May 12, 2002

Mindekirken 7. Easter
Pastor Jens Arne Dale
May 12, 2002

John 17.1-11

An old man is sitting in the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. Three men come on a visit. The man receives them heartily as his guests. He washes their feet, offers them rest in the shade of the tree and serves them a meal.

The old man is Abraham and this story is written in Genesis 18. The three men who come on a visit are called "The Lord." Some people have thought of this as the oldest decription of the trinity in the Bible: God the Father, Son and The Holy Spirit.

The Lord asked Abraham where his wife was. And Abraham answered that she was in the tent. The Lord said that he would come back at this time next year. At that time Sara would have a son. Unfortunately tent walls are not soundproof, and Sara heard what the Lord said and she laughed to herself. Of course she was too old to have a baby. The Lord said: "Why does Sara laugh? Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?" Do you remember what her baby was called? "She laughed." In Hebrew that is Isaac.

When we think of the Christmas gospel, it’s very similar to this story. There too, we hear about he who was born in a supernatural way when God first had given a promise about it.

I don’t think Abraham fully knew what he experienced in the heat of that day 4000 years ago. But he really sat at the table with the Lord. He got to know God. That is something Jesus says in today’s text, too: "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

To know God is the deepest meaning of our lives. It has a moment of intellectual knowledge. We need to know something about the Lord. But more important than information in our head, is knowledge in our hearts. Last Sunday, Anders Martin was baptized here at Mindekirken. He didn’t understand much of his relationship with his parents. But ask if he knew them! Our relationship with God is like a family relation, a tight band of confidence and belonging.

Today we will look at an icon in the sermon. I have gotten the idea from Halvor Nordhaug at Menighetsfakultetet in Oslo. We greet you who are listening to the service on radio in Iowa and inform you that the picture might be found on the website "mindekirken.org."

Many regard this as the most beautiful and expressive of all icons. It was painted by the Russian, Andrei Rublev, about the year 1400. It begins with the three men who came to Abraham to preach that he would have a son. Here are the three men in conversation around the table, but Abraham and Sara have obviously been dismissed. The person in the middle would be Jesus. We may see from his two fingers, it is the two natures of Christ. He is true God and true Man. The fingers point to the cup on the table. It looks like a communion cup and symbolizes his death as an offering for the sin of the world. On the right we see the Holy Spirit. Both of them bow towards the Father on the left side. He is the origin of everything, the one everything comes from. The Father on his side bows towards the two others as an expression of confidence and fellowship.

There’s something strange with the perspective in this picture. Normally we see the things which are far away as smaller than those things which are closer to us. By the table it is opposite, as often is in icons. The back feet are the biggest ones. The persons are getting bigger the further into the picture you go. The lines of the picture are gathered in a point in front of the picture, they meet as if it were in the eye of the observer. The things inside the icon are bigger than the things outside of the icon. The picture is opening from within. We are drawn towards the limitless room. It must be the room of eternity.

The three persons make up a circle, the geometric figure of fulfillment. We are drawn towards the Kingdom of God, the house of fullness and love.

Do you see The Holy Spirit on the left has an extra long pointer finger? He points out the free place at the table. We are invited to sit at the table, to know the triune God, to join the fellowship of the LORD.

Jesus in the middle has a robe which is earth colored. That indicates that it is the earthly Jesus we know, he who was born in a stable, lived as one of us and in the end died on the cross. In other words, it is the old stories from the Bible we have to consider: what Jesus said and what he did. "What we have heard, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, we declare to you," John says.

In the middle of the table, close to our side, stands the cup with the blood of Christ. We shall receive the offer for our sin. The Father lifts his right hand as if he would bless the cup. It is as if he will say that the offering of the son is recognized or as it is said in communion: "Come, for everything is ready." The whole icon is formed as a cup. The outline of the Father and the Spirit forms a cup, a challis. Who is in the middle of the cup? Can you see that it is Jesus? He is the one we receive in Holy Communion

In the background we see a tree. It’s the tree of life from Paradise. It stands in the lengthening of the line from the cup through the Son. Jesus has with his offering opened the way into the Paradise. He gives hope and access to the newly created world.

The Catholic monk Henry Nouwen has written a devotion based on this icon with the title: "Life in the house of love." There he tells among other things about a difficult time in his life when he almost couldn’t pray with words. Mentally and emotionally he was exhausted. Then he was an easy prey for despair and fear. In this situation I sat for long times and looked at the icon, he tells. That became the start of an inner healing. "As I sat there for hours in front of Rublev’s Trinity, I recognized how my sight slowly went over to prayer. This prayer slowly got my inner restlessness to melt, and it lifted me into the circle of love, a circle that couldn’t be broken by the powers of this world. Even when I was away from the icon and took part in the doings of everyday life, I felt that I didn’t have to leave this holy place that I had found. I could rest there, whatever I did or wherever I went. I knew that the house of love that I had gone into had no limits. It envelops all who want to live there."

You and I also are invited into the confidential fellowship with the triune God. We are invited to sit at the table in the Kingdom of God. We shall know him and rest in him. "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

Glory be to God, the Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen

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