Rochester, MN UCC - "A Perfect Loving Communion" - Matthew 28:16-20

As many of you know, we’ve partnered with Dr. Sarah Ruble of Gustavus Adolphus College to produce a video series engaging with Christian Doctrine and History entitled, “How Did We Get…?”  The first video in our series is on that most confusing and most central of Christian doctrines, The Trinity.  In this video, Dr. Ruble acknowledges that trinitarian language and theology can seem overwhelmingly complicated.  This acknowledgment leads to the title of her conclusion to the video; after 25 minutes of theological and historical detail, Dr. Ruble asks, “So What?”  What does the trinity mean for us?  How does it help us to better worship, serve, and understand God?

 At the end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus instructs the apostles to baptize in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We certainly expect that baptism will be in the name of God, so why give all three names, why not just baptize in the name of the Father?  One of the claims of trinitarian theology is that there is no God before or beyond the relationship of the trinity.  God is first and foremost the perfect loving communion of the three equally divine persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  This means that to baptize in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is to baptize in the name of God, for the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and they are all God together in eternal loving relationship.

 For we who believe in God as the creator and the redeemer of the world, the trinity means that the world begins and ends in perfect loving communion.  We come from such perfect love and it is to such perfect love that we shall return.  Our salvation involves being ever more closely united to the loving communion that is the Triune God.  We can know something of that love in our lives in Holy Communion, prayer, and service to others.  We are called to proclaim this love to the world, welcoming all of creation to return to life within the perfect loving communion of the trinity; or, as Matthew says it, “to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”  Let us bask in the love of God and heed the call to share it with the world.  Amen.

 Pastor Andrew Greenhaw