The Rev. Dr. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Greeneville, TN
Trinity Sunday
May 31, 2026
I'll be honest with you… Trinity Sunday can feel a bit intimidating for preachers. Especially in Churches where there are no curates or seminarians… No newly ordained folks who can give you the expanse of their freshly developed wares…
Trinity Sunday is the Sunday when preachers sometimes become amateur mathematicians trying to explain how God is three in one, and one in three… They try to do this without accidentally wandering into heresy. They do this, trying to explain the unexplainable.
Preachers often use images and try to be clever but end up being very wrong, back themselves in a corner, and make theologians wince. They try to explain the Trinity as water, as ice, as liquid, and as vapor; they use clover leaves; the sun with heat and light. Yet every analogy eventually breaks down, leading to one heresy or another…
Because the Trinity was never meant to be solved like a mathematical equation. The Trinity is not primarily a doctrine to explain. It's more of a relationship we are invited into.
Today's Gospel from Matthew does not show the disciples gathered in a classroom learning theological definitions. Instead, they are standing on a mountain in Galilee together with the risen Christ. Matthew tells us something startling about this encounter… "When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted."
Notice that... Resurrection has happened. The risen Christ stands before them. And still, some were uncertain… They waivered… they hesitated… they doubted. We've talked before about faith and doubt, that they often complement each other… How they co-exist, one making the other stronger. Faith and uncertainty often live together. We can see it in the fact that we can worship and still wrestle with the teaching. We can believe and still ask questions. We can follow Christ and still wonder.
In the Gospel lesson, Jesus doesn't condemn the disciples for their doubt. Jesus doesn't say, "Come back when your faith is stronger." Instead, Jesus entrusts these imperfect disciples with the greatest mission imaginable… "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…"
Not after their certain. Jesus sends them out, now, He sends us out, NOW… Go… Make Disciples and Baptize. In our weakness. In the midst of questions. In our brokenness and incompleteness. Because the Christian mission depends upon God's faithfulness… it never depends on flawless disciples. If it did, it would have ended years ago.
And Jesus sends them out to do this in the name (not names) of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One name. One God. One divine life. The God we encounter is eternally relational Father loving Son, Son loving Father, Spirit proceeding in Love… All together as ONE in an endless communion of self-giving relationship. At the center of that reality is not isolation. It's not competition or domination… The center of the reality of the Godhead is Love. Pure undefinable, unifying, restoring, redeeming, and life-giving Love.
That's a difficult concept to grasp in this day and age… Many people are beginning to wonder whether division is simply the way things are. And the way things are going to be from now on…We see very few examples of unity in our society… No ideas or images that we can point to and say that's what it's supposed to be… That's what harmony and redeeming love look like.
So we need the Trinity in our life… Because the Trinity proclaims the truth that relationship, not separation, is God's deepest reality. Communion is holy… Not alienation, or isolation. And Love, NOT fear, has the final word.
Perhaps that is why Paul ends his second letter to the Corinthians not with an argument, but with a benediction and blessing: "Put things in order, listen to my appeal," he says. "Agree with one another, live in peace…"
Like us today, the Corinthians were struggling with conflict, mistrust, and division within their own community. Sometimes folks look at scripture and don't realize that they're as messed up as we are. The world hasn't changed so much…Why? Because we fail to listen… We fail to act and love as Jesus taught us… We fail to Go, Make Disciples, Baptize, Teach, and Remember!
Paul doesn't tell them merely to behave better. He has them strive for something deeper… Something rooted their reconciliation in God. "And the God of Love and peace will be with you... The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you." Grace, Love, communion.
Notice how those are not abstract ideas. Grace is Christ coming toward us when we fail. Love is the Father holding all creation together, even when we wander. Communion is the Spirit binding us together despite our differences.
The Trinity must be experienced in relationship before we can even begin to understand it. We know God whenever grace meets guilt. We know God whenever Love overcomes fear. And we experience God whenever people who are opposed to one another choose peace. The Trinity becomes visible whenever communities carry one another through struggles & grief and whenever forgiveness disrupts anger.
I think churches understand the Trinity best through simple, ordinary acts… not complex creeds or doctrines. The examples I've seen this past week are… A meal shared with someone grieving. Prayers spoken beside a hospital bed. Hands assembling lunch bags for the homeless. A congregation singing while still carrying sorrow. A community welcoming the lonely regardless of their circumstances. That's Trinitarian life. That's divine life… A life where Love is received, Love is shared, and Love is multiplied.
Jesus ends Matthew's Gospel with words that many of us cling to… "And remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." And from there, we are expected to Go, Make Disciples, Baptize, Teach, and Remember. Do this and be a witness to the Good News in this weary world…
The weight of the world is heavy. The work of mercy is exhausting. Peacemaking is costly. And sometimes faithfulness feels lonely. Yet Christ does not say, "Go and figure it all out alone." He says, "I am with you, always." The Father's Love surrounds us, the Son walks beside us, and the Spirit breathes within us. So we are never sent out alone and unsupported.
Perhaps Trinity Sunday bids us ask one burning question: What kind of people are we becoming if we worship a God whose very life is communion? If God is relationship, then faith cannot stay individually private and personal. If God is self-giving Love, then discipleship cannot remain proud and self-centered. If God is unity and communion, then our divisions cannot be what the world sees when it looks at the Church.
The Church is called to become what it proclaims! We are called to be a people of grace. A people of peace. People who carry Christ's presence into the world. People who embody the blessing Paul spoke long ago, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you."
Not simply with us. But through us, for the life of the whole world.
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