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“Baptized in the Name: Confidence, Belonging, Relationship, Identity” (Matthew 28:16-20) Sometime during the forty days between his resurrection and his ascension, our Lord Jesus Christ met with his disciples on a mountain in Galilee, and he told them: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And that is what the church has done for all these many centuries. And that is what has happened to you, every one of you...

“This Is the Catholic Faith” (Athanasian Creed) Did you know that we Lutherans are catholic? We are! In fact, you just said so. You did, just now when we all confessed the Athanasian Creed. Don’t worry. I’ll explain. And so our theme on this Holy Trinity Sunday: “This Is the Catholic Faith.” Yes, it’s Trinity Sunday, that one Sunday of the year when we haul out that big, long creed with the funny name and say it in church. But at least I let you sit down for this one! This creed is called the Athanasian Creed. It’s named after...

Nancy Pelosi Doubles Down on Abortion Support in Response to Communion BanResponding publicly for the first time to her archbishop barring her from Holy Communion in her home diocese, the U.S. House speaker remains defiant in her support of abortion.Responding publicly for the first time to her archbishop barring her from Holy Communion in her home diocese, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remained defiant Tuesday in her support of abortion.Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone announced May 20 that the California Democrat may no longer receive Holy Communion in the Archdiocese of San Francisco after publicly supporting abortion as a Catholic politician....

The Christian God: Sermon for Trinity SundayWhat can this Sunday mean, what should we be thinking about, saying. Trinity Sunday. The only Sunday dedicated to a doctrine, a teaching of the Church. All the other feasts are commemorations of an event: Christmas, Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter, the Ascension, Pentecost. But this feast is different: this is a celebration of the God we believe in, not in some abstract and idealistic way, but as who God is. How many times have we said the Gloria Patri, Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit? We...

“Born of Water and the Spirit” (John 3:1-17) On this Trinity Sunday, our Gospel reading, from John chapter 3, tells us of the work of the Holy Trinity--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--in bringing us to a new birth and the new life that flows from it. And this is where Jesus goes in his conversation with Nicodemus. Jesus tells Nicodemus that he needs to be “Born of Water and the Spirit.” This Nicodemus was a prominent Jewish religious leader. He was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. Jesus even calls him “the teacher of...

“The God of New Beginnings” (Genesis 1; Acts 2; Matthew 28) Today is Trinity Sunday. It is on this day every year that we call special attention to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. This teaching is true every day of the year, of course, but on this particular Sunday, we call special attention to it. The Scripture readings for today bring out the nature of God as being triune, that is, one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The hymns we sing on this day are trinitarian in their content. And Trinity Sunday is the one...

Since my original article discussing how an abandoned Catholic church was being converted to a mosque in Syracuse, NY, that city has embraced the Mosque of Jesus, Son of Mary with open arms.  In April, a local publication, the Syracuse New Times, published an interview with Dr. Yusuf Soule, the executive director of the Northside Learning Center, who bought the church and rented it to a still unidentified group of Muslims.  In no news report has the group who transformed the church into a mosque been identified as anything other than a “new Islamic society.”  When asked how the plan...

Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Syracuse, New York, was sold in December to a Muslim group and will be turned into a mosque. The Muslim organization requested that six stone crosses be removed from the top of the century-old historic church, and the Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board has complied. However, as Syracuse.com explains in an April 6, 2014 article, “Plans to turn a church into a mosque bring pain and hope to changing neighborhood,” everything evens out because the mosque will be named the Mosque of Jesus, Son of Mary “to build a bridge between the old and the new.”...

SYRACUSE -- Syracuse's Holy Trinity has a new owner, and some major changes are coming for the former Roman Catholic church. As we first reported on Monday, the church, rectory and its old school, currently used for refugee and immigration programs, have been sold to the North Side Learning Center, a North McBride Street-based all-volunteer organization founded in 2009. Dr. Yusuf Soule, who heads up North Side Learning Center, confirms that his not for profit program has bought the campus and will lease the former church to a new Islamic society, which will name it 'Mosque of Jesus the Son...

The following news brief is a quote: Syracuse, NY -- Syracuse fire investigators have not yet determined the cause of an explosion Thursday at the Ihsan School of Excellence, a private Islamic school on West Onondaga Street. More meetings with investigators are planned before a determination is made, Lt. Joe Galloway, a Syracuse fire investigator, said today. A cause for the explosion in the school's basement will possibly be released on Monday, Galloway said.

The Muslims of America based in Hancock, Delaware County, is suing Martin Mawyer and his Christian Action Network for $3 million in federal court in Syracuse, seeking to halt the continued publication of his book, ‘Twilight in America’ – the Untold Story of Islamic Training Camps in America.” Syracuse.com (h/t Andrea K) The book takes aim at Muslims of America with false claims that have put the group’s members in fear of violent attacks from Mawyer’s followers, the lawsuit said. The co-author of the book, Patti Pierucci, is also named as a defendant. The Christian Action Network isn’t the only...

“The Father’s Day--and the Son’s, and the Holy Spirit’s” (Acts 2:14a, 22-36) Today is Father’s Day. No, wait, let me correct that. Today is “The Father’s Day--and the Son’s, and the Holy Spirit’s.” What do I mean by that? Let me explain. Today is the third Sunday in June, which in our country is Father’s Day. And that’s a good thing. It’s good for us to honor our fathers and our mothers. In fact, God put that right into the Ten Commandments. So on this day we honor our fathers for the gifts that they are, given to us by...

“In the Presence of the Holy God” (Isaiah 6:1-8) What would it be like if you knew you were in the presence of the holy God? Try to imagine. Would it be cool, casual, awesome, inspiring, overwhelming? What would your reaction be? “Oh well, just another day in the park. Nothing to see here. Ho hum.” Or maybe you’d think: “Oh wow! I must be pretty special to be given this kind of revelation of God. Yay me!” Or would you be terrified and frightened, shaking in your boots, to be in God’s presence? Well, today on this Holy Trinity...

One and One and One Are One - A Homily for Trinity Sunday Msgr. Charles Pope • May 21, 2016 • There is an old spiritual that says, “My God is so high you can’t get over Him. He’s so low you can’t get under Him. He’s so wide you can’t get around Him. You must come in, by and through the Lamb.”It’s not a bad way of saying that God is “other.” He is beyond what human words can describe, beyond what human thoughts can conjure. And on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, we do well...

“The Athanasian Creed: Incomprehensible?”Today is Trinity Sunday--or, more properly called, the Feast of the Holy Trinity--and as such, this is the one day in the year when we confess the Athanasian Creed. Actually, we believe, teach, and confess the Athanasian Creed 365 days a year; it’s just this is the one day in the year when we speak it aloud in church during the service. You see, the church confesses three ecumenical creeds: the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. They are called “ecumenical” creeds, because they are held all across Christendom. The Apostles’ Creed is the...

“St. Patrick’s Breastplate: I Bind unto Myself Today” In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! “What??” you’re saying. “Pastor, have you lost your mind? St. Patrick’s Day was back on March 17. This is now May something. What’s up with this ‘Happy St. Patrick’s Day’?” Well, alright, I’ll tell you, since you asked. This day is not really St. Patrick’s Day. But it is a day on which St. Patrick can teach us something about what this day really is about, and that is, it’s Trinity Sunday....

"Trinity" (Троица) by Andrei Rublev (c. 1410) [WikiArt.org] Readings: • Dt 4:32-34, 39-40 • Psa 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22 • Rom 8:14-17 • Mt 28:16-20 The popular television show “Unsolved Mysteries,” was a documentary-styled program pursuing answers to crimes and strange events that had yet to be solved and explained. As the saying goes, everyone loves a good mystery, as evidenced by the success of that show and the popularity of so many movies, books, and television programs about solving mysteries and crimes. The Trinity is also a mystery, but not the sort that needs to be...

1 and 1 and 1 is One – A Homily for Trinity Sunday By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere is an old spiritual that says, “My God is so high, you can’t get over him, he’s so low you can’t get under him, he’s so wide you can’t get ’round him, you must come in, by and through the Lamb.”That’s not a bad way of saying that God is other; He is beyond what human words can tell or describe; He is beyond what human thoughts can conjure. And on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity we do well to...

“The Loving Father, the Lifted-Up Son, and the Life-Giving Spirit” (John 3:1-17)The triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for our salvation. That’s what this Feast of the Holy Trinity is all about. This is not an occasion to strain our brains to try to figure out what for us, with our finite reason, is ultimately incomprehensible, namely, how there can be one God in three persons and at the same time three persons and only one God. That would blow out our circuits, if we even could comprehend it. Rather, the thing to do on this day is simply,...

“The Living Room of Peter’s Pentecost Sermon” (Acts 2:14a, 22-36)Today is the Feast of the Holy Trinity. On this day we sing hymns emphasizing the Trinitarian nature of the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. On this day we say that really long creed with the funny name, the Athanasian Creed, which goes into the most detail on the relationship of the three persons in the Trinity. Today we are celebrating, not some dry doctrine with no connection to life, no, rather we are celebrating a living reality--the reality of who God is, as he is, as he...