May 30, 2021 – Holy Trinity Sunday Text: John 3:1-17
Dear Friends in Christ,
It’s Holy Trinity Sunday. A day to take a deep breath and confess the incomprehensible – God as one divine being in three divine persons, A Unity in Trinity and a Trinity in Unity. Or as we say tri-une. “Neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.” But it’s sure confusing, isn’t it? We were baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We invoke Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our worship. But are we any closer to wrapping our minds around it on this side of the resurrection? Now we know only in part. You can’t rationalize it – you can only believe and confess it.
Analogies can be tricky. Some compare the tri-unity of God to three phases of water – solid ice, liquid water, gaseous steam. Three forms of H2O – water. Sounds good, but it doesn’t hold water for long. You can have ice without steam and steam without liquid water, and in the end they are three different forms of the same thing.
The best we can offer is the triangle or the tricycle. Take away any leg and you no longer have a triangle. Take away any wheel and you no longer have a tricycle and you aren’t going anywhere. Before we put our theology to rest let’s just say this today . . .
“IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT”
Today is a reminder we can’t fit God in a box or fit Him neatly inside our heads. We dust off the venerable 5th century creed named after St. Athanasius (though he didn’t write it) and we recite all the undivideds and incomprehensibles and when you get to the Amen, you feel as though you haven’t quite said it all, or maybe you’ve said too much. And that’s good. St. Paul reminds us we see dimly through smoky glass. We are only given what God revealed to us, no more or less.
And that’s the point. God tells us who He is. We don’t make God in our image – that’s an idol. God revealed Himself, and we try our best to say what God revealed. And at the end of this Holy Trinity Sunday, we won’t be any closer to understanding God or explaining Him. But we will have confessed Him and worshipped Him.
God reveals Himself as Father. Our Father. This is where it all begins – the head, the source, provider, protector, defender. Fatherly goodness and mercy. The Father begets the Son who sends the Spirit who proclaims the Son who brings us to the Father.
The Father loves the world so He sends the Son. The Son is lifted up. Lifted up with our sin, lifted up on a cross, lifted up from the grave, lifted up to the right hand of the Father. Jesus is the antidote for our sin. Imagine having a cure for every disease known to man? We have that vial and it is labeled “Jesus Christ crucified for your sins and raised for your justification.” It’s free. You don’t need an appointment or physician approval. No call to the insurance company because there is no cost to you. It’s all-gratis in the Word that forgives you, the Baptism that makes you His child, the bread of Christ’s body and the wine of His blood.
The Holy Spirit delivers the medicine. He is the breath of God, blowing over the dry, dead bones of this world and making them alive in Jesus.
In our text, Nicodemus has a Holy Trinity encounter with Jesus. He doesn’t get it. He can’t grasp it. He keeps asking these questions. Similar to many of us. “Pastor but what about this? Pastor what about that? How can this be?” Early in my ministry I stopped being the Shell answer man. I tried faking a good answer but people see through that. Sometimes, I have to tell you, “I don’t know.” I believe. I confess. Even if it is not fully understood.
“How can a man be born again?” Jesus replies with a double Amen. “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of Spirit is spirit.” He goes on to tell Nicodemus not to rationalize it. You can no more box up the Spirit than you can capture the wind. Listen to the voice preaching to you and believe.
Water and Spirit. Wind and water. That’s the creative womb for the Word to conceive and bear. Water and Spirit were at creation. Water and Spirit at Jesus’ baptism. Water and Spirit at Pentecost. You must be born anew but that doesn’t mean you get to decide. Did you decide to be born the first time? No one consulted you about that. If you were baptized as an infant, no one had a mealtime discussion with you. For many of the important decisions in your life, no one ever asked you. It is all of God’s doing, not ours.
You may have topped the Apgar charts as a baby. You may have been the smartest, most beautiful baby in the nursery, but you were born into the death of your father Adam. You inherited his sin. You can’t fix that. You must die and rise. You must be born anew. And you are. Born from above. A new, heavenly birth through the Holy Spirit. Your new birth in Jesus makes you a child of God.
Nicodemus still struggled. Somewhere along the way he got it. He helped to bury Jesus. Wherever there is water and Spirit there is new creation in Christ the Word. Trust his Word. Have faith in your new creation. Through your doubting’s and questions you are loved by the Father, through His Son Jesus, in the Holy Spirit. And in the triune love of God, you will live forever. Amen.