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This Week's Sermon THE Holy Trinity 07 June 2009 "The Highest Mystery" John 3:1-17 LSB Series B Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

The Holy Trinity is inexplicable. It is a truth confessed but not fully understood. Countless sermons have been preached trying explain the inexplicable. We have illustrations to demonstrate it, such as a three leaf clover or even the stained glass depiction in our oculus above the altar. As helpful as these might be, they really fall far short of explaining the mystery of the Holy Trinity. No matter how learned a person might be, he simply cannot totally understand the "what" of the Holy Trinity. In the end, we must simply confess the "that" of the Holy Trinity simply saying back to God what he has already said in his Word. The Formula of Concord says this:

Christ is and remains to all eternity God and man in one undivided person. Next to the Holy Trinity, this is the highest mystery, upon which our only consolation, life, and salvation depends, as the apostle testifies in 1 Timothy 3:16.¹

Thus, "The Highest Mystery" is the Holy Trinity with the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ being the next highest. Today we speak about God, not from our perspective but from his. Of all the Sundays in the Church Year, Holy Trinity is the most abstract because the focus lies completely on God.

The Holy Trinity is the highest mystery, from the Greek word which means "hidden." It describes something too profound for human thinking. "Mysteries," from which we derive the word for Sacraments, are those things that are hidden from human reason. The Holy Trinity is the great Mystery that man can never master or know fully. For that reason Christians have historically genuflected in liturgical churches at the mention of the Holy Trinity. To "genuflect" is to bow, kneel, or bend the knee to show respect to someone or something greater than himself. In the course of the Divine Service we have the opportunity to do so a number of times. Every time we sing or say "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit," we may genuflect. Some may see it as a useless action. It is not commanded by God and some may take refuge in the fact that they aren't required to do it, but how does one show respect at the mention of this great mystery? How does one show that he stands before "The Highest Mystery?" There are words, of course, but actions often accompany words. For example, if I say to my wife, "I love you," but never show that by my actions, she probably would stop believing my words. That same is true of parents and children. Parents say to their children, "I love you," and then often follow it up with a kiss or a hug. Actions seem to follow words. So it is with our words confessing the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Actions accompany. Genuflection, bowing the head, kneeling as physical confession of the Great Mystery of the Godhead.

Nicodemus' question of Jesus applies to the understanding of this great mystery: "How can these things be?" Jesus never goes on to explain the "how" of the mysteries he is proclaiming, he merely asks for faith. ". . .whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" [3.16b]. Faith.

While the Church seeks to impart understanding of Christian doctrine, finally it is not understanding that saves, otherwise Christianity would be reduced to mere intellectualism. In fact, many denominations operate that way. The more information the better. Worship services are nothing more than extended Bible classes, information gathering sessions. You see them on TV as the cameras pan the congregation where many are busily thumbing through their Bibles as the "preacher" supposedly "preaches." What he's actually doing is conducting a kind of Bible class with extended explanations in order to make it understandable. At some point there is the "altar call," where those who have received enough information may come forward and "make a decision to follow Jesus." The trouble with that is that one's salvation becomes, at least, in part, something that one does to get it. This should not be confused with having saving faith because it is not the same. Knowledge does not equal faith. James tells us that even the devil has knowledge, that he is well-acquainted with Scripture. Real preaching is proclamation. That's what the word means in the Greek.

1. announce, make known by a herald-2. proclaim aloud-a. gener. speak of, mention publicly²
The word for "preacher" is from the same word:
1. herald, whose duty it is to make public proclamations³

Unfortunately, in our English vernacular, the words "preach" and "preacher" have taken on mostly negative meaning, as in "Don't preach to me!" or "preacher" as someone who harangues against people. This means that many understand preaching as moralizing, something directed primarily at behavior. It says nothing about what is believed, what is confessed with the heart and mouth. We've lost the proclamatory part. Preachers are seen as "troublers of Israel." They're an unpopular bunch! I shudder when people call me "preacher," in spite of the nickname of the teams of my alma mater, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. I don't know who came up with the nickname "Preachers," but I would prefer "Pastors." People tend to like "pastors" better than "preachers."

It is true that preaching involves repentance. Repentance is involved because the Christ has come. That's the kind of preaching that John the Baptizer did. It's also the kind of preaching that Jesus did, but in both cases, there was a second part. They preached repentance because of the Gospel. These words perhaps serve as a good example of the totality of Christian preaching:

"And Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them." (Matthew 11:4-5, ESV)

Good News. We call that the Gospel. Certainly both repentance and faith were proclaimed to Nicodemus by our Lord.

"Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."" (John 3:3, ESV)

There must be the death of the Old Adam. Sin must be renounced. This is always the hard part because the Old Adam fights with everything he has against being put to death. That's why repentance is hard. We don't want to repent. We don't want to crucify our sins and evil desires. The Old Adam lives by them and he cannot live without them. But without repentance, this death in the waters of Holy Baptism, there can be no life.

Of course, you know the Gospel part of this very well. If I say "John 3.16," you can repeat the words. The Gospel proclaims forgiveness and life in this only-begotten Son who offered himself on the tree of the cross for the sins of the world. The Gospel tells us what God has done to cause your forgiveness and eternal life. It calls for faith, not reason.

Too many people miss the fact that God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. The Law has already done that. Jesus is not another moralist in a long line of those trying to get people to behave. Jesus is not a new and improved Moses! This past week I received another of those anonymous letters from some misinformed Christian asking me to "be proactive in counteracting errant behavior," and "being counted to bring this nation to the morality" of the Bible. Jesus is the Savior! Jesus was sent so that the world might not stand under the condemnation of the Law, but be saved, rescued from its accusations. Jesus did not rescind the Commandments, he fulfilled them for us. Yet, he gave us one new commandment, that we love one another as he has loved us. This letter said not one word about the love of God for sinners and what God has done for them. It demanded better behavior as the essence of Christianity.

Nicodemus seemed to have trouble with the repenting part because he could not understand God. Jesus did not say, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you understand the mystery of God you cannot see the kingdom of God." Jesus called for repentance and faith. He then called upon Nicodemus to confess the mystery of God. Believe it, don't debate it. Luther said it better than I can:

In all this God has revealed more to us than we can ever accomplish. But as for the rest-for instance, how the Trinity can be but one God, or how God rules the world-that you must not try to understand; you must believe it. Leave it to God, and trust His Word. If it had been necessary for us to know more, God would have revealed it to us.⁴

On Holy Trinity we confess and celebrate this God who has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the God who has acted with complete harmony for the salvation of all mankind, the God who gives himself wholly to us in his Word and especially in his Sacraments, his Mysteries, in which he hides his Real Presence for our forgiveness, life, and salvation.

In a sermon on this text Luther said of those like Nicodemus:

And who can tell me how a stalk can grow from a decayed kernel and then bear kernels? All this pertains to things that we see. We are completely ignorant of all these operations; yet we do not worry but accept them unconcernedly without understanding them. But we do insist on delving into the extraordinary operations of God. There we are busybodies and want to be very smart. We go about asking that abominable "Why?" with which our first parents in Paradise were deceived by the devil and which even today seduces us into all kinds of heresy and misfortune. Here we must learn from our own experience and from the observation of all creatures to believe God and His Word and to give way even when we do not understand. For if such physical things transcend our power of comprehension, why should we be so foolish and stupid as to discourse on the nature of Baptism, on the resurrection from the dead, on how a virgin can be a mother and bear a child, or on how there can be a Trinity in the Godhead? This we want to ascertain by subtle reasoning. Isn't it a sin and a shame? If we cannot comprehend what we hear and see, as, for example, that I can see you and you can hear me speak, why, then, should we pry into the mysteries of God and try to understand when God ordains something more sublime than the physical? Why, for instance, do we try to explain how I am born anew in Baptism, how three Persons can dwell in one Godhead, or how Christ can be present in bread and wine in Holy Communion? Here faith alone is in order.⁵

Confessing the faith-believing it-is the only response to "The Highest Mystery." May God the Holy Spirit make it so for you!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

¹Concordia : The Lutheran Confessions, Edited by Paul Timothy McCain, 493 (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2005).
²William Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, Frederick W. Danker and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature : A Translation and Adaption of the Fourth Revised and Augmented Edition of Walter Bauer's Griechisch-Deutsches Worterbuch Zu Den Schrift En Des Neuen Testaments Und Der Ubrigen Urchristlichen Literatur, 431 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, c1979).
³William Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, Frederick W. Danker and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature : A Translation and Adaption of the Fourth Revised and Augmented Edition of Walter Bauer's Griechisch-Deutsches Worterbuch Zu Den Schrift En Des Neuen Testaments Und Der Ubrigen Urchristlichen Literatur, 431 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, c1979).
⁴Martin Luther, vol. 22, Luther's Works, Vol. 22 : Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 1-4, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works, 22:314 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1957).
⁵Martin Luther, vol. 22, Luther's Works, Vol. 22 : Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 1-4, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works, 22:296 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1957).

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Update 08 June 2009
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