“IN HIM”
Saint John 3. 1-15
The Feast of the Holy Trinity: 22 May Anno Domini 2005
Fr Watson
"Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity."
There was once a "rock" band which had a hit single titled "One is the Loneliest Number." That is an appropriate sentiment for this Feast Day. The song in question was performed by the group whose name was "Three Dog Night." The appropriateness continues.
Lecturing to you this morning about the dogmatic doctrines of the Holy Trinity, while interesting, and theologically accurate, miss the point. Dr. Philip Melanchthon was correct when he suggested: "We do better to adore the mysteries of the Deity than to investigate them." The Holy Trinity is not an interesting bug to be examined, probed and dissected so that we might have greater knowledge. The ineffable, sublime, and ultimately incomprehensible Trinity is to be worshipped, lauded and praised. You are to be in the very presence of the Triune One to be nourished, strengthened, quickened for the battle here, and preserved for the victory banquet to come.
And when you are brutally honest with yourselves, you can no more comprehend "one in three and three in one," the declarative, authoritative truths of the Athanasian Creed, any more than your pet dog can be taught to chant Gregorian psalm tones or to perform trigonometry. In this area, yes, we Lutherans, can bow our heads, genuflect and say, "Our God is an awesome God." But is that where we bow our heads? Is that where we bow our knee to the ground? No. Is that where the Lord begins instructing Nicodemus? Is that the core concept the Christ departs to the man who visits Him at night? No.
Jesus talks about Baptism. Baptism is about the loving parent cleaning the blood, stains, mucous, and stench of death off the abandoned and dead corpse. Baptism is about the rescue of a lost and condemned orphan. Baptism is about the Christ-CPR saving of a beloved creature who has lost its own breath, it's own image, it's own life. Baptism is all about family. Baptism is all about the Holy and Blessed Trinity.
Nicodemus was partially correct; Jesus was a Rabbi, a teacher. Knowing only this means you are still dead in sin and separated from God, from your family. One is the loneliest number that you'll ever know. Knowing about Jesus without having Jesus is to be a solitary sinner, sailing alone on the seas of fate. Without being incorporated into His Body, His Divine Body and Blood yes, but also into His ecclesiastical body, that is His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church is to be a lone castaway for eternity.
How does one know Jesus? How does one get born from ones mother? How does one get into the position of being "carried" by ones mother for the nine months of pregnancy? You come into this world, physically, by the grace, love and giving of others on your behalf. Even as no person "cooperates" with their own conception, so too, no person cooperates on the Lord's re-birthing of them through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.
The Fact that God is One, undivided in essence is incredible. And that fact too cannot be comprehended. But it is believed by you because it has been revealed to you in His Word, the Holy Scriptures. But being one isn't anywhere near as incredible and wonderful and awe-full as being Trinitarian. Even within the Godhead itself, that is, within the inner-workings of the Creator, there is plurality of persons. There is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. There are not three Gods but One God. There is not One Person in the Divine Essence, but Three Persons. Why? Maybe that long-haired pop group was right; "One" is the loneliest number? This is not to suggest that God had to be Triune in order not to be lonely. God is perfect, there is nothing lacking in Him that He needed to create to be whole, to be satisfied. I am suggesting that perfection, God-likeness, is to be modeled after the Trinitarian reality of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. When God created Adam, He had One perfect creature, made in His Image; how so; because God immediately created a help-mate for the man; woman. And God commanded them to become one-flesh; two becoming one. That itself is another mystery. And that mystery also reflects the oneness of Jesus Christ the Heavenly Groom and His Holy Bride, the Church. Adam and Eve together as one produced a third, their first child. All of their successive children filled that third number, their offspring, and their family. It was not good that the man be alone. It was not "God-like" for the man to be alone. God delights in communing with, talking to, sharing, feeding, clothing, loving and sustaining His beloved family; His large family.
Thus we return to Jesus' discourse to Nicodemus on the Sacrament of
Washing
God is not so much described as He is experienced. He doesn't lecture about Himself He reveals Himself. He reveals Himself in the Love of Christ Jesus. He is Love. Love cannot exist without a plurality of persons; the lover the beloved, and the love which they share.
The Biblical revelation of the Holy Trinity although shown to us in the Savior's own Baptism at the Jordan (voice, dove, man drenched in water) is more beautifully given you as God's revelation here in our Trinity Gospel text.
If you want to "see" the Trinity, remember your own Baptism, You receive your New Father, Our Father; you are indwelled with the Holy Spirit; you are made Jesus brother or sister by being "born again" in His Grace-drenched, sopping wet, Triune Name. The three cupfuls of water soaking your infant heads is the bathing in the very Blood of Christ shed for you on the Tree.
Three by itself, or four, or dozens, or thousands would be the numbers of pagan pantheons; the limitless numbers of the beast; a nonsensical, Babel-like cacophony. One by itself would be a sterile, empty, loveless tombstone. "One" is the loneliest number. The devil, the demons, the damned in hell will spend eternity in the presence of only themselves, one, one horribly one.
But you my children, my brothers and sisters, are in a family, a community, a church, a body. You have a Father, a Big Brother Who has saved you, and a Comforter Who is in you and Who brings you your Big Brothers Body and Blood and very presence.
To "know" the Trinity gaze intently at the crucifix; meditate on the evangel that the Father so loved you that He sent His Son Jesus, Whom the Spirit has given you that you might call Him Lord. To "know" the Trinity kneel at the rail, at the Father's table, the restored prodigal come home, and in the communion of the Holy Ghost, sharing the Doctrines of the Church and the blood-lines of your siblings, receive the Son's very Body and Blood. To "know" the Trinity remember your name, + your washing. To "know" the Trinity, don't "look" for the Father, you won't be able to "see" Him; He is spirit You won't be able to "see" the Holy Ghost, He is spirit. To "know" God in all His fullness is to "know," to receive, the Son, Jesus the Christ, in all His fullness: Body, Blood and Word, Washing and absolution.
"Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity."
In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost