May 30th - The Holy Trinity: God's Love in Action

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today is Trinity Sunday. And there is a long Creed that deals with the Trinity. It's on page. 319 in the front of the hymnal, called the Athanasian Creed.

And it begins, like thus: Whoever desires to be saved, must above all hold the catholic faith. Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled will without doubt perish, eternally. And the catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance. And then we skip all the way back to the end. This is the catholic faith. Whoever does not believe that faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.

That's a long creed. There's a pastor I knew who offered his confirmation students $25, if they'd memorize it and stand in front of the congregation and recite it from memory. Well, he still has the $25. I antied up the $50 and I still have the $50.

It is important, though, for us, from time to time to read through that creed, though as sometimes difficult and confusing as it is, because it is very much a statement of our faith and what we believe. And we live in a day in which, often times, we see the Trinity emphasized less and less, and one of the persons of the godhead emphasized to the exclusion of the others. Often times, it's the Holy Spirit that is held up and spotlighted more than the Father and the Son. Sometimes, it's Jesus who is spotlighted, highlighted, and there is no mention of the Spirit or the Father.

And so this creed would have us ask of those, are they really holding the true catholic with a small c - or Christian - faith? Because God is three persons in one God. And how do we explain that? Oh in a variety of ways. Miss Tara shared some of them in the children's message. There's one example I'm particularly partial to. When I was growing up, there was a dessert that was made by jello. And you took this packet, and you poured it in a bowl, and it was all powder, and you add liquid. I don't remember if it was water or milk, because I'm only like 4 or 5 at the time. And my mother would mix it up in the bowl, and it would just look like one thing. She'd put it in the refrigerator overnight, and the next morning, there'd be three layers. There was a top layer, middle layer, and a bottom layer. There was a green-type one - I don't remember what it was, lime, I don't know. Maybe it was pistachio before pistachio was good. But anyways, there was a kind of a jello layer and a moose layer and a pudding layer. We most often had the chocolate and the butterscotch. And so, the top layer was kind of a hard shell, kind of, and then there was a moose layer, than the pudding. Three layers. And they're all about a quarter inch think, or half inch thick, depending on how big the bowl was, or what you put it in. I though wow, three different desserts in one dessert. That was my understanding of the trinity. Three persons in one God. Three desserts in one desserts.

But nothing really comes close to helping us understand this concept of a Trinity, other than God Himself. Because, as is our faith, it is a gracious gift of God. It's not a work or doing of our own. Left to ourselves, as Jesus says to Nicodemus, we cannot see the kingdom of heaven. Because flesh gives birth to flesh, and sinful flesh gives birth to sinful flesh. And we all bear in our bodies the mark of our sin. Our hair is turning gray as we age. I looked at a picture from a long, long time ago. Like 10 years ago. There wasn't much gray there. We have aches and pains in our joints. We have diseases. All reminders that we're sinful. We carry the sin in our bodies. We see it around us in the world.

Flesh gives birth to flesh and sinful flesh to sinful flesh. But Jesus says to Nicodemus, "But Spirit gives birth to Spirit."

And He says, to Nicodemus - that is, Jesus says to Nicodemus - unless one is born again, one cannot enter into, or see the kingdom of God. And Nocodemus is a little confused. Now, Lord, how can this be? How can someone be reborn when they're old? Can one go back into his mother's womb?

And I sometimes wonder if, if there was a tape recorder of Nicodemus' reply to Jesus, and Nicodemus heard his reply, if he'd think, "boy, that was really dumb of me. That was really a stupid remark." Of course you can't be born a second time when you're old, and you definitely don't want to try entering your mother's womb again. She had enough trouble delivering you, now you think you want to go back in? Doesn't work that way, Nocodemus.

But Jesus is having a little fun with Nicodemus, cuz the word that Jesus uses is "anothen" in the Greek. And it has two meanings. One is to be born again. But Jesus means to be born from above. That's the second meaning: born from above. And Jesus expands this, that this is what He means when He says one must be born of water in the Spirit. Water and the Spirit. Must be born from above by water and the Spirit. And he's talking about baptism. Talking about baptism, it's God's gracious work, it's not my work, it's not my choice to be baptized. It's God's gracious work. It's that Trinity in action. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit together with that word, over that water, makes it a lavish washing away of sin and rebirth.

And Jesus says, "you're a teacher of Israel and you don't understand these things?"

Like He could say to me "You're the pastor of the church and you don't understand these things?" Well, I don't understand the Trinity. It's still hard to understand and explain, but that's how God describes Himself. He says "This is how I am. This is who I am." And faith grabs hold of what He says and believes it. Just like later, the bread and the wine are going to be joined to that word, and Christ's body and blood are going to be there. It doesn't make sense in my head, but Jesus says "This is what's happening." And I believe it.

Now, we're all familiar with John 3:16. And I bet if I wanted to, I could ask you to say it. But I won't. Because I trust that you have it memorized. And besides, I can't really see the screen. So maybe Jonathan would flash it up there and you'd all... But what if somebody doesn't know what John 3:16 is? They just see John 3:16.

In the olden days, it might be a phone number to call. Operator, I'd like John 3:16. And maybe the operator says "sorry, there is no exchange by that name."

But you see, we come to know what John 3:16 is, because we've learned it in Sunday school, and we've carried it with us all our lives. So, when we see that sign in the baseball stadium, or the basketball arena at, we know immediately what it is, what they're communicating. But somebody that doesn't know John 3:16. "What does that mean?"

And really, flesh can't understand what it means. Because it's only those who have the Spirit and have been born of the Spirit that can understand and believe it. And then we always want to forget verse 17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him."

God didn't send His Son into the world to condemn the world. He didn't need to. Sinful people do a good enough job at that themselves. Even sinful Christians do a pretty good job of that themselves. But God sent His Son into the world that those who believe in Him might not perish but have eternal life.

If I were to ask you, what is the greatest gift God, has given you, I imagine answers might vary. I imagine there'd be in the list: forgiveness of sins, freedom from the power of the devil. Probably even maybe freedom from the grave. And there might be all sorts of numbers of earthly blessings.

But what if I told you, there's one gift from God that encompasses all of those, and then some. Where would eternal life fall on your list? Really should be at the top of the list.

I once had a conversation with an individual following a church service in which we talked about baptism and eternal life. And how in our baptism, God gives to us and we receive eternal life through the Spirit. Then we're living this eternal life right now, even in the midst of a sinful world, even in the midst of hardship and trial. We're living this eternal life. But we just don't realize it ocmpletely, because we're still in this time and space in this body of sin, this world of sin. And the individual said, "Gee, Pastor, I never heard it that way or thought of it that way. I thought eternal life was something that I received when I died."

Maybe that's what you thought. But eteral life was given to you at the moment of your baptism. And you and I, we've been living that eternal life, because we've been born from above by water and the word and the Spirit. And God has revealed His truth to us. And His Spirit enables us to believe that word, even to believe that there's three persons in one God. That there's bread and wine and body and blood together in the sacrement. That ordinary water becomes a power word, powerful water of regeneration and cleansing. And it's all God's doing. Everything is God's doing. Our creation. Our redemption. Our being called out of this world. It's all God's doing.

Jesus goes on and He's explaining to Nicodemus. So He, before He goes on to the Heavenly truth, he speaks the Earthly: that which Nicodemus would understand. He says "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have eternal life. For God, did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him."

Nicodemus would have understood that story, that event. During The Exodus, the people grumbled against God and Moses. God sent fiery serpents to bite the people. And if they were bit, they died. Well, that got the people's attention, and they realized they had sinned against God. So, they come to Moses, and they say, "Moses, we've sinned against God. And you, will you plead with God to take away these serpents that we might live?"

And Moses pleaded with God. But God didn't take away the serpents. The serpents remained. But he did tell Moses, "make a serpent out of bronze and put it on a pole and set it up, and anyone who's bit may look upon it and live." God kept the serpents in the world, kept the serpents there to bite the people as they grumbled and complained. But He gave them a promise and a hope that if they looked at that bronze serpent, they'd live. So, some people trusted that word of promise of God, they looked at the serpent and they lived. And then they went to their neighbors and their friends, an their family who were bitten, and they pleaded with them "look to the serpent and live!" And they said, "no way am I going to look at that serpent. How is looking at that serpent going to make me live? How is it going to take away the venom?" Well, it really wasn't the serpent, it was God's promise. And so they didn't look, and they died, they died. And Jesus says, in a similar way, "The Son of Man - guess who that is? That's me, Nicodemus - just as Moses lifted up the serpent, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God, did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him."

So people ask, why is there all this sin and death and all this violence in our world? Can't God just get rid of it? Well, sure God could. "Sin be gone!"

The other week - I have a smartphone, but I'm not really smart enough to use it. And I did something that mucked it up. And, if you've ever done that, there's a way you can reset your phone to the way it was when you purchased it. Now, you probably want to back everything up, well you should do that before you muck it up, but that's another story. But anyways, you can hit this reset button and it'll make it back to the way it was when you bought it. Some computers allow you do that too. Wipes everything else and reinstalls everything that was on it when you bought it. Couldn't God have just hit the reset after Adam and Eve disobeyed, and everything would have been back to the way it was before they disobeyed? And then you need to just make sure they didn't disobey again? Well sure, He could have. God's powerful, almighty. He can do anything, but He chose to leave sin in the world. But He gave a hope, He gave a promise. He said, "Look to my Son on the cross. He is suffering and dying for your sin, and He's going to rise again, that you might also rise. And that you might receive the benefits of His suffering and death and resurrection, I send forth my Holy Spirit to work faith in you, whereby you may receive those gifts as your own.

So, we look to the cross, and we look to Jesus, and we are saved. Our sin is forgiven, we're triumphant over the grave, The sting of sin and the devil, they've lost their power over us. But we still deal with sin in our lives and around us. And we plead with our neighbors and our friends and our relatives who are struggling with sin, who are struggling in unbelief, and we say, "Just look to Jesus!"

And they say, "No way! How does that man dying 2000- some years ago on a cross outside Jerusalem, what's that going to do for me?"

And so, they won't look, and they won't life. They'll die. And you say by "But Pastor, we die, too!" We all die. But they'll die the second death. You know, the death that the rich man dies and he's in Hades. He's in hell. And he's looking up at Abraham and Lazarus.

All I have to do is trust God's promise. But again, we can't do that, apart from God's gracious, work in us. So while we're pleading with our friends and our family and our neighbors to look to Jesus, we probably ought to be praying too, "Holy Spirit work through Your word in their heart." To take to heart what Jesus is saying here, that they can have eternal life, they can be free from sin and death.

But many in the world, they think all the church is about is condemnation. Don't do this, don't do that. You shouldn't be doing this, you shouldn't be doing that. And boy, are you ever going to get it because you did that. And you did that. And I suppose, sometimes, that's what they hear.

At the beginning of the service, you confessed, your sin. That's between you and God. I don't know what you confessed, or what you needed to confess. That's between you and God. But God didn't funnel through me a word of condemnation, to take you to task for what you did during the week that you shouldn't have done, did I? I'm guessing if I would have, I wouldn't be preaching to anybody right now, would I?

But you see, God speaks love. God speaks forgiveness. And we receive that benefit because of our faith. Because of our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of Man who is lifted up. And we find no condemnation in Him. And we have eternal life. And we live in that blessed eternal life, so that when our body wears out - and it will wear out - our spirit lives on. Because it's been renewed in the water with the word.

And so, the Trinity - don't try and figure it out. Just trust.

We have graduates with us. We wish them God's blessing as they enter into a new chapter in their world. I'm not a math student. I hated algebra, I hated geometry. I found no use for Euclid and his theories and theorems whatsoever. My dad said, "trust me, you'll use this someday." I said, "I doubt it, I doubt it."

I guess I'm using it almost everyday. I am just not thinking of it as algebra or geometry.

In a similar way, our faith trusts God is three persons in one God, I don't need to explain to anybody. Because that's how God reveals Himself. And you don't have to explain it to anybody either. I suppose you could hand them the Athanasian Creed, but that's just going to confuse them.

But simply live your life as the Lord would want you to live. And they'll see that this faith that you confess, oh it's real. It's genuine. And it's not like anything the world has to offer. And the Holy Spirit will work through the word of God that you share, through your prayer for those individuals who are lost. And soon, they'll find that their lives have been changed forever. Just as your life and mine have been changed forever by that gracious action of the Trinity at work in our lives. The Trinity in action.

And now, may that same Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, keep our hearts, and our minds in faith in Christ Jesus, unto life Everlasting. Amen.