. That may come as a shocking revelation to some of us. What Jesus was doing for the lost sheep of the tribes of Israel, we are, as Church, are to continue to do for the world. That is the Church’s mission. We are part of God’s answer. How awesome is that?

As Jesus sent the twelve, so we, by virtue of our baptism are sent to be healers, restorers, people who bring new life and hope to others in His name. That is a message that we all need to hear today and the one that needs to be acted on.

However, as the disciples discovered, so shall we, not all will choose to welcome the good news. By their words and actions, some will choose to remain in the darkness of evil, violence, anger and ignorance.

They will choose to stick to the old ways of welding power that leads to ruin. Justifying themselves as they do so with “might is right.” Instead of embracing the power of God’s love to make whole, to make new, to heal and reconcile as Jesus taught us to do.

Our society today is a tale of two stories, one of darkness and the other of light. Power is the driving force. The tension exists today, as it did in the time of Jesus between the power of God and the power of darkness that sometimes comes clothed as light and truth only to deceive.

Pray God will continue to keep His Church steadfast in faith and love and give us the strength and courage through His grace to proclaim the Truth with boldness, and minister justice with compassion for the sake of Him who died and rose again, even Jesus Christ, our Savior. AMEN+

Father Riley's homily for June 7, 2020

TRINITY SUNDAY             A - 20 - Gen. 1.1-2.3, 2 Cor. 13.11-13, Matt. 28.16-20

Today the Church celebrates the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Our liturgy is filled with references to the Triune God we believe in and worship. We begin each Eucharistic service with “Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” We conclude each service with a blessing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Our statement of belief in God, the Creed, is one that professes the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Belief in the three persons of God identifies us as Trinitarians. Jesus taught that the Father is spirit and that we are to worship Him in spirit and truth for such the Father seeks to worship Him.

Jesus, the Son of God, ascended into heaven and is no longer physically present among us, yet He is, “whenever two or three gather in my name, I am in the midst of them.” On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, the gift of the Father for those who believe to enable us to carry out the work we have been given to do, to make God known.

The Holy Trinity, one God in three persons, is a mystery. I for one would have it no other way. If I were able to totally comprehend and understand all there is to know about God with my finite mind He would no longer be the infinite God I love and worship and seek to serve.

Do we have to totally understand God in order to worship Him? “My ways are not your ways, says the Lord. Neither or my thoughts your thoughts.” (Is. 55.8) That puts things in a proper perspective. To demystify God is to dethrone God.

Reason alone will never bring us to God. We come to Him by faith. Faith bridges the gap between what we can know and understand about God and enables us to place our Hope and Trust in Him.

Yet there are those today who like to think that they can and have unraveled the mystery of God. They existed in the time of Jesus as well. They thought they knew all about God. Our Lord, Jesus corrected as many as would open their hearts and minds to His teaching.

The Samaritan women at the well, whom Jesus taught that God was Spirit; the Jew Zacchaeus, who climbed the tree to get a look at Jesus and learned from his encounter with Christ that God was a forgiving God; the Pharisee Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night and was enlightened by the concept of the Holy Spirit and of new birth, to mention a few.

Each had their own view of God and the ways of God which Jesus set aright. Christ taught if you want to know God, what God is like, look at me, and know me. I and the Father are one. Yet the mystery that is God continues to baffle those who seek to know Him strictly from an intellectual view.

The Holy Trinity is revealed in both the Old Testament and the New. In the Old Testament the Trinity is revealed in subtle ways. In our first lesson from Genesis, the Trinity is evident in the creation of the world and mankind.  “Let us make man in our own image, in accordance with our likeness.”

In the New Testament, the Trinity is revealed fully and plainly beginning with the baptism of Jesus.  St. Paul concludes our Epistle reading this morning with a Trinitarian blessing evidence of the early church’s belief in the Triune God.

Our gospel reading concludes St. Matthew’s gospel with Jesus delivering the Great Commission. We are to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thus our baptismal formula is in the name of the Triune God.

The Holy Trinity is one God in three persons. They are one God because they are one in essence or nature. The Father is the unbegotten fountainhead of deity. The Son is equally begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit is the Helper and the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father. They operate out of complete unity out of one divine nature.

How the world, how our nation, how our society would be different today if we could all see something of God in each other, recognize it and acknowledge it, and live our lives accordingly. Or do we perhaps see Him? This we are promised.

For now we walk by faith, not by sight. Sight will come when the words of St. John are fulfilled: “Beloved, we are God’s children; but it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

The Holy Trinity is a community of love. Love manifests God, for God is love. God so loved the world that he sent his son to redeem it from sin and death by his sacrifice on the cross. Jesus taught that if we are to be his disciples we must learn to love one another as he loves us.

As we look at our society today there is not much love being shown. Rather, the opposite. We must assume that of all those people violently protesting in our nation’s streets that some must be professed Christians. Their actions, however, do not manifest love. There are even some church leaders who are allowing their politics to override their Christian faith by their words and actions.

If we truly love as Christ loves us, he promised that He and the Father would come and live in our hearts. If God lives in our hearts there can be no room for hate. Love manifests God. The Holy Spirit was sent by the Father to lead us and to guide us into all truth; to unite us in love to the Father and the Son and to one another regardless of race or politics.

What makes us one is more than a doctrine, more than a creed; it is God, in all of God’s fullness, power, and love. God shall be with you and in you Jesus said as he promised to send the Holy Spirit. Last Sunday we celebrated the anniversary of the Spirit’s descent upon the Church.

Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we enjoy a personal association and fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings about our fellowship with Christ by establishing a mystic union. God is mystery. He is Spirit and He is Love.

In Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we who have been baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity have been called to live in communion with Him who is eternal - with God the Father who created us; with Jesus Christ who redeemed us, and with the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us.

The concept of the Holy Trinity remains a mystery. Our finite minds cannot take it all in. Yet, as St. Peter wrote in his first letter (3.8) “although we have not seen Him, we love Him. And even though we do not see Him now, we believe in Him.” This is the faith of baptism and the faith of eternal life, a faith based on love.

May God continue to give us the grace by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of His divine Majesty to worship the Unity.

And may He keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see Him in His one and eternal glory; O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who lives and reigns, one God, now and forever. AMEN+