Holy Trinity Sunday - June 19, 2011

The Church Season of Easter
Holy Trinity Sunday – Father’s Day
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (June 19, 2011)
One Year Series

Readings:  
        Isaiah 6:1-7
        Romans 11:33-36
        John 3:1-17

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 3rd chapter of St. John, especially the following verses.

John 3: 14-17
14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Today is Father’s Day, how appropriate for it is also to be Trinity Sunday.  This is the last great celebration of the church year before we enter what is known as “common time”  It is true, we all have father’s some better than others, some really wonderful, some not so hot, but we all had a father whether he was who we wanted him to be or if we even knew him at all.

For my part, I had a great Dad, I miss him.  He was a great man, he was not perfect, but in my eyes he was great.  And though he was short, yes even shorter than me, He was an athlete, a runner a 10.1 in the hundred yard dash in high school, a golden gloves boxer, a walk-on for college football and basketball at the University of Cincinnati, a Phd and school superintendent for over 40 years.  He taught me to play ball, to play tennis, ping pong, chess, and he gave me a love of wanting to win.  My dad was so competitive that he never let us win at anything, if you won, you won because you beat him.  I was the only child to beat him at chess and ping-pong and when I won those games he promptly throttled me every time we ever played after that.  He stood by me when I succeeded in life, he stood by me when I failed. My father gave me many gifts, some good some bad, but the true gift my father gave me was when this brilliant man could no longer remember his name, where he was, nor why he was there.

And when I saw my dad lose his greatest attribute, his memory, his mind, his ability to love my mother…I was mad at God, very, very mad.  Why would God take away my dad’s mind?  I struggled during his so-called declining years, but my Father in Heaven was to teach me through my father on earth, one more very important lesson.

For what got me over the "hump" of my personal struggle with my Dad's condition verses God's ultimate wisdom was this...  It so happened that my mom was being baptized at the age of 81, my sister and niece 3 generations same day, was that which happened on that day.  My dad did not know where he was nor why, but when the time in the service came for the Lord's prayer, he quietly folded his hands and spoke that prayer word for word.  It was a revelation for me, he was not suffering, it was I.  In my world his intellect by which he made his living was gone.  But God provided mercy to me through my father by showing me that faith remains when all else fails.  How blind was I not to see that faith had already made my dad well.  How blind was I to see that my God, my Father in heaven, was showing me mercy through my father here on earth.  The mercy giver, became the mercy receiver.  God turned my world upside down, mercy from the unexpected, mercy from the weak, and even more than that ultimate mercy from a man on a cross.

"What mercy God showed to our race,
A plan of rescue by His grace:
In sending One from woman's seed, The One to fill our greatest need-
For on a tree uplifted high His only Son for sin would die,
Would drink the cup of scorn and dread To crush the ancient serpent's head!"
"The Tree of Life, #561, The Lutheran Service Book verse 3"

     About a month ago in Joplin, Missouri, it was a normal Saturday, except that seniors had just had their graduation commencement at high school. People were shopping or relaxing. Then the biggest tornado in over 50 years in the U.S. hit. Where there was once order, there was now chaos. 200 mph winds flattened houses, stores, school, and offices. Cars were whisked away. A tractor trailer was wrapped around a tree. 154 people died. Many more survived, but lost all their possessions. I'm sure there's a lot of people who said, if there is a God, why does he allow this to happen?

God is a god of order, not chaos. When he created the universe and our world, he moved things from chaos into order. In the creation, God said, “26Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

In the beginning the earth was without form and void. God separated the waters into earth and heavens. There was darkness, and God created light. Each of the six days God brought order, to the plants, to the birds and fish, to the kinds of animals on the land. God made people, and gave them authority over the animals.

When he was finished, he looked at everything, and it was very good. He made everything, but he ordered it as he wanted. There weren't any tornadoes, or hurricanes, earthquakes or devastation. We don't see Adam and Eve living in fear of being eaten by lions or dinosaurs. There's no death, no disease, suffering, or fear, for these are the things of chaos, not of order.

God created us to live in relationship with him. He made us able to have relationships with each other. He made us to rule over the animal world and use natural resources. All of this is order.

For over 5000 years we have accepted the idea that God is a God of Order. No one believed that the world was created broken and chaotic. But in the past 150 years a new idea of God has appeared. Instead of order, the theory of evolution preaches a God of chaos. Evolution is an idea. It says that mutations over millions of years explains the origin of all the complexity of life.

Have you ever experienced a mutation? I know some of you have. We usually call it cancer. When cells mutate, it is not a pleasant experience. It almost always causes suffering, disease, and death. Yet evolutionists say that given enough time, mutations are the reason for the order we see in the world around us.

Some people say that God used evolution to create the world we see over millions of years. Why then did God look at the world and say it is good, when for millions of years it has suffered disease and death? If God used evolution to create, then he is the author of death. When something like the great tornado of Joplin happens, or when a man looses his mental ability, it shows us that the world is no longer the way God created it. Sin, disobedience to God's order, caused disorder in the created world. Chaos has broken through, and chaos brings suffering and death.

Perhaps you've experienced the effects of chaos in your life. Sin brings disorder between us and God, between us as individuals, and disorder into our personal lives. We grow angry, discontented, and selfish. We live in conflict with God, and with each other. We lose sight of God's order and settle for chaos.

God revealed himself in the Holy Trinity by acting to restore our lives and creation, so that once again they are very good. You can see the Holy Trinity working in the Creation account. "Let us make man in our image." The Spirit moving across the face of the waters. The Gospel of John says of Jesus that "All things were made through Him[Jesus]."

The nature of the Holy Trinity was fully revealed when the Father sent the Son into the world to be conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.  Jesus, through suffering and death, restored the image of God to us. By His resurrection he began the new creation where God's good order is restored and the chaos of sin is removed. 

    Whether your earthly father is here or in heaven, whether you have good memories or bad of that man, know that you have a loving Father in heaven.  One who gave His only Son for you, and you of that love through the Word by the work of the Holy Spirit.

And so rejoice that you are a new creation. You have a new birth and renewal by baptism. "Make disciples of all nations, baptizing in Name of Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

There will continue to be chaos in the world. storms, fires, and calamities, wars and bloodshed. There will be earthly father’s who love, and those who make dreadly mistakes.  But also know that when the Jesus comes again, we will experience an ordered creation again when Christ raises us from death and restores creation.

I hope you can see that the Lord made the world a very good place. It was ordered according to God's will. The fall and sin brought chaos into our lives and all creation. But God acted in Jesus to restore order. When Jesus became one of us, He revealed the Holy Trinity—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, when He saved us. Through that Triune Name and water God has made us His children right now in Baptism. While we live in a world of disorder we also look forward to the Last Day and to the resurrection.  And while it would be heavenly to play another game of chess or ping pong with my Father, or to meet and enjoy any of those people whom I love who have proceeded me in the faith, the joyous reality is that we will all be too busy worshipping our Lord and Father as we live and serve our Father who is in heaven, with the Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

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