This is Trinity Sunday, but people who struggle and suffer from any form of a disease that ravages their body and mind, they probably do not care about the label of this weekend. "But this is Trinity Sunday," proclaims the church, “It is the Sunday immediately following Pentecost in the church calendar.” Even so, the family dealing with the wayward teenager, the person who has lost their job and the ability to provide for their family and feel the stability that comes in that, those people who we know intimately, I am not sure that they care that it is Trinity Sunday.
Does it really matter to them that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit when they suffer vocally or silently like our neighbors who we work with?
Many people just want to know that God is God and that God somehow, God knows who they are, where they are, what they are, and what they need. (Steven P. Eason)
This is the basic affirmation of the Church—that God is with us.
This is Trinity Sunday. This morning we consider a doctrine which has only been spoken about in pieces in Scripture, and never in the same place in totality as we find here in Matthew.
Certainly, the scriptures speak of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit but where does it say that those three persons are 'three in one?' Where is the word "Trinity" found in the Bible?
Today we hold up the Triune nature of the God who is—the God who is the Creator of heaven and earth, The God who is the Redeemer of the world, and the Illuminator of scripture and the giver of the Words of prayer when we suffer and cannot find a way forward.
As we hold these three persons up, we go on to say that together they make up something we cannot completely conceive of in our human minds knowing that time is required to reflect on God and who God is as Jesus in Matthew calls us to a very specific task: make disciples.
Move 1- Begin by working
I believe, the doctrine of the Trinity is formed in this fashion, with all the mystery which surrounds it, to make us work a bit as we encounter the people of our world and community. Instead of sitting back and letting someone else explain in their words who God is, each of us is called to figure it out for ourselves—as best as we can. We are called to find our own definition of who is this Triune God who saved you?
For just sitting in the pew, and participating in worship only, does not lead to a deeper understanding of who God is—we must enter the relationship—just as Jesus is in a relationship with His Father and the Spirit.
Further standing outside of who God is will also not help us ‘make disciples’ as Jesus tells his followers in Matthew 28 to do.
For the doctrine of God's Person is essentially a relational doctrine [Feasting on the Word, Year A]. Jesus is not telling the disciples to share something intellectually-based only. He wants them to ‘make disciples;’ to create relationships. It must be entered into in a relational fashion- not only in a mental fashion.
Remember what we know of the Trinity. . . The Father begets the Son at the Incarnation. The Son breaths the Spirit onto us at his Ascension. The Spirit opens our eyes so we can see the Father and give us the words to speak his truth on Pentecost. This is the traditional language.
But the only way to begin working to understand it, the only way to locate ourselves in among the three persons of God, the only way to make it accessible, if that is even the right word, and if it is possible at all to understand, is to enter a relationship with the God who we define as Triune. We cannot stand outside of who God and use our concepts to explain him.
Maybe instead of standing outside of the Triune God and using human illusions and symbols to define him, we come close to him, and we begin to work hard at getting to know him so that we can ‘make disciples.’
Move 2- Mystery in our lives.
But do not misunderstand, we do not work to unravel the mystery of God so as to become equal to God or above God. For that is not possible. Instead, we work to unravel our place in the mystery of God and God's will for our lives, and we call out to all people inviting them into the mystery we are processing and encountering on a daily basis.
For what did Jesus do when he began his mission on earth, he called those first followers to what. . . follow him. In that first encounter, Jesus made disciples. He began the work of God in their lives. He asked them to enter the relationship. He was making disciples. Not brow beating them to follow God. Not talking down to them because they could not understand the Torah. Just sharing who he is with the very people that God sent him to be with be. That is our task as well.
You see, God reveals himself to us (T.F. Torrance) because God chooses to do so. God incarnates the Son because God chooses to do so in him. God sends the Spirit because, again, God chooses to pour a piece of himself out on us.
I do not understand why, and you do not either. And even if you say, ‘Well, it is because he loves me and died on the cross for me.’ I truly wonder why the all-powerful God would choose to do this? We only understand as much as our human minds can.
You see, God does not ask me to understand exactly how in totality. God asks me, and you, again, to make disciples by sharing what I know, and what I have experienced, and what I am learning about Him each day with the very people that God places in my path all the while knowing that my knowledge is partial—all the while confessing that I do not see fully what God knows.
But the relationship that I have with God, that I cultivate each day in my time with God, it fills in the rest as a witness. As I enter that relationship, I am able to live at peace with my sisters and brothers. Because I find myself in that type of relationship with God, and sense him with me, I can agree with others. I can trust them. I can listen to their words. I can serve them.
Move 3- Making Disciples
We need to trust the power of a doctrine that we cannot fully understand as we work together in the Church to make disciples—which Jesus states in the imperative form. It is not a request that Jesus makes of his followers in Matthew 28, or us now, but a word of instruction; a word of call.
The verb focuses on teaching often with a desired, or specific, goal in mind. To make disciples in Matthew’s context is to lead the readers of the gospel back to the words and deeds of Jesus, but that is a hard sell often. For who wants to follow someone just because their offer good words and lofty deeds? That is what the Pharisees sold to the people of Israel, and it did not translate into faithful followers of the Lord.
It is only when we look back at the wholeness of Jesus’ relationship with His Triune self that we see the call to Mercy which is situated in the call to make disciples. For as I have said, we do not fully understand what this mean in in the moment. And so, we need to have mercy on ourselves when we don’t truly understand who Jesus is in our lives, and offer mercy to those still trying to understand who Jesus is in their lives.
Just like our graduates who believe their lives are fully formed before them, and yet most of us know that a curve or two is still left to take shape before them. I do not say this to shame to, or to pour water on their dreams. Instead, it is a reminding for them that when life throws them a curve, we in the Body of Christ extend them grace right alongside of sound guidance because that is what God has done in each of our lives. We give them mercy, and continue to help make them into the disciples that the Lord asks us to become.
Mercy is necessary each day as we share who God is and work with people who learn who God will manifest himself in their lives. . . both inside and outside the church.
Conclusion
It is because God reveals himself to us and calls us to re-create relationships of trust as we have with him with others, that we are called to faithfully make disciples.
We will remember those who find themselves scared, sick, alienated from Him and we remind them of the saving grace of God. We will also remember in prayer who God asks us to make disciples of.
He is the Father who creates all in his image. He is the Son who redeems those who would harm him. He is the Spirit who calls us back to the Father. He is in relationship with himself and now invites us into relationship with him.
DM
