Made in the Image of the Trinity - Sermon for Trinity Sunday (May 31, 2026)

Scripture Readings: Genesis 1:1–2:4 | Psalm 8 | 2 Corinthians 13:11–13 | Matthew 28:16–20

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
(2 Corinthians 13:13).
 
What kind of God do we Christians believe in?
 
This is not an abstract, theoretical question… it’s one that lies at the very heart of our faith, and that lays the foundation for our whole understanding of ourselves, and the world around us. How we see God shapes everything else, whether we recognize it or not. And when we forget, or misunderstand the kind of God that the Church believes in, we can end up creating all sorts of confusion, and make quite a big mess of things… missing the very heart of the Good News we have been invited and called to share.
 
And so today, Trinity Sunday, we Christians take time to contemplate the God we have come to know, and to place our faith in: the Living God, who is always One, and who eternally exists as Three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
 
There is much mystery here. Not mystery in the sense of a puzzle to solve, but as in a profound reality that exists far beyond our capacity to mentally master… calling us to bow our hearts in humble awe and wonder, even as we seek understanding. The doctrine of the Trinity is not an explanation, or a definition… it is an invitation to worship… and a framework… boundaries for speaking truthfully about how the Living God has made Himself known. A framework for faithfully telling the story… the Good News of God.  
 
And right here, we find that the Trinity sets us Christians apart from all other faiths. How we understand the Divine is unique, creating real distance between ourselves and members of similar religious traditions… such as our Jewish forebears, and Muslim neighbours… despite the great deal that we otherwise have in common. And while it might at times be tempting to downplay the things that divide us, the claims of the Trinity are indispensable if we are to remain true to the Christian story. 
 
As an old example of what I mean, we can briefly look at an ancient argument that took place within Church in its early centuries: the argument about the nature of Jesus, and whether or not He is God.
 
From the first days of the Church, Jesus had been worshipped alongside the Father… but there was some debate about how this fits alongside their claims that the Living God is One… the claims of monotheism… the belief that there are not all sorts of competing gods running around in the universe, like the Greeks and Romans assumed, but only One supreme, all powerful, eternal being to be worshipped and adored.
 
And for some Christians, influenced by ideas floating around in Greek culture that argued that the physical world was all bad, they thought that a good God must be well removed from the messiness of the world… but that God might then create other spiritual beings to work in the world on His behalf. These Christians argued that Jesus was some kind of created being… God’s supreme but ultimately subordinate agent, similar to how we might create a robot… even a fantastically realistic robot that looks and acts just like us, but which, under the surface is essentially something entirely different.  

For these Christians, called Arians, (with an I, not a Y), after one of the most vocal leaders of this movement, it was clear that Jesus may be impressive, but He was not the same as God… He was not equally divine, equally eternal, or equally deserving of worship.  
 
But the Church eventually came to a very different conclusion… one that was officially expressed in the Nicene Creed, which we recite together each Sunday. The Church came to be convinced that the truth about Jesus was that He was not just like God on the surface, but all the way through… that He was “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God…” Identical in their divinity.

And the Church claimed that Jesus was not created at some point in the distant past, but that He was “eternally begotten of the Father… begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.” The Father and Son were in some way distinct from one another, but their existence… their relationship as God the Father and God the Son has always been, and always will be. They were One together. For the Church, rejecting Arianism, Jesus is more than just another created being. Jesus is the One God Himself, in eternal union with God the Father.

And soon, the Church would come to the same conclusions regarding the Holy Spirit: that the Spirit was likewise equally divine, equally eternal, and equally worthy of worship… that the Spirit, the Father, and the Son have always equally shared in what it means to be the One Living God. That everything God has ever done, and ever will do, is done through the mutual efforts of these Three in One, and One in Three. From first to last, the Living God exists in this eternal fellowship of love.
 
And it is in the image of this Triune God that all of humanity has been made. We heard in our first reading today from Genesis 1, where in clear contrast to those philosophies that were popular in the Greek world, the Living God creates everything good… without worrying about the messiness of the physical world, God brings the cosmos into being… orders it, and fills the Earth with an abundance of life, all of which He calls good.
 
And in Genesis 1:26-27, we hear God say to Himself: 
“Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.”
 
From the start, God raises up a part of His good world to represent Him… to share His divine goodness and love with His creation… ordering, tending, and caring for one another and all of God’s creation side by side. 
 
In his recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, Pope Leo XIV delves into this amazing claim: “At the heart of the Christian understanding of the human person lies the great biblical affirmation that men and women are created in the image and likeness of the Triune God. Created for relationship, every human person is planned and willed by God to enter into communion with him, with others and with creation. Human dignity does not depend on a person’s abilities, wealth or position in life, nor on the right or wrong choices made; instead, it is a gift that precedes and transcends each person, endowed by God as an expression of his unfailing love.”[1]
 
Humanity is graciously created as God’s image in the world. And although this beautiful, profound reality has never been revoked, sadly the story of Genesis goes on to tell how that image becomes distorted and disordered… how instead of loving God, loving one another, and loving creation, humanity instead tries to seize Godlikeness on their own terms… and end up spreading violence and exploitation everywhere holy love was meant to reign.
 
And yet, Genesis also tells us that the Living God does not give up on His good world, or on His images, despite their destructive rebellion. No, God promises that one day one human would come and finally set things right… bringing to an end the evil one’s work, and restoring humanity’s role as God’s good representatives… turning their hearts back to their Creator, and walking in His ways always. 

Over the centuries, and even today, many have tried to lay claim to this kind of absolute mandate and supreme authority… presenting themselves, if not in word then in practice, as the ultimate saviour and chosen leader who will finally set things right, bringing peace and prosperity at last. Sometimes they have even done so in God’s name, claiming to be God’s special agents, and representatives in the world. But what does their reign turn out to involve?
 
All too often, it turns out to look like the elevation of a select few, and the oppression and devastation of so many others. It looks like violence and bloodshed enacted to the extreme in the name of justice and peace…  and the pursuit of prestige, wealth, and power… selfishness run rampant. When this is all done in God’s name, what can be done? Who can challenge them and their claims that this is actually what God’s Kingdom looks like… that this is what God Himself wants for His world?
 
Well, as it turns out… God Himself can.

God come in the flesh. God dwelling here among us. God humbly embracing human existence, and in the process revealing exactly what it means to live as God’s image.

Against all other claims of divine authority exercised here on Earth, the Christian story is that Jesus is God Himself… and that in taking on our human existence, Jesus became humanity as it was always meant to be! Perfectly embodying and reflecting God’s goodness and likeness out into creation, so that when we see Jesus, we actually see the face of our Creator, the Living God Himself. 
 
And through Christ’s life, and death, and resurrection, He has truly come to set things right again, once and for all: breaking the power of sin and death… defeating and freeing us from the grip of the evil one… reconciling us rebellious humans to the Living God, to one another, and to our world… and restoring the image of God in us… the image we all still bear, whether we can see it or not… so that we can truly reflect the goodness and likeness of the Living, Triune God as well.
 
And it is the Holy Spirit’s work that makes this possible… the Spirit of God Himself, now dwelling in us… binding us in faith to Jesus Christ the Eternal Son… and remaking us in Christ’s image… not by erasing our identities, but by raising them… by filling us up with the fullness of God’s own life, and holy love… so that we too can truly begin to love God, and to love everyone created in His image… making His Good Kingdom known throughout the world, and inviting everyone to share in it. 
 
At the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel, which we heard today, Jesus the Risen Lord lays claim to not only the authority over the Earth, which God entrusted to humanity back in Genesis 1… Jesus also claims that: “All authority in heaven and on earth” has been given to Him. (Matthew 28:18). And with this ultimate authority, Jesus tells His disciples, some of whom were still struggling with doubt, to “Go therefore 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 that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20).
 
Go make disciples… invite others everywhere to join in this same journey… to take part in this same story… to believe the Good News that Jesus is the Risen Lord… baptized to share in Christ’s death and resurrection life, in the name of the Triune God… Father, Son, and Spirit… and taught to obey everything that Jesus has commanded.
 
And what has Jesus commanded us? To trust in Him… and to love. Not as the world thinks of love… selfishly pursuing our own desires and interests. But love as Jesus Himself has shown us: love for the outcasts and strangers. Love for the lowly and vulnerable. Love for those who can never pay us back. Love for those who have wronged us, and need our forgiveness. Love for those who still make such a mess of things, and still need correction along with compassion. Love that sees past all of our mistakes and failures, and longs for everyone to be set free. The same love that spoke our universe into existence… and raised up Jesus Christ from the dead… the same love that is at work in us, even now remaking us so we can love like God loves. 
 
What kind of God do we believe in? We believe in the Holy Trinity… the God we have encountered in Jesus Christ, who shows us the Father, and shares with us the Holy Spirit… the God who created us all in His image, and restores that image through His Son Jesus Christ, and calls us now to reflect and share His holy love with one another and with our world.
 
I’ll end now with the words of St. Paul, inviting us into the blessed life of the Trinity: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” (2 Corinthians 13:13). Amen.


[1] Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, (2026). Paragraph 50.
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html