This day in the church calendar has been set aside to focus on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It is unusual as an official observance in the church year; usually, we focus on events in our Lord’s life, like Christmas, his baptism, or Easter. Here we are called to ponder that we worship one God in three persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Quite simply, to say that we believe in a triune God is to say that this is how God presents himself throughout Holy Scripture. Over and over again, we are told that God is one; his faithful people have confessed such from the beginning of time. And yet the working of this God is explained as an eternal Father, a begotten but not made Son, and the faith-creating and sustaining Holy Spirit. In greater and lesser detail, all the creeds of the church confess this reality.

We can’t uncover what is hidden from our eyes or obscured from our insight; we can only confess the God that reveals himself in the Word. To be sure, this is a profound mystery, one that we confess but do not fully grasp. This is part of the joy and wonder of our faith. And when we read the Word, when we study the incredible work of God, what we find is a God that is for us. To confess the Holy Trinity is to confess a God that has created us and sustains us, a God that gives us all that we have in our lives. It is to confess a God that did not abandon us when we fell from grace, he did not forsake us to our own sin and shame, but came in our flesh to do what we could not, to seek and save the lost. We confess a God that opens our eyes, that turns hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, that enables us to believe and trust in promises that seem too good to be true. This is God for us, this is God for you, this very day.

We are given a wonderful picture of the totality of God’s incredible work in our Gospel lesson today. This is the famous Great Commission from Matthew 28. The disciples venture out to a mountain in Galilee, where our resurrected Lord had promised to meet them. Here is a picture of the early church gathered around our Lord; they rightly fall down and worship him. This is the one who died for our sins, the one who made the perfect sacrifice. His victory over the grave is the confirmation of our deepest hopes. And yet there are some who doubt, some who are unsure of what all this means and what the future might hold. So our Lord’s words direct and guide them; it is a sending, a commissioning, of what the church is to be about.

He begins, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” All authority, all the power of the Creator, all the finality of an eternal judge, all the assurance of Words that do what they speak, all of it is his. He is the one who does the will of the Father without deviation; he is the one who sends the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation… For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Col. 1)

And so this one says to his church, “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.” In your going, he says, as you go out, you are to make disciples of all nations. The one with all authority sends his church forth to all the nations. All the people, not just the ones you like, not just the ones who are part of your tribe, not just those who look like you or vote like you. There is no limit put on the sending of his grace. You are to go and make disciples. And how do you make them? Well, the first thing is to baptize, to baptize in the name, the name of the Triune God, the name of a God who is for you. Baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

I was just talking with someone the other day, and he asked a great question about coming to church. A question I’ve never been asked before, he said, “What do you want or expect from me when I come to church?”  I was caught a little off guard by that. Perhaps he was wondering whether to read the lessons ahead of time or spend some time in prayer or something along those lines. All of which are great habits to have in preparation for worship. My response, though, was that what I hoped for was that you came as a repentant sinner, you came as one humbled before the Lord, one who desperately needs to hear again the promises of a God who has called you by name, a God who has washed you in his name, for this is how disciples are being made.

But our Lord continues, not only are you to baptize in the Triune Name, but the church is to be “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” The one with all authority sends out his people to all the nations to teach them all that he has commanded. Again, St. Paul says, “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” (2 Cor. 5) You, as the people of God, are called to the ministry of reconciliation between God and man. You do so by confessing the faith you’ve received, and by living in the promises of our Triune God. Baptizing and teaching, that is what the church is sent out to do, and this is precisely what we are seeking to do. We come with humility before our Lord in the waters of Holy Baptism, and so we teach the word with that same humility. Not twisting it to fit our own desires or the felt needs of our culture, but trusting that the word will do what it says, it will kill and bring forth new life. This is the incredible work of our God.

And so at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, at the conclusion of the Great Commission, our Lord says, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  The one with all authority sends out his church to all nations, in which you teach all that he has commanded, and he himself will be with you all your days. All your days, all the good days and the bad days. The day of great victory and joy, and the days of profound sorrow, fear, and grief. He will not abandon you or forsake you. He is with you. He is there in the waters of Holy Baptism; he is there in the teaching and preaching of his Word. The God who is for you abides with you.

Today, we will gather around our Lord’s Table. Here, the one who is the image of the invisible God, who has sent the Spirit into your hearts, will feed you his own body and blood. Here, our hope is confirmed as Christ abides with us, not in a hope or dream, but in with and under the bread and wine. Here is your forgiveness and the promise of life everlasting, for he is God for you!