Genesis 1:1 - 2:4; Romans 1:16-23; Matthew 28:16-20

O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen. Remember to say Amen today whenever you hear the doxological phrase - Blessed be God. That will help move us along - and keep your blood flowing this wonderful spring morning. There is an old story about God that goes like this: God had worked for some time at a fiddly job but finally succeeded - and separated light from dark. One of the heavenly host saw all this and commented, "Say, God, that is really neat. What are you going to do now?" God answered: "Oh, I think I'll call it a day." To dissect something is to kill it. We know that is true about jokes and it is true about many other things as well. Some things you just have to understand where you live - in your heart and in your guts - rather than in your head and on the cold hard table of philosophical analysis. And this is probably no more true than when it is applied to the doctrine of the Trinity; that doctrine which tells us: "Hear O Israel, the Lord Thy God, the Lord is One" and which also tell us "Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - One God, forever and ever." Blessed be the Father who made it all! Amen Blessed be the Son who saved it all! Amen And Blessed be The Spirit which gives life to it all.! Amen The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most important of all the teachings of the church; so important that each year the Sunday after Pentecost is set aside to teach about, so important in fact, that at one time the whole season that stretches from now till Advent was called Trinity. And so I want to talk to you about it today. It is an important reminder to those who have heard it all before - much as the words "I love you", even when said for the hundredth time, is important to the beloved, And for those who haven't heard it all before - it may bring new understanding and appreciation for what the church has proclaimed since the day Jesus told us to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." The doctrine of the Trinity asserts that we know God - and God reveals himself - in three persons. Three persons - one God. As I have already said, how that works is one of those things, one of those mysteries, that defies dissection. But it is a functional mystery and a glorious mystery, one that describes the nature of God and which describes the nature of the wonderful relationship God has with us and with all creation. The mystery begins, of course, before creation itself begins. It begins with God living in community with himself before time - before matter - before energy itself It begins before every marvel that we see about us came to exist, and before every wonder that our science has discovered and is yet to discover came into being. And the mystery continued when God decided to take nothing and make something of it! And so the story of creation unfolds as Frank read it to us this morning. The first day when light was created - and then the second - the third - and the fourth days, those days the scriptures tell us can be as a thousand years (even as a thousand years can be as one day) and then there was a fifth day and after it, the sixth. The sixth day was a really busy day - so busy one can hardly blame God for taking a rest after it was done. The sixth day was the day in which God made all the living creatures that live on the earth (he had done the creatures of the sea and of the air the day before) - and having done them and seeing that they were good - God made us. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground - everything that has the breath of life in it - I give every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning - the sixth day. You know - it's not like something Science would say. Words like "good" and "very good" are not used in the academic world. But they resonate with all who have eyes to see the wonders of the universe and ears to hear the song of the cosmos - and to know that it is all a marvel and a mystery - the marvel and mystery of a love that is wildly free and abundantly creative and generous beyond measure! Thanks be to God - our Father - our Maker for that love. Amen. The creation is good. And our God is good. So good, in fact, that God gives goodness it's name. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! That Psalm, Psalm Eight, is a song of praise that grows out of the awareness of God's greatness in creation and of our strange and awesome place in that creation, our strange and awesome place as co-creators with God and as trustees of what God has made on this marvellous sphere. It was the first biblical text to reach the Moon. It was read on the Apollo 11 Mission and then left on the Moon on a disc along with 73 messages from various nations on the face of the earth. It was a good choice, for it speaks so well of the cosmic sovereignty of God and of the exalted status of human beings; of we who have used our God - given abilities to explore and reach up even to the moon. It is all so marvellous! Yet despite the marvel, despite the awesome nature of what God has done and whom God has made us to be, we forget God the Creator - we forget God the Father. We have been forgetting since we were first made: since Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil since they first decided it might be better to be like God without God being involved, since they first decided to do things their way rather than taking the high way, the way God had set before them. That is what Paul's message in today's reading from the Letter to the Romans is referring to when he writes about how "since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen - being understood from what has been made" yet humanity, although we knew God, "neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him" but rather exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man or woman and birds and animals and reptiles. Idolatry is nothing more - nor less - than forgetting God - and turning from him to the creation and seeking goodness from the creation - and within ourselves - rather from where it first comes. We all fall away and worship the gods of success and of wealth and of power and we do seek divine protection and divine comfort from things that are mortal and perishable rather than seeking them from the one who makes all things. And that cuts us off from the community of God and from the communion we are each meant to have with God and with one another. It is kind of hard, after all, to embrace someone you are angry at. It is kind of hard to bless someone that doesn't want your blessing. It is kind of hard to love someone that blames you for the problems they are having or to love the one that has caused you harm. But while God, like a loving parent, is angry and disappointed about what we have done, about the choices we have made that have caused sin and death to rule in our world, has chosen not to be angry forever. Rather God has chosen to bless us even though we have not sought his blessing - he has chosen to forgive us even though we have blamed him for all our faults - he has chosen to love us with a love that will change us - and save us from ourselves even though we have not loved him and even though we need a lot of saving. God decided he would rescue us from ourselves by becoming one of us, and by revealing the fullness of himself in Christ Jesus and - being in human form - by taking upon himself the burdens we lay upon ourselves and our world by our forgetting. The Father made us - the Son saves us - and so Paul declares: I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last..." Jesus, the second person of the Trinity reveals God to us - the God who creates and who is the Father of all living things - the God who watches over his people and calls them to a closer walk with him - the God who is just and loving - and forgiving and tender - the God who can calm any storm and feed any crowd and heal any who are sick - the God who seeks out the lost and who desires that all living things might live closer to him. Jesus reveals God to us because he and the Father are one, because he is the eternal Son of God - the Word which became flesh and dwelt among us . Praise be to God - to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit! Amen! Praise be to the Spirit who hovered over creation and who gives breath to all that lives - the Spirit who is poured out on all who choose the second life by making the Son their Lord and believing in all that he said and what he did. Praise be to the Spirit who is given so that we might proclaim to the ends of the earth what God has done and what God is doing and what God will yet do. Praise be to the Spirit - the Spirit who speaks in our hearts and who reveals to us the power of God and the word of God and the love of God. Praise be to the Spirit - because it is the Spirit of God - the Spirit of Christ that moves us and touches us and speaks to us and the creation round about us. Praise be to God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Amen! Which leads us to Gospel for the day - and to some final words about the Trinity and how important it is to us and to our understanding of what our faith is.. The passage that you heard read from the Gospel According To Matthew has a special name. It is called the Great Commissioning. It is called that because it speaks of the great job we have been given to do and if the warrant or commission - or authority that we have been given to do it. The commissioning that God gives to us through Christ is a simple one. Jesus tells his disciples after his resurrection - and before his ascension to be at the right hand of the Father: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Make disciples - there is a deep and abiding need for that in every generation; Teach them to obey what I have commanded you - most surely that is needed if we are not to end up going off on our own again and, by worshipping the creation instead of the creator, find ourselves without life or hope. Make disciples of all people, teaching them to obey all Christ has commanded us, and immerse them in the fullness of God, Jesus tell us: immerse them in the waters of creation and pray down the Holy Spirit upon them in the name of the one - the only one who has created and is creating - the one, the only one, who has come in Jesus to reconcile and make new - the one, the only one, who works in us and other by the Spirit. That is the commission that God gives to us - that Christ gives to us - that the Spirit gives to us. In Christ, with Christ, and through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit we are made one with God the Father. This insight - this truth - this revelation - is a great mystery - one that makes us different from all other people - all other religions - all other ways. We proclaim the God who made all things has reached out to those he made through a Son - his Son - the Word of God - the Power of God - made flesh - and that all who turn to him and who obey him are filled with his Power - his Spirit - and made new both in this life - and in the next! The Trinity is a doctrine - and a mystery - but it is a doctrine that points to a living reality that is full of truth: to a truth - and a power - and a way - like no other truth or power or way. And Christ calls us - the Spirit calls us - the Father calls us - to share it! To share it by speaking of it. And to share it by living it. What a universe this is! What a wonder life is! How awesome that all this - and all of you - should be! Spread the word about our Glorious God. Let his light shine in the darkness and his song of love be heard throughout the whole world. Blessed be God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, One. Amen! Blessed be God The One - the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen!