Trinity Sunday, 2005:

We are recognizing our seniors today, thanking those who have been involved in our Christian Formation program this year, and presenting an acolyte cross to our two rising seniors.  We have been truly blessed by each one of them. 

All students will be receiving report cards soon.  For most it will be fairly routine.  For some it will call for a creative approach; like the son who said, “Here’s my report card, Dad, and one of yours I found in the attic.”  Or, the boy who handed his report card to his Mom and Dad at the dinner table and said, “Here is my report card.  What do you think---heredity or environment?” 

Finally, the Dad asked, “Where is your report card?”  The daughter, known for spending hours on the phone with friends or instant messaging them, said, “It drowned.”

“How could it drown,” asked the Dad?

The daughter said, “Well, it’s all below C-level.”
    

We get report cards from time to time in the living of our Christian faith.  They are seen only by God and each one of us individually.  We don’t have to have them signed or post them on the bulletin board.  We know and God knows.  Trinity Sunday is a good time for each person to look at their report card.  Have we acknowledged and invited the Holy Spirit to live within our hearts?  Have we had glimpses of the perfect freedom God has given us that can come only from being possessed by the indwelling Holy Spirit?  One of the central tenets of our faith is that God has been revealed to us as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.

The Gospel for the First Sunday after Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, takes us back to the basics of our faith.  The Lord of this life and the life that is to come reminds us that the Christian journey is about certain basic things.

First, as we journey through this life we are to preach.  I don’t know how to tell you this but preaching is not just my job.  Every baptized Christian is a preacher.  Perhaps the sermon is not the result of attempting to put words together in some meaningful manner, but striving to put a life together in a way that others will see, find reasonably consistent, and after which they might wish to model their life.  It does not have to be perfect, but it does have to be honest.  That is, by far, a more effective sermon than words could ever communicate.

Second, as we journey through this life we are to teach.  By word and example we are to teach that God is love and that love is a life-changing reality for the Christian and love alone endures.  We recognize and honor those in this worshiping family who have given of their time, talent, and treasure in our Christian Formation program this year.  They have been motivated by love and our young people have been blessed to come under their influence.

There is an inscription above the entrance to Rockefeller Center that says, “Man’s ultimate destiny depends not on whether he can learn new lessons or make new discoveries or conquests, but on his acceptance of the lesson taught him close upon two thousand years ago.”

There really are some enduring, permanent human values.  Should we forget those, we become something other than human, created in the image of God.  Remembering and passing on that lesson taught close upon two thousand years ago is the responsibility of every baptized Christian.  We must teach it and learn it again and again in each succeeding generation.  If we do not we will be like the young girl who was told about the priceless vase that had been handed down from generation to generation and kept on the mantle in the living room.  It was so value it was even called a “vahse.”  One day, when the mother of the house returned from shopping the daughter met her at the door.

“Mother,” she said, “you know that vase that is kept on the mantle, the one that has been passed down from one generation to another, the one that is priceless?”

“Yes, dear, I know that irreplaceable vase very well,” the mother said.

“Well, Mom,” said the daughter, “This generation just dropped and broke it.”

Third, as we journey through this life we are to witness.  That means we stand ready wherever and whenever possible to take the oath and speak the truth in love.  We bear witness to what we have seen and heard and know to be the truth.  We always point to the One who is that truth.

Last of all, as we journey through this life we are to make disciples.  It is done most effectively in the normal pattern of our lives; living the Word among those who God has placed in our path.  Making disciples is supposed to be simply introducing another to a friend.  If every Christian, every Episcopalian would bring one other person to baptism we would be amazed at the growth that would occur. 

Remember to preach, to teach, to witness, and to make disciples. That remains the most effective means to church growth that has yet been discovered.  That task is given as the Great Commission, given to us by the One who pioneered and perfected our faith.  There really is no other plan.

Remember most of all that we never go alone.  The Lord Jesus said, “I am with you always, even to the end of the ages.”  That same Lord is present with us again this day in the Bread and Wine of the Holy Eucharist.  He keeps his promise to be with us always.  Amen.