10:30 am, Trinity Sunday, June 4, 2023

(Gen 1:1-2:4a; Mtt 28:16-20) FBCA, J G White

About fifteen years ago I heard Brian McLaren speak, in his early, ‘progressive Christian’ days. He was at the evangelism conference in Saint Andrews, NB. One of the things he pointed out, that I’ve always remembered, is how worship and doubt were still together among the eleven disciples of Jesus, at their very last moment with Him, when Christ gave them, one final time, their mission in the world. Matthew tells us, as they met Jesus in Galilee: When they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted.

There are many different doubts that circle around Faith. For a century or two now, many people have had doubts about the Creator of creation. Today, we heard the recitation of the first creation story from Genesis. It is well-known, pivotal scripture for us. Its ancient beauty still speaks; it has mythological power in our culture. And people still debate things about creation: is it a creation - designed and created by Something? How did it come to be - how long was the process? Can I be a churchgoer and think differently about the universe? Me, worshipping and doubting at the same time?

God created humankind in his image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

I can still remember, from a Baptist Sunday School classroom of my youth, a poster with fish and octopus and monkeys on it, making fun of the theory of evolution: because God created it all in 144 hours (six days)! In my childhood, with my love of nature and of dinosaurs and of volcanoes, I could never accept an actual six day creation, or reject continental drift or the evolution of life. I wanted Genesis 1 to work differently. When I was eighteen years old, I learned it could, and was given permission to enjoy both perspectives: science and my spirituality.

To be honest, I never doubted God as the Creator. Many people do doubt this, and give up on the whole divine idea. With them, we must strive to be together in awe of life and the universe. We have that in common. Then, with believers of a more literal-historical view of Genesis, we must remember our oneness in Christ, as well as the respect for creation and Creator that we share.

Let’s face some other doubts people have. A very personal one can be doubts about my own life purpose, my value and goodness. Today’s poem, inspired by Psalm 8, says to God:

I wonder what am I that you remember me

that you love me as you do

you have called me from the height and depth of all creation

Over and over in Genesis 1, the six days of creation, we hear God speaking. The one who spoke each element of creation into being then observes all as good. God saw that it was good. Seven times, God saw that it was good. Including humanity, adam.

Next Sunday, Christian Education Sunday, we will view a scene of father Abraham, pictured on our bulletin cover this month. As seniors, Abram and Sarai were given - by YHWY God - a new life purpose, a whole new plan, a journey to take to an unknown place, and a mission: to bless the world! Stay tuned next Sunday for that.

What is my plan? What is my little purpose on earth? Everyone needs to know. Some do know. Some get it wrong, for a while. Some never quite know. They doubt there is meaning to life, at least, to their own life. Perhaps most of us have had moments of this, at some time or other. So we can understand how deep the need is when we find someone lost in themselves, not knowing why they live. When we know they are made in the very image of God, we will value them and can come alongside them, to share the hope.

Also notice again, that those with doubts are still given a mission, a purpose, a plan, by Jesus. ‘Go, and do some beautiful things,’ Jesus says to those who worship and those with doubts.

Many people have doubts about what God would and will do with the world. Is God truly as good as we make him out to be? Because there is not a lot of good winning out in this world! And how can we understand all this scripture stuff, anyway? All the great promises? There are so many theories, so many interpretations, and not too many are coming true. Or are they?

Tomorrow evening, the Bible Basics group will tackle the book of the prophet Ezekiel, all 45 pages of it. I opened this service with words from chapter seventeen. Words from God, back then.

I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree.

I the Lord have spoken; I will accomplish it.

This is an echo of many songs of faith that have been sung: like that of Hannah, mother of Samuel, and Mary, mother of Jesus. God brings down the nasty, greedy, prosperous people, and lifts up for blessings the poor, the weak, the hurting, the hungry, the disabled.

All this is certainly what Jesus began to bring about, in His neck of the woods, for three years. What has happened since?

Martin Luther King, Jr. paraphrased an earlier preacher, Theodore Parker (1853), when he declared, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” (~1964) This is in the story of our faith, in so many of the faith stories we tell. We have this faith that things are headed in the right direction, that God is up to something, behind the scenes, and “all will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well,” as Julian of Norwich said.

But it can be doubted. It can be so hard to have that faith when all manner of things are not going well at all.

Yet we pray, all the same. We have some doubts, and we worship. We learn in the life of Faith to lament - to complain to God - and to ask ‘Why?’ ‘How long?’ Let us seek, and let us find. Let us thirst for what’s right, until the showers of blessing come down.

Another basic doubt is about our relationship with God. Do people feel they are abiding in the Vine, Jesus? When does someone just live in hope, but not feel connected?

Most Sundays, our first song says,

Let us build a house where love can dwell

and all can safely live…

here the love of Christ shall end divisions. (Marty Haughen, ‘94)

Do you feel safe with God? And is your own body a home for the Holy Spirit, as the Bible tells us it is? Are you unsure?

For years I think I took for granted that no church people were worried about if they were right with God, going to heaven after death, and so forth. I guess it was my Minister Emeritus in another Church who taught me how important the ‘assurance of salvation’ is for so many believers. People need a sense of being sure about their life with God, here, and after death. Even people of the pews often have doubts.

I remember a Baptist Church I spent time with one year. The organist at the time was an amazing person. She had been playing in churches and directing choirs for sixty years, at least. She was a grand musician, and knew just what to do with each choir she had. I remember that summer, 1993, learning ‘Brother James’ Air’ in the little church choir, among other sublime pieces. I remember, vividly, as she once played for a soloist singing ‘His Eye Is On the Sparrow.’

Anyway, a few years later, I heard from a colleague that she was at the end of her life. My minister friend was with her. This elderly woman of faithful musical ministry expressed some doubts about what might happen to her next! My wise friend said, “You believe in God, and that God is Love?”

“Yes,” she said.

“And you have experienced love? And you have loved others?” And so forth they talked. Even that great woman of the Church needed some personal assurances of the Gospel message she had expressed in so much music through the years. Never forget that most people need encouragement, not correction, when it comes to their relationship with God.

One last doubt we should recognize, when we worship, is doubt about religion and local church. I think many of us preachers, at the front, easily forget that a person in the pew can have a lot of questions about the value of this whole venture. It can be too easy for a minister to be surprised when someone drops out. Or we take it personally. A friend who is a preacher in Edmonton wisely speaks of being so grateful - and amazed - that people still do come to the pews on Sundays! Me, I used to get upset when I heard of any retired minister who quit going to church, or when there was no funeral when one died! Let that be a lesson to me that we all have moments of doubt about our religion, if not our spirituality.

Church… I love Church. You can probably tell. But don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean I think it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. We are very much a faulty, failing, sometimes flailing, human institution. Yes, I believe Jesus birthed us. But we are still us. And so stuck in our ways, and getting in our own way. Ever since the Church in Corinth, we have had real troubles and confusion. So, let’s not fret when people, you and me included, have real doubts about the Church. This also goes hand-in-hand with being worshippers.

Remember. God made each of us good.

God made the Church, and that’s a good thing too.

This whole inbreaking of God’s Kingdom is a world-wide, history crossing endeavour. It is far greater than we can see here now.

And we have Jesus. Jesus still leaves us, and leaves us to some of our own devices; yet Christ is, on another level, with us always, to the end of the age. That’s what this Holy Spirit is all about. Once again, the Spirit reminds us we are sent, we go into all our world, to build a house where love can dwell and all can safely live.

Amen.