Sermon - Trinity Sunday

Matthew 28:16-20     

                      “But some doubted”

The three lessons appointed for today were very carefully selected in order to illustrate the three aspects of our Triune God.  God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; God as Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier – it is very important that Christians do realize, are taught, and remember that we confess and worship God as a Trinity.  Three persons, distinct, yet indivisible.   I am a huge fan of Trinity Sunday and an avid supporter of every effort to make sure that members of our churches are confronted with this doctrine of the Church.

However.  I have been waiting three years for this reading from Matthew 28 to turn up in the Lectionary.  I heard a sermon on this text while attending a conference in Minneapolis.  And I have been hankering for the chance to share what was preached to me.  The preacher that day was Bishop Will Willimon.  A native of Greenville, SC, he served as Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, then as a Methodist Bishop, and is now retired and living back in Durham.  I am unapologetically stealing his insight – though I have no illusions I will be able to preach as convincingly as he does.

But here goes.

Matthew 28.  These verses are the last that Matthew will write.  What we have here is final encounter between Jesus and disciples.  Luke alone writes two books.  When he finished his account of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, Luke writes a second book – the book of Acts – in order to help us understand what happens after all these thing had taken place.  Matthew and Mark close out their accounts soon after that fateful afternoon at Golgotha and not long after the bizarre Sunday morning when all heck breaks loose.

In Matthew 28 we are told that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary go to the tomb.  In Matthew, it is while they are there that the earthquake occurs and there is an angel of the Lord who descends and rolls back the stone, and then sits on it.  The guards see this and are shaken.  Matthew tells us they become like dead men. 

The angel tells the women not to be afraid, that Jesus is risen.  He also tells the women to go tell Jesus’ disciples that he is going ahead of them, to Galilee, and they are to follow and see him there.

As the women start on their way, they are met by Jesus himself.  In Matthew, the women are allowed to touch him, in particular we are told that they took hold of his feet.  They worship Jesus, the scripture tells us, then Jesus reminds them of their assignment and sends them on their way to tell the disciples to head toward Galilee.

There is a short insertion about the plot between those shaken guards and the chief priests to lie about all of this.  And then we get to the verses read for us this morning.  The bumbling disciples do make their way to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them.  They get there, and then they see Jesus.  Again, there is some worshipping. 

It would be helpful to have some insight to what this “worshipping” was all about.  Did they fall down before Jesus?  Did they also take hold of his wounded feet?  Did they pledge themselves to him and to his message?  If we knew the form and format of that worshipping, we might be so perplexed about what happens next.

When they saw him, they worshipped him; Matthew tells us.  Then Matthew adds, “but some doubted.” 

“Some doubted”?  What, exactly did they “doubt?” 

The doubt most common among would-be disciples of Jesus is doubts regarding the resurrection itself.  But how could they doubt the resurrection when the resurrected Jesus is standing there with them?

Some doubted.  What, in the world, would they have reason to doubt?  Had they not been with him on Friday, and watched as the blood and breath and the life were wrung out of his beaten body?  They may have doubted the depth of human cruelty, but on that day they had seen it in full display.

“Some doubted.”  Did they doubt the ability of Jesus to keep his word?  Had he not promised them he would not leave them orphaned – and he didn’t.  Had he not promised them that he would show up in Galilee, if they were to make the trek out there – and here he is.

But some doubted.  What is it that they doubt?

Willimon invites us to consider that the doubts may be associated with the lines which follow.  Jesus invites them to that particular mountain top in order to remind them of what he had said to them before, on the top of the mountain.  Jesus had told them that it was his right to share with them the authority they needed to go forth into all the nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus had told them, and now he is reminding them, that if this whole thing is going to work it is up to them to teach others how to obey what Jesus had commanded.

Some doubted.

And we would surely not fault them for doubting, would we.  Are we not far too often victims of precisely the same doubt?

Some doubted - that they knew enough or could remember enough to tell the story and proclaim the message.

Some doubted - that their skills in public speaking were equal to the task of taking on the mantle of God’s spokesperson.

Some doubted – no doubt – that Jesus would really do this.  That Jesus would go away and say to them, “You are in charge.”  “Run with it.”  “Have fun!”  “Be faithful.”

Some doubted, and we can hardly blame them, that this bumbling bunch of dim-wits and screw-ups could form the foundation of a Church which would house the living word of God.

“When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.”

I don’t know where in your experience you have seen Jesus.  But I know that you came out here today in order to worship him.  So I am going to ask you to allow me to place you firmly among those on the front-side of that semicolon.  You have seen Jesus, or seen enough of him, to worship him. 

I want to challenge you this morning with the second half of the sentence; with the part that comes after the semicolon.  Is there doubt in your heart?  Is there doubt on your tongue?  Do you doubt the action of Jesus in commissioning you to be the one who will now go to all the nations, baptizing and teaching?  Because that is what happens in Matthew 28, on that mountain top. 

I agree that it is a reckless thing to do – but there is no doubt that Jesus entrusted the telling of his story and the sharing of the Good News to those who had experienced it.  There will be the occasional heavenly visit, but the life and vitality of the Church of Jesus Christ rests solidly on the shoulders of his disciples.

One more part to this which I do not want to fail to mention.  It is to all of the disciples that Jesus gives this charge.  Not just to some; not only to a few; but to all of them. 

I was asked during the week about my sermon last week in which I spoke of the Spirit of God coming at Pentecost and blowing some things (some beautiful and faithfully crafted things) away.  I am on the same message today.  For the Church to be what God is calling it to be the Church must accept the hurricane strength breeze which is blowing among us and moving us.  We have got to return to our roots and harken less to the structures we have painstakingly crafted.

We do not gather on Sunday morning so the Gospel can be preached; we assemble on Sunday morning in order to be strengthened for the task of taking the good news into the world. 

When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.  They doubted that he would entrust them with this Holy Gospel.  They doubted that they would be equal to the challenge.  They doubted their own abilities.

But Jesus did not doubt them.  And Jesus had no doubts or misgivings.  And the expansion and ministry of the Church for these 2,000 years illustrates how correct Jesus was.

Do not doubt, but believe.  Believe that Jesus has this confidence in you.  Know that Jesus does not doubt your ability to be his messenger in the world.

Amen.