Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 26 May 2024.
![](https://allsaintsjordanhill.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Fritz_von_Uhde_-_Christus_und_Nikodemus_28ca.188629-e1622323255676.jpg)
Christus und Nicodemus, by Fritz von Uhde (1848–1911) (Source)
• First Reading: Isaiah 6: 1-8 (The call of Isaiah. His vision of God)
• Epistle: Romans 8: 12-17 (Obligation not to live after the flesh but in the Spirit)
• Gospel: John 3: 1-17 (Jesus and Nicodemus. Flesh gives birth to flesh and the Spirit to spirit)
There are many things happening in the world which do not directly affect me. Among these will the general election in India, and a whole raft of sporting contests.
I do not follow the soap operas, and am definitely not up to date on the latest trends in fashion or popular music or the musical charts.
And there are plenty of other things going on which do not really attract my attention. Yes, I will pay polite attention to the point-scoring and posturings of the parties contesting our recently announced general election, but no I will not go into them in detail.
So where does this leave us as far as the doctrine of the Trinity is concerned?
‘The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible’ (This verse is in the Cof E Book of Common Prayer, but not the Scottish Prayer Book). Maybe it is all incomprehensible.
So why not stick to the ordinary stuff – do as you would be done by, and so on. Pay your bills, look after the family, be generous to the needy? Why get tied up in this kind of detail anyway?
But then looking at our lessons, the beauty and complexity of the Trinity somehow finds a way into our thoughts.
In Isaiah, he was a priest officiating in the Temple and then was taken up into heaven where he saw and heard things that were quite beyond anything he might have dreamed or imagined.
He might not have been too taken up with the Trinity either but the Trinity was interested in him. He might have been minding his own business – but then that business was also the business of God.
Whatever the ceremonies he was called to perform, it was the holiness and utter purity of God that now had his attention and in the light of this he saw that however reasonable and blameless his lifestyle, beside the glory of God he was wholly inadequate.
In the sight of God, ‘Our righteousness is as filthy rags.’
His own works were never going to be enough and he needed some serious help, and quickly. His cry of despair was answered by one the seraphim – the high angels – and he was cleansed and made holy.
It was nothing that he could do – it was all about what had been done to him and for him and in him.
And so he answered the call. He would speak for God in the presence of his people in Israel. He would speak of what he had seen and heard, regardless of what people thought or said or did.
His life had been turned around, and even the routines of life had gained a new kind of resonance.
He had seen God and would never be the same again.
Turing to Jesus’ meeting with Nicodemus, there is again a man versed in the scriptures and the usages of Israel being confronted with something which went far beyond his own understanding or imagination.
Nicodemus had seen Jesus in action – His teaching and His miracles. These impressed him and so he wanted to know more, but to do so discreetly. Hence the meeting at night.
But Jesus took Nicodemus beyond what he had seen and heard and spoke of the dynamics of God. God was Spirit and moved according to His own purposes. You knew when He was there in the same way that you knew that the wind was blowing. But you could not contain it, still less capture it.
Just as the wind fills the sails of a boat or ship, and they derive power from it, so God also moved unseen and unknown but was definitely felt.
God would be felt in the deepest parts of the soul, and once felt this, it would never be forgotten.
But there was more. God was not remote or unapproachable. Rather, He had taken extravagant steps in showing Himself to humanity in so far as humanity could see and respond.
And more than that, God was meeting the moral and spiritual needs of humanity in a way that humanity never could, unaided. God would personally meet the cost and the alienation of human sin by making Himself into a thing of horror and disgust, humiliated and abused to the final degree of His humanity, in order that ordinary people might live – and live in the spirit of the Lord and not just in their own means and agendas.
And what Jesus would accomplish at calvary would be represented to the whole world and all who sought Him would be allowed to receive and be reconciled with Him.
What happened on the cross over 6 hours would be brought into the lives of all people in every land and every generation. And this would be the work of the Holy Spirit.
Now the Trinity begins to make sense. God has taken the initiative for the whole of humanity. In Jesus, He has shown the world who and what He is like.
And in the Holy Spirit, He has presented it to every land and generation, regardless of race or culture or social standing.
At Christmas we celebrate God coming into the world in Jesus; at Easter we celebrate His victory over sin and death. At Pentecost we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. And at Trinity we celebrate all three at once.