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  • Writer's pictureMarissa Galvan

Trinity Sunday: June 7, 2020



PRELUDE: Listen to "My God is So Great" and praise God for all the good things God created.


OPENING SENTENCES (Based on Psalm 8)

O God, our Sovereign: how glorious is your name in all the earth. When we consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, we say: what are we that you are mindful of us? What are human beings that you care for them? Praise that goes beyond doubt, fear and anguish flows from our lips. O God, our Sovereign: how glorious is your name in all the earth.


HYMN: Listen to "This is My Father's World".


CONFESSION

We baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We move in the name of the Creator, the Teacher, and the Comforter. We love in the name of the Mother, of the One who loves, and of Wisdom.

However, we do not deliver on the promise to guide and protect; we remain immovable before the injustices in the world and we try to love with limitations and conditions. We do not learn from God's ability to live as a family, to be a community, and to build a union where there is no suspicion, hatred, and heartbreak.

O God forgive us and restore us to be what you want us to be. Guide us through your example so that we can learn to be the community of faith, the body of Christ, the family of God that you want us to be in the world. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.


PARDON AND PEACE

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit, work together to forgive us, lead us to repentance and cause transformation. The Triune God gives us forgiveness and peace. Amen!



PASSING THE PEACE

Take time to think about one thing during the week that has given you peace. It can be the sound of birds chirping, flowers coming out, or hearing from someone dear. Share it in some way... tell someone, post it on social media, etc.


PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

Pray to God, asking for wisdom as you read the Word written and proclaimed.


SCRIPTURE: Genesis 1: 1-4a (NRSV)

1In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good;


REFLECTION: "God created a good and beautiful family" Rev. Marissa Galván-Valle

Welcome to Trinity Sunday! This is the one Sunday of the year where pastors all over the world tear their hair out trying to explain the mysteries of the Trinity. The Trinity is like a Shamrock! The Trinity is like water: Ice, Vapor, Liquid. The Trinity is like an apple: skin, the flesh, the seed! But I believe that the most important thing we can learn about the Trinity has nothing to do with theological statements or with scientific experiments. It has to do with relationships, with that the Trinity tells us about God, and about how God does community and family.


We read the story of Creation. If you go to Genesis 1, it gives you more details about what God does. The Bible’s first words are: “1In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” To a lot of people, these sentences point to the Trinity at work. God created… A wind from God, God said. Usually, we associate God the Parent with creation. We associate the wind with the Holy Spirit and we associate the word with Jesus. The Trinity in full force, doing all the things to create a world that God constantly calls good.


When I ask adults what they remember about God’s creation, I usually asked them to tell me what God created on which day… and usually, everyone remembers what God did on the last day (God rested). But they get confused about what happens before. But then, I challenge them to remember where the grace is in the story. And to me, the grace is found in the repetition of one phrase that we can find time and time again: “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good”.


Good. God created everything so that it could be good. That word, “good” or tovh has different meanings in Hebrew: good, beautiful, bountiful, cheerful, fair. Everything God created was good. Whenever you take a walk in the woods it is good. Whenever I can go back home and take a few moments to look at the sea, it is good. When we fall madly in love with another being that God created, it is good! This first chapter of Genesis is wonderful! It is good! But as we all know, it does not remain good for that long.


The Trinity had worked in perfect harmony, in love, and in community to create this world and the human beings that lived within it… and then, those human beings messed it up. You all know the story. There was eating of forbidden fruit and as Carol Calvin-Dillon states the human beings “exile themselves from the loving community of the Trinity.” They went against the DNA of the Creator and the creation… and had to deal with the consequences of their actions… consequences still felt to this day.


What are the things that challenge the love, community, and harmony of the Trinity? Usually, people say that the sin that the human beings committed had to do with disobedience. They were given directions and they did not follow them.


Other folks have said that human sin has to do with ingratitude. They were not grateful for what was given to them, and they wanted more.


But I think that you could add another sin: the lack of solidarity. After the man and the woman take a bite out of the forbidden fruit, God confronts them. The man responds in Genesis 3, “The woman you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” And the woman says, “The snake tricked me, and I ate.” And then, the harmony, community, love, and family that the Trinity had created shattered.

Man blames God and the woman. The woman at least does not blame God or the man… but she blames the snake. Blaming others, using them as shields to protect themselves, taking advantage of others for your own benefit, seeing them as less important than you… these are all sinful behaviors that break us away from the Triune God’s intentions for creation.


This lack of solidarity, of empathy, of community and of love among God’s children, puts a knee on the goodness and beauty of God’s creation and intention. It blurs our collective memory because we do not remember that God created everything good. God made good and beautiful human beings, creating amazing colors, and displaying a loving imagination. God made a good earth, beautiful and diverse, full of different, incredible and valuable fauna, flora, cultures, and thoughts. Everything is good and beautiful because God created it that way.


The kin-dom of God, the family of God, will never become a reality if we continue committing the sin of lack of solidarity and empathy. There is no way to build up the kin-dom, if we continue turning our backs on the example of the Triune God. The good news is, that God, being Lover, Beloved, and the Love… never gives up on that love and continues to stubbornly try to recreate the family God envisioned since the beginning.


God, Compassionate Mother, Beloved Child, and Live-Giving Womb… is our light made Word on this journey and our example. May God helps us, step by step, march by march, protest by protest, word by word to undo the sins of the past, of the present, and hopefully of the future… so that we can recreate the love and solidarity that were ours since the beginning of creation. Amen.


HYMN: Listen to "This is My Song", written by Lloyd Stone and Georgia Harkenss and sang by The Peacemaking Project Virtual Choir


PRAYER OF INTERCESSION: Take time to think about prayer requests, and pray for them. Pray for the situations in your home, your community, your city, your country of origin, other countries in the world that face difficult situations, and the country where you live.


BLESSING

May the road God has laid

Rise up to meet you.

May God keep you and bless you,

Shine God’s light upon you,

and give you peace.

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