The Wrong Questions - The Holy Trinity
Author: Pastor Scott Schul
May 26, 2024
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Nicodemus
asks, “How can anyone be born after having grown
old? Can one enter a second time into
the mother’s womb and be born?” Those questions reveal Nicodemus’s misunderstanding
about everything Jesus was teaching. Jesus is focused on the need for spiritual rebirth and renewal in
his followers, but Nicodemus can’t rise above his very concrete and literal mindset,
and instead gets hung up on the absurd notion of being physically reborn
from the womb.
This story reminds us that if we
ask the wrong questions, we won’t get the right answers. It’s an appropriate subject on Holy Trinity Sunday,
because the Holy Trinity, more than any other doctrine, causes all of us at some
point to fall into the same trap as Nicodemus. For two thousand years, theologians have tried and mostly failed to explain
the Holy Trinity in understandable terms. It’s a field full of doctrinal landmines.
What I can say for sure
about the Holy Trinity comes from the Augsburg Confession, one of the foundations
of Lutheran belief. It’s the same as
what Catholics, Orthodox, and mainline Protestants say:
“There is one divine essence which
is called God and is God: eternal, incorporeal, indivisible, of immeasurable
power, wisdom, and goodness, the creator and preserver of all things, visible
and invisible. Yet, there are three persons, coeternal and of the same essence
and power: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
It's still not very clear, is
it? Even the most precise language from
the smartest theological minds in history can’t fully penetrate the mystery of
God’s Triune identity. It’s beyond
anything our human minds can fully understand, and so like Nicodemus we can get
perturbed with this notion. But I think
it’s good to have a God shrouded in some mystery, because a god I can fully
comprehend isn’t much of a god. So don’t
let this frustrate you. It's OK to accept
that there’s a lot about God we’ll never understand on this side of
heaven. That’s not a bad thing.
But just because the Holy Trinity
is complex, don’t dismiss the idea as irrelevant, because there is something understandable and important we can take from the doctrine of the
Trinity. The Holy Trinity reveals that God’s
very essence is relationship and love. And since we’re made in the image of our
creator, an authentically human life must also be grounded in relationship and
love. So to connect all this with
Nicodemus, Holy Trinity Sunday reminds us that all of our life questions must
be framed from the perspective of relationship and love. Because if we ask the wrong questions, we’ll
get the wrong answers.
Let’s take this somewhat abstract
principle and make it concrete by examining one of the most common questions we
ask. “What do I want to do with my
life?” You’ve asked that question,
haven’t you? Probably more than
once! It pops up again and again in our
lives. As children, we reach a stage when
we begin to wonder what we want to do for work, and what we want to be someday. As we finish high school we ask
this question even more, as we choose a college major or trade school, or enter
the workforce. At midlife we often
discover that who we are no longer matches up with what we do,
and so we start to wonder again. “What
do I want to do with my life?” And then when
we retire or lose a spouse and find ourselves on our own for the first time in
a long time, we realize a whole new horizon of possibilities has opened up, and
that old familiar question resurfaces. “What do I want to do with my life?”
But that’s the wrong question,
because it can lead us down pathways that are perilously individualistic and
self-centered. The right question,
the one that’s going to lead us to the right answer, is this: “What is God calling me to do with my life?” By
bringing God into the question, we ensure that our answer will reflect the
relationality and love that’s at the core of both God’s identity and our own. And besides, God has
equipped each and every one of us with a vast array of unique and special
gifts. No one knows us or our gifts
better than God, and so no one is better positioned to help us use those gifts
in ways that will bless others and thereby enrich our lives with meaning,
purpose, fulfillment, and wholeness.
“What is God calling me to do with
my life?” That’s the right question, and God begins to answer it for us at the very beginning of
our faith journey, at baptism. There, we
hear that God has uniquely created and called each of us to care for others,
and to work for justice and peace. We
have a special word in the church for this: it is our vocation, our calling.
Just imagine! Since time began, philosophers have speculated
about the meaning of life. Well, here it
is. God created and equipped you to be a blessing to others. That means you and everyone in this world has inherent value and importance in God’s
eyes. Everyone matters. Everyone has a purpose rooted in love, relationship, and service.
Some of you are probably crossing
your arms now and thinking, “Well pastor, that might’ve been true once, but I’m
old now and I can’t do the same things I used to do.” OK. It’s likely your gifts and abilities have changed over time, but you still have gifts and a purpose from God. At
the other end of the spectrum, I’m sure some younger people are wondering how
God could use them, since they’re still acquiring experience, education,
and training. I assure you: you too have something unique that this world needs, and God has a purpose for you as
well.
Martin Luther wrote, “as no one is
without some commission and calling, so no one is without some kind of work.”1 Your work might take place here in the
Church, but more likely your work will take place in the wider world. Every body, regardless of age or ability, has gifts from God and a calling from God to bless, serve, and love
others. And it all begins by asking the
right question: “What’s God calling me to do with my life.”
Let’s take this one step
further. Now that we know the right question, how do we go about seeking the answer? The great theologian Frederick Buechner gives
us a good starting point. He wrote that
“the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the
world’s deep hunger meet.”2 In
other words, if you find the intersection of what you’re good at doing,
what you like doing, and what the world needs you to do, you’ve
found your answer, your calling, your vocation, your purpose.
OK, but how can you know for sure? Sometimes the answer arises within you, straight
from God, as words, a feeling, or an intuition. So pray about it. Ponder it. Other times, it comes from outside, like when
someone sees something special in you and encourages you to pursue it. So test that answer. Get insight from people you trust. And then assess where that answer places
you. Are you at that intersection of
your deep gladness and the world’s need? Is it, like God, grounded in relationship and love? If so, congratulations! You know what God is calling you to do with
your life.
Look, I know I haven’t solved the
eternal mystery of the Holy Spirit for you, but perhaps now you can ask the
right questions, questions that reflect the relationality and love that’s the
essence of God and us. If
so, then the rest of your life need not be a mystery. Our Triune God has answers for you,
because you are beloved. You have gifts and purpose. And you
are the means by which God wants to bless and love the world. Amen.
Citations
1 What Shall I Say? Discerning God’s Call to
Ministry © 1998 ELCA, p. 22.
2 Ibid, p. 23.
Gospel
Text: John 3:1-17
1Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader
of the Jews. 2He 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.” 3Jesus
answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God
without being born from above.” 4Nicodemus 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?” 5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I
tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and
Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born
of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to
you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8The 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.” 9Nicodemus
said to him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus answered him,
“Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
11“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. 12If I have told you
about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you
about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except
the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal
life.
16“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.
17“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.”
Copyright Rev. Scott E. Schul, 2024 All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
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