Trinity and the pairing of scriptures………………...
Psalm 8- dignity and value of humankind, God’s care, hope, the strength of innocent hope of children
John 16 – timing for embracing the truth, now! God meets us in our truth and helps us to see the consequences to come…and so give us new awareness, new choice, options!
Proverbs 8 – joy in creation, wisdom, partnering with God!
Recalling Genesis 1 passage. Even though God declares each day good, we often see the creation process as pretty mechanical and strangely flat…even though God rests every “day” and enjoys creation before going on!
This proverbs passage adds a different dimension. In the Genesis story, we often skip over the words… “and then we created them in our image, male and female, in our image we created them.” If this story is in God’s voice, who is the “we”?
Some would say the other voice is the “prefigurating” of Christ present before the universe was created. Some say this is the voice of wisdom/Sophia, often portrayed as a female aspect of God, who is integrally present not just with but in God and, in time, is personified in Jesus.
It’s not Jesus’ maleness that God centers on, it’s his wisdom brought to life in practical every day ways to live! Our passage in Proverbs, a fully accepted and included passage, declares Wisdom’s presence at creation. Listen to this story and let it precede your remembering of the Genesis story. How is your perception of God affected? How does it affect your understanding of how God feels about you!?!
With images of Psalm 8 in my mind’s heart, I realize….when we grow up, we often lose sight of the night sky—its beauty and its vastness. Rare is the time we take the time to even look up as we rush to the car or into and out of the store. Rarely do we really see this fabulous lake we drive by daily or the buds on the peonies as we enter the church. But most of us were taken by the stars and the moon when we were children. Children….and “out of the mouths of babes and infants”, the psalmist says, comes God’s defense…the truth and spirit and hope born of innocence silences what is not true and points us to what is!
How God honors children and the child within! Can you find the quality of your childhood still within you? What truth does it point you toward that is your only defense against the parts of life that seek to defeat you!
I grew up on an old farm in the
Images from Psalm 8. Yes! And Jesus says now is the time to realize you are something bigger than yourself, your problems, even your own truth. Jesus says the spirit works through the truth, responds to what you speak and do, and declares to you what is to come from the choices you make based on the truth you chose to live or chose to know at any one time. And here’s the thing, Jesus believes we can handle enough truth right now to turn our lives toward the freedom and peace found in a living relationship with God…God’s desires for us! And just to make sure we feel support along the way to living truth, God surrounds us with God’s self!
The Trinity is our way of honoring our God who envelopes us completely….we have everything we need …God revealing “himself” to each of us in whichever way is most helpful…whatever it takes to get your attention and influence your opinion! Surrounds us as Creator/Father…Christ/Redeemer…Spirit/Advocate! The notion of Trinity is a human concoction but its intention is to honor how much God honors us! …little lower than God and crowned with glory and honor! That’s how important we are to God! God wants to be a part of your life and so which ever aspect of God is helpful to you is where God meets you.
God is not scared of you, does not judge you and then run away from you because of the real and true stuff of your life! It is we who are scared of ourselves! …often afraid of our power to bring justice and bring right relationship into our own lives! And, in some very real ways, because God is of mystery and of the non-rational, we often are scared of God and so keep all notion of God out of our daily lives….seeking to control our lives…knowing deep inside there is no such level of control! Jobs are lost. Roofs leak. Loved ones die. Leaders fail to lead and followers fail to think.
No need to be afraid of God! God is the moon and the stars, the birds and the bees, the fauna and the whole of the goodness of creation. God not only loves you, but needs you! Wants you! Is your very breath! Is already in you advocating for your own well-being! You see the thing is God is all encompassing, creation is on going, everything belongs…every thing that happens to us and through us and because of us is part of what we can use to bring our lives toward deeper freedom and joy….with God’s help…courage, wisdom, openness, new beginnings. God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit of Truth are inviting us to join them in this most beautiful dance of creation and love….in the ordinary times of our lives, in the every day living of our lives.
Will you join in God’s vision for creation…the earth and its creatures? Will you share in God’s vision for you? Do you sense the depth of God’s care for you? Do you not sense God’s love with you?
The voice of Wisdom goes on…And now, my children, listen to me: happy are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Happy is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. Those who miss me injure themselves. Whoever finds me obtains favor from the Lord. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.
Everything and everyone belongs. Use everything for good.
Share in the vision. Take your rightful place
in the on-going dance of Creation!
Hot spots, flamers, flash fires, burns, scorched, burn baby burn ~What fires you up? Gets you hot!~What burns up up or out? Would anyone know? How do you play with the fires of life?
How do we be in the world but not of it? How not to get burnt? Holy Ground of understanding, the courage to be which comes from being so connected to God that nothing takes your breath away. Present to one person, one situation at a time. On fire with God’s call in communities of faithful integrity, passionate joy, justice seeking and just the right size.
What made the ground holy when the bush burned? Was it God’s presence or what is that Moses noticed and so the connection made the ground holy? Burning bush is our integrity in the moment, our connection to the more even in the everyday humdrums and challenges and delights. They were on fire…they are the burning bush each one now for they are each so connected to God’s soul and God is present…we each are that holy ground. This allows them to understand differently. And perhaps it takes community for all this to happen…..so we don’t get burned… for it is easy to assume we are on fire with God but what is really happening is that we become mini-God’s thinking we know best rather than truly understanding what might be best.
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