Trinity Sunday Sermon at St. Mark's, Boligee

St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Boligee, Alabama is one of the historic parishes in our Diocese.  Formed in 1834, the current building was constructed in 1854.  Today, members gather on the 4th Sunday of most months, along with the congregation from the local Presbyterian Church, to worship.  The Rev. John Stewart, Deacon, and I are fortunate to minister to this historic and lively parish on the western edge of Alabama.

Trinity Sunday

John 3:1-17

May 27, 2018

A few years ago, a series of television commercials featured well-known celebrities using Mastercard. Christy Brinkley, the fashion supermodel, went shopping.  James Coburn was looking for exciting and exotic vacation spots. And Pierce Brosnan wanted to remodel his house. There was Angela Lansbury, Jerry Seinfeld, and even the late Jackie Gleason all touting MasterCard as the credit card for any and everything.  But what really made these commercials famous was that at the end – the star would hold up their card and challenge all of us watching to Master the Possibilities.

And this is what I think Jesus was trying to say to Nicodemus.   In today’s Gospel from John, Nicodemus comes to Jesus one night looking for answers.  He is a Pharisee and the Pharisees were constantly challenging Jesus to prove who everyone was saying that he was – the Messiah.  Nicodemus would never have spoken to Jesus in the daytime.  But when it was dark - he could come without being seen.  Nicodemus had heard the teachings of Jesus.  He no doubt had heard about the miracles – how Jesus healed the sick and even turned water into wine.  Nicodemus had started to believe – believe that maybe Jesus really could be the very Son of God.  And so, he comes to Jesus looking for answers.

And Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again from above.  Jesus challenges Nicodemus to think big – think about the Kingdom of Heaven – not just how life is - but how life can be if heaven is literally here and now.  Here standing right in from of him is the Son of God inviting him to believe and to literally master all the possibilities of new life in the Kingdom of Heaven.  But all Nicodemus can ask is how on earth can he re-enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time?  That is impossible. 

           Today we celebrate the Trinity:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We’ve heard it a thousand times before and this description of God goes back to the earliest days of the Church.  It is a mystery of the faith which means we can never fully describe what we mean.  God in 3 persons – Blessed Trinity. My ethics professor at Sewanee had a lecture on the Trinity that he gave year after year.  He asked the question, “How do you know there are only 3 persons in the Trinity.”  Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not about something you can define in the dictionary.  God is not a math problem.  It is too easy to limit God the Father to a painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or Jesus to the picture in the back of the Children’s Bible.  And heaven knows what the Holy Spirit actually looks like.  There is the temptation to talk about God in terms we can grasp – and what ends up happening is that too often God ends up looking too much like us.  We create a God who does what we need God to do.  Our talk becomes less and less of an Almighty and eternal Savior.  When that happens, we begin to ask questions like “Can we really be born again?”

          

           I get to spend next week in one of my favorite places in the whole world – Wonderful, Wonderful Camp McDowell.  I am going to summer camp with about 120 middle school students.  I get to be a kid again!  Rather than worry about spreadsheets and capital campaigns, I am going to swim and canoe and go to arts and crafts.  My phone doesn’t work very well at Camp McDowell.  I can check email about once a day.  It is heaven.  Have you ever talked about God with a 7^th grader?  Sometimes I think they understand our Lord far better than me.  When you lay out on the road at the top of the hill late at night and you can see a million stars, then it is easy to believe in an infinite God.  We are going to celebrate the Eucharist sitting in a circle and the only light will be from candles reminding us that Christ is always the light shining in the darkness.  And when these kids sing you can’t help but know that the Holy Spirit is there.  I believe that I will be born again next week with a group of 120 middle school kids at Camp McDowell

           But then again, we can be born again here this morning.  We gather with friends and family we know and love in the name of God and we are bound in Christian fellowship by the power of the Holy Spirit.  In a few moments – simple bread and wine will become to us the body and blood of Christ – spiritual food for our spiritual journey and we will be born again.  All this week we will see people throughout our day and when we can look at each one of them as a Child of God, then we will be born again.  When we spread God’s love with a kind word, offer a prayer for the peace that passes all understanding, and seek to serve Christ in all persons, then we will be born again.

          

           Just imagine living everyday believing that God is here.  What if we start every morning knowing that we are living in the Kingdom of Heaven here and now.  What if we can master the eternal possibilities.  Then we can be born again.  And we will see God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  AMEN.