In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

     As a pastor and preacher, you never really know what people are going to say to you after a funeral. I've had people leave the funeral service and say, "I never saw a funeral like THAT before!" I've also had folks leave funerals and say, "THAT was interesting." Fortunately, you can take those comments however you'd like. But then, there are those comments that are straightforward and unambiguous. After mentioning in a funeral sermon recently that at Lutheran funerals, the proclamation of Christ is the first priority, and the deceased comes second, one of the worshipers said, "You know pastor, in all my years of going to funerals, I've never heard a preacher stand up and publicly say, "Christ comes first--Christ is the center." And, he said, "I really appreciate that."

     This Festival of the Holy Trinity, we need to proclaim again, that at the center of everything we do as Christians, is the Holy Trinity, and at the center of the Holy Trinity, is Jesus Christ. And we need to proclaim that now more than ever, because there is a war going on in Christianity, for the center. Now, it won't, ultimately, be much of a war, because on the one side, is the Triune God, who is and always has been and always will be, at the center--of life, of the universe, of faith, of the Church. But on the other side, there are these Christians who seem to be weary of giving God primary place, and so, they are subtly, oh--so sublimely, trying to move the Holy Trinity out of the center of Christianity--to replace the Triune God with--us! Human beings! In Christianity today, there is indeed a battle raging, as Christians are pushing God out of the center of our faith, so that WE would be the center and focus of the Church-as if we are the center of life and faith.

     And we have to say, this is not something new or different, necessarily, nor do most of the folks engaged in this struggle even realize what they're doing. It's just our age-old rebellion against God, rearing it's ugly head, once again. It began with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and it continues today, as we think of ourselves, not God, as the center of the universe. Like some few teenagers who seem to think it's all about me, me, me, Christians fall all too easily into the trap of thinking that faith, discipleship, even worship, is about us. So, we crowd God out of worship, making not Him, but us, the focus of what happens on Sunday mornings. From a time when churches were called the house of God, now we are encouraged to think of them as a meeting place for the Church. From a time when our sanctuaries were oriented toward the altar, toward the chancel, and we turned our attention literally and spiritually toward God, now it's not uncommon to build churches without chancel and altar or cross or pulpit--having at center stage, the praise band, and the projection screen, and the preacher, wandering around the auditorium in street clothes, like Letterman or Leno working the crowd, entertaining the audience. And yet, those still aren't the most telling indications that the focus in Christianity is changing. For what tells the tale most dramatically, is the fact that in books, and articles, and church growth seminars, it's made clear--if you want your church to grow, you have to focus on the "consumer"--you have to know your market, and shape the Sunday service to address your demographics--in music, décor, furnishings, message, and yes, even coffee. One of the foremost "gurus" of this church growth--church marketing movement has been Pastor Rick Warren, of Saddleback Church in California. In his book, the Purpose Driven Church, he writes about "defining your target", "personalizing your target", and then addressing your target. What has resulted at Saddleback Church is a church that is all about their targeted member, whom they call, "Saddleback Sam". a man who is as defined in Warren's book, well-educated, likes his job, likes where he lives, puts health and fitness as a high priority, likes large groups rather than small ones, is skeptical of organized religion, likes contemporary music, is self-satisfied, even smug about his station in life, prefers casual over formal. This is Saddleback Sam--the person for whom Saddleback Church was created, organized, and built. Saddleback Church is focused on Saddleback Sam, and in his book, The Purpose Driven Church, Warren makes that clear.and says that's how churches today can be relevant, timely, and growing. Isn't it interesting then, that Rick Warren, who really spread this gospel of market driven ministry, asks this question in one of his later books, the Purpose Driven Life.when he asks, "Where in the world did we get the idea, me included, that what happens in church is about US?" Well, Pastor Rick, the Church, and the churches got that idea from people like YOU! When the church is driven and organized and built on the basis of surveys, and demographics and what the so-called market wants, what you end up with is a Church, and churches that think it's all about US! And though that's just now taking hold of Lutherans and Lutheran churches, because we're always about 10-20 years behind the latest trends, it is happening in our churches, too. In Lutheranism, where the Holy Trinity has always been front and center, in theology as well as in architecture, in Lutheranism, where we have preached, not a market driven evangelism, but a Law and Gospel-centered message, in Lutheranism, where we have stood, solidly on Holy Scripture as the inspired Word of God, unwaveringly, regardless the prevailing cultural attitudes and fads and thinking--even in Lutheranism today, we're in danger of becoming the "church of what's happening now", or at least, the church of what was happening yesterday. And we need to understand this as a battle for the center of Christianity, because that's exactly what it is! And churches and Christians will either, move away from the Holy Trinity, as the center of our faith, and cease to be Christian, or Church, or we will wake up, and return to the apostolic, catholic teachings that affirm and confess, that the Triune God, not us, is at the center of life and faith. And how do we remain firmly within apostolic, catholic teaching? How do we reject the all too human desire to be the center of things, and give the Holy Trinity proper place, and first place in our church and in our lives? Well, in general terms, we can make sure our church and our churches continue to confess the historic ecumenical, or catholic, "small-c-catholic" statements of belief--the Apostle's, the Nicene and the Athanasian. We can make sure our church and our churches continue to worship in the name that Jesus himself gives, not least, in our gospel reading for today, when He commands that we baptize, only in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Similarly, we can commit ourselves to doing as Jesus also commands in our gospel lesson, "obeying all that He has commanded us." To pick and choose between Jesus' commandments and teachings is to put ourselves above God and God's Law, rather than placing ourselves under them, in subjection to them in every aspect of life. These are some of the ways that our church, in general, can remain steadfastly centered on our Triune God. But there are some specific things we can do as well--as a congregation.

     First, we can understand a pastor's sabbatical, as above everything else, a time for the pastor and the congregation to be reminded, that it's not about us, and it's not about him--the pastor. We all know that when a pastor has served a church as long as I've served here at Saint Luke's, there's a real temptation for the pastor and the parish to forget, that it's not about us. The nature of the priesthood means that when the congregation gathers, it gathers around the called, ordained minister of Word and Sacrament, who stands in persona Christi, in the person and stead of Christ, at the altar, the pulpit and within the congregation. But the pastor's sabbatical reminds, the pastor, and the congregation, that this pastor is not the only one who can serve in persona Christi. The pastor's sabbatical reminds us all that only God is indispensible, all others, ultimately, finally, come and go. The pastor included. So, this summer, the sabbatical forces me to step out of the center of parish life, to acknowledge the fact that it's not about me--it's about God. And you will get along without me, and you will survive and thrive without me, because it's not about me, just as it's not about you. And during this three-month sabbatical, I expect, and trust that you will continue on, with faithful worship attendance, regular participation, committed involvement, realizing it's not about Pastor Dave--you don't worship, serve, participate, because of Pastor Dave--but because of our Triune God! If you stop coming, or don't show up regularly, because I'm gone, then you're coming for the wrong reason, and the sabbatical will point that out, to you and to me, and then, we'll need to address that when I return. Because far from the sabbatical being about the pastor sitting on a beach soaking up rays for three months, the sabbatical is really about you and me, re-orienting our lives, and our church, on God--first, foremost, and always! That's what a sabbatical is about--and it's one very practical, specific way we can, together, make sure that our church is not about us, but about God.

     And a second practical, specific way we can keep God at the center, here at Saint Luke's at least, is to make sure that our capital stewardship appeal, and our upcoming building program, is not about us. Oh, it's quite a temptation for us to think about how we'll be raising money and designing a building that will suit our needs. It's quite natural for us to ask, "how will this help me?" "I don't have kids in Sunday School--I don't participate in all the fellowship activities, I don't need an elevator, I don't plan to have a wedding reception in the fellowship hall--so why should I support the building program?" By the same token, it's just as great a temptation for us to say things like, "I really want to have marble in the bathrooms, a commercial stove in the kitchen, mauve in the bride's room.", just as it's tempting for us to want to assert, "I don't have the kind of money everyone else does--I'll let them pay for the addition." All of these, together, in their own ways, point to a mindset that says, "Really, it's all about me!" And capital stewardship appeals, and building programs, and churches all fail, when members have the attitude that it's about us--and we loose sight of the fact that it's all to be about God. And having a capital appeal and a building program causes us to re-orient our thinking, challenges us to again, put God at the center, Christ first, and ourselves second. Which is really, a good thing! Our human minds see that as a negative, as a loss of control, as not being in charge--but spiritually, in life and in faith, we need experiences like stewardship and building programs to set us free from our need to control and be in charge, so that we can again, humble ourselves before God, and yield ourselves to God, and acknowledge again, that there is a God, and it's not us! Interestingly, the traditional gospel text for Reformation Sunday, is John 8, where Jesus says, "If the Son makes you free, you will be free, indeed!" And that's what we're talking about here, this Trinity Sunday.reformation--being reformed, being transformed, being set free, by the Son--freed from our own wants and desires and pre-occupations, set free for, God--the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Set free, to live for Him, and to worship Him, and to offer to Him, our money, our time, our energy, our homes, our lives! So that He will be at the center, not us. That's what the Reformation was all about, and that's what Trinity Sunday is all about. God, not us!

     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.