Tag Archives: faith

February 3, 2023 · 12:48 pm

Burn brightly

St. Blaise (1740), Maria-Trost Church, Berg bei Rohrbach

Today, not on our Lutheran calendar but celebrated by many other Christians, is yet another feast day connected to spring and growing light, the Feast of Saint Blaise (pronounced blayz).

Blaise is considered to be an historic figure, but there has grown a great deal of myth around his life. A physician and bishop of Sebastea in historical Armenia, he died as a martyr on February 3 sometime around 316 AD. He is remembered for many miraculous (if perhaps mythic) healing stories to include saving a child from chocking on a chicken bone while on his way to his own judgement and death. He is said to have died by beheading.

And so being the day after Candlemas and with his being associated with stories about the throat, some early Christians through to this day often have their own throats blessed, sometimes while two candles blessed on Candlemas are layed in a crosslike shape upon their throat. Indeed in the Middle Ages, Blaise was considered one of “the Fourteen Holy Helpers” who during the time of the plague became popular for intercession for everything from a headache to an unexpected death.

Photo credit: Figurines of the Fourteen Holy Helpers by an unknown artist, Chapel on the Michaelsberg, Untergrombach, Germany, by H. Zell, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

These kind of practices – and the sometimes mythic aspect of these fourteen saints themselves – often caused them to diminish in stature following the Protestant Reformation. Our Augsburg Confession, Article XX1 teaches us: “Of the Worship of Saints they teach that the memory of saints may be set before us, that we may follow their faith and good works, according to our calling, as the Emperor may follow the example of David in making war to drive away the Turk from his country. For both are kings. But the Scripture teaches not the invocation of saints or to ask help of saints, since it sets before us the one Christ as the Mediator, Propitiation, High Priest, and Intercessor.” We remember and give thanks for the example of all the saints whether on a list for recognition or not, including Blaise, but even as we might venerate and honor them, we seek to reject superstition and, as Lutherans, we do not invoke them.

For his part, Martin Luther, seeing many abuses and evidence of magical thinking and idolotry in some cases, argued, “No one can deny that by such saint worship we have now come to the point where we have actually made utter idols of the Mother of God and the saints, and that because of the service we have rendered and the works we have performed in their honor we have sought comfort more with them than with Christ Himself. Thereby faith in Christ has been destroyed. [E 28:415; quoted in MartinLuther, What Luther Says, Vol. III, ed. Ewald Martin Plass (St Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), 1254; cf. LW 36:299-300]. There is no explicit biblical citation supporting invocation of the saints (so Christians might disagree), but a larger concern for Martin and the earliest Reformers remained our human tendency for magical thinking.

Many great saints and martyrs have long been forgotten by the world, but they are never forgotten by God. Not everyone makes a liturgical list. Some through no fault of their own have become wrapped in myth. Yet, through the gift of faith, the legacy of any saint can instruct or inspire us in some way. They can serve as great examples for us. So, rest in peace, Blaise. Your efforts still burn brightly…not because of what you did or failed to do, but because the light of Christ chose to shine brightly through you love.

Through remembering the saints and martyrs, Jesus reminds us, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” With God’s help, may our lives burn brightly, too.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this post are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVue) translation.

© 2023 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author.

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February 1, 2023 · 6:00 pm

What does Lent mean?

Photo by Francisco Gonzalez on Unsplash. Used by permission.

You can find a recording of this post at my 2 Penny Blog Podcast.

As Lent approaches once again, I recall my return to the Church during a similar Lent about thirty years ago. As I have already mentioned in worship, life had banged me up pretty well. Growing up, I faced many challenges, and as a young police officer, I was often subjected to violence, loss, and death. Indeed, I escaped near death experiences several times. Like many young adults, I had also made some bad choices, but I had likewise allowed myself to drift aimlessly from the faith community. I was easily distracted from faith matters by what seemed more accessible and important – things of this world. My faith, for the most part, had become just words.

My heart was sick although I did not realize it. When things seemed the worst, memories of what I had learned in campus ministry, youth groups, and even long-ago Sunday school classrooms spoke to me. These memories of relationship and seeds planted called me back. I was able to contact some of these past people who had befriended me on my earlier faith journey, and they became touchstones to help me find my way back to Christ. A lot of life has happened since, and it hasn’t often been easy. Yet with God’s help and the help of others, my “face has been set like flint” (Isa. 50:7) toward something greater than myself, a God who loves me.

Perhaps I experienced a synthesizing of faith more than a conversion, as I was baptized and grew up in the Church, but something significant and life-changing happened on the evening of March 7, 1992. (Ash Wednesday was March 4th that year.) I decided whatever the implications, I would commit to follow wherever Jesus led. Lent was a perfect time of year for this new start. As a community and individuals, we join Jesus as he sets his face toward Jerusalem, and we are asked to turn to the Lord and live. In worship, we often hear of prophets speaking of a God who, although wounded by our indifference if not antipathy, only has love for us. We learn of Jesus who seeing the marginalized and lost, rather than judging them, befriends them as his own and heals them. Through scripture and song, we discover a God who gives all out of love for us. By his death, with Christ’s last breath, we experience this. Jesus doesn’t curse us, but instead asks, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do” (Luke 23:24).

Lent is not meant to be a burden. It isn’t about feeling sorry for ourselves or judging ourselves harshly. It serves like a voice in the wilderness where God uses the Church community to call us home. Years can take us far away, but no matter how far we have strayed from our path following Jesus, somewhere in the depths of our heart, the Spirit is calling. Do we notice this quiet whisper of our name? This Lent, I hope each of us experience or rediscover the deepest meaning of Lent. God loves us and wants us to come home. God wants us to love like Jesus loves us – with more than words.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this post are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation.

Originally published in the February 2023 newsletter of Christ Lutheran Church, Fredericksburg, VA.

© 2023 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author.

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January 10, 2023 · 5:21 pm

Jesus was baptized for you

You can find a recording of this sermon on my blog’s companion podcast located here.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today’s sermon is a little different. You see, I have been reminiscing a bit more than usual through the holidays and with the New Year. I think that’s not uncommon at such times. Then, the Facebook memories function went ahead and reminded me of a momentous day in my life. It is hard for me to believe, but as I reflected upon today’s text about Christ’s baptism, I remembered my own…60 years ago, this coming December 2023. Wow, it blows my mind that so much time has passed, and yet it remains one of the most profound and sometimes underappreciated events of my life in my busyness. Hopefully, your baptism is recognized for its profound and lasting impact, but I must confess that I sometimes don’t stop to remember the power of my own.

Now, I am not trying to suggest you remember the day in detail. Afterall, I certainly don’t. I was only 11 days old. Yet I do know the stories and people involved thanks to my family. For one thing, with baptism, I officially received my “Christian name.” That’s commonly called being “christened.” In Martin Luther’s time, one practice was to be named after the “saint of the day” on the liturgical calendar. So, Martin, born on November 10, is named after St. Martin of Tours, the saint remembered on Luther’s baptism day of November 11. As is a tradition among some Italian families, my dad was named after his maternal grandfather, Luigi Marini, and Luigi after his maternal grandfather before that. The name was ultimately in honor of a popularly venerated saint, Aloysius of Gonzaga (in Latin). He is more commonly called Luigi of Gonzaga in Italian. Born in the US, my dad’s name was Americanized, so you narrowly escaped having a Pastor Luigi standing before you today. Yet with my name, in my baptism, I was encouraged to represent myself well. For though it and my life, I represent the legeacy of my genetic family, my Christian family today and throoughout time, and Christ’s own name. I come to bear the name of Jesus Christ. That’s no small thing.

He Qi, “Baptism of Jesus.”

And thus, as I was baptized, I was also gifted two wonderful, loving godparents, ultimately what we often call sponsors today…to be with me at my baptism, to speak for me, and there, promise to love, help, and guide me (the best that they could) into a life of faith. (In the old days, there might even be an expectation of adoption if the parents died, but that’s not the case today.) Arthur Coughlin, my godfather, was a dear friend of my dad’s. He ultimately co-owned one of the most successful sporting goods stores in the Boston area, Holovak and Coughlin. Yet what he was most known for was his deep religious faith that one could see evident in the way he walked through daily life, in his long-lasting friendships, and perhaps most especially from his generosity. He and his business donated lots of money and time to those in need. And, he was among one of the first people to sense a special call by God in my life. I remember clearly the exact moment he asked me about this at my eldest sister’s wedding…He had seen me help at the service, and refelcting upon what he knew of me and my life, he asked, “Have you ever considered being a priest?” An important seed was planted. (And as Pastor Anne can tell you as a member of the Virginia Synod vocations team, that’s a thing we look for – not just an interior sense of call, but that someone sees something at work in you.) Meanwhile, my godmother, Anna Kendrick, was my mother’s cousin. She was never married but worked all her adult life with an accounting firm. Yet what stood out to me most, once again, was her love, grace, and piety. She humbly and efficiently cared for and loved her widowed mother, who was declining with an early onset of dementia. All the while Anna kept working, sacrificing, and keeping the extended family going. Through both people, I was gifted with their prayers, a willingness to love and support me, but perhaps most wonderfully, a witness to faith that went beyond words. They helped preach those sermons I could see.

So, now you know that I was baptized as an infant, and that leads to a third, likely most significant impact leading to many other countless ramifications…many I won’t likely ever recognize in this life…In baptism, I became a child of God in a special way. Through the Water (a sign) and the Word (the promise of God), my intimacy with God changed. Did you catch that nuance? All members of humanity are at some level created in love by God and loved by God as children. And explicitly according to scripture, Jesus came to call all people into relationship. Yet, we also know that there are some who respond to God’s call through faith more than others; while some not at all. Thus among the faithful, we hopefully seek to listen to and follow Jesus Christ. And one of his most important commands was made to his new Church as he prepared to ascend to heaven. As recorded (in Matthew 28:18-20), “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” In Mark 16, he goes so far to declare one who believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16a). And so today, the Sunday following Epiphany, as the Church sets out into another new year, we annually remember Jesus’ own example. We stop and ask, “Why is baptism so important that Jesus, born without sin, be baptized? Why should we be baptized? So, let’s gather at the river for a moment and take a closer look.  

As we heard during Advent and hopefully over the years, John was the greatest of all prophets according to Jesus. He had the special job of preparing the way. He called people into repentance, and he baptized them as a symbol of their new start. Yet he wasn’t the first to baptize. Baptism was already a ritual of the Hebrews. Each synagogue had ritual baths for people and items to help them fulfill Levitical and rabbinic laws and teachings. The Mikvah, or bath, was used and is still used by our Jewish siblings, for full immersion in water of people and things for ritual purification…the restoration to a condition of “ritual purity” in specific circumstances. I’ve read it was not called baptism per se, but it is like baptism. Also in John’s time, the Essenes, a mystic Jewish sect, lived out in the wilderness as they sought to separate themselves from the sin of the world. They shared a communal life. They committed to practice piety toward God and righteousness toward their neighbor. Many of the Essene groups appear to have even been celibate. They lived a spartan life, as John did, as a sign of their heart’s desire to repent. And as new members joined their community, they were invited to be immersed…to be baptized. Yes, John’s activity was firmly rooted in what came before and other practices around him…and yet…and yet…he pointed to something new. He pointed to Jesus and a new baptism. “I baptize you with water for repentance,” he cried, “but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” And so, Jesus did come, and John resisted baptizing one he knew to be the Son of God, one without sin. “I need to be baptized by you,” John argued.

This is a critical passage. This is a major event. At some level, our baptism is meant to be a physical sign of a new covenant, a loving promise more than a contract, in a long line of increasingly intimate covenants. God has reached out over and over again to humanity, whereby now, we can be marked by the cross of Christ and sealed by his Holy Spirit through baptism forever. Indeed, God’s promise made to us at baptism is more important than any of those we make near a font, pool, or river. Using baptism, God is fulfilling an ancient promise made for the final age. It is found through the words of the prophets, such as Ezekiel (36:26), “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” John knew that his baptism was for repentance, a symbol. With Christ, access to something new came…baptism of fire and Spirit.

No, our Christian baptism isn’t just a bath. It is not just about ritual purification or blessing. It isn’t just a symbol of new birth or entrance into a community. It is these things, BUT it is more than those things. Baptism as understood by the majority of Christians across the world…the vast majority today and throughout time…has been recognized as transforming. Baptism changes us. The Spirit claims us…grabs hold of us in love, and never wants to let us go. Throughout one’s life, the Spirit is at work. Sometimes easily seen, that work can be subtle as well. Luther used to say God seemed often hidden, yet God never stops working to call us more deeply into relationship…to make us holy…to save us. In baptism (as with the Lord’s Supper), we are promised that God touches us with grace in a most intense way. It is a means of grace…a way of grace to strengthen us on our way. It saves us as we become part of God’s most intimate family, the church. It saves us as the Spirit tries to protect, bless, and guide us each day. It will help save us as we appear before the throne of God to face judgement, not because we did something to earn salvation, but because in baptism, God has gifted us something which enfolds us more fully into Jesus’ own saving ministry… his own life, death, and resurrection. (See Romans 6:3-11 for example.)

In the early Church, baptism was thought so important, converts in biblical times would be baptized by household – fathers, mothers, grandparents, children, servants and yes, even slaves. As the church formalized, baptism became part of the worshipping community’s activities, often celebrated at the high feast of the Resurrection of our Lord, commonly called Easter. Throughout Lent if not longer, adult converts would be called catechumens and be prepared to receive the sacrament…to try to teach them about a mystery that no one can ever know enough about…a love so vast that no human mind or words can ever capture it. And so, because we can never know or do enough, there also remained the practice to baptizing infants among the faithful. For whom can ever know enough to earn God’s grace…do enough…no one can but Jesus is worthy. Thus, two or three (or more) gathered in Jesus’ name gathered (and continue to gather) at a river, pool, or font…turn to God and ask in faith for the Holy Spirit to be present in that infant’s life…not just that day…but forever. And it is Jesus himself who says that God will surely answer such prayers.

Yes, some who are baptized can wonder away. Not all the slaves baptized likely had any heart of faith. Even adults can think they are ready to commit to Christ but fall into grave sin after baptism. Yet the Church says, echoing promises of scripture, even then…even if you were to give up on God…God will not give up on you. God will never give up on you. I see that in my own life looking back. Despite my good start, the world was hard. You’ve heard some stories before today, and we don’t need to revisit them now. Just know that I wondered far. Trusting in God’s grace, I confess openly that I deeply hurt myself and others. Yet I can look back on my life and now see people, places, and events…even an interior stirring (or burning of the heart as Wesley and other saints have spoken about)…calling me back by name…inviting me into a living forgiveness… allowing me a new start each day…calling you, too.  

In Jesus’ baptism, we hear an affirmation of his sonship. We learn that the Spirit will affirm him, drive him forward, and sustain him. Jesus humbled himself. As Paul writes, he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant. (See Phil. 2) Thus, his baptism teaches us of our own. As Professor John Yieh proclaims, “For Jesus and for Matthew, the righteousness of God is a gift from God that requires believers’ commitment to hunger and thirst for it (5:6, 10), to practice (5:20), to seek (6:33), and to bear its fruit (3:8; 21:43). In other words, Jesus is showing his followers how they should take seriously the ritual of baptism, the life of repentance, and the pursuit of righteousness as he did through his humble baptism by John in the Jordan, and in his whole life” (Workingpreacher.org, January 8, 2023).

As this new year begins, no matter what we have done or failed to do, no matter what questions we still have about our worthiness or purpose…in baptism, God has declared us loved and God’s own. Don’t give up, but seize the day…seize the gift being offered you…no matter how hard. For, God is not done with you yet. Or as Martin Luther puts it, even more forcefully: God, who cannot lie, has bound himself in a covenant with [us], not to count [our] sin against me, but to slay it, and blot it out’” forever. (Treatise on Baptism).

Whatever comes, seek to remember your baptism, for God remembers you. God has chosen to love us forever…And if you haven’t been baptized? In the name of Jesus Christ, we invite you to do so. For God loves you, too, child of God, and is calling you by name. Amen.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this post are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVue) translation.

© 2023 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author.

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December 29, 2022 · 8:00 am

God has you covered

Photo by Liv Bruce on Unsplash

You can listen to the podcast version of this post at 2 Penny Blog on Anchor.fm.

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:35 and 37)

With the new year, people tend to wonder about what the future will bring. “Will the economy improve? Will I remain healthy? What might go wrong?” In the face of many uncertainties, we tend to set goals about more exercise, more Bible reading, more self-improvement across the board. We want to control our future – at least in some small way. Surveying history, we know one thing if nothing else. We are in for surprises, and we can only control so much. So, isn’t it wonderful that we have a God who holds us and carries us through our uncertainty? A God who loves us controls what we cannot.

Yes, God is filled with a steadfast love for you…for us and the world. Jesus said, “Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Luke 12:7 NRSVue). As God’s chosen people, Isaiah tells us that the Lord called us from the womb, from the body of our mothers God already knew us by name (Isaiah 49:1 NRSVue). Paul assures us that long ago, even before God made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us. Before any human every took a breath, God decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault—we who stand before him covered with his love (Ephesians 1:4 NLT).

At the Virginia Military Institute, we used to call the months before us the Dark Ages. We would get up in the dark for breakfast, and we would end our duties in the dark. There would be few holidays but plenty of work to do. The darkness seemed to hide our future from us. Yet whatever our darkness or time of year, the light of Christ is still shining. Dark and uncertainty can never overcome it. We are loved, and although Christmas celebrations might be a memory, Jesus remains “God with Us.”

We are deeply loved. We are not alone. The darkness has no real power over us. Christ is the light. As we enter an uncertain new year, may the Spirit help us trust in the certain power of God’s love holding us and guiding us forward. We can pray with confidence like St. Augustine, “Let not my doubts and darkness speak to me. Let my heart always welcome your love.” For God already loves us, and whatever happens good or bad, always will.

Originally published in the January 2023 newsletter of Christ Lutheran Church, Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this post are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVue) translation.

© 2022 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author.

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December 6, 2022 · 1:30 am

Love to Tell the Story

“That there were shepherds, means that no one is to hear the Gospel for himself alone, but everyone is to tell it to others who are not acquainted with it. For he who believes for himself has enough and should endeavor to bring others to such faith and knowledge, so that one may be a shepherd of the other, to wait upon and lead him into the pasture of the Gospel in this world, during the nighttime of this earthly life.” – Martin Luther

J. Bannister, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

During the season of Advent and Christmas, excitement builds as the story of Jesus is told. And, it needs to be told through sights and sounds! Martin Luther understood that no one can come to faith in Jesus until they hear about Jesus from the Church – you, me, and all who believe.

Among Luther’s own efforts, you will find the Christ Child or Christkindl. He promoted that Christ be adopted as the children’s gift-giver from December 6th through Christmas Eve. (This would incorporate practices related to St. Nicholas’ Day, St. Lucy’s Day, and other traditions.) The sprite-like child would not be seen by children, but Luther hoped practices related to the gifts’ arrival would help bring attention to the incarnation of Jesus.

The Christmas tree was encouraged by Luther, but once again, similar practices already existed. Saint Boniface (675-754), who Martin Luther admired, was a missionary in Germany. In an encounter with pagans, legends vary, but he was said to have struck down (perhaps miraculously) the Thunder Oak dedicated to Thor, often a place of sacrifice. (Some legends indicate it was a similar tree dedicated to Odin.) Boniface commended the people “gather about [a new tree], not in the wild wood, but in your own homes; there it will shelter no deeds of blood, but loving gifts and rites of kindness.” Luther might not have invented the Christmas tree, but he certainly promoted it’s use. In his own home, the candles lit were supposed to remind children of the stary night above Bethlehem. The angel on top reminds us of the first angels bringing us the Good News of Jesus.  

The Advent Wreath is sometimes attributed to Luther, although that is unlikely the case. It probably has deeper pagan roots. Scholars often give Johann Hinrich Wichern (1808–1881), a Protestant pastor in Germany and a pioneer in urban mission work among the poor, credit as the inventor of the modern wreath. Still, Advent wreaths were used in 16th century German, and Martin Luther encouraged families to observe Advent as a time for them to teach their children about the coming of Christ. The wreath is a handy tool at dinner or before bed for exactly that.

Among my favorite tales of Luther and Christmas is how he celebrated intergenerationally with his own children. His hymn, “From heaven to Earth I Come,” was designed to be sung with the adults playing angels coming down the stairs and the children playing shepherds singing in response.

Truly, there’s no limit to family practices rooted in your region, ethnicity, or family. Yet how do these practices witness to Jesus? How can you best share in the joy that is Jesus with others? Whatever your answers, Kristine and I pray that Jesus become more present in your life through the festive weeks ahead. We wish you all the merriest of Christmases!

Originally published in the December 2022 newsletter of Christ Lutheran Church, Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this post are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation.

© 2022 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author.

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November 14, 2022 · 4:50 pm

Thanksgiving Never Gets Old

Traditional ritual objects of Sukkot, the Feast of Booths (Image from ReformJudaism.org which retains all rights. Click the image to go to their post on this holiday.

In ancient, tribal Europe, there were times of thanksgiving offered the tribal god or gods much as indigenous populations in other lands did. Particularly at multiple times of harvest or hunting throughout the year, peoples on all the inhabited continents would give thanks through prayer, praise (often both in song and dance), and feasting. As tribes morphed into nations if not empires, days of thanksgiving were often held in a similar fashion. Indeed, many of the foods we associate with our Thanksgiving feasts in the US could be found at medieval European feasts of yore, but most every culture has celebratory foods to share. Yet most certainly as others have suggested, any annual day of thanksgiving as we know it here in the United States would not have been part of Martin Luther’s life.

Among the earliest of biblical, Jewish traditions, stemming from Mosaic law and still practiced in Jesus’ time and through today, the Israelites celebrate Sukkot, also known as the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles. It is held each year with the fall harvest and traditionally lasts seven days. (This year, it was observed on October 9th through October 16th if using our modern calendar.) It is called Sukkot because households set up a simple, tent-like structure called a sukkah. In them, they recall the Exodus from Egypt. God provided for the Israelites and led them as they escaped just as God provides and leads them know. The structures remind Jewish people of the dwellings used by the tribes of Israel during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Throughout the week, meals are eaten in the structures and prayers offered. During some of the prayers, lulav (a closed frond of the date palm tree), hadass (a branch of the myrtle tree), and aravah (the leafy branch of the myrtle tree), the etrog (a yellow citrus fruit) might be held or waved. (Some suggest that Jesus’ being welcomed with palms as he entered Jerusalem for his sacrifice and death reflected this cultural practice, although the time of this was the festival of the Passover.)  

Although that the Festival of Booths did not continue in the Christian faith, the spirit of such thanksgiving certainly has. Consider the advice of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” In our Lutheran confessions, The Book of Concord, we read the words of Martin Luther echoing this sentiment: “Hence, since everything we possess, and everything in heaven and on earth besides, is daily given and sustained by God, it inevitably follows that we are in duty bound to love, praise, and thank Him without ceasing, and, in short, to devote all these things to his service.” We can only give God our praise, thanks, and honor.

Although our nation has one National Day of Thanksgiving each November, even in times of trial, we have cause to give thanks. God provides for us and loves us. With Martin Luther, we might pray, “God grant that we follow [Jesus’] Word to praise and thank our dear Lord for his precious blood, which he so freely offered for us. And may God keep us from the terrible vice of ingratitude and the forgetfulness of His blessings. Amen.” Everyday and every hour is the right time to seek to give God our thanksgiving.

Originally published in the November 2022 newsletter of Christ Lutheran Church, Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this post are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation.

© 2022 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author.

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October 4, 2022 · 11:00 am

Being St. Francis of Assisi

Image: Panel from the Canticle of the Creation window by SM Ann Theresa Kelly at Villa Maria College Library, Buffalo, NY. Photo ©C. LaChiusa

When Jesus said, “I am the way,” he meant for us to follow his example, teachings and call. Yes, we have a shared mission through him but varied, distinctive calls. Much like our personalities or learning styles, spirituality differs between people. There’s no one way.

Today, October 4, the Church remembers the life and Christian witness of Francis of Assisi. And boy, was he different. Some compare him to a hippy. Others suggest he was a bit mad. For example, when his father tried to dissuade him from a life serving the poor, he demanded all the things he bought for Francis. Right in the middle of the public square, Francis undressed to return all his clothes to his father. Nothing would stop him from following Jesus.

The feast of Francis is celebrated on the day he died in 1226. Why? Well, as Christians, we believe that he entered into the Church Triumphant by the gracious virtue of his faith and baptism. As he led an exemplary life in many people’s minds, the Church assigned a feast day on our liturgical calendar a long time ago. With the Reformation, Lutherans continued to remember him. In fact, they celebrate him as a Reformer of the Church, just as we do Martin Luther. Francis was even said to have confronted the Pope for his lack of simplicty.

How did he start on his way? Legend has it that one day when he was praying before a crucifix, Francis heard a voice saying, “Francis, don’t you see that my house is being destroyed? Go, then, and rebuild it for me.” At first, he took the instructions literally. He began to reconstruct the nearby, dilapidated, little country church. Yet as he worked and prayed, he came to understand there was a greater need. Christ’s Church needed a renewal.

Francis abandoned his life as the son of a prosperous merchant. He came to ardently live for and serve the lonely, the poor, the sick (especially lepers), the forgotten, and the voiceless. By 1206, he was a street preacher and mendicant (one who lived off donations or the land, trusting in God’s grace to provide for him), and he traveled the region of Umbria extolling and teaching the people about God’s love. He gave up everything he knew and had, and he even dressed as the peasants in his region with a simple brown tunic tied by a rope. In time, others joined his work.

As he traveled and served, his spiritual understanding grew. Francis came to understand we are connected to one another but also the world. He loved all creatures, and according to many, he even preached to birds. Some of his writings praised all creatures as gifts, if not even our siblings. He allowed them in the church building, using them as part of the first ever Nativity scene to help teach about the birth of Jesus. Indeed, he saw God’s love at work in all things.

Reflecting this view, one of his greatest prayers is the Canticle of the Sun:

Most high, all powerful, all good Lord! All praise is yours, all glory, all honor, and all blessing. To you, alone, Most High, do they belong. No mortal lips are worthy to pronounce your name. Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and you give light through him. And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor! Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness. Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars; in the heavens you have made them, precious and beautiful. Be praised, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air, and clouds and storms, and all the weather, through which you give your creatures sustenance. Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water; she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure. Be praised, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom you brighten the night. He is beautiful and cheerful, and powerful and strong. Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth, who feeds us and rules us, and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs. Be praised, my Lord, through those who forgive for love of you; through those who endure sickness and trial. Happy those who endure in peace, for by you, Most High, they will be crowned. Be praised, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whose embrace no living person can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin! Happy those she finds doing your most holy will. The second death can do no harm to them. Praise and bless my Lord, and give thanks, and serve him with great humility.

With such a love for the natural world, Francis became intimately associated with animals and nature. Thus, many congregations celebrate pet blessings much as we did at the House on Sunday with our friends from Trinity and St. George’s Episcopal. Within the last several years, the ecumenical effort, the annual Season of Creation, also came to be. It begins on September 1, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and ends on October 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Activities, prayer, and communal worship are offered encouraging us to embrace the world around us and care for creation each day of our lives.

Originally published in the Ocrtober 4, 2022 weekly news email of Christ Lutheran Church, Fredericksburg, Virginia, The Hub.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this post are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation.

© 2022 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author.

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October 1, 2022 · 11:52 am

God is our defender

Image from the blog post, A Trivial Devotion, “Joseph’s Other Coat.”

This sermon was preached on the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (September 25, 2022) at Christ Lutheran Church in Fredericksburg, VA. You can listen to this sermon at my podcast, 2 Penny Blog.

           As one reads through Genesis, we are taken from the macro level to the micro level…a cosmic scale to the personal. After creation related stories (which include the Flood and the Tower of Babel), we have a cycle of stories about Abraham, followed by a cycle about Jacob, later renamed Israel, Abraham’s son, and finally the famous story of Joseph, Jacob’s most beloved son. Roughly fourteen of fifty chapters of Genesis deal with the saga of Joseph, so we can expect that the story just might be an important one.  

         Many of us are familiar with the story – Joseph’s amazing, valuable “coat,” a gift from his father, setting off the jealousy of his brothers. This leads him to be cast into a pit and eventually into slavery. It is in that darkness that his gift of God’s favor, exemplified by his ability to interpret dreams, his uprightness, and skills, lead him into an historic rise to eventually sit in a seat of power by the side of Pharoah. Yet today’s part of the story is often overlooked. It is quite scandalous after all. It is uncomfortable. Joseph is accused of one of the most violent and horrific crimes one can commit against another.

         Here, we have a slave, who by the norms of the time did not even own his own body, reject the advances of his master’s wife because he knew it would dishonor his master and more importantly his God. The commandment against adultery did not exist yet, but even the ancients understood such betrayal can lead to great harm and even greater violence. Potiphar’s wife coveted Joseph in his youth. Once denied, she betrayed him further. Holding onto his cloak as Joseph ran away, his cloak, his nakedness, would be used to prove the case of violent sexual assault that she would raise against him.

As an aside, I find it interesting that just as a cloak caused him to be cast into slavery, a second cloak now would be used to cast him further down into prison – if not toward death itself.[i] Further, I think it is interesting to note that the Hebrew verb often used for garments and cloaks, beged, sounds very much like the noun, bagad, the word sometimes used for marital unfaithfulness (as in Jeremiah 3:7-8, 20; Malachi 2:14).[ii] Perhaps these similar repetitions help reflect the ancient oral roots of this story before it was even written down. Repetition and rhyming would help people remember the story. We just don’t know for sure.

In any event, we have a man falsely accused and testified against. Potiphar’s wife seeks to discredit him not only as someone guilty of sexual assault but also, worse than being a slave perhaps, he’s labeled as a foreigner. She would use whatever bias and accusation she could to diminish and punish Joseph even though she knew of the potential consequences. Poor old Joseph was cast into the pit once again, so to speak, and left for dead. This time, he was in prison perhaps for the rest of his life.

Yes, we likely want to judge Potiphar’s wife harshly. I’ve been at the receiving end of false accusations especially when a police officer – a few times very serious accusations – but fortunately, people recanted, or there was plenty of evidence to prove the accusations unfounded. Yet, each time I’d feel angry…wounded…set adrift as I waited for vindication. I imagine many here know of what I speak, even if the accusations and gossip you faced were not as serious. People can gossip and lie about us. Perhaps the wrongs we think of were even committed by a family member. My goodness, I think my little brother’s favorite phrase in the English language was, “He did it!” whether I did it or not.

Joking aside, in families and society, we can be quick to judge and accuse. We can be like Potiphar’s wife. Sometimes the accusations and suspicions can be so severe that the victim of these lies suffers greatly and does not recover easily…an example might be Richard Jewel who was falsely accused of being the bomber of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. (There’s a recent movie about his experiences.) At other times, we hear of people that harm themselves or others because of accusations, gossip, or doubts. It is hard to live among others when you feel everyone is judging you…has perhaps labeled you…in effect has abandoned you.  

Of course, sexual assault is very serious, but so is the act of false accusation itself. Such behaviors can tear a community or person apart. It can murder a person’s spirit. A little lie can become a great injustice. Through the Ten Commandments, God will later appeal to Moses and the twelve tribes of Israel, descendants of Joseph and his brothers, to not bear false witness. God knows the disunity and violence that can result. Many moderns wrongly assume this alludes only to serious proceedings in court or the public square, but that’s not traditionally how it was understood among many earlier Christians. Some of the earliest leaders of the Church would argue that instead of accusing others, we should instead make excuses for our neighbor and judge ourselves harshly.[iii] St. Ephrem famously prayed, “Yes, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brother, since you are blessed to the ages of ages.”[iv]

In his work of reformation and his own experience with grace, Martin Luther argued similarly but perhaps pushed it a bit further. Recognizing how important our reputations are (our honor) to living with others, he understood the theft of such honor…the killing of another’s honor through even the act of idle gossip…was a great sin. Indeed, in the Large Catechism as he examines the 8th Commandment as Lutherans count them (“Thou shall not bear false witness”), he argues we all have been guilty of it. In our own misuse of scripture or “other sins of the tongue whereby we may injure or approach too closely to our neighbor,” we violate this precept.

He writes: “Here belongs particularly the detestable, shameful vice of speaking behind a person’s back and slandering, to which the devil spurs us on, and of which there would be much to be said. For it is a common evil plague that everyone prefers hearing evil to hearing good of his neighbor; and although we ourselves are so bad that we cannot suffer that anyone should say anything bad about us, but everyone would much rather that all the world should speak of him in terms of gold, yet we cannot bear that the best is spoken about others.” Yes, we can grow jealous like Joseph’s brothers. If one doubts Luther’s insights, consider all the money made from gossip related articles, social media posts, and shows just over the last week about the royal family in England. Humans seem to hunger for gossip and scandal when it is about others.   

In Luther’s argument, “False witness, then, is everything which cannot be properly proved.” It can be rooted in our jealousy or judgement of others. We can acknowledge wrongs. Yet, we don’t have the right to judge anyone unless called to serve as a civic judge, or unless (ultimately) we erroneously think we are God. More than that, like the Patriarchs in the early church, Luther argues that we should always seek to speak the best of people…to reframe them and their behaviors in the best possible light…to be gracious to them as God is so gracious to us with all our own secret sin and shame.

In this sacred account, we don’t hear if Potiphar’s wife ever faced consequences for her sins, but we do see how Joseph responds. One might argue that he turned the other cheek. He does not obsess about her. Even as he acknowledges he had been wronged; we never hear that he cursed her to hell. Instead, we see a young man with seemingly everything against him who perseveres and preserves his own honor before God. He seeks to honor God through mastering his own behaviors and response. It reminds me of a 12 step maxim. When in relationship with other neighbors doing wrong, making a mess on their side of the street, all we can really do is clean up our own side of the street. That’s the only place we really have power. We do so and trust that God will make things work out in the end.[v]

The Psalms, often songs of lament, speak of such betrayal as well. A young couple I know, dear friends of mine, were recently tasked to write a song representing Psalm 109. The lyrics could be our own prayer when we are gossiped about or betrayed:

I come to you small and needy,

my heart knows many scars.

My friends have all betrayed me,

You know just who they are.

My enemies surround me, they curse me with their tongues,

repaying good with evil, returning hate for love.

So, I pray when my hands and heart are weak,

when there’s nothing left in me, you’re my Defender.

And through the night, you’re bringing truth to light,

So, I don’t have to fight, you’re my Defender.[vi]

Yes, as with Joseph, the Lord is our defender, and we don’t have to fight. We don’t have to lower ourselves to act like our accusers. We are asked only to trust God and love as best as we are able in Jesus’ name. For whatever others might say, Jesus says he loves us and is with us always. We are clothed in God’s grace, and our accusers, not even Satan himself, will ever win the day. Amen.

[i] Strom, B. (2017). “Luther on Do Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor” downloaded from https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/luther-on-do-not-bear-false-witness-against-your-neighbor on September

[ii] Hamilton (2022). The Book of Genesis: Chapters 18-50. New International Commentary on the Old Testament Series, 465, as quoted in “Joseph’s Other Coat” at A Trivial Devotion blog downloaded at http://trivialdevotion.blogspot.com/2011/12/wrongfully-accused-josephs-other-coat.html on September 21, 2022.

[iii] Strom, B. (2017). “Luther on Do Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor” downloaded from https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/luther-on-do-not-bear-false-witness-against-your-neighbor on September 21, 2022.

[iv] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_of_Saint_Ephrem as quoted by Strom, B. above.

[v] Alcoholics Anonymous.

[vi] Labriny, S. and Henretty, N. (2022). “Defender.” Stewarding Praise (Psalms 107​-​112) by Cardiphonia Music.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this post are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation.

© 2022 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author.

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September 12, 2022 · 12:33 am

God will never leave us to drown

Photo by Phillip Flores on Unsplash

In this sermon, I take a deeper look at how our interactions with “the floods” of our modern lives can be changed by reflecting upon the promise found in the ancient tale of Noah’s flood. I do not suggest that no one ever drowns, or suffers, or dies. In the real world, people do. Yet, thanks be to God, not even death need be the end of our story. This sermon was preached on the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (September 11, 2022) at Christ Lutheran Church in Fredericksburg, VA. You can listen to the sermon on my companion podcast: S1, Ep19.

That such ancient stories as Noah’s ark should apply to us today, or even encourage us, might surprise some people…especially when the story of Noah is so violent and filled with death. If we think about it, despite the many baby rooms decorated with arks, animals, and rainbows, we don’t discover a children’s story. We encounter our God who goes to war against a prideful, self-centered, violent humanity. One point of the flood was to destroy and kill. (That does not seem like a very warm and fuzzy bedtime story to me.) Yet, we also should keep in mind that this God (our God) who judges, punishes, and destroys so often in the Hebrew scriptures is the same God who has come to save us. If we look deeper, we find God’s justice in tension with God’s mercy. We can find both law (a kind of accusation or judgement against us in our sin) and gospel (good news of God’s love come to save us). Remember, God also used the waters of the flood to make all things new.

         As humans, we tend to be myopic and dualistic in our thinking. We like to have things clearly labeled good and bad in our minds, but when the world is at its worst – if we step back – we find it is often somewhere in the in-between. In my own life, I know I can struggle with this at times. Some of you know that I have had a lot of challenges over the recent weeks. I could easily make a list of all the personal struggles and losses I have faced. Beyond personally having complications with COVID due to some immunity issues, I also had two extended family members die from COVID while I was recovering. That was sobering and a heavy burden. And while still ill, my truck broke down not once but twice. My trash disposal stopped disposing, and my air conditioner stopped conditioning on a ninety-degree day. There were other troubles too. I was like, “Where’s that kick me sign on my back. I want to get it off,” but I never found one. I was feeling overwhelmed and wondering what was going on.

Yet as I thought about it, I recognized that this is just kind of the way life goes sometimes. At times, problems do seem to come fast and furious, and things don’t work out. And, we actually know from research – and what we learn in the Bible bears this out – that if we can accept that we live in a fallen world and there are problems…if we can accept them, not meaning we never fight them by trying to do our best amidst them…yet if we accept them in the sense that we don’t dwell on them and recognize that God loves us and cares for us no matter what is going on…we actually can prove more resilient. We can do better fighting disease and in our relationships. We live in a troubled world, and sometimes troubles will come. We will be ok.

Yet even in the best of times, I could make a very long list of troubles at almost any time, because as a fallen human, my heart can easily focus on the bad, the fearful, my need for hope. Woe is Lou. Certainly, such troubles – some passing and some not in this life – can capture our attention. At some level, they need our attention, but we can go too far. We can dive to deep into our troubles. We can give up hope while focused solely on the bad, even though “no temptation has overtaken us except what is common to all of humankind.” And as Paul further suggests, when we are so tested, “God will provide us a way out.” (See 1 Corinthians 10:11-13.) These are common struggles and feelings that pop during dark or troubling times. My goodness, look in the Psalms and you can find such dilemmas of faith. Even Jesus on the cross (quoting the psalms) asked, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He might not have given up on God the Father, but Jesus in his humanity hurt. Although fully divine, he was fully humane too. His heart hurt, and he felt alone.

Like a horse, we humans tend to have blinders on while God wants us to take them off to see the bigger picture…so that we remember God’s promises. Instead, genetically, we tend to focus on the threat before us because that seems to need our attention most. Yet unlike the horses using blinders for protection (to keep them focused on their task), they don’t work so well for humans. We can miss opportunities and options with blinders on. We can overlook the good of God at work around us…the promise from God through Jesus that all things will work for the good of those that love God. It is a promise still being worked out even in the worst of times. We might forget that our story isn’t over yet…that God is still speaking…acting…loving. Indeed, God is still with us amidst any annoyance or suffering, even when we don’t see God. Jesus promises to always be with us to the end of the age.

So, how can a cataclysmic story like Noah’s help refocus our gaze….or help shape our own lives for the good that is promised us? Well, first off, in this story, we meet a God who isn’t far away…disengaged and thundering in the clouds. Our God cares…always cared…for us. Creation has come. The Fall has happened. Yet God doesn’t give up on us. God was paying attention to this world and its creatures, and God noticed there was a problem. Humanity had become consumed by evil thoughts and actions. Violence reigned in the world, and God cared that the fallen human condition did not reflect God’s will for humanity or even the tiniest of creepy crawly things crawling on the earth.

True, God’s sense of justice was pushed toward a breaking point back then. God was close to starting things over. Yet, God noticed one person, a man named Noah…just one in a world of many…and God’s own heart was moved to mercy. We hear that Noah found favor with God, not so much because Noah is perfect…we see later in scripture that he was not…but that Noah was righteous. “Noah walked with God,” we are told. In the Hebrew way of understanding…and remember this is a story preserved in the Hebrew scriptures…righteousness is not an abstract notion but rather consists in doing what is just and right in all relationships.[i] What is the fulfillment of the law? Not rigid perfection, but loving God with all that we are and our neighbor as ourselves. Noah finds favor with God because of his open heart…and thus God gifts Noah with unmerited grace.

Through Noah and his family, God will seek to correct humanity’s course…but not just humanity’s…all of creation’s course. And isn’t that also partly why we as Christians are told that we are gifted with God’s grace and saved through faith? Jesus came for the renewal of a fallen world…the ultimate creation of a new heaven and earth where we will live with our God forever. Notice…Noah’s call and Jesus’s own purpose are united in a shared goal. God’s vocation (so to speak) is seeking the welfare of the wider world, and we, as Christ’s body are invited to also play a part. We are part of that same story.

While the human heart can still turn from God and often tends to ignore God’s love, God turns toward the world and would not give up on it or us. Seeing the human heart in conflict with God’s own, the scriptures tell us that God’s heart filled with pain. God grieved and suffered much as a loving parent might when a child goes astray. Yet instead of turning away, God at the time of Noah decided to enter our brokenness[ii]…which of course, he will do even more intimately and ultimately through Jesus.  

No question, the flood was a horrific event with great loss from the human perspective. Yet, the flood also served to make all things new. People of that age saw God as a warrior, much as other gods were envisioned and understood at the time. And so, it is no small thing that God puts his bow down in the sky to declare peace. God covenants (or promises) to never destroy the world or its creatures in such a way again. God commands with steadfast love (as God first did at creation), “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 9:1).

God’s decision for the flood was no arbitrary act. Amidst the flood, we find, as one scholar suggests, “a God who expresses sorrow and regret; a God who judges but doesn’t want to, and then not in arbitrary or annihilative ways; a God who goes beyond justice and determines to save some creatures, including every animal and bird; a God who commits to the future of a less than perfect world; a God open to change and doing things in new ways; a God who promises never to do this again.”[iii]

With the flood, there’s no real difference made in humanity, just less humans around.[iv] We remained sinners. Yet with God, through God, love has grown.[v] A new way is possible now. God commits to love us, not in spite of our sin, but because of it. Through the flood, we see the tension between God’s sense of justice and mercy resolved as God wills not to destroy but rather to save.[vi] And now, wrapped within that loving promise, Noah and Noah’s descendants can move forward through any challenges and horrors with confidence and hope…if they dare to believe.[vii]

When we face challenges…when we face pain…when we experience want or loneliness…we may encounter the same powerful God as Noah. We are asked to trust in God’s promises. Our hearts may cry, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” Yet we should try to remember that God’s heart is oriented toward us in love even then… perhaps even more so then. Why are we afraid, we of little faith? Why do we only look for the bad and the fearful instead of to the hills for God’s coming help? At such times, our worry can become a flood,[viii] and those floods might seem to last for too long a time. Yet God’s love for us is more enduring still. God will never leave us to drown. Jesus who has power over wind and wave has power over death itself, and he wills to claim us as God’s own forever. He died to make it so. Amen.

[i] https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/righteousness

[ii] The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol 1. (1994). Nashville: Abingdon Press, p. 395.

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Narrative Lectionary 324: Flood and Promise, a podcast by Working Preacher. September 2, 2018.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] The New interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 1 (1994). Nashville: Abingdon Press.

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] “Flood” by Jars of Clay.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this post are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation.

© 2022 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author.

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June 12, 2022 · 4:26 pm

A God beyond us, but always with us

This sermon was preached on Trinity Sunday (June 12, 2022) at Christ Lutheran Church in Fredericksburg, VA. You can listen to the sermon on my companion podcast: S1, Ep18, or watch it on our congregational YouTube channel.

Dance of the Trinity (water color on canvas) by Margie Thompson, SSJ, M.F.A. (The artist reserves all rights to the painting. Citation includes link to her work.)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

            On this Trinity Sunday, I was reminded of a brief but illuminating story shared elsewhere. An elder member of a congregation was feeling lonely in a nursing home when members of his congregation stopped in for a visit. While there, one read some scripture, another offered prayer, and together they all shared memories of their past along with the joys and sorrows of their present. As the visit concluded and the visitors prepared to depart, the older man said, “How did you know this is what I needed today? This was awesome!”

            There had been no visions or prophesy shared. There were no miraculous healings visible. Yet, the man and his visitors both knew they had shared something sacred – something awesome and holy had been experienced. The man felt strengthened and encouraged for whatever lay ahead. He felt connected to these people, his congregation, and God once again. He was reminded that he was not alone…was never alone…and remained loved. That’s no small thing. And so, the man expressed his amazement and wonder the best way he knew how. He named what he had experienced with one, imperfect word, “Awesome!”[i]

            When we sense that we have experienced the sacred, our human words often fall short. Poets and artists might try. Scientists of faith (such as Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, George Washington Carver, or even Florence Nightingale in her work to create safer and more sanitary medical care)…so many scientists including many modern ones…have experienced awe inspiring, faith affirming events through their work. Yet whoever they were or are, they could never fully explain their experience. There was always something more to know. Yet this shouldn’t surprise us. How can a limitless, infinite, omnipresent and omniscient God be captured by any human means of communication, art, or even science? With our limited abilities and brain space, as created beings, we cannot fully understand God, or we would be God.

            So, we try as best we can to make sense of it all and express the mysteries of God. We use allegories, allusions, similes, and more to capture bits and pieces of who God is and how God interacts with us. Theologians write and write and write trying to identify God and our relationship with God. In Martin Luther’s case over fifty-five very thick volumes of his writings have been collected and translated into English (just those in English!). Still, these millions of words fall short. God’s works are so wonderous and so many that the psalmist writes, “Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted” (Psalm 40:5).

            This holy conundrum represents the issues we might experience with our theological understanding of God as a Trinity. We cannot fully explain the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We cannot fully describe our encounters with God. Indeed, from the earliest times of the Church, some people have rejected this Trinitarian construct. Early radicals and nonconformists of the Church tried, but their teachings were deemed heretical and rejected. Later, Christianized barbarians and still other believers rejected the Trinity, and the Church answered them all with creeds – imperfect yet concise statements of our belief (credo means “I believe” in Latin”). Indeed, even today’s Feast of the Holy Trinity was addred to the Church Year to help combat the rejections of and misunderstandings related to the Holy Trinity or Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

            The Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed all speak of God in terms of Father who is the Creator, Son who is Savior, and the Holy Spirit which prays for us, guides, protects and nurtures us, and draws us into belief of and communion with our Triune God and Christ’s Church. The Athanasian Creed (the last creed created as agreed to by east and west) proclaims as it begins, “Now this is the catholic (universal) faith: We worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being. For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Spirit is still another. But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty. What the Father is, the Son is, and so is the Holy Spirit.” The creed goes on and on (it’s the longest of our three Ecumenical Creeds), but in short, it identifies that the Godhead or Trinity has varied attributes or characteristics, different functions that we might see or recognize, but somehow, some way, remains always one. Again, the creed reminds us, “What the Father is, the Son is, and so is the Holy Spirit.” At some level, the Church knows it (the Trinity) when we see it, but we see it only when and as God reveals itself to us. Thus, we cannot exactly put our finger on it, but with God’s help, we know it is there. (Whew! Does your head hurt yet? Now, you know a bit of what it feels like to be in seminary.)

            In our first reading, we meet a personification of Holy Wisdom as a female. When God made the heavens and created all things, it was there. So, many see this passage as a reference to the Holy Spirit. Jesus, himself is called the Alpha and Omega in scripture (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet) to help us understand that Jesus always was, is, and will be. God, who is called Father in one popular prayer gifted to us by Jesus, is also alluded to as being like a Mother Hen, or like a mom nursing a child, as well as described with other feminine imagery. We are told that God, our Creator, spoke everything that is into being out of nothing. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one…of spirit…existing in and outside of time simultaneously …working within and yet not subject too all the physical and metaphysical laws and constructs one might be able to identify. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were one at creation. And with the many male and female attributes of God, it has been revealed that God is neither male or female but ultimately spirit, and we are told that male and female alike are created in God’s image.

            Yet, humans meet God over linear time. We came to understand God better as we met God throughout history…much like a deepening relationship. And so, we are tempted to think that God the Creator came first, then Jesus was born, and then the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost. That make sense to us because we live in time, yet…ehhhh (making a buzzer sound)…that’s wrong…totally wrong. As some hymns try to convey (“Lord of the Dance” or “Come to the Dance of the Trinity” for example), it is as if the three persons of the Trinity eternally dance together throughout time, outside of time, and in our lives. God is Lord of the Dance, and we created creatures are invited to dance amidst the Trinity. It is in dancing that God reveals God’s self, and we come to know God, but God always was, is, and will remain more than what we experience or understand.  

            In today’s Gospel from John, we hear Jesus definitively make such connections without using any pure and pat Trinitarian formula. What belongs to God belongs to Jesus. What the Spirit shares comes from (belongs to) Jesus and thus also God the Creator. They are one, unified in purpose, essence, in all things. And yet, curiously, Jesus doesn’t go into any long explanation. Who God is gets revealed to us, and at best, it remains a matter of trust (of faith) because we cannot know all there is to know. Would Jesus lie about such things? I don’t think so. And yet, I must confess, I cannot fully understand the Trinity either. No human can.

            As humans, it can be hard to accept that we can never fully obtain knowledge of God in this life. We like being in control, and knowledge gives us such power to contain and organize our lives that we might think that we are in control. Yet, life is never fully controllable. Good things happen to bad people at times, and bad things happen to the good among us at times. And yet, as we hear scripture where new meanings are discovered that seem to speak directly to us and our situation, when we fall in love with someone who just seems to get us, when someone calls at just the right moment, when the door that helps us escape an unpleasant situation opens toward a new future filled with hope, when we witness a new birth in creation or our family…ah, we know it (the Trinity) when we see it. A spark within us helps open us to the sacred at work right in front of us, and we perhaps come to believe just a little bit more. Maybe there is a meaning to life after all? Maybe there is a God who loves us?

            And perhaps when all the words are spoken, when there are no more scientific theories to be conjectured, and when artist’s imaginations run dry…perhaps then, we will see God as God truly is….as John elsewhere writes, “God is love.” Maybe that’s enough for us to know. God created the world out of love. Jesus offered his own life for us out of love. The Spirit resides with us, guides us, and connects us out of love. We are told that God loved us in our mother’s womb, down to each hair on our head. God loves us even when we run away like Adam and Eve or any of the Prodigal Sons and Daughters among us, or even as we fail. God love us enough to share in our death, so that we can be free from the power of death. God loved us before we ever knew of God, and our Triune God promises to actively, presently, always and forever love us. I don’t know about you, but I would say that God is awesome. Maybe like the man in the nursing home, that’s all one can really say. Amen.

[i] Story adapted from “Daily Discipleship” (June 3, 2007) by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this post are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation.

© 2022 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author.

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