Today we celebrate our God in God’s expression as the Trinity – God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We do it through readings that begin with, well, the beginning – through the great commission given by Jesus in Matthew just before his ascension – and end - chronoligically in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians with the formulation of the Trinity in the earliest churches.

Today we celebrate our God in God’s expression as the Trinity – God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We do it through readings that begin with, well, the beginning – through the great commission given by Jesus in Matthew just before his ascension – and end - chronoligically in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians with the formulation of the Trinity in the earliest churches.

“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.”

This opening poem of the book of Genesis – even in the first 3 verses – we are introduced to God – God, larger than life itself – larger than we can imagine.  In the first verse we meet God as creator – God is the one who has the amazing capacity to imagine the world – before there had been a world – before there had been heaven or earth. 

In the second verse we see the Ruach – the word in Hebrew for the spirit – breath -  the wind of God – sweeping -- hovering over the face of the waters. 

And in the third verse God speaks – and the word of God begins calling all things into being.  Already – in these first 3 verses – we are shown our God who is manifested as God – creator, Spirit, Word, in other words a Trinitarian God.  And Theologians have been trying to understand it and explain it ever since. 

I have heard the Trinity described by a science teacher friend of mine as like water – in her mind God can be seen as liquid water, as ice, or as steam.  The problem, I’ve found is, that any explanation that is easy to understand falls into one of the heresies as this one does.  We keep trying to make God fit into our own knowledge and intellect.

The Orthodox portray the Trinity as the “Dance of God.”  For me -- God – and the Trinity – is about relationships – and love – overwhelmingly about love.  As God is love – it is difficult to imagine love in isolation.  How does one love without anyone – or anything else in existence?  In humans that is Narcissism.  And so we use our limited language to try to describe the indescribable – God.  We talk of the Trinity, but few of us understand.  We are using concepts and language that is limited by what we know – to talk about what we can now only see as through a glass darkly. 

Just think, for a minute about your own life.  How many roles do you fill?  We are sons or daughters, brothers or sisters, mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, students, leaders, followers – the list goes on and on.  When you look in the mirror – there is more than one person staring back at you.  First there is the person that the world sees – your physical appearance.  Second there is the interior you – your passions, your dislikes – all the things that make you uniquely who you are.  And thirdly, there is all that you say and do – “the invisible power you have which enables you to communicate that interior life in such a way that others do not merely know about it, but know it in the sense that it becomes part of who you are.” (Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, p. 114).  If we humans can be this complex, God can only be infinitely more so.

So – do we give up, shrug and claim like many have, that it is all a mystery?  Or do we open up our hearts to let the love pass through us into the world?  This is the way of a disciple and the way that Jesus sent his disciples out into the world.  If you recall the stories of the 12 disciples in the New Testament it is obvious that Jesus did not select them because they were the brightest or the holiest men in Galilee.  Jesus had to explain the parables to them.  They argued over rank and position.  They heard Jesus talk – they spoke with him – in person – every day – and still they did not get it.  As Jesus faced his judgment and execution the disciples hid to save their own skins.  Even after the resurrection from his death on the cross – the disciples were in a fog.  There were times when they did not recognize him.  At other times they still found his teaching confusing.  Even in this passage this morning we hear that some worshiped him – but others doubted.   In spite of all their fumbling and bumbling, Jesus sends the disciples into the world – both the worshipers and the doubters.  “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, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”   Jesus is able to use them all – those who worshiped and those who doubted – because God comes to us all wherever we are – and sends us out to do work that we are already equipped for.  The call to discipleship comes to us wherever we are in our faith journeys.  We do not need to have reached some destination – some pinnacle of belief – before God can use us.  When we decide to become followers of Jesus Christ – to become his disciples – then transformation will come – transformation always comes in stages.  After we make our commitment to be God’s disciples then we find ourselves beginning to make changes in our lives as we grow into what it means to be a disciple.

Most of us made that commitment when we were baptized – or when we were confirmed – as Sarah and Amanda were yesterday.  We have made promises that should change our lives.  We have not joined the Christian club – or the St. Mary’s club, but we have made vows to become followers of Jesus – to become his disciples.  In the midst of all of the people who are running for political office – telling us how they are best qualified to lead this country – those of us who are followers of our triune God already have a Lord – already have a master whom we follow.  All the rest is administrative details. 

Before we can go into the world to make disciples – we must become disciples.  As we read the gospel stories in the New Testament we should realize and be comforted that we do not need to have achieved perfection before we begin.  God is able to use us exactly where we are today.  And we do not need to become something other than what we are.  Jesus said to the fishermen -- Andrew, Simon Peter, James and John, “I will make you fishers of people.”  They would still be the fishermen that they were.  They would only need to change the objects of their fishing.  We just need to be willing to take who we are and what we do -- keeping in mind the master we have chosen – and vowed – to follow.  We just need to be willing to be transformed into a new version of who we already are.  And when we make this commitment – when we are willing to do – to become -- what we have promised, what we were gifted from birth to do, then we, too, will never do our work alone.  For as Jesus vowed to the 11 on that mountain in Galilee, he also vows to us, “and remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”