Holy Trinity Sunday 2009                                             Christ Church , York

It is the time of day for criminals, those engaged in illegal or illicit activities, those who do not want to be seen or caught, those who wish to keep secrets or those who do not want to be found out. But why is it that this leader of the Jewish people, a member of the ruling Council, an esteemed man in his own right and probably a fine religious scholar to boot, comes to visit Jesus under the cover of night? He is not a criminal, a keeper of personal secrets, a wrongdoer who has to use the night to hide his illicit activities. But all is not well with this Nicodemus for he is haunted by questions he cannot answer, problems he cannot solve. He has heard of one who seems to speak the answers to his questions and so he comes seeking out this teacher, this rabbi. But all the while he is afraid, not wanting his friends and his colleagues to see him. He does not want to be publicly associated with this man and he does not want others to know that he has been to visit this new scholar named Jesus in order to get some of his nagging questions answered. It is not easy for Nicodemus; he feels awkward about this encounter and fumbling in his attempt to engage Jesus in conversation. So in the time honored custom of that culture, even as we saw President Obama do the same in Cairo this week, Nicodemus begins with a compliment, “Rabbi,” he says, “we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” With such words Nicodemus seeks to impress the one to whom they were given and thus allow him to enter into the give and take of theological debate with this teacher named Jesus.

But the conversation does not go too far before Jesus interrupts this night visitor Nicodemus with an astounding remark, words which will confront the very foundations of his faith. “I tell you the truth,” says Jesus, “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” Born of water and the spirit! If Nicodemus has come seeking answers he finds only more perplexing questions. For how is it that a grown man, an elder, a leader, like himself can be born again of water and spirit? What does it mean to be born in this way and what does it mean that such rebirth is necessary in order to inherit the kingdom of God ? The answers are not immediately obvious to Nicodemus, for he does not yet understand that Jesus is speaking about the spiritual rebirth that needs to take place if one is to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And in his searching he is not helped by Jesus who goes on to speak of His suffering and death and of the work of the Father in sending Him into the world for the redemption of that world. By the time Jesus is finished with Nicodemus his head must have been swimming and his mind racing as he sought to make sense of all these things that Jesus has told him. 

My sisters and brothers! We have not come here today under the cover of night, for the sun is shining outside, a welcome sight after a few gloomy days of rain. But like Nicodemus perhaps we have come with questions today, seeking some truth in the midst of a world which seems confused and which cannot provide the answers to all that weighs upon us. For the questions we confront are perhaps the same as those that faced Nicodemus – what is this faith all about? What are we to make of death and destruction, or heartache and pain? Why, why and why do bad things happen around us and innocent people loose their lives in plane crashes or terrorist bombings. And above all, who is this God we worship, this one we say made all the heavens and the earth? What are we to make of this Jesus who has come to claim His kingdom not in power and great glory but rather through the brokenness of the cross? And what do we know of this Spirit whose coming we celebrated last week on Pentecost, this Spirit which moves among us, guiding and directing us but who seems impossible to figure out or who makes any sense most of the time? Like Nicodemus of old, we have come seeking answers to our questions, questions that go to the heart of our faith, our life and our very being.

The words of Jesus this morning do not, on the surface, help answer those questions but rather leave us, as they must have done for Nicodemus, even more perplexed. It is likely that most of us know those famous words from John 3:16 “for God so loved the world that He sent His only Son.” But for the rest, Jesus speaks of Spirit breath moving where and when it wills, or serpents being lifted up on crosses, of God loving so greatly that He sends His only Son to die and that there is the need for being born from above. These words are confusing and difficult and raise yet more questions than they provide answers.

And on this Festival of the Holy Trinity there are often more questions as we come to celebrate this mystery of three persons in one God. For there is nothing more confusing, nothing which raises more questions than this mystery in which we profess to worship One God who yet lives in three persons; each of whom are God but who are also co-equal and co-eternal; who live as separate and distinct persons yet all the while living together in a unity which is beyond our comprehension. As with poor Nicodemus this mystery we call the Trinity often leaves our heads spinning as we seek the answers to how this mystery was, is and can be for all eternity.

But even in the midst of our questions we have one advantage over Nicodemus and that is that we know the Kingdom of God has come among us in the person of Jesus Christ. This kingdom was announced by Jesus at the beginning of His ministry, although it will not come to its completion until the end of time. But in the meantime, in these times between the coming of Christ and His coming again, we have signs of the kingdom among us, most especially the gift of the holy sacraments. Here at this font and here on this altar, lie the answers to the questions that confront our lives. Here in Word combined with water, bread and wine, we share in God’s Kingdom come among us. Here there is new life born, not of the flesh, but of the Spirit. And that new life begins in the waters of baptism where we are baptized in “the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” the very name which we celebrate on this Holy Trinity Sunday. In this baptism we are claimed by the Father as His sons and daughters and cleansed by Him for His service and witness. In baptism we begin to know again the fullness of the eternal God that we call the Trinity. In baptism we live our lives always in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a seed in the kingdom of God which is called to bring forth good fruit for the sake of that kingdom.  

Baptism is the beginning point of our rebirth. I am always perplexed by the question that some of our more fundamentalist brothers and sisters ask, which is when were you saved. They want to know that time, date and place in which you gave your life to Christ. For us as Lutherans this is a non-issue, for you were saved the day that you were brought to the font and baptized. For it was here that you were adopted as a son or daughter of God; it was here that you came into the kingdom; it was here that you were born again of water and the Holy Spirit.  

Baptism is the beginning point of our rebirth but only the beginning, for this new life in the Spirit calls for us to come to know Jesus Christ and believe in Him. But Martin Luther tells us that we cannot by our own understanding come to know Jesus Christ or believe in Him. But the Holy Spirit, he says, calls, gathers, enlightens and makes us holy and keeps us in the one true faith. Through the saving power of Christ’s death and resurrection, we die to sin and rise to newness of life through the waters of baptism. But to believe in this Christ who has done such work for us purely through His own grace and love, we need the Spirit, the Spirit given to us through the laying on of hands in that same sacrament. God the Father therefore has loved us so greatly that He has sent His Son to die for us. And we have faith in that Son through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the mystery, the love and the joy of the Holy Trinity wrapped up in the waters of baptism and the bread and wine of the meal.

So on this Holy Trinity Sunday, we look to our adoption by God and to growing in knowledge of Christ all through the work of the Holy Spirit. For when John tells us in his Gospel that “God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to die for us” John means the whole world. So it is that rebirth means that our lives are renewed by the Holy Spirit, who calls us to faith, enlightens us with His gifts and makes us a holy people of God. And part of being made holy is the sharing of our faith with others. Each of us here has been blessed with an abundance of gifts and we can never repay God for all that He has given us so freely. But God calls those who have been born again of water and the Holy Spirit to pass that Good News onto others, a task which proves difficult at times, living as we do in the midst of our own questions. But then we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that we might have the strength to carry out this responsibility that has been entrusted to us. Renewed life through the power of the Holy Spirit means not only receiving an unbelievable gift from God but it also calls for us to bear witness to the world so that it may know of the saving power of Jesus Christ who died for our salvation. But above all to be born again of water and the Holy Spirit means that, unlike Nicodemus of old, we will no longer feel compelled to seek out Jesus under cover of darkness for fear that our friends or colleagues will make fun of us. Instead we can now live in the light of the new day which has come upon us, proclaiming our faith in Jesus from the highest mountain and sharing that faith openly with the whole world. On this Holy Trinity Sunday then, may we all live out to the fullest, our baptismal gift of new life, given to us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.