“We Are Saved By Grace”

John 3: 1-17

Will you pray with me…..

When I first entered parish ministry, I asked a trusted, experienced friend, also a minister…what is the biggest concern you have in preaching? He thought for a bit and said…”without question…. Trinity Sunday. Why I asked and he said, Well, I really don’t know how to talk about the Trinity.” He advised…Call in sick that Sunday….get a sub…you’ll see John, I warn you.” So for my friend, Trinity Sunday is really about three things, but not the three things you’re thinking of…get sick, get a sub, or get lost. When he said he didn’t know what to say…I realized I didn’t even KNOW…that I didn’t KNOW what to say…so here is this morning’s message on Trinity Sunday.

I would like to align the passage from Isaiah which ends in the memorable lines….Here am I; send me,” with the message from John’s Fourth Gospel that covers the meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus. If you think back about these two passages, Trinity Sunday, which features these two scriptures from the lectionary, could appropriately be called “Identity Sunday.” Both ask…who are we in faith, and how do we live in the Grace of God? Who do you identify with: Isaiah or Nicodemus? As a means of entry here, let me ask you the following questions: you don’t have to admit anything…just think about this inquiry: How many of us watch American Idol….Survivor…Lost…or any of the other myriad reality TV shows that both allow us and entice us to watch someone else’s dilemma from a safe chair in front of the TV. These shows suck us in to imagine ourselves in the plight of the participants; but we don’t have to act on our inclinations. Is it reality or not? Does your life look like the lives of the people on these shows? Or are we just voyeurs imagining how we would better manage the situation?  . I lovingly admit, I think my sweet mother- in-law knows more of the gritty day-to-day details about John & Kate and their eight kids than she does about John and Betsy.

History indicates King Uzziah, ruler in Isaiah’s day, died in the year 740BCE.  Isaiah is in the Temple alone when he is awestruck by the presence of the YHWH, The Lord, sitting on a throne, high and lofty (v1). God is surrounded by angels, singing “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts.” Can you relate to Isaiah’s fright, can you identify with him? As Isaiah admits his guilt, he is cleansed…he hears the voice of God say, “Whom shall I send and who will go for Us? This is where Isaiah and we, get into a bit of confusion. Where are we going, for whom are we going, and what will we do when we get there?”

How does God call the believer, and how do we listen for God’s call? Interestingly, Isaiah is in worship when his calling occurs. Our beliefs, our theology and even our vocational calling may come from our worship experiences. Like Isaiah, we are moved mysteriously in worship…but we have to be here physically and spiritually….and then we have to act, not allowing ourselves to be hijacked away to some distant reality life that allows us to watch but not take ownership of our actions.

So where does this passage from Isaiah connect to Trinity Sunday? Whom shall I send…who will go for us”? Who is us here? Jewish doctrine states there is only one God, not a series of different Gods, as other practices did. The Doctrine of the Trinity, three persons in one God, did not become a come into play until the 4^th century in 325 under Emperor Constantine, when the Council of Nicaea declared the Apostles Creed and the Trinity to be Christian foundations. The Trinity is not a Biblical doctrine as such, but the concept is present for sure. In the 27 books of the New Testament, the word Trinity does not appear in scripture. The concept is taught in Matthew 28: 18-20 : “Go and baptize in the name of the father, son and Holy Spirit,” and in 2 Corinthians 13:13, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The council agreed on the language of three persons in one God, but the Trinity remains a mystery. Much of our faith is based upon mysteries and trust, isn’t it? If we think about it, the Trinity can help us see the essence of God in a broader sense.

As a young boy in grade school at St Mary’s of the Lake in Gary, Indiana, my friends and I thought the Trinity was actually something different. Sister Maria Gemma, straight from Ireland to the US to teach, often said in frustrations: “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, will yuz be getting in yuz seats, and hold yuz tongues. I ask in the name of God.”

Sister Maria Gemma’s unique trinity aside, let’s take a look at John 3:1-17. Nicodemus is a leader in the community. He has to be careful. He goes to Jesus in the night, as he cannot afford to be seen with him in the light of day. Nicodemus realizes Jesus has come from God:  he says, “for no one can do what you do without God’s Presence.” We sometimes get caught in the wordplay, symbolic language, which can create misunderstanding and confusion. Jesus confronts Nicodemus with a riddle…you must be born again. Nicodemus takes the words literally and can’t figure it out.  Why?  Because, it doesn’t make sense in common language.  Religion can…can…not always… become a pattern of ritual and less of faith and transformational experience. When we get bored and mired down in process versus spiritual experience, we might be ready for a re-birth….not all, not everyone, but some of us. Certainly, Nicodemus and his cohort struggled to absorb Jesus and His teachings. But Nicodemus heard more than words and needed to go deeper in his search for God’s Presence. He was open to the possibility God just might come to him in a different time and place.

Life can be the same for us as well. Most of my process, my way to ministry was void of specific discussions and interchanges with God. Most of my way to ministry came from silence and new insights into God’s presence in my life. I never heard the word ministry from God, but I did have a sense of trust in my decisions…I knew I was not alone in the process. How was it for you, how is it for you? How do you relate, listen, and respond to God’s call. “Who will go for us, asks God…send me, send you, send us, all in God’s name.

John holds up the image of Moses in the desert, where he turns the serpent into a bronze staff to prove the healing power of God to all who touched it in faith.   Jesus does the same for those who look upon the cross for healing. There is no coincidence in these connections. It is here that God offers the Grace of Salvation in Jesus. We don’t save ourselves by good behavior…we are saved by God, through the Grace of Jesus Christ. So Jesus is explaining to Nicodemus that eternal life comes from a spiritual, transformative commitment in this finite life.   So Nicodemus becomes a committed follower of Jesus, eventually bringing spices to embalm Jesus’ body in John 19: 38-42.

In John 3:16, The most memorable verse from John’s Gospel…Jesus tells us how “God so loved the world that he gave His only Son.” So God, out of love for creation, gave us His Son and the Holy Spirit. God gives us birth and rebirth as Jesus tells Nicodemus, through these we are saved by God’s Grace.

So our action is to first learn, and then possibly, re-learn that our relationship with God is our ultimate gift. We are not saved by our own personal efforts alone, but first from the Grace of God, through Jesus Christ.

So what does this have to do with the Trinity?  We know that the way God acts with us is through the reach and touch of Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Theologian William Willimon says that” it is the nature of the Trinity to reach, to embrace, to seek, and to find humanity. The Trinity: The father, Son and Holy Spirit— keeps reaching, keeps giving, so that we, by God’s Grace, might be saved. So then the question is, How are we saved?

We are saved by the life and Presence of Jesus Christ. Willimon cautions us to remember we do not save ourselves. According to our cultural prominence as powerful humans, we can do a lot in this world and life. We are often tempted to think we can do it all…..from start to finish. One might ask if it was God’s intention, acting through us, to create the internet, or computer processing speeds that go off the chart. Don’t know, but it was the human energy and proficiency that made the material progress. I credit God’s Creation of our human operating systems.. What we can technically accomplish is beyond prediction. But the indefinable, already patented, spiritual operating system of the human belongs to God, saved through Jesus Christ and sustained in the Holy Spirit of our souls.

In today’s reading from Isaiah 6 and from John 3, we get a glimmer of the power and presence of the Trinity in our lives. But there is one truth that seems clear:  we are saved by the grace of God. Our part in the relationship is to respond with all we have to offer, regardless of our particular gifts. We are alive in our spirit because we are called by God to be remarkable. Why wouldn’t we be great? We are saved by Grace.

Amen