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The
Message of the Triune God Today is Trinity Sunday, and indeed, it is probably one of the most difficult Sundays on which to preach because we know so little about the purpose of the Trinity in terms of our Christian journey. On this Sunday, we seek to make sense of the Trinity and make it applicable to our own Christian relationship with the living God. We know a great deal about the doctrine of soteriology, which is the study of the person and work of Jesus Christ. We're even familiar with what is called the doctrine of ecclesiology, the study of the church and the Holy Spirit. But talk about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity becomes somewhat convoluted because we need to figure out how to apply the doctrine of the Trinity to our lives. In today's Gospel lesson, Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, seeking to understand Jesus' purpose, mission and work. It's important to understand Nicodemus, what makes him different than all others in Israel? Nicodemus is a Pharisee, a high-ranking government official, which means he's the cream of the crop in society. He's well- respected, well known, and has an image to uphold. Yet he visits an itinerant, uneducated preacher, an outcast from temple circles, the circles of society, someone whose company it would be better to avoid. Nicodemus approaches Jesus at night to ask him about this God who has been the subject of his preaching and proclamations. Nicodemus comes seeking instruction. He is willing to break free of all of the stereotypes, and the cultural boundaries. He's willing to risk being marked as an outcast in order to seek the God of Christ. Nicodemus comes to Jesus and asks a question. He says, "What must one do to be born again?" Jesus tells him. Under the cloak of darkness, Nicodemus is instructed in how to understand and meet this triune God. Jesus has been preaching about a loving God, a God that seeks to bring each and every one of us into fellowship and community. Though an educated member of the Pharisaic community, and outstanding religious leader, Nicodemus isn't aware of this particular God. In the course of their conversation, Jesus tells Nicodemus that one must be born again. Nicodemus thinks that Jesus is saying one must reenter the womb and come out a different person, a new person. What he is really saying is that you must stop looking at the Scriptures from the legalistic perspective and must view it through the heart. This is something new to Nicodemus because he is so legalistic in his approach to Scripture. There are laws which govern religious activity in Israel such as dietary laws, laws regarding the unclean and lepers - and these are the laws by which Nicodemus' own life takes shape and form. Jesus stands opposed to everything that Nicodemus believes and stands for, everything that he was taught from day one. Jesus reflects nothing of what Nicodemus was brought up to believe, profess and teach. Yet there is something about Jesus and his ministry, the message in the Gospel that he preaches, that propels Nicodemus to seek Jesus at night. I would suspect that Nicodemus followed Jesus from time to time, not to be a thorn in his side but to better understand this Triune God. He probably wondered, what is it about this man that allows him to preach such a wonderful message that transcends all that I believe? What is it about Jesus that draws the homeless, the hungry? What is it about Jesus that brings him into fellowship and community with the outcasts? Somehow the picture of the Triune God becomes real for Nicodemus, but he's not able to articulate that encounter. From the outset it seems as if he's talking about three different Gods - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - and Nicodemus as a devout Jew cannot accept that image. He can't buy into it, and yet Jesus is preaching about the same God that he grew up believing. But Jesus is widening the scope. Jesus is trying to get Nicodemus to understand that there's more than one way of understanding the power and the mystery of God. Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, "You have resigned yourself to understanding God only from the legalistic perspective. If you really want to know and understand the Triune God, you must be willing to do the very things that you were taught not to do. You cannot continue to see the eyes of God and the work of the Gospel through legalistic terms. You must do away with the canons and constitutions that keep your organization together, and you must respond to the conditions of the world through the eyes of the heart." This is truly a new concept for Nicodemus. Those in the Pharisaic community probably thought they were living out Scripture through the eyes of the heart, but that doesn't account for the outcasts, the marginalized, the disenfranchised members of Israel's community. It doesn't say anything about the inner circle, the privileged in society. Indeed, Nicodemus comes to Jesus because he truly wants to be free to preach the message of God as he sees fit. He wants to break down the walls that keep him chained to the legalistic view of religion. He wants earnestly to step forward and be able to profess and proclaim the same God that Jesus is so free to proclaim. Nicodemus wants to be released, and yet in a way, he's stuck between a rock and a hard place because he's an outstanding member of society. He cannot be seen with this itinerant preacher. He's not allowed to be seen in public, and so in a sense, out of embarrassment and shame, he seeks Jesus' presence at nighttime. Nonetheless, we have to appreciate Nicodemus because he does seek Jesus. He does seek to increase knowledge, to deepen and widen his understanding of this Triune God that Jesus is preaching about. And so Nicodemus, willing to go out at night, earnestly desires to understand the presence, the mystery of God's work among God's people. Not long ago I was at the Memphis airport about to take a flight out to a friend's wedding. I was walking toward the door when I saw this guy outside. He was praising God all over the place. "Thank God. Praise Jesus." There wasn't a large crowd around the guy. In fact, it was so busy, people were so busy trying to get in or out, trying to bring order to their lives, that no one really paid attention to him. I paused for a moment and looked at this man, trying to figure out what would make an individual come to the airport to praise God. Of all places, why the airport? I remember thinking to myself that although I wasn't certain why he was there, maybe it was because the airport is so busy; perhaps it's the place where people feel the most disconnected not only from one another but from God. Think about it. When you travel, you're in a rush. Everything seems to be in disarray. Some of us arrive right before the door closes. If you're like me, you worry about your e-ticket and suspect your name won't be in the computer like it should be. I don't have time to listen to a guy proclaim Jesus Christ or talk about the goodness of God. Nonetheless, I stopped and listened to him, and as I did I realized that this man was doing exactly what Nicodemus wants to do. He wants the freedom to go public and proclaim the God of Jesus Christ, the liberating God, the God that gives identity and freedom to culture. But he can't. He's an outstanding member of society. He'll step outside the boundaries if he begins to proclaim the love of God like Jesus. He'd be no better than Jesus, that uneducated itinerant preacher, that troublemaker. Yet Jesus says to Nicodemus, "If you want to be like the guy standing in front of the Memphis airport, the man who is praising God and thanking Jesus without any care in the world as to who's hearing and what people have to say, then you must be willing to change. The Gospel must convict you, and if you are not convicted, then your religious life is nothing more than duty and obligation. If you want to better understand the mystery of the triune God, this God that is liberating, then you must be willing to make it a passion." You see, Jesus is able to preach freely not because it's an obligation. He's able to heal the sick, raise the dead, make the deaf hear or the lame walk because it's a passion. He has a passion for preaching the message of the Triune God. For Nicodemus, it's obligation. It's duty. It's expected of him. Jesus tells Nicodemus, "You'll better understand what I'm saying when I am lifted high up on the cross, like Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness. Then it will make sense to you. Then you will understand the power, the mystery behind the work of the Triune God." Remember in the Old Testament, the Israelites in the wilderness are bitten by snakes. Moses lifts up a serpent, and all who look at it are healed. (By the way, I learned not long ago, that the serpent on a doctor's patch is the serpent lifted my Moses.) Jesus says to Nicodemus, "If you look at me when I am lifted up, then the message of the Triune God will make sense to you. You will then be liberated and free to preach and proclaim the message given to you, but you must be willing to break free. You must be willing, 'It doesn't matter what people think, what they say, what culture thinks about the message of Jesus Christ.' You must be so convicted by the Gospel that you could care less about what people say or think." I believe Nicodemus earnestly wants that for himself. He wants to be able to throw off the mantle and be a faithful minister of God. He desperately wants to bring the presence of God, this Triune God, into the life of the community, but he can't because of community. He seeks to bring the message of the triune God to the very body that prohibits him from doing so. Are you allowed to preach the message of the Triune God in your own lives? Are you free enough to go public, to stand firm in what you believe and praise God and thank Jesus regardless of what people say? I hope and pray that you are. Indeed, many of us can relate to Nicodemus. We know what it's like to really want to do something but not feel free enough to do it. Instead we feel confined by our desire to stay in step with the rest of culture. We're not interested in rocking any boats or upsetting or offending anyone. So we keep what we believe to ourselves. Yet Jesus says to Nicodemus, "If you want to understand what this is all about, if you really want to understand what it means to be free to praise God, then you must be born again." When Jesus says born again, he's not thinking of the Pentecostal understanding of born again, where you go through a second or third baptism and from that moment on you live your life as if you're free of sin and guilt. First John says that if profess to have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth isn't in us. Thus we know Jesus is not talking about that. But what he is saying is that if you're willing to change the way you see the world, and if you're willing to look at the world and the Gospel through the heart, then that frees you to preach the message of the triune God. Indeed, I applaud Nicodemus, in his efforts and his desire. He will stand up for Jesus later on, closer to the crucifixion. He'll defend Jesus, and he'll defend Jesus out of that commitment, out of that conviction. My prayer for each and every one of you and for myself is that we're free enough to preach the Gospel handed to us, that we're bold enough to stand firm and praise God and give thanks to Jesus. May God bless you in your ministry to God's people and lift you up to new heights. Amen. Copyright 2000 Calvary Episcopal Church Gospel:
John 3:1-16 |
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