WEBVTT 00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:03.120 Grace and peace to you. 00:00:03.359 --> 00:00:14.400 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, what a gift it is to be with y'all this morning as we celebrate Trinity Sunday, which is always the first Sunday after Pentecost. 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:17.440 We don't always think about the Trinity all that much. 00:00:17.679 --> 00:00:19.359 So today we're going to think about it a lot. 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:22.079 You're going to hear it in the liturgy, you're going to hear it at the end. 00:00:22.239 --> 00:00:24.879 We will reflect on it at the communion table. 00:00:25.839 --> 00:00:41.679 Trinity Sunday is a celebration of this idea, this Christian understanding that the one God of the universe is expressed in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:44.079 The triune God, as St. 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:49.119 Augustine famously called, the lover, the beloved, and love itself. 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:58.560 And the selected readings from the lectionary on this day are often passages where references to those three persons show up. 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:10.159 From which, out of these passages, the early church over the first few hundred years sort of developed this theology of the Trinity as a reflection of what Scripture says and does. 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:11.840 And today's reading is no different. 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:35.439 It comes at the end of Matthew's gospel, where the disciples, having been told by the women at the tomb to meet Jesus back in Galilee, where it all began, they return, and Jesus delivers his final mountaintop farewell speech, which includes this baptismal formation in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:42.400 But before we read those words from Jesus, let's pray and ask God to speak to us freshly this morning. 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:44.000 Will you pray with me? 00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:48.879 Holy God, reveal your truth to us. 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:52.480 Help your voice to be the one we hear. 00:01:53.920 --> 00:02:03.359 Help us to see and experience the truth in your creation and in your word and by your spirit and guide us to live in your love and service. 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:04.400 Amen. 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:13.919 Now let's read Jesus' words to his disciples from the gospel according to Matthew chapter 28, verses 16 through 20. 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:16.560 Let's listen for God's word together. 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:24.879 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:30.400 And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:34.240 Jesus came near and spoke to them. 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:52.319 Teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. 00:02:53.199 --> 00:03:00.000 And look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age. 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:02.719 This is God's word for God's people. 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:04.560 Thanks be to God. 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:10.400 The doctrine of the Trinity is a mystery. 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:15.120 If you're hoping to leave here with some complete understanding of it, that's not going to happen. 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:17.039 So take a deep breath. 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:26.960 And yet, for so many people of faith these days, the doctrine of the Trinity has also kind of been the spare tire of our faith. 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:29.039 We don't really think about it all that much. 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:32.960 We only really pull it out when we need it to fix something for us. 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:45.039 But most of the time, it's just tucked away in the trunk under the loose tennis balls and the old first aid kit and the random towel that's been in there so long we don't remember when we even put it in there. 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:48.319 But it's back there somewhere, the Trinity, you know? 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:53.280 And because of that, for a lot of Christians, it's just not something we think about. 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:58.560 And that's a shame because the Trinity is not the spare tire of our faith. 00:03:58.879 --> 00:04:00.479 It is the chassis. 00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:07.360 It is the foundation upon which we build and structure our understanding of God. 00:04:08.639 --> 00:04:25.040 And maybe it's because we've neglected this foundation, this foundational understanding of God's nature for so long, many Christians have ended up with authoritarian or hierarchical or dogmatic and legalistic understandings of God. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:33.759 Understandings that simply don't hold up to the triune vision that we've received in Jesus and the spirit and the source of all of this. 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:39.439 As it turns out, we tend to resemble the things we worship. 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:41.600 We tend to look like the God we worship. 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:45.439 And that's exactly why it matters so much for us to remember. 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:49.600 I wish it got more than one feast day per year. 00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:57.199 A vengeful, uh legalistic God forms vengeful and legalistic people. 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:02.319 A compassionate and merciful God forms compassionate and merciful ones. 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:04.240 That's my thesis today. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:09.519 Theology is simply the language we use to describe who God is. 00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:13.040 But language doesn't stay abstract for long. 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:25.199 Because what we say about God shapes what we say about ourselves and about the church and about our neighbors and about how we live and how we spend our money and how we do our work. 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:32.720 And the God of our tradition reveals a God who, in God's very nature, we say, is relational. 00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:42.720 God is a relationship, a verb, giving and receiving, singular and yet communal. 00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:43.439 St. 00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:51.120 Bonaventure described the Trinity this way: The Father empties into the Son, saying, My beloved, I delight in you. 00:05:51.759 --> 00:06:04.399 And the Son empties into the Spirit, giving himself to its leading and life-giving nature, even through pain and suffering and death, and then the Spirit empties into the Father, fueling the life force of creation. 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:07.199 Nothing held back, he writes. 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:19.199 They know the center of the universe, he writes, is infinite love. 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:23.600 We don't always live like that, though. 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:26.079 I know most days I sure don't. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:32.000 We don't live like we believe that infinite love is the center and source of the universe. 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:35.839 I'm not always able to ground my faith in that. 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:44.959 And because we're not always able to live from that place of abundance and grace, we end up living in a scarcity model where there's never enough. 00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:52.079 Never enough food or money or security or health care or education or grace or mercy to go around. 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:58.000 We can't seem to risk letting go because we don't have faith that will be refilled. 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:03.839 It's confidence in what God pours into us that allows us to pour it out so freely. 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:11.199 But the good news is that the refilling, love and mercy that we need is who God is. 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:17.920 The nerdy theological term for this, for those of you fellow nerds, is peracuresis. 00:07:18.399 --> 00:07:19.360 You want to give it a try? 00:07:19.519 --> 00:07:20.480 Paracaresis? 00:07:20.879 --> 00:07:21.680 Paracoresis. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:23.040 Oh, that's fun. 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:39.199 It dances around the mouth because it's uh it's used to describe this sort of dance that the three persons of the Trinity move in, in and among each other, each containing the divine nature of all the others. 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:42.000 It's a Greek verb that means to make room. 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:46.480 We believe that God is always making room, making space. 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:52.079 The Father is in the Son, and the Spirit is in the Father. 00:07:52.399 --> 00:07:57.120 What would it mean for us to make room in our lives for others? 00:07:57.519 --> 00:08:01.680 To build space within ourselves for other folks who interact with us. 00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:06.720 Would we find more loving community if we made that extra space? 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:13.920 For listening, for understanding, for unity even in our diversities. 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:17.120 I believe so, because I believe that's who God is. 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:21.680 God is a unity within a diversity of expressions, of persons. 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:27.199 God is not a solitary, angry judge in the sky. 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:31.120 God is mutual, self-giving love. 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:35.759 In a very real sense, God is a verb. 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:44.639 It's the closest doctrine, this Trinity, that I think we have to understanding what the gospel writer meant when he wrote that God is love. 00:08:46.399 --> 00:08:56.320 In our scripture passage for today, we read that the disciples took the testimony of the women at the tomb seriously, and they traveled back to Galilee and they hiked up that mountain. 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:00.639 And as they were promised, Jesus met them there. 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:03.360 And then verse 17 says this. 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:15.120 Who hiked up a mountain and saw the resurrected Jesus standing before them. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:17.039 And some doubted. 00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:21.600 And I think that's worth pausing a moment and giving thanks for. 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:30.799 That some of Jesus' very closest friends met him after his resurrection and worshiped him, even though they still doubted. 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:34.240 And they were not excluded from the gift of his presence. 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:36.240 There wasn't anybody taking attendance. 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:39.679 They didn't check everybody's doubts on the way up the mountain. 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:41.200 Everybody got to come. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:50.159 It tells me that doubt is not a problem to solve, it's a part of the journey. 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:58.559 Doubt's not something we we fix, it's something we experience as we're challenged, as the disciples were challenged by the grief of the loss of their friend. 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:01.279 His resurrection didn't stop their grief. 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:04.960 It didn't fix everything for them intellectually. 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:06.480 But you know what it did? 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:10.080 It revealed Jesus' presence to them, even in that. 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:17.200 Doubts are a part of the journey of faith that simply remind us that we are growing and stretching and strengthening. 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:20.720 They are the sore muscles of a growing faith. 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:33.200 And I pray that we always feel free to bring our doubts and questions with us into this room, to this table, into the life we share together, just as those disciples brought theirs. 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:38.639 Because if we if they were welcome on that mountain, then they're welcome in this place too. 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:42.879 This is the place where Jesus tells his friends, look, you have been with me. 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:44.879 You know what I stand for. 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:46.240 You've seen how I live. 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:52.399 You look at what it looks like to live a life of love, and I am with you always. 00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:55.519 You have my spirit with you. 00:10:55.679 --> 00:11:02.960 Go and live as I lived, love as I love, teach as I taught, make disciples as I discipled you. 00:11:04.159 --> 00:11:15.759 This text here, which lifts up doubters as part of the very first group of apostles, it's been misunderstood, in my opinion, as a call to wield power and coercion over other people. 00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:31.759 We have to confess that the church has often focused on Jesus' command to make disciples and used that command as carte blanche for colonialism and inquisitions, uh, crusades, manifest destiny. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:37.039 Uh for many in the cultural arena, making disciples means creating converts. 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:42.240 It means taking people's identities away and making them look like who I think they ought to look like. 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:47.200 That's not what Jesus did with these men on the mountain. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:51.919 The Jesus of the Gospels isn't interested in creating converts to a new religion. 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:54.720 He was gathering disciples, and disciples were Jewish. 00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:59.200 Being a disciple was a Jewish way of living, with a rabbi who was a Jewish teacher. 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:03.600 It was about building relationships of trust and shared wisdom. 00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:09.039 And he did it with a diverse gaggle of underdogs and misfits. 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:13.519 There's only one main verb in verse 19, just one. 00:12:14.080 --> 00:12:20.320 In Greek, uh it's mathäusate, which just means disciple. 00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:23.039 To disciple, that's the verb. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:27.120 Everything else, go, baptize, teach. 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:28.799 Those are participles. 00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:31.919 They describe how the discipling happens. 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:39.519 But the center, the gravity of this passage, the thing Jesus is actually commanding is a single word, disciple. 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:42.879 And that might not seem like a big deal. 00:12:43.039 --> 00:12:51.840 Maybe there's not a distinction yet there for you in your mind, but what discipleship looked like in the world Jesus inhabited helps us see what I think it meant. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:13:00.639 In first century Jewish life, a disciple, a Talmud, uh, was not primarily a student sitting in a classroom receiving information. 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:22.159 A Talmud was someone who had been chosen by a rabbi to walk with him through life in order to develop that person's faith and wisdom by literally following their teacher, following in their footsteps, watching them brush their teeth, sleep, go to the store, haggle about the prices of things. 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:27.919 It was more the practice of a trade and less the memorization of terms and formulas. 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:29.440 Does that make sense? 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:37.440 There's a saying in Percay of Ot, which is uh a rabbinic text, probably a few decades after Jesus. 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:45.519 But one of the ways they describe this relationship is that the disciple ought to cover their self in the dust of their rabbi's feet. 00:13:46.639 --> 00:13:51.200 Proximity was the whole point, closeness, relationship. 00:13:51.519 --> 00:14:01.840 You learned by watching the teacher eat, by watching him pray, watching him handle conflict, watching him misstep and recover and try again. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:05.279 It was not primarily about receiving the correct content. 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:12.960 It was about the practice, the living out of a faithful and meaningful and connected life. 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:20.720 This is what Jesus is telling his disciples to go and do, to build relationships with people of all nations. 00:14:22.399 --> 00:14:26.879 Not go create converts or win arguments or build an institution. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:30.799 Go and do what I just did with you. 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:38.159 Build community with people, live with them, eat with them, walk with them through life, love them as I have loved you. 00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:45.120 To disciple is to relate, to pour into and to receive from, to dance with. 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:46.399 It's a paracures. 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:51.360 And maybe that's the invitation for us today. 00:14:51.759 --> 00:15:06.000 Because the church has spent a lot of energy over the centuries trying to make people into something, into converts, into members, into givers, into people who look and think and believe like they do. 00:15:06.639 --> 00:15:10.879 And we have to be honest that some of that energy has caused real harm. 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:15.919 But what if the command was never about making anything at all? 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:18.960 It doesn't say actually to make disciples in the Greek. 00:15:19.039 --> 00:15:20.720 It just says to disciple. 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:22.399 To disciple. 00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:29.679 What if that verb to disciple is less about producing a result and more about entering a relationship? 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:39.200 Less about changing someone and more about walking with someone, being present with them as they go through the things that life brings us through. 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:51.759 What if the invitation Jesus is extending from that mountaintop isn't to go and fix the world as if the world were a problem, but to go and be with the world. 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:56.799 To love the world, the way Jesus has loved the disciples. 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:01.039 Make sure that you share that same dust. 00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:11.679 Eat with them, walk with them, make room for them in your life, the way the Father makes room for the Son, the way the Spirit makes room for the Father. 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:20.320 I hope that the uh the paracaresis might spill out of this room and of our lives and all the places you will go this week. 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:38.639 And that when you're tired and when you doubt, as those first disciples doubted, standing right there in his presence, that when the work feels too heavy and the world feels too broken, and you wonder what of this could be possibly mine to do, that you remember what he said last. 00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:46.480 Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of the present age. 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:57.600 Not I'll be with you once you've got it figured out, not I will be with you once you get your proper degree, not I will be with you once all of your doubts have cleared. 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:05.680 Not I'll be with you once everything is running smoothly in your life, but I am with you and will be with you every day. 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:21.359 The same God who empties and is filled, the same God that makes room, the same love that hovered over the waters at the beginning of all things is still hovering and still here and still dancing. 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:24.720 May we go and join the dance. 00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:25.759 Amen.