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Matthew 28:16-20 CEB Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Jesus came near and spoke to them, “I’ve received all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.” In the wake of Pentecost, after the wind and fire, we have this strange Trinity Sunday left on the church calendar before we head out into the long expanse of ordinary time for the summer. What to do with this day? After all, discussing the triune nature of God can sound daunting at best and rather boring at worst. What does it matter if God is three in one for us today? Does it help us if we are struggling with cancer? Does it help us if our families are falling apart, children and parents are at odds? Does it help with financial troubles or failing buildings or an aging church? What to do with this day… ? Except, here we have these verses from Matthew’s gospel where Jesus sends his disciples out to disciple and baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Except, here is Jesus saying that something about these three, himself included, is necessary for all of us who claim to follow Christ. We are sent out with those gifts of the Spirit from Pentecost, but we are not sent out alone or to be alone.
It is tough talking about the Trinity, so before turning to the verses from Matthew, I want to go back to the very beginning, to the genesis of things. You see, the lectionary readings for today include not only these few lines from the gospel but also include the whole of the first chapter from Genesis. Why? How could Genesis be necessary to see the point, the relevance of our God’s triune nature? Genesis 1 says that even before there was time, God was, and when Creation began to unfold, God made it all happen. Next, “The wind of God swept over the face of the waters,” says the NRSV; “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters,” the NIV explains. Eugene Peterson’s The Message reports, “God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.” Something is about to be born, creation is the egg God broods over. God speaks, and it hatches. God says the word and it happens, just like that. Later, John’s gospel also gives creation its own spin, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word was with God in the beginning. Everything came into being through the Word” (John 1:1-3a CEB). There is the Spirit sweeping over the waters. There is God prepared to create. There is the Word, Christ, ready to bring it all into being. Since the beginning, there have been these three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What is amazing here is that God is already in a relationship with God’s own self, and yet, somehow decides that creation can go ahead and join the dance. God decides love is not finite, and the excess spills out making more to love than ever before. It also tells us from the beginning that love is never binary. It’s not just God’s love for us and our love for God, there is also always room for love of the other, the third, the fourth, and the fifth. God invites “us into loving in a way that always makes room for the other.”[1] God is always in relationship and always invites us into that relationship, and still has the audacity to say, “There is room yet for someone else.” We are invited to be in relationship with that other, those neighbors and strangers all around us, as they join us in step with God. That’s the thing. Genesis establishes this core of God as relational, and then, Matthew’s gospel comes along to say, “‘Therefore, go,’” bring all the world into relationship with the divine through a relation with you. The Spirit empowers us and gifts and graces us, but it is not for our benefit alone but as tools to help us build bridges and connections with the folks around us. Matthew’s not talking about just the folks we are comfortable being in relationship with either because that little word, “nations,” should really be understood as foreigners, Gentiles, those foreign to you are still children to God. So God says, “Therefore, go be in relationship with everyone as I am in relationship with myself and in relationship with you.” Of course, we’ve tried to do something like this before. We have tried to win the world for Christ, making everyone a Christian whether they wanted to be or not. Now, all that is crumbling around us, and we don’t know what to do or what to be because it simply seems like everything is slipping from our grasp. Today even, I still see this kind of rhetoric out there as people seek to forcibly bring Christianity back as a cultural power, but is that really the core of our faith? Is that what Jesus is asking us to do? Is that what relationship is about? Look at those disciples in Matthew’s closing verses, look at the clues. Matthew shows us their weakness, doubts, and failures. Look at verse 16, Matthew says, “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee.” Already, they are missing someone. One of their own fell away, betrayed Jesus, and threw everything back into the face of his teacher and friends to get what he wanted. Now, there are only eleven. They worship Jesus, in what should be a moment of triumph, but instead, we are told “but some doubted.” Jesus is there in front of them and yet they doubt. Do they doubt Jesus, or do they doubt themselves? You have got to love Jesus here because if you ever wondered whether you could have doubts and faithfully follow Christ, here is your answer! These eleven broken disciples doubt and have failed and yet Jesus says that these are precisely the people he wants to send out to be in relationship with all the people of the world. How can this be though? Are they really enough, can they really do what Jesus is asking them to do? It sounds like an impossible task, to “‘make disciples’” of all these strange people. So what does Jesus do? He draws close and speaks to them, saying “‘Look,’” “Look I will be with you. I will not leave you alone because you are right that you cannot do this on your own. I am asking you to get out there and spend time with people, value them, learn about them, come to know them, and help them. When they wonder about the life, the love, and the grace you have in you, show them what makes that possible, show them who makes that possible. You are not alone and neither are they.” We are not sent out to make Christian nations or convert everyone to Christianity. That was never the goal. Look again at that Genesis story. The Trinity invites us into the dance, into the relationship to say the simple truth that we are never alone. That is joy, and that makes us whole. We were never meant to be alone but always in relationship with our God and with each other. Do you see the relationship there in God, the mutuality and love in the Triune deity? Why is that not here and now seen in us? Jesus says “Look” and you will see me in your midst, and we should be able to tell the world, “Look” see the Trinity here with us, see what it looks like to never be alone. All those folks in trouble? We should be with them! Are you in trouble? We should be with you! Are you a stranger? Let me learn about you so that you become my neighbor and my sibling in this eternal dance with God. Where is the work that we need to do to make what is in Heaven a reality on Earth? That is the work, the point of Trinity Sunday. On our own, it’s impossible, but then again, we are never alone, are we? Amen. [1] Steve Price, “June 4, 2023 - First Sunday after Pentecost” in The Abingdon Preaching Annual: 2023, ed. Charley Reeb (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2022), 66-68.
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