Trinity Sunday
This short act of worship has been prepared for you. I invite you to share in a few moments with God knowing that other people within Paulton, Trinity and Chew Stoke Methodist Churches are sharing this act of worship with you.
Revd Martin Slocombe
The word of the eternal Father created us, the love of the gracious Son redeemed us, the presence of the Holy Spirit unites and empowers us.
Come and worship the glorious Trinity, our God of power, love and peace. Amen
Psalm 8
Divine Majesty and Human Dignity
1 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honour.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Hymn – Eternal God, your love’s tremendous glory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e6StJvY0b0
1 Eternal God, your love’s tremendous glory
cascades through life in overflowing grace,
to tell creation’s meaning in the story
of love evolving love from time and space.
2 Eternal Son of God, uniquely precious,
in you, deserted, scorned and crucified,
God’s love has fathomed sin and death’s deep darkness,
and flawed humanity is glorified.
3 Eternal Spirit, with us like a mother,
embracing us in love serene and pure:
you nurture strength to follow Christ our brother,
as full-grown children, confident and sure.
4 Love’s trinity, self-perfect, self-sustaining;
love which commands, enables and obeys:
you give yourself, in boundless joy, creating
one vast increasing harmony of praise.
5 We ask you now, complete your image in us;
this love of yours, our source and guide and goal.
May love in us, seek love and serve love’s purpose,
till we ascend with Christ and find love whole.
Alan Gaunt (b. 1935)
Prayer
O living God, creator of the universe, in love you have made us and have restored us to right relationship with you through your loving forgiveness of our sins, and in love you continue to sustain us day by day.
You are the Father who protects us and provides for us; the Son, who lived and died and rose again in our midst; the Spirit, who moves among us with energy, like the wind. You are all these things and more. You are present with us and yet still beyond our hope, our dreams and our wildest imaginings.
As we think of your greatness, loving God, we feel small, weak and fragile. As we think about your loving concern for all people, we want to tell you how hard life has been for us lately, as we have become all too aware of how fragile our lives are, and how quickly it can be taken away. Forgive us if we have put our own needs before the needs of others. As we think of your forgiveness and mercy, we know we have not been as loving as we might have been. We have rejoiced in the overflowing of love seen in our communities, so forgive us if we have not played our part.
But you welcome us, forgive us, and accept us, as we are, with all our faults and our weaknesses. Help us to feel the warmth of your understanding and forgiving love, and to know ourselves to be held in your friendship for ever. Amen
Readings
2 Corinthians 13: 11-13
Final Greetings and Benediction
11 Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.
13 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Matthew 28: 16-20
The Commissioning of the Disciples
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
Hymn – Father, we love you
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=QltVKW6wXdo&list=RDAMVMQltVKW6wXdo
1 Father, we love you,
we worship and adore you:
glorify your name
in all the earth.
Glorify your name,
glorify your name,
glorify your name,
in all the earth.
2 Jesus, we love you,
we worship and adore you:
glorify your name
in all the earth.
Glorify your name,
glorify your name,
glorify your name,
in all the earth.
3 Spirit, we love you,
we worship and adore you:
glorify your name
in all the earth.
Glorify your name,
glorify your name,
glorify your name,
in all the earth.
Donna Adkins (b. 1940)
Reflection –
Trinity Sunday is a difficult subject to preach upon, without getting embroiled in deep theology, and the sermon becoming more of a lecture, hindering rather than helping us to reflect upon how we understand God as Trinity, one God, but encountered as three.
The Shield of the Trinity, above, is a traditional depiction from Medieval times, which tries to state what the Trinity is, and what it is not.
Both of our Bible readings today speak of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit, working together as a blessing upon those going out to do God’s work. The blessing serves as a reminder that they need, and have, the presence of not just one, but all three persons of the Trinity with them. But nowhere does it seek to explain for us the relationship between the three distinct parts.
The doctrine of the Trinity, simply(!) stated, is that there is one eternal God who is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. He is the only God that exists. However, within the nature of this one God are three persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three persons are equal to each other and exist alongside each other, but are also distinguishable and distinct from one another. Everything that is true about God is true about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. However, the reverse is not true. While the Bible teaches that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God, it is wrong to say that God is the Father, God is the Son, or God is the Spirit in isolation. God's nature consists of all three distinct persons, therefore it is incorrect to limit God to one particular member of the Trinity.
Let me try to say this a different way. I am Martin. I am a husband, a father and a son, all at the same time. The fact that I am a son does not prevent me from being either a husband or a father. I am known in each and all of these ways. I am a father, but not just a father, and I am all of these things at the same time without detracting from each relationship. And yet I am more than the sum of each of these parts. Does that help, or confuse? See what I mean!
If you want a long, theological word – here it is.
Perichoresis – is the understanding of God as three distinct persons, but existing as one, ever changing relationship, each with the other, each equal, none superior.
Each person reveals its own particular attributes of God, but none, on their own can fully reveal God’s true and full nature.
Father – creator who existed before time and reveals the power of God
Son – saviour who, as the Word, was with God at the beginning of creation. At a point in time, he revealed God’s love to us in a unique way and has redeemed us from our sins so that we can have the relationship with God that was always possible
Spirit – sustainer who as a wind, blew across and formed creation, and exists within and around us now as the means by which we can speak to, and listen to God
All sorts of ideas have been used to try to explain this unexplainable relationship. A favourite for Trinity Sunday is a candle with three wicks. Three individual flames, but part of one candle.
Does any of this help your understanding?
If not, I would encourage you not to worry about it too much. Not knowing how the internal combustion engine works does not prevent you from benefiting from owning a car, and, dare I say it, not fully understanding the theology of the Trinity does not prevent you from having a relationship with the God who loves you beyond anything you can imagine.
As we travel through life, we experience God in all sorts of ways – creator, saviour and sustainer – each revelation of God enhances our understanding and adds to our experience, rather than making any previous understanding redundant. It is in getting to know all three, that we can start to understand the One.
May you continue to explore who God is for you, and seek him in all the corners of your life, for in so doing, you will begin to reveal the nature of God’s true identity, for you and for others.
Intercessions & Lords Prayer
Father, you bring worlds to birth, you bring us to birth and you affirm us. We bring to you unaffirmed places in ourselves and unaffirmed people in the world … we pray especially this week for people of colour, enduring discrimination and poverty, suffering disproportionately from Coronavirus, being violated by the structures of state.
Saviour, you reach our brokenness and make us whole, you reach those who are alienated and bring them home …. We pray for broken and alienated people ……
Spirit, you fill every corner of creation, and renew life within us. We pray for parched and weary people ….
Father, Saviour, Spirit, affirm them, bring them home and renew them.
We pray for our families and friends, and for all those in need at this present time:-
We pray for the churches in our Circuit, this week for Box, and their minister, Elizabeth.
Amen
Let us pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Hymn – Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=0SHDNs7Dt5M&list=RDAMVM0SHDNs7Dt5M
1 Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee:
holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty,
God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!
2 Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
who wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.
3 Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the sinful human eye thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
perfect in power, in love, and purity.
4 Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea;
holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty,
God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!
Reginald Heber (1783–1826) (alt.)
Based on Revelation 4:8-11
Blessing
May the grace of the Father be with you; may the love of the Son enfold you; and may the peace of the Spirit comfort you, today and always. Amen
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