“FOR IN HIM
DWELLS THE FULLNESS OF THE GODHEAD”
Saint John 3. 1-15
THE FEAST OF THE HOLY TRINITY: 15 June Anno +
Domini 2014
Fr. Jay Watson
SSP
In the Name + of
Jesus
Blessed
be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity: let us give glory to Him because
He hath shown mercy to us.
What Adam knew of the Holy Trinity before
the “fall” is not recorded for your
edification. It is sinful to be preoccupied in speculating on that which The
Lord has not revealed.
Theology is words about God but theology is not the study of God. God is not an insect under a microscope to be
studied—He is Creator who shares Himself with His creatures; through the Word.
If even your closest friends, your spouse,
your parents, don’t ever truly “know”
and understand you—the inner you—the real you—like only you can; because only
you are inside your head; how much less can any created being truly know the
full depth of Trinitarian essence? The answer is one cannot. Thus, the Word
of God comes to give the love and mercy of God to man. You have been given faith to respond with the angels:
Holy, Holy, + Holy, is the Lord of hosts;
of Him and through Him + and to Him are all things! Hallelujah!
The Word came to a man of the Pharisees.
Nicodemus was a secret supporter of The
Christ, along with Joseph of Arimathea. Nicodemus wanted to know more about
Jesus because Nicodemus believed in God…he was like Philip and Bartholomew of
Bethsaida BEFORE they had been brought into the presence of Jesus.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee because he belonged
to the Pharisee “party” of the day. Was this man a sinful hypocrite? Yes he was
most certainly just like all of us. He visited Messiah at night for fear of being seen just like he and all of us
sin in darkness so others won’t know what we’re really “up to.” A dark and midnight heart pumps out not blood but black brackish trespasses. Nicodemus and we need the
Light of the world which brings Life.
Nicodemus was aware of the miracles of the
Rabbi from Nazareth. He knew they were incredibly awesome and that no one could
do them apart from God “being with him.” Nicodemus is close to THE TRUTH of Jesus.
The Feast of The Holy Trinity is a later
feast day in the Churches history appearing in the fourth century to combat the
heresy of Arianism. Arianism denied the true Divinity of Jesus. This Feast
bespeaks the only saving reality—the truth about Jesus of Nazareth. One can
believe what He did… leading a life
of obedience and dying on the cross; but unless one believes WHO lead the
obedient life—and that it was PERFECTLY and SINLESS in law-keeping; and WHO
died for the sins of the entire world—shedding Blood and giving a Body that
would atone for all men…then believing in Jesus is meaningless.
Knowledge of The Trinity, of God, cannot be
obtained by mans knowledge or work. Man does not discover but rather God
reveals and gives. God bestows faith and trust; by The Word. Saint Peter could
never have made his famous confession, said Jesus, had not the Father given Him
the revelatory knowledge of The Son.
At
this night-time meeting Jesus gospels Life—how one is made alive—really alive
unto life everlasting. Jesus is talking about the Sacrament of Holy Baptism and
the work of God The Holy Ghost. Unless a baby is born, which happens from
conception to delivery without cooperation of the baby, it does not live a
natural life. Unless a man “be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” says Jesus. So Who is Jesus? Nicodemus own answers prove the Lords point.
The Pharisee is clueless and lost in darkness of death. Jesus speaks God, Jesus
speaks the Holy Trinity’s message: “I
say unto thee, except a man be born of water and the of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God.”
This is a mystery. Yes. Creatures are no
mysteries because they can be weighed, x-rayed, probed, recorded, and even
dissected and analyzed at the most elemental levels. The Creator cannot be so
apprehended. The gifts of The Holy Ghost cannot be claimed, decided for, chosen,
or boxed up. Of course the true God is a mystery—He is Sacrament: “The wind bloweth where it listeth…”
Nicodemus and all of us do not understand.
Jesus gives us understanding by coming to us and making His home with us. His
presence gives us faith to trust and cling to Him.
Nicodemus was not a “master of Israel.” The Sanhedrin
were to have been faithful teachers of The God of the Scriptures but they had
failed to cling to the true understanding of the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings. To believe in the Old
Testament means to believe in The Christ Who is the entire content of Hebrew
Scripture.
The Father talks to no one directly. The
Holy Ghost speaks to no one directly. The Blessed Three-in-One speaks Law and
Evangel through The Only-begotten and ever existing Son by His Word. Jesus
speaks and witnesses of what He
knows and sees…of the things of God, for He
alone is THE WORD. Jesus alone has
descended from Heaven, from the right hand of majesty, to make known the heart
of God, the true mind of TRINITY. “What does this mean?”
Jesus does not talk about triangles,
schematic charts, triquetas or trefoils. The Christ is the face of the Trinity.
The Creed named after blessed Martyr Bishop Saint Athanasius, confesses it the
way The Word reveals it in Scripture. The Apostle Paul speaks the Truth of: The
Father, in The Spirit, by The Son, the Word, when he writes to the Colossians “for in Him (Jesus the God/Man) dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily.” Yes.
It has been said that all Theology is
Christology! Yes. But even more focused, ALL CHRISTOLOGY is CROSSOLOGY. To know The Holy Trinity, to believe in
GOD, is to cling to the Crucifix and He Who is enthroned thereon. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” This is a scandal to
the pagan, the mixed-up monotheistic heresies of Judaism (and Islam); and this
is foolishness to the tri-theists, and multi-theists of Greeks and all their
heathen brood (from pantheists to atheists). But we know nothing and preach
nothing save JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED! [1 Cor. 23; 1 Cor. 2.2].
God is love and God is mercy and God is
forgiveness. God is three-in-one and one-in-three. The Father is God, The
Spirit is God, The Son is God. There is One God. There are Three Persons. It is
mystery, it is Sacrament. To believe this is pure gift; GRACE! Look to the Cross to find The Christ. Not the
Cross of 2,000 years past only, but the Cross today in your midst as the Fruit
of the Tree, the Presence of the Body and Blood of your
Crucified,
Risen, Ascended, and PRESENT LORD as it is placed into your ears (draped about,
with and in you) and as you receive Him in His precious Body and most Holy
Blood.
Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the
undivided Unity: He gives glory to His own in absolving, forgiving, clothing +
and feeding because He shows mercy to us…in the Name + of Jesus…which is
In The Name of
The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost
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