“If now I seek the forgiveness of sins, I
do not run to the cross, for I will not find it given there… But I will find in
the sacrament or Gospel the word which distributes, presents, offers, and gives
to me that forgiveness which was won on the Cross.” (AE 40, 214)
I didn't realize that my first rule would be met with such joy, so I'll answer with another of Bloghardt's Rulez.
Bloghardt's Second Rule: if you can understand a sermon apart from the cross, then you haven't heard a Lutheran sermon. If the sermon doesn't make sense without the cross, then you've heard a Lutheran sermon.
I wanted to see what I preached last year and I noticed that I had written two sermons for Holy Trinity Sunday 2004. That usually means something baaaaaad. I must have written the whole first sermon (which was well written but something wasn't right) and this sermon.
After reading both of them, I realized what was missing. The first sermon (which would have been well recieved), could make sense without the Cross. So a whole new sermon was written because I didn't follow my own rule!
This sermon was also written before my self-imposed 10 minute rule on sermons! A blessed Holy Trinity to y'all as you rejoice in Bloghardt's Second Rule!
Holy Trinity 2004
Series C
John 16:14
Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Did you know that Christians used to say the Athanasian Creed every Sunday morning at the 6am early service? How ever did it get relegated to only once a year?
For it is good to spend time to confess the truth about Who God is and how is He toward us. Today, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity rescues us from all our doubts about God and how He is for us.
The big question the world asks is: "What is truth about God? What is the truth about us?"
The most that the world knows is to think that God deals with us according to what we do. He loves good people and hates evil people. He does good to those who do good and bad to those who do bad. So, you better be good for goodness' sake.
Then, when bad things happen to us, our sinful flesh, who is well versed in the religion of this world, looks and says, "Is God angry with us for something that we have done? Is that why we and our loved ones get sick? Is that why we have aches and have pains?"
Or worse, we look around and begin to wonder if God even cares for us at all. Does He sit back and chuckle as we hurt 'cause we are finally getting what we deserve? Why doesn't He snap to it and fix what we want him to fix?
But, is all of this the truth about God?
Holy Trinity Sunday rescues us from all of this unbelief. For today, we hear from the mouth of the Lord Jesus that the Holy Spirit and Truth go together. Jesus says that the coming one, the Spirit of Truth, will lead us into all truth.
The day after Jesus spoke these words to His disciples, He stood before Pilate, bloody and beaten and said, "For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."
Pilate then looked the Truth in the face and asked the world's question, "What is truth?"
They then led the One who testifies concerning the truth up to Mount Calvary, the place of the skull, and there Jesus did testify concerning the truth. He there showed us the truth about God. Stripped down, with nails hammered into His hands and feet, crown of thorns on His head, He was lifted up above the earth and stayed there until He fell asleep.
Jesus testifies to the truth: This is the Truth about God - the Cross of Christ. This is How God is for you - the Cross of Christ. This is how God desires to deal with you and look at you to all eternity -the cross of Christ.
Today Jesus says, "Truth - the stuff that is mine, what the Father gave to me. What I am, The Spirit will make known to you."
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There they are. All three together, just like we would expect on Holy Trinity Sunday. One, Undivided, Uncreated, Eternal, Almighty, Lord, and God.
Through the cross we see the truth about and how God is toward sinners.
For God the Father loved you, loved me, loved the world this way He gave up His Son to save us. That is the truth about God: He gave up His Son for us. The Cross is how He loves us!
God the Son came into this world full of grace and truth. He was born to die for us. He took all our unbelief and sin, every last sin we have ever done. All the good things we have done and all the bad -everything was put on Him. And just as Christ was risen from the dead, we too shall rise from the grave.
That is the truth about God, God took on our flesh and died for you and me. God the Father didn't die for you, God the Spirit didn't die for you, God the Son did.
God the Spirit, spends all His time testifying concerning the truth about God. He tells us that Jesus is the Truth, the only Truth there is in this world. Jesus is the truth about God - God the Father will not treat us as we merit, but He has set our sins aside. He has set them on Christ. That is the truth about God, God the Holy Spirit delivers the Good news of the Father and the Son to us.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, but not three Gods but One. God is now our God because the Father sent the Son to bear our sins on the Cross and be our Savior. The Spirit has put that into our ears by the preaching of the Holy Gospel and the administration of the Holy Sacraments. The Spirit is doing that right now. That is the truth about God.
The Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Spirit is Lord. But, there not three Lords but one. Our Lord redeemed us from sin, death, and the power of the devil by the precious blood of Christ. That is the truth about God.
The creed says that the Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Spirit is eternal. They aren't three eternals, but one eternal.
That's saves us too! For that means that God will never ever stop caring for us and loving us in Christ. There never was a time in which God does not have you in His mind, desire to have you His child, think about all the good things He could do for you.
God the Father is Almighty, God the Son is Almighty, God the Spirit is Almighty, but there are not three Almighties, but one Almighty.
Dear Saints of God, there is One Almighty who refuses to treat us as we merit. There is One Almighty who refuses to hold our sins against us anymore. Not after God sent His Son. Not after the Son died for you. Not after the Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son delivered that good news to you.
Dear saints of God, it is when we don't believe the doctrine of the Holy Trinity that we begin to think like the world that God is out to get us, wants to punish us, or that He doesn't care, or doesn't love.
That's our unbelief, our chief sin. A sin that we must repent of right now.
For on the Last Day the Lord God will indeed gather us all to give an account for what we have done - the good going off to eternal life and the evil unbelievers going off to eternal damnation.
Just as we confessed in the Athanasian Creed.
But, it is deceitful lie of the devil and the world and our sinful flesh that we can do something to get God's attention and favor.
My daughter has started to make this loud noise when she wants our attention. She goes, "HAHAHAHA" and I turn and there is this grinning girl.
It works for Sophia, but it doesn't work for us with God. We do not get the attention of the Almighty, Eternal, Lord of Heaven and Earth by the good or the bad that we do. We do not turn his head, we don't make him smile, we don't gain his favor. All we do is show how much we deserve to be punished for our sins with everlasting damnation.
Dear Saints of God, the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity rescues us from our unbelief: What makes God the Father smile is His Son. What turns His head is His only begotten. He gave everything that He had to His Boy and His Son passed it on to the Spirit to put into our ears.
Learn today that the Holy Trinity is not concept or doctrine that is just a mystery for us, one of those strange things that we Christians believe. No, apart from the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, we cannot be saved. For we would not know that God wants to deal with us by what His Son did for us. That is why His Son was sent, to be for us what we could never be - acceptable to God the Father.
That is the truth that the Spirit delivers to us today! As St. Paul says, "Therefore having been justified by God, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we now stand., and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
We stand in grace because of what Christ did for us, delivered to us by the Holy Spirit and that is received by faith.
We stand in the smile of the Father and we don't just catch His attention, but the Father is sitting at the edge of His seat showering on us gifts that we cannot count or comprehend.
We don't have to try to gain God's favor, for we have His favor - His mercy, His grace through faith in Christ.
The Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity teaches us that everything God does, He does for our Good. The sun rises for you. The sun sets for you. There are planets and stars are for your good, to light the night for you. There is a moon in the sky for you. There are trees for your shade. There is water for you to drink. Food for you to eat. He even gave beer to gladden the heart of men.
How do I know? For the Father sent His Son into the world to save you and the Spirit testifies to this.
And should God the Father not raise the sun tomorrow morning for you, should you be sick, should your children be sick, it is not because He has forgotten you or hates you. He gives good and bad to you as gift to be received with thanksgiving and joy.
Parents give gifts that children don't understand and do things for their kids that they don't like. Some day, our heavenly Father will tuck us into our beds to sleep and wake us up to be with Him forever. Everything for our good.
Dear Saints of God, receive the trials you with thanksgiving, for they produce perseverance and perseverance produces character, and character, hope. And hope doesn't ever disappoint, because the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Everything - both good and bad - that the Father gives, He gives to you as one who loves you and wants what is best for you. The Cross of Christ tells us that everything God does now, He does for your good. The Spirit has delivered that and made it ours in our baptism, in the Word, and today shortly in the Sacrament.
How do I know? The doctrine of the Holy Trinity, of course! Blessed be the Holy Trinity and undivided Unity. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
