Together - All Ya'll
jokingly named it the ‘Laura Southern Version’, or LSV. While our regularly used translations are good, the word changes I make here are intended to emphasize different areas and help us hear in new ways. Listen to the living Word from:
Romans 8:9-17 – LSV
9 But, all ya’ll are not in the flesh, ya’ll are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God is home in ya’ll. Yet, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in ya’ll, then even though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of justice. 11 But if the Spirit of the one raising Jesus from the dead is at home in ya’ll, the one raising Christ from the dead will also bring life to ya’ll’s mortal bodies because of the Spirit living in ya’ll. 12 So then, brothers [and sisters], we have a debt—not to the flesh, to be living according to the flesh. 13 For if ya’ll are living according to the flesh, ya’ll are about to die; but if by the Spirit ya’ll put to death the practices of the body, ya’ll will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For ya’ll didn’t get the spirit of slavery in fear again; but ya’ll got the spirit of adoption in which we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The same Spirit is together witnessing with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 And if children, also heirs—indeed heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we are suffering together, that we might be glorified together.
Jamie Glenn in Walk Tall, You’re a Daughter of God tells a fable of the eagle and the chicken
"The eagle thought he was a chicken. When the eagle was very small, he fell from the safety of his nest. A chicken farmer found the eagle, brought him to the farm, and raised him in a chicken coop among his many chickens. The eagle grew up doing what chickens do, living like a chicken, and believing he was a chicken.
A naturalist came to the chicken farm to see if what he had heard about an eagle acting like a chicken was really true. He knew that an eagle is king of the sky. He was surprised to see the eagle strutting around the chicken coop, pecking at the ground, and acting very much like a chicken. The farmer explained to the naturalist that this bird was no longer an eagle. He was now a chicken because he had been trained to be a chicken and he believed that he was a chicken.
The naturalist knew there was more to this great bird than his actions showed as he “pretended” to be a chicken. He was born an eagle and had the heart of an eagle, and nothing could change that. The man lifted the eagle onto the fence surrounding the chicken coop and said, “Eagle, thou art an eagle. Stretch forth thy wings and fly.” The eagle moved slightly, only to look at the man; then he glanced down at his home among the chickens in the chicken coop where he was comfortable. He jumped off the fence and continued doing what chickens do. The farmer was satisfied. “I told you it was a chicken,” he said.
The naturalist returned the next day and tried again to convince the farmer and the eagle that the eagle was born for something greater. He took the eagle to the top of the farmhouse and spoke to him: “Eagle, thou art an eagle. Thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth thy wings and fly.” The large bird looked at the man, then again down into the chicken coop. He jumped from the man’s arm onto the roof of the farmhouse.
Knowing what eagles are really about, the naturalist asked the farmer to let him try one more time. He would return the next day and prove that this bird was an eagle. The farmer, convinced otherwise, said, “It is a chicken.”
The naturalist returned the next morning to the chicken farm and took the eagle and the farmer some distance away to the foot of a high mountain. They could not see the farm nor the chicken coop from this new setting. The man held the eagle on his arm and pointed high into the sky where the bright sun was beckoning above. He spoke: “Eagle, thou art an eagle! Thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth thy wings and fly.” This time the eagle stared skyward into the bright sun, straightened his large body, and stretched his massive wings. His wings moved, slowly at first, then surely and powerfully. With the mighty screech of an eagle, he flew."
This has been a year when we have felt like children thrust out of the protective bubble of our existence. Much like the eagle who fell from the nest - when things go wrong – when the party is over and cake is gone, we look for that place of comfort – a home to rest in – where are my people? Last week you heard about the birth of the church and the mysterious and amazingness of a hearing that everyone could understand – each in their own language, even Southern translation. And yet, there were flames atop the people’s heads as the Holy Spirit descended upon them. Perhaps, they appeared a bit drunk in their festivities – is that how we looked last week in our red, orange and yellow - celebrating in the church, remembering the birthday of the church with tambourines and singing? This week, there are a few balloons, deflated and sad here and there reminding us.
Our church banners changed from red to white – for this special Sunday when we remember the Trinity. What even is that? It isn’t referenced anywhere in the bible. All our attempts to find scripture to use today to tell us about trinity, don’t describe the three in one and lay it all out for us, they may just mention the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Instead, we get hocus pocus. We get a vision from Isaiah straight out of our wildest imaginations – I want whatever he had before going to sleep that night – or maybe I don’t. The Lord on a throne, with a robe that outdoes the most elaborate of wedding gowns – the hem of the robe stretched to fill the whole temple except instead of bridesmaids attending – we have Seraphs with six wings covering eyes, feet and flying. What exactly is a Seraph? They only appear in Isaiah 6, but they were fiery angels with six wings- the highest level of angel. I don’t have any problem at all imagining why the prophet felt inadequate, lost and afraid seeing this host of the Lord – the ground shakes, rumbling thunder, incense and smokey fogs blows about, and they proclaim loudly, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts.” A burning coal purifies the prophets lips and he is ready to go when God calls. “Whom shall I send? Here I am Lord…”
This sounds straight out of fantasy and our wildest imaginings, and not something we are exactly comfortable with – that’s ‘just’ the Old Testament. But if we are honest, do we understand trinity any better? Most of our concepts of Trinity come from Paul’s letters. The church was born, so now what? Do we grasp the awe, the mystery and the power given to us as children adopted by God in Christ? Or, like the Eagle raised among chickens, do we hop off the fence rather than fly? Do we evaluate and talk a good talk but spend all of our time trying to figure out, ‘define’ and analyze trinity rather than realizing that it dwells within us. God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have a home. That home is here. In me, here. In you – here. In us the body of Christ the church – in here. The Holy Spirit is celebrated on Pentecost and then put away with the balloons and banners after the party is over.
Clean up and carry on as if we haven’t been adopted? I think not! That is not what Paul is telling the Romans or us – we are heirs to the glory of God, brothers and sisters with one another in Christ.
This is an intimate relationship that we attempt to understand in our trinity imagery – how God shows us to be in relationship with others, with ourselves and with God – a unity, a home, a family. What does this adoption call us to – daily? You noticed I said ‘us’ – that is the main gist of my southern translation – there is no individual ‘you’ in this family. Ya’ll, we are in this together. We can cluck around the chicken yard, or we can realize, acknowledge and embrace that we have been lifted up and given Eagles wings. The Holy Spirit is mysterious, amazing and within us to remind us that we, together are God’s beloved children, made a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. There is a unity that we grasp at that we hunger for – a unity that doesn’t dissolve our differences, doesn’t wipe away the mystery but offers each person integrity, the wholeness of shalom.
The trinity is a messy mystery. God defies our grasp and outdoes our expectations. I can’t begin to explain – a Japanese friend in high school asked me how I can claim to worship one God that has three persons – are they distinct, or not? Reverend Shannon Kershner says this is where the rubber hits the road, “when we confess belief in a triune God, we are claiming that the God we worship and whom alone we serve is a God who has relationships at God's very core.”
As we have drifted back into the sanctuary, back into public spaces together, it has been messy. There is a Pepsi commercial that shows all the places we brush up against each other in messy, crowded ways – spilling on each other, invading personal space, annoying each other by double-dipping at the party or reaching out to taste or share a drink when thirst needs quenching. The power of this ad is that in its humor, it shows us what we missed. Only now are we wise enough to appreciate and even crave this mess – to perhaps overlook what used to annoy us in order to accept the deep abiding value of home with each other – all God’s beloved brothers and sisters.
How are we in this relationship today? Is our table open to quench each other’s thirst? Are we tending to the flock – being beloved in relationship with God – adopted children, are we also being loving? Sometimes the saccharine of Southern hospitality isn’t real. Make it real? In these times, we have learned the hard way that we will take the messiness. We need the messes because we need each other.
We have had a light shined on us through snow storms and pandemic about what we value, what we will give up, and what we won’t, for and with each other. As children of God, we can’t exist in isolation – we need each other to be part of Christ’s body. Made in God’s image and adopted as God’s children – we have to figure out how to be together. Ya’ll we are in this together.
I’m not sure exactly how, but the Holy Spirit is woven inside me and you. When one of God’s children hurts, God hurts, we all hurt. But together, we are also lifted up – not some later, one person or another, but all of us loved deeply, adopted today. What does all this stuff about the spirit in me and not living by the flesh mean to how and where we see God – that is the hard part – Trinity doesn’t just sit with a baby Jesus or even a crucified and resurrected Jesus but points us to the togetherness. The love that ties God to us, that defines God. How do we see that? Ya’ll – how do we see trinity – how do we see God?
How is God relating in our world, throughout – there is where we see God. Look at creation, God is there in the glory of the rising sun, the crashing waves, the fields of grain. God leaps with the dolphins in the waves, runs through the forests with the wild beasts and flies on eagle’s wings. And yes, pecks with the chickens. See God in parents tenderly loving children – worship Her as wisdom, the whisper on the breeze, or the roar of thunder. Praise Him as a heavenly king on a throne or a perfect human come to earth – the light of the world. Meet God at the table with the feast prepared – a place for God’s children to share meal, fellowship together. All this and more are our attempts to see God, to capture and explain this mysterious, messy relationship.
Trinity as confusing as it may be sums it all up- God is love – all these ‘seeings’ – and more in relationship. A God whose hand created all of this but who loves us so much that if one is missing, the relationship is incomplete. God who binds us up in love and charges us to be heirs of that love. This is how you relate, this is how you were made in my image: to follow in the footsteps of Christ, to carry the Holy Spirit within and throughout, to continue the task of creating God’s Holy Kindom here and now. So, what to do after the Pentecost party – be the church! Pull out the sweet tea and invite in a friend. Tend to each other. All Ya’ll, empowered to love, to serve – when God calls we answer together in awe, Here I am Lord! The Holy Spirit has shaken our foundations, cast aside our certainties but replaced what we thought we knew with abiding love and set us loose upon the world – soar on the wings of the eagle but don’t forget to gather all the little chicks into the fold - together ya’ll. Amen.
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