Season after Pentecost
Trinity Sunday
Matthew 28:16-20

Contextual Background:

After the resurrection, the disciples meet Jesus on a mountain in Galilee. Some worship, some doubt. Jesus declares, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples among all mishpachot (nations), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

See this post for why “among” is a faithful, and needed translation.

Within the Jewish Tradition:

Israel’s faith was rooted in the oneness of God: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one” (Deut 6:4). Monotheism affirmed that all humans are human and the created world is good. Jesus, risen from the dead, stands within this tradition yet reveals God’s life as Father, Son, and Spirit — unity in diversity, community in oneness.

The Challenge Then:

The challenge for the disciples was to trust that the God who delivered Israel, who was embodied in Jesus, was now present and active through the Spirit. They were sent not to dominate, but to share God’s life-giving story with all mishpachot.

The Challenge Now:

We live in a culture that often wields divine language for domination — including Christian Nationalism. Trinity Sunday proclaims that God’s life is not domination but communion: mutuality, belovedness, and shared power. God’s oneness is expansive, not exclusive; God’s unity makes space for diversity and difference.

Implications for Leaders & Communities:

• Leaders: teach the Trinity not as abstract math, but as God’s life of love into which we are invited.
• Communities: practice trinitarian life — unity without uniformity, diversity held in love, mission shaped by mutual service.

What I Am Learning:

The Trinity shows me that God is relationship, in conversation with God’self and the creation. To live in God is to live in mutuality, not domination — and to invite all peoples and creation into that communion. I am learning that the Trinity encompasses all of creation and all of time. The character of God revealed in Jesus is the true destiny of the earth.

The Question I’m Sitting With:

How can my community embody trinitarian life — unity, diversity, and mutual love — as a witness against domination in our world?