"Trinity, Relationship, and being Disciples" - Sermon for Holy Trinity Sunday 2017

Sermon:

Text: Genesis 1, Matthew 28

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who calls us to go out and baptize as disciples.

            Holy Trinity Sunday is usually a sort of difficult Holy Day for me, because there is a huge temptation to fall into the explaining of the Trinity trap. Which leads to a long list of descriptors about different ideas of how the Trinity works and then that leads to big old theological and religious terms that even I’m not quite sure what they mean.

            Frankly what I am more intrigued by today is that Matthew’s reading is my confirmation verse. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them everything that I have commanded you, and remember I am with you always, until the end of the age.

            I’ve had this verse grow more and more into me as I myself have grown. When I first looked at it, it was all about that last line, Remember I am with you always, until the end of the age. That connection, the promise of relationship was powerful then. As I started looking and thinking about seminary, I was drawn more to the first part, Go and Make Disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And now that I’m actually doing that, today exactly doing that as we baptized Mason James, I have found myself going back to that last section. I am with you always. I have realized that I need to hear those words in the midst of ministry, I am not alone in what I do.

            When I look at it like this, I suddenly find that God has brought the meaning of the Holy Trinity to me. Trinity Sunday is not about fancy descriptors and analogies, it’s about the relationship that’s found between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Dance of Trinity as our Hymn of the Day will put it. The interconnectedness and rooted nature of God, one in three, three in one. Our God is relationship. The very nature of one in three, three in one, means that relationship is not just the primary method of thinking about God, it is God. We can’t have the father, without the Son, we can’t have the son without the Spirit, we can’t have the Spirit without the Father.

            We see all three in the first two verses of Genesis. God the Father is there, God the Spirit is there, God the Son, the Word of God incarnate is there. “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” God the Father creates, God the Spirit is the Wind over the face of the waters, and God the Word is the “Let there be light.” It’s relationship that God uses to create the world. It’s relationship that God gives to us in our creation. ““Let us make humankind^[c] in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth,^[d] and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” ²⁷ So God created humankind^[e] in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

            Created in God’s image doesn’t mean that we look like God, it means that we are beings of relationship like God, called to have dominion over the world God created. Dominion does not mean to destroy and mismanage, it means that God calls us to be the stewards of God’s creation. To be in relationship with the world. To care for it, watch out for it, to not destroy what God created.

            It also means that we are called to be in relationship with all those around us, to see that all others, every single human, is created in the image of God, and we are in relationship with them, because God is in relationship with them. But, they may not know it, or they may feel the weight of the world upon their shoulders, they may hurt and fear, grieve and mourn because of sin, their own, and the sin of others that impacts them. So, we are called lift them up, to care for them, to heal them, feed them, nourish them, love them. To stand up for those who can’t stand for themselves because others trod them down. To call out racism and sexism. To counter hate and violence. We are called to tell them that their Triune God of relationship created them and loves them, and God the Son became incarnate, lived, and then died on the cross, and was resurrected and ascended. We are called to share that with the world.

            That sounds familiar, doesn’t it.  Where have we heard a word that involves similar items such as that today. We heard similar language in our baptismal liturgy earlier,

 “As you bring your Child to receive the gift of baptism, you are entrusted with responsibilities:

to live with him among God’s faithful people,

bring him to the word of God and the holy supper,

teach him the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments,

place in his hands the holy scriptures,

and nurture him in faith and prayer,

so that your child may learn to trust God,

proclaim Christ through word and deed,

care for others and the world God made,

and work for justice and peace.

            That’s it again, but it’s not the word I’m looking for.

Oh, that’s where it was, Matthew. Go, and make disciples. To trust God, proclaim Christ through Word and Deed, care for others and the world God made, and work for justice and peace. That’s what a disciple does.

I’m double glad we had a baptism today, it’s fun, and it directly recalls God at work in our midst, claiming Mason James as a new disciple. But, it also means that you all agreed again to be God’s disciples.

What are those last words of the Baptismal section?

Let us welcome the newly baptized.

We welcome you into the body of Christ and into the mission we share:

join us in giving thanks and praise to God

and bearing God's creative and redeeming word to all the world.

And then we have our wonderful Baptismal Song, Borning Cry, which again reminds us, as we go to be disciples, “I was there to hear your borning cry, I’ll be there when you are old. I rejoiced the day you were baptized, to see your life unfold.” That is not us singing to the newly baptized, that’s God singing, that’s God singing to each and everyone of you. “I will be with you, until the end of the age.”

Let us pray,

Triune God, one in three, three in one, be with us, watch over us, hold us close as we go out to be your disciples in the world. To care for your creation, and make disciples of all nations, helps us to remember that you are with us always. Amen.