REFLECTIONS ON THE READINGS

FOR SUNDAY, MAY 31, 2026

 

OVERVIEW

June 4th is Holy Trinity Sunday; the day we examine the concept of the Holy Trinity.  Our epistle and gospel lessons focus on this concept.  The Old Testament lesson is the creation story, as told in Genesis 1-2:4a. The study of the two creation accounts (Genesis 1 and Genesis 2) is near and dear to my heart.  We’ll look at that last.  But first, let’s talk about the Holy Trinity.

THE SECOND LESSON (2Cor. 13:11-13) AND THE GOSPEL (Matt. 28:16-20)

These two passages are perhaps the first mention of the concept of the Trinity in the New Testament.  (Other passages are: 1 Cor. 12:4-6, Eph. 4:4-6, 1 Peter 1:2, and Jude 20-21.)  Judaism and Christianity are monotheistic religions; we insist that there is only one God.  Yet, from the mouth of Jesus and from Paul and others, we have three.  It is confusing, and the more you study it, the more confused you can get!  Here are some thought starters from a good theological seminary:

  • The Trinity describes the fullness of a God who creates, redeems, and makes us holy. 
  • The Holy Trinity is a complex doctrine that confuses more than explains.  Do you agree or disagree?
  • Our temptation is to dwell in the delight of Jesus’ salvation. The concept of the Trinity keeps from forgetting the roles of God our Father and the sustainer of our faith, the Holy Spirit.

TWO PARTING THOUGHTS

  1. In 2 Corinthians verse 13, we see that we get grace from Jesus, our love from God the Father, and communion (love-fellowship) from the Holy Spirit. 
  2. Jesus sends us forth with the marching orders to make disciples of everybody, baptizing them in the name of the Holy Trinity.  OK, let’s get started!


THE FIRST CREATION ACCOUNT, GENESIS 1-2:4a

This is a difficult lesson to teach, because there are two very separate ways of understanding this story.  Some read this text literally; God created the world in 7 days.  End of story.  This can pose a problem for those who believe in the teachings of science, like me.  I will explain my understanding of this text to you.  You may disagree with me, and that’s OK. 

Consider the story of the Little Boy Who Cried Wolf.  It is a good story with a great lesson.  Did this story describe an historic event, or was the story created to teach us a lesson?  Does it matter, as long as we learn the lesson of the story?

I have friends that are so set on interpreting Genesis 1 as a science book.  I believe that if God wanted us to know about science, the bible would have chapters or books about biology, chemistry, and physics.  There are none!  I believe that God doesn’t care about our understanding of science; He wants to tell us something about our relationship with Him.  That is what I call the God Message.  It really doesn’t matter if you read it one way or the other, as long as you understand the God Message.

Imagine your child coming to you saying that their friend said that babies were given to families by a stork.  They ask you where babies come from.  Do you go with the stork story, or do you tell your child something different? This story is thousands of years old. Every non-Hebrew culture surrounding Israel had their own stories about how the world was created.  One very popular story was that the “gods” engaged in bloody battle—a war between the good and bad gods.  According to the story, the good “god” won.  The body of one evil dead “god” became the earth.  The people of earth were formed from the blood of another evil “god”.  If I believed in this story, it would tell me that not only is the world an evil place, but all of us are basically evil beings!  I believe that the Hebrews were intrigued by this story, but their spiritual leaders said “No! This is how it really happened.”  Then, they told them the story which we have in Genesis 1.

 

THE DETAIL

I believe that through this story, God wants us to learn four basic facts about our relationship with Him. 

Point One 

Look at the reading, and notice the rhythm of each day’s events, the repetition, and the orderly way that the world was created.

  • “
 then God said
”
  • “
 and there was
”
  • “
 and it was good.”

Every day follows the same pattern.  Every day’s work is done orderly, calmly, and enacted merely by the voice of God. 

Our God comes to the rescue, and tells us that the world wasn’t a result of a chaotic war between the “gods”.  He created us and our world calmly with just His words.  Most importantly, what He created is good.  We humans are good.  The Earth, and all its creatures are also good.  This is the first God Message presented to us in this story.

Point Two

Day Four begins with verse 14.  God creates the sun, the moon, and the stars.  But he doesn’t call them that.  He just calls them “lights”. 

Many of those neighboring non-Hebrew cultures included the worship of the sun, moon, and stars as part of their religious beliefs.  (Think of astrology, for example.)  God is telling us—“don’t worship them, they are only ‘lights’. They’re just things to mark the days and nights”; they are a sort of calendar that He created for us.

Point Three

In verse 26, God says “Let us make humankind in our image
”  This is plural.  God doesn’t say “let me make humankind in my image
”  Why?  Some friends of mine point to this as an indication of the Holy Trinity.  The first chapter of John tells us that Jesus was present at creation, right?  Well, yes, that is true.  But it makes no sense to me that the Hebrews, who knew nothing of the Holy Trinity, would preserve these words for hundreds of years if they didn’t understand what they meant.  What else could it mean?

  1. One explanation is that God was using a verb tense called the “Majestic Plural”.  Huh?  In the olden days, when kings spoke, they would use “we” instead of “I”.  It is weird to us, because we are unfamiliar with the ways of royalty.  But this was a common practice.  This could be one explanation—that this is one way of pointing to the kingship of our Father in Heaven.
  2. Another explanation is that God includes his “heavenly court” in the use of “we”.  The idea of a divine council is also found in 1 Kings 22:19-22 and Psalm 82:1.  Again, it points to God being our king.  But this time he says “we” to include his council.

Point Four

In verse 26, God creates us “in his image”. 

  • Does it mean that we look like God, and God looks like us?
  • Does it mean that we think like God, and not like the other animals of creation?
  • What does this mean to you?

THE TAKEAWAY

So, what’s the God Message in Genesis 1?  The way I read it, 

  • Our one God created the heavens and the earth not by war, death, and chaos, but in a calm and orderly fashion. 
  • What the tools did he do this with? Only with his voice. His word is powerful!
  • The sun, moon, planets, and stars are only lights.  They mark the seasons as does a calendar. They are not objects of worship, only “lights” in the sky.  They do not predict our future, or govern our personalities.
  • Our sense of logic and reason, our sense of right from wrong come from God.  This is what he means when he says that we are created in his image, at least in my opinion.

 

CONCLUSION

So, it really doesn’t matter if you believe in the 7 days of creation idea or the complicated explanation above.  What matters is the God Message.  Ask yourself “What does God want me to know about my relationship with him? Why is He telling me this story? What is the God Message?”