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The Lord never chastises one for being slow, mentally defective, or challenged in any way dealing with the cognitive abilities of the brain. All of man’s earthly wisdom, knowledge, science, philosophy, and “smartness” is forever tainted with sin. All mans knowledge, from man, is corrupted. The Lord does speak against unbelief, doubt, and hardness of heart. He upbraided His own Disciples on several occasions, not for being dense of natural intellect, but for being stiff necked in their unbelief.

Nicodemus was not criticized by Jesus for not being as smart as SaiSnt Athanasius; for not fully understanding Baptismal Regeneration as carefully explained by Luther in the Small Catechism; Nicodemus was correctly, “corrected” for not fully trusting Jesus and His preached Word. The Pharisee was trying to wrap his “brain” around something that can’t be contained by man. The Lord required Nicodemus’ trust, not his advanced degrees in “mint and cumin” counting and Levitical obedience.

No Lamb is asked to explain, or even cognitively “understand” the deep mysteries of Trinitarian being. The Lamb, you Lambs, is asked to believe in the Good Shepherd and to follow Him. Well does Philip Melanchthon write: “it is better to worship the Divine Trinity than try to explain it.”

But you are humans. You are sinners. You will always try to explain things. While explanation and understanding is not sinful, it is always a sin if you do so in an attempt to “own it,” to make it subject to your will, to your own prideful desire to “know.” Eve didn’t need to “know” (to possess) what the Tree of Knowledge could or could not dispense. Eve was told to trust in the Lord. Eve was told to obey God’s Word. Eve did neither, and now because of her and her sorry mate, you also fail to rely on God above all things.

The Church of Christ must never become a lecture hall or laboratory. The Disciple of the Master must never strive for “head knowledge” at the expense of child-like Faith. Yes, there is a huge denomination of Christians which incorrectly put too high a value on tradition and Papal infallibility. But there is also a large group of Christians who wrongly worship at the altar of obedience, experience, supernatural gifts, human will and decision, and correct encyclopedic “head knowledge.”

This doesn’t mean we don’t value Catechesis or constant Scriptural and doctrinal study—we do; but all insight that is gained from memorizing Bible verses or from grasping systematic Confessional exposition, is only a means to place us in the presence of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. The Words of God are meant to place you into the Body of Christ.

The Truths of the Athanasian Creed are of paramount importance because they are the truths of Holy Scripture; they are God’s truths. You believe them because of the gift of the Holy Ghost; the same Spirit which Jesus told Nicodemus “blows where it wishes.” If you are honest with yourself you will readily admit that you can no more understand how “one can be three” and “three can be one” than your pet dog (or cat) can understand quantum physics. The finite mind of man cannot grasp the infinite splendor and glory of the Creator.

Don’t turn the faith of the Prophets and the Apostles into a school game of “learn, memorize, recite, and pride fully bask in.” Never look down upon another brother or sister in the Lord because they don’t “know much.” Yes, they should always want to know more about God’s living and breathing Word of Life; yes they should endeavor to daily increase in the wisdom of Holy Writ, but you being exercised over it inevitably leads to conceit, arrogance and a reliance on your own “knowledge.”

Knowledge apart from faith, the world’s wisdom divorced from Gottesdienst, worship, leads to itching minds and ears that would rather hear about things “you can do” to be more holy rather than receiving Him Who kept the Law holy on your behalf and in your place. Too much “Greek” knowledge not only will “puff” you up but it will cause you to crave sermons that entertain and dazzle, that pull you in with erudition, 16th century quotes and historical & archeological minutiae rather than feed you with the One Who suffered and died on the Cross to pay for all your misdeeds, non-deeds, and…. well, deeds.

Without meaning to criticize Christian artists, iconographers, teachers, bulletin creators, or even blessed Saint Patrick himself, attempting to draw, illustrate, or diagram the Holy Trinity usually leads to problems, inaccuracies and sometimes even heresy. I like equilateral triangles, triquetas, and Saint Augustine’s “is, and is not” pictograph, as much as the next, but in reality, the only way to see the Trinity is to behold the face of the Son. There is no better artistic representation for this day in the Church calendar year that we call the “Feast of The Holy Trinity” than one such as you have on your bulletin this morning. A simple picture of the Lord Christ Jesus talking with Nicodemus says everything about the Trinity that needs to be said.

That member of the Sanhedrin, two-thousand years ago, sat in the presence of God. Jesus was, and is, the God-Man enfleshed. What did Nicodemus see? Well he saw God. God is One, but God is also three person. Did Nicodemus see the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity? Yes, of course, He saw Jesus the Nazarene, the exact same Jesus that you will see with your re-stored and glorified eye-balls at the great Resurrection of all flesh. Did Nicodemus see the Father, did he see the Holy Ghost? Be careful how you answer that question.

Yes, the Father, as Father, is invisible, He is Spirit not flesh and bone and blood. The Holy Spirit, the great Comforter, also is invisible, that’s why He is called “Spirit.” But now, stop relying on your logic, your reason, and natural scientific “knowledge” of time, space, essence and reality. Now believe the revealed Word of God. Jesus said on another occasion in Saint John’s Evangel that “The Father is in Me and I am in The Father.” Jesus also spoke the truth that The Holy Spirit will take what is Jesus’ and reveal it to the faithful; that is, the Holy Spirit gives Jesus, the Paraclete testifies, He shows forth, The Son.

Peter correctly stated in His Epistle that sometimes Paul is hard to understand; not that Paul is incorrect just that the deep mysteries which the Apostle from Tarsus was permitted to record by the Hand of God, were beyond grasping with the brain and simply were to be believed with the heart (that is, the soul). The Apostle correctly told the Colossians that in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, bodily. And what did Jesus say to Saint Philip when that Disciple honestly and earnestly asked Jesus to “show us the Father?” Jesus said “Philip, He who sees Me, sees the Father.”

No, I don’t understand it any better than you, or anyone else. Thank the Lord, the Tri-Une Lord, that we nonetheless believe, teach and confess His revealed truths.

The infamous arch-heretic, Arius, knew that the real way to a man’s soul wasn’t in the class-room but in Worship. Arius knew that as one confessed and sung, as one prayed and worshipped, so one would eventually believe. Arius’ anti-Trinitarian false teachings will be with the church until the end of time. But the best way to combat them is to, yes, “know” Scripture, but then as importantly to “act”Nowhere else is the reality of the Trinity better inculcated and grasped than in the Holy Mass, the Divine Liturgy of the Word and Sacrament. The Trinity washes over you every Sunday, right here, in the Trinitarian Invocation, the Absolution, the multiple Glorias, the Triple Hallelujah, the Sanctus, and the Benediction. Why, even the Agnus Dei makes us think of the time when the Savior was Baptized by John in the Jordan, one of Scriptures great Trinitarian revelations.

God is love. The Father’s love is that He sent His Son. The Son’s love is that He willingly came, obeyed, and atoned with His bloody sacrifice at Calvary. The Spirit’s love is that He comes to you and makes your Body His holy Temple, His clay pot to fill with Jesus. The most sublime and awesome picture, icon, of God’s love in Jesus is the Cross. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes I Him should not perish but have eternal life.” The Crucifix gives the Trinity. The broken and bloodied Body of the Son, believed on by the power of the Holy Ghost, gives reconciliation and righteousness with the Father.

Be like Nicodemus. Come and sit with Jesus at the table. Come and commune with, and on, the Son of God, ……God. In the Sacrament you receive Him Who is from the Father, with and in the Father, and also by, with and in the Holy Ghost. The ultimate three-course meal is yours as you eat and drink the Body and Blood of the Lamb.

“Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out…for of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things; to Whom be glory for ever.”

Holy, Holy, Holy, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

And now again, Confess one of the best ways, the Trinity, with me, by tracing your own Baptismal adoption into Christ, His Father, and His Spirit, by making the Sign of the Holy Cross In the Name of The Father, and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost.