Sermon transcript:
Sometimes when you’re stuck, a fresh perspective can open all kinds of new possibilities. The story goes that the government of Italy was concerned the leaning tower of Pisa was in danger of toppling over. The government engaged all kinds of experts to study the problem and write reports. Apparently, the breakthrough came from a gardener, who looked at the tower and recognized that the problem was like the planting of a large tree. “You don’t raise the low side,” the gardener explained, “the trick is to lower the high side, allowing the tree to settle into the ground.”1 So among other things, that’s what they did, removing thirty-eight cubic metres from underneath the high side. Scientists say it should remain stable for the next 200 years.2
At one time this little piece of scripture we heard today also revealed a fresh perspective, a fresh perspective about God which opened all kinds of new possibilities. The early church inherited Jewish understandings of God found in what we know as the Old or First Testament; God as creator and covenant partner. But Jesus changed everything. Jesus’ life meant that they could no longer conceive of God without thinking of Jesus as well. But Jesus died, yet he continued to shape, influence and energize communities of faith that were growing and having an impact on lives and communities. Not only did Jesus embody God, but there was a Spirit that was present after he died. This understanding of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit was organic; it grew from the soil of experience.
The problem with the trinity as with most Christian beliefs began when the later church started codifying these experiences into hard and fast dogma. This one way of experiencing the Divine was to become everybody’s way. In codifying this experience of God, we as a church have at a minimum shut out other experiences of God and at worst have actively suppressed them. In the words of the United Church’s 1986 apology to Indigenous peoples; “In our zeal to tell you of the good news of Jesus Christ we were closed to the value of your spirituality…We imposed our civilization as a condition of accepting the gospel. We tried to make you be like us…As a result, you, and we, are poorer and the image of the Creator in us is twisted, blurred, and we are not what we are meant by God to be.”3
We’ve been grappling with this legacy as a church for a long time. We’ve been seeing what was hidden from us by our sense of superiority, certainty and spiritual myopia. We’re beginning to value the gifts of Indigenous spirituality and the fresh ways the sacred is revealed in practices, teachings and culture. In the sacredness of and gratitude for creation, in the holiness of story telling and deep listening, in the way spirituality is respectfully infused into all aspects of life and not cut off from politics and economics. In this respect for and openness to Indigenous spirituality we see God revealed to us in fresh ways that were closed off to us when we insist we have the mystery of God figured out.
Recently, in the Broadview magazine issue dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the United Church of Canada the publication asked past Moderators of the church various questions. Peter Short responded to the question, “What does the United Church stand for?” He answered, “The United Church doesn’t stand for anything. It doesn’t stand at all, it moves. We walk back our work in residential schools. We walk ahead through the emerging landscape of human sexuality. We travel hand in hand with partners. We explore the mysteries of God in new songs.”4
“The United Church doesn’t stand for anything. It doesn’t stand at all, it moves.” A faith that doesn’t stand but rather moves, I think that’s a good learning from the doctrine of the trinity. If we can see tradition and doctrine not as certainties but as the wisdom of elders rooted in certain experiences, then we can move forward with this wisdom as gift and guide. Then the primary activities of faith will not be believing and defending certain things, but rather the way we live our lives—a journey, a relationship of trust in which the mystery of God is revealed to us in our living.
I started with the wisdom of a gardener, and I’ll end the same way. In the gospel of John’s account of the resurrection, Mary Magdalene is just outside the tomb weeping and mistakes the risen Jesus for a gardener. Twice the “gardener” asks, “Woman, why are you weeping?”, before she finally recognizes him. The “gardener”, Jesus, says, “Go and tell the others the good news.” God isn’t in the tomb; our God is a living God, always on the move, and the life of faith is us trying to keep up on an adventure of discovery. Our God is a living God. May it be so. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, Mother of us all. Amen.
— Rev. Joe Gaspar
1 Stephen Box, Tower of Pisa and LA Similar: Both Tilted the Wrong Way for Years, City Watch, June 6, 2006, http://www.citywatchla.com/lead-stories/1765-tower-of-pisa-and-la-similar-both-tilted-the-wrong-way-for-years
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa
3 United Church of Canada, 1986 Apology to Indigenous Peoples and the 1988 Response of Indigenous Peoples. https://united-church.ca/sites/default/files/apologies-response-crest.pdf
4 United Church moderators reflect on the past, present and future, Broadview Magazine, April 29 2025, https://broadview.org/moderators/