✠ Psalmody: Liturgical Text; Tobit 12:6b, d; Prayer of Azariah 1:32a, 33; Prayer of Azariah 1:3a, 32b;Tobit 12:6d; Tobit 12:6b–d
✠ Lection: Isaiah 6:1–7; Romans 11:33–36; John 3:1–17
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We need not have an extended addition such as the Athanasian Creed in order to be reminded of the content of the catholic faith, of the universal faith that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bestow upon all believers. On all the other Sundays and feast days without our grand, lengthy creed, in every single Divine Service, comes bountiful opportunity for you to worship the Holy Trinity in sincerity, truth, zeal, love, praise, adoration, and thanksgiving. Never discount church or see it as something that is as optional as where you buy gas, groceries, or get your hair cut. The riches and wisdom and knowledge of God are deep enough to be constantly revisited in your mind even as, especially as, you sit here and meditate upon His words in His Holy Divine Service. Take inventory in these moments, seeking to notice where in the service you allow your mind to wander to things other than intentional thoughts that are gathered in these eternal moments, focused rightly upon the Maker of Heaven and Earth Who has sent His Son to die for you; Whose Son now comes to you in Body and Blood for the forgiveness of your sins; Who, with the Son, sent forth the Holy Spirit to make His home with you, setting you apart from the world of death and the eternal destruction that it brings upon all who follow its ways. It is this Almighty, Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to Whom you sing, to Whom you pray, Whom you worship and enjoy in His Divine Service to you and in your responsive thanksgivings back to Him. And you do it throughout the service, not by devices of men, or by manipulation of emotion, or through desires, gimmicks, and methods that originate with sinful man and his addiction to entertainment, but through the sure, pure Word that He Himself has given to the Church for her delight and perseverance.
Consider the Offertory hymn for example. It is the very psalm that King David sung under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when he was confronted with the darkness of his sin and with the light of the Lord of salvation Who bestows great joy, relief, and peace in the forgiveness that He bountifully doles out, yes, even to those who have sinned against Him and His Holy Word. He actually seeks out sinners, not to affirm us in our sin, for there is no call for pride since He has made none of us “this way”, but He seeks us out to grant the gifts of repentance and forgiveness of all sins to us. It is in the blessed Most Holy Trinity that you have such forgiveness. But even for those of us who know and believe this, once the sermon is concluded in Jesus’ Name, how often have we then mindlessly sung King David’s words, “Create in me a clean heart, O God…” as our thoughts dart right back out the door to cares and riches that lie outside this holy place? Such is the temptation for all sinners, pastors included, even during the Offertory, for the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. The same struggle shows up in our efforts at home in praying and reading the Scriptures. Our minds have been conditioned by addiction to screens, statuses, and sound bites to wander after only a few minutes time because we have become dependent on a consistent diet of fresh, new, rapid stimuli. So, what to do? Well, don’t give up. Don’t give in. Don’t be content with allowing your mind to have a mind of its own. It belongs to you, for you to take captive for the sake of Jesus, because your mind belongs to Christ, bought with a great Price, and in the great joy of His salvation, it is brought under His control through ongoing effort, yes, life-long endeavor. It is a good work to struggle against the flesh to not just accept your evil tendencies as though they can’t be helped. You live by Christ, not by excuse. Such is the truth about this life that you need to fight until the very end. But you’re not fighting in vain when you fight to bring all things, including control of your mind, and everything it controls, under the authority of Christ.
Practice disciplining your mind. Make use of the time during the Offertory, and maybe also the time during the Offering, to ponder upon what you’ve heard up to that point in the Service of the Word: the Introit, Old Testament, Gradual, Epistle, Verse, Holy Gospel, Sermon, hymns, and Creed. By then, God most certainly has given you a bounty of priceless treasure upon which your mind and heart do well to ponder and see how the proclaimed Word is relevant to your life; to your thoughts; to your deeds. By His Word does He most often answer your prayers, which means that the Offertory isn’t a cue to send your mind dashing out the church doors to the cares beyond just because it has now been set free from the bondage of the sermon. If that is your temptation, lean upon God’s Word given in the Offertory all-the-more, actually using it to corral your mind back to Him, here, where He is, for you. Actually pray in those moments of the Offertory that He would create in you a clean heart right then and there, and again next week, and the week after, and restore unto you the joy of His salvation, so that worshipping Him becomes to you what He desires it to be: joyful, reverent, satisfying, honoring, strengthening, and comforting. Ponder upon all that you hear from His Word in this way. He will answer your prayer. This is all part of being born from above.
On this Holy Trinity Sunday, there is enough given to meditate upon for the whole rest of the year ahead of you, for how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out, meaning the beauty of the Blessed Trinity cannot be exhausted nor grow stale to the heart and mind which He redeems. Oh, the depth and riches! Ponder upon all things good, such as the majesty of the Trinity and the salvation that the Lord Almighty has wrought for you, dear sinners, dear saints; ones made holy by His doing.
In all things orderly, one gains favor through merit, by what they do in word and deed. It is that way when dealing with the world; it’s the way it works, and Nicodemus knew this. We know this. It is that way in dealing with the Holy, Triune God; it’s the way He works. Yes, we are judged by our merits, or rather our own personal extreme lack of them. None of our work, none of our merit, can overcome the debt that we rack up in daily sin. Gracious forgiveness is a must and we must be given credit for merits that will stand the test and not fail as do our dirty rags. We receive nothing from the Father by our merit or worthiness, but only by His divine fatherly goodness and mercy that is secured in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So, for Nicodemus, he had almost a double-whammy working against him as he came in life to hear about Jesus, to wonder about Him, to seek Him out in the secrecy of night, and to try to understand this great Teacher. It makes no sense to ears and mind that are rooted in only giving to someone what they earn that eternal salvation comes to us entirely passively, meaning Someone else is completely responsible for it…kind of like birth. For who among us willed to be formed in our mother’s womb? Who among us willed to be born where we were, to whom we were? The creation of a child, of life, is purely passive for the child himself. Likewise, is salvation. “Jesus answered [Nicodemus], ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” So, the greatest prize to be obtained in life, that is, to see the kingdom of God, to be saved out of the kingdom of death into the kingdom of eternal life, comes about only through a passive act where God is the actor. How does one go about being born again? How does one go about being saved? Once again, one doesn’t…you don’t. All that is needed for salvation is accomplished by the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There is no decision to be made. There is no penance to be paid back when you confess your sins. There is no merit system of good works to rack up in hopes that it will be enough on the Last Day…it won’t be. Whoever does not keep [the catholic faith] whole and undefiled will without doubt perish eternally. The catholic faith is what God gives to be kept; the Good News that to save you, the Father sent forth His Son to die as full payment for all your sins and the Holy Spirit is given to you, creating in you a clean heart, by which you believe this Good News to be true. Christ not only washes away the stain of your sins in your Baptism, but He also robes you with His own perfect righteousness, with His blameless, bountiful merits in which God sees you. The merit that you need before the Father is poured upon your shoulders to wear in the Name of Jesus, His only begotten Son.
That’s the glorious, priceless active work of God where you passively receive that which you could never merit or earn on your own. Jesus said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” The salvation of the Lord, the work of the Holy Trinity alone, is poured out upon you in the gift of limitless grace in the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on you generously through Jesus Christ your Savior, in His Holy Baptism, where you were washed clean, not by your work, but by God’s in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is by the Spirit and the Word that water can do such great things in bringing about new birth from above.
Any altar, pulpit, stage, or entertainment venue that denies the existence and work of the Holy Trinity does not have the salvation that you have here where the Word is taught in its truth and purity and the Trinity’s Sacraments are rightly administered. Cherish what the Lord has seen to preserve for you in His Holy Church, for by His work alone are you saved, and indeed, by His work alone are you kept with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. “Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith.” Again, this speaks not of Roman Catholic, because they have improperly commandeered the word “catholic” for themselves, thus denying its definition. The true catholic church that stands forever, against all false teachings and the death that results therein, is the one that exists without bounds and through the Holy Gospel alone. It is the seen and the unseen Church; the Church Militant, the Church Triumphant, yet all who are part of her, the one true Church, are ones who hold to the one true, catholic faith; the only faith that proclaims the truth about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and that salvation comes only by being born again from above by the Holy Trinity. Be refreshed with His great comfort, dear baptized in the Lord, causing the mind and heart to focus upon God’s goodness in and throughout every Divine Service, giving thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and the mercy of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit endureth forever upon you.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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