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For some Christians, Trinity Sunday is the one mystery in the church year that alludes even the most cleaver attempts to make sense of it. Three-leaf clovers, triangles, even tinker toy models have attempted to raise Trinitarian explanations to a new art form. This Sunday, just live with Mystery-knowing that Trinity is not having information about God but responding to an invitation to a relationship with our mysterious Partner.
 

Genesis 1:1-2:4a-Let Us . . .

Six days and the Sabbath. We return to the book of beginnings and to the birth of the earth and all that dwells therein. A better Earth Day text there is none, but on this Sunday the focus moves more in the direction of divine Partnership-“Let Us make humankind in our image . . .” The Trinity of God is rooted at the outset in a creative, mysterious Partnership that conceives and births earth and life. Behind the “us” is the Near Eastern notion of a divine council that God is self-relational from the beginning. So on this Sunday we sit in awe before the unfathomable “Us” who creates a smaller human version of “us” and calls all creation “good.”
 

Psalm 8 how majestic is your name

This is the first hymn or song of praise to appear in the Psalms; also, while other hymnal pieces seek to draw the reader/listener into praise by providing specific reasons for praise (e.g. For the LORD is faithful . . .), here we stay in the second person singular-"You" and speak directly to God.
 

2 Corinthians 13:11-13-charis / agape / koinonia

At first blush one wonders what the first two verses have to do with Trinity Sunday. But verse thirteen is our destination--“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Paul’s familiar closing has since in many congregations become our customary beginning as people gather in God’s name. Here we have the earliest known Trinitarian formula in the church. What a contrast- a word of blessing from the unity of God to the most fractious congregation that we meet in the New Testament! God offers humanity charis, agape, and koinonia.
 

Matthew 28:16-20-baptizing into the Name

This is a marvelously inspiring closure to Matthew’s Gospel with Jesus commissioning the disciples to make disciples among all the ethnoi, baptizing them in the name of the Triune God-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The formula suggests a more developed and liturgical ending than one would have expected in Matthew, but the piece suggests that very early in worship, the Trinity became an important part of Christian practice and belief.