Holy Trinity Sunday
May 30, 2010
St. John 3:1-17
When it comes to “God,” most people can say something. Lots of people talk about “God.” God can be just about anybody or anything. Christians have notions about God, too. Part of our problem, something we ought to repent of, though, is that when we talk about God with others, we usually just talk about “God” in an almost generic sense. Holy Trinity Sunday reminds us that the Word of God teaches that God reveals Himself as One God in three Persons and three Persons in One God. These Persons are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We confess this truth about God because it is what the Bible teaches. But the Bible teaches it because that is what Jesus Christ, the Son, reveals to us. Therefore, if we're going to be Christians, when we talk about God, it's not sort of the generic word “God,” it's a confession of Jesus Christ who is true God and true man, who reveals to us the Father and sends to us the Holy Spirit. Or, put another way, if you're not talking about Jesus, you're not really and truly talking about the true God.
Now, we can say lots of things about God. That He's Almighty and All-Powerful, that He fills heaven and earth. That He is mysterious and inscrutable and unsearchable and unfathomable. We can say that the height and depth of the riches of His wisdom are way farther than beyond finding out. (St. Paul says that too!) In fact, when most people talk about God, even when they talk about Jesus, the big deal seems to be the power and the majesty and the might. But what is most amazing, most unfathomable, most incredible, is that the Almighty God who is maker and ruler over all things, wraps up all that glory and power and hides it in the flesh of His Son and that the Son hides His glory and comes down to earth as a man. True God and true man, to be sure but a man nevertheless. And for what reason? To save us from our sins. Here you have everything that God is when Jesus says, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him.” And He says, “The Son of of Man must be lifted up.” Lifted up as in the cross. Suffering. Bleeding and dying. Here's the big thing about God on Holy Trinity Sunday: that the Son comes down to us to suffer and die for our sins. To be one of us, to die like one of us, and to take away all of our sins. And think about this: when the Lord Jesus looks least of all like God—when He's bloody and dying on the cross—that's when God is doing His greatest work of saving us from sin, death and the devil. Yes, the big thing about God is not how big He is, but that the Son comes to be our Savior!
And we don't have to figure this God out for ourselves. We don't have to imagine what He's like or guess what He does. He comes to us! Christ sends His Spirit upon you at the holy font and gives to you a new birth, from above, from the Spirit, by water and the Spirit. How do you get to know God? You're born into His family by water, word and Spirit in Holy Baptism. How does God come to you? By water and the word. Also through the preaching of Christ and even Christ Himself in His body and blood. Jesus teaches us that true faith isn't us somehow figuring God out but rather God coming to us. Think about this: the entire Holy Trinity has this one purpose: to save you from your sins. God the Father made you and sent His Son to redeem you. Christ the Son has come into this world to give His life into death for your sins and to rise again and to hold your righteousness safe in heaven. The Spirit comes to sanctify you, to make you holy by delivering to you Jesus' forgiveness by water, word, body and blood. The Triune God is a baptismal God. He's a saving and washing God. He's a down-to-earth-to-be-lifted-up-for-you God. He's a not-condemn-you but rather a save-you God.
Now listen closely. When Nicodemus comes to Jesus, he's looking for some figure-God-out kind of religion. He wants to get to know Jesus so Jesus will tell him how to figure God out. “Jesus, we know you're a prophet from God. You couldn't do all that stuff you do if you weren't. So...how do I get in?” Nicodemus wants to know how he gets on board with God. And Jesus corrects him and saves him and us and tells him: “You don't get yourself to God. God gives you birth from above by water and the Spirit and that new birth is His way of connecting you to Me, who am lifted up for the salvation of the world!” Brothers and sisters in Christ: religion isn't about knowing a bunch of facts and figures about God. It's about God coming to us and saving us from our sins! And that the Spirit takes us from the devil's kingdom and puts us in God's kingdom in Baptism. And that we, as Christians, don't go around showing off to others how much “God knowledge” we have but, rather, like Christ, doing for them whatever it is they need. Being witnesses to the world that Christ did not come to condemn but to save. When others see your life, do they think God has come to condemn or save? Something to repent of when we show off a God who is the Judge of sinners instead of the Savior of sinners.
Blessed Martin Luther once made the comment that he didn't understand why the Gospel from John 3 was read for Trinity. I hate to take issue with the blessed Doctor, but don't you see? It's ALL about the Trinity. On Holy Trinity Sunday, we celebrate the Holy Trinity! But not just as God who is bigger than us and mightier than us! We celebrate that the Father made us and sent His Son to save us. We celebrate that the Son became man in Jesus Christ and was lifted up for us on the cross. We celebrate that the Father and Son sent the Spirit to deliver that forgiveness to us and give us new life and to raise us up on the Last Day. Yes, we confess the Creeds and read the Bible, but not because they load us up with facts and information. Rather, we read the Scriptures and confess the Creeds because in them we have the Good News that God is not just an “up-there” and far away God but a God who comes down to be our Savior. Holy Trinity day celebrates that everything God does, He does for you! In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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