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In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            What a great day for a baptism! It may not seem like it at first. We spent a bit of time this morning confessing with the Athanasian Creed. A lot of the liturgical parts of the Divine Service have used what seems like pretty abstract language about the Holy Trinity, maybe like a math problem made up of ones and threes. But we should remember that no one sat down in a room and decided to come up with a “doctrine” called “The Holy Trinity” in order to give Christians one more thing to believe. In fact, the reason that we have both the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds was not just because of theologians or Church councils. The controversy, around 1700 years ago, was only a controversy because God became man. If the eternal Son of God did not take on flesh, there would have been no controversy—well, no controversy about this, at least. It wasn’t just because Christians like to have arguments; it happened because of Jesus. The Word who was with God and was God became flesh and dwelled among us.

            Someone once asked what would happen if theologians sat down tomorrow and said that God was not a Trinity. What effect would that have on your daily life? I wonder what answers each of us might give! But Jesus is a pretty good start. It doesn’t get too much more concrete than a man who shares our oxygen and our space, who has flesh and blood and bones like us, who was conceived and born, lived, died, and rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will be revealed as Lord on the last day. The Word of God in human flesh who dwells with us is not an abstraction, and certainly has something to do with our everyday life.

            But today we see how that conception, birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Son does touch every aspect of our daily existence. Because the Son whom the Father sent and who promised and gave the Holy Spirit gave a command and a promise after His resurrection and before His ascension: Wherever you go, wherever you are, make disciples. But how, Lord? Did Jesus leave us to figure that part out on our own? No, He tells us exactly what to do and what to say: make disciples by baptizing them into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to keep everything that I have commanded you. And look—pay attention—I am with you all the days until the completion of this age. Not “I will be with you.” Not “I was with you.” But “I am currently, and in an ongoing way, with you.”  

            Notice there are not three names here. There is one Name: the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Name that the Son made flesh shares with the Father and the Spirit, the Name into which Eloise has been put this morning, along with all the baptized. The Name is everything. It is not just letters by which we know someone. A name is who we are and what we do. And that is entirely true of God, with no remainder. God’s Name is who He is because it is what He does. This is why we are commanded not to take His Name in vain, for empty or worthless things. Because when we do, we do not keep God’s Name holy, but deny who He is or what He does. When God tells Moses His Name in Exodus 34, while He’s covering Moses with His hand in the cleft of the rock, He doesn’t just say the word that signifies His Name. He says, “Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty” who do not belong to or believe that Name. Those are the only ones not covered by God’s Name: those who refuse or deny it until their deaths.

            That Name is who God is, and where His Name is, God is. So when Solomon dedicates the temple, he prays that God’s Name would be there in the temple, so that when people prayed toward that place, God would hear and forgive (1 Kings 8:27-30). When God told Aaron to put His Name on the people by the blessing, God dwelled with them. And when God put His Name on Eloise, He promises to dwell with her and never leave or forsake her. The Name of God is an identity so fundamental, that Jesus calls it a new birth, a person born again from above by water and the Spirit.

This is why the Small Catechism has a prayer for the morning, which starts by making the sign of the holy cross, because it is made in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, the baptismal Name, and praying that I would be kept from sin and every evil. It means that whatever happens in the day ahead, I belong to God. And at the end of the day, when I pray that God would forgive me my sins, I make the sign of the holy cross to remind myself that I have not stopped being the child of God, and that He forgives me in that Name. The Holy Trinity is both the foundation of my life and the covering over me every day.  

So Eloise has been put into that Name and had the Name put on her, just as every baptized person has. But God and His Name have enemies in this world. We are not immediately translated to heaven after we are baptized. We are put back into the arms of our parents, back into this world. And in this world, there is no lack of sin and temptation, and the devil is not far distant from us. In fact, in one sense, it is baptism that puts the target on us. When God tears us out of the kingdom of the devil by burying us with Christ in His death, and raising us in His resurrection, and puts us into the Kingdom of Jesus, when He transfers us from the domain of darkness to the dominion of the Light, that’s when the devil starts to get really active. The only thing the devil cares about is keeping people from Jesus or driving them away from Jesus. Your sinful flesh wants you, and not Jesus, to be lord of your life. So the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour—a member of the flock or herd that wanders away, or one that is sick and the rest of the herd doesn’t take care of them. The devil never gets tired, never takes a rest, never stops his biting, tearing, killing, lying.

And that is a fearful thing. Parents and sponsors and families and congregations ought to have a healthy fear that the devil might get his claws or teeth into a dear lamb of the Good Shepherd, and we ought to pray with all our might that God would preserve and protect each baptized believer. We must never think that baptism is like some kind of golden ticket into heaven, so we don’t need to hear the word or receive the gifts and forgiveness and life of Christ. Those are the ways that baptism’s power continues until resurrection. Those are the very things that God has given so that His life continues flowing to us, like the life of the vine in the branches.

And this is the comfort He gives, when the devil, the world, or our sinful flesh drag or draw us away from Christ. You have been put into the Name. That will never change, because Christ is your life and you have been hidden with Christ in God. No sin, no death, no doubt, no devil can snatch you from His hand, because He is risen from the dead and cannot die anymore. So if you find yourself drifting or caught in sin or doubting the mercy of God, it is no good going looking for some other way back into His love. Your baptism remains forever, because the promise of God cannot be broken. The way back is the same Name: I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is how God holds you, by His Name: He covers you with His hand and puts you into the cleft side of Christ, the rock, and He speaks His Name again, reminds you of what He did in Jesus, and how He gave it to you at your baptism. Baptism for Eloise is not just something that happens today and then she moves on to bigger, better things. It is the day by day by day reality of the fact that God made her, redeemed her, and put His holy Name on her.

It is not something in the past, but neither is it something that is just in the future, heaven after death. Jesus, remember, says of His baptized, believing, instructed children: look! I am with you all the days until the completion of this age. And not only until then of course, but ever after. Here is the Name of the Holy Trinity, each and every day, covering, nourishing, forgiving, keeping, guiding—all the way to the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. God grant it for Eloise and for you.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

– Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 5/29/26