Matthew 28:16-20
Today, of course, is one of the seven principal feast days on the church calendar. The most important holy days we celebrate together in worship. It is Trinity Sunday.
To paraphrase a clergy colleague of mine. She has given up trying to explain the Trinity. She says the main thing you learn in seminary is which particular heresy is your personal favorite. I remember one of my seminary classmates deciding she was quite happy being a Pelagian… (Although I think, technically that is a Christological, rather than Trinitarian heresy.) I certainly learned more about identifying heresies than fully understanding the Trinity. And I would say that everyone who starts a sentence “I’ve always understood the Trinity this way…” is about to describe one of the Trinitarian heresies.
Another thing I learned in seminary was not to try to preach on the doctrine on Trinity Sunday; preach on the Scripture lessons.
And the lessons appointed for today are worthy of our attention. We have the glorious sweep of the creation story. And the celebration of the goodness that is in all that God, as creator, has created, from the seas to the stars, from the creeping things to us.
The epistle and gospel readings are obviously appointed for this day because both include words that imply, possibly, a Trinity. We heard the closing benediction from Second Corinthians: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” And we heard Jesus’ Great Commission in Matthew 28: “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.”
These apparently Trinitarian words long predate any development of the doctrine of God as Trinity. That would begin to evolve in the 4th century. And the celebration of the Trinity as a part of the church calendar wouldn’t start until the 10th or 11th centuries. The collect for this day comes from that time. As much as I cherish the collects in the Book of Common Prayer, this is not one of my favorites. It includes our plea that we remain steadfast in the confession of a “true” faith… a true faith being one of orthodox Trinitarianism.
I’ll come back to the collect, but first the Gospel. You should know this Gospel passage. Anyone with any involvement in the Christian life should be able to roughly quote it and know its context. When you hear it, a light bulb should go off: “Ah, the Great Commission.” If you come to the service on Wednesdays you will hear it a bit more often. We commemorate the saints in that service and this gospel passage is appointed for several of them, from St. Patrick to Jackson Kemper. Patrick you’ve undoubtedly heard of. Jackson Kemper’s ministry was in the early 1800’s. He was the first “missionary bishop” of the Episcopal church. He served the wilderness of Wisconsin.
The verses appointed for today come at the close of Matthew’s Gospel. This is one of only two post-resurrection appearances of Jesus described in Matthew. Matthew tells how on that first Easter Day the resurrected Jesus meets some women who had lingered at the tomb. The first post-resurrection appearance. He tells them to tell the disciples that he will meet them in Galilee.
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped 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, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
This passage does include that apparently Trinitarian phrase which, of course, we still use when we baptize as we did last Sunday. But I don’t think anyone would maintain that Jesus’ main point here has anything to do with the doctrine of the Trinity.
This is the resurrected Christ speaking to his closest disciples. These are his final words to them. What does Jesus tell them to DO? He does not tell them: Go out there and study real heard so you can understand the doctrine of Trinity. He does not even tell them to go out there and make sure everyone else ascribes to the true orthodox Trinitarian faith. Jesus says, go make disciples. Disciple means follower. Go and bring others to follow me. Go and bring others to me.
And it does not seem that they need to have “true” faith to be disciples. Matthew says that even those who found themselves in the presence of the risen Christ doubted.
When they saw Jesus, they worshiped him; but some doubted. New Testament Professor Stanley Saunders writes about this passage:
Most English translations of 28:17 leave the impression that the disciples included some worshippers and some doubters, but the Greek may also be translated, perhaps more naturally, to suggest that the whole group of disciples both worship and doubt.
The Greek word distazo carries a sense of standing in two places at the same time or being of two minds. Jesus commissions not perfect disciples, but people who both worship and doubt as they stand at the edge of the world that is passing away and the one that is coming to them.
In Matthew’s Gospel, this is the culmination of all of Jesus’ life and ministry, the summation of all that he has come to do, his last words to those who have been closest and most devoted to him on earth. And to those disciples (whose understanding, even then, is incomplete and whose faith is uncertain) the resurrected Christ says: You’re the ones. Go. You’re the ones. Go. Go out there and bring others to me. And, “Lo, (as Jesus often says in King James English) LO, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Go out amongst all peoples and make disciples. And remember, he said to them and he says to us “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
