The Celebration of the Gospel
June 18, 2014 —Trinity Sunday
The Trinity does not appear in the Bible as a doctrine, but later readers noticed God appearing in three persons in scripture (and in our experience): the eternal, infinite Creator; the person of Christ in Jesus of Nazareth; and the Spirit within us. We worship a three-dimensional God.
“In the name of Abba God, and of the Only Begotten, and of the Holy Spirit”
— Matthew 28.19
___ We Gather as The Body of Christ
GREETING
PRELUDE Morning Has Broken Trad. arr. Fred Bock
* CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Infinite God, Loving Mystery, Eternal Father, Life-Giving Mother:
All: We worship you.
Christ, the Only Begotten, Son of God, Loving Brother, Eternal Word:
We love you and trust you.
Holy Spirit, Breath of Life, Energy of Love Within:
We open our hearts to your grace.
We wonder at your mystery.
We are grateful for your love.
We accept the life and grace you give us.
O Love beyond us, beside us within us, we give ourselves to you.
Create us anew in you, teach us your way, and breathe us into the world. Amen.
* SONG O God in Heaven Blue hymnal # 119
CHILDREN’S TIME
_________ We Attend to the Word
PRAYER OF THE DAY
O Holy Trinity, you open your arms to us and include us in your blessed community. Bless us, that we may enter you; feast with you, and be one with you; that you may live in us, for your sake and the sake of the world. Source of Life, Eternal Word and Spirit of Love; Mother, Son and Holy Spirit, we worship you. Amen.
OLD TESTAMENT Isaiah 42.1-9
[God’s spirit works in us to establish justice: not by our own power, for we are as gentle as can be, but by God’s working through us.]
God says: Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon you
you will bring forth justice to the nations.
You will not cry or lift up your voice,
or make it heard in the street;
so gentle that you won’t break a blade of grass
or snuff a dimly burning candle,
you will faithfully bring forth justice.
You will not grow faint or be crushed
until you have established justice throughout the world;
far-off nations will welcome your wisdom.
Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
I am the Lord, that is my name;
my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols.
See, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth, I tell you of them.
PSALTER Psalm 51
[We pray that God will give us a new spirit.]
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgment.
Indeed, I was born wounded,
and disconnected from you since my birth.
You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you have no delight in sacrifice;
if I were to give a burnt offering,
you would not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
NEW TESTAMENT 1 Corinthians 12.1-7
[Though Paul does not name the Trinity, you can see it in how he speaks of “one Spirit… one Lord [Christ]… and one God” who work through various gifts in us. ]
Now sisters and brothers, I want you to know how God’s spirit works in us through the gifts it gives us. When you lived in your own little self-defined life you gave yourself over to all sorts of values that did not give you life. The Spirit of God working in us would never lead us to abandon Jesus. And in whatever way we give our lives to Jesus, that’s the Holy Spirit’s work in us.
Now we have a variety of gifts , but they are all from the same Spirit.
We have many ways of serving, but we have one Lord.
We offer a variety of activities, but it is the same God who activates them in each of us.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
GOSPEL Matthew 28.16-20
[Jesus sends us out to baptize people “in the name of Abba God, and of the Only Begotten, and of the Holy Spirit.”
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw the risen Christ, they worshiped ; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of Abba God and of the Only Begotten and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
SERMON
SONG O Holy Trinity
O Holy One, O Mystery beyond us,
We praise you, Lord, O Grace without a name.
Creator of the universe within you,
Source of our life, Thou Infinite Divine,
Unseen, unknown, we cannot frame or bind you,
Only our wonder and our praise proclaim.
O Loving One, O Love who made the heavens,
You choose to come among us as our own,
The Living Word, in flesh revealed, Companion,
Stranger and Friend, whose suff’ring is your throne.
Eternal Christ who humbly dies among us,
Your tender mystery in love is known.
O Living One, O Grace who lives in our life,
We can’t contain you, but we can adore.
Spirit of Love beyond, beside, within us,
Into our hearts your healing presence pour.
Many and One, O Mystery, Christ and Spirit,
We sing, we live your praise forevermore.
* AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
We give our hearts to you, O Loving Mystery, Father and Mother, Creator of all that is and all that is to come, unseen yet present in every place and time.
We love you and trust you, Christ our brother, Embodied Love of God, our savior and our teacher. You enter our life; you share our journey, even our sufferings: you were crucified and raised again, so that sharing our human nature we may share your divine nature.
We live by your grace, Holy Spirit, breath of God in us, emerging energy of love. You lead us to live lives of compassion, courage, justice and beauty. You make us one with each other and with all living things. You are our Breath, our Life, our Loving. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are yours. Alleluia and Amen.
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
__We Are Sent in Ministry to the World
OFFERING OUR GIFTS
Nocturne in b flat minor, Op. 9, No. 1 Chopin (Margaret Follet, piano)
OFFERING SONG Doxology Blue hymnal #94
PRAYER
Gracious God, we give you these gifts as symbols of our lives. Receive them with love, bless them with grace and use them according to your will. Send us out in the power of your love for the sake of the healing of the world, in the name of Christ. Amen.
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
SONG Father, I Adore You
1. Father, I adore you. Lay my life before you. How I love you.
2. Jesus…. 3. Spirit…. 4. Three In One….
* THE BLESSING AND SENDING FORTH
RESPONSE We stand and sing to our neighbors:
May the grace and peace of Christ be with you my friends.
Go and share the love of God, love that never ends.
POSTLUDE Rigadoun G.F. Handel, arr. Rick Parks