Today is Trinity Sunday in the church year.  The Trinity is the idea that God is three persons yet one God.  God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit and yet the three are one.  The word “trinity” isn’t in the Bible, but the concept certainly is.  The Bible clearly speaks of one true God and it also speaks of Jesus as divine and the Holy Spirit as divine.  How does the hymn put it?  “Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!  Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!”  There are all sorts of illustrations or examples to try to explain the Trinity.  None of them are perfect or exact.  Some people compare the Trinity to an egg—an egg really has three parts-the shell, the white part and the yolk.  Or the Trinity is compared to time—we measure time in past, present and future.   Or water—water is water, but it can be in three forms—solid, liquid or gas.  The Trinity has been compared to the sun—God the Father is the sun, the rays that radiate from the sun is Jesus, and the warmth we feel on us is the Holy Spirit.  Or an example from mathematics: the equation for the Trinity is not 1 + 1 + 1 = 3, where they all just add together.  The correct equation is 1 x 1 x 1 = 1, where they each multiply each other.  Or take space for example.  One way to measure space is to talk about height, width and depth.  What is height?  It is space.  What is width?  It is space.  What is depth?  It is space.  What is space?  Well, space is not just height, it is not just width, it is not just depth.  Space is all three of those things together.  So who is the Father?  He is God.  Who is Jesus the Son?  He is also God.  Who is the Holy Spirit?  He is God too.  

The doctrine of the Trinity is that there is one God who exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Each person is not the same as the other person; that is, the Father is not the same person as the Son who is not the same person as the Holy Spirit.  Each is fully God in nature.  Each person is not a god in itself.  Instead, the totality of all three persons comprises the one God.  There are not three gods, but one.  At first, some may look at this teaching and be confused by it.  How can God be three persons in one God?  This is a good question because it is a bit difficult to grasp.  But, that is what we would expect isn't it, when we encounter God?  Would we not expect to find some things about God's Infinite nature a bit beyond our comprehension?  This is not unreasonable.  However, we must not make the mistake of saying something as ridiculous as, "It doesn't make sense.  Therefore it isn’t true."  If Christianity were all made up (rather than being based on revelation from God), it would be much easier NOT to include such a difficult doctrine!  That’s not a foolproof argument for sure, but it’s a good point.  It was Saint Augustine who said, “If you can understand it, it’s not God.” 

Put simply, if the Bible states that there are three separate persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that each of these persons is God, and that there is only one God, what explanation would fit other than the doctrine of the Trinity?  Few would disagree with the fact that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three separate persons.  Matthew demonstrates this quite clearly in his description of the baptism of Jesus.  Just after John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the river Jordan, the Father spoke from heaven saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."  At the same time, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus "like a dove" (Matthew 3:16-17).  We can see in this account that all three persons of the Trinity are mentioned as being in different locations at the same time, demonstrating that they are three separate persons. When Jesus stated that His will was in subjection to the will of His Father (Luke 22:42), He demonstrated the existence of two separate wills, and therefore, two separate persons.  In John 8:17-18 Jesus said that he and his Father were two witnesses.  Also, unless you believe that Jesus was praying to Himself, the prayers of Jesus to the Father (John 17) demonstrate that Jesus and the Father are different persons. 

I won’t bore you to death talking more about theological arguments for the doctrine of the Trinity.  Perhaps I already have.  But rather than bring up only questions or doubts, hopefully the Trinity moves us toward awe and reverence for God.  I wish we felt that more often in church on Sunday. I say that, not just because awe is a wonderful human experience, and all too rare, but also because if we never feel awe here on Sunday then we really haven't been in the presence of the God whom the Bible describes. We really haven't been met by the Trinity.

God is a mystery that is utterly beyond our limited human comprehension and containment. All images of God are inadequate; all of our categories are too small. Any attempt to make God fit our values and our projects renders God into little more than an idol that we have made with our hands. Yet, God is not unknowable. This mystery reaches out to us, constantly seeks to encounter us as the Trinity Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Isaiah ridicules anybody who chops down a tree, uses part of that tree to cook his food and warm himself, and then "the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, bows down to it and worships it; he prays to it and says, 'save me, for you are my god!' " (Isa 44:17).  Isaiah says this, not because God is so mysterious and distant that nobody can know anything about this God.  Rather, Isaiah, having been met by the true and living God, knows that our fabrications, our idols, cannot come close to being anything like this great God who has reached out to him.

The Bible calls God "holy."  We must realize that to say God is holy does not simply mean that God is "very, very good."  Holy is the designation for the distance of God, God's awesome, wonderful, sometimes terrifying mysteriousness.  "Come no closer!" God told Moses. "Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground" (Ex 3:5).  Moses was shaken by so great a God, but also commissioned.  "I am the God of your ancestors, I have work for you to do," God said.  As we’ll see in a second, Jesus commissions His disciples and by extension all of us as well.  The Trinity is affirmation of the glory of God, the sheer uncontainable glory that is the source of awe.  We experience the awe-filled holiness of God the Father, the Creator who created the heavens and the earth.  Especially at this time of year, as the summer begins, a summer that will enable many of us to explore the joys of the natural world, we are reminded of the glory of God.  Atop some great mountain peak, beside the roaring waves, looking out over an expanse of Western prairie, beside a powerful waterfall, in a lush, green, forest glade, we have experiences of the greatness of God the Creator.  We are able to exclaim, with this Sunday's psalm, "O Lord, Our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (Ps 8:1).

Our Gospel text this morning is known as the Great Commission.  Jesus has risen and is going to return to the Father in heaven.  But He will send the Holy Spirit so the work of God will go on.  Here again is the idea of the Trinity.  Jesus meets them after the resurrection and says to the disciples: “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.”  Here is another sign that Jesus is God—He has all the authority in heaven and earth.  Jesus is in control.  The Father has given Him all authority.  Because of this fact, there is something the disciples need to do.  “Therefore,” Jesus says, because I am in control, “go 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 I have commanded you” (Mt. 28:19-20).  Here the Trinity is clear—Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all mentioned together.  It is in the name of all three of them that we are to baptize.  The name is all that they stand for and represent.  And this command to make disciples, baptize and teach that is given to the disciples is for us as well.  This is our task as individual believers and our task as a church.  It’s not an optional request by Jesus: if you have enough time see if you can do this.  No, rather, it is a command—we must make disciples.  A disciple is anyone who is a follower of Jesus.  A disciple is one who seeks to live like the master did in words and in deeds. 

Notice Jesus doesn’t say “go and make converts.”  He says “go and make disciples.”  He’s not concerned about someone claiming to be converted; He’s concerned about one’s whole lifestyle being different and therefore showing that they have indeed been converted.  Disciples are made, not born.  Being a disciple of Jesus is not a one-time commitment—it doesn’t happen overnight—it happens throughout the course of your life.  A disciple of Jesus has been radically changed—born again as the Scriptures call it.  Discipleship, following Jesus, is a way of life, a constant decision, not a one-time decision.  We are called to make disciples—that is, we are to share our faith with others.  We are to duplicate ourselves if you will, wherever we are.  How do we make disciples?  Baptizing them and teaching them to obey the commands of Jesus.  Teaching obedience to Jesus’ commands forms the heart of disciple making.  If non-Christians are not hearing the gospel and not being challenged to make a decision for Christ, then the church has disobeyed one part of Jesus’ commission.  If new converts are not faithfully and lovingly nurtured in the whole counsel of God’s revelation, then the church has disobeyed the other part.

This Great Commission is at the heart of who we should be as individual Christians and as a church body.  We should be going out to seek out new disciples.  And once they come into the church there needs to be a system in place so that they can grow in discipleship and then in turn reach out to others.  It is a never ending process of sending and spiritual growth.  This is something we will be examining and discussing as we talk about revitalizing our church.  We know that there are lots of people who need Jesus and His message.  Deep down many are in fact looking for that, whether they know it or not.  We have a good thing going here in many ways and we need to spread the word—we have the answer for the world today.  And the good news is that Jesus is with us in this endeavor.  The last words of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew are these: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  God remains with us now and for eternity.  Even when we fail, He remains faithful.  Amen.