The Strong Name of the Trinity

            Today, on Trinity Sunday, let’s go back a couple of months—back to the Day of Resurrection. In the section of scripture immediately preceding today’s gospel, we have Matthew’s account of the resurrection. An angel greets Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. First, the angel says “Do not be afraid.” Then the angel says, “I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you.’” The women run back to tell the eleven disciples what the angel has said.A few verses later, we get today’s gospel. Now I invite you to look at your bulletin and look at the version I just read to you, while I read it in a different translation. This is one of the literal translations of the Greek.Yet the eleven disciples went into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus appointed to them, and having seen [him] they worshiped [him], yet they doubted. And having approached, Jesus spoke to them while saying, “All authority in heaven and on [the] earth was given to me. Therefore, having gone, disciple all the nations, while baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit, while teaching them to attend to all that I commanded to you; and behold I am with you all the days even to the completion of the age.[1]First, please note that this Galilean rendezvous is a deliberate one. The risen Christ tells the angel to tell the disciples to meet him on a mountain in Galilee. Mountains are important to the writer of Matthew’s gospel because Jesus’s teachings transcend those of Moses. Moses always ascended Mt. Sinai to hear God’s teachings. Jesus is the new Moses. Remember the Sermon on the Mount? Matthew, Chapters 5-7. Remember the Mount of Transfiguration? Chapter 17 of Matthew. Now, at the end of Matthew’s gospel, a mountain is, again, the predominant image. Here is where Jesus has taught. Here is where Jesus has been transformed into glory. Here is where Jesus will leave final instructions for those who have followed him.The second thing to note: “having seen him they worshiped him, yet they doubted.” The New Revised Standard Version of scripture says “some doubted.” However, this particular scholar argues that the Greek does not say that. The implication of the original is that all of them worshiped AND all of them doubted. This should be really good news to us. If the original disciples both believed and doubted, then it is okay for us to do both in our spiritual journeys. We don’t always have to be sure and certain about our faith.The third thing to note is what Jesus tells the disciples to do. He tells them that all authority in heaven and earth was given to him. Then he says, “having gone (assuming this is an action they have already taken), disciple all the nations.” In other words, the word disciple is not used here as a noun. It is used as an active verb. Go and disciple others. Make disciples in Jesus’ name. Baptize them. Remember that the first people to know this gospel live in the latter third of the first century. By the time this writer pens the gospel of Matthew, Jesus has been gone roughly fifty years. Matthew’s community struggles with the fact that their original Jewish community has thrown them out of the synagogue.  Some of them have been disowned by their own families.  Their faith has separated them from friends. They struggle with persecution and how to be faithful in the midst of a Hellenistic culture.This gospel is “the only Gospel to use to term ‘church,’ ekklesia.”[2]  So the early Christian community of faith—the ekklesia—is trying to figure out how closely to Jesus they can live. What and how they are to tell others. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus does a lot of teaching. So the eleven are to disciple others. They are to go out into the world. Teach people what Jesus has taught them. Baptize. Disciple.The reference to baptism “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” is pretty explicitly Trinitarian. It is also rare in the New Testament, and may have evolved out of early Christian worship.  Later, in the second century, theologians will fight in Church councils about the person and nature of Jesus and about Trinitarian formulas. Yet in the latter part of the first century, we’re not there yet. These followers of Jesus understand baptism from John the Baptist. To them, baptism is primarily for repentance of sins. It is only after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that the disciples glimpse new understandings about baptism. They begin to understand that the Spirit is, somehow, woven into thinking about God the Father and God the Son.  So worship has begun to shape theology, and theology begins to shape worship, in a creative and dynamic way.You may well wonder why Trinitarian theology matters. Jesus did acknowledge God the Father. Jesus did acknowledge the power of the Spirit. Yet as I have noted, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity does not really evolve in Jesus’ lifetime or even in the first century. So why does it matter to you and me?One pastor and writer makes some good points about this. He says that if we baptized people only in the name of God the Father, that “would deny the very work and person of Jesus Christ and the ongoing activity of the Spirit. It would not be a full picture of who God is.”[3]  Likewise, if we baptized only in the name of Jesus, we miss “the person of ‘God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth,’(from the Apostles Creed). . .and the Holy Spirit, the ongoing presence of God with us today.” Baptizing only in the name of the Holy Spirit obviously misses “the awesomeness and creativity of God the Father and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, who is God in human flesh.”[4] This pastor and writer makes an effective argument, then, for this theology of baptizing people in the name of all three—which we have done in the Church since the earliest days of Christianity.There is, however, another answer to the “so what” for us. It is this: community. To illustrate deep and dynamic community, I would like to turn to that famous theologian J.K. Rowling. (Note: if you don’t think Rowling is a theologian, just read the books. She is.)If you are familiar with the Harry Potter series—either the books or the movies—then you understand the deep and complicated relationships among Harry and his two best friends, Hermione and Ron. In her book God and Harry Potter at Yale, the Rev. Danielle Tumminio touches on this tri-part relationship with respect to the Christian Trinity. The caveat—and the author admits this—is that one cannot press this analogy too hard; however, she says,“Harry may be a complete human being with his own gifts and personality, but he could only complete the mission set for him with the help of two friends with complementary gifts—Ron with his loyalty and Hermione with her brains.”[5]  Obviously none of these fictional characters constitute God the Father, God the Son or God the Holy Spirit. However, we can look at how the three friends “are united at a deep level, and just as Jesus came into his own through his relationship to the Father and the Holy Spirit, so Harry is given the tools and gifts he needs to attain salvation for the wizarding world through his relationship to Ron and Hermione.”[6]This is what I hope you will see: relationship. Community.  Jesus of Nazareth himself did not act in isolation. He had parents, siblings, relatives, a local community, a faith community.Both earthly and heavenly teachers guided Jesus. Jesus’ life, work, death and resurrection may be unique; however, it was most fully accomplished because of relationships and community. It was this kind of community that formed out of discipleship with Jesus, a community that envisioned a radically different world than the one they lived in: they envisioned a world of justice, love and shalom for all God’s children. This community became known as the Church. “Together members of the Church work to bring Jesus’ ideals into the world by worshipping together, remembering Jesus’ stories, and doing social justice work. By opening themselves up to doing God’s work on earth, they become what is known as the body of Christ.”[7]Like that first-century Church, that community deeply rooted in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, Jesus still calls you and me to leave our comfortable places and spaces to go make disciples. Yes, it’s okay to believe and to doubt. Yet Jesus says “Go!” Go into the world and make disciples for him. Our work is not yet done, and that work is not contained within the walls of this, or any, building. We must go out into the world—to our places of work,to our sports teams, to our places of leisure, to our neighborhoods. Go and share with people the story of Jesus that has taken root and has become alive in your own personal stories. Invite them to come and be part of our communities of faith. Welcome them through the sacrament of Holy Baptism. Move over and make room for people on committees, or at coffee hour, or in various gatherings.Here is where we disciple. Here is where we make room for the stranger as Jesus asks us to. Here is the potential for new and wonderful things. Here is community. Here is God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.© The Rev. Dr. Sheila N. McJilton[1] http://leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com/2014/06/galilean-rendezvous.html[2] Luke T. Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), 172.[3] Steven P. Eason, in Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol. 3, David L. Bartlett & Barbara Brown Taylor, Editors, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 46.[4] Ibid., 46.[5] The Rev. Danielle Elizabeth Tumminio, God and Harry Potters at Yale: Teaching Faith and Fantasy Fiction in an Ivy League Classroom, (www.UnlockingPress.com, 2010), 71.[6] Ibid., 71.[7] Ibid, 121.