God in Three Persons - Holy Trinity Isaiah 6:1-8 John 3:1-17

Good morning!  It is Trinity Sunday, the Sunday on which many pastors prefer to hand over the responsibility for the sermon to the assistant minister or a guest preacher.  The Holy Trinity is not a simple topic on which to preach, in fact, Trinity Sunday is the only day of the entire church year that is devoted exclusively to a doctrine—which is never mentioned by name in Scripture.

St. Athanasius used to describe the Trinity as – “incomprehensible”, and yet, no matter how intimidating the Trinity’s doctrinal depth and complexity, it is extremely important, because was in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that the confessors endured persecution and the martyrs were willing to shed their blood.  Inspired by this belief in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, missionaries spread the word to countless others.  Indeed, had someone not shared the amazing but complex Good News, with us, none of us would be worshipping here today.

The doctrine of the Trinity is, for this and for other reasons, serious business!  And as is the case with all Christian doctrines, we can only begin to understand its true depth, complexity, and importance when viewed from the perspective of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

When we think about the Trinity abstractly, it is ever so easy to forget that the central tenet of our faith is not just that we are created by God, but that God walks among us, most fully in the person of Jesus, and also in the face of the stranger and the oppressed and the marginalized, and God leads us to new depths of faithfulness in the power of the Holy Spirit. In fact, this isn’t something that has happened in history; no, God is still, even at this very moment and in every moment, creating, walking among us, and leading us.

By the same measure, viewing the doctrine of the Trinity from the vantage point of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, it is impossible to understand the crucifixion without believing that it is God made human flesh in the person of Jesus by the power of the Spirit who dies on the cross and rises from the grave.

It is not God demanding something from someone else, and exacting a monstrous punishment; rather, it is God’s selfless giving of Godself to die so that death could be defeated once and for all for our sake.

In the same way, it is impossible to understand the resurrection of Jesus apart from believing that God made human flesh in the person of Jesus is resurrected through God’s own will and action in the power of the Spirit. God’s life and love are bigger even than the most monstrous and cruel consequences of human sinfulness.

And finally, the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity makes necessary the conviction that God’s Holy Spirit comes to us and abides with us unto eternity, guiding us and leading us into all Truth.

Today’s Gospel gives us the story of an influential and respected Jewish elder, Nicodemus, sneaking off after dark, to see Jesus.  Coming at that hour, Nicodemus was hopeful that no one he knew would see or recognize him, because he didn’t want anyone to know he was even vaguely interested in this controversial Rabbi. 

And Jesus sees and understands exactly what is going on, how a person driven by both curiosity and faith has come to find the Truth.  Nicodemus begins the encounter by respectfully greeting Jesus.  Nicodemus is a believer in Jesus’ power and holiness, but as he arrives in the dark, he is also struggling with inner darkness.  In his greeting of Jesus, he is capable of making a statement of faith, but his actions reveal that he is not yet filled with the light of Truth, which would give him the courage, the conviction, to respond to Jesus in the daylight.

Instead, Nicodemus has come at night looking for more information, more answers, that he believes only Jesus can give him.  This is how all thinking, sensible people operate.  They gather the facts, and if there aren’t enough facts to clarify a situation, they go in search of more.  No doubt, Nicodemus believes Jesus will fill him in on whatever information he, Nicodemus, lacks, clear up any doubts, and make the situation, i.e. Jesus exact relationship to God the Father, crystal clear.  But Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”

Nicodemus, hindered by his all too human understanding of things, listens to what Jesus has to say, and our Gospel today contains one of those beautiful passages we often hear quoted.   The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

Born again, born of the Spirit.  Nicodemus doesn’t really get it, and for centuries Christians have been trying to explain it, to clarify it, to “get it”. Today’s Gospel isn’t a clear reference to the Holy Trinity, no such complete reference exists in our Bible, but it is part of the beautiful, love filled story.  And it is a love story.

It is the Holy Trinity that gives us perhaps the most complete understanding of what God is like: God creates us purely out of His love and desire for relationship; relentlessly pursues us, even stepping in to offer to die so that we might live; and abides with us.

The Trinity helps us see God more fully as God is. It refines and purifies our understanding, our theology, even our evangelism, as a coal taken from the incense burner purified Isaiah’s unclean lips.

It is the God we meet in the inexplicable unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who, at every moment, asks, “Whom can I send as a prophet to tell the world about me?”  We cannot understand fully with our limited human intelligence, Who it is who calls us, but we can accept it in our hearts. 

May each of us, strengthened, purified, and nourished by that self-same God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in humility and boldness, respond to that call and say, “Here am I; send me.”

In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.