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Green Blades Preaching Roundtable

Holy Trinity Sunday

Year B
May 26, 2024
Rev. Emily Meyer

Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 29
Romans 8:12-17
John 3:1-17

HOLY. HOLY. HOLY

Rev. Emily Meyer reflects on wondrous Love, oneness with the Beloved,

and being won over by the Lover.




Songs: The Beauty of the Dancer (2004), Sara Thomsen; Metamorphosis, 2004

By Breath, (2003), Sara Thomsen; By Breath, 2003

God Bless the Grass, (2003), Sara Thomsen, (By Malvina Reynolds © 1964 Schroder Music); By Breath, 2003

May the Longtime Sun (2003), Sara Thomsen (Words by Mike Heron); By Breath, 2003

 

In the weeks leading up to Christmas Eve, 2023, new images from the Hubble Telescope[1] were circulating across social media: extraordinary images of pillars of gas and dust, butterfly nebula, star clusters, and swirling galaxies - tens of thousands of light years away - breathtaking in their beauty, incomprehensible in their size, unbelievable in their history and scope - and miraculously captured and sent to earth by human design. Images of the cosmos are mind-boggling in their wondrousness.

 

And for some reason, that Christmas Eve, those images coalesced into an awareness - or at least an idea - of the Creator of that unfathomable expansiveness taking on and living a mortal life - here, with us, as a human, like us, on Earth, as one of us.

 

What in the world (!) does that mean?!?

 

How do any of us believe in a being, a power, a force sufficient to create the multiverse - an ever-expanding cosmos?

 

And how do we believe in or attempt to comprehend a being of that enormity and capacity which (or who) is not only aware of life on this one little planet but also desires to be intimately involved and active within and among both human and other-than-human existence on this one little planet.

 

The idea is mind-blowing.

 

Yet, as our youth respondent, Gigi, named at this year’s EcoFaith Summit, this reality is where humans find joy; it is where human frailty meets existential hope.

 

Gigi poetically articulated how simply placing her hand on the earth fills her with wonder, hearing birds sing lifts her spirits, and smelling the sand of our lakeshore lets her know she is home, where she belongs, where she is happy, where she is loved.

 

As a little(r) girl, walks with Gigi didn’t necessarily cover a lot of ground - but they could take forever. At the lake we’d have to stop and listen - at length - to the springtime peepers; we’d have to pause - at length - to smell the pines or autumnal leaves; in the city she would crouch - at length - to watch ants coming and going from a crack in the sidewalk.

 

 It was all fascinating; it was all beautiful; it was all wondrous.

 

Gigi understood - understands - and reminds the rest of us: All Earth is filled with God’s glory.

 

This Trinity Sunday, I would be tempted - no matter the weather - to move worship - or at least the sermon - outside. Spend time noticing the Divine Presence in the grandeur and simplicity of each element of creation around you, including within the human bodies assembled.

 

Define Martin Luther’s understanding of pan-en-theism, as Larry Rassmusen reminded us at the EcoFaith Summit on April 6, including Luther’s appreciation of creation as God’s self-portrait - the original and most Divine sermon.[2]

 

Wonder how the heavens are telling the glory of God (Psalm 19:1).

 

Consider how we are born anew by water and the Spirit.

 

Explore the presence of Love, as Augustine describes the Trinity: Love, Beloved, and Lover,[3] in the elements and beings, around, in, with, and among the congregation.

 

Invite people to touch the earth and recognize in soil the stardust that floats through the furthest reaches of space and makes up their own bodies.

Wonder together about a Love big enough and powerful enough to sprinkle this dust to infinity and back - and hold it together in such Belovedness as to breathe life into it.

Wonder together about the Lover, the Breath, that fills our lungs and our hearts; the Breath that carries life-giving precipitation, life-nurturing pollen, life-sustaining oxygen across fields and oceans whose interconnectedness allows for our existence.

Wonder together about the Lover, the Breath that sparks justice and joy;[4] the winds of change and transformation that lead to sustainability and a livable planet.

 

Rejoice together in the Incarnate Beloved, who takes on this stardust and humus[5], whose humility reveals and embodies Divine Love and whose body walked the way of Love so that all humans and other-than-humans - all creation/created would receive and know Love.

 

How can this be?

What does this mean?

 

This Trinity Sunday, maybe explanations and answers aren’t necessary.

 

This Trinity Sunday, perhaps it is enough to rest in wonder; to remember awe; to be filled - again as always - with the Lover’s Breath; to be still and know that Love loves this world, this ‘crumb of a globe’, as Gigi calls it, with such enormity that Love became the Beloved and lives now within and among and through us as the Lover.

 

This Trinity Sunday, perhaps it is enough to consider the glory of God - manifest in myriad ways in every crumb of creation and to remember that we humans are Love’s stewards; we humans are One Body with the Beloved whose life is poured out for all that Love loves; we humans are filled with the Lover of this astounding cosmos - inspired, empowered, co-con-Spiritors with the Lover, followers of the Beloved to pour out our own lives for the sake of life; for the sake of Love.

 

This Trinity Sunday, perhaps it is enough to place our hands on and in the Earth; listen to the birds sing; and smell the wind, the water, and the world around us - this place where we are home, where we belong, where we are happy, where we are Beloved; and join the heavenly chorus, as we sing:

 

‘Holy. Holy. Holy. The whole cosmos is filled with, is overflowing with, and is the glory of God.’

 

Originally written by Rev. Emily P.L. Meyer for Green Blades Rising Preacher’s Roundtable.

ministrylab@unitedseminary.edu

Find more from Emily Meyer at www.theministrylab.org.

 


[1] See some of them at NASA.gov (https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/multimedia/hubble-images/)

[2] See also, Lutz, Charles; Loving My Neighbor in the Whole of God’s Creation, Journal of Lutheran Ethics, 03.01.2003 (https://www.elca.org/JLE/Articles/876; accessed, 04.19.24).

[3] Quivik, Melinda; Commentary on Isaiah 6:1-8, Working Preacher, June 3, 2012 (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/the-holy-trinity-2/commentary-on-isaiah-61-8-3; accessed 04.19.24)

[4] See MPR’s The World report on this spontaneous combusion: Hills, Carol; Milestone agreement recognizes Haida Nation’s land rights in British Columbia; The World, 04.17.24 (https://theworld.org/segments/2024/04/17/milestone-agreement-recognizes-haida-nations-land-rights-in-british-colombia; accessed 04.19.24)

[5] Hassani, Nadia, ‘What Is Humus in Soil?: The decayed organic matter that is crucial for plant growth; The Spruce, 12.01.23

Rev. Emily Meyer
Rev. Emily Meyer
The Ministry Lab
Minneapolis, MN

Rev. Emily Meyer (she/her), Executive Director of The Ministry Lab
As an ordained pastor in the ELCA, Emily interned in Seaside, OR, served as pastor, liturgical artist, and faith formation leader in suburban, ex-urban and rural Minnesota congregations, created and directed the multi-congregational affirmation of baptism program, Confirmation Reformation, and was pastor of Fullness of God Lutheran Church in the retreat center, Holden Village. She currently serves as executive director of The Ministry Lab (St Paul, MN), where she consults and curates and creates resources for progressive UCC, UMC, and PC(USA) congregations throughout Minnesota and the United Theological Seminary community. Rev. Meyer leads contemplative and creative retreats and small groups. Between pastoral gigs, she has enjoyed costume designing, choreographing, and performing. She lives in Minneapolis, MN, with spouse Brian, daughter Natasha, and two Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, Kiko and Zip.

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