Holy Trinity (B)
Catholic and Love
St. John 3:16
31 May 2015 – Redeemer
What’s the one word in the Athanasian creed that you didn’t like, that got under your Lutheran skin and caused you to squirm? Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith. Catholic – that word begins the creed and ends the creed. This is the catholic faith, whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.
Now in Stearns County the word catholic means “Roman Catholic.” But did you hear anything Roman in the creed? You didn’t swear allegiance to the Pope or pray to Mary, or promise to buy private masses for your dead relatives. The word catholic in this creed does not mean Roman Catholic. It is simply an old Latin word for universal. This is what it means, “Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold to the faith that was confessed by the apostles and by Christians of every land and age since then.”
Let me put it another way. Being a Lutheran will not save you from your sins. Neither will the Pope save you. Being a member of Redeemer won’t save you. I would even say, “your faith” won’t save you. Rather this faith, the faith taught in Holy Scripture, the faith confessed throughout history, the faith which worships “one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance” – that faith in that God alone, that faith, the catholic, universal faith saves you from sin and death.
When you confess the catholic faith you are confessing that if you have your own individual faith you will not be saved. Do you know the god most Americans worship? It is not the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Most Americans are not Christian – they are moralistic, therapeutic deists. They believe there is a God who is moral. He has an idea of right and wrong although his idea changes all the time so that we can get away with our sin. The American god is therapeutic – He exists to make me feel better. He wants me to be happy and well-adjusted. And finally the American God is simply god. He is the God of God bless America and In God we trust, but He is not the Trinity. He is not the God who sent His only Son. He is not the God who has an absolute right and wrong and who judges you guilty of sin. He is not the God so concerned about your salvation that He came Himself to save you. There will not be any moralistic, therapeutic, deists in heaven because they do not confess the catholic faith – that
the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Holy Spirit is another. But the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one: the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
The Moralistic, Therapeutic God makes much more sense than the Trinity. He (or she) is sort of right and wrong, wants to make you feel better, and doesn’t really care what you call him or her. That is the god we all want in our hearts. That sort of God sells. No sin, just problems. No blood and cross, just advice and counsel. No hell or heaven, just happiness. The Trinity doesn’t sell – not only because His very substance is beyond comprehension, but so is His work.
There is another essential matter to the catholic faith required for salvation:
Therefore, whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity. But it is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you think the Trinity is mind-boggling wait until you hear what this Trinitarian God did for you. He came for you and not only did He come for you He took your place. This is the mystery that Jesus taught Nicodemus in today’s Gospel reading. It is the mystery of God’s love and His love is unique as His substance. To teach Nicodemus about the love of God, Jesus used the Old Testament story of the Israelites in the wilderness. They had barely passed the first rest stop on their trip to the promised land when the Israelites complained to Moses about the Lord. Sure He had set them free from slavery, yes He had drowned their enemies in the Red Sea, indeed He had given them His Word and promise at Sinai, but they were bored with freedom and salvation and manna from heaven. What did Israel deserve for growing bored and impatient with the Lord who had created them, chose them, and saved them? What do you deserve when you rebel against God? Complete destruction. What did they receive? Forgiveness, salvation, the Lord’s love, but that love came in the Lord’s way.
The Lord did not say to Israel, “I understand how boring salvation and freedom can be. I know you’re stressed and you didn’t really mean all those vile things you said about my man Moses. Listen, I want you to be happy so I’m going to have a menu for you every day and you can chose from a dozen different entries because I don’t want you to be bored with manna.” No, the Lord loved His Israel so much He called their sin sin. He loved them so much He sent poisonous snakes among them to teach them that that poison of sin is deadly. Israel started dying. They felt the wages of sin. And they repented. They cried out to the Lord to save them.
Once again, however, the Lord loved them in His own mysterious way. He simply could have said, “You’re forgiven because I love you, in spite of the fact that you aren’t very lovely” but that is not what He did. His love was tied to the image of a snake on a pole. The Lord loves His way. Did a snake on a pole make any sense? Was that a reasonable and acceptable manner of treating snake bites? Absolutely not. But it was the Lord’s way and it called forth faith – faith that believes the Lord’s Word, faith that despairs of yourself and trusts what He reveals through His Word.
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14–15, ESV) That’s how Jesus told Nicodemus that God would love him. He did not tell Nicodemus his lifestyle is acceptable. He did not excuse Nicodemus’ sin by saying, “It’s OK to be a pharisee and to think better of yourself than anyone else.” No, God would love Nicodemus in His way. He would give Jesus for Nicodemus. Jesus would be treated as a hypocrite and arrogant man. He was not only found guilty in an earthly court when He was innocent, but He was judged guilty by His Father for our sins though He had none of His own. God’s love is as mysterious as His person. This is God’s love – He gave His perfectly good Son for you.
God in His love does not overlook your sin. Forgiveness is not permission or an excuse to sin. Sometimes I think it is too bad we don’t suffer for our sins like Israel did when they spread poison about God. Imagine if whenever you gossiped or took God’s name in vain you would get a cold sore or a blister on your tongue. Or whenever you lusted or coveted your eye would swell shut or get infected. But once again I am wishing God would work in my way, not His. We have one source and one source only where God’s way and will are revealed – His Word. His Word shows you your sin and He is not fuzzy about right and wrong. His Word tells you who He is and He is not some generic god. And His Word tells you how He loves you – He loves you in this way – His Son was lifted up on the cross and died for your sin.
God is who He is and He loves as He loves.
Therefore, whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity. But it is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the catholic faith, and it is even believed by Lutherans in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
30 May 2015