"Mystery"

Joshua J Sander
6/3/12
First Sunday After Pentecost
Trinity Sunday
“Mystery”

Isaiah 6:1-8
John 3:1-17

Believe it or not, when I discovered the scripture lessons for this week, I immediately thought of Family Ties. How many of you remember the television program, Family Ties? Family Ties was a sit-com that ran from 1982 to 1989 and starred Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton. Alex was the oldest son of the family and a lot of the comedy revolved around the tension between his former hippie parents’ ideals and Alex’s kind of egotistical, over-achiever, big business, money-is-everything mindset.

But the piece of Alex P. Keaton that makes me think of Nicodemus is how very logical his actions frequently are. You see, Alex is the kind of person for whom numbers are stable and comforting and emotions are simply difficult.

For example, in one episode, he meets his girlfriend, Lauren’s, ex-boyfriend whose name is Eric. Alex, of course, immediately has both his relationship and his ego threatened: Eric graduated from the same college Alex attends, won all the same awards Alex won, and all but one of the scholarships Alex obtained—on the other hand, it wouldn’t have been appropriate for Eric to obtain that scholarship… after all, it was named after Eric. Eric has a Porsche, a job on Wall Street, an apartment in Manhattan… As Alex later puts it, “When we compare resumes he tops me in every category.”

Alex is sincerely worried, because in his mind, logically, Lauren should be dating Eric. Alex obsessively makes up lists of those things that he sees as marketable about himself and compares them to Eric. And then Alex begs his family to tell say why they love him. “I must be missing something,” says Alex, “there must be some good points that I have that Eric doesn’t have…”
Eventually, Alex is forced to discuss the situation with Lauren, saying, “I want you to have the best of everything, you know? And then when I met Eric, I couldn’t help but think that maybe he was the best.”

And Lauren simply replies, “Alex, I don’t love Eric.”

But Alex… he just can’t wrap his mind around that. After all, Eric is better in every category. Lauren tells a really cute story to illustrate why she loves Alex, but it’s just not a measurable thing that fits in his categories or on his list. And finally he’s forced to say, “Alright. Alright… You can’t come up with anything concrete. That’ll have to do.”

But Lauren says, “Alex, this isn’t something you have to define. You don’t have to clarify. It just is. And it’s wonderful!”

I think that Nicodemus is the same way. We don’t actually know how big his ego was, but we do know that he was a member of the elite—he was a Pharisee, so he was well educated, he was a leader, he had power and he was important.

The way John tells the story, Jesus goes directly from his first miracle—turning water to wine at the wedding in Cana—to overturning the money-changing tables and driving the people who were selling the sacrificial animals out of the temple. And many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but human beings seem to just naturally resist change. We want things to stay the same, to stay comfortable. We recognize that growth is change and we want to grow, but… we’d prefer for it to at least fit into our current understanding of how things work. We want to grow, but not if it means that what we know isn’t the whole picture—or even worse, simply wrong.

On one hand, change is uncomfortable and undesirable, especially for those who are as powerful and important as Nicodemus is. On the other hand, Jesus is literally turning things on their heads while gaining believers through the signs that he was doing. Jesus doesn’t fit in his categories or on his list. So he goes to Jesus and starts with the one fact that he can pin down, “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 responds by telling Nicodemus that he cannot see the Kingdom of God without being born again and born from above. Nicodemus needs to change and to grow and to let go of what he thought he knew in order to understand who Jesus is and what Jesus is doing. But that kind of change, that kind of growth, that kind of new learning isn’t easy.

Nicodemus questions Jesus, tries to wrestle the conversation back into familiar territory, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?”

Jesus pushes his boundaries, “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. 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.”

You can almost hear Nicodemus caving in when he says, “How can these things be?” This is all so new. It’s not at all what he’d learned was true. And it isn’t at all concrete—it isn’t something you have to define. You don’t have to clarify. It just is. And it’s wonderful!

It isn’t until Nicodemus finally gives up and gives in and is saying, “How can this be?” that Jesus gets to the good news: that the Son of Man will be lifted up in order 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.

It is human to want to understand, well, everything. It is the nature of God to be a mystery. And because these things are both true, 400 some odd years after the life of Jesus—or about 16-hundred years before us, depending on how you look at it—theologians came up with idea of the Trinity.

There’s no place in the Bible that specifically states that God is both three and one, but in today’s scripture lesson Jesus uses Father language for God and Son language for himself, as well as speaking of the Spirit.

So, as a friend of mine once put it, in this lesson,

“…we understand the relationship of Christ to the Creator to be intimate, close, indwelling, along with the Spirit–a hint at the Trinity. While the Trinity is a concept never named in the Bible, we have inferred the triune relationship of God through scriptures such as these, knowing that we can never fully understand God, the Trinity helps us understand how God has been made known to us.”

On the other hand, I’ve known people who really dislike the idea of the Trinity, because it isn’t logical. The numbers don’t work. One plus one plus one does not equal one in most people’s math. The idea that Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit are all the same God and their own selves doesn’t fit into their categories or onto their list. And that, actually, is half the point.

On Mother’s day I told you that God is bigger than you—that God is bigger than all of you and me put together. I told you that when it comes to figuring out who God is, we’re like blind people arguing over what an elephant is like.

One of us has the trunk and exclaims that an elephant is like a snake. Another of us wraps their arms around a leg and says, “You’re wrong! An elephant is very much like a tree!” Yet a third lays their hands on the tail and says “You’re both wrong, and elephant is clearly like a broom!” Each is accurately describing their experience of an elephant, but none of them has the whole picture. And that’s what it is always going to be like when we try to talk about God.

So it is quite appropriate, actually, to speak about God in terms that don’t quite make sense. Saying that God is both Three and One preserves the mystery of a God who is so much greater than us that we couldn’t possibly understand while still trying to describe the way God interacts with us.

And that’s the other half of the point. Even though God is so much bigger than us that we are actually incapable of wrapping our little minds around who God is, we can and should describe what our limited experiences of God are like.

I mean, that’s basically what the Bible is, isn’t it? A record of humanity’s experiences of God. Isaiah experiences God as the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Even the Seraphs, who’s voices literally shook the temple, even they covered their faces in God’s presence.

And yet, mighty as the God Isaiah is, he does not simply hand down instructions, but rather asks the question, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And Isaiah responds, “Here I am, send me.” So we can describe our God as one who calls—and to whom we respond. And of course, this is just one more of many, many examples. I certainly encourage you to add as many examples as you can to your own understanding of who God is and what God does.

Luckily, Christianity in general has been doing the work of pulling together experiences of God for time out of mind—through the process of compiling the 66 books of the Bible and through countless statements of faith. In 1959, the General Synod of the United Church of Christ adopted its own Statement of Faith and it is widely regarded as one of the most significant Christian faith testimonies of the 20th century. I’d like to invite you to find the insert in your bulletin entitled “UCC Statement of Faith in the form of a Doxology,” and as we read it together in unison, I’d like for you to notice how it describes who God is by talking about what God has done. Please join me:

We believe in you, O God, Eternal Spirit, God of our Savior Jesus Christ and our God, and to your deeds we testify:  

You call the worlds into being, create persons in your own image, and set before each one the ways of life and death.  

You seek in holy love to save all people from aimlessness and sin.  

You judge people and nations by your righteous will declared through prophets and apostles.  

In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Savior, you have come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and reconciling the world to yourself.  

You bestow upon us your Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues, and races.  

You call us into your church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be your servants in the service of others, to proclaim the gospel to all the world and resist the powers of evil, to share in Christ's baptism and eat at his table, to join him in his passion and victory.  

You promise to all who trust you forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace, courage in the struggle for justice and peace, your presence in trial and rejoicing, and eternal life in your realm which has no end.

Blessing and honor, glory and power be unto you.  

Amen.