Trinity Sunday

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Trinity Sunday
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: June 18,2000


TEXT: John 3:1-16 - Jesus answered him (Nicodemus), “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”

ISSUE: - This is a passage of struggle for Nicodemus. He has a hard time grasping what Jesus is saying to him. The issue is that a person must be born from above, from the top. A person must be immersed into the spirit of God to be a part of the Kingdom or Family of God. Jesus comes to lead those who will follow him to the Father, to their rightful honorable heritage. All of us and especially fathers on this Father’s Day need to receive Christ and immerse our children into God’s Kingdom and way of love.
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This gospel passage expresses something of struggle. Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night, and is told that he must be born from above, or better still from the top. Nicodemus has a hard time understanding just exactly what this means. He becomes argumentative, “How can anyone be born after growing old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb?” The passage expresses the difficult time that some people had in accepting the message, way, and teachings of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, the passage still expresses the difficult time that people even have today of understanding the meaning and purpose of the ministry of Jesus Christ in this present age.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. He seems to really want to understand Jesus and his teaching. The fact that Nicodemus comes at night is first indicative of his being in the darkness, searching for the light that comes from Christ. It is also possibly indicative and symbolic of his search for heavenly things. In the day time we are concerned with the earth, but at night and only at night do we see into the depths of the universe, we see into the stars, and into the wonders of God. Here is a passage which tells of a searching man who comes to the presence of Jesus Christ.
Jesus responds to Nicodemus with a common theme. Jesus invites Nicodemus to step into the Kingdom of God. The way into the Kingdom, or realm, or Kingdom of Heaven is to be born again, which means to be born from above, or “from the top.” There is a very obvious image of baptism. You must born of water and spirit. A person must be immersed, and allow themselves to be immersed into the Kingdom of God. You have to allow yourself to immersed into the presence and spirit of God to become a new person separated from the worldliness.
The work and ways of Jesus throughout his ministry was to show people the way to the Father, the way to God. A very large number of his parable were all Kingdom Parables. He would tell what the Kingdom of God was like. In some instances it is a place of great abundance of love and forgiveness as in the Parable of the Loving Father, or Prodigal Son. It is a place that lets in and is open to the last, the least, and the lost, as in the Parables of the Wedding Feasts. The realm of God is not a place of reward and punishment, but of magnanimous grace as in the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. God’s Kingdom is there for all who will allow themselves to be transformed, and who trust in God’s bountiful love and mercy.
The miracles of Jesus were mostly occasions calling for and came out of occasions of faithfulness, trust loyalty. Out of trust and loyalty came hope, peace, calm, renewal, healing, restoration in the Kingdom of God.
For the early Christian Community Jesus was Son of God, who came down from Heaven to show and reveal the great love so freely given to his creation. You see, that Kingdom or realm had become quite lost and clouded by systems of reward and punishment, by competition, by cruelty, hatred, domineering and often corrupt governments. The large portion of the poor, the orphaned, the widows, the peasantry, the blind, lame, deaf, and diseased had become seen as those unworthy of God and had no honor in the world.
Into that frame of reference, Jesus comes speaking of being born from above, born from the top. Embracing Jesus Christ meant becoming immersed into the love and Spirit of God the Father. He came to lead the lost and all the dispossessed into the Kingdom of God, into the Family of God, whereby they gained a new honor by virtue of their being the children of God. The are returned to “Abba! Father!” “All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God,” is the way St. Paul so aptly states it. For many people, for Nicodemus, it was hard to accept that a person could be born from above, from the top, that a person and a world could be transformed and changed. But the gospel message, the point of John’s Gospel account, and of this passage is that you can turn to God the Father through the Son, Jesus, the Christ, and be in the renewing energizing Spirit of God.
Today, here in this parish, we are baptizing two children. They are being immersed into the way of Jesus Christ. They are being immersed and born again, born from above, from the top, to be children of God, friends of Jesus Christ and partners in his ministry They are entering into the Kingdom of God with all its love, grace, forgiveness, and hope. In the same way that Christ came to show the way, we who are in Christ, Christians, faithful to Christ will train these children in the ways of the new citizenship in the Kingdom or Realm of God. Just as Christ led Nicodemus and all the other disciples in followers to God the Father, we lead our children to Christ and keep them immersed in the awareness of the Spirit of God, and of their honorable place as children of God.
Today is also, coincidentally, Father’s Day. It is a time that we become somewhat sentimental and nostalgic about our fathers. It is actually, I think, quite profound that we also call God our Father, as well as the man who significant in each of our own births. Being, then, a father, is not to be taken lightly. Each of us as fathers represent the Divine to our children. What they see in us as Fathers may well influence how they think and understand the Fatherhood of God. Thus, how we men live our lives is extraordinarily important, especially when we are raising children or have some relationship with children. It is important that as Christ led all people to the God the Father, that we also with Christ lead our children to the understanding of God the Father as the Father of us all who extends bountiful grace, love, and forgiveness.
The world we live in today is a violent and cruel world. There are many corrupting influences on our children, from the availability of pornography and unscrupulous predators on the internet to the drug dealers on the corner. Teaching our children that they have to be tough and good is not just enough. We have to show them devotion, profound love and forgiveness. We have to create safe, warm, cordial, happy homes as best we can. We ourselves have to know the way of Christ. We ourselves have to be immersed in his love. We ourselves must be dependent upon the grace that sustains us. We ourselves must show our children what it’s like, and what it means to be in the larger and greater Family of God.
Nicodemus came to Jesus in the night. Perhaps, it symbolizes his being in the dark in search of enlightenment. Perhaps, it is symbolic of his search for the deeper meaning of the universe. Whatever it was we cannot miss the point that he came to Jesus Christ to find his way. Understanding the mysteries that Christ reveals did not come especially easy for him. So involved in the world, it is hard to be born again, to know seek what is above, to be born from the top, from God. It’s hard for all of us to appreciate our need at time to be born from above, to be transformed and renewed. Yet Christ looms bright and tall. He is lifted up on a cross before us to reveal the quality of just how God loves the creation. Jesus Christ is the way to the Father. They are in relationship of love: Father, Son, and Spirit. The invitation is extended to all who will come to God and be a part of the Family of God. We are called to come closer and to stand on holy ground; bring the children too.