May 27, 2018 (The Holy Trinity) – John 3:1-17
John 3:1-17
Strength in Diversity
The Holy Trinity – May 27, 2017
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
On Wednesday evening I rode my bike to the church building for a meeting.
And if you were out and about on Wednesday evening you know that
being in Winnipeg was like being in heaven.
When I got home I actually couldn’t stay inside.
I had to get back out and experience something extraordinary:
a beautiful, perfect, warm evening with a light breeze and
a sunset sky filled with more colours than in that giant Crayola box of crayons.
I had a feeling of . . . something so mysterious I can hardly name it.
It was beautiful, so beautiful I could hardly comprehend it.
Most – if not all – people have had this experience of nature at one time or another.
It is not surprising to me that people say they experience God in nature –
that is what I was experiencing on Wednesday night.
A night like the creator intended – a night the creator created.
Something so almost incomprehensible that the name behind it all we simply refer to as “God.”
Creator – the one who fashioned the world in the beginning and continues to
fashion each day anew.
The early Christians experienced this and named the creator Father.
But the early Christians also experienced the divine in a couple of other profound ways.
One, of course, was Jesus.
Jesus was sooooo strange – you can hear the wonder in Nicodemus’ voice today
when he asks Jesus: “Where are you from?”
Jesus seemed so strange, so extraordinary, so seemingly out of this world, so loving,
so inclusive, so engaging with every sort of person, so . . . forgiving –
that they could only say that God was at work in him in an extraordinary,
full way.
So much so that they said he was the image of the invisible God.
This person who ate with sinners, challenged the empire, and cared for the vulnerable.
This person who above all healed.
Fully human, for sure – but also fully divine.
This person who revealed the heart of the creator God, a heart that was found to be full of
mercy, full of compassion, full of a desire for justice, full of healing,
and full of forgiveness.
The early Christians experienced this and gave him the title Son –
for in the ancient world Son apprenticed their Father’s trade,
just as Jesus apprenticed to the creator’s trade of bringing new life.
Finally, the early Christians experienced the divine in a third way.
They experienced the Spirit that was at work in Jesus was still at work among them!
And that it was at work in them when they carried on Jesus’ work of
healing, feeding, and forgiving.
This Spirit also bound them together in love as a community for the carrying on of this work and
it energized them together.
Life flowed through them into a world in need.
They delighted in each other and cared for each other so that together they could
love the world that the creator God still loved.
They experienced God in three profound ways.
The ways were obviously very distinctive –
and yet there was a profound unity and purpose at work.
And so they came up with the doctrine of the Trinity – the idea that
God is most like a loving community of three persons.
Three persons – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – who work seamlessly together,
who love one another, who give gifts to each other, who receive gifts from each other.
They came to the conclusion that God doesn’t just value community.
In some way God actually is community.
God is relationship in God’s very self.
It’s kind of like . . . Trivia Night.
I love First Lutheran Church Trivia Night.
It was last Thursday – Melinda and I have a team and as many of you know
it is called the Smartinis.
Only this year we had to call it the Smargaritas – ask me later – and we lost.
Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Anyway – here is the thing about Trivia night: you need a team to win.
Genius, right?
But okay: here is the next thing: the more diversity you have on your team,
the better your chances of winning.
You need young people and old people, people who love history and people who love music.
people who love sports and people who love literature.
You are a much stronger team if you do that.
And here’s another the thing: I think the triune God is a lot like that.
Except the purpose of the Triune God is not winning
a $5 Tim Horton’s gift card at the end of the night.
Oh no.
It is “saving” the world according to our Gospel text today.
Okay: that sounds a lot less trivial than winning a $5 Tim Horton’s gift card – and it is.
That is the purpose of the Triune God: saving the world.
And when Jesus says “saving” the world is the triune God’s purpose,
He means “healing” or “repairing” or “restoring” the world to its intended purpose as
A place of peace and prosperity for all.
Only: here’s another thing.
The world that God so loves?
It’s not just the beautiful Wednesday-evening-heaven-is-Winnipeg world.
It’s the dark bits, the ugly bits, the hate-filled bits that God so so loves as well.
So much so, that God in Jesus is willing to die for those bits too,
and seek to turn them to good by forgiving them from the cross where they put him.
That is how the great, vast love that the three share overflows into this world.
Through Jesus.
Through Jesus, the world – the whole world and every person in it – is invited into this love.
The dark, nasty bits are invited into the loving life and way of being of the Triune God as well as the good bits.
You too are invited into that life even now, in this very moment: invited to receive a love –
a love for every single bit of you – and be transformed, and changed by it,
so that that love will overflow you too into the world and your work with
the brothers and sisters you find who have also taken up residence \
in the life of the triune God.
Jesus invites us into the life of this God, into this God’s love.
And that is a gracious and wondrous thing.
But it is a risk for the Triune God: the triune God becomes vulnerable in that invitation,
and the triune God experiences the death of Jesus because of the dark forces
at work in the world.
But the love at work within the Triune God is greater than death,
and the forgiveness it offers is greater than anything.
And so Jesus lives.
And we continue to be invited into the life of the Triune God, risky though it is.
Well, it is also risky for us.
Because once you accept the invitation it means being open to being changed.
To putting care for others and the world God made before your own well-being sometimes.
And that is hard.
John Buchanan, the editor of the Christian Century magazine, wrote several years ago about
baptizing a 2 year old child – about the same age as young Benjamin today.
After saying “I baptize you in the name of – that is, into the life of – the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit,” the child unexpectedly said, “Uh oh.”
And that, says Buchanan, is an entirely appropriate response.
Because it means having your priorities rearranged by love.
It means having as priorities in your life
proclaiming the good news of God in Christ through what you say and what you do.
It means serving all people – not just some, but all –
serving all people following the example of Jesus.
It means striving for justice and peace in all the earth – all the earth, not just some of it.
Uh oh indeed.
The good news, though,
is that young Benjamin is embarking today on a wondrous adventure in love.
Trivia Night was, above all, for me, an adventure in love with my team.
Life at First Lutheran Church is above all, for me, an adventure in love.
We are coming to love one another more and more so that we can reflect
the life of the Triune God more and more.
A life of friendship, in which diversity is valued and treasured.
A life of receiving gifts of care from one another and giving gifts of care to one another.
A life strengthened by this giving and receiving of gifts, a life so full of lovingkindness that
it overflows our congregational life and spills out into the neighbourhood at Food Banks,
Community Meals and Kids Clubs, and through Christmas Hampers and
Hats for the Homeless and a warm welcome for every single person who
comes through our doors.
That is what life living in the embrace of the Triune God actually looks like.
So: welcome Benjamin into this life.
The life of the Creator, the Apprentice, and the Spirit that binds us all together.
So, as one, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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