Sermon - 5/31/26

Year A – Holy Trinity – May 31, 2026 Pastor Megan Floyd Matthew 28:16-20 Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, from Jesus Christ our Redeemer, and from the Holy Spirit our Sustainer; one God in three persons, the blessed Trinity. Amen. *** I'm sure you're well aware… but this coming Independence Day… 4th of July… well… it's a big one… 250 years… that's big! But… I have to say… the preparations underway for these unprecedented celebrations in our nation's capital… and all the conversations and news coverage surrounding them… have given me pause. I find it all… unsettling… and not just because I'm not a fan of fighting for sport. To each their own. But I think that… it is because the new backdrop for our lives is this intense nationalism …and it's because of this intensity… that I think I could not tear my heart away from the words of the Great Commission from our gospel reading today. These are words that I've heard and read countless times… I've taken them to heart as inspiration and instruction in my life of following Christ… and yet… they sit differently with me now. Jesus tells his disciples… "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." And we hear this text on this day in particular because it is Holy Trinity Sunday, and it is here where Jesus names the three persons of the Trinity. So today, we are supposed to celebrate and wrestle with how our God shows up for us in these three expressions… but I'd rather save that kind of wrestling for another day. Now… if you're disappointed about that, I'd love to meet for a beverage and geek out over trinitarian theology. That is fun… but… for today… I want to address… I need to address… this Great Commission, because it's so very relevant for the age we are living in. "…make disciples of all nations…" is a command from Jesus that has been taken in dramatically harmful ways across the years, from the Crusades 1,000 years ago, to the current rise of Christian Nationalism. Jesus tells us to go make disciples… and that he is with us to the end of the age… and then, pumped up on this mission with Jesus in our corner… [big breath] …we forget what discipleship is all about… we forget… and go straight for coercion and violence.  …in the name of Jesus, of course. But no one can force love… and coercion has no place in a life shaped by mercy and grace. And yet, these are the basic tenets of the Way of Christ… these attributes of love, mercy, and grace… are what shape a life of discipleship. To be a disciple is to be in relationship with God… and with Jesus… and with the Holy Spirit, and to celebrate the enduring and borderless love that our God-in-three has for all people in every nation. And yes, Jesus calls upon us to go… and share this life of discipleship with everyone in every nation, multiplying ourselves and creating more followers of Christ… but our translation does us a disservice by choosing to say, "…make disciples OF all nations…" because a "nation" cannot be a disciple. A nation isn't a person… we cannot be a Christian nation… and even to proclaim that this is, or hope for this to be a "Christian nation," is wrong… it would dissolve… because it puts patriotic nationalism into the ring with devotion to God… and the patriotic nationalism would have to stand down… …because a disciple's primary allegiance will always be to God… and so a disciple should therefore obey God's primary commandment, which is above all commandments… and that primary command is to love God, and love others as we love ourselves. This kind of love has no borders… and no national identity. … and we cannot force another into a relationship shaped by love. …Love can only invite. Furthermore, proponents of Christian Nationalism, and those who desire to rebrand and reform the United States into a Christian nation, seem overwhelmingly drawn to models that would eliminate people they find unworthy… eliminate those who don't look like them and whose lives don't conform to their own. Except none of us are truly worthy of God's forgiveness… we are all of us in need of a savior… all in need of grace and mercy, and therefore… redeemed by Christ's love, we are sent forth to be gracious and merciful in the name of the one who loves us beyond measure. And despite all this, these Christian Nationalists believe that Christ is on their side in this endeavor to force conversion to discipleship, or at least compliance… because Christ promised to be with them to the end of the age… And while, yes, I do not dispute that Christ is with us always, as Christ promised to be… this does not mean that Jesus fully supports all our actions taken in his name… Jesus states that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him… but too many skew this into a conquering Christ… a version of the Messiah which doesn't appear in scripture, except as the previously hoped-for Messiah that would overthrow Rome. That is not the person of Jesus who was born to a humble family surrounded by livestock, who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. And yet… Jesus DOES have all authority in heaven and on earth… and what did he do with it? He did not force or coerce… but instead, he embraced non-violent love and vulnerability… even unto death on a cross… then he defeated that death, because he is God… and instead of retribution, he offered forgiveness and a continual invitation to come and see… come and experience a different way… a way of love… of mercy… grace and compassion. This is how the God of love chose to exercise his total authority in heaven and on earth. …not to annihilate those who don't follow the way… or force them into compliance…  but to offer grace and mercy… and to never shut the door on the invitation to come and experience God's love. Jesus invited us into his mission of sharing the love and light of God in all places and for all people… and this is an important mission… making disciples in all nations. We are co-collaborators with Christ on this mission of sharing the good news… of sharing this life-changing Way of Christ. But making disciples is not actually about converting others… or saving their souls… only God saves souls… Making disciples is about converting our own lives… every single day… it's about choosing every single day to live according to the love and grace that we have first received… it's about letting our lives be a testimony for others… witnessing to God's love and grace. And when that love and light shine out from our lives, which it most certainly does, it will reshape communities and the people in them around the Way of Christ. As disciples… as part of the body of Christ… our part of this mission is to shine and invite others to come and experience this light… to witness what God's love does for us and for the whole world. That is how we make disciples… by being one ourselves. We can only demonstrate how we ourselves are changed by this love and communion with the full body of Christ, and trust in the Holy Spirit… to do the Holy Spirit's thing of encountering us and moving us always toward love for others. So yes, we will go and make disciples in all nations… we will participate in this Great Commission… and we will do so, by starting first with ourselves… trusting that Christ is with us in this mission, always, to the end of the age. Amen.