Holy Trinity A

Todd Cook

Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

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Holy Trinity, Year A

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Brothers and sisters in Christ: grace and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ten months ago, we came together as a church family to take a hard look at ourselves to determine where we are as a church, and where we want to go. We did this under the guidance of Pr. Wendel from the NALC staff, and the results were the 3 vision points and action steps that have printed on the back of your bulletin every week since. The Vision Points give us an idea of who we want to be, and what we want to be doing. This may be near future, or it could be a bit farther out, but it’s an ideal, and it gives us a target to aim for. And for those of us who participated, you know that Pr. Wendel made sure we were guided by the Holy Scriptures.

Who we are as a church should always be guided by the Holy Scriptures first and foremost. As Lutherans, that is supplemented by the Book of Concord - the Augsburg Confession, the Formula of Concord, the Smalcald Articles, and the other founding documents of our tradition. But these are subordinate to the Bible. We also look to the NALC as our denominational leadership to help us organize, worship, and carry out the work of the Church of Christ in a Lutheran understanding. Locally, our church constitution provides more details for how we do that in our own community.

Notice that the very first of our Vision Points is “Be a Great Commission Church.” 10 years ago, before I went to seminary, I would not have known what the Great Commission was. If you had not heard that phrase before we made it a Vision Point, I understand. I don’t remember hearing it when I was younger. So I want to make sure everyone in our church family understands what it is.

I’m taking this time to explain this today, because the Great Commission is our Gospel text today…specifically verses 19-20. And so by the time I sit down, I hope that all of us will look at our first Vision Point and we’ll all have the same understanding of what that is.

“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 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” [ESV, Mt 28:18–20.] One of the first sermons I ever heard Bishop Bradosky preach was on this passage. He made a point that most people skip over verse 18, and I have found that to be true. But it’s important that we DON’T skip over that verse.

The Son of God - the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity - has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. He is truly King of kings and Lord of lords. “On mountain heights heaven and earth, as it were, meet, and here the glorified Savior spoke of his power in heaven and on earth. With the vast expanse of the sky above him and the great panorama of the earth spread beneath him, Jesus stands in his exaltation and his glory...” [Lenski, 1168.] In that setting, and with that authority, He gives His followers a command… a commission. He tells His disciples to go, make, and baptize. Those are the verbs in His command:

GO - what Jesus is telling his followers requires movement. They are standing on a mountain, and the Resurrected Christ is showing them the world - as far as they can see.

Make - actually, the verb in this sentence in Greek is “disciple them”… or more appropriately: “turn them into disciples”. Jesus’ followers have been commissioned to turn the whole world into His disciples. This passage really doesn’t tell us how they are to do that, just that this is their commission. This is what they must do. However they must do it, that is, whatever method they use, their end result must be that disciples must be made. The original language here is written in such a way that Jesus expects that it *will* be completed.

Baptize - this is the rite of entrance into God’s adopted family. This is how you enter the Church of Christ - in Baptism. And so this is how the disciples would formally welcome new Christians into membership.

Now finally, we get to the part of this reading that has to do with Trinity Sunday: “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” There’s something interesting here that happens in the Greek. I used to think that “in the name of...” was like name dropping. I always hated that in the military. “You better do this because the Colonel wants it done.” See what I mean? There’s an implied authority there by someone who’s absent. And that authority is easily abused. But that’s not what’s happening here. This is more about the revealing of God to the person being baptized. Here’s how Dr. Lenski explains it:

“Baptism takes place in the sphere of the revelation of the Triune God. It is the gospel revelation that is referred to, which is full of grace and truth. Baptism is thus pure gospel and by no means a legal rite. It enriches the person baptized by the gifts of the gospel, it is not a mere act of obedience to a command on the person’s part.” [Lenski, , 1175–1176.] And that shows us precisely why we baptize both children and adults. Both are merely receivers of the gift. And in this gift, the wholeness of God is revealed—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Oh by the way, this particular passage is the only place in all of Scripture in which we have the Holy Trinity named in this way. All three are mentioned in a few other places, but not like this. Lenski again: “This is God’s full name; he is one God, yet exists in three persons. The mystery of his Being, of this one Essence in three persons, no human mind will ever fathom.” [Lenski, 1176.] And God had to reveal it to us, for us to understand his plan of salvation: “for our salvation we must know that the Father sent the Son, that the Son came for our redemption, and that the Father and the Son sent the Spirit for our sanctification.” [ibid.]

God’s full name is revealed to us in this passage, His plan of salvation is revealed to us in His name. And His will for us is also here. Go, Disciple, and Baptize. And yes, there’s one more in there: “Teach”... “Teach them to obey all that I have commanded you.” So yes, we have some teaching to do. Notice I said “we”.

This is not merely my commission. This job is not merely mine. Our vision doesn’t say “have a Great Commission pastor” does it? It says “Be a Great Commission church”. And that means all of you. Every single one…those who are here today, and those who aren’t. If you’re on the membership roster of our church, this commission rests on your shoulders, too. And that means even more for those of you who are here more regularly, doesn’t it?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “you can’t give what you don’t have.” If we’re going to make disciples, we must first be the kind of disciples we aim to make. Are we ready for that? Are each of you ready for that? Some of you are…no question. Some of you are not. You are the only one who knows the answer to that. If you intend to live out this Great Commission, but you don’t think you’re ready, then talk to someone who is. Come to me; that’s my job - to teach, train, and equip everyone here to carry this out.

And that’s the last question for you to discern. We’ve discerned this as our first Vision Point collectively. Now you must discern what role you will play as an individual disciple in this effort. What is your contribution? What gifts and talents has God given you that will help our church family to pursue this? What are you capable of? What are you interested in? What do you feel called to do? All of these are questions that we must be asking of ourselves as we grow into this new chapter of our church family, and as we seek to follow God’s will for us.

We’ve just spent seven weeks celebrating all that God has done for us in the death and resurrection of His Son. The central event of our faith, foremost in our thoughts, is now placed in front of us as we ask ourselves: “what do I do with this?” Knowing what Jesus has done for us, knowing that our sins are forgiven, and our eternity is assured, what do we do? How do we share this with others? Who do we share it with?

When we come to the altar in a few minutes to receive the Lord’s Body and Precious Blood, let’s all ponder these questions, as the Sacrament reminds us of exactly what His Suffering and death earned for us. How we live a life of faith is our response to that. I pray that we will all come to know how God would have us follow His will for us - as individual disciples and as a church family. And let’s all be in prayer for our church family as we discover that path together.