Trinity Sunday

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Trinity Sunday
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: May 26,2001


TEXT: Matthew 28:16-20 – And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. God therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”

ISSUE: We are the people of God, and it is important that we embrace the fullest understanding of God that we can. We understand God as the Creator-Father, as the Redeeming Son and Word of God, as the prevailing Spirit of Love for the world. In understanding the fullness of God, we are sent to immerse (dip) the nations of the world, (not just our own) into the fullness of God.
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This Sunday, which follows the major feast of the Pentecost, is an unusual Sunday celebration. We refer to it as Trinity Sunday. Most of our celebrations are related to special events, the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, his revelation of God the Father, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. This Sunday, however, celebrates a doctrine, a central doctrine of the Christian Faith, the belief in the doctrine of the Trinity. We believe that there is one God, and yet God is revealed as Creator-Father, as Son who is ambassador like who redeems the world into worthiness to approach the Father, and the Holy Spirit which renews, blesses, sanctifies us, empowers us to proclaim and to be in and with God at all times.
Over the centuries the church has been very protective of this mysterious doctrine of God, which defies mathematical rationale. Religious leaders have made efforts to make the doctrine somewhat comprehensible. For instance, there is one sun, but it expresses itself as light, heat, and radiant energy. Water can be ice, liquid, or steam (gas), but it is all water.
During the period of the early church, I think, the doctrine may have developed from cultural understandings of power. There was a Lord, or king, a Caesar, of great power. There were ambassadors who could act for him, and provide favors to the common people. It was like the concept of a Patron, broker, and free favors or grace bestowed upon the common people. One Lord, whose is expressed by ambassadors and favors.
Still another concept is that of God as Good Creator, Jesus the Son of God as the Word of God speaking the truth about God to the world, and the Wind or Breath of God as the Spirit empowering presence of God’s love in the world. Still, there is one God and Father of us all.
Augustine envisioned the Trinity of God, as a relationship of love. The Father loves the Son, and the love between them is the very spirit or essence of God.
We have come to the end of the special events we have celebrated, and conclude with the doctrine of belief about what it all means. God is likened to a loving Father who has created a good world. When people became separated from God, The Son of God calls his people back to an understanding of the love and devotion of God toward his creation. The Spirit of God is a prevailing life-giving presence that gives God’s people continuing purpose and meaning. God is revealed in such a way as to help us understand his love and continuing presence with us. Thus, this Sunday is the concluding celebration of what we believe about God. It also gives us direction and meaning for the living of our lives in God’s creation.
In the last verses of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus takes his disciples to another mountaintop. His ministry begins and ends in the mountains. His disciples are gathered. He says, according to Matthew, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” This statement is indicative of the early church’s belief that Jesus is at one with God, a true ambassador. He directs the disciples to baptize all nations in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey everything he has commanded of them. First, let me say that I don’t take this to literally mean that Jesus, The Lord, wanted everyone necessarily dunked in water. Jesus taught and commanded his disciples that God was a loving compassionate God. The least of men and women were worthy of approaching God. He commanded them to wash one another’s feet, and to love one another. He taught them that the loving Spirit of God surrounded and permeated the earth. Therefore, to baptize all nations meant to immerse them into God’s redeeming love, and to command them to love one another. That commission was in fact their mission and purpose. Jesus was the expression of what God had to say to the world. The disciples were to be immersed in that calling and proclaim it to the world.
Mind you, that this commission was a relatively new concept for the people first hearing it. They were largely devoted only to loving and protecting their own, and their own families. The commission to immerse not just Israel, but all the nations of the world into the abundant love of God was a startling new commissioning. He assures them, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (I am, Yahweh, is the name of God.) The prevailing empowering Spirit of God is with you always. We are in the loving relationship with the loving God who loves us, rejoices in our love for him, and for one another as the very prevailing spirit of the universe.
When we baptize a person, or child - and remember too your own baptism - we are immersed into the name of the God of Love. We are immersed into the forgiveness of Jesus Christ who brings us to God the Father. We are empowered with The Spirit of God to be partners with Christ in the world. We renounce that which draws us away from the love of God. We vow to study the Word of God through the Apostles teaching, the worship of the Church, and to respect the dignity, to love, all of the people of God’s creation. We are received into the Royal Priesthood of Christ to be servants with him. In short we embrace our God of love, and it gives us a way of being, a spiritual being that has a high and noble purpose, but at the same time being servants with Christ.
What we believe, what we really believe effects our lives significantly and the way we live them. If we believe in a punishing God, then we are more likely to be punishing hostile people. If we believe in an eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth kind of God, then we will likely live a life of taking revenge. If we live with a sense of not being forgiven, or unworthy of the grace of God, we may well project that on others. If we believe that the most important thing in life is my individual rights, then we are less likely to be concerned for the common good and will become selfish people.
What is in the heart, what is the real genuine part of our being is what will be lived and acted out in our lives. For that very reason it is important to “examine our selves to see if you are living the faith,” as St. Paul says in the I Corinthians lesson. We live in a world where power is measured by weaponry and force, where success and worth is measured by material wealth, we end up in a world of violence and Enron scandals.
Embracing the fullness of God’s relationship of love, forgiveness, and love as power, we end up in a very different kind of world. Thus, what we believe about God, and how we view God and his Word and Spirit will have a profound effect on the Kingdoms of this world.