The Bigness of God: Romans 8:12-17 - Holy Trinity Sunday

 ¹²Brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—¹³for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. (NRSV)

bigger? by Martin Fisch on flickr. CC BY 2.0

      During Sunday school, a young girl asked me, “how can Jesus be God when God is up in heaven?”
 
Suddenly, I got this tightness in the pit of my stomach. She asked me a perfectly legitimate question, and I felt I should give her a good answer. I took a deep breath, gave it a few seconds of thought and said, “God can do some pretty amazing things because God loves us.” “That’s not a very good explanation!” she said.
 
On this Holy Trinity Sunday, you’d think that you will leave worship today with an understanding of how our one God exists as three persons. Unfortunately, the simplest explanation I can give is no better than what I told that young child. God is bigger and greater than our minds can comprehend, and God works in awesome yet mysterious ways, because God loves us.  
 
But have you ever stopped to consider: is your God too small?
 
God created us in his image, and we returned the favor. This is why, in most old church buildings like ours, Jesus and other biblical personalities are depicted in the stained-glass windows as fair-skinned Caucasians. We worship a god who is a perfect, more powerful version of ourselves. You worship a god who thinks, acts, and looks just like you. He takes your side in every fight; his enemies are your enemies.
 
We also diminish God with one-liners and clichés:
·         “God helps those who help themselves…”
·         “God won’t give you more than you can handle…”
·         “God doesn’t close a door without opening a window…”
·         “If you die an unbeliever, you won’t go to heaven.”
 
When it comes to the Trinity, we cast God the Father as an old, vengeful, hot-tempered male authority figure who’s ready to destroy us all. Jesus, on the other hand, is the more lovable, relatable God, who appeases the anger of his Father by dying on the cross.  We call him “my personal Lord and Savior,” a real “pal” always eager to give you a pat on the back. When it comes to the Holy Spirit, we have no idea what we were talking about. We reduce the Spirit to a white dove or flame, and call it a day.
 
And finally, we depersonalize God. We believe in God’s existence, but a relationship with God isn’t a priority. We seek God for God’s benefits; we may even talk to God, but otherwise, live independently of God. We become functional atheists.
 
But God loves the world too much to be ignored, underestimated, and exploited. Isaiah nearly dies when God’s glory fills the temple; nevertheless, an angel cleanses him of his sin, which then compels Isaiah to answer the call to become God’s prophet. Jesus declares to Nicodemus that he did not come to earth to appease the anger of an angry God, but to be lifted up so that all who believe may have eternal life. The Apostle Paul writes that this holy, mighty God can be approached as Abba, essentially “daddy,” because God’s Holy Spirit makes such a close, intimate relationship possible. The Triune God is speaking, moving, dancing in our reality. God’s presence spans from the vastness of the universe while being present in even the smallest details, because God loves you. 
 
But God will not to be taken lightly. God will be gentle when gentleness is needed, but God will enact judgment and wrath when sin and our lack of trust stand in the way of God’s good purposes.
 
Right now, we need God’s bigness to rouse us from complacency, shake us free from fear, and turn us away from the things we cling to that are not God.  
 
God is too big for you to ignore while pursuing your comparatively little ambitions and petty little pleasures the world has to offer.
 
God is too big for you do not make prayer and worship a priority, compared to all the other priorities that demand your time and attention.
 
God is too big to be boxed up in our building of kept private from others. God is too big for us to admit defeat when it comes to feeding the hungry, and reaching others with Jesus’s love.
 
God is too big for you to hide yourself away in fear. When you face a struggle so tremendous that you don’t know how you’ll make it through, you must remember: God is bigger than this.
 
When you see a world ravaged by chaos and full of evil, you must remember: God is bigger than this!
 
When you stand at the grave of someone you love, when you face your own mortality, when you are crushed by the weight of your sin, you must remember: God is bigger than this!
 
God is bigger than death; God is bigger than the devil; God is bigger and greater than the universe itself.
 
Transformation is not optional where the Triune God shows up. We need God’s bigness to awaken our souls to hope and confidence in God’s power working around and within us.
 
If you can admit and on your brokenness and complete dependence on the grace of the Triune God, your faith will not be in vain. If you are committed to loving people and sharing Jesus with them, the Holy Spirit will help you to do the impossible.
 
Love is what God is all about. It is what the universe is all about. It is what life is all about.
 
How big and how great do you want this Triune God to be in your life?