Trinity Sunday, 05/18/2008

Sermon on Matthew 28:16-20, by Luke Bouman

Matthew 28:¹⁶Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

The Making of a Disciple

My son's part in this story called the Trinity began when he was just about 2 months old, still feisty from colic, but cute and loved and, by all accounts, hungry. At the Vigil of Easter the families that love him, mine, Kathy's, ours together, and of course the family of God, gathered around the font, on the Eve that celebrates the mystery of the moment between death and life. We gathered around the ancient fire and spread its light to the congregation. We read the ancient story of God's involvement with humanity: creation, fall, flood, rescue, exile, re-gathering, feast, and furnace. Then we invoked the name and story of salvation as Nathan was plunged into the waters and raised high, now a part of the story from death to life.

In the twelve years since that time, he has continued to grow into this story, in fits and starts. He has sat through the journey of the Church year 12 times, though his memory may only hold the last five or so. He has been to the mountainside of Sunday School, of Vacation Bible School, of the dinner table and bedside devotions of our household, listening to the words of Jesus, drinking in the new Torah, passed on from generation to generation so that the words may be written on his heart. Most of all, he is steeped in love and grace, sometimes gentle and comforting, sometimes fierce and protective, sometimes challenging, but always love and grace.

Over the next six years he will continue to sit and learn, though like the disciples in our lesson for today he may enter into his faith wearing his doubts for everyone to see. Doubt is how disciples grow. Jesus didn't banish their doubt, nor does he banish mine. So I think it likely that my son's doubts will be permitted to work their way out until the questions they bring lead to the quiet of answers and the disquiet of deeper questions. When he is ready, Kathy and I will part with a significant investment of ourselves: our time, our lives, our very hearts, and we will turn him loose on the world, knowing that he has been immersed into the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Truth be known, we want him to continue to be hungry, voracious for this story, one that both fills and curiously leaves us hungry for more. We also want him to be hungry to tell this story, but this hunger only God's spirit can give.

Thus, disciples are made for hunger, out of hunger. Just so, I was initiated into the story, and then I was fed by the story, so that I could live the story. Just so my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, through countless generations, passed on, not by heredity, but by the loving telling of the story, the nurturing of faith. Just so, for each Christian, whether infant or adult, the initiation starts the process of feeding on this story, and we become what we eat, even into the story and the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

More Than a Doctrine

When Jesus spoke these words to the disciples, "Go... Baptize... Teach", he was not imparting doctrine to them. Jesus was not telling them what the Trinity would be like or how there is but one God, albeit in three persons. Jesus was telling them that they were now part of God's great story, God's investment in creation, God's very presence within creation's bounds. This story of Jesus and his "Abba" who together send their Spirit is not first and foremost a set of propositions, as though the Greek philosophers could have their way with God and turn God into "truths" to argue about. No, first and foremost it is the story of God's interaction with the family of Israel, and through them with the family of all humanity.

Now, when I say story, I do not mean to imply that this business of God is "make believe", that it is somehow not true on the level of reality. No, this story is not fantasy, nor is it made up. Nor can I claim that I can prove the reality of this story any more than I can prove the reality of my love for my son. This is not that kind of story, either way. As important as Doctrine is to help us all sort out what we can know about God, it can't tell us everything God is, or even connect us to God in meaningful ways. Only by knowing how God's story intersects and becomes a part of your story can you know and understand anything about God at all. Only then do doctrines, like the Trinity, make sense.

Jesus' disciples had spent a lifetime understanding and living a different story about God. That is to say it was the same God, but a different story. It was the story of Israel told through the lens of nationalism and national symbols: of Temple and Land and promised Kings. It was the story told through countless generations who waited for a messiah to rescue them from the oppressive rulers who, in a succession of conquering empires, had vexed them for centuries. This story was of a Messiah of surpassing military might. It helped them to understand that they had a purpose and a future. But it was not God's purpose and future. God had chosen a servant purpose for Israel, not a ruling purpose.

And the disciples didn't get it. In Luke's version of Jesus' going away scene, they even ask, one more time, "Is NOW the time that you are going to restore Israel?" They still did not understand what Jesus had done. Jesus had come to be God's presence among them, and like at Mt. Sinai in Exodus, they had gathered around Jesus on the mountain, to hear how God would be connected to the creation God so lovingly had made, how God would, in fact, restore that creation. Then, when the teaching was done, Jesus, this new Moses, out of healing love, was lifted up, like the serpent in the wilderness, but now it was God himself suffering with and for his people. Then Jesus is vindicated by his Abba, who raises him from death and thereby gives creation a glimpse of the final restoration. Whether on Sinai or the mount where Jesus preached, whether on Calvary, or the hill in Galilee where Jesus meets the disciples in our lesson today, God has led the people to know and understand his great love, his unbounded forgiveness, his deep commitment to his people.

The Sent Ones

So now, on this mountain, these men, who have learned this story at Jesus' feet, are now sent. They go from being disciples (students) to apostles (sent ones). So we too, when our journey of learning has gone far enough, become sent ones, apostolos (Gk). This day, at Valparaiso University, our seniors and graduate students become sent ones. They have sat and learned about their calling and vocation. Even those that are not Christian have been immersed in the story of God what enshrouds the campus and hill where our Chapel sits. They will go into the world.

Some will doubt, just as Jesus' first disciples did. They will wonder whether this story into which they have been called and initiated will make sense in a world in which so much is distorted. They can take comfort in the knowledge that doubt is embraced as part of their journey. There will be, after all, many trials and dead end roads on their journeys. A little of bit of doubt helps, actually, so long as it accompanies a little bit of faith. That is because doubt always leaves a person hungry for more, hungry to know more, hungry to be more.

To help us with that hunger, there is one more word that Jesus has to say about this story, and those who bear it into the world. He is with us. He who is the center of the story, who has carried our pains and even endured death for us and with us, goes with us still. God's future, our future, the end of this story, goes with us. We do not go alone and we do not go without a glimpse of how it all ends. So even though we can't see it all, even though the living of each day carries doubts and mysteries, we go confidently. Jesus feeds us with his very life-giving self, (communion is another paradox, like the Trinity) in a meal that is at the same time satisfying, and makes us hungry for justice and grace in our sinful world.

To all those who are now sent into the world with this story, take heart. All you graduates, all you newly confirmed, all you newly ordained, all you newly baptized, all you who have ever been or will ever be, God's story now bids you to journey, with God's name, in God's name. You go to places unknown, by paths well worn, and yet new each day. You go telling the story and teaching everything that you have been taught. You go with doubt and faith, as you return to the table hungry. You go with Jesus, into God's future, by the power of the Spirit.

Rev. Dr. Luke Bouman
Church Relations
Valparaiso University
Kretzmann Hall
Valparaiso, IN 46383

E-Mail: Luke.Bouman@Valpo.edu.

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