Trinity Sunday – Year A
May 31, 2026
Gospel Lectionary Text
Matthew 28:16-20
28:16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
28:17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.
28:18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
28:19 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,
28:20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
Context
Welcome to Trinity Sunday, the celebration of what Cynthia Bourgeault calls “love in motion.” The Trinity is often treated as an incomprehensible mystery or reduced to an abstract concept. But love doesn’t want to be explained, nor does it care if it is understood. Love wants to love. It wants to be enjoyed. Love is always begetting more love. So, go, therefore...and participate in that love.
We often call this sending by Jesus the “Great Commission” — a phrase made popular in the early 1800s by William Carey, the founder of the Baptist Missionary Society and the father of modern Protestant missions. Sadly, history is littered with examples of missionaries who got the “go” part down but were confused by the whole “authority” thing. It is easy to forget that the one who claims all authority is not a power-hungry tyrant who dominates. He is the crucified one who liberates. The one who came poor, lived on the margins, and refused to meet violence with violence. The one whose authority was revealed in self-giving love, which is the only authority God knows anything about.
Things fall apart when we forget who authorizes us. And so, Jesus warns those who misplace their authority: “You cross sea and land to make a convert only to make them twice the sons and daughters of hell” (Matthew 23:15). Whoa!
When Jesus says, “Go, therefore…” he reminds the disciples they are fully authorized when love is shared in ways that are consistent with the reputation of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as revealed by Jesus. It's the reputation of Love that begets the Beloved, who begets the Loving, who begets more Love, and so on. Such is the trinitarian shape of love in motion.
“Go, therefore…”
Question
What might it mean for you, this week, to “go” not as someone asserting authority, but as someone participating in love?
Reflections
Discovering Freedom
By Rev. Sarah Wiles |
The one who came into this world helpless as a babe, who lived poor and on the margins, who suffered and died just as we do and yet never strayed from the way of love, this one now claims all authority in heaven, and on earth, and even over our lives.
The Great Commission(s)
By Lina Thompson |
The command to "go" and to "make" disciples has defined Christianity for centuries and has probably been one of the most formative parts of our Christian narrative. We are supposed to share our faith. We are supposed to lead people to Jesus. We are commanded to "go and make." Period.
The Manner of Going
By Kris Rocke |
"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."
Praying Eucharistically - Weekly Homily by James Alison:
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Poetry
Excerpt from "The Unbearable Wholeness of Being"
by Ilia Delio
If the Incarnation is what the universe is about, a cosmotheandric revolution of love, then evolution is an unfolding theophany, an unveiling of divinity in creation. Evolution is Trinity enfolding space-time. Love overflows into space-time Word, energized by the Spirit of new creation…God is the name of love’s excess, which gives rise to being and transcends being. God, therefore, is always “more” of what any finite being can express. God emerges from within as ever newness in love and is the future of every new love.
Prayer
This week, the call to prayer comes from the Street Psalms Prayer of Discernment:
Let us pray.
Gracious God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of Life, have mercy on us. Reveal yourself in all things, to all things, and through all things. Grant us the gift of becoming a community of the incarnation, mystery of Word made flesh, who sees and celebrates Good News in hard places. Give us the tongue of a teacher to sustain the weary with the Word, and free leaders from all walks of life to love their city and seek its peace with the Gospel of Jesus.
