Trinity Sunday

Text: John 3:1-15

In the Gospel reading, Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. He’s an intelligent and insightful man. Yet, like us, he still walks in darkness. He has the knowledge of this world, and he even has knowledge of the Old Testament, but he struggles to understand God's ways.

On Trinity Sunday, we pause to observe this struggle in our own faith.

One of the traditions of Trinity Sunday is that many congregations use the Athanasian Creed to confess the mysteries of God that are beyond our understanding. All three of the Church's creeds reveal God in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They all call us not only to confess but to sit at our Father's feet and grapple with how His compassion is revealed in His Son and delivered through the work of the Spirit.

So grapple with this thought, a father's love does not depend on a child's understanding. Think of raising a child; the child receives the food, clothing, and shelter he or she needs. Yet, they take it for granted. Even as a child has a temper tantrum in the backseat of the car, even as they grow and one day wrecks the car, even as they go off and depart as the prodigal son from the home of the father, the father continues to love the child.

The great Proverb says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it." The child receives everything needed for this life, even among the tantrums. Yet, the history of the world is that of a child raging against his Father, even as he lives off his inheritance. Reflect on the Prodigal Son; it's the story of a man who takes his inheritance and runs. He lives recklessly, wasting everything he has to the point of death.

Yet, the father still loves the son. The Father waits patiently. The Father urges repentance and grants forgiveness upon the son's return. This beautiful truth is revealed through the well-known passage that follows today’s Gospel, John 3:16, “That God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

All of this is set against the opening lines of the Athanasian Creed, which says, “Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith (That is, the universal Christian faith). Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled will without doubt perish eternally."

Notice this statement reveals that knowledge does not deliver eternal life to you. Instead, the aspect of childlike faith we have been granted trusts the Word of God and leads us to salvation in Christ.

Again, reflect on the passage of John 3:16; this death and resurrection of Jesus was foreshadowed in and recalls the manner God saved the people of Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness to the Promised Land, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” It's faith in this truth that saves; it's faith in Jesus that gives eternal life. This faith propels you to good works that move you to care for your children and, in turn, for children to care for their parents. Our faith is not based on our knowledge or abilities to solve God as a rubrics cube, but rather, our faith is based on trusting Him. A trust that your sins are forgiven because of Jesus on the cross. A trust that you will be raised in the resurrection because Jesus rose from the grave.

Today, Jesus teaches Nicodemus this faith as it is set forth for you in the creeds. Jesus teaches Nicodemus about the Trinity and Baptism, the new birth from above.

The new birth from above is a birth of water and Spirit. The gift from God the Father brings us into His Holy family, receiving the Holy Spirit so that when we hear the Words of Jesus, we would joyfully believe in His Father’s mercy.

However, Nicodemus doesn’t understand and wonders, how can these things be? So Nicodemus struggles with understanding God. But what is fascinating is that even as Nicodemus comes into the darkness to Jesus, he keeps listening and struggling. He keeps struggling even to the end when he comes with Joseph of Arimathea to the tomb to help bury the Lord's body after the crucifixion.

This comforts us today because it reveals how the Christian faith is a struggle. In many ways, our path is the same as Nicodemus'. We struggle, fight, and stumble under the weight of the crosses of this life as we journey to the grave. Our lives are full of darkness. Although we have been born from above and received new life in Baptism, our flesh is weak and sinful. Our passions wage war against the Holy Spirit; the war breeds resistance to God's Word and leads us to live for ourselves.

Examine how you have been delivered from the bondage of sin in your life - the pride and bitterness, the allure of other religions and gods, and the ways you begin to rely upon your own reason and knowledge.

The deliverance you have received begins in the darkness of the font’s grave. This new birth spoken of isn’t a metaphor. Instead, it’s a gift that is received and makes you a child of God. The font of Baptism now calls you to place your trust in God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Think back to the Prodigal Son. Even while being wrapped up in sin and inclined to trust in himself rather than his father, the father continued to wait for him, his dear child.

Even as you wander, your heavenly Father also waits for you.

So take note that as you walk in the darkness of this life, the words of Christ continue to be spoken into your ears so that the light of Christ shines on you and within you. His words now give you the truth and knowledge you need in this life so that you will not wander after the things of this world but rejoice that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins. Faith in him now gives you eternal life in heaven.

Honestly, my friends, Trinity Sunday is not about figuring out the Trinity; instead, it's about adoration and praise for the Trinity and how you are given a gift no one can snatch away in Baptism. You are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. This name makes you a child of God. This name shines light into your darkened world and leads you in the way you shall go, the way of God. This light will bring you into eternal life with the blessed Trinity forever. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keeps your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Noah J. Rogness
Associate Pastor, Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church
Alexandria, VA