First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8
1In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” 8And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
Psalm 29
1Ascribe to the Lord, you gods, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his Name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. 3The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is upon the mighty waters. 4The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice; the voice of the Lord is a voice of splendor. 5The voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon; 6He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Mount Hermon like a young wild ox. 7The voice of the Lord splits the flames of fire; the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 8The voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe and strips the forests bare. 9And in the temple of the Lord all are crying, “Glory!” 10The Lord sits enthroned above the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as King forevermore. 11The Lord shall give strength to his people; the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.
Second Reading: Acts 2:14a, 22-36
14aPeter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them:
22“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know — 23this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; 26therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. 28You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ 29Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, 35until I make your enemies your footstool.’ 36Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Gospel: John 3:1-17
1There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Where is God”
Just like last Sunday, our readings for this Holy Trinity Sunday are familiar. Year after year we tackle these readings, and quite frankly, we leave understanding little more about the mystery of the Triune God we serve, than we knew the previous year. Therefore, what we really need to come away with today is, that the God of everything, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is indeed a mystery. What we believe and teach, from the earliest times of Sunday School and Catechism, is that we worship and serve the Holy Trinity, one God in 3 persons.
Here in a few minutes, we’ll take the time to responsively recite the Athanasian Creed, something we do, only on this Sunday each year. And for those willing to ponder this wonderous mystery, you can spend countless hours searching scripture and praying for understanding to how God reveals Himself to us in the persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And as your pastor, I encourage you to do this. However, I’d like to set that aside for a few minutes and come at today’s topic from a slightly different angle.
Rather than taking a traditional, historical, confessional approach to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, I’d like to suggest we examine how this complex and mysterious teaching of the church might work in modern day situations. Imagine for a moment that someone among us today has come to worship with something else on their mind. Instead of wondering if the burgers will be overcooked because we used the lengthy Athanasian Creed, the person’s mind is weighed down with the mind-numbing news that their employer of 25+ years is closing the plant and the company. All three hundred or so employees were told on Friday that they’ve worked their last week there, and a short amount of severance pay will be mailed to them in the coming weeks.
On this Holy Trinity Sunday, where is God for those people who have lost their means of putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their head? Where is God for those who have bills to pay and are now faced with the loss their family health care benefits? Does their life now have any meaning after the loss of a major source of income? Is there life for this person, after being disposed of like a commodity, which is no longer of any use to our modern high-tech culture, rendering people’s entire lives as expendable, all for the sake of the financial bottom line? How does such a Triune God make any sense in times like these?
In our gospel lesson for today, we once again encounter a religious leader of the Jews, a learned Pharisee named Nicodemus. There are many places in the New Testament where the words and actions of the Jewish religious leaders leave us with a bad tase in our mouths. However, secular historians of the time, such as Flavius Josephus, don’t paint them in such a negative manner. We often forget the times when these Jewish leaders are asking legitimate questions that many people of faith are also asking. Nicodemus could fall into this category.
Not all of John’s characters in his gospel are flat or single minded. Some are complex and are in a growing process. Nicodemus, for example was one of the two who went to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus. He along with Joseph of Arimathea went together to removed Jesus from the cross and made sure He received a proper burial. Another familiar character in St. John’s gospel is the Samaritan woman at the well in the 4th chapter. Nicodemus attempted to speak well of Jesus by acknowledging Him as a teacher who performed signs from God.
Much has been postulated about Nicodemus coming by night suggesting that he didn’t want to be seen in public with Jesus. It’s usually forwarded that, quite possibly, he feared he would lose his position, be fired as it were, if he was spotted associating with Jesus. We’ve all seen instances where people who are terminated from a job, quite often, find that those whom they thought were their friends are now cold, aloof, and keep their distance from the recently unemployed person. Thankfully, Jesus isn’t one of those people. Jesus meets us where we are — even if it’s a dark place at night.
This is the nature of Isaiah’s suffering servant in chapters 52 and 53 (52:12-53:13). Jesus is God the Son, our intercessor and redeemer, the One who is always with the people of God. It is God the Son, or the second person of the Trinity, who through the Holy Spirit walks with us each day to guide, strengthen, and comfort us. God is the Creator of all that is, seen and unseen, yet in St. John’s gospel, God comes in the flesh and dwells among God’s creation (John 1:1-14).
Jesus, to Nicodemus’ profession of faith, responded with “Very truly I say to you…” There’s something we need to take note of here: in the first century, the Greek language didn’t have writing symbols for emphasis such as italics, underscoring, or bold type. To emphasize a point, it had to be cited within the text itself. The Greek words “Amayn, amayn” (very truly) are an example of such a scribal tool to alert the readers or listener of the text. The main point is that for someone to enter the kingdom of God, they must be born of water and spirit. Most Christian traditional beliefs are that baptism is necessary on the Christian journey.
We, of course, emphasize and practice infant baptism as well as baptism for the entire family with biblical support from Matthew 28:16-20 (the Great Commission) and Acts 16 (the jailor and his whole family are baptized). Other faith traditions hold to a baptism event only after one has confessed Jesus as Savior and Lord. They can point to many conversion experiences in the Book of Acts to make this point. However, for the person whose job has been eliminated, the point is that they are now part of the kingdom of God, not by their employment status, but by virtue of their being born anew and baptized into the community of Christ. This is the good news on this Holy Trinity Sunday.
While John the Baptist’s baptism was of water (John 1:26), baptism into the kingdom of God, which Jesus announces, is both water and Spirit. Jesus doesn’t leave anyone parentless or without guidance; He promised to be with us always (Matthew 28:20). He would remind the disciples of this before His arrest later in John 14:15-18. Here He promises that the Father will send the Advocate or counselor to all people of faith. Even those who are dealing with difficult times are not alone. The God of creation, through whom all things were created, came in the flesh (1:10, 14), is the same God who would promise to send His Spirit, and through His Spirit, is lovingly present with all people of faith. We talked about this last Sunday.
The ancient church fathers wanted to affirm the traditional teaching of the one monotheistic God of Moses who gave us the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. Yet, this same God revealed Himself to us in a new way by becoming incarnate in the flesh and experience all life’s joys and sufferings beside us in the Son, or suffering servant of Isaiah 52-53. This Christ of God would come to redeem God’s creation as we see in this text of John 3:16, which is often called the gospel in a nutshell, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16.)
The promise to the person who is now unemployed is, God doesn’t want any of His creation to perish, instead He wants them to have eternal life. Later in John 10:10, this God in the flesh named Jesus, would say He wants us to have life and have it abundantly. This second person of our triune God promises both a length of life and quality of life. This is further good news for the people who have recently lost their jobs or are ones who have said an earthly goodbye to a loved one or are experiencing any other sort of recent tragedy. In difficult, even tragic, times the question is often asked, “Where’s God?” God is mysteriously and lovingly with each of us as God the Father, who is revealed to us by God the Son, and who is testified to by God the Holy Spirit. On this Holy Trinity Sunday, Christians must embrace the mystery and the complex nature of the One we serve, even the learned of any age. Nicodemus was no exception.
One of John’s literary tools is misunderstanding and irony. The Pharisee leader mistook being born again, or born from above, as meaning to return into one’s mother’s womb. The second “very truly” or Amayn, Amayn, is that the same Jesus who teaches His disciples His ways, would also one day ascend back to our heavenly Father. The Christian church is ultimately a community of faith. So, when the certitudes of science, credentialed education, and the benefits of the technology fail to explain, the church shows us a loving God who does not abandon His creation, but instead leaves us the promised Spirit of life. This is one God, and this one God has three expressions.
Later in John’s gospel, Nicodemus’ faith evolved. He was a voice reminding his Sanhedrin colleagues that Jesus’ words and ideas need to be carefully weighed according to the Hebrew Bible laws, rather than a simple knee jerk opinion made by angered leaders. After Jesus was crucified, Nicodemus provides customary embalming spices for Jesus’ body to assist Joseph of Arimathea in the burial of the body (John 19:39-42). Jesus gave this inquiring Pharisee a sense of meaning for his life, even though he may not have had all the details down regarding born of the flesh, spirit, or of eternal life.
The story is told of the time when theologian Reinhold Niebuhr grew frustrated as he was serving a congregation in an industrialized Detroit, Michigan, neighborhood. The technology of the time was superior to that of past ages, in terms of the invention of automobiles, electricity, light bulbs, radio, and many forms of entertainment such as the phonograph, later to be called the record player. With all these advances, Niebuhr saw Henry Ford, the automaker, exploiting his workers in dirty factories and for low wages.
At first, Niebuhr was attracted to the Marxist system of government or community owned industries. He thought, maybe the worker or members of the working class should be in charge of the economic means of producing wealth. Later, he saw the Soviet Union’s abuse and exploitation of its workers and farm laborers. Some even suggested that the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin murdered and abused far more of his citizens than Adolf Hitler had. Human sin remains the culprit!
Finally, Niebuhr threw his hands in the air and realized that higher education, technology, and material gain wouldn’t solve the spiritual problem of inner emptiness as a result of sin. It’s all a matter of faith in a God who cannot be controlled or manipulated. However, our sinful human nature reveals that as soon as we find such a God, humans try to control and manipulate this same God. A later theologian, Wolfhart Pannenberg, would make the same observation in one of his writings that led to his three-volume systematic theology.
The apocryphal story continues about Reinhold Niebuhr, whose disgust with both the capitalist and communist systems, led him to write a prayer, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” This is now known as the Reinhold Niebuhr, Serenity Prayer, 1951. Later on, two founders of the Alcoholics Anonymous movement, Bill Wilson and Bob Smith, would make much use of this prayer as a major tool for recovery for those who sought to fill the holes in their souls with alcoholic beverages.
On this Holy Trinity Sunday, I would suggest that it’s not as important to know about all the historical debates, conflicts, and heretical concerns that led to this confession of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I firmly believe we’ll never fully understand this mystery until Jesus returns. Rather, I’m suggesting that it’s more important how this cherished confession provides life to the church and its people—especially for those who have lost that which is very valuable to them such as their employment, or for those experiencing a difficult time in their lives.
Any unemployed person, or anyone who has recently experienced a tragic loss, or anyone who is going through a difficult time, may rest their head on their pillows each night with the confidence that whoever believes in Jesus as the Father’s suffering servant, our risen Lord and spiritual advocate, indeed has eternal life. In those times when we find ourselves asking, where’s God? The answer is, God is present to all of us in the person of the Father, as revealed to us by His Son, and who is testified to by the God of truth, the Holy Spirit.
Amen.