This Sunday, May 31, is Trinity Sunday, where we draw a line under all the drama and excitement of Lent, Easter and Pentecost, and, from next Sunday, June 7, resume our Lectionary Year A journey through the Gospel of Matthew, picking up the story from Chapter 9.
Trinity Sunday focusses on the ultimate verses of Matthew’s Gospel, 28:16-20, with Jesus’ final instructions to the eleven disciples before he departs for heavenlier climes:
“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. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
These words hearken back to the beginning of Matthew’s story, in Chapter 3, where, on January 11, we read about Jesus’ baptism, with John prophetically telling the gathered crowd:
‘… after me comes one who is more powerful than I … He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Yes: the new form of Baptism which Jesus inaugurates at Pentecost, just last Sunday. But “the very end of the age”? – what age? Well, presumably the age which begins with Jesus’ departure, the age we are now in, the Age of the Spirit.
Yet the lectionary for Trinity Sunday hearkens back even further, to the first creation story, Genesis 1:1-2:4a, where most (although not all) bible translations refer, in verse 2, to the “Spirit of God” moving over the surface of “the waters” – underlining the presence and action of the Spirit right at the dawn of the world. But this creative action of the Spirit, giving birth to all that is, is not the same thing at all as the new action of the Spirit that Jesus opens up through his death, resurrection and ascension. How so?
Well, the key to it lies in Jesus’ remarkable assurance above: “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”. What he means is that the Spirit will be with us always, available to us 24/7, if we but let go of our natural, habitual self-focus and open ourselves up in faith to it. I’ve likened it to a field of spiritual force, a grace field—think The Force in Star Wars, except all light-side—which exerts a constant, positive pressure on our lives, waiting to be accessed, activated.
This new action of the Spirit seems to be focussed on one thing and one thing only, brokering metanoia in us, helping us along the way of spiritual transformation, so that gradually we become better, more selfless people. This one thing and one thing only – but it is surely the best of all possible things! Metanoia – the Greek word in the New Testament typically translated as “repentance”. The other word in this context is sanctification, becoming more holy, more Jesus-like. All brokered, through faith, by this new action of the Spirit, which Jesus opens up for us.
Yes, the Age of the Spirit: a pretty good age to be in!
Uniting Church in SA eNews Reflection 26/5/26
Featured Image: The Mission to the World – Jesus Mafa (Cameroun) – Vanderbilt University Divinity Library
