John 3:1-17

Script

Props: You will need three images for this children’s sermon, printed out on paper. The first is an image of Jesus, the second, an image of a dove, and the third, a burning bush. Put the image of Jesus on a cross in your church, the dove on the baptismal font, and the burning bush on the alter, stained glass Ten Commandments, or a Bible.

Pastor: Good morning boys and girls! Welcome! Let’s say good morning to our friend Sammy and see if she is there. Ready? One, two, three: Good morning, Sammy!

Sammy: Good morning, everyone! I have something really special for all of you to do this morning.

Pastor: What’s that, Sammy?

Sammy: Pastor, I would like you and all of the boys and girls to solve a mystery for me.

Pastor: A mystery?

Sammy: Yes! It’s about our faith. I hid pictures in the church.

Pastor: What do you think, boys and girls? Do you think we can help Sammy solve a mystery about faith?

Pastor: Can you give us some direction or a hint before we get started, Sammy?

Sammy: Yes! I will give you one hint at a time. Are you ready?

Pastor: We are ready.

Sammy: The first item you need to find is located on the place where Jesus died.

Pastor: What do you think boys and girls? [located on a cross in the church]

Sammy: Great work! The next item to see is a place where we can baptize a baby. [Located on a baptismal font] 

Pastor: We can baptize babies, children, and adults!

Sammy: Hooray for baptism! Did you find the clue?

Pastor: We found it!

Sammy: Your final clue is this: It’s the Law of Moses, written by the hand of the one who knows us. There’s ten of these commands—just like the ten fingers on your hands! [located on a Bible or on a stained glass window of the Ten Commandments]

Pastor: Great job with searching for these clues everyone! Let’s put them together and see what we see.

Sammy: What do you see everyone?

[Allow time for responses]

Pastor: We see Jesus, a dove, and a burning bush.

Sammy: Here’s the mystery we need to solve: What do these three things have in common?

[Allow time for responses]

Pastor: I think these three images represent the Holy Trinity, Sammy.

Sammy: Exactly!

Pastor: There is a mystery within your mystery, Sammy.

Sammy: There is?

Pastor: The Holy Trinity is here in front of us, and the Trinity itself is a mystery of faith to us. We understand that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each a person of the Trinity, three in one, but no one completely understands the Trinity. It’s hard to explain and that’s why it’s a mystery of faith.

Sammy: That’s really cool, Pastor.

Pastor: Yes, it is, Sammy. Boys and girls, will you fold your hands and bow your heads in prayer with me please? Dear Jesus, We thank you for coming to earth to die for our sins. We thank you Father for your great love for us. We thank you Holy Spirit for always being with us. Amen.

Sammy: Bye, everyone!

Pastor: Bye, Sammy!

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word
by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to
wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell
John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and
the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is
anyone who takes no offense at me.” (Matthew 11:2-6 NRSV)

There goes the Son …

These days, there are many who are offended by the God revealed in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Scriptures.  The primary offense is caused by the name Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Others take offense at the masculine pronouns that the Bible uses for God.  As a result, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in its hymnal Evangelical Lutheran Worship, worked diligently to reduce the use of masculine pronouns to refer to God. This was particularly true in the translation of the Psalms. In addition, they provided an alternate invocation for the beginning of the liturgy that enabled congregations to avoid saying Father and Son.  Many of the Prayers of the Day and all of the Proper Prefaces, were changed so that prayer was addressed to God in general rather than to the Father.  Over the years, Sundays and Seasons, the electronic worship resource from Augsburg Fortress, has offered a variety of alternatives for those who are so offended. Finally, at the 2019 Churchwide Assembly, a social statement was passed calling for an even greater use of “gender-inclusive and expansive language for God.”

The Trinity

The Augsburg Confession, on the other hand, affirms the doctrine of the Trinity in the strongest terms, saying:

We
unanimously hold and teach, in accordance with the decree of the Council of
Nicaea,’ that there is one divine essence, which is called and which is truly
God, and that there are three persons in this one divine essence, equal in
power and alike eternal: God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.[1][emphasis mine]

What’s at Stake?

So what is
at stake?  Is this just quibbling over
words?  Are we as Lutherans bound to the
language used in the Augsburg Confession? 
Will it really make a difference if we use expansive language for God?

The answer
is, “Yes!”  What was at stake at the
Council of Nicaea was far more than a quibble over words.  The Council was not engaged in an esoteric
debate about a doctrine that few lay people would ever understand.  What was at stake was the Incarnation
itself.  Is the Son divine, or only the
Father?  Was God truly incarnate in Jesus
of Nazareth, or did it only appear to be the case?  It was the position of the orthodox that the
Gospel and salvation itself were on the line. 
Rejection of the Incarnation was a rejection of the Gospel. The Lutheran
reformers would have agreed. 

The Gospel

Why is the Gospel at stake?  To explain this, let me introduce a couple of terms with which you may not be familiar.  The terms are general revelation and particular revelation.[2]  General revelation refers to the knowledge of God that is available to all people.  Romans 1:20 says:

Ever since the creation of the world his eternal
power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and
seen through the things he has made. (NRSV)

Some knowledge of God is available to all people.  For instance, through the use of reason we can come to know that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.  If we look at nature, at the beauty and precision that it contains, we can catch a glimpse of the Creator.  If we pay attention to the moral law that is written in our hearts, we know that God is holy and righteous.  Some of us have even felt God’s presence in our lives.  Reason, nature, the moral law, and our feelings can give us some idea of what God is like.

What none of them can do, however, is enable us to know that God is a gracious God.  Knowing that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent doesn’t tell me whether God cares about me.  What nature reveals about God is too ambiguous to tell me whether he is good.  For every beautiful sunset, perfect snowflake and cuddly puppy, there is a hurricane, earthquake or an incurable disease.  The moral law tells me that God is holy, but it doesn’t tell me whether God is merciful to sinners like me.  My feelings about God are ambiguous as well.  One minute I may have a sense of God’s love and peace, but another moment I feel abandoned or condemned by God.  General revelation can take us no further.  Luther says:

I
answer that there are two ways of knowing God. One is general, the other
particular. Everyone has a general knowledge—that is, that there is a God that
created heaven and earth, that He is righteous, and that He punishes the
wicked. However, regarding what God thinks about us (His will toward us), what
He will give or do to deliver us from sin and death, and how to be saved (for
certain, this is the true knowledge of God), they don’t know any of this. In
the same way, I may know someone by sight but not thoroughly because I don’t
fully understand that person’s feelings toward me; that is how people by nature
know there is a God. But what is His will and what is not His will, they have
no idea![3]

The God We Meet in Jesus Christ

Particular
revelation, on the other hand, which refers to God incarnate, Jesus Christ,
does.  When we encounter God in the baby
in the manger and the man on the Cross, then we do know that we have a gracious
God.  It is the God we meet in Jesus Christ
who enables us to have faith, to trust that we are loved and forgiven.  Again, Luther says:

Christ
is the only means, and as you might say, the mirror in which we can see God and
by whom we can also know His will, for in Christ, we see that God is no cruel
and demanding judge but a Father of extremely goodwill, loving and merciful. In
order to bless us—that is, to deliver us from the law, sin, death, all evil,
and to grant us grace, righteousness, and eternal life—He “did not spare his
own Son, but gave him up for us all.” This is the true knowledge of God, the
divine persuasion that does not deceive us but paints us a trustworthy picture
of God, other than this there is no God.[4]

Offended by the Incarnation

This is
why traditional Lutherans are alarmed by the call for more “gender-inclusive
and expansive language for God.”  It is
not because we oppose inclusive language in general, as is often alleged, or
that we want to subordinate women to men. 
Something more is at stake.  When
we are offended by the very words that Jesus used to name God, when we are
offended by his masculinity, as in the past some were offended by his
Jewishness, when we are offended by the claim that Jesus is the way, the truth
and the life, we are offended by the Incarnation itself.  In that case, we are offended by the only
thing that makes it possible for us to know and trust that we have a gracious
God.  The Gospel, justification by faith,
and salvation itself, are at stake.  Instead
of being offended, we give thanks, as we do in the proper preface for
Christmas:

In the wonder and mystery of the Word made flesh you have opened the eyes of faith to a new and radiant vision of your glory: that beholding the God made visible, we may be drawn to love the God whom we cannot see.[5]

---

[1] Theodore G. Tappert. Augsburg
Confession (Kindle Locations 58-59). Kindle Edition.  

[2] Luther,
Martin. Martin Luther’s Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians
(1535): Lecture Notes Transcribed by Students and Presented in Today’s English
(p. 350). 1517 Publishing. Kindle Edition.

[3] Ibid., p. 350.

[4] Ibid., pp. 346-347.

[5]
Lutheran Book of Worship: Ministers Desk Edition.  1978 Augsburg Fortress, p. 209.

THE KING IS DEAD
Devotional for the Sunday of the Holy Trinity 2018
based upon Isaiah 6: 1-8

For those who are old enough, where were you on November 22, 1963, when you heard that President John F. Kennedy had been shot? Most people can tell you exactly where they were. The news sped around the world: “The President is dead.” It was shocking – unbelievable. John F. Kennedy – young, vibrant, dynamic – cut down by an assassin’s bullet. Our entire nation was plunged into grief. The following Sunday people flocked to church – and in the greatest numbers since the announcement of the end of World War II.

Twenty-seven hundred years ago another sad announcement was heard: “The King is dead.” Uzziah, king of Judah, had died. He had been crowned king at the age of sixteen and had reigned for fifty-two years. Despite his weaknesses, he was the greatest king since David. The prophet Isaiah was heartbroken. Uzziah was not only his king. He was also his friend. In grief and sorrow he wondered what to do. He made his way to the Temple – like the people after the death of President Kennedy – to find comfort and renewed faith. When in your life have you really needed to go to church to worship, to find comfort, and to have your faith strengthened and renewed?

Now no one else is mentioned as being in the Temple that day. But I have a feeling that the Temple area was full that day as thousands of people came in response to the news that the King was dead. After all, Uzziah had been king for fifty-two years. For many people, he had been king their entire lives. Many people knew no other king. And now the king is dead. When sorrow comes, when life crashes in, when our earthly source of security is gone, the best place to be is in the house of the Lord.

Isaiah went to the house of the Lord. And there he learned that even though King Uzziah had died, God had not died. God was still on His throne. Isaiah might have lost his good friend and earthly king. But that day he caught a fresh glimpse of the King of kings. That day he had an encounter with God that totally changed his life. Today you can have an encounter with God that can totally change your life.

In his encounter with God Isaiah saw four things. First, ISAIAH SAW THE LORD. And that is the greatest vision that anyone can have. To see the Lord. Isaiah writes, “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty.” Another translation says, “High and lifted up.” Isaiah saw God as the central object of all praise – surrounded by angels. It was the vision Isaiah needed because Uzziah had died.

How often in worship do you have a vision of the Lord sitting on His throne, high and lifted up? And if not very often, why not? Isaiah had a vision of the greatness and glory of God, and it changed his life. The same living Lord wants to change your life. Earthly kings will come and go. But the King of kings is King forever. He is just as powerful as He has ever been, and just as willing to reveal Himself to you. First, Isaiah saw the Lord.

Second, ISAIAH SAW HIMSELF. And he saw himself as he had never seen himself before. As he saw himself, he did not admire his image in the mirror. He did not think, “Wow! I must be the best person here, because God has revealed Himself to me.” Instead he cried out, “Woe is me! I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.”

And it’s true. The closer you get to God, the more clearly you see your own sin. The more you see the glory of God, the more you realize just how far you fall short of the glory of God. A weak sense of God leads to a weak sense of our own sin. While a renewed sense of God leads to a renewed sense of our own sin. Seeing the Lord high and lifted up, Isaiah saw himself in a whole new light.

Third, ISAIAH SAW GOD’S CLEANSING POWER. A live coal was brought by an angel from the altar of sacrifice and was touched to Isaiah’s lips. The altar was the place where the priests would kill the animals and then cover over the sins of the people with the blood of animals. For as God said, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.

The coal had been touched by two things – blood and fire. Blood speaks of the cleansing from sin – as blood can cleanse a wound. And fire speaks of purifying power. Blood removes the sin, while fire brings power for renewed living. The angel took a blood-soaked and fire-purifying coal from the altar of sacrifice and touched it to Isaiah’s lips. Isaiah experienced the sweet, clean feeling of forgiveness, peace, and power. There is nothing like it in the world.

And then fourth, ISAIAH SAW THE WORLD. Isaiah heard God ask, “Whom shall I send? Who will go? Who will be a messenger of hope to other people who are grieving over the death of the king? Who will bring the blood and the fire to other people who need forgiveness of sins and power for living?” Isaiah heard God ask, “Whom shall I send?” Isaiah replied, “Here am I, Lord; send me.”

Isaiah did not say, “Here am I, but please send someone else.” Nor did he say, “Before I sign up I need to find out what all is involved, how long it will be for, and what is in it for me.” Rather he signed a blank cheque. He did not try to strike up a bargain with God. He did not attempt to negotiate a compromise. Rather when God called, Isaiah answered. When God commanded, Isaiah obeyed.

And who would respond like that? Only someone who has seen the vision. Only someone who has seen the Lord high and lifted up. And the same thing can happen for you today. King Jesus was dead, but now He is alive. He died for our sins, but He rose from the dead and is alive forevermore. And He calls us to see Him as He truly is – the holy God. He calls us to see ourselves as we truly are – sinful and in desperate need of Him. He calls us to see that He can cleanse us of all sin and give us power for renewed living. And He calls us to see that other people also need to know what He can do for them.

Today have you seen the Lord high and lifted up? Today have you been cleansed by His blood and have you received the fire of His power for living? Today are you hearing and heeding His call to go and tell others?

Dennis D. Nelson
President of the Board and Director of Lutheran CORE