Trinity Blog

¹⁶ Then someone came to him and said, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ ¹⁷ And he said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ ¹⁸ He said to him, ‘Which ones?’ And Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; ¹⁹ Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ²⁰ The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these^] what do I still lack?’ ²¹ Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ ²² When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

The wind and waves of Lake Erie’s storms can drive a boat of any size far off course or even sink them.  When a Gale warning sounds by the Weather Service or Coast Guard, boats rush for the safety of a harbor and either dock the boat, tying off on cleats or dropping anchor.  By tying off on an immovable dock, the boat ensures that neither the wind nor waves blow them away.  By anchoring in a shallow harbor, the boat ensures that neither the wind nor waves will cause them to drift off.  By being attached to something greater than the storm, the boat will not be harmed and lost during the “gales of November.”

In our story of the Rich Man and Jesus, we are told of a Jewish man who has kept the commandments his entire life but was extremely attached to his possessions.  I believe the entire point of this story is to reveal to us the challenges of attempting to be attached to God and something else, in this story, money.  Not only would a boat being anchored to two fixed points tear the boat apart, but so would a person being attached to God and Money be pulled apart.  How can you serve both?  The difficult reality of this story is that the Rich Man was never really attached to God, he was only attached to his stuff and when called by Jesus to give up one to gain the other, he couldn’t do so.  He was crushed.

Are we not the same?  We profess to be attached to God, but we are also attached to our Churches.  Our Churches have a legacy, and property, and building, and endowments; and we are quite attached to them.  But are they the same thing as being attached to God?  Perhaps the real test of who we are really being attached to, lies in the challenge of Christ to sell everything, and follow me.  If we can’t let go of our buildings and follow Christ, who are we really attached to?  If we can’t let go of our property and our programs and follow Christ, who are we really attached to?  If we can’t let go of our Church’s legacies and the endowments left to them and follow Christ, then who are we really attached to?  Like the Rich Man when commanded by Christ to do this, we go away crushed, because we have much, and we are quite attached to them and are not really interested in being attached to God.

The great problem beginning to be revealed is that over the past century, we as churches have invested heavily in the wrong things.  We invested in property, but the resources needed to care for that property are scarce.  We invested in buildings, but the boiler needs to be replaced, and the wiring needs updated, but we cannot afford them.  We have legacies of our parents and grandparents and endowments left to the Church from estates of previous members, but the interest in them alone cannot sustain mission work, they must be used to maintain the Status Quo.  We have attached ourselves to the Institutional Church instead of God, and the Institutional Church cannot sustain and provide.  We have attached ourselves to a worldly, temporary thing that cannot provide Divine, Eternal Things.  We have docked or anchored in the wrong thing and have been blown away by the wind and waves of Pandemic and Recession.  We have attached ourselves to what we can see and control instead of attaching ourselves to God which we can only see by faith and have no control over but must follow. 

Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’  Perhaps these words of Jesus still stand for us today. Perhaps Church was never just about the tangible things of life, perhaps they were just symbols of the Greater, Divine things of God’s life given to creation.  Sanctuaries were meant to be houses of prayer and connection to God and neighbor; they have become about entertainment and splendor.  Communities were meant to be about nurturing people with love and forgiveness; they have become about suspicion of those different and judgment of the next generations.  Churches were meant to be missionaries into the neighborhood with compassion and justice; they have become about escaping from our neighbors and hiding with like-minded people.  We have become more attached to our blessings than God’s mission in giving those blessings.  We want to have Church, not be Church. 

Now we can see again why Jesus was crucified and resurrected; to forgive these sins of ours and to re-create a community of disciples attached to God instead of our stuff.  This Lent what do we need to let go of; to take hold of Christ and therefore God?  The Sunday Morning Show?  The Sanctuary to hide in?  The Endowment or Golden Calf?  The building, the property?  Through Christ, we are forgiven and being made new.  Will we have any faith to follow him and to obey him or will we just go away grieving, because we are attached to our Church instead of being attached to Him?  Will we anchor ourselves in Him and withstand the storms of life or will we attach ourselves to the Institutional Church and be washed away?  Choose faith and follow Christ!  Choose faith and start truly living!  Amen. 

¹See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. ² But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?  For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; ³ he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. ⁴ Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.  Malachi 3:1-4

Having worked in a metals testing laboratory, one had to understand the entire manufacturing process of steel; from smelting the ore in a blast furnace which created rods and ingots of iron and steel, to the heat treating of the materials to provide stability but also strength, to the roll-lines which created formed parts, and to the presses and dies which created the finished product.  The entire process involves some intense heat, intense pressure, and intense labor to take iron ore and transform it into a steel product for use. 

Just as you can form and shape metal, the Prophet Malachi, speaks about how God will form and shape the descendants of Levi, the priesthood, until they perform their functions more responsibly.  Just as ore is smelted removing impurities and concentrating the metal, the priests needed to have their sins removed to present worthwhile prayers and sacrifices for the people.  Then the people could worship as they once did in the days of old and as in former years.

God does the same with us.  God forms and shapes us like the refiner shapes dirt into metal.  The intense furnaces of trials and temptations melt and break us refining our character instead of steel.  The pounding from hammers of experience and the forging of hardship, molds and shapes us into the image of Christ.  The carrying of burdens and shouldering of responsibilities tempers our endurance and fortitude as sure as an oven will temper steel with strength and edge.  The blast furnaces, the forges and presses of life in the hands of God shape and form us into the creatures bearing the image of God.

Take faith for example.  How does God shape or form faith in people?  Faith is formed in the furnaces of doubt and overwhelming difficulties.  Greater situations of doubt and confusion create opportunities for people to have more and more faith.  Faith does not remove doubt, but in pushing through doubt greater faith is won.  In experiences of overwhelming problems, these create spaces for us to surrender these “big” problems to our “bigger” God.  Faith does not overcome every problem but surrenders control to our God who is mighty enough to solve every problem.  This is the place where God is forging faith.

We could talk about hope.  God uses sadness and despair to shape hope in the embodied souls of people.  Greater situations of sadness, like the dreaded diagnosis of a terminal illness, or the loss of a job, the grief of a divorce or a death, the house fire which destroys, the war that displaces, the parents that traumatize.  These moments are filled with much pathos and emotion which need validated and acknowledged, but they are also the anvil on which God creates Hope.  Hope in the life without end, Hope in true purpose as God’s church, Hope in perfect relationships in God’s family, Hope in a house not built with human hands, Hope in a promised land no thief nor army can take and a Hope in a Heavenly Parent with love and healing.  Lights in the dark places, opportunities for hope amid places of sadness and despair.  This is the place where God is forging hope.

Most importantly, we can talk about love.  God uses the most profound moments of hate and isolation to refine love and acceptance.  When the world is bombarded by the hate of race, gender, sexuality, politics, religion, or economics, we are refined into a people that are neither Jew nor Greek, Male nor Female, Slave nor Free, just people.  When the world could become a united world but instead breaks into factions and tribes of uniform appearance and belief, that is when God creates spaces to form unity amid our diversity.  Spaces for love to work against hate, openings for unity and acceptance amid voices for bigotry and exclusion.   This is the place where God is forging love.

But the forges are hot.  Forging and beating is painful. Rolling and pressing are costly. Smelting and refining requires surrender instead of control.  Refining and being refined means our crucifixion; and here we pause if not halt.  Our culture wants to avoid pain and suffering, but that is how we are shaped and formed, how character and virtue are formed.  Could the lack of basic respect and virtue in our culture and society be from the pursuit of ease and comfort in our goals and lifestyles?  No furnace, no metal.  No trial, no faith?  No crisis, no hope?  No pain, no love?  What if we have removed the pain and suffering from our lives and we have removed the very means God uses to refine character and virtue?  No crucifixion, no resurrection!

I will be the first to reject the furnace that melts me, or the hammer that breaks me, or the forge that shapes me, or the press that bends me.  But in rejecting the trials, the experiences, the moments of sadness and despair, the times of anxiety and fear, and the spaces of cultures and peoples that are different, what if I lose the very means of having more of and a better quality of faith, hope, courage, and love?  What if by wanting a life of ease and comfort we lose the world of faith, hope, courage, and love, God wants to shape as the refiner shapes his people?  What if discipleship stays in the furnace and we grow?  What if discipleship lives through the lion’s den and we change?  What if discipleship remains present in a diverse and different world and we are shaped into the body of Jesus Christ across all barriers?  We cannot lose our crucifixion and expect our resurrection, we must stay in one, to possess one day the other.  Discipleship means being crucified with Christ to be in the Kingdom of God raised with Christ.  Let us, with God’s help, follow Christ, through furnace, anvil, and forge, and be shaped into faithful, hopeful, and loving Children of God.  Amen.