Trinity Sunday

Trinity Sunday
God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world.

Jesus Christ is the fullness of God in human flesh. The central teaching that Jesus brings is love. Divine Love. Pure unconditional compassion. Eternal steadfast holy love.

The Holy Spirit selected a teen ager by the name of John to experience the reality of that divine unconditional love and compassion in a unique and powerful way. For, it is John who remembered and recorded Jesus teaching Nicodemus, an elder and a religious leader, that there is no condemnation in divine love.

This must have astonished Nicodemus. In Nicodemus’ time the religious schools of Israel had finally overcome the trap of polytheism after over a thousand years of struggle. They had come to understand that there is indeed only one God. Their view of God was so lofty and so transcendent that they feared even to speak the name God had revealed to Moses. And that was the problem that first century Judaism faced. The problem of fear.

The thirty or so sects of Judaism in the First Century bitterly and some times violently disagreed over what the One God wanted. But they all agreed there was only one God. Sadly, as is all too common amongst human beings, they formed a conclusion that the one God only related to human beings through the Law. The Law could reward. And the Law could punish. The Law could commend. And, the Law could condemn. Condemnation was the great fear underlying religion.

As a law based religion, first century Judaism asked the question what must I do to earn my reward and avoid punishment. This question was not unique to the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the other sects of Judaism. Human beings have a tendency to bend and shape and eventually warp religious insights into two molds.

One mold is held by pride. The other mold is held by despair.
Both are supported by the pillars of fear and self will.

Pride based religion asserts that I can do it myself. I can discern who God is, what God wants, and how to get what I want from God. The fear in this religion is the fear that some one else will some how stop me or prevent me from accomplishing this. The self will in this religious approach leads to conflict and wars.

Pride has a tendency to morph into despair. That process has an intermediate step: indifference. The fear is that I can’t figure it out. It is too complex. Or, that since I can’t figure out it must be that the universe really has no underlying meaning and purpose. The self will asserts, if I cannot have the proof I demand to know who God is and what God wants in a way that makes sense to me, then I will not believe.

Pride, indifference, despair all share the common threads of fear and self will. They all proceed from and maintain the separation of the soul from God. They all avoid the real problem and so they all miss the real solution to the problem.

Jesus discerned that Nicodemus was searching. But, Nicodemus was also trapped in the internal logic of his culture. He thought in terms of law. He thought in terms of rewards and punishments. He was searching but he was searching blind. He could not see beyond fear and self will. Nicodemus not only needed a new insight he needed a new way of living. That insight is what the apostle John has recorded for all people and for all time: God is love. That new way of living is a person. Jesus Christ.

The one God is love. The one God is the Father who has sent the Son into the world to reveal Love. The one God is the Holy Spirit who invites all souls everywhere to experience a new reality by experiencing the love of God in Jesus Christ.

The apostolic teaching that the one God is three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit is grounded in Jesus’s teaching that God is love. That love is personal. That love is complete within itself. Divine love is a community of love that manifests for all eternity as the one who loves, the Father. The Beloved, the son. The very power of love the Father and Son share- the Holy Spirit.
Each person of the Trinity is unique and distinct. Each person of the Trinity is co eternally the God who is pure unconditional and self existing steadfast holy love. That love is active, dynamic, creative, self giving.

Jesus came not just to found another school of thought or a religion or a philosophy. Jesus didn’t come to discuss possible solutions to life’s difficulties. That is what Nicodemus was looking for: a nice, perhaps even stimulating, religious discussion to add just a little insight into what he already believed. To add just a little more vibrancy into how he had been living his life
Jesus came for a very different purpose. Jesus is the solution to the underlying problem that all human beings face. The problem is separation. That separation may manifest in pride, indifference or despair. That separation will lead the soul into fear and self will.

Jesus offers us an entirely different way. Jesus just doesn’t add to what already have or how we are already living. Jesus completely transforms us through a new way of living. It is the way of steadfast holy love. It is the way of reunification with God the Father. It is the way of transformation in God the Holy Spirit. It is the way of being reborn into God the Son, Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ there is no condemnation. In Jesus Christ we are one with the blessed and eternal Triune God who is love. In Jesus Christ we can, if we choose, enjoy a new way of living characterized no longer by pride, fear and self will but by faith, hope and charity. It is what some have called being born again.

Our first birth, a physical birth, is a birth into a species and a world that is lost in fear, separation, condemnation and death. The second birth, a spiritual birth, in a birth into eternal love.

There is no condemnation in love. There is only the joy of reunification with the divine. There is only the amazing adventure of continual transformation in the infinite and eternal love of God through our friendship with Jesus Christ.

John, the apostle discovered this friendship when he was a teen. He wrote about it for us. Through his writing, the Holy Spirit speaks to us and asks us: have you been born again? Are you still living under the fear of condemnation? If so- hear the words again and again. Believe the words for the first time. Renew your mind and heart and will in the words today, and tomorrow and forever.

God so loved the world.