You Hear the Sound of It

Sermon for Trinity Sunday (RCL - B)
Offered by Nathan Ferrell at Holy Spirit, Bellmawr & St. Luke’s, Westville

Texts: Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17

Alone, in the dark of night, the teacher, well-trained, well-educated, a city-dweller walks out into the orchard, seeking the country prophet from the hills, the one who speaks with surprising authority, and who heals the sick.

Nicodemus seeks for Jesus and he hopes for answers. He leaves the Master more confused than before, but touched by a Presence unlike anything else he has ever known.

For days, for weeks, no – for his entire life, Nicodemus chews upon those words, trying to soak up from them every last bit of divine meaning. His understanding is slow to change, but his heart is changed more quickly, and Nicodemus becomes a disciple. One who loves this man from Nazareth and who seeks a better life through him.

What does it mean to be born from above? What does this look like?

Some of you may know the story of John Newton, the man who wrote the text of “Amazing Grace.” His life is a parable of what the Holy Spirit can do with a human life.

Newton was born in 1725 in London. John’s mother taught him to pray, but she died when he was 7, and his father drowned at sea when he was 17. His heart became hardened and he turned his back on God. Living as a sailor, he sought work with slave traders, trying to run as far away from England as possible and to smother his sorrows with alcohol. However, on one return trip to England, the ship was besieged by a fierce storm. John feared for his life and so he prayed to God for help. That was all the opening that the Holy Spirit needed, for John Newton’s heart was changed from that day onward. His life was set in a new direction, and he went on to become a faithful Anglican clergyman, a powerful preacher, and a leader in the movement to abolish slavery. “Amazing Grace” is one of hundreds of hymns that he wrote to be used at prayer meetings at his parish.

Literally for John Newton, the wind blew where it wills, and the Spirit of God came into his heart and he experienced eternal life.

We all know the caricature of the evangelical preachers who preach this text from the Gospel of John over and over again. “You must be born again!” There is deep truth here. There are many people that you know who need a new start, whose hearts are hardened by grief or hardship or anger. God wants to be in direct, personal relationship with each one of us. This is the truth. But unfortunately, if we stop here, we miss so much of the subtlety of this famous text.

Alone, in the dark of night, Nicodemus came to Jesus to speak with him. Jesus responds in the plural. “You all must be born from above.” Jesus moves the conversation away from the individual back to the community of the faithful, where God has always spoken.

What our Lords speaks of here is not so much the experience of the individual –though this is vital and crucial – but it is the transformation of the community.

Jesus teaches the teacher of Israel about a new birth. The language here is noticeably ambiguous. Perhaps it means being born again, or born anew, or born from above. But whatever the translation, the meaning is very clear: this is something different, different from what folks are used to.

To be baptized by water and the Spirit, to be brought into the living body of Christ – it means to have a direct experience of the grace and loving-kindness of God.

Kind of like the prophet Isaiah. Did you hear those words read for our First Lesson?
What do you think about Isaiah’s simple and yet awesome statement: “I saw the Lord”? I saw the Lord! This is an incredible account of a direct experience of the living God.

Many have seen in this vision of Isaiah an image of the entire Eucharist that is at the heart of our community in Christ. We gather with the heavenly host in praising the glory of God, the sacred Trinity. Here we find the inspiration for the Sanctus: that indispensable hymn sung in the Eucharistic prayer. “Holy, holy, holy.” Since the earliest days of the Church, the body of Christ has gathered together to worship and has sung this thrice-holy hymn, inspired by the vision of Isaiah.

Of course, we do not see God in the same way as Isaiah, but we have our own direct experience. We taste God in the bread and wine! Recognizing our unworthiness – “woe is me!”, we approach the altar. And what is it that is taken from the altar and which touches our mouths? It is not a live coal, but it is living bread. Living bread and flowing blood that are provided for the forgiveness of sins. And after this, we are sent out by the great God of life to be the Lord’s ambassadors. “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

When we experience God, we are never allowed to keep this only to ourselves. For God so loved the world, and God is committed to bringing the healing work of the Gospel to all the nations through our words and actions.

Now, today is Trinity Sunday, the Church’s feast when we remember and celebrate the three Persons of the Trinity.
It has been a long-standing practice in the Anglican churches on Trinity Sunday to replace the Nicene Creed with the Athanasian Creed in the Liturgy. Now, I’ll bet that most of you are asking yourselves, “What in the world is the Athanasian Creed?” Did you know that it is printed right in the Prayer Book? The Creed of St. Athanasius is found on page 864. Let’s please turn to it for a moment. I would like to read the middle section only, the part that begins at the top of page 865.

“So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God.And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord.And yet not three Lords, but one Lord.For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge ever y Person by Himself to be both God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the Catholic Religion, to say, there be three Gods,or three Lords.The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten.The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten.The Holy Ghost is of the Father [and of the Son], neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other; none is greater, or less than another; but the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal.So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.”

This is the truth about God, and if we are to remain in the faith of the Church, we cannot stray from this truth. But remember that the wind blows where it chooses. John Newton was saved simply by calling out to God for help in the midst of a storm. There is no limit to the ways in which the Holy Spirit can work in our lives. And there is no limit to what Christ can do with a community of his faithful disciples, those who love Him and who are discovering a new kind of life through him. Thanks be to God that we have the grace of walking in this path together as the body of Christ. Amen.