Matthew 28:16-20 But some doubted.

Creating God, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

I hope you liked Carolyn’s reading of the beginning of Genesis. Although it is among the most famous passages in the Bible, we don’t hear it very often in our Sunday liturgy – scheduled, as it is, in summer every three years. I wonder if you noticed how many times God beheld the goodness of creation – six times God saw what was good. And when it came to humankind, God saw that humankind was very good. (Not perfect, but very good!) I wonder if you noticed that this is not a story about before there was anything at all. According to this story, there was darkness and there was water for the breath of God to be blowing over. The earth was there, but it was a formless void, our text says. Actually, in Hebrew it says that the earth was all “tohu wabohu” which is a little bit like it sounds – crazy chaos – helter skelter — nonsense. “When God began to create” is how the Jewish Publication Society Bible translates it. Divine shaping or creating, according to the Bible, is ongoing and incomplete. When God first began shaping, the earth was tohu wabohu. God began to get things in order, making sense of nonsense. I wonder if you noticed that this story doesn’t have God eliminating chaos or night or the frightening abyss of the sea; God began to create some order, some distinctions, to set some limits. And it was all good.

All good, not according to a scientific or historical or even logical account of the beginning of time — this is a mystical account. Light and evening and morning are being created before the sun or other stars exist. This is a story about Divine morality and spirituality, about goodness and blessing in creating, in shaping. This is an attempt to convey some wisdom about the “Holy-One-Who-Dwells-in-This-World” [1] making order out of chaos, and making good out of what is just a mess. It is set in contrast to Babylonian creation stories which featured gods who caused chaos. It is even set in contrast to the other creation story in Genesis which is older by several hundred years, and which follows this one in chapter 2. (If you read in the Bible past the first chapter of the first book, you discover that Genesis has two creation stories that are not compatible.) This creation story is one of the newest stories written of the ancient Biblical texts – written late and inserted as prologue or introduction. This story is the answer to Pharaoh’s question to Moses: “Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let the people go free?” (The creator Who delights in the goodness of creation.) It is the answer to the question: “Why must we guard and protect the Sabbath against the insidious and endless encroachments of work?” (Because God has blessed and hallowed it for resting.)

I know that this reading from the beginning of Genesis sounds like it’s about primordial history, but I don’t think it’s meant to teach us an alternative to the big bang theory! The main question to ask about this story is not, “did this really happen?” but “Does this really happen?” This story in Genesis is a story about the present time of the reader – so it’s about now. Like any good prologue, it’s looking to the future – anticipating what’s to come. It’s a story that wants to make a difference in the way we live (and move and have our being). We lose sight of that completely when we engage in arguments about the science or history in this creation story. This story is reminding us of the essential goodness of the created order; that we are made in the likeness of the Divine (that is, with the capacity for mercy and kindness and love and dignity). And the story is reminding us that if God took a rest after six days of work, who are we to think we don’t need one too? This story was written hundreds of years after people in the ancient Near East had organized their calendars into seven-day weeks. They knew something about needing rest. I can tell you from experience, that Paul’s directive in Corinthians to put things in order, to agree with one another and to live in peace is a whole lot easier to imagine doing if folks are getting enough rest. I can tell you from experience that most of us do not get enough sabbath.

For our Gospel reading, at last we are back to the Gospel of Matthew, where we will remain for the rest of the Church year. These are the last verses in Matthew’s account, just after Jesus has appeared to Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” at the empty tomb and told them to instruct the disciples to get out of Jerusalem and head to Galilee. The women grabbed his feet in this version and he didn’t scold them at all for clinging to him. According to Matthew, the disciples did as they were told by the women and they went to the mountain in Galilee (think Sermon on the Mount). There they encountered the risen Lord. And then this great detail: When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” Some doubted. Even among the eleven that remained after Judas was gone – those who were closest to Jesus in Jesus’ lifetime – those who were entrusted to pick up where he left off. They saw him and some doubted. I always wonder how many doubters there were. “Some” is more than just one or two. So at least three. More than one-quarter of them doubted?

What I like even better is that Jesus doesn’t seem to mind at all. He’s called them all back home (for a rest maybe) and gave them all the same instructions – doubt or no doubt – makes no difference. After you’ve had a rest, you’ve got work to do. Jesus said. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, Go, therefore, [get back out there] and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” Aha! Holy Trinity!

Today is the day that the Church designates “Trinity Sunday” – a day to focus our prayerful attention on the mysterious gift of unity-in-diversity of God – of threefold unity – and it’s the kind of topic that theologians have written libraries full of books on. I think I would have paid more attention to those writings had I not felt so hammered with the gender-specific language for the first two persons of God. The First Testament had many titles for God: God, the most high; God, the creator; God, the one who sees me; God, the eternal. And there were descriptions of God being like a rock, like a potter, like an eagle, like a hen, like a father, like a mother, like a judge. And there were activities associated with God: God who creates and blesses; God who calls; God who speaks; God who rules and disciplines; God who rescues and restores. God was both male and female in Hebrew Scripture. Male and female were created in God’s image.

It was not until Jesus’ followers started comparing their guy to Caesar that they got stuck in masculine-only language for the Divine. Caesar claimed to be Lord. Caesar claimed to be Divine. Caesar claimed to be the Son of God. Jesus’ followers claimed all that for Jesus – Jesus, not Caesar, was Lord. Jesus, not Caesar, was Divine. Jesus, not Caesar, was the Son of God. In fact, Jesus was the ONLY son of God (i.e. not Caesar). God was Jesus’ father, whose primary qualities as parent were love and compassion, discipline and mercy. And God became their father too when Jesus called them brothers and sisters. Whether creating the world, redeeming the horror of the crucifixion, or inspiring the gathered community, [2] it was all the work of same God – and thus the building blocks of triune God became codified as masculine – and God has sounded like a boy’s name ever since. I also want to say that it’s not coincidental that the masculine formulation of the Trinity happened concurrently with the loss of authoritative roles for women in the early Church.

But I want to take a moment to review Jesus’ instructions about baptizing all nations – actually – all Gentiles it says – in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. I really think these words are evidence of liturgical instructions, developed late in the first century, embedded in the Gospel of Matthew (Trinitarian doctrine got developed later). The disciples are being called to extend the protection of the Holy One of Israel to everyone everywhere. In ancient Hebrew usage, saying “in the name of” means in the protective custody of. [3] Their mountaintop experience has given them the clarity of purpose to boldly extend forgiveness and mercy and the protection of God to everyone, and teach them to keep or protect or guard Jesus’ commandments. And what are Jesus’ commandments, according to Matthew? The writer of this Gospel has a list of commandments which are all about doing deeds of loving kindness – feeding those who are hungry, giving water to those who are thirsty, visiting those who are in prison, clothing those who are overexposed, caring for those who are sick, sheltering those who are without homes – you know the commandments of Jesus according to Matthew. I know you do.

There is an important trinity of ideas [4] in this brief passage at the very end of Matthew’s Gospel. The first idea is the majesty of Jesus, who has been thoroughly empowered in heaven and on earth. In other words, the humiliated and crucified Jesus has been vindicated. Second, the eleven are to go and make more disciples – followers of Jesus of all Gentiles. Doubt or no doubt, they are to draw people into community and teach them to listen to what Jesus taught. They are to make disciples – that is followers. Not believers, but followers. Not sayers, but doers. And third – and this is the best of all – Jesus says, “I am with you all the days to the close of the age.” Notice that he doesn’t say here, “I’ll be back at the close of the age to see how you’ve done.” He doesn’t say, “I have to leave now but I’ll see you again some day.” What he says is, “I am with you all the days to the close of the age.” Jesus promises his own enduring presence. There’s really nothing to be waiting for – we have the Risen Lord’s enduring presence with us even now.

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