Holy Trinity Sunday C June 16, 201
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Hutson
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 + Psalm 8 + Romans 5: 1-5 + John 16: 12-15
Beloved, grace and peace are yours through God the Creator, Jesus the Savior, and the Holy Spirit who sustains and guides. Amen.
The early summer like days we experienced this past week meant that I was doing some reflecting about summer and all of the memories and feelings the season brings. The freedom of being out of school, that for my children, at least, lasted for approximately 2 ½ days and then, “I’m bored!”. The way my grandfather would take me to Dairy Queen for an ice cream cone and if my parents weren’t also along he would literally buy me anything on the menu. Time spent at my other grandparents cabin on the lake. It had two rooms, a pump into the kitchen sink, and an outhouse. It has not experienced a single upgrade since my childhood.
It also occurred to me that there’s some irony around the things we didn’t like to hear our parents say to us when we were kids, but now wish like crazy someone would tell us. Things like: You need to go lay down and take a nap. Or Why don’t you just read a book for the rest of the day? Or Go outside and play.
One of the great joys of welcoming our new neighbors has been the chance to meet and get to know some of the children who live at Compass Broadview. To watch them zoom around on their scooters and bikes; to hear the little ones shriek as they slide down the slide. To see their sidewalk chalk art as I walk past the building.
Summer invites us to play. To playfulness. And that’s where I want to begin to look at our reading from Proverbs this morning.
Wisdom cries out: When the foundation of the earth was laid out, I was the skilled artisan standing next to the Almighty. I was God’s delight day after day, rejoicing at being in God’s presence continually, rejoicing in the whole world and delighting in humankind.
This is a piece of the story that Wisdom cries out in the reading from Proverbs today. For a bit of background, which is always helpful, Wisdom and Folly both are making their case in Proverbs, for the new ruler to follow them. Elsewhere in Proverbs, Folly makes her case using some of the same language that Wisdom lays out. So it’s a little bit confusing to tell what voice is Wisdom and what voice is Folly. And life is like that sometimes. Sometimes the path of Folly, which, according to Merriam-Webster is just another way of saying absurdness, craziness, foolishness, senselessness, buffoonery, shaningans, humbug, twaddle, blunder, flub, goof or howler. Don’t you just love language?
But sometimes it’s hard to tell what is foolish from what is wise. Foolishness can and does dress up and masquerade as wisdom, but in the end, it will be revealed as an absurd choice.
So in this portion of Proverbs that we read today, Wisdom makes her case, calling out on the hills along the road, at the crossroads, at the city gates…everywhere she cries out, not only to the ruler, but to all of humanity, to choose wisely. To walk in ways of wisdom, not just because it’s “right” but because it will result in justice and righteousness for all of humankind and for all of creation.
And then Wisdom offers her credentials. And this is a bit curious when we think about it – because she says that before God created anything….so before the Genesis story….God created Wisdom….specifically God gave birth to Wisdom. God. Gave birth.
Wisdom offers to all who hear her, and to us, a vision of delighting in God and of being God’s delight. Of continuous rejoicing for no reason other than being with one another. Of being captivated by the entirety of Creation….delighting in all of it….Of being exhilarated by the spectacular nature of humanity in all of our beautiful diversity.
Wisdom’s relationship with God sweeps us away and invites us to join them in this divine dance.
I wonder what it would be like to have the chance…or to TAKE the chance….to live in this sort of relationship with God? A relationship grounded and rooted in mutual delight? In shared rejoicing? In playful co-creating.
I am certain that this is what God desired for us before the beginning of time as we understand it. That we would greet each day, each task, each encounter with the understanding that God delights in us. That God cherishes each of us.
Beloved community, we are emerging from a time of very hard work. When people ask why we chose to engage in the gigantic task of providing permanent affordable housing for 59 families, I always say that God didn’t give us a choice. Wisdom cried out to us. So did Folly. Folly cried out that we could still build housing, but we could make a lot more money. And it wouldn’t have been affordable housing and that wasn’t what the Gospel was compelling us to. And we risked a lot. We risked the ire of the neighborhood, who is now planning a joint summer party with Compass Broadview. We risked parking spaces which we now have back again. We risked chaos, which we endured with grace. And we risked people leaving because it was too much. And that fairly broke our hearts.
Starting tomorrow we will enter a very long stretch of the Church Year called Ordinary Time. It’s a time when there are no special seasonal celebrations. Howard Thurman called it the lull in the rhythm of time.
So our response in this season is going to be to turn our attention away from all but the necessary busy-ness and instead we will delight in God. We will take the time to wonder at the glory of Creation. We will worship and we will get together to delight in one another’s company. And we will rest. In that holy rest that God commanded of us. In Sabbath rest.
Walter Brueggeman says that Sabbath is the great day of equality, when all are at rest. On the Sabbath, he says, you do not have to do more. You do not have to sell more. You do not have to control more. You do not have to know more. You do not have to have your kids in ballet or soccer. You do not have to be younger or more beautiful.
I know that this makes some of us anxious. Meetings are how we get things done. And there is so much more to do. There is. Folly has had its way in the world and the Church, who has often participated in that foolishness, now has to clean up after it. It is still our task in the world to spread love where hate has been spewed. To feed the hungry. To house those without homes. To say that our siblings who are dark skinned or queer or conservative or liberal or poor or rich that we ALL are God’s beloveds. That God delights in each one as much as God delighted in Wisdom. This is the very nature of the Triune God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Mother, Savior, Sanctifier. Lover, Beloved, Love. So we will return to our work in due time. In God’s time.
But for this time…maybe three months or so….we are going to worship and we are going to rest and we are invited to take great delight in both.
I know that the work of our lives must continue. Whether we are an engineer or a student or a builder or a social worker or a nurse or a pastor we will have to do the work we’ve been called to do. But I urge us to find places of Sabbath. Places where striving is not the primary way of being, but where you and God can find delight in one another and in this good Creation.
Beloved community, God loves each of us and delights in us deeply and in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Wisdom calls to us, inviting us to join with her and with God in a dance of delight. The goodness of God shimmers around us in this glorious Creation, which was intended for good, just as we are. May these days of worship and rest be blessed.
Thanks be to God and let the Church say…Amen.