1 Holy May 31, 2015 Isaiah 6:1-8, Acts 2:14a, 22-36, John 3:1-17 Title: Born at Any Age Text: John 3:1-17 INI Grace to you and peace from our Father and from our Lord and Savior Christ. Amen.

Trinity Sunday is all about the specifics. So specific, in fact, that we take time to confess the . This lengthy statement of belief expresses our limited understanding of God whom cannot be fully explained nor fully comprehended. The greatest mystery known to man is this: God in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity. While all three Creeds of the Christian Church leave no question unanswered about the identity and work of God, the Athanasian Creed probes into descriptive detail of God as He has graciously revealed Himself to us. God- the Father Creator, God- the Son Redeemer, and God- the Sanctifier, yet they are not 3 but 1 God. This mystery is profound! So our Lord teaches , and us this morning, that the only way to know God is to know Jesus. In Jesus Christ, you see and know and are given access into the Kingdom of heaven by the Spirit. No one has ever seen God, but the Son, who is Himself God, who is at the Father’s side has made Him known (John 1:18). No one can know God unless a sinner comes to the Son by the Spirit who works through the water and the Word. The idolatrous sinful world would have other ways to see and know God. Mankind has, since being cut-off from God, probed the depths of the He who has become the “Unknown God”. They desire to identify Him, then to appease him by their actions, and even manipulate him for his gifts. But who is God? Biblical Egyptians and the Ancient Greeks and Romans looked around and observed the many wonders of creation. Enthralled in marvel, they realized the chances of all things coming into being on their own were preposterous. There had to be a God! But as the True God was unknown to them, they invented all sorts of “” to explain the origins and rulers of the sun, the trees, the sky, the seas, and all things. They didn’t know God. But not knowing God wasn’t just a problem with civilizations deemed “unenlightened”. Lack of knowledge of the true God is also rampant in our modern day, such as with 2 Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Islam, and even all non-Christians. All believe that there is a God, or gods, but they invent & follow cleverly devised myths as Satan snares and influences. Due to such extensive lack of knowledge of God, one of the first questionings I now ask at the beginning of a new year of Catechism Classes & Adult Catechesis is: “Who is God?” Still lately have I received answers that identify God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but I know the days are coming soon, and are even already here, when I will receive some blank stares as an answer from students. Thankfully those blank stares will only mark the beginning of, as God ordains it, lifelong faithfulness in the way of salvation by grace through faith in Christ. Yet it’s becoming more common to believe in an unknown “God”, and less and less common for Christians to be able to give simple answer as to who this God is. Up until recent times, the Christian Church has been able to begin the teaching of Biblical Doctrine with the 10 Commandments: first hit sinners with the Law of God to reveal they are not God but are lost and condemned creatures in desperate need of salvation. But teaching first the Law of God assumes there is some previous knowledge of God and His salvation within those who were baptized, whether the teaching had been in the Christian Home and/or in Sunday School. “Go and Baptize and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you” Jesus directed His Church through His disciples (Matthew 28). More and more, though, children and adults have been sparse to receive Biblical teaching. Instead the information they are receiving about God is very general. The “Unknown God” is being demoted to the definitions & understandings of each person who, apart from the Word, tries to know God. When false gods and untrue Christian myths fail individuals, and even whole civilizations, God is then defined as an angry God, closed off to the needs of His people, wrathful and uncaring. Hence there has been an increase of those who claim they are atheists and agnostics in our country. How quickly is skipped over and forgotten the instances of salvation and grace to help in time of need. Even the people Israel in the OT forgot about the leading and care of God as He made them a people for His own possession, saving them through the plagues in Egypt, the Passover, the Red Sea, the conquest of the Promised Land, even the lifting up of the bronze serpent. Instead of the lasting joy of salvation, the Israelites became bitter that the Lord God would lead them into the wilderness as if to die. 40 3 years wandering in wilderness is almost enough to cause anyone to grow skeptical, angry, and bitter as they grow older. So also, as man grows older, there is the tendency to become skeptical, weary, even bitter. WE have been disappointed too many times by the woes of this world. Perhaps that has been your experiences over the years. What was once vast dreams of what your future would be like have had to be locked away deep in your heart because life never worked out the way you hoped. Over the years, even, many of our hopes and dreams have fallen apart. The disappointment and bitterness even we suffer can be enough to cause an old man to question if there is any hope to be saved… …Just as old-man Nicodemus of the Pharisees wondered to Jesus. Now the Pharisees knew Jesus was a teacher sent from God, but they refused to know Him as the Messiah. At Nicodemus’ probing of the God unknown to them, Jesus teaches that no one can enter the kingdom of God, no one can even know God, unless he is born again. Nicodemus is incredulous at that! How can a man, when he is old, be born again? Now that is a great question. It’s like asking for a miracle to happen! And that is just what Jesus in inferring when He speaks of being born again of water and the Spirit! Now although we Lutherans tend to get defensive about the miracle of infant Baptism when speaking with those who reject such biblical doctrines as original sin, death, grace, faith, and salvation, there is yet a greater miracle we should wonder at. This is the miracle Jesus reveals to old-man Nicodemus that even those people who are skeptical, angry, and bitter at God can be, and are, converted by the Holy Spirit, Baptized into Christ and granted a life of faith and salvation! Yes, that is a miracle- that the hard and unbelieving hearts of men and women whose hopes have been crushed and dreams fallen down around them, who grew up and grew old not knowing anything about the salvation of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit, it’s a miracle that these very bitter and turned-off people can be changed by the New Birth from on High, from God above, by water and Spirit! This is how God makes Himself known to you and to all people- through Christ Jesus and the water and the Spirit. For God has saved you. “not because of works done by [you] in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and 4 renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on [you] richly through Jesus Christ [your] Savior, so that being justified by his grace [you] might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Tit 3:5-7). Through water and the Word, the Spirit of our God has united you to the death and Christ. Christ’s death has become your death. Christ’s resurrection has become your resurrection. Daily does this death and resurrection become your death and resurrection, no matter what your age. For this is the New Birth of God the Father, Son, and Spirit from on High, which puts to death the old spirit of anger, wrath, and bitterness and ignorance of God, and bestows upon you the youthful Spirit that is born again daily unto eternal life. Daily you are born into a living and abiding hope of and eternity with God through His Son Jesus. Jesus is the only One who can reveal to us who God truly is. He’s not some unknown God, but HE IS the God of life and love- God your Father, Jesus His Son your Lord and Brother, the Holy Spirit your helper and sanctifier. For God sent Son that you may gaze upon Christ on the cross, and lift it high and proclaim such is the miraculous boundless love of God for you! God would give His only Son to die so YOU MAY SAY “Yes, that is how much GOD loves me! My heavenly Father sent His Son that He would die to sin in my place to open to me- I who am a poor, miserable sinner- His heavenly kingdom by water and Spirit! And He continues, by this daily new birth, to restore to me the joy of salvation, and uphold me with His Holy Spirit.” Though God in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is the greatest mystery known to man, the greatest miracle of God is that He has revealed Himself and His salvation to you and all people in the face of Jesus Christ. What joy this now affords us in our lives, even in suffering! Joy to delight in the creation in which God has placed us, and even joy to take pleasures in the mundane things that go right just as God made them- for even they are gifts of God from above. Though many people may confess their ignorance and unbelief in the God we know and love, you can rejoice that God has chosen you to own the Mystery of the Trinity and His salvation as His child born from above. Baptized into the very name of God, you are a child who lives, moves, and has your being though receiving Jesus as He has graciously comes to you in Word and Sacrament! 5 May God the Father who created you, who by His blood redeemed you, and God the Holy Spirit who by Holy Baptism sanctifies you, bless and keep you until the day of the resurrection of all flesh- the day of eternal New Birth from above! Amen. The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until the Day of Everlasting Life. Amen. SDG