Pretzel Love.

Sermon Matthew 28:16-20 June 7, 2020 Trinity Sunday

Pretzel Love.

We don’t need the teachings of the church to help us get through,

we tell ourselves and others during the many upside moments of life.

We just need to know love, we say.

It’s just that simple, we say.

Yet, it’s through the teachings of the church that the practice of the simplicity of love takes form.

I just want us to all get along.

I just want us to love people.

I just want us to act neighborly to all people.

We think if we say it, practicing it well is going to just pop out of the air and we’ll all be singing kumbaya together.

But, we have to learn how to do this. And we have to learn why we do this, and we have to learn where we do this.

It begins with the great commission from Jesus in the final chapter of Matthew, and it continues with the teachings of the church about the relationships we have with God and with each other.

Today is Trinity Sunday, it’s a great gift for us to celebrate.

Do we believe it, yes.

Do we believe its important, yes.

Do we think about it all the time, can we explain it well, no. 

But, it gives us what we need to understand who we are and who we are part of.

“Something we all need in order to feel the fullness of life: It’s not only a sense that we belong on our planet, but also that we belong in other people’s lives-that we are loved, lovable, and capable of loving.” Fred Rogers said.

I think this is what the Trinitarian relationship teaches.

It gives us this as our how, why, and where.

In the fourth century the controversy of the Trinity shifted to the relationship of the members of the Trinity to each other.

“The Father is of the Son, as the Son is of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son.” This operation of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their relationship became essential to the church and the relationship among the saints. The basic baptismal formula that Jesus taught the disciples as he sent them out into the world, began in the first century and continues today. It is the baptismal formula utilized across all denominational lines.

God in relationship, divine, unified, mutual, is a relationship we can celebrate. Through Christ we learn we belong to God and through the power of the Holy Spirit we belong to each other, we become the church. We become brothers and sisters to one another sharing Christ’s love for ALL people.

We celebrate this gift of the Trinity today especially realizing how our ordinary routines of church, work, and school have been disrupted and we have a sense of disconnection.

In our alone time we can take our pretzel relationship of understanding about God and place our right arm on our left shoulder, our left arm on our right shoulder and give ourselves a hug realizing the power of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are within the pretzel shape hug we just gave and received.

We need the assurance of this love relationship for us to be able to reach out to others. “We love because God first loved us.”

Our relationships with others have been put to the test during this time.

Its’ not easy to have little ones under foot all day long. It’s not easy to have couples working from home and sharing desk space. Its not easy to feed everyone three full meals a day. It’s not easy to walk around the house and make room for each other when there are so many more hours we are sharing together under one roof.

Fred Rogers calls it a dance, “We are learning how relationships are like dances in which people try to find whatever happens to be the mutual rhythm in their lives.”

I think I’ve seen this dance in the morning routine in our kitchens. All trying to respect each other and yet trying to get our breakfast. I remember when our girls had different bus schedules and Mike a different work schedule but breakfast and our small square kitchen had to accommodate them all as they danced around each other getting the breakfast they wanted. It is a warm memory of a dance of life.

I like to look to the relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in this beautiful heavenly dance together, each sharing a portion of the dance floor, giving way to one another as the need to presents itself.

In our human relationships the gift of mutuality is a dance, we dance together on the dance floor in partnership and in given moments of the dance we give way to one another as the steps of the dance show the need to lift up one or the other.

In our weakness we are lifted up by the strength of our brothers and sisters.

When we are on our feet we are able to lift up others.

It is our duty to be at work caring for those who have been robbed and lie in ditches in need of someone to care for them and put them on the road again.

Our lives are more intertwined by our behaviors toward one another than we could ever realize.

MLKjr said, “Our lives are tangled up with everyone else’s in ways beyond our knowing, “caught” in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny.”

Our future as the church,

as humans,

is toward a single garment of destiny.

And that is the great commission,

that all people come together

and are reconciled to God and to one another.

Yet, the fact that going out into the world to make disciples on our own, is not only impossible, but these days it seems reckless.

We can’t hug,

touch,

or breathe in anyone’s space.

How in the world can we go out and make disciples?

We do so in the same manner as those first disciples; Scared to death to do anything on their own, they were completely relying on the mercy and strength of God. (Thom Long)

We are not powerless,

nor are we disconnected from God.

Each time we wrap ourselves with the pretzel hug we are reminded that God is with us in our prayers and in our actions.

The strength of the teachings seared in our hearts gird us in our assurance to be motivated to go forth.

We are completely relying on the mercy and strength of God.

The days are coming very soon when some of us will be able to venture further, yet realizing many will still be apart.

With the unity of the Holy Spirit, the Son and the Father we are reminded of our unity.

We will not abandon one another as Christ did not abandon us with the promise of his presence forever.

Love will hold us and keep us.

There are days we feel as if it will all fall apart,

that we have no clue how,

what or where we are going or doing.

And that’s when once again we trust the teachings of the power of God within us through the relationship of the Trinity.

The words of the anthem Grace say it best, “Your will cannot lead me where you grace will not keep me, your hand will protect me. I rest in your care. Your eyes will watch over me, your love will forgive me, and when I am faltering, I still will find you there.”  

A pretzel hug of love to you!

Amen.

Resources: Feasting on the Word Year A-Thom Long; Quotes from Fred Rogers; Working Preacher Podcast (recorded in April); Practicing Our Faith Chapter 1 Craig Dykstra; Book of Confession PCUSA study edition