The Festival of the Holy Trinity | Pentecost One (Revised Common Lectionary) | 05.31.26 | Matthew 28.16-20 | Carl A. Voges

The Passage

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.  And when they saw him they worshiped him; but some 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.’”

          [Revised Standard Version, Oxford University Press]

“O LORD, what are we that you should care for us?  Mere mortals that you should think of us?…Happy are the people of whom this is so!  Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!”                                                                                 [Psalm 144.3, 16]

  In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord

In preparation for the Festival of the Holy Trinity this weekend, it is helpful to notice how routinized the Festival has become: We Lutherans pull out the Athanasian Creed with minimal instruction for its annual recitation; We tend to recite the philosophical connections between the Father, the Son and the Spirit; We heartily and joyfully sing the classic hymns resonating with the Holy Trinity’s Life.

This weekend, however, may be the time where this routine gets jumbled and we emerge from the liturgies with a fresher understanding of our Lord and God.  Granted, the world in which we live pays little or no attention to the LORD God and the hidden yet open ways in which his Life crosses with the world’s people.  Most of such people are fully caught up with the gods they have created and are content with the ways their lives are running.

The world’s way of thinking also rubs off on those who are baptized and ordained: We routinize the significant Festivals of the Lord’s Life; We express our appreciation to others without mentioning the activities of the Father, Son and Spirit in our own lives;

We craft memoirs of our lives and work without referencing the Lord who made such lives possible.

Such examples may come close to our lives, but they reveal how many of us just assume the Holy Trinity’s presence and its workings in this world, an assumption which, unfortunately, blurs their rescuing, sustaining and creating activity. That’s why this weekend, in the Trinity’s presence, we can emerge with a fresher understanding of who the LORD God is and the Life he is continually bringing to this world!

All of us have been baptized into the Holy Trinity.  This holy and eternal event not only pulls us from the natural concern for self; from the generator and maintainer of evil (Satan); and from the terrifying realities of death, the event also formed us to be carriers and reflectors of the Holy Trinity’s Life!

The details of such forming are spelled out in today’s Gospel from Matthew.  Such forming is more than a tap on our shoulders or a request of us, it is an order that pours out from the forgiveness, mercy and grace of the LORD God!

Matthew details three realities of this forming, this order, from the Lord himself.  First, note the place mentioned in this passage.  Galilee was a place of Jesus’ ministry, the place to which the resurrected Jesus was directing his apostles.  Recall that this area is a land of darkness and sickness, one populated with afflicted people.  The prophet Isaiah described this place as the land of Zebulon and Napthali, the land where the promised Messiah would appear as THE Light in the world’s darkness!

This was the area to which our Lord brought his new Life after he was baptized in the Jordan River.  Through his ministry there people could glimpse his Life as he rescued them from the ravages of the unholy trio of sin, Satan and death.

The land, the world, around us today is an area of darkness, sickness and affliction.  The intensity of these conditions swirl around our lives with shootings in our neighborhoods, wars raging in the world, unleashings of every person for themselves – all of this exposing the downside of human nature.  It is vital in such days that there be groups of the Lord’s baptized people who faithfully and honestly reflect the Life that the Holy Trinity brings to this world.

Second, note that the biblical reference to a mountain signals the place of the Lord’s presence.  Specific directions were given during the resurrection appearances so Jesus’ disciples would know where to be for his forming of them.  As the disciples gathered in this place Matthew reports that some disciples worshiped the crucified and resurrected Jesus, but, shockingly, others doubted!  Some had no hesitancy kneeling before the One, True God, but others weren’t so sure.  The impact of the life given them by the world still lingered and prevented them from seeing the Lord’s Life!

Since the land, the world, around us today is inundated with sickness, suffering and darkness, it leaves people with no place to which they can turn except into themselves, worsening their helplessness and hopelessness.  It is vital then that there be groups of the Lord’s baptized people who faithfully and honestly reflect the holy places which the  Holy Trinity brings to this world on a weekly and daily basis.

Third, note that Jesus makes a highly significant comment about his authority (it is the Greek word, exousia, a word that is not a part of this world’s life because it is an

authority from eternity!)  Recall that this authority is unique to Jesus, the Father and the Spirit; no one else possesses it!  It is more powerful than any authority exercised in this world (whether that be political, law enforcement, legal or military), yet it is most mysteriously and clearly displayed by our Lord in the Son’s Cross!

Since the land, the world, today is inundating its people with affliction, darkness and suffering, it leaves people attempting to exercise powers rooted in the world’s life, and, in the process, actually make life more dangerous and difficult for the people they claim to help.  Thus, it is vital that there be groups of the Lord’s baptized people who faithfully and honestly are aware of and live within our Lord’s unique authority.

Note that Jesus tells his disciples that this authority has been given to him, unpacking the relationship which exists between him, the Father and the Spirit.  Notice, as well, that when we are baptized into the Holy Trinity, we are drawn into this authority.  It reminds us that although this authority is hidden in the Son’s Cross, we are to stride out in it on a daily basis!

The Life of the Holy Trinity, however, is not just intended for those who are baptized and ordained, it is intended for all the world’s people.  Baptism forms us to make disciples of the world’s people (the Greek word for “disciple” literally means “a person who is learning”).  It is such learning which unpacks the Life, the ways, of Baptism.  It is a learning that involves turning away from the life of the world into which we were born and being turned into the Life of the Holy Trinity!

How are such disciples made?  Through the two realities generated / continued by Son’s Spirit – baptizing and teaching them!  These holy realities continually revolve around the repentance and obedience of the Lord’s people.  By baptizing the world’s people into the  Name of the Holy Trinity, Baptism makes it possible for all people to be drawn into the Trinity’s Life.

This is a stunning reality because it not only surfaces in our lives now, but it also finds its completion in eternity!  This rescuing Baptism then leads to the second part of making disciples – teaching!  We teach baptized people to obey the things commanded by the LORD God who has rescued us (the Greek word for “obey” literally means to “listen carefully,” “to carry out what is heard!”)

As we go about this baptizing and teaching so that people can learn of their rescue from the unholy trio, Jesus orders us to remember his permanent and solid presence with his people (the Greek word, “order,” does not mean “ponder,” “discuss” or “share,” it is an order from him to us!).  Thus, remembering Jesus’ permanent presence is not just a recollection, it is an actual participation in his incarnated, crucified, resurrected and ascended Life!

This presence keeps flowing into our lives on steady basis because it is the presence tumbling out from his Scriptures along with the Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and Eucharist.  In these few, but extremely powerful verses Jesus is showing his people how he forms up his parish communities so its members can carry his Life into and reflect it in this world.  Matthew’s Gospel today makes it very clear who THE authentic God is and where THE real Life is to be found!

As we journey through this Pentecost season into November, our lives will be deepened in the mysteries and realities of the Holy Trinity’s Life.  Living in the world scrambles our thinking and doing so much we tend to forget where baptized people are to turn and to whom.  Our understanding and seeing of the Trinity gets blurred because of our exposures to the world’s life.

Thankfully, Holy Trinity steadily pushes their Life into our own so we remain imbedded in the Life flowing from the Son’s incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension!  That’s why we learn to begin the morning with these words: “O Lord, open my mouth and my mouth shall declare your praise,” and to close the evening with these words: “Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ and asleep we may rest in peace.”

Because of the forgiveness, grace and mercy spilling out from the Father, the Son and the Spirit, our routines of living in this world can be jumbled and our understandings of the way they work can be freshened!  This spilling out will continue to surround our lives even when we note the huge discrepancies between the gods that are native to the world’s life pulling at us and the LORD God who brought this world and its people into being while rescuing, sustaining and creating them!

Now may the peace of the LORD God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our

   hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord.