Matthew 28:16-20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go 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. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Over the ten plus years I have been working in youth ministry, I’ve had lots of students who have worked hard to continue their sport, activity, or passion at the next level. Whether it’s dance, diving, choral music, baseball, softball, basketball, lacrosse, instrumental music, I’ve seen a lot of students work for that goal. Some have been able to compete at the next level, and some haven’t. A few years ago I had a student who had spent most of his life playing baseball. From little league at a young age, to travel teams, to his high school team, he (and his family) had given a lot to baseball. Time, money, energy, weekend after weekend. Brian wasn’t just a baseball player. He was a great big brother and regularly spent time with his extended family. He also loved playing basketball. Around his sophomore year of high school, he started to get serious about playing baseball at the next level. He went to scouting camps and kept trying to improve his game. Junior year rolled around, and he didn’t receive any offers. He kept working hard. Senior year came but no college offers came. Brian was pretty upset and as he talked with his parents, he shared that he felt like he was letting them down. He told them he felt bad for how much time and energy and money had been spent on baseball and this would be it. His parents told him they weren’t upset with him. They reminded him that they had spent all that time, energy, and money on baseball because he loved it, not because they wanted him to be a college athlete or a professional baseball player. They told him they always supported him wherever his dreams took him, but he didn’t need to achieve or be anything else. His parents loved him as Brian. Period. They didn’t need Brian, the college baseball player, as their son. They just wanted Brian. I think it took a few months for that conversation to fully sink in for Brian, but eventually he came to understand what his parents meant. He was loved for the fullness of who he was and is not something he hoped he might be one day. Brian was more than a baseball player. He was more than one thing. He was a full human being with other hopes and dreams.
Today is Trinity Sunday. I know, you all have been counting down the days to Trinity Sunday. It’s probably marked on your calendar. After worship, you’ll rush home for all of the Trinity Sunday activities like we do on Christmas and Easter. Isn’t this your favorite Christian holiday? No? Why not? Trinity Sunday is the day marked in our liturgical calendar to celebrate the fullness of God: Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. And today we could dive into all of the history of discerning the doctrine of the Trinity. We’d probably be here until 5pm. I promise I won’t do that, but I think it’s helpful to get a fleshed out idea of this complicated doctrine. The reality is that the idea of the Trinity is complicated. It’s not really fully fleshed out in any one spot in scripture. We see glimpses of the persons of the Trinity in lots of different places throughout the scriptures but the Trinity is never named.
Here, in today’s text, as Matthew’s gospel comes to a close, Jesus says to go and baptize in “the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It’s interesting that Matthew’s gospel has very little reference to a Trinitarian God, yet here all three are named. The best way that Christians have decided to speak about the Trinity is as three persons in one essence. Augustine had a good way of helping people understand this three in one identity. He used the analogy of a tree and said, “the root is wood; the trunk is wood; the branches are wood: one wood, one substance, but three different entities.” Maybe that analogy helps you better understand the Trinity. God is the wood of the tree. God’s essence is found in all three persons of the Trinity. God, the Father or the Creator is the root system, spreading deeper and wider than we could ever know or imagine. Jesus, the Son, is the trunk of the tree. Jesus changes the way we see things. The Holy Spirit is the branches reaching out to us in new and different ways. And each person of the Trinity helps us better understand the fullness of God. I like to think of it as this: God the Creator who fashioned the universe from the depths of the oceans to the intricacies of leaves. Jesus, the Son, bears the fullness of God AND the fullness of humanity. This is how God understands the absolute fullness of being human. Throughout Jesus, God knows that it can really suck to be human. And God, the Holy Spirit, abides with us. The God who continues to dwell in and through us. If you leave out any of these persons, you miss out on major parts of God’s character. And so, it seems appropriate that Jesus mentions all three persons of the Trinity here, in his final address to his disciples.
Besides this trinitarian address, Jesus also charges the disciples to carry on the work they started together. This is a transition point for Jesus and his disciples. For the last three years they have observed and learned from watching Jesus. And now their work begins. In discipleship there is no end goal. It is a lifelong learning process. Jesus tells the disciples to go and make lifelong learners. Discipleship is not about knowledge. It’s not about how much you know. It’s not about being able to perfectly articulate the doctrine of ecclesiology. It’s about practical ways to live. Ways that show the world the way that Jesus lived. This is why Jesus says, “Go and teach them everything I have commanded you.” This is not more information to be held in our brains, but rather it ought to change the way we see the world. It ought to change the way we live. And so, Jesus tells us to go. Once again, the disciples are afraid and Jesus says go. It might be a record that three of my sermons in a row God says, go in response to the disciples doubt! Or maybe, this is the call of discipleship. To grow, to change, to live, to be comfortable with discomfort, to go into all the world. This call of discipleship has never been limited to the 11 disciples who heard Jesus on that mountain top 2,000 years ago. This call of discipleship to all nations is still a call to us.
Today, we are celebrating all of our recent graduates, high school, college, and graduate level. We especially celebrate our soon-to-be high school graduates. In a few minutes, we will bless these blankets and these students that they might go into this next chapter of their lives knowing that the love of God and this community goes with them. In many ways, we are commissioning them for this next chapter. They may feel ready. They may not. Whatever they feel, they do not go along. They have been nurtured here, many of them, their whole lives. Surrounded by love, grace, and discipleship. And now they prepare to go and tell the world. Just as we have loved and cared for them may we all be sent out to tell the world. I think we can agree that simple conversion is not our end goal. I hope that we all desire to see the world changed by the love of Jesus Christ. So what can you do today to help the world see the love of Jesus Christ? The love that was present as the world came into being. The love that was on full display as Jesus hanged on a cross. The love that still abides with us today. Friends, we exist in the fullness of God. Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. We are not separated from God. In fact, nothing can separate us from God. Whether we have a robust theology of the Trinity or it makes absolutely no sense to us at all, we are still covered in the fullness of God, whose love is deeper and wider than we could ever ask or imagine. This is good news. This is what we can hold onto. That is news that the whole world needs to hear. So go and tell.
Amen.