Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for May 31, 2026 (Trinity Sunday A)
The Garden of Eden (1530), oil painting on poplar wood by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553). Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany. (Click image to enlarge.)
First Reading: Genesis 1:1-2:4a
On Pentecost, we celebrated Christ’s ascension into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Creator and watched the Holy Spirit coming to the apostles in wind and fire. Now, as Trinity Sunday marks the beginning of the six-month-long season after Pentecost, we reflect on Creator, Son, and Holy Spirit in their mysterious dance: three persons in one triune God, the Holy Trinity. Sunday’s readings begin at the very beginning: Our first reading presents the first of the two creation stories that open the book of Genesis. We need not take the Genesis story literally to appreciate its grace-filled poetry, portraying a monotheistic God – Creator, Word, and Spirit wind moving over the waters – as a loving creative force at work in the world.
Psalm: Psalm 8
Psalm 8 beautifully knits together the ideas that call for our attention on Trinity Sunday. In these verses, we give praise and thanksgiving for God’s earthly creation. We remember that we hold dominion over creation. We accept that this duty demands that we preserve and protect “the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea.” And finally, we worship the majesty of God, our Creator who made it all.
Alternate Psalm: Canticle 13
As an optional alternative to Psalm 8 on Trinity Sunday, we may sing Canticle 13 from the Book of Common Prayer. These verses are based on the Song of the Three Young Men in the Prayer to Azariah in the Apocrypha, celebrating the three young men who legend tells us danced and sang in defiance of the flames in King Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace. This canticle was added in modern times as a supplement to the song. In resounding joy, it exalts God as Creator, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Explicit references to the Holy Trinity are rarely found in the New Testament because the Trinitarian theology expressed in the Nicene Creed evolved gradually over the first three centuries of Christianity. But we can imagine foreshadowings of the Trinity in this reading and in Sunday’s Gospel. In Paul’s loving farewell at the end of his second letter to the people of Corinth, he urges this often squabbling congregation to sort out their conflicts and love one another as God loves them, asking this, in conclusion, in the “grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.”
Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20
On Pentecost Sunday, the Holy Spirit came to the disciples in wind and fire, inspiring them to go out to the world and tell the good news of the resurrection and eternal life. Now, on Trinity Sunday, we hear the final verses of Matthew’s gospel. Jesus, in Matthew’s account, had told the women at the tomb to direct the eleven remaining disciples to go on to Galilee, where he would meet them. Now they all gather on a mountain there. Some of the apostles worship Jesus, but others seem doubtful. Then Jesus announces a great commission to Christian evangelism, commanding them to go and “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”