Things That Come In Threes
Isiaah 6:1-8; John 3:1-17
Today is Trinity Sunday. We love the stories that are told and retold
over the course of the church year: Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, the
parables of Jesus, the stories in Acts about the Apostles and the
church. And then we have Trinity Sunday. This is the one Sunday that
focuses on a doctrine of the church. When preachers choose to preach
a Trinity Sunday sermon, they generally take on the impossible task
of explaining something that is beyond explanation. I’ve done it,
more than once - sometimes with reasonably good response; other times
putting a congregation to sleep with theological mumbo-jumbo. So,
today, I am NOT going to attempt explaining what we mean by the
Trinity. But I do hope to play with the idea of Trinity so that you
might experience something of the mystery of God.
With the mystery of God, what better place to begin than with our
passage from Isaiah: Isaiah 6:1-8. This is poetry. It is meant to be
heard more than read. Though we will have the words of the screen,
try to focus on the hearing.
As I read this, I am reminded of a night I was at the beach. It was a
clear night and the beach was away from city lights. I sat there,
aware of the vast ocean, and looking out into the vastness of the
starry night sky. I remember being washed over with a feeling of awe
and wonder. That led to a moment of introspection: thinking of the
vastness of the universe, I felt so small and insignificant and I
marveled at the idea that the one who created this entire universe,
with all of it’s wonders, is said to be aware of me, hearing my
prayers, loving me with steadfast love. How humbling, yet how much my
spirit was filled with love and with gratitude. Then my attention
turned to those who are around me, my little part of the world, and I
felt an increased motivation for sharing that love with gratitude by
wanting to make a difference in their lives. And with that, we have
our first set of three: 1) the experience of wonder and awe, 2) the
self-reflection with humility, 3) the renewed focus on loving
others.
Without further ado, let us look at the Gospel reading for this
morning.
We will come back to Nicodemus and his encounter with Jesus in a
little while, but first: What are some of the things that come in
threes?
There are three blind mice, three billy goats gruff, three bears
visited by Goldilocks. I have learned that when I plant plants it’s
better to have three rose bushes rather than two. When I first
started preaching, we learned about “three points and a poem.”
There is also the notion that bad things come in threes. After two
disasters, or two deaths, we anticipate there will be just one more,
then things will get back to normal, again. When we can put things in
predictable categories, it makes them more manageable.
So, let's go back several hundred years, back when the church was
still in its adolescence. Lots of smaller church communities were
developing and each one was shaping its own understanding of God and
Jesus and what it all means. Some leaders had a vision for a united
church, which meant that there would need to be a unified
understanding bridging their differences. Councils were called and
theological debates ensued. Some people were kicked out of the church
as being too extreme. Others were actually executed for being
heretics. You think the debates we have in the church today are bad!?
One of the hottest debates was about the nature of Jesus. Was Jesus
man or was Jesus God? If Jesus is God, then how does that square with
his human limitations, and what about other ways that we know God?
The nature of Christ was defined and the concept of the Trinity was
developed as a way to accommodate this understanding of Jesus. Jesus
is one with God, but God is something more than just Jesus. Even
then, theologians could find things to argue: is God three in one, or
one in three? Are there three expressions of God that are united in
one God-head, or is there One God who becomes known in three
different modes of being? Lest you scoff at that being an
insignificant difference, I would remind you that in the first great
division in the church, the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox,
this difference became one of the defining points of the split.
If we define that there will be only three disasters in a row, we
have some sense of control over our destiny. So too, if we can define
God in a way that we can manage to understand then it gives us some
sense of control over God in our lives.
This is where we come back to Nicodemus, a leader of among the Jews.
Jesus calls him a teacher. I could imagine him to be a rabbi. So the
rabbi, the teacher, Nicodemus, comes in the quiet of the evening to
have an engaging visit with Jesus the rabbi. Now, if you have ever
been present when two or three preachers get together, you know how
easy it is for them to get into talk about theology, or the meaning
of events of the day, or swapping stories about ministry. Perhaps,
Nicodemus was looking forward to a good rabbinic discussion of the
Torah and daily practice of faith. In fact, he begins with an
affirmation of Jesus and opening the door for discussion of daily
disciplines, like prayer. He says, "Rabbi,
we know that 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." So,
tell me Rabbi, how do you nurture that experience of God’s
presence?
What follows, from Jesus, can only be described as a confusing series
of images: being born from above (Where is “above?”); being born
a second time; being born of water and spirit; the spirit is wind
that blows where it will; then there is the comment about descending
from heaven before ascending to heaven (where did that idea come
from?); and a reference to Moses lifting up a serpent in the
wilderness. We tend to focus on a few phrases, like being born again.
We can add our understanding easy enough to one idea. But the series
of images that Jesus throws at Nicodemus is nothing else but
disorienting. Nicodemus begins with his preconceived ideas about
Jesus, about God, about being religious, and Jesus de-constructs his
notions. What is he left with but one more statement that must have
left him wondering what Jesus meant: God loves the world so much that
God sent the Son into the world that the world might know God’s
love.
During the course of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus had very little to say
about what we are to believe about him or about God or about
anything, especially the Trinity. He had a lot to say about how we
are to live. We are to love the God who loves us, and that love is
best expressed as we love those that God loves, which is everybody.
We are to show compassion and concern for our neighbor, for the
stranger in our midst, and especially for the one with whom we are
angry or who we believe has treated us wrong. It makes no difference
what we say that we believe if our lives do not reflect the
compassion and unconditional love of God who loves us,
unconditionally. Can we love all three, our neighbor, the stranger,
and our enemy? Another set of three.
There are two ways that we can approach the concept of Trinity. It
can be a trinitarian box, a way that we understand God that makes the
idea of God manageable to our limited imagination. Or it can be a
challenge to look further than we have looked before. At one time the
concept of Trinity stretched the thinking of people about God. God is
greater than our old notions. Jesus challenged Nicodemus to think
beyond his preconceived ideas about God. How can we allow the Trinity
of God to stretch our thinking beyond the ideas that we have made
comfortable and manageable? How do we open ourselves to experience
the awe, the humility, the call of the prophet Isaiah?
One more set of three, to close. This comes from my study of
Buddhism. The Three Jewels of Buddhism are the Dharma, the Buddha,
and the Sangha. To put them in context of our faith the three jewels
would be: 1) the teachings of Jesus, 2) the life of Jesus, 3) the
community of followers. As disciples, as followers, we learn the
teachings of Jesus (love God and love others), we practice living in
the manner of Jesus (showing compassion and working for justice), we
join together in a community of followers (receiving from the
fellowship and giving through the fellowship that the larger world
may also know God’s love).
Now, that is a trinitarian formula that can bring us to experience
new life.
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