Sermon and Liturgy for May 30 1999 - Trinity Sunday - Year A
Genesis 1:1 - 2:4; Romans 1:16-23 and Matthew 28:16-20
"God Is One, Yet God is Three"
READING: Genesis 1:1 - 2:4; Romans 1:16-23 and Matthew 28:16-20 SERMON : "God Is One, Yet God is Three" a-trinsm.y-a 672 The following is a more or less complete liturgy and sermon for the upcoming Sunday. Hymn numbers, designated as VU are found in the United Church of Canada Hymnal "Voices United". SFPG is "Songs For A Gospel People", also available from the UCC. The Call to Worship and the Prayer of Invocation below are taken and modified from John Maynard (maynard@SYMPAC.COM.AU) "Prayers and Litanies for Trinity Sunday, as sent to the PRCL-List, May 1999). GATHERING AND MUSICAL PRELUDE (* = please stand) * WORDS OF WELCOME AND CALL TO WORSHIP L The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. P And also with you. L All glory to our living God! P All praise to our Creator! L Glorious in splendour, glorious in majesty! P Let us worship God together! L All glory to our living God! P Let all the earth cry "Glory! To the Father, to the Son, and to the Spirit, one!" * INTROIT: "Holy, Holy, Holy" (VU-315 Verse 1) * PRAYER OF INVOCATION: Creator of us all, Father and Mother to all who call on your name, You send Your Word to bring us truth and Your Spirit to make us holy. Through them we come to know the mystery of Your life. Help us to worship You, one God in three Persons, by proclaiming and living our faith in You. Grace our time of gathering as your people that our prayers and our praise, our seeing and our hearing, may be as you desire them to be. Strengthen us and through us bring glory to your own most precious name. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, he who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. AMEN. * HYMN: "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise" - VU 264 ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SHARING JOYS AND CONCERNS Gathering in of prayer joys and concerns PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND THE LORD'S PRAYER CHILDREN'S TIME: In The Beginning Object: None Theme: God Revealed in Creation Source: Self Good morning. Today we are going to listen to a very special story - a story that tells us about the world that we see around us - and about how it came into being. It is a very old story - but a very special one. This story is so special that when people first flew to the moon and landed upon it - the astronauts took the story with them and they read it aloud for the whole world to hear. After you hear it today - I want you to think about the world around you and to give thanks to God for all it's beauty and goodness - and to give thanks to God for making us so that we can enjoy it. The story is taken from the very first chapter of the bible - in the book we call Genesis - which means "in the beginning". Let us hear it now after we sing a song asking God to help us to hear it and all the other things God has to say to us today. INTROIT For The Word of God (please stay seated): Open my ears, that I may hear voices of truth thou sendest clear; and while the wave notes fall on my ear, everything false will disappear. Silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see. Open my ears, illumine me, Spirit divine! (VU 371 v.2 & refrain) A READING FROM GENESIS 1:1 - 2:4 (NRSV) In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, {2} the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. {3} Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. {4} And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. {5} God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. {6} And God said, "Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." {7} So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. {8} God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. {9} And God said, "Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. {10} God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. {11} Then God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it." And it was so. {12} The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. {13} And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. {14} And God said, "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, {15} and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth." And it was so. {16} God made the two great lights--the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night--and the stars. {17} God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, {18} to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. {19} And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. {20} And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky." {21} So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. {22} God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." {23} And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. {24} And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind." And it was so. {25} God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good. {26} Then God said, "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." {27} So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. {28} God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." {29} God said, "See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. {30} And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. {31} God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. {2} And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. {3} So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. {4} These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, L This is the Word of the Lord P Thanks be to God. Let us Pray: Loving God // Creator God // God who made us // God of all things // we give you thanks for what you have done // we give you thanks for who you are // we give you thanks for loving us // Help us to always praise you // and to follow in your way of truth and beauty // Amen * HYMN: "All Things Bright and Beautiful" - VU 291 A READING FROM ROMANS 1:16-23 (NRSV) For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. {17} For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, "The one who is righteous will live by faith." {18} For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. {19} For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. {20} Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; {21} for though they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. {22} Claiming to be wise, they became fools; {23} and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles. L This is the Word of the Lord P Thanks be to God. RESPONSIVE READING: Psalm 8 (VU 732) and Refrain (Sung) * HYMN: "Teach Me God to Wonder" - VU 299 A READING FROM MATTHEW 28:16-20 (NRSV) Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. {17} When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. {18} And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. {19} 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, {20} and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." L This is the Gospel of our Risen Lord P Praise be you, Lord Jesus Christ. SERMON: "God is One, Yet God is Three" "Gracious God - bless now the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath your Spirit into us and grant that we may hear and in hearing be led in the way you want us to go. Amen. This Sunday is Trinity Sunday - the first Sunday after Pentecost a time of year that Popes and Bishops, Councils and Synods, Presbyteries and Sessions have, for more years than this church has existed thought it good and wise to remind the millions of seekers - the millions of faithful - for whom they care - that God is a mystery which is best understood in three ways - As creator -- or father as redeemer -- or son and as sustainer -- or spirit. God is one. Yet God is three. God is here. Yet God is everywhere. God is mighty. Yet God is tender. God is just. Yet God has mercy. God is spirit. Yet God takes on flesh. God is in Christ. Christ is in Us. God is Spirit and the Spirit blows where it wills. Yet the Spirit abides in our hearts. God is one. Yet God is three. The Apostle Paul writes this about God "Since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made." When you go outside after this worship time take a little bit more time to worship - look at the bark of an old tree at the greening fields the scudding clouds the running waters -- and give thanks -- to the power - to the grace - to the beauty - that made it all. You know and understand what I saying - that's why you're here because God is - and God is good - and you want to remind yourselves of that - and share that truth - and celebrate it before God. But there are others, and they are many, who stop just there - with the clouds and the trees - with the land and the sea and the creatures that inhabit them, and while they get a spiritual message from them -- they don't get the same message of goodness and of beauty that we do - we who know God is One, Yet God is three. Paul writes that although they know God from what has been made: "they neither glorify him as God nor give thanks to him, but their thinking becomes futile and their foolish hearts are darkened. Although they claim to be wise they become fools and exchange the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles." Idolatry is everywhere today -people worship not the Creator, but the created: or worse yet - their hearts are so darkened - that they do not worship at all but live instead with the darkness of fear and anxiety upon their hearts. Around them and within them the evils of power and ambition and avarice and lust rule supreme; they have no true joy - no sense of the infinite goodness that exists all around them. God is one, yet God is three. Last Sunday was the festival of the Spirit of God - of the Spirit which is God. We celebrated the incredible goodness of God that God should come to us and inhabit us and give us powers and gifts by which we might do his will by which we might communicate him to others by which we might communicate with him. Many people have thought of the incredible power of God fewer have thought about God as a spirit that inhabits us - as a force within that can be touched and which can touch us and of those who do think about this, many have had no direction in their thinking: they have seen the power and felt the power and used the power for themselves - for their profit - for their influence - for their authority, rather than for the doing of the work of God. Some say this is an age of the spirit that there is a great awakening happening that even as people abandon the church and the temple and the mosque they are reaching out to the power behind these institutions, that they are longing for the divine and seeking it in an enormous variety of ways and forms, from witchcraft to the worship of Gaia and from the goddesses to the new consciousness of the Celestine Prophecy And that is true. There is such a longing And there is such a diversity of things happening. But not all Spirits are good Not all Spirits are of the One Spirit which we call God; the Spirit which we know from many days long before the day of Pentecost is a healing Spirit, a creative Spirit, a serving Spirit a truth telling Spirit a Spirit of Justice and of Order a Spirit of revolutionary mercy and of tender compassion, the Spirit which works good works and speaks the Word of God. The Spirit of God, God the Spirit, is the one which guides us - the one which comforts us - the one that convicts us and conveys God's mercy to us - the one who listens - and the one who speaks - and in speaking never asks of us that which is wrong - and never does through us - that which would bring shame to the name of God It is by the Spirit that our prayer is prayer to God and by the Spirit that our prayer is answered.. God is one, yet God is three. God is a mystery my friends -- a mystery so big, so awesome, so holy that our limited minds can never grasp the wholeness of it but God has placed in us a capacity to appreciate the mystery that God is and to embrace that mystery --. God has revealed himself - not just in the act of creation - in nature and its manifest goodness and beauty, - not just in the nudges and nods of the Spirit - in the prophet's vision and the old man's dreams, God has revealed himself in the one called Jesus the one called Christ - the one who was born by the Spirit and who worked all his works by the Spirit and who healed and forgave by the Spirit and in all that he spoke he spoke the word of God by the Spirit. In Christ, God reveals himself as the one who loves - and who does so in tangible, concrete, incarnate - in fleshed - ways. I tell you my friends, without this one without this revelation of God whom we call the Christ - you and I would not have the promises nor would we have the inheritance to come Nor would we have the communion the spirit the assurance the strength the mercy that we have. Jesus is the one who reveals the way to us, the one who speaks the truth to us, the one who gives life by his touch and by his word. God is One, yet God is three. We have - in God - the three in one - and one in three - something that is very precious. We have the gospel - the good news - of the salvation that is for all humankind. We have the message concerning God's love and his desire to grant wholeness to all his children We have a light that shines into the darkness of human hearts and brings healing - a light that shines forth from thence into the life of all those around. It has seemed good to hundreds of generations of our Spiritual Ancestors to remember this truth on this day of the year in a particular and special way. And so we do today. We remember Jesus' own words, the words he spoke shortly before his ascension into heaven when he said to his followers "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, to the very end of the age." As believers in the line of Abraham and Sarah and of Joseph and Mary we have a privilege of understanding and a duty of communicating and teaching the good news concerning God. As Paul wrote in the letter to the Romans -- "In the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed" The righteousness of God - the saving love of God - the healing power of God - the justice and the mercy of God which makes us whole - is found in the good news concerning Jesus Christ - in the good news that he preached concerning the Kingdom of God - and in how like him we can call the holy and awesome God - Daddy! - and in how like him we could be filled with God and have him, have God, have the Christ have the Spirit, abide in us and we in him. It is easy my friends to be led astray but it is also easy to be found again. God seeks us out; - He displays himself in the heavens and through all that he made on earth - He speaks to us in the Spirit - in our dreams and visions and in our holy silences - He comes to us in the Flesh.- In Christ Jesus our Lord. Grab hold of the mystery -- appreciate it and embrace it: the mystery that not only is God one in three and three in one but the mystery that God loves you, the mystery that God cares for you the mystery that God can and will, if you let him, use you to do great things that God can and will, if you are open to his bidding, use you to bring healing, and wholeness, and hope first to your homes, then to your neighbours and finally to the whole world through the gospel that we have received. * HYMN: "God, Whose Almighty Word" - VU 313 PRAYER OF THE DAY God revealed in nature - in power of sea and land - in beauty of plants and animals - in intricacy of molecules and atoms and the webs of spiders To you, the three in one and one in three, we give thanks. Lord, hear our prayer... God revealed in Spirit - in visions and dreams and gentle nudges - in whisper of the wind and the voice of strangers - in heart and in mind and in love itself To you, the three in one and one in three, we give thanks. Lord hear our prayer... God revealed in Christ - who walks with us and before us - who forgives our sins - who reminds us there is only one true way and one true God - and who gave himself to be that way. To you, the three in one and one in three, we give thanks. Lord hear our prayer... Touch, O Lord, our hearts and our minds. Help us to hold to the word of truth. Help us to embrace the mystery of your nature and to proclaim the mystery of your love. Make our faith deep and true, our utterance wise and caring, and our actions bold and loving. Make us ones who proclaim the gospel through which your righteousness is revealed. Make us ones who worship you as Creator Father, as Spirit Mother, and as Christ Jesus, Son, three in one, and one in three. Amen. MINUTE FOR MISSION: Our Life Together and In The World * SHARING GOD'S BLESSINGS: As the Offering is presented all stand for the Doxology (Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow - VU 541) and Prayer of Dedication Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer - to you we give thanks this day - and to you we bring the gifts that you first gave us for the living of our lives and for doing the works of your eternal Kingdom. Bless all that we offer in your service and so move among us that we hold back nothing from you - this both now and forevermore. Amen * DEPARTING HYMN: "Praise Our Maker" - VU 316 * COMMISSIONING (Unison): In the power of the Holy Spirit we now go forth into the world, to fulfil our calling as the people of God, the body of Christ. * BENEDICTION AND THREEFOLD AMEN Go in peace; love and care for one another and may God our Creator and Parent, Jesus our Saviour and Lord, And Holy Spirit our Comforter and Guide Be with you now and always. AMEN. * CHORAL BLESSING: "Go Now In Peace" - VU 964 copyright - Rev. Richard J. Fairchild 1999 please acknowledge the appropriate author if citing these sermons. Friar Sydney Mascarenhas. O.F.M., Ph.D
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