Holy Trinity Sunday (C) 2019

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.

Text: John 16:13
Theme: Trust, Not Comprehension



Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

God is mindful of our limitations. His intentions and actions towards us always reflect a comprehensive understanding of our frailties. The problem is, we often don’t recognize it and think God is being too harsh, when He’s actually being gentle; or unfair, when He’s really being more than equitable. God, however, doesn’t expect us to comprehend Him. He wants us to trust Him. God knows that we are sinners, yet He loves us anyway.

Today is Trinity Sunday. The biblical teaching on the Trinity is an article of faith. God is one divine essence in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches the unity of God- there are not several Gods or multiple divine beings- but, this ONE God, reveals Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s not our concern to understand the Trinity- He’s beyond human comprehension- our concern is to believe His promises. The Bible never calls on people to ‘figure God out’. Especially, we’re not to try and dissect the way God works for the purpose of seeking to manage Him. God, and His blessings, are not commodities that can be traded for the benefit of our needs and desires. God will always remain mysterious to sinful humans. Yet, in Jesus, the face and heart of God are revealed.

Last Sunday we celebrated Pentecost. Pentecost was the fulfillment of Jesus’ words in today’s gospel, “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.”1 What does Jesus mean when He says the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth? God’s truth encompasses the entirety of Christian knowledge and even existence itself. But most relevant to us is the ageless question of how sinners can find favour with a holy God. The answer necessarily involves both the recognition that we are sinners in need of rescue, and the work of Jesus in redeeming us from an insufferable predicament. You can’t have one without the other. There’s no redemption without repentance; no rescue without remorse.

The recognition of our stubbornness against God is not a singular event, but a continual struggle. We like to have our own way, like the two hunters who chartered a plane to fly into the Canadian wilderness. Two weeks later when the pilot came back to pick them up, he saw the two animals they had bagged and said, "I told you fellows I could only take you and one moose. You'll have to leave the other behind." "But we did it last year in a plane this size," protested one of the hunters, "and the other pilot let us take two moose." "Well, okay," said the pilot. "If you did it before I guess we can do it again." So, the two moose and the hunters were loaded in and the plane took off. Because of the heavy weight, it rose with difficulty and was unable to clear a hill in the distance. After the crash, the men climbed out and looked around. One hunter said to the other, "Where are we, anyway?" His companion surveyed the scene. "I think we got about half a mile farther than we got last year."

Sometimes we treat our sinful pursuits like prized trophies. But it’s difficult to keep pushing them up hill. If God doesn’t relieve us of the burden, the load becomes too great. The hunters wanted to go home with two moose. Instead, for the second time, they went home with none. Defiant sinful nature sets out for another try until the next crash happens when nobody survives. Persistent defiance of God inevitably has a disastrous outcome- it’s not a matter of ‘if’, but of ‘when’.

But, somehow, we often think we might be the exception. What do you really think you can do to bend the will of God? Do you think you can renegotiate His laws based on special circumstances? Can you exempt yourself from His commands? Do you think you can convince Him that your rationales are so extraordinary that He will concede to your wishes? Whether it’s naïve over-confidence or simple arrogance, your efforts to manipulate God have zero chance of success.

The Bible says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”2 God doesn’t turn a deaf ear to those who call to Him. Do you think that you’re the only person ever to be filled with anxiety, overcome with fear, troubled by doubt, or were on the verge of losing hope? Christ understands our vulnerabilities and He doesn’t dismiss them.

The Holy Spirit transforms the lives of those who receive Christ’s promises. Consider what the apostle Paul said, “We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”3 God is gracious to sinners. By grace we have become heirs. (Today Rahnee has become an heir.) You became an heir at your baptism also.

No wonder the same apostle says today, “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”4 You, dear friends, have been released from the obligation of making restitution for your sins. You have been liberated from the authority of Satan’s accusations. Christ has decreed that you are pardoned, and He signed it with His own blood. No possession, accomplishment, dream or aspiration of this life will ever compare with the value of this truth. The Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity took on human flesh, He suffered, He was put to death by crucifixion, He rose again from the grave on the third day, all for the purpose of reconciling you to the Father. Furthermore, He sustains you through the gift of His body and blood. Without Him there is no future life, there is no hope. With Him all things are established now, and eternally.

And now, He gives you His Spirit to continually teach, equip, and defend you. You are in the fray. You see, Christianity is not a theoretical undertaking. It’s not a society of spectators. A football player who has never played the game and doesn’t know the rules will be pretty hopeless at competing. A surgeon who failed medical school is not likely to be chosen for a delicate operation. An attorney who doesn’t have any competence in the law is unlikely to be successful in judicial cases. A Christian who doesn’t know God’s will or where to find help is not likely to be successful in handling Satan’s temptations, the world’s deceptions, or his or her own frailties.

The Christian church is being forced through a sieve. God will use the circumstances to purify His people. Our age suffers from the misconception that being a Christian means little more than subscribing to a moral standard and having positive feelings about a generally benevolent God. But, in reality there’s a battle raging and there are no spectators. It’s a life-threatening struggle. Satan seeks to deceive us with false hope and artificial life. God offers us something real and permanent.

The Holy Spirit directs us to Christ, and He shows us the heart of the Father. We’re not called, on this Trinity Sunday, to understand Him, but to rely on Him for every need. He will not fail us. The Scripture says, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”5 That says it all. Amen.
+ In nomine Jesu +

Holy Trinity
16 June 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 John 16:13
2 1 Peter 5:6-7
3 Titus 3:3-7
4 Romans 5:1
5 Romans 8:31-32