Trinity Sunday

When I was at Theology College, the only advice our tutor responsible for trying to teach us how to prepare sermons gave us was to book annual leave for Trinity Sunday, because it's the most difficult sermon to write!! Well, I've obviously drawn the short straw, so here goes.

The early Christians worshipped the one true God, they also knew after the Resurrection that Jesus was truly God, because of their own personal experiences of seeing him on several occasions before he ascended into heaven, and at Pentecost they experienced for themselves God the Holy Spirit breaking into their lives and transforming them. Jesus had promised that he would send the Holy Spirit to sustain them in their mission of taking the Good News to all the world. But hey didn't express al this by calling it Trinity. Jesus never used the term and you will not find it in the Bible. But, by the C4^th it was being used to describe what we know about God.

This is an important point in trying to understand the concept of three persons as God, which to sensible minds is impossible, because it doesn't explain God. Nobody can do that. God is beyond our understanding, beyond our comprehension. It describes what we know about God and how we experience the presence of God in our lives, through God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. If we think about those who were part of the early church, and their experiences which brought them to faith, we see they began with their own personal experience of the living God, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and how that transformed their lives to become founders of the faith throughout the world. The theology, the theory of the faith came later, much later, and was shaped by their physical and spiritual experiences. and if you think about your own lives, I am sure it is true for you also, it is certainly true for me. Yes, we may learn about god from an early age, sadly far too many schools these days don't, but it's only when we meet the living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in our lives, that we understand. The awfully sad fact is that there are many people out there, possibly in this congregation today, who know the theory, but feel they haven't experienced the living God, when all it takes is to open our hearts an minds to feel what is all around us and within us, and without that personal experience their faith is without foundation.

In a few minutes we will stand and profess our faith in the Trinity, that's the theory. Like doing the theory test for a driving licence, we have to recite the words in the right place, but what matters is whether we enter into a living relationship with God. I sincerely hope you are able to appreciate that the primary thing about this complex doctrine is that our God is one with whom we can enter into a personal relationship, because God created us as unique individuals and loves us and cares for us as unique individuals, and wants us to be His children. And that is really a wonderful thought.

When you study the concept of the Trinity in the many theological books produced, there's always a large element of mystery surrounding it all, rather as Churchill said about Russian in 1939: "It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma". And it certainly is, but the doctrine of the Trinity, which is so important to our faith, asserts that despite appearances to the contrary, there is only one God who has three elements, this is the wonder of the God whom Christians know, experience an worship.

The Gospel reading we heard a few moments ago is all about the Trinity, even if it never mentions it by name, all the elements are there for us, God the Father, God the Son, and god the Holy Spirit. There is poor Nicodemus, a Pharisee leader, who comes to Jesus at night to ask him questions. Pharisees were supposed to be the most religious people in the whole country. They studied the Old testament word for word, and believed every word was truth and lived by those words. never more than 6000 of them at any one time, like and exclusive religious order, they swore to uphold the religious laws that governed the Jewish people, no matte where they lived in the world. Nicodemus would certainly have been a member of the Sanhedrin Council, the seventy members together with the Chief Priests, who actually governed the Jewish Faith. One of its responsibilities was to examine and deal with anyone who they considered to be a false prophet. Remember it is the Sanhedrin Council and the Chief Priest to whom Jesus is taken after the Last Supper.

So why does a man who is part of the ruling class cone to Jesus all alone at night? Well, I suggest the Nicodemus has seen in Jesus at first hand, the truth that he is the Son of God, the second part of the Trinity. And, he was searching for that truth. We can only imagine the anguish that this devout man must have been going through. All he had been taught, all that he believed in about the Jewish God was now in question because of Jesus, who by his actions, his teachings, his healing miracles, was telling everyone who would listen that God isn't a strict God who punishes people if they do wrong, isn't an angry old man, which is what the Jews believed, but a loving, caring God who loves all his creation and wants them to live in love and peace with everyone.

Nicodemus came to see Jesus at night because he was afraid that he might be seen in the company of Jesus, which would certainly do his reputation no good at all. He certainly wouldn't want the other Pharisees to know about his visit. He really should no have been associating with this "false prophet" who was determined to turn the old order upside down and create a new order of justice peace and mercy. If he came at night and he was wrong about Jesus, if he was just another false prophet, no-one would know of his visit. "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God, for no-one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God". And Jesus tells him "no-one  can see the kingdom of God without being born from above". Of course poor Nicodemus didn't understand. How can someone be born again after growing old, we cannot be born in human form again - it's not physically possible.

Today we are familiar with Christian language of "being born again". It's a common phrase to describe someone who has experienced the living God come into their lives and been transformed by that experience. But fro Nicodemus it's all new talk. This isn't what Jews believe. The conversation moves on with Jesus talking about not being able to enter the kingdom of God unless born of water and spirit, and the wind blowing where it chooses, in other words the Holy Spirit moving over the earth and touching peoples lives. Nicodemus seems even more confused and asks: "How can these things be?" A natural question if you don't understand. Jesus reminds him that he is a teacher of Israel and yet he doesn't understand these things. Nicodemus understands the theory but he doesn't understand the truth of the living God. He doesn't understand how anyone can be born again. He doesn't understand how it works. Rather like me and the DVD player!!

What Jesus is telling him is that we may not know how it happens, how the spirit works in our lives, but we can see the effect of the Spirit in human lives when God calls us. No-one can disregard a faith which is able to change peoples lives for the better.

Jesus tried to use everyday experiences of the wind to explain to Nicodemus but he didn't get it. How can he understand the deep things of faith if he doesn't understand the simple things? Perhaps he was too steeped in the Jewish theory of faith to understand what he saw before him. That is a lesson fro us all. We can study the Bible and sit in study groups and theorise over what the words mean while forgetting that Christianity is a living, personal faith which affects us individually. We have to experience the power of the living Christ in our lives for it all to make sense.

When we undergo treatment from our doctor we don't really need to know the chemical formula of the tables, we just need to know the doctor is going to make us better. In some ways Christianity is just like that. At its heart there is a real mystery, the mystery of the trinity working in our lives. But, it's not the mystery of intellectual appreciation, it is the mystery of redemption. Then we have the promise of eternal life because God is lifting the Son of Man up on the Cross, the redeeming act of salvation for us all. Which means believing with all our heart the Creed we will say together in a few moments - that God loves us, cares for us, wants to forgive us our sins; he is not a vengeful punishing God as Nicodemus understood Him from his Jewish religious theory. But, living a life at peace with God and one another, seeing others as God sees them - as fellow travellers on the road towards our final home with Christ in the heavenly kingdom.

Then we have perhaps the greatest Bible text: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life". our salvation lies with God. And, at the back of it all is the Blessed trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and his unquestioning, uncompromising love for us. That is the complete mystery, and the complete joy of the Trinity. Amen.