Holy Trinity Sunday C
Specific Name – Specific Love
St. John 8:48-59
26 May 2013 – Redeemer
True or False – God is love. If a sermon begins with such an obvious question you will probably hesitate to give a quick answer. “God is love” is true. If you said “false” you would be in disagreement with the Holy Spirit and His Apostle Saint John. However “God is love” is not all that the Scriptures confess of God. “God is love” is a true Biblical confession, but it is not a complete confession. It is a nice confession the world doesn’t mind. The Muslim can say “God is love.” The Jew can say “God is love.” Even the Agnostic can say, “God is love.” And then everybody can say, “If God is love, why can’t we all get along?”
But what is missing in “God is love”? Suppose your neighbor’s 52 year old son just died of a brain aneurism. In an effort to comfort her you said, “God is love.” How would she react? You are looking forward to your first grandchild. You answer the phone and hear the voice of your son-in-law through the sobs, “Something is the matter, the baby is in the air ambulance on the way to Children’s hospital.” You call your pastor in your distress and he says, “God is love.” Will that help you?
What is missing in “God is love” is the actual name of God and the actual love of God. The Bible does not reveal a generic God, but reveals the very specific we confessed in the Athanasian creed.
The catholic faith (that is the universal Christian faith) is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance. For 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 co-eternal.
The God of Holy Scripture has a name – the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – the Holy Trinity. A generic god, a big guy or gal (as some people like to think) up in the sky isn’t very comforting. You’re not sure who he or she is. You hope, but you’re don’t know if generic god likes you. You believe that generic god is loving, but there’s a lot of evidence to the contrary like wars, terrorists, and tornadoes. And since you can’t identify him you don’t know if he (or she) hears you in the day of trouble. It would be like me saying, “I know this great carpenter. He does top notch work. He’s very reasonable. He builds beautiful furniture.” And when you ask, “What’s his name?” I respond, “Oh, I don’t know.” “How do I get a hold of him?” “I’m not sure.” You would be left questioning if such a carpenter actually exists. Even if he does exist, he is of no use to you, because you don’t know how to reach him.
Jesus angered the Jews in today’s Gospel reading because He confessed something very specific about God. He confessed that He is God. His battle with the Jews reached its climax when Jesus said, “Before Abraham was I am.” In making that confession Jesus claimed to the same God who created Adam and Eve, the God who promised Abraham a son and who brought the Israelites out of Egypt.
The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; and yet there are not three Gods, but one God.
The Holy Trinity is incomprehensible in His nature, as we should expect from the true God, but He is not difficult to know or to confess. The Christian Church has been confessing His name from the day Christ ascended, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
In the revelation of His name He also reveals what He does for us. He is not generic God, but the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And He doesn’t love us with a generic love. He loves us enough to tell us what’s wrong with our lives – we are. He loves us enough to say, “You spend more time seeking your happiness then My holiness. You worship your screens more than My Word. You see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but neglect the log in your own.” When you hear those words it doesn’t sound loving, but its the very same love that warns a child about playing in the street or touching a hot grill.
God’s love is directed at your sin. The Father in love wants to glorify the Son and the glory of Jesus is that He died for your sin. If you want to know the love of God you can only look one place – to Jesus – for Jesus is God in the flesh. God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10, ESV)
To separate God’s love from His forgiveness will leave you with the same comfort as worshiping generic god. It will leave you with nothing, except your own wishful thoughts – and when’s the last time your thoughts actually accomplished something.
God’s love is this – He sent His Son Jesus into the world to die for sinners, for you. Along the way, out of love, Jesus had to tell people, “You are sinners.” It was the loving thing to do. Believe it or not sometimes children don’t believe they are doing anything wrong. Believer it or not we don’t always know and grasp the severity of our sin. The Jews sinned by putting their confidence in the blood of Abraham instead of the blood of Christ. They were secure in their own man-made thoughts – they thought “God is love” and He loves the children of Abraham therefore we are safe. But Jesus had to warn them – Abraham wasn’t saved by Abraham. He was saved by Christ.
Abraham was saved because he saw and rejoiced in the day of Jesus. How is that possible? Abraham lived 2000 years before Jesus was born. So how did he see the day of Jesus? He saw it by faith. He saw it when three visitors (perhaps pointing to the Trinity) visited him and Sarah with the promise of a son. He saw it when his old wife miraculously gave birth to a son and foreshadowed the virgin birth of Jesus. He saw it when he and Sarah delighted in Isaac’s birth with laughter, for those who believe in Christ delight in His birth from the womb and from the tomb. He saw it when only son’s life was spared and God provided a substitute ram to die in Isaac’s place. He saw it when God promised him that everyone would be blessed through his son and that son ultimately was Jesus – Abraham’s great, great, great, great grandson and God’s only begotten son.
Abraham saw the day of Jesus because Abraham was alive when Jesus was born. You see that’s the love of God. He forgives sinners so that everyone who believes in Jesus will never taste death. Abraham was living when Jesus was born. He rejoiced with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. He wept when the Son of Man was slain for the sin of the world but then joined the Alleluia chorus when the Father raised Him from the dead.
The Father loves us by sending His Son to die for our sins and to be raised for our justification. The Holy Spirit works in the world through God’s Word and Christ’s Sacraments to bring us the fruit of this love – God’s forgiveness of our sin. This is how God loves us. There is no better news in the world for the world, but be warned there is no more despised message in the world – they picked up stones to throw at Jesus. They will pick up stones to throw at you, but take heart and confess the truth. The only true God is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and His love is the forgiveness of sins won by Christ and delivered to you in His Word. Confess the name of God. Love the world as Christ has loved you and trust His promise, “If anyone keeps my Word He will never taste death.” In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce A. Timm
Saturday of Pentecost 2013 anno Domini