2 Corinthians 13:11-14.          The Triune God with you all. 19/6/11

(11)  Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. {12} Greet one another with a holy kiss. {13} All the saints send their greetings. {14} May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Here on Trinity Sunday our attention is drawn to the greatness of God Almighty himself. We are drawn to recognise that he is the ultimate Supreme Being who created the universe and all that is in it. Not only that, he created us human beings, as both the Old Testament reading and the Psalm remind us, as the reason for the creation. In other words he created us as the foremost of his creation so that we might be in a relationship with him, as he is with himself as triune God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Now this is important for us to remember, just is it was for Paul to remind the Corinthian Christians, because they had put their thoughts and ideas; themselves in many ways, as the centre and core of life itself. They; and we too, have that tendency, to twist and turn Scripture to put ourselves and what we do as ultimate. When that happens, divisions, rivalry and one-upmanship abounds, and Satan has a field day. God Almighty is not glorified.

So here Paul concludes his letter to the Corinthians reminding them, and us, of who and what is of greatest importance; and then the impact that that surely has for us. He says; May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. This Supreme, almighty God who is over all in every way, and is hugely greater than we could ever think or imagine, is yet a God who has chosen to extend his grace, love and fellowship to us. He wants to give us a new and better life if only we would allow him; if only we would not put ourselves up against him as being the centre of life.

This being the case, let us reflect for a moment on who this great God is and how he has chosen to reveal himself to us. Now this surely takes a lifetime of reflection to grasp how great and wonderful he is, and we here only have ten minutes, yet we will seek to focus on the basics.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, reminds us that this Jesus who walked this earth two thousand years ago is the Lord. That is this Jesus was not just an ordinary man; even though in every way he was as you and I. As we read in Philippians 2:6-8;  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Yes this Jesus is the Lord; the great “I am who I am,” The Almighty who is the Supreme Being over all things. He is the God who created all things: The God who holds the being and destiny of everything in his hands. And who is the Judge of all things, who can and has destroyed just as easily as he has created.

Yet this Lord Jesus has come as the Christ: the Messiah. He has come in grace to save us from the mess we have gotten ourselves into. Way back in Old Testaments times, after Adam and Eve fell into sin, by wanting to be equal with God, he has promised that he would send the Messiah; the Christ to come and save us; to provide a way out for us. (Zec 9:9)  Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. There is passage after passage in the OT which makes the same point that God is sending his Anointed One: The Christ to save us and to rule over us.

This is pure grace: here we see the absolute essence of God’s undeserving love that he extends to us wayward, rebellious, enemies of his. Despite the fact that we have chosen to ignore God and put ourselves on the pedestal, and then in turn seeking God to act according to our wishes, he in grace comes to us to do what is necessary for our salvation. He dies in our place on the cross and thereby forgives us all our sin. He rises again to assure us of life eternal with himself in heaven.

Surely we would not turn our back on this Good News and go back to living with us in the centre of life! Surely we would not reject this wonderful grace that has been extended to us! Which of course, ultimately, means that we lose out on that which Christ has won for us.

However in this wonderful blessing that Paul reminds the Corinthians and us of, there is even more.

He reminds us of the love of God that is with us all as well. Again this God who is the Almighty Creator of all things; who has put all things in their places; continues to ensure that everything happens for the good of us his people. This God did not just create this and then leave it to its own devices.  We are told that in the beginning he created all things and that it was all very good. However because of our disobedience this good creation now suffers and even creation itself groans as a result of our sin. God now allows tsunamis and other catastrophes; sickness and death, to be a part of life. He is a holy and just God, and sin therefore has its consequences.

However in his love for us he now uses all of these things for our good. He now seeks in the midst of a sinful world to do what is good for us. That means using that which happens to us, to remind us that we cannot live without him. Through these things he seeks to help us to see that we need him and the forgiveness that he has extended to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to remember that his ultimate aim is to have us share all of eternity with him, rather than simply allowing us to have all that we want here, and yet miss out on that which is of ultimate value for us. So out of his love for us he seeks to continually draw us to look away from ourselves to him who is the Almighty Lord of all.

That then leads us to the remainder of the blessing: The fellowship of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit of God is His Almighty presence moving across all of eternity seeking to bring all things together as the Lord intends. His presence was there at the creation of all things bringing life into our very souls, and continues to work throughout to bring all things together into perfect fellowship with the Triune God. (John 16:13)  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

In Luther’s Small Catechism we read of the Holy Spirit’s work in this world of ours. ‘He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.’ This then reminds us of his ultimate purpose for us: to bring and keep us within the fellowship of God Almighty himself, through our Lord Jesus Christ. He wants us to have perfect fellowship with God himself. Here in this worship service, through Word and Sacraments, he does just that.

This then is the Almighty God at work through the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is how he has chosen to reveal himself to us.

However there is one more aspect to this blessing that has only been alluded to so far. Remember the conclusion to this blessing: be with you all. Yes this great and Almighty God has chosen to be with us all. This God who is holy and majestic, Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier, has declared that he will be with us all. His grace, love and fellowship is with us as we go about our lives. This total God in all his fullness has come to be with us as we as his people go about our lives as Christians. Imperfect as we might be; struggling as we are; divided, yet knowing we are one; in the bad of life as well as the good; this God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is with us, always seeking to pull us through. Because he is the Almighty God that he is, we therefore can go forward with confidence and hope knowing that he not only has our eternal welfare at heart, but that he has the power to bring us through. How comforting and strengthening that surely is for us. How awesome it is that he chooses to be this way for you and me, and all of us together.

Therefore let us, Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

 As you go remember  the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is with you all. AMEN.

Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish