Trinity Sunday (Matthew 28:16-20)  6/15/2014

A little more than a week ago, many people throughout the world took a moment to pause and remember the 70th anniversary of a day we call D-Day. This day continues to hold great significance in our common history; significant because we may personally know people who were present on the beaches of Normandy that day, significant because of the sheer scale of the event and its importance in world history. In remembrance of this day, Brian Williams, NBC News Anchor, presented a special broadcast titled, “Journey to Normandy.” His news story highlighted the lives of four men, all near 90 years old, who were returning to the same beaches they encountered 70 years ago, at a time when they were just a few years removed from their high school days. As they traveled back to Normandy they remembered their first trip, an experience that was beyond words in many ways, and they shared their memories of that day and the many days that followed. As I listened to these brave men share their thoughts about their upcoming visit to that far away beach in France, I was quite moved by the men’s stories and the hopes they had set for their visit. One man hoped to finally discover the future of a wounded teenager he had seen those many years ago, another simply wanted to throw a flower into the water where a dear friend was lost forever, and another brought his family along so they would understand his story in a deep and personal way. Their hopes and dreams, after all these years, were rooted in relationships with others: some relationships were only momentary (like the wounded teenager), while others were life-long relationships of family and close friends. The hopes of these veterans reveal an important truth for all of us: the spiritual connections we share with God and with each other are nurtured by our relationships. These brave men’s stories, begun in the crucible of the frightening moments on a distant beach, continued and was transformed to something profound and valuable due to their intimate relationships with family, friends, and God. Each transformation was made manifest in their personal story, the story of the past 70 years since that first day on the Normandy beach.

This morning, we hear a bit of God’s story and our relationship with God and God’s creation. Our first lesson this morning is the beginning of that story. And our Gospel lesson presents us with the final verses of Matthew’s Gospel account of Jesus’ ministry among us. There is, of course, an amazing journey of God and God’s people in the many words and stories between these two lessons! A story is always best told from its beginning and it is important for us to hear the opening words of God’s story in Genesis, the story of God’s relationship with creation. We hear that everything was made in relationship to the other; thoughtfully created, rightly ordered and made with God’s love…this is God’s intention. Yes, only after this first divine story of creation did humanity discover some challenges with our relationships. And every story since the first bite of the apple has been a story filled with mixed emotions; good and bad, joy and sorrow, success and disappointment. We even hear this tension in our Gospel lesson this morning, “When the disciples saw Jesus, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” (Matt 28:17) Filled with faith and troubled by doubt…a tension we might all be familiar with on occasion. But the story of God is a story of great love! God’s story is a joyful triumphant story that assures us that regardless of the challenges of life, we are always a people of God, redeemed through Christ. A people always invited into relationship with God. On this morning we call Trinity Sunday, God’s loving relationship is the essence of the Triune God. God’s eternal presence, known to us in the mystery of God’s loving relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the divine blessing of love. The very nature of God is relationship; no wonder we are invited into relationship with God to join in the story of God’s miraculous creation.

In response to God’s invitation to relationship, we might wonder, how are we in relationship with God? I recently went to BJ’s Wholesale Club to get some gas. After scanning my number into the system I was reminded that my membership renewal was coming due and I needed to go to the office if I wanted to remain a member of the club. With God, there is no heavenly renewal form to ensure our membership – simply an invitation to be in relationship with God; relationship with God and relationship with others. This is Christ’s message to his disciples we hear in our Gospel lesson. Go into all the world: be in relationship with others. Baptize them: accept others in my name as you would accept me. Teach them: spread the Good News of Christ. And if you lose heart or stumble on your way, remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age…there is no end to our relationship, Jesus tells us.

Relationship with God is the very nature of our common lives. Relationship implies a life connected with God and others through our daily prayers, our actions, our stories. Our stories are an important part of our journey. Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham, authors of the wonderful book The Spirituality of Imperfection, retell an ancient tale: “Once some disciples of the great Rabbi approached him and asked, ‘Rabbi, you are constantly telling stories. Why do you answer all questions by telling a story?’ The disciples then braced themselves, certain that, true to the tradition, the great Rabbi would answer such questions about story with a story. But the great Rabbi, after a loving, lingering pause, responded: ‘Salvation lies in remembrance.’…The great rabbi knew the fundamental spiritual truth: Those who have no past, have no future. Spirituality’s ‘pervasiveness’ embraces both the past and the future in the present moment.”^[i] The Triune God’s loving relationship is an eternal presence, embracing past and future into our present midst, continually inviting us into relationship. The brave veterans of that far away beach took up the invitation to be in relationship with the loving presence of God and throughout their lives created joyful stories of love and remembrance from the relationships forged from their youth. This morning, we bless and celebrate our young pilgrims and their mentors, who will soon take up a journey to their own far away place to discover new experiences in their relationship with God and each other. These moments fill our personal story books with grace-filled moments of God’s love and create opportunities to be in the presence of a God who cares for us deeply. So go forth filled with God’s love, be in relationship with others, and remember that wherever you travel, whether near or far, God will be with you always, to the end of the age. AMEN.

^[i] Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham, The Spirituality of Imperfection, (New York: Bantam Books, 1992), 155.