Sermons for the Month
Open the Box! Let God Out!
DATE: June 15th, 2003
SERVICE: Holy Trinity Sunday
TEXT: John 3:1-17“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
Have you heard the old story about a man climbing a huge mountain, who suddenly lost his footing? He tumbles down into a large canyon, wildly clutching at anything to break his fall. Luckily, he grabs hold of a tiny branch growing out of a rock. Hanging on for dear life, he looks down and realizes he is suspended a good hundred feet above the canyon floor. He looks up to the heavens and shouts, "Is there anybody up there who can help me?" A booming voice from the sky says, "I will help you, my son, but you must have faith. First, I want you to let go of the branch you are holding." There's a long silence, and then the mountain climber looks up and says, "Is there anybody ELSE up there who can help me?" There are a number of reasons that story makes us chuckle. Most of us can identify with the struggle involved in, as the saying goes, "Letting go and letting God." We also have this tendency to seek new answers if we don't particularly like the ones we have received. In these very human responses it's clear that we lose track of who God is. So, we set aside one day in the church year to focus on the nature of God. We do that today, Holy Trinity Sunday, as we emphasize the doctrine of the Trinity. This is a topic that is never easy. One of the first times I preached on this subject I turned to a resource titled, A Theological Word Book of the Bible and found that the word Trinity is not listed. That's not a good sign. As it turns out, though, there's a logical explanation. The word Trinity is never used in the Bible. However, the concept is certainly a Biblical one, and it is often mentioned in scripture. The Doctrine of the Trinity is unique to Christianity. It is a term referring to the fact that there is one God who is Divine, and is made known to us in three ways, or aspects. Using traditional language, in the Trinity God is revealed to us as the Father, Creator, who brought the world into being and provides for it. God is revealed to us as Jesus Christ, the Son, who redeems us. And, God is revealed to us as the Holy Spirit, the sanctifier, who gives us the gift of faith and makes us holy. There is no comparison from daily life that completely parallels the Doctrine of the Trinity, but one that might shed some light on the subject is to take one of us - Bob, for example - and note that he is a human being. As a human being, Bob has varying aspects. He is a husband. He is a father. He is an organist. He relates to his wife, Connie, in ways that differ from how he interacts with his children in his role as a father. In fact, his relationship with each child is probably unique. And, how he communicates with all of us through music is another thing altogether. He is one person, a human being, who has multiple ways of interacting in the world. Yet, he remains one human being. So it is with God, the Divine being, who has multiple ways of interacting with the world, yet remains one Divine being. While this concept is a difficult one to grasp, and some may find it limiting, I think it can expand our understanding of God. It seems to me that we often put God in a box, we define God by human terms, and struggle to embrace a God who is far beyond what we can even imagine and who interacts with us in an unending variety of ways. In today's Gospel lesson the view that Nicodemus has of God is challenged. It's an interesting story. Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin (which means that he was a teacher and Jewish leader) came to Jesus with a concern. We don't know exactly what that concern was, though, because Nicodemus never expressed it. Here's what happened. Nicodemus evidently had seen Jesus perform miracles and was impressed. So, he came to see him under the cover or darkness, perhaps because he did not want to be seen, or maybe he simply did not want to contend with the crowds. Nicodemus begins a conversation with Jesus by complimenting him, but he never really says why he's there. And, he never gets the opportunity to do so. Jesus responds to the greeting with a challenging statement, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." What? There's no doubt that Nicodemus is confused. What is Jesus talking about? As far as he knows there is only one way to enter God's kingdom, and that's through careful observance of the Law and of Jewish traditions. That's how one establishes a relationship with God. Following the rules of faith was, for him, the path that led to salvation. But, in is conversation with Jesus he is told that salvation depends of being born from above. This is such a radical concept that Nicodemus can't grasp it. He cannot imagine what it might mean to be born from above. So, he begins to ask silly questions about literally being reborn. Our initial response is, "How could he be so stupid?" The answer is that he probably never considered it possible for salvation to come through any means but obeying Jewish law. (One might say that he had put God in a box.) Finally, Jesus makes it clear how one can be born from above. His explanation has become one of the most quoted texts from the Bible, the words of John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Did you ever notice that in that well-known verse we find the Trinity? God loves the world that God made - including us. This love is so great that God sent his son, Jesus, to die on the cross - for us. When, with the Holy Spirit's help, we believe, eternal life is given - to us. The nature of God, then, is to lovingly create, lovingly forgive and lovingly give us the gift of faith. One God, multiple ways of interacting with us, that all add up to new life. Did Nicodemus allow his God out of the box? We don't know for sure, but we do sense that his whole life was thrown into turmoil as he struggled with this new concept of God. How could he deny the powerful words and presence of Jesus? But was he transformed? Perhaps … in the last Biblical reference made to Nicodemus, he asks for the body of Jesus in order to provide for its burial. And what about us? How do we put God in a box, limiting the ways that God can interact with us and with the world? Are we open to new birth from the Spirit? Can we allow scripture to come alive to us in new ways? In our worship services - whether we come from a more traditional or contemporary point of view - are we open to being surprised by God? The question is, are we willing to be transformed, to engage in, as one writer put it, "the life-long process of being made whole in God?" Isn't that was Jesus wanted Nicodemus to accept? And isn't that what Jesus wants for us? Could it be that the whole purpose of the Trinity is so that there will be many avenues through which God can touch us? It's so easy for us to accept status qua - even if it hasn't been status qua for all that long - to hold firmly to that which is comfortable and familiar, to shy away from challenges or to become apathetic in the face of difficult situations, especially those that seem to be on-going. And yet, the Trinity is never stagnant, and God is constantly being revealed to us ways too numerous to count. Going back to that humerous story I told, if God tells us to let go of the branch, then that's what we should do so that we can be introduced to yet another aspect of God's creating, forgiving, empowering self. Again and again and again we are born from above, children of a God whose nature it is to explode out of the box of human-making, and interact with us in ways that we can only begin to grasp. AMEN