Sunday
05/31/15 Freeville/Homer Ave UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Unless someone is
born anew, it’s not possible
to see God’s kingdom”
Old Testament
Lesson: Isaiah 6:1-8
New Testament
Scripture: Romans 8:12-17
Gospel Lesson:
John 3:1-17
My brothers and sisters, friends, once again, welcome on
this Trinity Sunday, and this Peace with Justice Sunday.
On this Trinity Sunday, we celebrate in our church calendar,
and always, all that God is. For our God is three in one, one in three. God is the
creator, the Father. Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God, God in the flesh, the
second person of God, the Son. The Holy Spirit is the companion, the third
person of God, the fire of God, the breath of God, God’s spiritual power, God’s
spirit. While God is expressed in three distinct forms, all are one. God comes
to us as the creator of all that is. Jesus Christ comes to us as God in the flesh.
The love of God made human that has come to love us, change us, and save us.
The Holy Spirit comes to us as a companion and a sanctifier that renews us, that
connects us to God and Jesus Christ, and that fills us with holy passion and fire.
Trinity Sunday then, isn’t just a Sunday to celebrate a
historic doctrine of the Christian Church called the Trinity. We are not just
harkening back to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan
Creed from 381 AD, which was the successor to the Nicene Creed from 325
AD, where the church defined the Holy Trinity. More than this, Trinity Sunday
is a call and an opportunity to look at the largeness of God. The reality that
God is not confined to just one form, but rather that God comes to us in three
unique ways. More than just saying that the church believes in a God that is
one in three, and three in one, just as our church doctrine says, this Sunday
is a call to experience God, the creator, the Father, Jesus Christ, the son,
the savior, the redeemer, and the Holy Spirit, the companion, the Holy Fire and
Holy breath of God.
Further
this reality of the Trinity, of God three in one, one in three goes back to
earliest days of the Christian Church, and can be seen in scriptures such as, 1 John 5:7 that says, “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one” (1 John 5:7, NKJV).
In this sense, we have a God that comes to us in three
installments. We connect to the creator, to the redeemer and the healer, and
are affirmed and filled by God’s Holy Spirit. Like water that can be ice,
liquid, and steam, we have our Triune God of the creator, or the Father, Jesus
Christ, or the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
In addition to this, this Sunday is also “Peace with
Justice” Sunday, a Sunday where we take a special offering to fund our “Peace
with Justice” ministries. These ministries are ministries that address human trafficking,
violence against women, the oppression and harm of innocent people, and etc.
and etc. This fund and this collection goes to defend the innocent, the
rejected, and the least of these. It goes to people like the ones that Jesus
Christ ministered to in the gospels.
So if you feel led by God this morning, by Jesus, by the
Holy Spirit, to contribute to these valuable ministries of the United Methodist
Church, then during our normal collection time, just indicate on a check or
funds that you designate, for “Peace with Justice” Sunday, and we will make
sure that they get to the conference, and then to the people that really need
it.
Will all of this said, on this Trinity Sunday, Jesus this
morning offers us a more robust view of God in today’s gospel of John reading.
For this morning Jesus says, “I assure you, unless someone is born anew, it’s
not possible to enter God’s kingdom” (John 3:3, CEB). Jesus says this to “a
Pharisee named Nicodemus, a Jewish leader” (John 3:1, CEB).
Now Nicodemus, the Jewish Pharisee was well versed in the Law
of Moses and the traditional Jewish understanding of who God was. Yet Nicodemus
was intrigued by Jesus Christ. In fact in John 3:2 it says speaking of
Nicodemus, “He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you
are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could do these miraculous signs
that you do unless God is with him” (John 3:2, CEB). Nicodemus, the Jewish
Pharisee, seems to have believed that Jesus Christ had some sort of divine
knowledge, power, or understanding of God that he himself did not have.
Once again, in response to this statement from Nicodemus,
Jesus says, “I assure you, unless someone is born anew, it’s not possible to
enter God’s kingdom” (John 3:3, CEB). An interesting statement to be sure.
Nicodemus, as I said, being very steeped in the Jewish Law of Moses, takes this
statement from Jesus Christ as a call for a literal bodily rebirth. As to be reborn
as a child from the womb.
In fact, Nicodemus asks Jesus, “How is it possible for an
adult to be born? It’s impossible to enter the mother’s womb for a second time
and be born, isn’t it? (John 3:4, CEB).”
So what is Jesus saying to Nicodemus and to us all with
this statement? Is Jesus saying that “if you believe in God, the Father, the
creator, that is now not enough?” That in order to really get it, you now have
to believe in me to, as God, version 2.0, like a computer program, requiring us
to upgrade our spiritual software. That the first version of God wasn’t enough,
so we needed an additional representation.
The reality is though, that many of the Jewish people at
this time and today, had and have a depth faith in God, the Father, Yahweh,
Elohim, and etc., but this faith was very connected to the laws of the Old
Testament. This faith was also connected to certain behavior and certain rituals,
to such an extent that these behaviors and rituals could be visually observed
as strong faith. Jesus though, as the second person or revelation from God, took
on more of an internalized focus, saying we must not just conduct ourselves
well, and not just live according to God’s laws, but something else is needed
to. We need a transformation. We need a re-birth.
What we need then, and what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus
then, is that we need a literal spiritual and internal change from within. This
change will make us different, and we will have the renewal of our hearts, our
minds, and our souls.
So
it is isn’t just that we believe in the basic sense, and just prescribe to set
of behaviors and rituals, but rather that we need to experience a personal and a
spiritual transformation and renewal. We need to know God the creator, we need
to know his Son the savior, Jesus Christ, and we need to be renewed by the Holy
Spirit, to fully get it all. It is sort of like a combo meal at a restaurant,
it is package deal. Further, when you get the combo meal, you are feed, you are
filled, and you not left thirsty afterwards.
In the reading from the prophet Isaiah from this morning,
Isaiah wrote “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of heavenly forces! All the earth is
filled with God’s glory!” (Isa. 6:3b, CEB). Isaiah speaks of God, the creator,
the Father, and His glory and His power.
Yet in the gospel of John from this morning, we read that
famous and very common scripture from John 3:16 that says, “God so loved the
world that he have his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t
perish but will have eternal life” (John 3:16, CEB). So we need to know Jesus,
then.
On this Trinity Sunday, we praise the almighty God and
creator of us all, but then we hear that God has sent his son for us. That in
our brokenness and in our sinfulness, that we can be reconciled to the God of
the Universe, through his son, God in the flesh, Jesus the Christ.
Yet as we read in the Pentecost story from the Book of Acts
from last Sunday, the disciples were not really ready to preach and serve until
the Holy Spirit showed up, like tongues of fire.
In this way, I would argue that on this Trinity Sunday, we
need the Trinity or God in three persons to be fully complete. For if this was
not true, then why did Nicodemus the Pharisee come to Jesus in the gospel of
John reading from this morning? If this was not true, why did thousands flock to
Christ?
Jesus was and is the second revelation of the living God,
and this is why in Jesus, and through Jesus, with the power of the Holy Spirit,
we can be made new, abundant, and given new life individually, and together.
For as the reading from Romans 8:13 says from this morning,
“If you live on the basis of selfishness, you are going to die. But if you put
to death the actions of the body with the Spirit, you will live” (Romans 8:13,
CEB). We need the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Paul then continues in Romans 8:16-17 by
saying, “The same Spirit agrees with our spirit, that we are God’s children.
But if we are children, we are also heirs. We are God’s heirs and fellow heirs
with Christ, if we really suffer with him so that we can also be glorified with
him” (Romans 8:16-17, CEB).
Do you notice here that the Apostle Paul’s language here to
the church in Rome or the Romans, is language that speaks of the three persons
of God. The Apostle Paul talks of the Spirit, of God, of Christ. The reality
that a fully and an abundant faith is one that grows in God, in Christ, and is
renewed and filled by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So “born anew,” Jesus says to Nicodemus the Pharisee this
morning (John 3:3a, CEB). This concept of a spiritual rebirth is where we get
the group in Christianity that identify themselves as “Born Again” Christians. “Born
Again” Christians are making the claim that have had a spiritual rebirth, the
way that Christ was challenging Nicodemus to do the same.
Now I am not saying that we must be called “Born Again”
Christians, but what I am saying, is that Jesus tells us we must have a
powerful and an internal change of heart, mind, and soul. A change that is so
profound, that it moves us from hardness of heart to softness of heart. That it
moves us from anger to love. From selfishness to generosity. From meanness to
great compassion. This is the transformation that Jesus was telling Nicodemus
the Pharisee about this morning.
I would like to share a story with you about this change.
This story is called, “The Pan,” by author unknown. Here is how the story goes:
“A little girl noticed that every time her mother cooked a roast she chopped a
piece off the end of the roast before putting it in the oven. Intrigued,
she asked her mother why she did this. “Well to be honest, I do it because
that’s the way my mother always does it” came the reply. “I’m sure she must
have some good reason for it.”
“At
the next family gathering, the child decided to satisfy her curiosity.
“Grandma, why do you always chop the end off the roast before cooking it?” “Well
to be honest, I do it because that’s the way my mother always does it” came the
reply. “I’m sure she must have some good reason for it.”
“A
week or so later the little girl was visiting her 90 year old great grandmother.
She explained that mommy and grandma always chop the end off the roast before
cooking it, but couldn’t remember why. Did she know? “Struth!” said
Great-grandma. “Imagine the two of them doing that! Why, I only cut the piece
off because my pan was too small!”
You see like Nicodemus the Pharisee, the little girl’s mother
and grandmother were following rules and rituals that were passed on to them.
Sure they believed, sure they did what they thought was right and correct, but
it took a little girl, a Nicodemus if you will, to say, “why does this make any
sense?”
For on this day Nicodemus the Pharisee asks Jesus Christ what
he must do to really know God more. Jesus Christ tells him, “I assure you,
unless someone is born anew, it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom” (John
3:3, CEB). Perhaps Nicodemus was saying to Jesus Christ, “I keep chopping the
end of my roast off, but I don’t even know why I do it. Further, it isn’t
getting me anywhere.”
Jesus Christ says, you must be changed, reborn, that “I
assure you, unless someone is born anew, it’s not possible to enter God’s
kingdom” (John 3:3, CEB).
Trinity Sunday then is about renewal, revitalization, and
coming into a fuller understanding of who God is. I bring this message to you
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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