Genesis 1-2:4a | Matthew 28:16-20
On Trinity Sunday, the sermon invited the congregation into one of the deepest mysteries of the Christian faith — the doctrine of the Trinity. Interestingly, the word "trinity" appears nowhere in Scripture, and trinitarian language didn't begin to emerge until roughly 70 to 80 years after the death of Christ, through figures like Ignatius of Antioch and Justin Martyr. Yet those early theologians weren't working without foundation. They were wrestling with texts like Matthew 28, where the three persons are named together, and Genesis, where God speaks in the plural — "let us make a human in our image" — pointing toward a God who is One, but not singular. The doctrine holds that one God exists eternally as three co-equal, co-eternal persons: Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.
The sermon lingered in the beauty of Genesis, using Robert Alter's translation to recover some of the poetry of the original Hebrew. Phrases like "the earth was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God's breath hovering over the water" remind us that this is not a cold, clinical account of origins — it is an invitation into something strange and luminous. The repeated refrains — "and so it was," "and God saw that it was good" — signal importance in Hebrew literature, and together they tell the story of a God who is continually being poured out: into creation, into our chaos, into our lives.
The Trinity, then, is more than a doctrine to be understood — it is a pattern to be lived. Because God's very nature is collaborative and unifying, we who are made in that image are called into the same spirit of partnership. The risen Christ's commission in Matthew 28 — "go into the world" — echoes the movement of the Spirit over the waters at creation. We are sent to hover over the welter and wildness of our world, breathing life and order into places of chaos, just as God did at the beginning.
This calling takes concrete shape in 2026. As hard-won rights for LGBTQ+ communities face new threats, as the church deepens its commitment to creation care, and as neighbors continue to struggle with homelessness, hunger, and addiction, the question the sermon left ringing was this: where are we being called to partner with God — to create something beautiful, envision something just, and build the kin-dom of God? Partnering with the triune God, the sermon reminded us, is not a destination we reach — it is an ongoing invitation to let the love of God hover over the chaos through our lives, our love, and our care.
Notes:
- God Poured Out worship series comes from UMC Discipleship Ministires.
- Hebrew Scripture was translated by Robert Alter for The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary.
- Gordon Wenham discusses the prose/poetic nature of Genesis 1 in The World Biblical Commentary, Vol1: Genesis 1-15, pg. 46.
