SO, WHAT DO WE CALL YOU?

A Sermon by Bill McDonald from Romans 5:1-5

June 3, 2007

Romans 5

¹Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit—so what do we call you, Lord? And does it matter at all? Actually, the Trinity says more about our relationship to God than it does about God’s nature. Here’s what I mean. My dad is a man of many names, but let’s get the big ones out of the way first. His official recorded name is Cornelius Stutts McDonald. It’s not as bad as it sounds—although I admit that it sounds pretty bad! Cornelius is of course a Biblical name, a Roman centurion who first convinced the apostle Peter that God had sent Jesus to Gentiles as well as to Jews. Stutts was the family doctor in Dad’s tiny Tennessee town. It could have been worse. And McDonald means “Son of Donald” from the chief of the most famous old Scottish clan. But Dad to me has always been Dad. My children call him Daddy Mack. My mother always called him Mack. His best buddy called him McDonald. His sisters and brother call him Neil. People at his church call him C.S. Luckily, no one calls him Stuttsy. The name you call him by usually reveals your relationship to him.

We Christians swear that we are monotheists, that we believe in only one God, in fact that we believe in the only God there is. Along with ancient Israelites down to modern-day Jews, we would proudly proclaim, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one.” But it gets confusing when Jesus enters the picture. Is Jesus God or just the Son of God? If Jesus was God walking the dusty roads of backwater Palestine, then who was watching out over other ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians, the Chinese, and the Mayans? When Jesus died on the cross, did God die? And then the Holy Spirit whooshes onto the scene after Jesus’ ascension into heaven. Who or what is the Holy Spirit? Is it God? Is it Jesus? Is it somebody else completely? And if so, what happened to our one God idea?

This is how tricky it can get. Hoyt was a devoted elder in my church in Texas. A few years before I arrived there, Hoyt’s sweet wife went through a long, painful, losing battle with cancer, a horrifying death for which Hoyt never forgave God. Hoyt figured that, as powerful as God was reputed to be, God could have prevented Nina’s death or at least made it easy on her. So Hoyt was through with God. However, Hoyt knew the miracle stories about Jesus in the gospels, detailing Jesus’ love for people and his desire to make them well. So Hoyt loved Jesus. Loved Jesus—angry with God. In his prayers at the communion table Hoyt always prayed to Jesus and intentionally snubbed God by name. But aren’t they one and the same? It gets tricky.

Our Disciples founders had their own little dispute about the Trinity. Barton Stone wasn’t too keen on the idea of trinitarianism, sounded too much like a man-made doctrine to him. Alexander Campbell on the other hand tried to help us by describing the Trinity as, “a manifestation of God out of humanity in the Father, a manifestation of God in humanity in the Son, and a manifestation of God with humanity in the Spirit.” Campbell said there was “God, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God”—Father, Son, Holy Spirit. In true Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) fashion most of us believe in the Trinity, not to sustain a doctrine, but to describe the God whom we meet in scripture and experience. In other words, it is like my dad and his names. Which name we call on all depends upon our current relationship to God.

Maybe we need to look at an example from Paul’s famous five verses from his letter to the church at Rome. Paul says, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.” Like Paul, I see God as the over-arching force behind the universe. But it is hard to have a relationship with a force. I have stood at 12,000 feet above sea level at the top of the Alpine Visitors’ Center trail in Rocky Mountain National Park looking across the miles and miles of mountains cascading off into the distance and have whispered to myself, “This is God’s handiwork.” I have sat outside on a clear, dark, moonless night and detected the layers upon layers of stars fading off into eternity, trying to figure out how I fit into so vast a scheme, trying to force my mind as far back or as far forward toward eternity as the limits of human thought would take me, and the word that always comes to my mind is “God.” Anything majestic or awesome, anything intricate and complex, and the name I call out is God. Paul though seems in this text to think that this God might be a tad exclusive or inaccessible and that we need a letter of introduction from Jesus to get an audience. Or maybe Paul really just thought like I think, that God is too big a concept for a mere human to relate to. Paul says we get access to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I would agree, if by that you mean that Jesus makes God accessible, understandable for us mortals. Whenever some speaker takes a confusing, tangled passage of scripture or theology or takes a mind-boggling concept of astrophysics and makes it graspable for the common listener or common reader, that is making something accessible. I think that is how Jesus gives us access to God. Jesus interprets God to us. Along with Paul, we boast of this accessible relationship; that is to say that we celebrate it with song and praise.

Then Paul turns to the common experience of all humans and talks about suffering. Though he doesn’t say it, I know he is thinking of Jesus. When I stand with a family at a casket, I think about Jesus. When I sit and listen to a tale of woe and agony, of a torn heart or a crushed spirit, I think of Jesus. Jesus is the human connection, connecting us to the universal human experience and connecting us humans to the divine. We don’t feel alone in our pain; Jesus understands. Jesus has been there. The idea of God suffering may be too intimidating for us to conceive, but when we call the triune God by the name Jesus, then suffering becomes a shared experience and is made bearable.

I drove the dump truck up to the flood-devastated house down by the Kentucky River. As I helped the owner rip out the soggy drywall, I asked him if he had thought about relocating to a place that promised to stay dryer. He laughed and told me that he had moved to the river from a farm in Scott County, high and dry on a hill. He had built a house on that farm—and it had burned to the ground the week before he moved into it. So he rebuilt. He and his family were in it less than a year when a tornado blew away everything but the couch in the living room behind which his family was huddled. Now this house was flooded out. “Where,” he asked me with a smile, “would be a safe place to go?” I told him that I didn’t know—but I made him promise NOT to move next door to me! This guy’s calm accepting manner, his courage and humor in the face of disaster, fit Paul’s words to a “T.” The bad times attack our hope trying to crush it but they only succeed in strengthening it. Paul says it this way, “We boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.” When I am going through those times, times when my calling comes into question, times when my friends die way too young, times when my soul is weary of the weight of caring, in those times the name I call on is Jesus, who has been that road before me and now walks beside me.

And that takes us to the third name for the one God. Paul says, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” The angel tells Joseph that Mary’s baby will fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy, “They shall name him Emmanuel, which means, ‘God is with us.’” Well, Joseph and Mary didn’t name him Emmanuel, (never ask an angel what you should name your baby), but Jesus certainly fulfilled the concept, “God is with us.” However, it is easy for us to get stuck in human mode and struggle to see how a beloved teacher from 2,000 years ago could still be with us today. I have always said that, though she died 15 years ago, my mother will always be with me. And she will, but not in that complete motherly way that I treasured so much. Something of her is still in my heart, around my head, but in a diminished way from when I had her at my side. So we might be tempted to think that way about Jesus also. Great guy, inspiring still, influence strong—but not here anymore. Paul would tell you (and I would heartily concur) that all of God is still with us, present in every day, complete in every way. Those mountains come from God, but the feeling of God’s presence when we look across them is the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts. In our moments of trial, the courage we show comes from the image of Jesus in our minds but even more so from the touch of Jesus on our shoulders, and that is the work of the Holy Spirit.

The small child lay in bed with the covers up over her head to keep out the flashing lightning and the thunder that rolled in through the windows. Soon she couldn’t stand it anymore, so she called out, “Mommy! Come in here!” From the next bedroom came the response, “Go to sleep, honey, God is with you.” With wide, frightened eyes she tried another tact, “Daddy! I’m scared! Come in here with me!” But once again came the assurance, “Don’t be afraid, little one, God is with you always.” Unable to stand it any longer, she cried, “Mommy! Daddy! I know God is with me, but I need someone with skin and bones!” You can talk about God in terms of eternity; you can talk about Jesus in terms of antiquity; but we need someone here now! That name is the Holy Spirit.

God, Jesus, Holy Spirit—Father, Son, Holy, Ghost—Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. So, what do we call you, Lord? I guess it all depends on our relationship to you. I guess it all depends upon how we need you at the moment. But the good news is that, whatever name we call, you always come.