Daily Quiz June 2014

Daily Quiz, June, 30, 2014

Which two prominent saints of the church do not get their own saints' day on the Episcopal calendar of saints but have to share one on the church calendar while their other days are named for their witness and events in their lives?

a. James and John
b. Timothy and Titus
c. Peter and Paul
d. James and Philip

Daily Quiz, June 29, 2014

The Acts of the Apostles records that Paul visited the Areopagus which is in what city?

a. Rome
b. Ephesus
c. Athens
d. Corinth

Daily Quiz, June 28, 2014

St. Irenaeus who died in c. 202 became known as the one who opposed certain Christian groups he deemed as heretics and therefore helped to limit the number of acceptable Christian writings.  Modern scholars came to call this large group of heretics what?

a. Valentinians
b. Marcionites
c. Gnostics
d. Manichaeans 

a. Daily Quiz, June 27, 2014

Why was the great leader Moses not permitted to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land?

a. He was too old and died before the arriving
b. He struck a rock in impatience with the complaining Israelites
c. God denied him the privilege because of his lack of trust
d. b and c

Daily Quiz, June 26, 2014

To settle a dispute of some rebels against Moses, a sign from God was given to settle a leadership dispute.  What was the sign?

a. Aaron's rod turned into a snake
b. Aaron's rod budded
c. The waters of the Nile turned to blood
d. The ground opened up and swallowed Korah

Daily Quiz, June 25, 2014

Who wrote the lyrics to what is often called the "African-American National Anthem," Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing?"

a. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
b. Rosa Parks
c. James Weldon Johnson
d. Harriet Beecher Stowe

Daily Quiz, June 24, 2014

The archangel Gabriel announced the conception and birth events to the Virgin Mary; which archangel made the announcement to Zecariah about the birth of John the Baptist?

a. Michael
b. Uriel
c. Gabriel
d. Raphael

Daily Quiz, June 23, 2014

Who was the first martyr of Great Britain?

a. Thomas a Becket
b. Alban
c. King Edward
d.Thomas More

Daily Quiz, June 22, 2014

In liturgical minutiae the term "proper," Latin, "proprium," refers to what? e.g. Today for 2 Pentecost we use Proper 7

a. Liturgical correctness
b. Variable parts of the liturgy for a particular date or occasion
c. May include a collect, lectionary reading, hymn
d. All of the above
e. b and c

Daily Quiz, June 21, 2014

Fill in the blank from the Psalms: "So teach us to number our days that we might apply our hearts to                       .

a. loving God.
b. your commandments.
c. wisdom.
d. justice.


Daily Quiz, June 20, 2014

Caleb is known mainly for what role for the people of Israel?

a. He was a priestly assistant for Aaron
b. He built the golden calf
c. He was a spy
d. He challenged Joshua who succeeded Moses

Daily Quiz, June 19, 2014

Moses, Aaron and Miriam were famous siblings who once had a rivalry; Miriam opposed Moses and was left leprous for what?

a. criticizing Moses for his trip up Mount Sinai
b. speaking against Moses for failure to provide food
c. speaking against Moses for failure to provide water
d. speaking against the Moses for the nation of origin of Moses' wife

Daily Quiz, June 18, 2014

What biblical figure is quoted as saying, "Would that all the Lord's people were prophets and that God would put his spirit upon them?"

a. Luke/writer of Acts of the Apostles
b. Joshua
c. David
d. Moses

Daily Quiz, June 17, 2014

Where did Jesus get money to pay taxes?

a. From his disciples
b. From Lazarus of Bethany
c. From the mouth of a fish
d. From Nicodemus

Daily Quiz, June 16, 2014

A famous Empiricist was also a bishop and known for "subjective idealism" which implies things don't exist if they aren't perceived.  Did the tree fall in the forest if falling was not witnessed? Who was this bishop?

a. John Locke
b. David Hume
c. George Berkeley
d. Thomas Hobbes

Daily Quiz, June 15, 2014

What new English word was added as a new translation of the Nicene Creed for the Roman Catholic liturgy?

a. transubstantial
b. consubstantial
c. substantial
d. symbolic

Daily Quiz, June 14, 2014

Which is not true about the priestly caste of Israel?

a. All Levites are "cohanim"  (priests)
b. "Cohanim" are priest descendants Aaron
c. Aaron was a member of the tribe of Levi
d. Moses was a Levite and also called a priest by the Psalmist

 of Daily Quiz, June 13, 2014

What English "saint" on our calendar of saints said, "If there were no God there would be no atheists."

a. C.S. Lewis
b. Charles Williams
c. G.K. Chesterton
d. Evelyn Underhill
e. Dorothy Sayers

Daily Quiz, June 12, 2014

Who was the first Native American Episcopal priest?

a. Squanto
b. Enmegahbowh
c. David Oakerhater
d. Vine Deloria, Jr.

Daily Quiz, June 11, 2014

Which of the following is not true about St. Barnabas?

a. He was native of Cyprus
b. He was the first church leader to welcome the newly converted Paul
c. He was a missionary travel companion of Paul to the Gentiles
d. He sold his land and gave the money to the apostles
e. Paul wanted to take Mark with them; Barnabas did not 

Daily Quiz, June 10, 2014

The word "vanity" is most often associated with which book of the Bible?

a. Proverbs
b. Psalms
c. Ecclesiastes
d. Ecclesiasticus
e. Wisdom of Ben Sirach

Daily Quiz, June 9, 2014

Why is the feast day of the Book of Common Prayer to be commemorated on a week day after Pentecost?

a. It was introduced on Whitsunday 1549
b. Pentecost is about hearing the Gospel in one's own language
c. It could not take precedence for the feast of Pentecost
d. All of the above

Daily Quiz, June 8, 2014

The writer of the book of Acts says residents of the following places were present on the Day of Pentecost: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome,Cretans and Arabs.  Why would  such an international crowd be in Jerusalem?

a. Jerusalem was an important city in the frankincense trade
b. The Caesar moved workers there from around the empire
c. They were devout Jews from around the empire who were present in Jerusalem and pilgrims to a Jewish feast
d. They were soldiers who were forced to serve in Roman battalions   

Pentecost is day known for which of the following: 

a. commemorates giving the law on Mount Sinai
b. a feast of Weeks for the Harvest
c. being 50 days from Passover 
d. being 50 from Easter 
e. birth of the church as known in the tongues of fire event recorded in Acts
f.  all of the above
g. d and e

Daily Quiz, June 6, 2014

Who was the Archbishop of Canterbury on the date of Normandy Invasion, June 6, 1944?

a. William Temple
b. Geoffrey Fisher
c. Cosmo Gordan Lang
d. Michael Ramsey

 Daily Quiz, June 5, 2014

Some legends attribute the "invention" of the Christmas tree to what saint?

a. St. Tannenbaum
b. St. Wulfstan 
c. St. Boniface 
d. St. Willibrord

Daily Quiz, June 4, 2014

The Episcopal counter-part to canonization of saints is for the General Convention to vote to include a holy person in our official calendar of saints, "Holy Women, Holy Men."  Which Roman Catholic Pope was "made a saint" by the Episcopal Church before he became canonized by the Roman Catholic Church?

a. Pope John Paul I
b. Pope John XXIII
c. Pope John Paul II
d. Pope Pius X

Daily Quiz, June 3, 2014

Blandina was a martyr associated with what city?

a. Paris
b. Rome
c. Avignon
d. Lyons

Daily Quiz, June 2, 2014  

Which land area of the following was not promised to Joshua by God?

a. Land on Great Sea in the West 
b. Land of the Hittites 
c. Land to the Euphrates River
d. Lebanon
e. Arabia

Daily Quiz, June 1, 2014

Why did Zecariah lose voice and become mute?

a. He was frightened by an angel

b. He refused to name his son after himself

c. He did not believe the angel who told him Elizabeth was to have a child 

d. It was a condition of his old age

Commencement in the School of Jesus

Youth Sunday Sermon, June 29, 2014

2 Pentecost, ap8, June 29, 2014 

Jeremiah 28:5-9 Psalm 89:1-4,15-18

Rom. 6:1b-11    Matt. 10:24-39

 Lectionary Link

(Connor begins by serving pouring cups of water and serving them to the people in the front.)

Kalum:  Connor, what are you doing?  And could it not wait until after the service?

James:  I know what Connor is doing.  I give him credit for reading today’s Gospel.  But will his shameless showboating really get him extra brownie points in heaven?

Connor: You talking head preachers can preach the Gospel; some of us actually do the Gospel.  Jesus said whoever gives a cup of water to these little ones will not lose their reward.

Kalum: Well, excuse me, Saint Connor; I did not know I lived so close to a holy one!

James: Saint Connor, please could I get your autograph before you become a relic? 

Connor: Are you being ironic or just plain mocking? 

Kalum: We are sincere……..in our mocking, that is.  But you have initiated a very worthy topic for discussion.

Connor: I have? Accidents do happen.  What worthy topic do we have to talk about?

James:  Well, you are right about the importance of doing the Gospel rather than just talking about it.

Kalum: Yes, actions do speak louder than words.

Connor: That’s a cliché which happens to be true.  But what else can we learn from the Gospel?

James: Well, we have just graduated from high school.  And we now have a diploma which is an official record of our achievement.  And it is a piece of paper which represents more than just being piece of paper.

Kalum: What do you mean?

Connor: I think that he means it stands for 12 years of blood, sweat and tears of all of the work and study that we had to do to get it.

James: When we present our diploma, grade average and test scores, we are able to gain admittance into colleges and universities.

Kalum: The Gospel lesson is about accreditation and the credibility of the disciples of Jesus.

Connor:  Once Jesus was gone, his disciples worried about their credibility.  They worried about whether people would accept their teaching.  They did not have seminary diplomas and official ordinations so how could they be sure that people would accept their teaching as valid?

James: What it shows us is that authority and respect comes from one’s wisdom, learning, character and the reputation that one gets from studying with good teachers.

Kalum:  I guess if you studied physics and you had Albert Einstein as one of your professor, you might get a little more attention for your resume than if you just studied with Joe Blow.

Connor: So if the disciples were worried about whether they would be accepted, Jesus reminded them that he had taught them well.  He had taught them not just to preach the Gospel but to live Gospel.  So if people did not accept the teaching of the disciples then they probably would not of Jesus either.

James: Did you know that the church had its own way of issuing graduation diplomas?

Kalum: What would that be?

James: It is called apostolic succession.  It is an unbroken record of church leadership which has lasted these two thousand years.

Connor: Is that why we have bishops?

Kalum:  Each bishop is ordained by three bishops who were ordained by three other bishops and so the Gospel has been passed down in an unbroken chain.

James:  I don’t think that this means only bishops can do valid ministry.   I think that a bishop represents that the basic message of Jesus Christ has been transmitted from one generation to the next over these many years.

Connor: Because we have this unbroken tradition from Jesus, it means that we can believe and trust that Christ is still present in the life and ministry of the church. 

Kalum: We have the example of Christ which has been preserved in the writings of the New Testament but we have 2000 years of people who have tried to follow the teaching of Jesus.

James: Even though we have bishops and priest and official ordinations, the proof of the authority of the Spirit of Christ is to be found in how we live.

Connor:  And how are we supposed to live?

Kalum: We are supposed to live without sin.

Connor: How can we do that?

James:  St. Paul wrote that living without sin is about learning impulse control.

Kalum: I have impulse control; I choose chocolate over strawberry all of the time.

Connor:  Bravo Kalum!    How did you manage to set the bar so high?

James:  I think that St. Paul was trying to teach his students about the goodness of our lives but also about the responsibility that we have because of freedom.

Kalum: It is like he’s saying that life and the energy and desire is good; but it still needs to be directed.

James:  If we get too fixated on idols or things which are not worthy we can become enslaved to bad habits.

Connor:  So sin is not about being bad or despising ourselves; it is about understanding that we can always be better.  Sin is like pain.  Pain sends us a message about doing something about what is causing us discomfort.  Sin is the awareness and we need to and can always do better than we have done before.

Kalum:  So, being a sinner is not such a bad thing.

James:  Well, we don’t have to be proud of our sin but always learning from the condition of feeling inadequate.  Being a sinner is good, if it means were always looking to amend and improve our lives.

Connor:  The character of Christ comes from learning the power and freedom of impulse control.

Kalum:  I don’t think that we will ever graduate from the School of Sinners.

James:  Well, you really don’t want a diploma for sin; not really the life achievement that one wants to be proud of.   But the goodness of Christ is like knowledge and learning.  In the field of learning we are ignorant of what we have not yet learned.

Connor:  So we are always sinners because there is always more goodness to achieve.

Kalum: Well, now we know how baptism is like commencement; we are always ending something in order to begin something else.

James: At baptism we all have received our diploma in the school of Jesus.  And it is an important diploma.

Connor:  But it also means that we have to choose each day to live up to the standards of love and kindness that we’ve learned from Jesus Christ.

Kalum: We sure have our work cut out for us.

James:  Just think of it in this way; we will never be unemployed Christians, because there will always be more Christian things to do.

Connor:  Let us thank God today for our baptismal diplomas today!

Kalum: We are now guaranteed a life time of much more Christian work!  Let’s get to work!  Amen.

Divine Providence Is Often Like Sausage Making

2 Pentecost, A p 7, June 22, 2014 

Genesis 21:8-21 Ps. 86:1-10, 16-17

Rom. 6:1b-11    Matt. 10:24-39

 Lectionary Link

    History is about how and what we remember what has happened.   History involves selection of what is to be remembered.  Selection of what is to be remembered is determined by the stand out value of any particular event or happening.  History is highly editorialized because events stand out because of their value in comparison with  ordinary mundane events.  You might remember the day of your graduation but not distinctly remember brushing your teeth on that day.  Some things stand out and some things don't.   In the community of faith, the twenty-twenty hindsight of history's highest designation of the editorial selection of an event is often called "divine providence."  Divine providence is such a confident "after the fact faith" that one believes a past event to be evidence of God's intervention.

  And so we ask what is it that makes ordinary history turn out to be divine providence?  In the events surrounding the crucifixion a person witnessing this event would be hard-pressed to call the dying of someone upon the cross an obvious event of God's providential intervention.  Such would be absurd.  But St. Paul years after the crucifixion,  writes about this crucifixion event being a remembered narrative providing the power of personal spiritual transformation.  Our old selves are crucified with Christ and so this terrible event becomes post-facto designated as God's providence, God's wonderful intervention and a source of continuous transformation.

  Providence that is known in advance is called prediction or clairvoyance or prophetic utterance.  And wouldn't every gambler playing the horses love to know providence in advance?  People who confess wonderful providence like to enhance that wonder by suggesting that there was prophecy or foreknowledge for such things.  It is like the recovery technique of the teenager who accidentally slips and falls in front of a large crowd and instead of being embarrassed by the laughter, he says, "I meant that to happen." Responding to an accident by claiming to be in control.

  The Bible is written from the point of view that these things "were meant to happen."  This is effort of people of faith to try to survive, cope with and find meaning for things that happened to them.  Word is spirit and word is life and word is creating.  We use word to re-shape the things in life that often are experienced immediately as chaos because they do not submit to the way in which we would control things.

  In hindsight we can find creation that arise out of chaos and we can find redemption which happened after severe hurt and loss.  And without trivializing the poignant pain of the events themselves we use the creative words of faith and the survival excellence of subsequent events to remake history into providence.

  One could say that the task of our lives of faith is to remake ordinary history into divine providence through the creative words of faith when we did not give up but kept going and we did not always know why we kept going.

  Our Scripture readings give us examples,  messy examples of finding the divine providence even in the earlier events of human weakness, pettiness and the crisis of major family and community disagreement which result in painful conflict and recriminations.

  The fact of history is that the Jews and the Arabs are two dominant branches of the sons of Shem, otherwise known as Semites.  The Jews and the Arabs became great peoples of tribes who came to have the mutual respect of great rivalry.  What was the providence of these two great nations?  These two people came to know the success that the ancient people believed to be God's blessing.  But what was the source stories of the blessing of these two people?  The writers of Genesis cite incidents of sheer human doubt, fickleness and petty rivalry.  Sarah, the wife of Abraham laughed when God's angelic messengers told Abraham that the elderly couple would have a son.  And so her first son was named accordingly, Isaac, which means laughter.  But before Isaac was conceived Sarah began to doubt whether she would conceive.  And in the good old family values of the Old Testament, Sarah ordered Abraham to try to conceive with their slave woman Hagar.  So, Ishmael was born before Isaac was born.  Later when Sarah conceived and bore Isaac, the boys grew up together as half-brothers until Sarah became petty in her jealousy.  She was worried that Ishmael might share in some of the affection and prosperity that came with being raised with Isaac in the presence of their father Abraham.  So she demanded that Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael away into the desert.  And it was there that Hagar and Ishmael received the promise of God's blessings.  So the human pettiness is made to seem as though it was God's providential acts. Past acts that seemed doomed and motivated by human folly and pettiness are re-shaped and re-designated as providence, by a trumping subsequent blessing.

  The Gospel writings derived during a period of transitions between families and community caught in the aftermath of the success of the Jesus Movement.   The Jesus Movement grew as a prominent interpretation of the Judaic tradition.  A chief part of the success of the Jesus Movement is that many Jewish followers of Jesus allowed their Jewish customs to be dispensed with so that the success of the message of Jesus could be fostered and promoted for the non-Jewish believers.  This promotion of a Christo-centric Judaism to non-Jews and allowing them to forgo circumcision and many ritual practices caused great division within Judaism and particularly within families.

  If Jesus within his own time was a significant challenge to the existing religious authorities in Palestine, the challenge of the Jesus Movement to Judaism became more pronounced as Gentiles began to fill the gatherings of the Christian communities.

  The phrases of the Gospel of Matthew that we've read today are evidence of the incredible community and family pain of this major paradigm shift in the religious communities because of Jesus of Nazareth and the aftermath of his life on earth.

  Many people have been in families where people are passionately divided by having a common God and a common religion.  Christian, Jew, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Mormon, Jehovah Witness.....the division among people who claim be devoted to the same Christ has been known.  How can Jesus as the prince of peace bring peace to an individual soul even while that soul comes to anger and strife with members of his or her own family?  People change faith persepctive; that new faith perspective which is meaningful is suddenly designated as a sectarian cult and people are shunned, excommunicated and persecuted as the outcome of the new faith experience.

  How many people today embrace the notion of atheism because of the extreme conflict and hateful behaviors of people who claim to have faith in a loving God?

  Let us not believe so naively that the Gospel communities resolved issues of faithful living in such a final way.  What we find in the Gospel communities are people who are seeking to find the narrative and oracle of Jesus as inspiration for words of wisdom which try to give context for the conflict which was evident in their communities.  If people can believe that creative advance does not always occur with peaceful transition, then they can decide to keep following the path of creative advance.  We know that the American experience came about with great conflict and there were many who would have wanted to return to the security of being but a colony of Great Britain.  We have come to regard the conflict as providential for the incredible experiment in government that we know America to be.

  We can look back at the Gospel communities as communities which survived some very conflicting times of their birth and separation which were providential in forming this Christo-centric Judaism which traveled around the world.  The Gospel words are words of trying to make sense of the chaos of conflict that was occurring as this new universal Christo-centric Judaism was being formed.   Let us be thankful that they endured lots of discomfort and conflict to survive to be links in a great and wonderful movement.

  Let us pray that we can have the faith to come to providence for our religious history both on the personal level and on the parish and community level.  Conflict is a fact of life.  But let justice and love be the final judgment about the divine providence of conflict:  Are more people invited to know God's love and justice because of the conflict?  If this is so, we can embrace the conflict as the divine providence of God's Spirit helping us to make creative advance in love and justice.  And this, loving and just outcomes are the good and providential news of conflict for us today.  Amen.

---

The Trinity: A Mere Footnote on Plato and Aristotle?

Trinity Sunday A   June 15, 2014   

Gen. 1:1-2:3       Ps.33

2 Cor. 13:5-10,11-14  Matt. 28:16-20     

Lectionary Link

 Today is Trinity Sunday and a day to remember that the Trinity is our community’s formulation of what we believe about God.  The formulation of the Trinity has a history but such is a cliché that could be used about everything.  Every use of language has a history and so history itself is about how words of meaning come into being and how they get changed in their meanings and values.

  If the Trinity has a history in the history of words, it still has what is not yet history, namely the future.  The Trinity has a past, a present and the Trinity will have a future in human usage.

  Historians would like to proclaim the Council of Nicaea as a high water mark in the formulation of God as a Trinity of Persons.  By the time of the Council of Nicaea in 325 of the Common Era, the Hellenization of Christian thinking had become quite advanced.  Alfred North Whitehead said that European philosophical tradition  is but a series of footnotes to Plato.  And Plato and Aristotle might as well have been at the Council of Nicaea, because the influence in thinking  evident at the Council of Nicaea made its documents seem like some of those repeating foot notes.  The foot note to Nicaea might have said, “See Plato and Aristotle.”   It is interesting that Pope Benedict XVI tried to reassert the significance of such a Hellenistic footnote by requiring his flock now to use “consubstantial” in the Nicene Creed. 

  Do you think it is demeaning to the importance of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to make such a reference to Plato and Aristotle or Greek philosophical categories?  The New Testament Writers inherited both the Hebraic and the Hellenistic traditions.  If one wanted to say that someone new and marvelous had arrived upon the scene one could only use the illustrious past to speak about the surpassing greatness of what is newly revealed.

  We are living in a long tradition about God.  This tradition about God has many tributaries in the cultures of people within the world.  We as Christians believe that the tradition about God arrived at a new distinction in the life of Jesus Christ.

  But we know that more has happened regarding the tradition of God after Jesus Christ than what happened during the life and ministry of Jesus.

  Humanity was given this surpassing great person who manifested such a rareness of existence that he has been remembered more than any person in history.

  The life of Jesus is proof that there is a mystery in how human values get determined.  After Jesus we have had to readjust human values.  We have had to change what we thought and believed about ourselves, the afterlife and about the life of God.

  The Holy Trinity is an expression about how we have come to value God and how we have come to express the meaning of God in our lives.  The Holy Trinity is an expression of relationship values.  And while we may want to reduce relationships to the precision of mathematical formula and philosophical logical statements; relationships do not allow such precision or such reductions.

  The Nicene confession about the Trinity is an effort to make philosophical statements about our relationship with God.  And it fails to do the relationship justice even as it succeeds in stating our most important way of speaking about God.

  We can decry the use of the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle to speak about the Trinitarian relationship but we cannot dismiss the human motive to attempt always to find the best possible explanations for the best in things in our life.  If Jesus and God the Father and the Holy Spirit are the best things in life, then we cannot cease to find our best possible ways to speak about the best and highest relationship of our lives.

  And so some may say we are Trinitarian because of Greek philosophy; I would beg to differ.  I would say that we are Trinitarian because of Jesus Christ.  You cannot artificially invent a person like Jesus.  You can’t just develop such a person with an advertisement or propaganda campaign.  Jesus happened and the people of his time had to deal with him.  They dealt with him as honestly as they could.  They tried to keep the traditions of his life and words alive in the ways in which they could.

  Jesus came and he re-valued how we have come to know, relate and speak about God.  So we need not blame the Trinity on Plato or Aristotle; we should credit the life of Jesus as he lived it before his friends as the inspiration for the arriving at the value of the Holy Trinity.

  The followers of Jesus believed that he taught us to call God our Father.  The followers of Jesus in the community of the writer of John’s Gospel believed that Jesus stated his Oneness with God his Father.  So how does one use the Greek language or any language to deal with this expression: Jesus said, “The Father and I are One.”  The early church believed that Jesus told his followers to pronounce the initiatory words at baptism: In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  So the literature which derived from apostolic times required that church deal with this Equality of Persons in understanding the dynamic Unity of God.  If we speak about the Trinity today, we can blame it on Jesus and the traditions which derived from him.

  It behooves us to understand the relationship nature of the Trinity in our lives today.  You and I are not limited to the words of the creed or to the philosophy of Aristotle or Plato to speak about God in our lives.  We make a commitment to use the very best that we can to tell this world about how worshipful God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in our lives.

  For me the meaning of Jesus as the Son of God is both the incredible presumption of humanity and the humility of God.  It means that no one can have a non-human experience of God; so any experience of God is funneled through human experience, otherwise it could not be humanly understood.  We are hopelessly anthropomorphic; indeed it would seem that God seems to orbit around and within human experience as we force upon God a humility to be reduced to our level to be understood by us.  We confess God to be Jesus the Son because we might be able to imagine other kinds of beings but in our experience we have to assume human existence as a valid way to come to know God.  Human experience forces upon God a humility by reducing God to human understanding and language.

  But that does not mean we cannot appreciate greatness; we confess that we came from a pre-existing plenitude and a plentitude will exist after we are gone.  We believe that plenitude will retain the memory of us having been here.  We believe that God's memory of us will be our resurrection and continuing life.  We confess God as Father because Jesus did and because as sons and daughter we believe we came from someone and if a Father has known and loved us that Father will also continue to know, love and remember us.

   We also believe that when Jesus confessed his Oneness with God as his Father, that there was a transacting Spirit which was present in their relationship.  We confess a Spirit who is like copper wire for electricity.  Copper wire allows electricity to be carried and conducted between points.  The Holy Spirit is the very condition of mutual conductivity between beings with different levels of consciousness.  You and I do not live isolated and unaware of our environment or the people and things of our environment.  The Holy Spirit is the omnipresence of God which is the very condition for mutual consciousness of each other.

  I believe that we can embrace the Trinity as a meaningful way for us to understand our relationship to the One defined by St. Anselm as the One that which none greater can be conceived.  And if one can conceive of such greatness, the property of existence is but a basic requirement of the Greatest of All.

  But we can move on in faith from awareness of sheer existence of God to experience God as one who is intimately friendly with us, even as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.