[0:00] May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in thy sight. O Lord, our Rock and Redeemer, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
[0:11] Please be seated. Today is Trinity Sunday, the day we have set aside in the church year to commemorate the central doctrine and mystery of our faith.
[0:25] That God is one in three persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Most Holy Trinity. We affirm this in the Nicene Creed every Sunday when we say, I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, and in one Lord, Jesus Christ.
[0:45] And I believe in the Holy Ghost, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified. This truth is the most fundamental truth that has been revealed to us.
[0:58] When we say that we worship God, we are saying that we worship the Holy Trinity. Despite this being the foundational reality of our faith, it can be difficult to see why it is foundational.
[1:11] It seems that this kind of belief is something that belongs to the realm of the academics, something that we do not need to bother ourselves with. One God in three persons?
[1:22] That seems a little too complicated for me. Wouldn't it just be best for me to go to church, to receive the Eucharist, and head home without worrying about this Trinity business? Or maybe we do know at an intellectual level that the doctrine of the Trinity is important, but we don't know how it fits into our daily lives.
[1:43] I believe that our gospel text for today can help us to see why it does matter for us. When Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the night, it is because he knows that Jesus is not just another one of those teachers who claims authority but doesn't have it.
[2:00] Jesus is the real deal. And we know this because he tells Jesus this. 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.
[2:16] Well, the response that Jesus gives to Nicodemus is something that neither he nor we would expect. Most assuredly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
[2:33] Within this short exchange of words, Jesus tells Nicodemus that a person must be born from something drastically different than what we experience in this world.
[2:45] If we look back to the creation account in Genesis, we notice that it was chaotic before it was formed into something good. In the midst of that chaos, the Spirit was hovering over the waters.
[2:58] Through that chaotic darkness emerged something beautiful. The Spirit of God brought forth all kinds of things into being. The Father commanded the creation.
[3:09] The Son worked through the will of the Father to build that creation. And the Holy Spirit watched over the process with loving care. From the realm of the heavens, creation emerged out of the darkness.
[3:23] The sole reality that brought forth this creation was the unity of love found within the Holy Trinity. This essential and foundational love made all things in the beginning.
[3:39] Nicodemus knew that God had created all things because of love, but Jesus was telling him that the same thing was being required in order for someone to enter the kingdom of God.
[3:50] And the one who was telling him this is precisely the same God who is from above. Jesus tells him that no one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven.
[4:05] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
[4:18] In the same way that the Holy Trinity worked together in the unity of love to create the world from nothing, so too the Holy Trinity is still at work. He is recreating us through water, empowered by the life of the Holy Spirit, that birth from water in the Spirit.
[4:36] And that same Holy Spirit is God. And when Jesus says that we are born again, he is not just saying that God has saved us from a judgment that will happen one day.
[4:47] He is not saying that all of our boxes are now checked and we just wait. He is saying that we have been infused, all of us, with a deep love, a love that is deeper than what feelings or words can express.
[5:00] We have been made into something new. We have been remade with the stuff of the Trinity. And now our lives can show forth that love as beacons of uncreated light.
[5:14] Through our entrance into the love of the Holy Trinity by baptism, we are being unified with the uncreated source of light. Only he is due our worship. And that same uncreated source of light has become man.
[5:29] The Son of God has revealed to us the entire divine nature, even in the mystery of baptism. Let us worship and honor the Holy Trinity, that fellowship of divine persons, united in one being of love.
[5:46] Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.