May 30, 2021 Sermon
Sermon title: "The Holy Trinity"
Scripture: John 3:1-10
(Other lectionary suggestions include Psalm 29, Isaiah 6:1-8, and Romans 8:12-17.)
John 3:1-10
Nicodemus Visits Jesus
1Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." 3Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." 4Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" 5Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, "You must be born from above.' 8The 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." 9Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" 10Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
One thing you can count on in the Christian calendar is a sermon on the Trinity. Indeed, today is Trinity Sunday - but the lectionary choices for such a topic are pretty abysmal! Why do I say that? Because even though we may believe in the Trinity, nowhere in the Bible is the word "trinity". True, we have words like Father and Son and Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit......but you will not find the word "trinity".
Well, you might be saying, "Aren't they the same, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?" Perhaps. But again, there is still no word "trinity" in the whole Bible. That isn't a problem for me, and I hope not for you. In the United Church of Christ there is a saying, "God is still speaking". I believe that, and I hope that you do, too. We believe in a living God, and simply because there are no more Biblical writings does NOT mean that God stopped speaking. Look at slavery. There were slaves in the Bible, and God says nothing against the concept in the Good Book. But you and I and everybody we know - I hope! - would agree that slavery is wrong. Why? Because, I believe, God is still speaking.
Look at our own country: up until a hundred years ago, women couldn't vote, and I doubt if there is anybody here who thinks they still shouldn't! But what does it say in the Constitution? Nothing! I mean, not only do I believe that God is still speaking; in a way our Constitution is still speaking, too! When that document was written, slavery was legal, and some of those who wrote it owned slaves! But nowhere in America does slavery legally exist, and in my mind, God was speaking when mankind decided in the 18th century that slavery was wrong, and in the 19th century I believe Abraham Lincoln felt God was speaking to him when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
What does all this have to do with the concept of the Trinity? Everything, because the concept of the Trinity EVOLVED from what we believe about God and Jesus. In 325 A.D., the Emperor Constantine called for there to be a council at the town of Nicea. He wanted a unified empire united under one religion. And that religion was of course Christianity. He wanted ideas about Jesus to be similar. and he did not want any disagreement! So, what we have is the Nicene Creed.
Here's what I think: once you believe that God and Jesus are one and the same, as the Nicene Creed says, then you almost HAVE to have a Third Person or Holy Spirit. Why? Because in the Gospel of John, Jesus says he will send his Advocate. Also, Jesus is gone from the scene, but the first disciples believed that he was still with them in some way. He even said so in Matthew near the end: "Behold, I am with you always, even until the end of the age." How, may I ask, is he or will he be with us? Through the Holy Spirit! Well, you may ask, is the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Jesus or the Spirit of God? The answer? YES! I mean, if you believe God and Jesus are One, as Jesus says in the Gospel of John, then the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Both!
But do you see why we MUST have a Doctrine of the Trinity, even though it is not mentioned in the Bible? Because if Jesus and God are One, and Jesus has promised that he will be with us always, and we know he is not here in the flesh because we had a sermon on the Ascension, how will he be with us other than through the Holy Spirit? So, the Doctrine of the Trinity is an intellectual NECESSITY once you insist that Jesus and God are One Person.
I started out saying that you could count on a sermon on the Trinity if you followed the Christian calendar. Why? Here's why: Jesus, we believe, was crucified dead and buried and then rose from the grave. That's the Resurrection, and we celebrate that on Easter Sunday, as you know. Sometime later, after many post-Resurrection appearances, Jesus leaves the earthly scene, and in the calendar there is an Ascension Sunday. Following the Ascension is Pentecost, which I preached about last Sunday. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends upon the Church.
Now - guess what? Trinity Sunday happens, because the Church is trying to explain why we now believe in a Triune God, or, as the hymn "Holy X 3" says, "God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity". "Person" comes from the Latin "persona", which means "mask". Officially we believe in a God who expresses himself/herself in three ways or with three personas or in three expressions: God as Father, God as Son, and God as Holy Spirit.
If that's all too much for you, I understand. If it's too complicated, I understand. Perhaps, it could be argued, that we have too much Greek thought in our early theology, and the Greek attempt in trying to put too much philosophy into our theology. That complexity contributed to the rise of Mohammed and Islam around 600 A.D. The complex Christian theology about a 3-faced God made Mohammed and his followers yearn for what the Hebrews already believed: God is ONE. The Christians in those early years of the church, say, in the 400's A.D., also fought among themselves, and that animosity between Christian and Christian also contributed to the rise of Islam. Followers of Islam were not immune from controversy, however, and a split developed between Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims. That controversy was whether the authority passed through Mohammed, who had no biological sons of his own, or his nephew, who was called Ali, I believe. But that's about the extent of my knowledge of the history of Islam. Amen!
Pastor Skip
