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There's More To God Than You Think

            If you can see one of them, take a look at one of the big church windows.  Notice the configuration of the wood framing on top.  I’m not sure why the architects used a four leaf-clover design in the middle.  There’s no obvious historic Christian meaning for that although some have suggested that it could be a reference to the four gospels.  But do you see the framing of the symbols on either side on top, forming the outline of three interlocking circles?  That is an artistic reference to the trinity.  Check the sides of the pews, and note that the pattern inside the arch, which is formed like one of the big windows, has that same three interlocking circle pattern, which is also symbolized on the sides of this pulpit.  Can you see the scalloping on the edge of this pulpit canopy?  It’s got a triple-design, and the same triple pattern is on the canopy over the altar.  Artistic references to the trinity are all over the place in this building.  We know that God is three-in-one – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – yet not three gods but one.  We hear references to the trinity at the beginning and end of nearly every worship service.  We are so used to hearing terms like “trinity” and “triune” that we don’t give it much thought, until the one time each year when we set aside an entire worship service on that theme.

             The design of our worship service today compels us to think of the doctrine of the trinity, and when we do, the wonder and the majesty of the nature of God may seem too much to handle.  We get sensory overload, like data pouring in to fill our computer’s hard drive, then filing a dozen thumb drives, then ten cds, then an external hard drive and the biggest main frame computer we can imagine to the point of causing smoke coming out of each with still more data pumping in.  That’s what happens when we try to wrap our brains around the doctrine of the trinity.

            So, how can we get a handle on this truth and make it practical for our lives?  Here’s what we do.  We sneak out late at night, tiptoe down a few back alleys, and knock on the back door of the house in Jerusalem where Jesus is staying.  Tap, tap, tap!  Jesus opens door and with a big smile says, “Come on in!  Oh, Nicodemus!  I see you brought a friend from Milwaukee!  Come in, both of you.  Sit down, and tell me what’s on your heart.”  Nicodemus speaks up for us, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God.  For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”  All I want – beyond a resurgence in my investment portofolio, a calming down of family squabbles, peace of mind regarding the political problems in our nation and the world – all I want is to be “in” with God.  I know that means I have to play by his rules.  But more than anything else, I want to be sure that God likes me and is happy with me.  Can you help me?”  Jesus looked at Nicodemus and said, “Yeah!  I can help.  And here’s how.  I’m going to tell you about God, and you need to know, Nicodemus, that … There’s More To God Than You Think.”

God the Father’s plan

            The evangelist John tells us here in the third chapter of his book that Nicodemus was a man of the Pharisees, religious leaders in Jesus’ day who were convinced that bad stuff happened to their nation because people weren’t paying attention to the laws of Moses recorded in the first five books of the Bible.  While they were especially hyper about Sabbath and cleanliness rules, the biggest and most basic bottom-line rule came from the lips of God himself, “You shall have no other gods”(Exodus 20:3).  You can understand why that rule rose to the top of the list when you recall that the number one problem the Israelites of old had was incorporating into their worship a multiple-god approach.  They had reasoned, “Who are we to say that the gods of other nations aren’t legit?  All gods and all religions eventually lead to the same place, don’t they?”  The Israelites were hedging their bets in case the God who spoke to Moses didn’t pan out.  Besides, worship of other gods seemed like more fun because their services included wild parties.  God lowered the boom by using the Babylonians to sweep in and sweep the house of Israel clean.  In Babylon the Israelites turned to God and shouted, “OK!  We learned our lesson.  We will never, ever worship multiple gods again.  There is only one God, and it’s you, Lord!”  From then on, they believed and their teachers emphasized, “There is only one God.”  But they carried that to such an extreme that they lost sight of an amazing truth which their ancestors all knew, to which all the Old Testament books testify.  There is one God, but God is three-in-one.  There aren’t plural gods, but God’s nature, his being, his essence is plural.

            From Nicodemus’ view there is one God, and the best way for God to intersect and interact with humans would be to exercise his fatherly control.  The prophets wrote things like, “You, O LORD, are our Father”(Isaiah 64:8).  From Nicodemus’ view the best way for God to show his fatherly control would be in the sending of a Messiah to solve people’s personal problems and sort out the nation’s political problems.  “Come on, God!  Make sense of our world!  Organize it, control it, and make us happy.  We’re not asking for money or fame.  Just make our lives a little more comfortable and a little less messy.”

            But Jesus told Nicodemus, “There’s More To God Than You Think.  Yes, the Father is going to send a Messiah.  In fact, he already has.  But that Messiah is not a war hero or a fix-it man.  The Messiah is God’s own Son, and the Messiah’s primary job will not be to make your earthly life better but to open the door to eternal life.  His primary job won’t be to show the heavenly Father’s control but his compassion.  No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man … For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  That love from God the Father is desperately needed because flesh gives birth to flesh, sinners give birth to sinners, and without God’s rescue no one will have an ‘in’ with him.   Oh, Nicodemus!  There’s More To God Than You Think.  There is one God, but this one God is plural in nature and has sent his Son to demonstrate his compassion by solving the puzzle of sin and sorting through the messes humans make.  That message will help you make sense of this world in the light of a better world to come.”

            Oh, Christian!  There’s More To God Than You Think.  When the economy goes south, when people die before their time, when the kids get sick, when jobs go away, when the marriage is crumbling, what’s the first thing Christians do?  They turn to God.  Good!  But what’s the first thing that comes to their mind as a source of comfort?  I’ve heard it.  You’ve hear it.  I’ve said it.  You’ve said it.  “It’s a good thing God is in control.”  But when problems aren’t solved right away, then what pops into our mind?  “Come on, God!  You’re supposed to be in control.”  As we sit with Nicodemus in that little kitchen in Jerusalem, Jesus directs our hearts in a better direction for a better way of thinking.  He says, “There’s More To God Than You Think.  More important than his control is his compassion.  When bad stuff comes your way and you start to wonder about the future, think first of his compassion because more than anything else you need him to do something about the record of sin that hangs over your heads.  God the Father did do something about that, which was his plan all along.”

God the Son performed it

            From Nicodemus’ view, if God kept his promise to send a Messiah, then that Messiah would ride into Jerusalem in a gold chariot with an army of Israelite Rangers, knock out the Roman government communication center, kick out the Roman rulers, and set up shop as the prince of an Israelite kingdom that would rival the power and prestige of their ancestors’ under King David one thousand years earlier.  But Nicodemus was puzzled.  This Jesus talked like a teacher sent from God and worked miracles like a Messiah sent from God, but when and where would he set up the kingdom of God, and more importantly, how could he, Nicodemus, get into it?  Jesus’ answer took his breath away.  “You’ve heard about and seen some of my miracles.  But they are just little glimpses of my divine nature.  You are going to see something that will absolutely knock your socks off.  You want a miracle?  How about this?  God is going to die.  That’s right, Nicodemus.  I’m the Son of God.  I’m God.  And I’m going open the gate of God’s kingdom to the least likely candidates, to sinners like you.  I’m going to do that by a miracle more stunning than the one God pulled off in the wilderness when he saved your ancestors from poisonous snakes by having them look to a bronze snake which Moses hung on a pole.  I’m going to get hung on a pole, and everyone who looks to me is going to say, ‘There is God, and God died for me’.  Oh, Nicodemus!  There’s More To God Than You Think.  There is one God, but this one God is plural in nature.  I am the Son of God every bit as much God as the Father is, and I have come to die so you won’t die in hell.”

            Oh, Christian!  There’s More To God Than You Think.  We want God to be real.  We want God to like us.  We want to be with God and want to live with God in heaven.  Does he care?  Is he so far away?  Look to Jesus and see God.  See your Savior!  See the only way to heaven.  He is not hiding behind some distant star.  He came to this planet and made his dwelling among us.  Then he lived in such a way and died in such a way that we can dwell with God.  How can God be one yet be three-in-one?  How can God the Father send his Son and still be one God?  He did, and he is!  There’s more to God than we think.  He’s not just powerful and in control.  He came up with a plan to save us and his Son carried it out.

God the Holy Spirit makes it personal

            From Nicodemus’ view, God’s kingdom was earthly and physical.  If he was going to get into that kingdom, then he, Nicodemus, would have to do something.  Jesus message to him at first threw him for a loop.  “I tell you the truth, unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”.  Nicodemus could not imagine a second physical birth from his mommy.  But here’s what Jesus was saying.  Birth number one is physical from mommy and daddy.  The problem is that all babies who are born physically alive are at the same time spiritual dead.  “Flesh gives birth to flesh”.  In other words, people are born into their earthly family, but they are not part of God’s spiritual family until God gives them spiritual birth by washing their sins from his sight.  That’s what happens at baptism.  That’s birth number two, being “born again.”  And that powerful working of the Spirit cannot be earned any more than you or I can make the wind blow.  “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit”.  “Oh, Nicodemus!  There’s More To God Than You Think.  There is one God, but this one God is plural in nature and has sent his Spirit so that you don’t have to shell out any dough or work hard to gain kingdom entrance.  God the Holy Spirit uses the power tools of God the Father’s promises to usher you through the gate opened by the payment made by God the Son.”  Consider this!  Nicodemus was sitting in a kitchen listening to God the Son describe the plan of God the Father which would become a personal part of his life by the working of God the Holy Spirit.

            Oh, Christian!  There’s More To God Than You Think.  You want to be “in” with God.  I know that you do.  God the Father planned for you to be “in.”  God the Son carried out that plan, and God the Holy Spirit made it all personal, touching your heart with God’s forgiving mercy in the waters of baptism and giving you new birth into God’s kingdom.  And every time you read God’s promises of love and forgiveness, think about them, talk about them, the wind of the Holy Spirit is blowing out the fires of hell and fanning the flame of faith in your heart.  That is the job of God the Holy Spirit, to make all that Jesus did personal for you.

            Imagine how a fighter pilot feels the first time he breaks the sound barrier.  Imagine how an astronaut feels at the first launch into outer space.  Just thinking of it takes your breath away.  That’s exactly what the doctrine of the trinity is designed to do.  It tells us that we do not worship an ordinary god.  We do not worship some distant, undefined spirit nor some powerless, pot-bellied hunk of cross-legged wood or stone.  We worship a real, personal God, the only God there is, whose very nature goes beyond our human understanding.  Once a year our worship revolves around that truth, but every time we worship we are reminded by words and symbols that there’s more to God than we think.  And that’s a good thing!  Our brains don’t explode.  Rather our hearts burst with joy and praise because, if God’s nature goes beyond all human understanding, that means he is bigger than we are and can do things we can’t – like save us!            Amen.

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (http://www.gracedowntown.org/) on June 7, 2009

Services

Sundays 7:45, 9:00 & 10:30 am

Mondays 6:30 pm

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church | 1209 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 | (414) 271-3006

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