Year B

John 3:1-17

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Mystery that Saves

Remember the delightful movie Shakespeare in Love it won an Oscar for the best movie of 1999. That was a while back, but one of my favorite lines throughout the movie was, “I don’t know. It’s a mystery.” And that pretty much sums up what many on this day would like to say, including me, every time Trinity Sunday comes around. “I don’t know. It’s a mystery.” The mystery is the almighty God: God the Father or creator, God the Son or redeemer, and God the Holy Spirit or sustainer- the three in one. Today we celebrate the Holy Trinity and attempt to answer the question, who is God? The doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the one God in three persons…the word persons for lack of a better word, is an attempt by the church to explain a mystery that is unexplainable.

For how can we fully explain God? If we could, would God be God? What’s so wonderful about God is that God is a mystery. And it’s ok that there are things we don’t understand about God because this mystery is an expression of faith and sound theology. Holy Trinity sums up the meaning of the whole Easter feast and is important because it reminds us how God is at work in our lives to influence us for God and the good and to help direct our lives in accordance with God’s will. Now, there are many analogies out there to help us gain some understanding of this mystery but none that can truly explain it. One that I recently read about uses the cross as a visual aid. Maybe you’ve never thought of the cross as a symbol of the Trinity, but rather as a symbol just for Jesus.

But when you think about it, it makes sense-the vertical beam symbolizes God the Father, the creator, the transcendent or superior aspect of God, coming down to earth; the vertical dimension of our relationship with God. The horizontal beam of the cross can symbolize the Holy Spirit, who extends out horizontally, living and breathing in all that is. The point of intersection, the heart of the cross, symbolizes Jesus Christ, whose heart loved so much that he gave his life there on that cross for all people. When we make the sign of the cross, which by the way is okay for us non-Catholics to do, we do so as we say, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Amen.

In the texts for today, the idea of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit gets read back into these texts from the hindsight of the early Church. There is no single biblical text that explains or offers us an understanding of the Trinity. The Trinity is not a spelled-out doctrine of the New Testament. It takes the Council of Nicea, a lot of Bishop’s getting together in 325 CE to determine how best to describe the unity and equality of the three in one. We profess our faith in this triune God every time we say the Nicene Creed from the council of Nicea, which speaks to all three aspects of God’s nature that are essential for us. It is our belief as Christians that the world cannot be saved by the world-only God can save us. To serve by God’s side, we need all the resources, all the support, and all the love that our three in one God offers as creator, redeemer, and sustainer. And in each of the texts today, we get a glimpse into the active work of the triune God who enfolds us and is saving the world.

In the passage from the prophet Isaiah today, the vertical aspect of the cross is revealed: the Almighty God, all powerful and superior-of which we, like Isaiah, stand in awe. In his magnificent vision of the mystery and grandeur of the holiness of God, Isaiah see’s God surrounded by attendant cherubim and seraphim, crying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” while seated upon a majestic throne, and arrayed in glorious splendor.  Isaiah is struck with the realization of his own unworthiness and that of his people. He knows he is not worthy to stand in the presence of God, yet, here he is. He knows he is unworthy to serve, yet what other option does he have here at the throne of God? This is not the time to say no; it is time, in Isaiah’s words, to say woe. “Woe is me! I am lost.”

There is a deep mystery at work here, and it profoundly upsets Isaiah’s whole balance. But in the upsetting, Isaiah is able to confess his sin, be cleansed of his guilt, and receive a clean heart. Only then can he hear God’s call with clarity. “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Only then can he say, “Here am I; send me!” This revelation of God to Isaiah somehow involves the whole Trinity which we hear in God’s call-“who will go for us”, and is one illustration of the way the three in one God has been at work in history. The Isaiah passage does not “prove” the Trinity. Instead it is a witness, pointing to the triune God’s actions, the Spirit at work in calling Isaiah as the Spirit calls each one of us, and in the continuing biblical story of salvation for the world through Jesus Christ.

Paul today, in this section of his letter to the Romans sums up the actions and mystery of the Trinity. The Spirit, or the horizontal aspect of the cross, fills the text. We are to live in the Spirit rather than by the flesh, for it is by the Spirit that we can be adopted as children of God, worshiping God as Father as we become heirs with Jesus as his adopted sisters and brothers, an adoption through baptism in which we are invited to share his sufferings and anticipate sharing his glory. This saving reality of being adopted as children of God is described in the Gospel of John today as a new birth. This new birth is possible through the descent of God though God’s Son Jesus Christ, the heart of the cross, into our midst to rescue us, rather than condemn us. God the Father sends the Son in order to make eternal life possible through a new birth, through faith brought about by the Spirit.

The living, breathing, feeling, loving heart of God, Jesus, the human aspect of God, wants to live in relationship, as all humans do. Jesus wants to live in relationship with us. This is what he invited Nicodemus that night to enter into. We are glad to note that by the time we encounter Nicodemus again in John’s gospel, he is more convinced about the mission of God in Christ and is arguing for Jesus in public. He is no longer afraid to be identified as a follower of Jesus. He encountered the mystery of the Triune God and was born again, born from above. “For God so loved you and me that God gave God’s only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Come, like all those who have gone before, be born again, ask the Triune God – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer—to be in your mind, in your heart, and in your whole being. With Isaiah, may we be filled with the surprise of God, with the word and meal of Christ, and the deep prayers and groans of the Spirit—“I saw the Lord.” Gathered with Paul and John today, as the baptized born into a new life by water and the Spirit, beholding the healing of the world that God sets forth in the crucified Christ, may we learn again to cry out to God for the sake of a needy world. Then, with the burning coal of the Eucharist on our lips, may we learn to bear witness to our neighbor that God loves the world, is saving the world and does not condemn it. This is the festival of the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.