This morning I am writing about a couple of theological concepts. Don’t tune out! Because theology simply means “God thought.” If you have ever entertained a thought about your “higher power” then you are a theologian.

The first is from a week ago, Pentecost Sunday. The preacher, Karen Jackson over at First Presbyterian Greenville, pulled at a thread in the Acts Chapter Two account and there at the other end was the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9).

In the Babel story it was self-aggrandizement that separated the people from God and then their inability to communicate that alienated them from one another. At Pentecost God gives the gift of the Holy Spirit and humankind has the opportunity to come together again via the common language of worship, not to advance ourselves but to honor God.

For me, the message of Pentecost points to how mutual love for God can bring unity and outweigh our differences. But of course we often use faith as a tool to divide and control rather than an invitation to love.

Then yesterday was Trinity Sunday, and over at Morton Presbyterian Church in Rocky Mount pastor Mary Harris Todd spoke of how God does not contradict God’s own self, and how the nature of Jesus is the nature of God – “The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command” (Hebrews 1:3). And, “For in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

The message reinforced my understanding that Jesus does not so much rescue us from the wrath of a vengeful God, but stand as the Creator’s welcome into the life and goodness we were created for and are invited into.

The beauty of the Trinity is not that God is harsh and Jesus gets us off, but that God’s love and goodness and compassion are revealed in JESUS and that THE SPIRIT empowers us to join in with GOD’s initiatives of love, goodness, compassion, grace, mercy, healing, reconciliation, promise, light and more.

Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, Trinity Sunday… and 48 others to participate in! God is calling us to be part of his reconciling initiatives here in this world. There is no better way to do this than by being an active part of a church – DEREK