940 HOLY GOD, WE PRAISE THY NAME
Text and tune: Public domain
P In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
C Amen.
C But if we confess our
sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.
P Let us then confess our sins to God our Father.
C Most merciful God, we
confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against You in
thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as
ourselves. We justly deserve Your present and eternal punishment. For the sake
of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us,
so that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways to the glory of Your
holy name. Amen.
P Almighty God in His mercy has given His Son to die for you and
for His sake forgives you all your sins. As a called and ordained servant of
Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name
of the Father and of the T Son and of the Holy
Spirit.
C Amen.
+ SERVICE OF THE WORD +
INTROIT Psalm
8:1–2a, 3–5; antiphon: Liturgical Text
Blessèd be the Holy Trinity and the undivided | Unity.*
Let us give glory to him because he has
shown his mer- | cy to us.
O | Lord, our Lord,*
how majestic is your name in | all the earth!
You have set your glory above the | heavens.*
Out of the mouth of babes and infants,
you have es- | tablished strength.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your |
fingers,*
the moon and the stars, which you have | set in place,
what is man that you are mind- | ful of him,*
and the son of man that you | care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly |
beings*
and crowned him with glory and | honor.
Glory be to the Father and | to the Son*
and
to the Holy | Spirit;
as it was in the be- | ginning,*
is
now, and will be forever. | Amen.
Blessèd be the Holy Trinity and the undivided |
Unity.*
Let us give glory to him because he has
shown his mer- | cy to us.
KYRIE LSB
152
A In peace let us pray to the Lord.
A For the peace from above and for our salvation let us pray to the Lord.
A For the peace of the whole world, for the well-being of the
Church of God, and for the unity of all let us pray to the Lord.
A For this holy house and for all who offer here their worship and
praise let us pray to the Lord.
A Help, save, comfort, and defend us, gracious Lord.
507 HOLY, HOLY, HOLY
SALUTATION AND COLLECT OF THE DAY
P The Lord be with you.
C And also with you.
P Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, You have given
us grace to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity by the confession of a
true faith and to worship the Unity in the power of the Divine Majesty. Keep us
steadfast in this faith and defend us from all adversities; for You, O Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, live and reign, one God, now and forever.
C Amen.
1In
the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings:
with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he
flew. 3And one called to another and said:
4And the foundations of the
thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with
smoke. 5And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost;
for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of
hosts!”
6Then
one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had
taken with tongs from the altar. 7And he touched
my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken
away, and your sin atoned for.”
A This is the Word of the Lord.
C Thanks be to God.
PSALM 29
EPISTLE Romans
11:33–36
33Oh,
the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are
his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
36For from him and through him and
to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
A This is the Word of the Lord.
C Thanks be to God.
P The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the third chapter.
1Now
there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2This man came to Jesus by night and said to him,
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these
signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3Jesus
answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot
see the kingdom of God.” 4Nicodemus said to him,
“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his
mother’s womb and be born?” 5Jesus answered,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he
cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6That which is
born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born
again.’ 8The wind blows where it wishes, and you
hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it
is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9Nicodemus
said to him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus
answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand
these things? 11Truly, truly, I say to you, we
speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not
receive our testimony. 12If I have told you
earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you
heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into
heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that
whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16“For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have eternal life. 17For
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that
the world might be saved through him.”
P This is the Gospel of the Lord.
571 GOD LOVED THE WORLD SO THAT HE GAVE
5 If you are sick, if death is near,
This truth your troubled heart can cheer:
Christ Jesus saves your soul from death;
That is the firmest ground of faith.
6 Glory to God the Father, Son,
And Holy Spirit, Three in One!
To You, O blessèd Trinity,
Be praise now and eternally!
Text and tune: Public domain
SERMON
Whoever believes
in Him. . .
John 3:8
The Gospel of the day is about believing in God.
It’s about believing in what we don’t see or don’t quite understand, like the
wind the blows and you don’t see where it is going or where it comes from, you
just hear it’s sound. So we hear God and we believe.
Nicodemus asks
should I believe? Should I believe in Jesus the Son of God. He says to
Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do
these signs that you do unless God is with him” (John 3:2).
Jesus picks up
right away on what Nicodemus is getting at. And He begins to explain
something about God and about his (Nicodemus’s) relationship with God.
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he
cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
Believing and not
believing are as different as life is different from death. According to Jesus
here, believing isn’t just accepting some premise or idea about heaven and
earth. It isn’t just saying, “yeah, ok,” going along with the words of the
Bible and Christian doctrine. Believing is saying good riddance to the old way
of life with its sin and separation from God and taking on a new life with
Christ, that is, being born again.
Nicodemus was
learning how he and all human beings before God are by nature dead in
trespasses and sins. He must realize the truth of the matter, that there
is this great, overarching need to be born again.
Jesus
answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the
Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5) Water and the Spirit. .
. Baptism. . .that's how Jesus says one is born again--in baptism. That's
what he pointed Nicodemus to, those physical means, sacraments and the word. .
.the things we have been given which enable us to enter into a relationship
with God. In the rest of the reading Jesus explains more about how the
Holy Spirit works to cause people to be born again and to come to
God.
But Nicodemus
still has problems with this. He asks, "How can these things
happen?" It all just doesn't fit for him. These things that
Jesus is telling him don't fit the preconceived ideas that Nicodemus has about
God and about his relationship with God.
Nicodemus had two
things going on in his mind and they didn't fit. First of all, he had a
well educated, rational, systematic mind. But then he has these words of
Jesus to try and comprehend. It’s a struggle and his rational mind seems
to be winning. And so he questions these words of Jesus. ``How can
a man be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into
his mother's womb to be born!'' (John 3:4) "How can these things
happen?"
Today, Trinity
Sunday is a celebration of a doctrine, a teaching of the Christian faith. All
the other holidays of the church are observances of certain events in the life
of Jesus and his people, like Christmas, his birth and Easter, his
resurrection. But today is about what we Christians believe, teach and confess
who God is.
Where do we get
this notion of who God is? Our head? Our own reason or intellect?
That's what Nicodemus was trying so hard to do. That's why he couldn't
follow the message of Jesus, his reason and intellect got in the way. He
had in mind his image of who God is supposed to be. But Jesus was talking
about some other stuff which just didn't fit with that.
The lesson to be
learned from Nicodemus is this: Don't try to make God fit into your
box. Don't try to make God be the god you want him to be. Don't
expect Him to act the way you think He should. When we do that there is a
certain role reversal that happens. Instead of us being made in God's
image, we attempt to make God in our image. And that's
dangerous. It's dangerous to think that you've got it all figured out on
your own. You see, our minds are too small. Our reason and intellect
are too weak to try to figure out who God is on our own. Our feelings are
too warped by sin and too far from God. We need to look to Him. He will
reveal to us what we need to know about Who He is.
God is One. We are
not, each, individually, to come up with our own idea of who God is. Then we
would have many opinions, as if there were many truths and many gods. In a
little bit we are going to confess the one Christian faith in the Athanasian
Creed. There it’s called the catholic faith. Small c, catholic. Not to be
confused with the Roman Catholic denomination, capital C for a specific name.
Catholic means universal, good for each and all.
God does reveal to
all who will hear His word, just like he did to Nicodemus through the words of
His Son Jesus. Jesus told Nicodemus who God is and what God
does. "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John
3:16)
It's words like
these from the Bible that enable you to learn who your God is. And yet not
the words alone. These words have to overcome the human obstacles of
reason and intellect and preconceived ideas. These words work because they are
empowered by God. The only way a person can know God and have a
relationship with God is if God draws you or drags you. We can't do it
ourselves. We need to be drawn by God.
Fortunately this
is not the end of the story for Nicodemus. This encounter with Jesus
apparently has an impact on him. His name appears again later in John's
Gospel when He speaks up for Jesus in the Jewish ruling Sanhedrin. And
then in chapter 19 at the death of Jesus, Nicodemus is said to have aided
Joseph of Arimathea in providing a proper burial for the body. It seems
that God drew Nicodemus into a relationship with Him. He broke down his
will, his intellect and his reason. And Nicodemus knew who His God is.
So we also know
God, not because we've got it all figured out. But because God has
revealed Himself to us, using His word and His sacraments as His tool to lead
us into faith and knowledge of Him. This good teaching of the Trinity is worthy
of a holiday.
God the Father:
who from all eternity wanted to save us. He loved us. He sent His Son to
die for us.
God the Son.
Sent from the Father yet one with the Father. Sent to become one of
us. Sent to die to save all of us.
We know God as the
Spirit. The Spirit sent to us from the Father and the Son to convert us, to
give us a new birth, that we not perish in the old life, but have eternal life.
Amen.
ATHANASIAN CREED
L Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic
faith.
Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled
will without doubt perish eternally.
And the
catholic faith is this,
C that we worship one God in
Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.
L For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Holy
Spirit is another.
C But the Godhead of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one: the glory equal, the
majesty coeternal.
L Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy
Spirit:
C the Father uncreated, the
Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated;
L the Father infinite, the Son infinite, the Holy Spirit infinite;
C the Father eternal, the
Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal.
L And yet there are not three Eternals, but one Eternal,
C just as there are not
three Uncreated or three Infinites, but one Uncreated and one Infinite.
L In the same way, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, the
Holy Spirit almighty;
C and yet there are not
three Almighties, but one Almighty.
L So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God;
C and yet there are not
three Gods, but one God.
L So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord;
C and yet there are not
three Lords, but one Lord.
L Just as we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge
each distinct person as God and Lord, so also are we prohibited by the catholic
religion to say that there are three Gods or Lords.
C The Father is not made nor
created nor begotten by anyone.
L The Son is neither made nor created, but begotten of the Father
alone.
C The Holy Spirit is of the
Father and of the Son, neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding.
L Thus, there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three
Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
C And in this Trinity none
is before or after another; none is greater or less than another;
L but the whole three persons are coeternal with each other and
coequal, so that in all things, as has been stated above, the Trinity in Unity
and Unity in Trinity is to be worshiped.
C Therefore, whoever desires
to be saved must think thus about the Trinity.
L But it is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one
faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
C Therefore, it is the right
faith that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
is at the same time both God and man.
L He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all
ages; and He is man, born from the substance of His mother in this age:
C perfect God and perfect
man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh;
L equal to the Father with respect to His divinity, less than the
Father with respect to His humanity.
C Although He is God and
man, He is not two, but one Christ:
L one, however, not by the conversion of the divinity into flesh,
but by the assumption of the humanity into God;
C one altogether, not by
confusion of substance, but by unity of person.
L For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is
one Christ,
C who suffered for our
salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead,
L ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the
Father, God Almighty, from whence He will come to judge the living and the
dead.
C At His coming all people
will rise again with their bodies and give an account concerning their own
deeds.
L And those who have done good will enter into eternal life, and
those who have done evil into eternal fire.
C This is the catholic faith;
whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH
P Let us pray.
O God, you are the fountain of all blessings, you are from everlasting to everlasting, dwelling in majesty, honor and glory, as the most blessed Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We thank you for the rays of divine light by which we have come to know you, and for the wonderful mercy by which we have come to love you. We thank you that you are the one, True, Triune Godhead, eternal, immortal, invisible, in whom we live and move and have our being.
We bless you, almighty Father. Your glory fills the heavens. You made all things. You work shows forth your power and glory. Accept our prayers and praise.
We worship you, O Christ, only-begotten Son of the Father. You were lifted up to draw all to yourself, that whoever believes should not perish but have everlasting life. Now you have been exalted to the right hand of the Father in glory everlasting. Grant us all the joy of abiding in that glory forever.
We praise you, O Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who has called us by the Gospel and led us into all truth. You have gathered us into your Church and sanctified us to be your Saints. Grant us faith that endures to the end.
Thanks be to you, O Lord, for those who served our nation through military service. In grateful remembrance of those who gave their lives for us and for the cause of freedom we pray your help that we may honor their sacrifice by using our liberty responsibly. On this holiday we ask for your blessings on all who travel, that they would be kept safe. Look kindly on our nation. Continue to provide aid in protecting and increasing the benefits we have for those who follow us, looking always to You, from whom these benefits come.
For _____________ and all who suffer in our midst: Lord of hosts would uphold them in the truth that, since He is at their right hand, they cannot be shaken; and that He would gladden their hearts, cause their tongues to rejoice and make their flesh dwell in hope.
Strengthen
your truth in our weak hearts and minds. Give us a lively hope in your
bountiful promises. Grant us the remission of all our sins, and preserve us
until the coming of your heavenly kingdom, when we shall be perfected in
heavenly knowledge and bliss, through the merits of Jesus Christ, Your Son our
Lord who with you and the Holy Spirit is on God now and forever.
Amen.
LORD’S PRAYER
P Lord, remember us in Your kingdom and teach us to pray:
C Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven;
give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For
Thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory
forever and ever. Amen.
P The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face shine on you and be
gracious to you.
The Lord look upon you with favor and T give you peace.
506 GLORY BE TO GOD THE FATHER
Tune and text: Public domain
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Divine Service, Setting One from Lutheran Service Book
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are
from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®),
copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2021 Concordia
Publishing House.
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