Today is "Trinity Sunday." This cracks me up. Last week was Pentecost, the Sunday we often call "the birthday of the church," because we recall that in the giving of the Holy Spirit to the disciples in Jerusalem, the Church was formed. Given that, it is tempting to think, "God the Creator was before the beginning of time. Jesus was born a baby in Bethlehem. The Holy Spirit showed up at Pentecost. The Trinity is complete." The sermon title suggests we are not celebrating the "completion" of the Trinity. No One Had Ever Been Missing.
Jews and Muslims-the other two great monotheistic religions of the world-find the Trinity hard to grasp. "What are these Christians up to," they wonder, "worshiping three Gods?" We are not. We are just as monotheistic as Jews and Muslims. We worship the ONE God. Which is why I read the passage from Deuteronomy today. Just as we believe no "part" of the Trinity was ever missing, so we believe that this three-part God is really One God. As if that makes it any easier to explain the Trinity.

If this were a theology class, we'd unpack the doctrine of the Trinity. We'd be talking "what." But this is a sermon, and sermons are about "how to" not "what." As in, "how to live." What cracks me up is that the doctrine of the Trinity is supposed to help answer that question. I've been thinking a lot about it this week, and I've finally decided that "explanations" don't work with the Trinity. There is no way to "explain" three Persons who are One. No way to wonder how, if Jesus is God, who was in charge in heaven while Jesus was on earth. No way to divvy up who has which "job" in the Divinity. The statement that unpacks the Trinity for me, more than anything else, is "loving communication." Something I read this week said, "Only God can speak about" God. That's logical, but humans have a hard time "hearing" God, so the Incarnation translated "God" into human experience, and the Holy Spirit communicates this God message to us in ways that we can understand.

Which brings us to the gospel lesson. What makes this gospel lesson so important for Trinity Sunday is not the Trinitarian baptismal formula, where Jesus tells his disciples to baptize people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What makes this gospel lesson so important for Trinity Sunday is that Jesus tells his disciples to "make disciples." Being raised Baptist, my ears always pricked up when I heard the word, so I thought the Great Commission was about baptizing everyone on earth. Jesus tells us to baptize, of course, but baptism is like the gold seal on the diploma you receive at graduation. Like baptism, the seal isn't itself the hard work of study and attending classes and writing papers. It simply reflects all that has been done to earn the degree. Unlike going to school and earning a degree, however, baptism does not reflect our work, it reflects God's work. Grammatically speaking, the mission of the church to make disciples is the "master imperative" Jesus uses. Going, baptizing, and teaching to obey are tools of the mission.

Making disciples is hard work. It is small in scale and time consuming. There is nothing strategic or victorious about it. Discipling is about relationship. Relationship, in fact, is one of the ways that humans are like the highly relational Triune God. To make disciples, using Jesus' model, is to build and nurture a community of faith. That means, that keeping the Great Commission is about a way of life, not to a philosophy. Christianity, to hear Jesus tell, is not something

God. That's logical, but humans have a hard time "hearing" God, so the Incarnation translated "God" into human experience, and the Holy Spirit communicates this God message to us in ways that we can understand.
Which brings us to the gospel lesson. What makes this gospel lesson so important for Trinity Sunday is not the Trinitarian baptismal formula, where Jesus tells his disciples to baptize people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What makes this gospel lesson so important for Trinity Sunday is that Jesus tells his disciples to "make disciples." Being raised Baptist, my ears always pricked up when I heard the word, so I thought the Great Commission was about baptizing everyone on earth. Jesus tells us to baptize, of course, but baptism is like the gold seal on the diploma you receive at graduation. Like baptism, the seal isn't itself the hard work of study and attending classes and writing papers. It simply reflects all that has been done to earn the degree. Unlike going to school and earning a degree, however, baptism does not reflect our work, it reflects God's work. Grammatically speaking, the mission of the church to make disciples is the "master imperative" Jesus uses. Going, baptizing, and teaching to obey are tools of the mission.

Making disciples is hard work. It is small in scale and time consuming. There is nothing strategic or victorious about it. Discipling is about relationship. Relationship, in fact, is one of the ways that humans are like the highly relational Triune God. To make disciples, using Jesus' model, is to build and nurture a community of faith. That means, that keeping the Great Commission is about a way of life, not to a philosophy. Christianity, to hear Jesus tell, is not something you think. Christianity is something you live. As in, "teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

We're back to Deuteronomy. The shema is the defining statement of Judaism. Our defining statement, too, actually. "Hear, O Israel. The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." The shema is not about emotions or thinking, it's about living. You can tell it's about life because of how we are told to remember this commandment. It's important enough to know by heart, to think about it day and night, coming and going. Important enough to wrap around your hands so that you can't help but think about it while you work. Important enough put it on your foreheads-to be the most obvious thing people see about you, to be what guides everything you think, every response you make. Important enough to tell to your kids when you're tucking them in at night and riding in the car and sitting down to eat and checking behind their ears to see if they've washed.

Sound important? Sound like the thing that governs everything else? It's a way of living. To really live the shema in concrete, practical terms requires what Christians call "discipling." It is spending time with our children, with members of our faith community, and spending that time in ways that show how our faith is not just something we think about, but something that we governs every part of how we live. Showing each other, showing ourselves how what we believe shapes how we live. How we play with our friends, go to work every day, drive down the street, steward our time and money.

Which means that there is nothing lukewarm or wishy-washy about Jesus' Great Commission. When I was a kid, this passage made me very uneasy. I always felt guilty, because I thought what it meant was that I was "supposed to" be knocking on doors and spouting memorized evangelism talks. When Jesus tells us to "make disciples," he is talking about living with a community of faith and living into what that faith means. But, as near as I can tell, there is nothing here about making people believe as you do or forcing them to live the way you live. This is about relationship, friends. It is about commitment and accountability-two important parts of any meaningful relationship. And since it is about relationship with God, it is loving relationship.

After wrestling all week with this text and the doctrine of the Trinity, I have finally come to a conclusion that you might have already made. Listen to this! The implication of the doctrine of the Trinity-what makes this whole Great Commission thing work-is that God is for me. Not that God is just for Eileen Parfrey. Understand this for yourself. The doctrine of the Trinity means that God is for YOU! God, who is personal and gregarious and loving. God, who is longing to be known by you. God, who interjected God's very self into human history simply for the sake of being known. God, who is personal but never manageable. God, who is far beyond what humans can know or imagine, is never abstract nor objective. God is for us. Christ proves it. The Holy Spirit moves us to it.

God knows we'll have our doubts, friends. Who better than God to know our doubts! But despite our doubts, we are the ones who form the church and who carry out the Great Commission to make disciples. Like those eleven standing on the mountain in Galilee-some of whom worshiped right away, some of whom doubted-it is in "obedient listening" to this Great Commission that our doubts are resolved. We are converted by our hands and feet. As we do what Jesus commands us to do, we are shaped into the people we are called to be. Go and make disciples. In the process, you will yourself be discipled, and more importantly, you will find that God is for you.

When I was a little girl and my Uncle Doug was returning to college one fall, we went to Grama's house to say good-bye to him. As the farewells swirled, my favorite uncle in the whole world leaned towards me in my mother's arms. "Give your Uncle Doug a kiss good bye," he asked. I refused. He teased, "Why not?" I said, "I've run out of kisses." My Uncle Doug gave me one of my first theology lessons then. "The more kisses you give," he said, "the more kisses you have to give away." Jesus says the same thing in John, only he says it in Biblish. In plain English, Jesus says, the more we love others, the more aware we are of God's love. The more we are aware of God's love, the more we love others.

I got an email recently, one of those stories that people send to everyone in their directory. The story is a written as if you-are-there. A deadly epidemic is sweeping the globe, killing everyone exposed. A vaccine can only be developed from pure, untainted blood of a certain type. Civil defense calls everyone to hospitals to be tested in the search for the "perfect blood." Your child is the only one in the world who fits the bill. The world is saved! How much of his blood will be needed? All of it. That'll kill him. But if he dies, it will save all of the rest of the world. He's the only one. The story goes on to draw the obvious parallels to Jesus, asking readers to wonder how God must feel when we're too busy to say "thanks" or when we are blasé about this gift. John says that is the kind of love God had for us, therefore it is the kind of love Jesus expects of his followers. I can do that in theory, but-so sorry Jesus-I can't do that in reality. I have trouble finding time just to get to church. You should see my calendar! I'm gone every night of the week-volunteering at the community center, driving kids to lessons and games or working extra hours so I can get out of town to see my parents. I never get a moment's peace for myself. It's "community enough" to see folks at church once in awhile. I guess I'm over-committed, but I'm doing everything I can.

From the book of Acts: "I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. For as I went through your towns and countryside, I looked at your calendars and your checkbooks, I looked carefully at the objects of your worship. I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship when you have time, this I proclaim to you."

Paul's interpretation of the Default God doesn't scandalize his listeners until he gets to judgment and resurrection. Up until then, the Athenians are open-minded, tolerant, unwilling to exclude any possibility. Paul makes Jesus' abstract talk about "loving obedience" concrete. Paul tells his listeners that there is only one God. You can start to see this God by noting the beauty and order of creation shown in the Cascades. You can be aware of-and even grateful to-some hand in the universe preserving your life and sustaining you. But if you stop there, you are still trapped in idolatry. You are stuck at the idolatry of "spiritual but not religious." If your God is in your own image, if your God is only for the care of your life and those whom you love, if your God depends on you to manipulate it or advise it about what you need-you are limiting God to your spirituality. If your God is only about what you know or care about, you are religious and not spiritual-and that too is idolatry. Any God limited to the here-and-now can't begin to keep the promises Jesus makes to his disciples. Christians are resurrection people. We believe in-are willing to stake our lives on-the one who was dead and is now alive. We will not be able to "achieve" love-because of the resurrection. But in the community of resurrection people, we practice "loving obedience" in relationship with God. We learn how to receive love from God and love from each other. We learn how to love in return. The more we learn about love the more we discover we can't achieve love. But we do learn that wonderful thing my Uncle Doug taught me so long ago: that the more you give away, the more you have to give.