Reflection -- Trinity Sunday, Celebrating a Mystery

This Sunday is set aside in many churches for Christians to contemplate the Trinitarian nature of God.  This part of Christian doctrine sees One God somehow composed of three distinct, but mutually indwelling, “persons” historically described as “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” and often now depicted by terms that struggle to be more inclusive, such as “Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.”

It is fitting to approach this topic through this passage from the gospel of John that is itself, to borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill, a “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”  It is full of symbolism and multi-level meaning.  Nicodemus had trouble in following Jesus’ remarks even though he was a Pharisee, a person well versed in the finest points of the Hebrew scriptures we now call the “Old Testament.”

Don’t feel bad if you, like Nicodemus, get a little lost.  Despite much spilled blood and ink over the centuries, the nature of God is still a mystery that we can only dimly grasp.  Still, as we dig deeper and deeper into faith, many come to understand intuitively that the concept of a Trinitarian God has within it a core of cosmic truth.  We see our lives take radical new directions and learn to know first-hand what it is to be virtually reborn as God enters in to our being.  We now and then experience with awe and wonder the renewal and grace that come when we feel the wind of the Holy Spirit bringing fresh air to the musty corners of our souls.  With deep humility we stand at the foot of the cross in our mind’s eye, looking up into the face of Jesus “lifted up,” and we wonder at the intense love of God that brings us back into relationship with God.

None of us, no matter how brilliant, will ever fully understand the mystery of the Trinity, but we do not need to in order to celebrate.  The ground of our celebration is captured by one writer who sums up today’s gospel lesson this way:  “Jesus speaks of the chasm between the Divine and the human, [a chasm] closed through the intention of a God who wishes to give life, through the mysterious workings of the Spirit, and through the flesh-and-blood presence of Jesus.”  Amen!

revclay

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John 3:1-17

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.  He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “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.” 

Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 

Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old?  Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?” 

Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.  What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’  The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 

Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?  Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.  If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?  No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 

"And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  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. 

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”  [NRSV]