In
1991 on our sabbatical, we spent a month in England touring and enjoying the
great history and geography of that country.
On Trinity Sunday that year, we were in Coventry, the place where Lady
Godiva had her great ride. We were at
the great Cathedral where the second or third priest on their staff preached an
excellent sermon on the Trinity. That
has been my experience in ministry.
Clergy avoid talking about the
Trinity if they can . It is much too complicated to explain. Is it three gods, or what? What are we talking about here? So they
generally pass the sermon on to a lesser member of their staff. I loved what that priest said in his sermon,
but I loved the architecture of the place even more. Coventry Cathedral was bombed by the Germans
in November of 1940. The wreckage of the
old church stands beside the beautiful new building. When Prime Minister
Winston Churchill and the then Dean of the Cathedral went through the wreckage,
they found a cross made of the burned pieces of lumber that formed the roof of
the church. That cross now stands in the
ruined sanctuary of the burned church.
What they have done to commemorate the history of the place is
remarkable. Over the altar in the new
Cathedral is a massive hanging of the risen Christ on a throne holding a
scepter. The seated savior looks out
over the crowd of parishioners through an etched glass window onto the wreckage
of the old cathedral. The etchings on
the window are all of the saints of the church, the apostles, and many others
who have died in the propagation of our faith.
It is a great theological statement about how Christianity has struggled
in this world to bring hope and reconciliation in a world full of terror and
destruction. I think that Coventry
Cathedral is one of the great buildings of Christianity.
But they didn’t just build a
building. They also created an
organization called the Community of the Cross of Nails. It is a group dedicated to reconciliation and
the bringing of hope to places in the world where it is lacking. They have done a lot to bring together people
in England and Germany who experienced horror and destruction during World War
II. Dresden was also bombed by the Allies
toward the end of the war. Coventry has
reached out to them to provide words of friendship and the two cities have
joined together in some hopeful projects to bring a sense of forgiveness and
hope to the residents of their cities. They also have reached out to Japan and
other places destroyed by war to bring hope and change to them. This is silent
Christian work that means a great deal to the world, even though it doesn’t get
much publicity.
I think that is the essence of what
Christianity is supposed to be about.
All around us are places where turmoil and disaster have overwhelmed
many people. Like the people of
Coventry, we need to reach out to these people and offer the ministry of the
Christ to them. It is too easy to simply condemn the turmoil in the many places
in the world where it devastates people.
It is much better to reach out and to help.
But let’s get back to the
Trinity. In the scripture from the Book
of Proverbs that was read a few moments ago, the writer speaks of Wisdom as the
foundation on which God brought all of creation into being. She is the pronoun used to describe Wisdom,
This is the undergirding of the Holy Spirit.
Wisdom tells us that She was here when all of the world was created.
That She was daily God’s delight, rejoicing before God always and rejoicing in
the inhabited world and delighting in the Human race. I notice the fact that the Holy Spirit is
described to us in feminine terms. This
gives us Jesus, the male portion of God and the Holy Spirit the female side of
God. That ought to tell us what our
Creator thinks about the relationship that we all ought to have with each
other. All of our genders are necessary
in the ongoing maintenance of this great creation,. If that isn’t obvious to
us, we are in great trouble. I can’t
understand all of the gender bashing that seems to go on in this society. We need to love one another. That is Jesus commandment; and it seems to me
that setting one gender against another is a rather stupid way of doing that.
I want to honor the Trinity. I want to recognize that all of God is active
in this world. The keeping of female Wisdom
at the top of the deity is a very good idea. I’m impressed that the Roman
Catholic Church is beginning to investigate the possibility of the ordination
of women. The Pope thinks that perhaps
some of them could be deacons. I’m glad
to hear that. The ordination of women in
the Episcopal Church has been a great gift. My first associate rector at Christ
Church was Pat Carnahan. She headed up
the establishment of St. Brendan’s in Franklin Park and was their first rector,
She is a great priest who built a great congregation.
When I
look around this parish, I see women doing a lot of the thinking. The leaders of our vestry and the movers and
shakers in this place are our women. The
men help immensely, but the women make many of
the decisions. Leaning on their
wisdom is essential for us to fulfill our mission. We are fortunate to have all
of our talented people. They are a gift
to us and to the world around us.
