Dear Friends,

Today is the only Holy Day that is dedicated to a church doctrine: The Trinity. Some of you have asked where the early church got this notion of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and you don’t have to dig too deep into the Hebrew Scriptures and the early Christian texts to understand why. For instance, in today’s gospel, Matthew depicts Jesus’ post-resurrection commissioning of his disciples: to go out into the world, baptizing, “in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (See any signs of Trinity here?) The striking thing is that he does this confidently, even though several of them are still doubting.

I’ve always loved this passage – because it acknowledges doubt even as it gives us permission to doubt. Jesus’ own disciples still doubted, even after following him for years, learning from him, witnessing miracles of healing and resurrection. Even after receiving the Spirit of peace from Jesus’ own breath and his call to follow in his steps, some continue to doubt.

What a comfort these words can be for us. These are no superhero disciples. These are just ordinary, imperfect, faithful people among whom we, too, can find our place. We, too, can belong, with room enough for our own imperfection, our own questions; space enough for both belief and lack of belief.

Today we celebrate the graduation of four parishioners from the Education for Ministry (EfM) program that has taken them on a shared journey through the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, church history, and theology. If you ask any of them what they’ve gained from this program, I assure you that one of their answers would be that it provided an open, honest, and respectful space for questions, for belief, for doubt, for acceptance, and for a sense of belonging, wherever they were and as they were in their journey of faith.

It is what it is. Some of us doubt. And what does Jesus do? Does he recoil in disappointment? Does he go in search of different disciples? No, he just keeps handing out assignments. To even his doubting friends he gives the authority to make disciples, to baptize and teach. In the words of one writer: “True to form, Jesus keeps calling us to our full capacity, coaxing forth a new kind of community, composed of both darers and doubters, the bashful and the bold. Fully human, as well as fully immersed in the Spirit that is Holy, his way of community can hold all that we are.”*

If Jesus can accept as his own those who have trouble believing, can we not accept ourselves and each other, regardless of our limitations and liabilities? Can we not answer yes to being both learners and teachers of this radical way of acceptance, following the one who has room even for our doubts?

In Christ,

Amelie+

*Kayla McLurg, Inward/Outward, June 2014