Sermon

May 18, 2008
Trinity Sunday a
2 Corinthians 13:14
Pastor Ben Berger

God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - Loves You

I love you. I really do. I love all of you because you are my brothers and sisters in Christ. Maybe you didn’t realize I loved you because I don’t say it very often. We’re often afraid to say “I love you.” And we struggle even more to show it. Do you sometimes wonder if anyone loves you? Do you ever wonder if God loves you? He does. God loves you. The one, true God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – loves you. Today we celebrate the one, true God – the Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And Paul shows us that each person of the Triune God loves you. The Father said it; he announced God’s love to you. The Son showed God’s love to you. And the Holy Spirit keeps saying “I love you.”

God the Father announced his love to you in many different ways. He began at creation. While God spoke his word to create everything else, the Father took time to create his children by hand. With his own hands God formed Adam out of the dust of the ground and molded Eve out of Adam’s ribs. In the same way God knit you together in your mother’s womb. He announced his love by making you the unique person you are.

And God breathed life into Adam and Eve; he gave them souls with spiritual and eternal life. He created them in his image, as we heard in our OT reading today. We physically look like our human parents. Adam and Eve looked like their Father spiritually. They knew God’s will perfectly and they had the ability to live a God-pleasing life. They enjoyed a perfect relationship with God. After they sinned, they lost the image of God. But by faith through God’s word, he gives us the same spiritual life. He renews our souls and recreates his image in us.

After creation God continued to announce his love to us by taking care of us. He sends rain and sometimes lots of snow. He makes the sun shine. He makes seeds grow. He provides animals to fill our stomachs and put clothes on our backs. He provides house and home. He blesses us with family and friends, health and education, jobs and money. Not only does our heavenly Father give us all we need, he often fills our lives with more blessings than we deserve.

If creating us and caring for us don’t convince us of God’s love, he announces his love for us more plainly in his word. In Jeremiah (31:3) God announces, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Just as God has no beginning and no end, so his love for us has no beginning and no end. And to be sure that God’s love includes you, he announces his love for the world. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son (John 3:16). And Paul says, the love of God…be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:14). You are part of the world; you are part of all. Therefore, God the Father loves you, each and every one of you.

And just as many as God loves, so many reject his love. God has done nothing more than announce his love to us; and we often do nothing more than reject his love. We mistreat the unique bodies God has created and given to us. We gorge on food and abuse alcohol; some even feel the need get high on drugs or other chemicals. We mistreat our world just as badly – over consuming, littering, trashing, using up the resources God has provided.

In spite of all the blessings God has given to care for us, we reject his love by taking them for granted. We’re hardly happy with the blessings we have. We constantly whine and complain about having old clothes or old shoes or old cars or old homes or old jewelry or old video games – forgetting all the while that what we have was once new and that we have it in the first place. And we spend more time thinking about what we don’t have rather than giving thanks for all we do have. We pray “give us our daily bread,” but we desire a lifetime of riches today. And we want all these blessings for ourselves. We don’t consider sharing generous portions of our time or our talents and especially not our treasures. We don’t even want others to mention it.

If that weren’t enough rejection of God’s love, we even doubt his word. God clearly says, “I love you,” and we doubt. We’re so focused on ourselves that we can’t see God’s love. We look at our sins and fears and doubts – and acknowledge them as we should. But then we fail to acknowledge God’s love and forgiveness. Or we think that God loves everyone else except us. We can tell because of how easy or how much stuff others seem to have. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and all have rejected God’s love.

Yet, the love of God our Father is unconditional. Our Father will never stop loving us and he will never love us less. Most of you can understand this unconditional love to a degree. You love a friend or family member no matter what. They can’t chase your love away. We try to chase one another’s love away with sin (and sometimes succeed). We can’t chase God’s love away. He loves you regardless of how many sins you’ve committed, of how big your sins are. Even if you reject him, he still loves you. He shows his love by taking away your sin.

God the Son showed God’s love for you. Jesus brought God’s love to earth. First, he brought God’s love to earth in word. For three years Jesus proclaimed God’s love in his preaching and teaching; during those three years he also showed God’s love by healing the sick or feeding the hungry or some other miracle.

In addition to his word, Jesus showed God’s love in his life. Jesus, who is the Word of God that created all things, became a little baby in the womb of a woman. Jesus, who is the almighty God, became dependent on a human mother for oxygen and food and sustenance. Jesus, who is God from eternity, passed through a birth canal and entered into our world at just the right time.

And then Jesus showed God’s love by living a life of suffering. Even as a young boy I’m sure Jesus suffered. I mean, his parents were poor; so, he didn’t wear Abercrombie and Fish Sandals. He didn’t own holy clothes from Holyster. I’m sure other kids made fun of him, “What, do you think you’re perfect or something?” And, of course, it didn’t end when he became an adult. People either wanted to use him for personal gain or abuse him. They still made fun of him, still mocked him, still hated him. In fact, some began to hate Jesus so much that they wanted to kill him. And you know what happened next. They conceived a plot to arrest him and falsely accuse him. Along the way they spit on him, whipped him, beat him and crowned him with thorns. Then they crucified him. He died and was buried.

As God, Jesus could have prevented all of that. He didn’t have to leave his Father’s side in heaven to be born of a woman. He didn’t have to put up with the mockery or the abuse. He certainly didn’t have to die. At any time Jesus could have used his almighty power to strike down his enemies. But he didn’t – because he loves you. Jesus showed just how much God loves you.

And you know that we don’t deserve this love. Paul calls it grace – the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ…be with you all. Grace is undeserved love. We will never deserve such love from God. Even after all God has done for us, we still don’t live for him. Adam and Eve couldn’t do it. They ate the fruit because they wanted to live for themselves rather than obey God. Everyday we buy the devil’s lie and eat some fruit we think will give us the life we want. We take Jesus’ life, suffering and death and throw it back in his face. We say, “Thanks, but no thanks. I’d rather design and create my own life.” In other words, we want to live for ourselves rather than the one who died for us.

Thank God that Jesus covers our sins. Even though we don’t deserve it, Jesus’ blood pays for all of our sins – even living for self. Jesus shows his love to us by showing himself to the Father. He shows his Father the marks in his hands and feet and side. He reminds his Father that because he died for us, our sins are forgiven. That’s how much Jesus loves us.

Jesus finished his work and now the Holy Spirit continues to announce God’s love to us. Paul calls it fellowship – the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Fellowship is a relationship. Sin threatened and still threatens to separate us from God. Sin threatens to separate us from God right now on earth and forever in heaven. But the Holy Spirit gives us fellowship or a new relationship with God.

The Holy Spirit works with the means of grace – God’s word and sacraments – to bring God’s love to our hearts. In baptism he gave us faith to believe God loves us. In Holy Communion he shows us God’s love and forgiveness with Jesus’ body and blood. Every time we read, hear, learn or think about God’s word, the Holy Spirit reminds us of God’s love.

© 2007 Mount Olive Ev. Lutheran Church and School - All Rights Reserved