Sermon for June 2, 1996; Trinity Sunday

Pastor Gunnar L. Anderson

"Too Many Gods"

My subject today is, "Too many gods, too few disciples." First, "too many gods!"

I remember a time in Confirmation Class when I asked the question, "How do you define the Trinity?" and one of the eager young students quickly replied, "Three gods who come to us in one way!" Three gods? That's too many. But before we chuckle at the youngster's mistake, how many times have we all made slips of the tongue? I recall standing before you in all my serious sophistication and reading to you how the Lord God is "mercious and graciful." And before we laugh too loudly, the error of that confirmand is often a truth not unfamiliar to us! We worship three gods, or more!

Recently our ELCA Bishop H. George Anderson wrote an article in which he said, "Some people worry about our godless culture. I think the problem is just the opposite. We have too many gods."

"Luther once wrote, 'That to which your heart clings and entrusts itself is, I say, really your God.' If that is true," continues the Bishop, "then no one is without a god. We all have causes or people or ideas to which we cling. Just think how often you have heard religious language applied to people's interests: 'They worship their children'; 'He follows the stock market religiously'; 'She is committed to her job'; 'He swears by vitamin C.'"

"That is no accident," exclaims Bishop Anderson, "Our language reveals that the choices we make are decisions to worship at one altar or another. So the question for everyone is not 'Are you religious?" - but 'Which god do you worship?'"

For those outside the church, this question may come as a shock. They do not realize that their unending search for 'fun' or 'happiness' or a 'relationship' qualifies as a religious quest. But in fact they have chosen a god to worship. They need to ask if their god can really help them in times of need. If not, they have chosen an idol."

"For those of us inside the church the question becomes, 'How many lesser gods are demanding our loyalty?'" When I was presenting my doctoral project, I sang a song called "Honey Jar." We sang it again this morning at the "NEW SONGS" Service. It is a song I wrote about Winnie-the-Pooh, the bear who loved one thing above all other, whose life was consumed by the desire for one thing, who organized everything around the pursuit of just one thing - honey! And in a verse of that song, I wrote:

Important things to which we cling,
What we seem to yearn,
In traps we trip, and then worship
Our ultimate concern.

And as I sang that song to my doctoral group, one of the others responded, "That's the first time I've heard Winnie-the-Pooh and Paul Tillich quoted in the same sentence!" A cartoon character and an eminent theologian. For it was Tillich who defined a person's god as whatever his or her "ultimate concern" might be!

"'How many lesser gods are demanding our loyalty?'" challenges our Bishop. "Some ears ago an ad for aspirin showed a rope that was fraying while an ominous voice droned, 'ten - sion.' Why was that ad successful? Because it tapped into our common feeling of being pulled in two or more directions at once. As responsible people, we try to do it all - serve family, job, friends, and community. Each becomes an end in itself, a god eager to demand more of our heart and time."

"The answer," the Bishop suggests, "is not to add 'church' to all those other commitments. Instead we need to hear again the welcome simplicity of Jesus' summary of the first and greatest commandment: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart...'"

And what did we all learn in Confirmation Class? "I am the Lord your God ... you shall have no other gods." And in the famous verse, called the Shema by Jews, Deuteronomy 6:4: "'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.'"

Obviously, the correct answer to my question, "How do you define the Trinity?" is One God who comes to us in three ways, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Our one God comes to us a Father, and we say, "I believe in God the Father who created me and all that exists!"

Our one God comes to us a son, and we say, "I believe that Jesus redeems me, a lost and condemned creature, not with silver or gold, but with his holy and precious blood, and his innocent suffering and death!"

Our one God comes to us as Holy Spirit, and we say, "I believe in the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps me ..."

The Trinity is one of our basic beliefs as Christian people. We believe in one God who comes to us in three ways, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier; as Maker, Saver, and Helper! And that seems to cover most everything, and take care of us pretty well! Do we need more?

"Too many gods, too few disciples." Matthew concludes his Gospel this morning with four very powerful verses:

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee ...

Not the twelve, not the twelve, we are so used to saying the twelve - but "eleven disciples, "too few," reminding us, rubbing our noses in the betrayal and the failure of one ... of our own!

Now the eleven disciples went to
Galilee, to the mountain ...

What mountain? We are not sure. We are God's people but we are not always sure where we are going.

And when they saw (Jesus) they
worshiped him; but some doubted ...

And so we see to whom our one God continually comes in three ways ... to a diminished and broken community, to those whose worship is sometimes clouded with doubt and to those who can wander in uncertainty and become lost. It is to such as these and such as us that god still comes, that God still wants, that God still challenges to go on:

Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you;
and lo, I an with you always, to the
close of the age.

And so concludes Bishop Anderson, "There is One who can help us put all the other demands on our time and attention in their place. One who knows we cannot possible be perfect children, parents, employees, and citizens. And so we do the best we can, confessing that our best is not always good enough and placing (ourselves and) those we love in hands stronger and more caring than our own."

One God - and that's enough!

AMEN

Copyright © 1997 Gunnar L. Anderson. All Rights Reserved.

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