Thoughts going in, Sunday June 19th

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 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 Sunday is Trinity Sunday—a day of liturgical rank that is considered a Major Festival (one of 6) on the Lutheran calendar.

From the preacher’s perspective there are, however, a few difficulties with the day. The first is that the day itself is a “DOCTRINALLY THEMATIC” day. One need only look at the traditional collect of the day in order to discern this:

“Almighty and everlasting God, who has given unto us, thy servants, grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity, we beseech thee that thou wouldst keep us steadfast in this faith and evermore defend us from all adversities; who livest, etc. etc. Amen.”

But doctrinally thematic days can equate to very BORING sermons: “today you get to listen to me drone on for 20 minutes about doctrine...” Sounds enthralling, doesn’t it? It’s also not the easiest thing to super-impose a predetermined doctrinal theme on texts.

Second, the word “Trinity,” itself, does not appear in the Bible. It’s a church-coined word to EXPLAIN a theological truth. God is one, but God exists in three distinct ‘persons.’ But even in saying that the word “explains” something is somewhat misleading, because the first thing we learn about the Trinity is that full understanding is beyond our ability to mentally grasp. Separate, but unified? Three in person, but one in Divinity? ...Cue the computer voice: “does not compute.” Clearly the effort here is not to UNDERSTAND the Trinity, but rather to know what the Faith of the Church is (and has always been) so as to be able to know the right thing to say in worship.

God is God....but God **IS** Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One of the reasons the Trinity exists as a confession of faith is that it is simply intolerable to entertain alternatives. This is at least partially seen in the Gospel reading for the day. Vs 17 of the text says that “When they saw him, they worshiped (Gk proskuneo) him”—literally they bowed down to him. This act, however, is the very act that the Old Testament forbids of any one or any thing **other than God. These good Jewish people were bowing down in the presence of the MAN JESUS...as if he were God in the flesh....because he is GOD IN THE FLESH. To entertain any other possibility—such as the ancient heretic Arias did—is ultimately to detract from the divinity of Jesus.

All of this is wonderful in a nice heady doctrinal sense, but we still have a giant “so what?” to deal with. This is where I like the whole of vs 17: “When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.”

BUT SOME DOUBTED.

Wow. Really? Who are these **some?? Is Matthew getting in a little private jab at someone? Or is he one of the ones who was there that day and doubted, but he’s too embarrassed to put his name to the doubt? And for that matter WHAT was it that they were doubting? Were they doubting that Jesus was really resurrected (maybe they were seeing a ghost or simply a vision)? Were they doubting that he had ever been really dead in the first place? Were they doubting the future gameplan, or simply the present question of whether or not they were going to hang with this following? Matthew is vague....but it is in Matthew’s vagueness that we can find some REAL APPLICATION for ourselves...especially during this week of Trinity Sunday. DOUBT.....’wavering’...even if about the so-called cardinal doctrines of the faith is ....OK!

This is very good news for any of US who think we need to have a doubt-ectomy in order to be “true disciples!”

Cheers,

tm