Trinity - apologies for lateness

Matthew 28:16-20

The Commissioning of the Disciples

¹⁶ Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷When they saw him, they worshipped 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.’

My text this morning is written in Matthew 28:19-20:

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 disciples were living in difficult and uncertain times. Their world had been turned upside down, they had all been on an emotional roller-coaster ranging from despair when their Lord had been arrested, and executed, and then the news that he had been resurrected – followed by doubts and disbelief – and the many appearances of Jesus to them to reassure them. They had also lost a much loved member of their group – Judas – and if they were honest with themselves, many of them might have had the same questions and doubts he had, at different times, but they had just never acted on them.

Matthew is disarmingly honest – throughout his Gospel – and even now. Some critics of our faith have suggested that we cannot trust the Gospels, because they have probably been altered to suit the message of the early Christians. But this is difficult to accept, because they are so imperfect, in fact sometimes even contradictory, and it is this that gives them the historical credibility that confirms their authenticity. The imperfections of the disciples are never hidden – and the same remains true here.

The eleven are obedient and go to Galilee as they had been instructed, and to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw Jesus, they worshipped him. It is interesting to note that, despite the many claims Jesus made to be the Messiah, the disciples had never worshipped Jesus before this event, because it was only now, after all that had happened, that they finally understood, but they still doubted.

People often misunderstand the notions of faith and doubt. They are not opposites, but different sides of the same coin. Our faith is not something that is unreasonable; we do not need to commit intellectual suicide, suspend all reason, and blindly accept things, even if they do not make sense. It is good to question, it is good to doubt, it is good to challenge. For our minds are finite and limited and are bound by limits of what we can think. It is wonderful to know that every generation and age should always push the boundaries of knowledge and understanding, and today we live in a world which has a far deeper understanding than ever before. And the engine that often drives this forward is the combination of doubt and faith; doubt raising questions and faith daring to think the impossible.

God is infinite and we are finite; we will never be able to fully understand God. St Paul speaks of God being like the potter and we merely like the clay that the potter uses; there is no way that the clay can even come close to understanding the potter.

But what we can understand, what we can follow, what we can know about God has been revealed to us in Jesus. If anyone wants to know what God is like, then our answer is, look to Jesus.

Brett Blair uses the example from the Work of Soren Kierkegaard to illustrate this point:

Soren Kierkegaard, the great Danish theologian of another century tells a story of a prince who wanted to find a maiden suitable to be his queen. One day while running an errand in the local village for his father he passed through a poor section. As he glanced out the windows of the carriage his eyes fell upon a beautiful peasant maiden. During the ensuing days he often passed by the young lady and soon fell in love. But he had a problem. How would he seek her hand?

He could order her to marry him. But even a prince wants his bride to marry him freely and voluntarily and not through coercion. He could put on his most splendid uniform and drive up to her front door in a carriage drawn by six horses. But if he did this he would never be certain that the maiden loved him or was simply overwhelmed with all of the splendor. As you might have guessed, the prince came up with another solution. He would give up his kingly robe. He moved, into the village, entering not with a crown but in the garb of a peasant. He lived among the people, shared their interests and concerns, and talked their language. In time the maiden grew to love him for who he was and because he had first loved her.

This, simple almost childlike story, written by one of the most brilliant minds and it explains what we, Christians, mean by the incarnation. God came and lived among us. It is wonderful that this happened, because it shows us that God is with us, that he loves us and wants us to live fulfilled lives. It also gives us a firsthand view of what the mind of God is really like. When people ask what God is like, we point to the person of Jesus Christ. God himself is incomprehensible. But in Jesus Christ we get a glimpse of what he is like. In the person of Jesus we are told that God, that mysterious ‘other’, as Anselm of Canterbury hundreds of years ago explained as ‘… that, than which, nothing greater can be conceived …’ the one who created the universe, was willing to be one of us, talk our language, eat our food, share our suffering and die on a cross for us.

Jesus commissioned his imperfect, doubting, fallible disciples and through them us; as De Dietrich explains:

It is indeed by his power alone that they will go everywhere he will command them to go.

It is the task of the Church, to make disciples of Jesus everywhere in the world. We are given the authority to do so by Jesus, who has the authority from God, authority because it works, is powerful and can make a real difference in the world.

Just pause and think for a moment: If everyone in the world followed the ways of Jesus, honestly and sincerely, the world would be a wonderful place to be. We could all experience ‘… earth as it is in heaven …’ The fact that we do not live in such a world is not God’s fault, it is the fault of humankind, who stubbornly refuses to be disciples of Jesus.

This is so important as it is the final message Jesus gave to his disciples, and through them to us. The most central element is not the baptising – which – while this is important, it is not as important as our Lord’s command – ‘… [to teach] them to obey everything I have commanded you …’

The message of Jesus, is the message of God, authenticated by the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus.

he Trinitarian formula – ‘… in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit …’ is only ever mentioned here and nowhere else in the New Testament. But it encapsulates the truth of God because this is how we experience God.

Baptism is important because of what it symbolises – the need to repent – to stop doing those things which are unloving towards others as well as ourselves. We are exhorted to admit when we get things wrong (something some of our politicians need still to learn to do). It is only when we do this that we will ever stop doing them. Not only is the wonderful gift of forgiveness possible, it is freely available, because Jesus gives it to us as a gift on repentance.

Baptism is also symbolic of dying with Jesus to sin. This is a lovely image: we need to die to the old ways, and if we do this these ways will no longer have any impact on our lives. We can be born to the new ways of Jesus. This is the wonderful good news of our message. To follow the ways of Jesus – the ways of forgiveness and love – are difficult, in fact impossible – if we try to live this way in our own strength. Not only has the way of Jesus, the way of life in all its fullness – been revealed, the ability to live this way – the ability to make life on earth as it is in heaven has also been offered to all as a free gift. Last week we celebrated the gift of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Jesus which is within us to equip and enable us to live as disciples of Jesus.

This is why Jesus ends with the reminder:

… And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

As de Dietrich explains:

… Thus, in this new birth which baptism signifies, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all present and active …

Jesus will be present in their midst through the word and sacraments and through the Holy Spirit – to the end of the age.

Whenever we meet together in churches and chapels, in homes and other gatherings Jesus is present with us in the power of his Spirit. Remember in Matthew 18:20 Jesus said:

²⁰For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’

On this Trinity Sunday, we rejoice that it is our experience of God is as Trinity, one God but experienced as Creator (Father), saviour (Jesus the Son) and that all this is real for us today in our own lives, Holy Spirit. And let us ask that we might be challenged to repent of our sins, that we might die to them and that we might be given the ability to obey everything Jesus has commanded us to do. So that where we are, people might have the experience of living on earth as it is in heaven. For this is what Jesus wants of us. As Matthew wrote:

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.’