OF WIND, WATER, AND WINE

Today is Trinity Sunday – which is why you have this picture on the bulletin – a symbol for the Trinity – three parts – distinct but one.   God the Father is one with the Son who is one with the Spirit.  This is a very confusing concept.  How do we have one God in three persons?  Mathematically it just doesn't make sense, right?  I was a religion major in college and didn't take any math courses, but I was pretty good at math in high school.  When I add 1+1+1, I come up with 3 – but we believe in one God, we are monotheistic.  I have heard people explain that you don't add, you multiply.   1x1x1 = 1.   That makes some sense, but it still doesn't get at the real nature of the trinity.

I've also heard it explained relationally.  Like how I am a mother, a wife, and a daughter – I am one person, but I relate in three very different ways as these three roles.  Some people say this is how God is, relating to us in different ways – as Father, Son, and holy Spirit or as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.  God created the whole world and everything in it, including us.   God came to the world as the word made flesh to redeem us – "in order that the world might be saved through him".   God came to us as the Holy Spirit to sustain us in our life of faith, a wind blowing where it chooses.  -  I do like this relational explanation of the trinity, because it focuses on relationship – and God is all about relationship.  But this analogy also still misses the true nature of our God in three persons because I cannot relate to myself.  In our passage, Jesus is speaking of God, the Father and God, the Spirit.  These are very distinct persons. 

I wish I could give you a perfect explanation of the Tri-unity of God, I went to seminary, right – I should be able to do that.  But I can't.  What I do know, and what I think really matters is that our God is about relationships – the relationship between the creator, redeemer, and sustainer – and the outpouring of that love to us. 

I can't really explain it with earthly language because like what Jesus is trying to explain to Nicodemus, it is a spiritual concept, a heavenly thing that can't be explained with physical limitations.  We just can't grasp what the love of God really means.

There are many physical realities to help us understand the spiritual – to help us catch a glimpse of God's grace and mercy.  God makes the ordinary extraordinary.  God became incarnate in a man, in Jesus Christ so that we might know more of what God was like.  The Holy Spirit comes in a dove or in tongues of fire or is compared to the wind that blows where is chooses.  We participate in baptisms (like we did last Sunday) as an visible sign of an invisible grace – the baptismal water itself does not have the power to cleanse us from our sin and save us, but it is the act that God did thousands of years ago that saves us – the water is a reminder to us and symbol for us of our new life in him.   This morning, we will participate in the sacrament of communion, an act in which the bread and wine remind us of the sacrifice of Jesus and calls us to a life of gratitude and service.

Jesus tries in our passage from John to explain his purpose - to explain the spiritual in physical terms.  You may have seen, or you may even have, a red letter Bible, in which all of the words spoken by Jesus are in red.  If you were reading this passage in one of those Bibles, it would almost be entirely red.  Jesus has a lot to say to Nicodemus, but he just isn't getting it….yet.  We do see Nicodemus again in the gospels – he is one who defends Jesus at his hearing, saying he did not receive a fair trial and he is one who buries Jesus' body after his death.  But this first encounter occurs at the beginning of the gospel of John – it's the beginning of Nicodemus's relationship with Jesus.

Some scholars say that at this point he was just an admirer of Jesus, not a follower, which is why he came to Jesus at night to ask his question – he didn't want his people, the other Pharisees to find out what he was doing, but he was curious about this man, Jesus, who had been performing miracles and teaching great things.  He wasn't ready to really believe that Jesus was the messiah that had been foretold, but he did know that there was something special, something different, about Jesus.  So he came to find out more.

So he comes to Jesus and says, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God."  But Jesus does not give a straight easy response – that is just not his style – this teacher who speaks in parables gives an unexpected line, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."  Immediately, Nicodemus tries to put what Jesus has said into his earthly/physical framework and asks, "How can anyone be born after having grown old?  Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?"  I think if I were Jesus, I may have rolled my eyes at this point and said, "No, you're not hearing me – that's not what I said" 

Jesus and Nicodemus are speaking on two different levels – they are not speaking the same language. – Nicodemus isn't quite getting what Jesus is saying.  Has this ever happened to you?  Not necessarily speaking on physical and spiritual levels, but having a conversation or argument with someone where you seem to not be getting anywhere – where you feel like they aren't hearing what you are saying?  Russ and I have had an argument or two in the last eight years – and more often than not once we stop for a second to evaluate what's going on, we realize that we are in fact saying basically the same thing, but in different ways – our brains work very differently.  I'm not sure if it's a male/female thing or an extrovert/introvert thing, but I do know when we took the Miles Briggs tests, we were complete opposite – so it makes sense that we think about things in different ways.  And we have to remember that when we are trying to get to a conclusion on anything. 

I know it's different with Jesus and Nicodemus, but I can feel a bit of the same difference in the way they are thinking – in the way they are approaching the conversation and the topic at hand.  Nicodemus is speaking on a physical level, while Jesus is speaking on a spiritual level.  Nicodemus is trying to fit Jesus and his teachings into his previous understanding of the world, his understanding God and of religion.  Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a Jewish leader.   The Pharisees were known for being strict about observing Jewish law - they are the ones who questioned Jesus when he healed someone on the Sabbath.  They are the ones who were accused of being hypocrites because they always appeared to do and say the right thing, but not really believe. 

So you can see how what Jesus was saying was confusing for Nicodemus – it was very different from what he had been taught and had taught others for so long.  For Nicodemus, everything was black and white; there were the right things to do and the wrong things to do.  Christians often get a bad rap for being like the Pharisees, being too black and white, casting judgment on those who don't follow our rules, claiming that only those who do and say and believe the "right" things will be saved.  But all of that is in contrast with what Jesus is saying here – Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but so the world might be saved through him.  No wonder most of the Pharisees rejected Jesus –he didn't fit into their black and white categories. 

It's nice to know what to expect, it's certainly easier to have right and wrong answers – but Jesus usually doesn't give easy answers, remember he speaks in parables and trusts us, as the body of believers, to find meaning and guidance in them.  But it's not a blind guessing game, we have this Spirit, this wind that blows where it chooses, to give us direction, to inspire us, to empower us, to enlighten us as we travel forward in our journey of faith and growing in knowledge and understanding of God. 

Jesus says that "no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit."  Many have interpreted this line, being born of water and spirit, to mean baptism – that you can't be saved or enter heaven without being baptized – but that gives us too much power and influence.  Being born of water and spirit is what God does – we are not in control.

But we like to be in control, don't we?  It's easier to be like the Pharisees, going through predictable motions – observing correct religious practices.  We file in, we sit, we stand, we listen, we speak in unison, we sit, we stand, we leave.   You can see how we Presbyterians have gotten the name "the frozen chosen" – to the outside world (even other denominations) what we do seems a little rote and maybe we sometime miss the spirituality of it all – because the Spirit moves unpredictably, uncontrollably.  We often worry too much about doing the right thing – following the right polity and the right order of worship– and forget to listen for the Holy Spirit and being open to moving with it – even when the movement may not fit into our normal parameters of faith and religion.  That's one of the best things about our faith.  Even though God is the same yesterday, today, and forever – we are changing and growing daily, the Holy Spirit is constantly bringing us into new understanding and taking us to new places with our faith. 

But we are not floating with the wind without any support; we have a firm foundation – we trust that the words of Jesus are true: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." 

And we have physical reminders of our spiritual faith – we are people of wind, water, and wine – and we respond in worship and service of the Triune God – the God who created us in God's own image, the God who redeemed us through sacrificial love, the God who lives and moves with us and for us.  Amen.