Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Trinity Sunday

Our readings for Trinity Sunday are:
  1. Deuteronomy 4: 32-34, 39-40
  2. Psalms 33: 4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22
  3. Romans 8: 14-17
  4. Matthew 28: 16-20
  • Prosperity for our posterity
    • What do you want most for your children?
    • Would you say that your children would thrive if all of those things came to them?
    • What does God ask of us, to pave the way for those blessings for our children?
  • Creation: event or process?
    • How would you define creation?
    • Is all creative activity in any way linked together?
    • Are all of us called to be generative/creative?
    • How can we be more open to the font of all creation/creativity/generosity?
  • What are you suffering?
    • We often hear of an injured party suing for compensation for pain and suffering resulting from another's negligence or malicious intent.  But suffering can have a much broader meaning.
    • What are you suffering lately?
    • Do you think that your suffering is, in any way, more acute because you are a Christian?
    • Would you say that your suffering is, in some measure, for Christ?
    • Doubting as self-defense
      • Devout Christians often fear doubts about their faith, feeling that they are symptoms of a weakness in their relationship with Jesus.
      • What do you think the disciples were doubting in this Gospel account?  Could they have been doubting their own abilities to continue Jesus' ministry, could they have doubted that God was going to preserve them from all harm in their ministry, ...?
      • What sort of doubts to you have?
      • Do you think that any of those doubts could be healthy?
      • Do you feel that doubts have to be confessed?
    • Preparation for Reconciliation:
    1. What legacy am I leaving my children today?
    2. How might I create more deeply in my life?
    3. Where is Jesus calling me to suffer with Him?
    4. Where can my doubts draw me closer to God?
    May I have this dance?
    Some have described the Trinity as an eternal dance
    Each of them stepping, swaying, twirling to the others
    Each of them joining in and adding to the beauty.

    No country line dance is this eternal dance.
    Each member of the Trinity has their own steps
    Each their own expression of eternal love.

    They are one in ways that we can scarce imagine
    Yet distinct in that each offers themselves to the rest.
    Perfect communion, yet dynamic, give and take.

    A great mystery that we cannot fully understand.
    And a greater mystery still is that we are each invited
    Into that dance all of our lives long -

    Each time we know that we are far from alone
    Each time that we see ourselves in all of creation
    And see all of creation in each of us

    Each time that we suffer with another
    Not because we see that we all are one,
    But because we know that we all are one.

    Each is an invitation into eternity,
    Even if just for a moment, a flicker of awareness.
    Even that is enough to transform us.

    Shalom!


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