The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Feast Days

Today’s Readings and the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

Read important background on this feast here

Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40

In today’s passage, Moses is reminding the people who they are and what they’re about. He does this in the context of who God is. V32 says that God is greater than anyone or anything on earth. He reminds them of how God has revealed God’s self to them and how God is in relationship with them. He recalls in v33 how God gave them the law on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19) and v34 remembers how God brought them out of the land of Egypt.

The lectionary skips v35-38 but, there, Moses basically says that God did all this to make the Israelites his people, to be in relationship with them. And that’s why, in v39-40, they’re instructed to live in a certain manner.

In this passage, Moses speaks of a personal God – a God who has encountered the Israelites in a personal and direct way, and a God who intervenes in human history to accomplish God’s plan.

What does the passage say about our understanding of one God, three persons? It says that our earliest understandings and interactions were of a God who is personal. A God who acts to bring others into relationship with him. A God who can be known and experienced. The language Moses puts around God is experiential – I know God exists because I’ve seen God act. Moses didn’t get caught up in trying to define God, and I think that’s a good lesson, especially on the feast of the Trinity!

In the past, how has God concretely sought to be in relationship with you?

How have you experienced God? What kind of language do you use to describe that?

Romans 8:14-17

Background of the book

Chp 8 is a key chapter in the book of Romans. I think this passage should be understood on this feast as Paul’s experience of the Triune God.

In v14 Paul says that we’re led by the Spirit. We might imagine this as being swept up into the experience of something greater than ourselves. We’re led by the Spirit into an experience of the Trinity. How is this possible – that we can enter into the experience of the Holy Trinity? It’s only possible through Christ’s death and resurrection – v17 we are joint heirs with Christ and we enter into all that Christ has done – both his suffering and his glory.

Glory in scripture is an expression that means the manifestation of the presence of God. We come by way of Christ’s death and resurrection into the presence of God. And then if we go back to v15 – we’re led by the Spirit through the work of Christ, and this creates for us a completely new relationship.

God now is not something Other, some transcendent being that is completely apart from us. We are in relationship with God the Father! We call God the Father by an intimate name – Abba. This is a name of relationship that expresses both who the Father is and who we are in that relationship with the Father. We might also keep in mind here that, although Paul and Jesus himself used Abba as an intimate name, it is not the only name that expresses that relationship. “Mama” might capture it better for some.

Verse 15 tells us that we are being led to a new place; there is no going back to Egypt! We have been adopted. In the Roman concept of adoption, there was a complete change in legal status; all the old debts were wiped away and the person became someone completely new under Roman law. This is a concept not found in the Old Testament and not practiced by Jews – Paul draws the image solely from the surrounding culture and would have appealed directly to the original audience living in the Roman capital.

Verse 15 also gives us some emotion; the word cry is a word that conveys the sense of proclaiming something with a deep emotion. We don’t just state it – it comes from a place deep inside of us.

Paul is telling us two very important things in this passage:

That God is relational – the Father and the Son and the Spirit are actively relating
That we are now a part of that relationship. Our Eastern Orthodox brothers and sisters would use the language of divinization. In some mysterious, mystical way, we are a part of that dynamic relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit.

You might come from a family background that makes Paul’s metaphor of adoption helpful in your understanding of God. If so, how does it deepen your understanding of your relationship with God? If that metaphor is not helpful, consider different ones, such as a deep friend relationship. How can other metaphors deepen your understanding of your relationship with God?

Matthew 28:16-20

Background of the book

This same passage is used in Year A for the Ascension. Using it also on this feast tells us there’s an intimate connection between Jesus’ going, our work, and who God is.

In v17 it says “When they saw him, they worshiped but they doubted.” This word doubted in the Greek is distazo, from di meaning two or double, and statis meaning standing. A double-stance, going two ways, to vacillate. This verse assures us it is possible to worship even as we doubt! And note that Jesus doesn’t rebuke them for their wavering. He just tells them to get to work.

Most scholars agree that these are not the “red-letter” actual words of Jesus. Rather, this is the product of decades of theological reflection by the early Christians. Remember, the gospel of Matthew was written in the mid 80s at the earliest – so this is at least 50 years after the historical events. And even though this passage uses Trinitarian language, it took centuries for the church to develop a fuller understanding of exactly what that meant.

So what does this passage tell us about this feast? Moses and Paul both talked about the experience of God. I think Matthew tells us that the experience of God always leads us into action. We encounter God, and then we are charged with: go, baptize, teach.

This is not a static experience. You don’t enter the Trinity and stay still. An experience of God always compels us outward, just as it compelled the Trinity outward into the Incarnation and the sending of the Spirit.

The passage begins in verse 16 with the Eleven traveling to Galilee like Jesus had ordered them to do through the women at the beginning of chapter 28. Ordered is primarily a military term meaning “to draw up in order, arrange in place, assign, appoint.” A popular Baptist song is “Onward Christian Soldiers”! Martialing the forces!

In Matthew 28:10 Jesus sends a message through Mary Magdalene that the disciples should go to Galilee to see him. Galilee was where Jesus began his ministry, so they are coming full circle. Mountain might also allude back to chp 17 and the mountain of transfiguration. Throughout scripture, mountains are privileged places of God’s revelation, and Matthew, in particular, is fixated with mountains.

In v17, the disciples finally see Jesus, and they worship him right along with doubting what they are experiencing. Sometimes we like to think that if we had just seen and experienced Jesus in the flesh, we would be better disciples. This gives me comfort to know that his closest disciples weren’t completely on board even after the resurrection. After all they’d seen and experienced, some weren’t quite willing to risk that total abandon that Jesus asked for. Even so, Jesus gives a commission to all of them – not just those who are 100% in.

The Exodus reading tells us that God has incredible power. The Matthew reading tells us that Jesus has been given this same power and authority. And it is with that authority he sends the disciples out on mission. Back in Matthew 10:5-6, Jesus sent these same disciples out on a mission to the lost sheep of Israel. At that time, he told them not to go anywhere near the Gentiles. Now Jesus is expanding this scope of the ministry to all nations – to everyone.

Acts 8:16 recounts an early baptism only in the name of Jesus. Here we see a development in the Trinitarian formula for baptism.

Disciple is a key term for Matthew and in v19 he turns it into a verb. And this verb is in the present, ongoing tense: go now and continue to go. This is an immediate, ongoing mission to which we are always being invited.

Verse 20 gives us a daunting task: go to the whole world and teach them! But don’t worry – Jesus is with us! This might remind us of Matthew 1:23 – Jesus is Emmanual – God with us. I am with you is a verb that says it’s true now and will continue to be true into the future.

Have you ever experienced the intertwining of faith and doubt?

What is your part in the Great Commission and how do you carry it out?

Questions to ponder

What language for the Trinity most appeals to you?

What does each passage say about our understanding of one God, three persons? And what does the reading say about our experience of that relationship?