This
week I finally got a chance to listen to our Presiding Bishop’s homily at the
Royal Wedding. I’d heard a couple of people say it was too long, so I was
interested in not only what he said, but in how long he actually preached.
Turns out – through the miracle of technology – the posted time was 13 minutes
and maybe a few seconds.
After
listening to Presiding Bishop Curry’s homily, I think I understand why some
people thought it went on too long. It was about love, and he quoted a lot of
scripture. Now those are two things that make many Episcopalians uncomfortable.
We’d rather
“like” something on Facebook or say we really like something a lot, or say that
we love chocolate than say we love God or have fallen in love with Jesus or
love the unexpected way the Holy Spirit moves in our lives.
And as far as
quoting scripture is concerned, many Episcopalians don’t know enough to quote
it accurately anyway, so why do something that might embarrass you in front of
others? In addition, if we do quote scripture we might be mistaken for one of
those evangelicals and that would certainly be unseemly at best, and terrifying
at worst. People might actually expect something of us.
So what is it
about love and what does love have to do with the Trinity?
First of all,
the Trinity is a relationship of love. Three in one so closely intertwined that
it, or they, are one. Confusing, yes, but imaginable in a variety of ways. All
the ways we’ve heard about: the cloverleaf, the interlocking circles, the
relationship between or inside, if you prefer, the Trinity itself or perhaps
themselves. See? I told you it could be confusing.
Because the
Trinity is a relationship, though, it is easy to see the relationship is
characterized by love. Love exists within the Trinity that radiates outward and
warms and lights the world and everything in it. We were made by the power of
love when God created us. The love of the Trinity created us and joins us
together to the world.
In our small
part of the world today, at the 8:00 am service, we baptized Kyle into the
great love of the Trinity. It is our love and the love of others that will surround
and sustain him as the human manifestation of the love the Holy Trinity bears
for us and believes for us, even when we cannot believe it ourselves.
God’s love comes
with a vision of how God intends things to be and how they were created in the
beginning. Love has an internal beauty
of design that tells us this: is not something we keep, love is something we
give away. The more we give away, the more we shall receive.
Knowing this, we
have two golden moments this morning. The first, which unfortunately all of you
at the 10:15 am service did not get to witness, was Kyle’s Baptism. At that
service, in the name of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Kyle was
adopted through God’s grace and love into the inheritance that was his even
before he was created.
The second
golden moment is here and now and we must, yes, must, go out to meet it. The world is hungry, nay, starving for
love. Why else would there be more Internet hits registered than on anything
else for Presiding Bishop Curry’s Royal Wedding homily? We will have people who
will seek out the Episcopal Church to find that love and see if it’s really
here.
We know how to love. We know how to love. Let us pray for the strength, wisdom, and power to share that
love with those who are starving for love. We know how to love. AMEN.
The Rev. Nicolette Papanek
©2018
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