Living for a better tomorrow

The Holy Trinity Sunday

5.31.2026

Genesis 1:1—2:4a┃Psalm 8┃2 Corinthians 13:11–13┃Matthew 28:16–20

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

This apostolic, Trinitarian greeting from Paul in 2 Corinthians has been spoken since the first century. Today, we continue using the same greeting as we gather to worship every Sunday.

This greeting comes from no one but our God: One in Three, and Three in One.

And because this greeting carries the very life of God, we greet each other not out of habit but out of trust, for we believe that the co‑existence of our God is still shaping our lives together and creating something new among us each day.

Greetings such as this matter because all of us long for a better day.

Across the world, people greet one another with words that carry hope for a better tomorrow.

It is like Jews greet “Shalom,” hope for peace and wholeness.

It is like Christians greet “Peace be with you,” hope for peace and reconciliation.

It is like Muslims greet “As‑salāmu ʿalaykum,” hope for peace and protection.

No matter the language or tradition, these greetings reveal the same longing in every human heart.

We all want to live for a better tomorrow,

a tomorrow with less brokenness, less division, less hate,

and more wholeness in our homes, our relationships, our workplaces, and our world.

And this longing we carry is not ours alone. It is a longing God has already stepped into, a longing God meets, shapes, and fulfills through Jesus’ Great Commission in Matthew 28:

“Baptize people in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus’ Trinitarian command is not new. It beautifully reflects the co‑existence of our God, who actively co‑created the world in the first two chapters of Genesis.

And today, as we worship, we join Christians across centuries who have tried to name this mystery.  

Later in the service, we are going to affirm our faith with the Athanasian Creed.

As we recite it, we will notice how much it emphasizes the relationships within the Trinity.

Even as the Creed describes the unity of God, we each experience that unity in different ways.

• Some of us sense God most in the Father, the great foundation of faith for Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities.

• Some of us sense God most in Jesus Christ, who completes the purpose we cannot fulfill on our own and unites us fully with God.

• Some of us sense God most in the Holy Spirit, who sustains our being and our doing as we participate in God’s mission.

The fact is, we have no idea how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have been working together for the sake of humanity. Sometimes I wonder if the way we sense their presence differently makes them laugh, much like children insisting that one parent is more important than the other, or loves them more or less.

And yet, despite our different experiences, God’s desire for us is the same.  

I’m convinced that it doesn’t matter whether we relate most to one, two, or all three persons of the Trinity. God wants all of us to live for a better tomorrow.

What do today’s scriptures speak to us collectively and individually?

Every time I prepare a sermon, I first ask myself: What is the shared good news in all the scriptures assigned for a given Sunday?

Second, I ask: How do these scriptures address what kind of God we have, or what God thinks of us and expects of us?

And when we listen closely, the Good News rises to the surface.

In Matthew 28, Jesus said, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

That loops back to Matthew 1, when the angel spoke to Joseph in his dream about God’s plan to be with God’s people in Isaiah 7—through naming His presence “Emmanuel.”

Naming Jesus “Emmanuel” was the first fulfillment of prophecy as the people of God moved from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.

God’s presence has always been the foundation of our hope.  

So, the Good News is that God is always with us so that we can always live for a better tomorrow.

• We live for a better tomorrow because the Father is still creating.

• We live for a better tomorrow because the Son is still redeeming.

• We live for a better tomorrow because the Spirit is still sustaining.

The Holy Trinity is not a doctrine that we recite.

It is God who accompanies us toward a future filled with hope that He has promised.

And because God is active, our response is simple but profound.

It all begins with our trust.

It is the daily work of trusting that God is not finished with us,

in and beyond our community, in and beyond our congregation,

in and beyond our families, and in and beyond our own hearts.

• We trust the Father who created us and is still shaping us with steadfast love that does not let us go.

• We trust the Son who calls us and is still leading us with teachings that form our purpose and our path.

• We trust the Spirit who gathers us and is still empowering us with counsel that strengthens our courage for tomorrow.

Trust always leads to a way of life.

Therefore, as the people of God, how we live should reflect how our Triune God relates to each other and to us.

Living for a better tomorrow means choosing

• collaboration over isolation,

• unity over division,

• love over hate,

• hope over fear,

because the Triune God is already holding our tomorrow.

And so we join the psalmist in wonder.  

Let us praise the richness of the Triune God just as the psalmist prayed in Psalm 8:3 with awe and wonder:

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars that you have established…”

With that same awe, we turn to prayer.

Let us pray.

May the God who created tomorrow,

the Christ who redeems tomorrow,

and the Spirit who breathes tomorrow

bless you and me with courage, hope, and joy.

May we be

commissioned into the world in peace,

living for a better tomorrow—

trusting that the Triune God goes before us

and walks beside us.

Amen.