The Everest of God: Sermon from Holy Trinity Sunday May 31st 2015

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who in mystery loves us.

 VBS just wrapped up on Friday.

The kids sang, danced, prayed, and just had fun! Our theme was Everest, Conquering Challenges with God’s Mighty Power. I loved all the daily themes. God has the power to provide, God has the power to comfort. God has the power to heal. God has the power to forgive. And the last day God has the power to love us forever.

            We learned a lot about God’s love for us, seen through Christ dying on the cross, and then rising again, and through that we gain eternal life. Our theme verse from Friday is actually a part of our Gospel reading for today. John 3:15. “Everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”

            This verse and the 2 that follow are often said to be the central verses of Christianity. “whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

            That simple theme from Friday, whoever believes in him will have eternal life, is short, but holds so much within it. How it actually happens is a mystery of faith, something that we try so hard to explain, but in the end have to simply take with faith. Jesus died to save us, his death gives us life. How? We don’t know, it’s a mystery. Why? Because God loves us.

            Since the theme of VBS was Everest this year I, of course being the curious person I am, had to look up about Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay the first two people to ever climb Mount Everest. And guess what day it was that they reached the peak. It was Friday. 62 years ago this last Friday, as we were finishing up our Everest VBS, Edmund and Tenzing were standing on the top of Everest. This is the picture that Edmund took of Norgay as they stood on the summit. I am simply amazed at the blueness of the sky. The clearness of view. They only spent 15 minutes up on top of the summit. I am amazed they were able to tear their gaze away. Of course maybe the urgency of beginning the descent help move them that way.

            I always wondered why people attempt things like that, why do people climb mountains? Scale cliffs? Run marathons or longer. Swim incredible distances. I think in part it’s to do it. Why do they do the thing?

George Mallory a man who attempted to climb Everest multiple times in the 1920’s and died in an attempt in 1924. He and another man Andrew Irvine were last seen 800 feet from the summit. His remains were found in 1999, but it remains unknown whether they reached the summit first or not. He was asked once, Why did you want to climb Mount Everest? His answer? Because it’s there.

            Because he felt a call to do so. Because there was a mystery there that enthralled him.

            Our reading from Isaiah is the story of Isaiah call to be a prophet. He has a vision of the Throne room of God. And seeing all this, and yet not understanding it, the mystery of how and what to do with this information is too much for him. He cries out to God. “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts!” 

           

            People are not going to believe him. They are going to ask how? How did you see this? And he can’t respond, A vision? No, you must have been drunk. There’s a mystery involved in it. The How? Can’t know, the why? To call him to prophesy. To send him out.

            Today is Holy Trinity Sunday. It’s a day when we often spend our time thinking what does God as Holy Trinity look like? How does God work? How does God as three persons exist? And we have to pretty much say? We can’t know. We can try lots of analogies, but really we have to let it be a mystery.

            The How of Holy Trinity? We cannot know. Because God is a God of Relationship. That’s as close as we can come. God as Three in One means that relationship is a primary part of God. It’s how God related to the Israelites, it’s how God related to all humankind in Jesus, and How God continues to relate to us through the Spirit.

            Why do we feel drawn to mountains and other achievements? Because there is a mystery there. Because it’s there. Why do we feel drawn to God? Why do we feel we need to explain God? Because there is also a mystery there as well. Because We are called.

            “Whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

            It’s the Everest of God. How does this all happen? How does God work? We can’t really know the machinations of God at work, but the Why? It’s simple. Because God loves us.

            That’s what we share this Trinity Sunday. It’s not about the How. It’s about the Mystery and the Why. The mystery about our God who came to us, because he loves us. The mystery of Christ who died for us and was raised. And the mystery of the Spirit who still dwells amongst us.

            Let us pray,

God of Mystery, we give thanks for the love that you show us. Help us to go forth and share the mystery of Your love for us, help to show that with our words, our prayers and our actions. Amen.