St Clement Church Community Trinity Sunday Service

 

 

Good morning to you as we celebrate our Trinity Sunday Service.

I hope you’ve all had a good week even if the weather has been rather wet of late!

We are holding a Trinity Sunday Eucharist in our church building at 10.15, this Service of the Word is for those who aren’t able to be with us in person, but will be worshipping with us in spirit.

Much love and prayers and may Christ’s love sustain you always. 

Rev Di and family xx

 

 

Let us pray;

Almighty and eternal God, you have revealed yourself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and live and reign in the perfect unity of love: hold us firm in this faith, that we may know you in all your ways and evermore rejoice in your eternal glory. Amen.

 

Our prayers of Penitence

As we celebrate the holiness and goodness of God, we remember the shadows in our own lives:

Father God, we confess that we often take the gifts of your creation for granted, and use them chiefly to further our own interests….

Lord, have mercy.

 

Saviour Christ, we confess that we easily fall into temptation and forget to seek your forgiveness….

Christ, have mercy.

 

Holy Spirit, we confess that we often close our minds to your influence, and fail to bear good fruit in our lives…

Lord, have mercy.

 

May Almighty God have mercy upon us, forgive us our failings, and bring us to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

 

Let us pray our Collect for Trinity Sunday

Holy God, faithful and unchanging: enable our minds to understand the knowledge of your truth, and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love, that we may truly worship you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  

                                                                                           

Readings:

Isaiah 6.1-8

Romans 8.12-17

 

Gospel: John 3.1-17

(Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John. 

Response: ‘Glory to you O Lord.’)

 

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ 

Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ 

Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 

What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ 

Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 

If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

 

(This is the Gospel of the Lord.    Praise to you, O Christ.)

 

Reflection

My first sermon during my curacy at St Agnes was on the Trinity, and since then I’ve learnt to either book Trinity Sunday off, or get Liz to preach,  but you’ve got me again this year, so here goes! 

A story is told of a little girl who was asked at school to write an essay on birth, so she went home and asked her mother how she had been born.  Her mother, who was busy at the time, said 'the stork brought you darling, and left you on the doorstep.'

Continuing her research, she asked her dad how he'd been born.  Being in the middle of something, her father likewise deflected the question by saying, 'I was found at the bottom of the garden.  The fairies brought me.'  Then the girl went and asked her grandmother how she had arrived. 'I was picked from a gooseberry bush', said grandma. 

With this information the girl wrote her essay, and when the teacher asked her later to read it in front of the class, she stood up and began, "There has not been a natural birth in our family for three generations......."

In our Gospel reading today, poor old Nicodemus was struggling to understand the difference between natural and spiritual birth, when Jesus spoke to him of being born from above he was of course, not talking of a natural birth.  As he explained to Nicodemus, he was talking of a spiritual birth - a rebirth took place by the power of the Holy Spirit, and we also struggle alongside Nicodemus to think about this today, Trinity Sunday.

Our experience of God is a marvellous and mysterious experience.

We have and know the God of Isaiah - the God who is high and lifted up in his temple, the God who speaks and brings forth all of creation, who is judge, lord, ruler, king - the God who is in light inaccessible hid from our eyes.

This God is strange to us, and beyond us, this God we dare not touch even though we know him and he knows us, even though we see this God's signs all around us in creation.

And then we have the God who is in Christ, the God who is Christ - the God who is lowly, and humble, who walks the earth with us, cries and laughs with us.  The God who calls God Abba, Father, who is tempted with us, who hungers and thirsts with us.  The God who embraces and encourages us, who surrenders himself to death for us, having only the promise and the hope of being raised again.

And we have and know God the Spirit - God the bringer of visions and dreams, the source of strength and of hope. God the supplier of healing words and comfort filling prayer.  God the wind, the breath, the air we breathe, the transformer who gives new birth, new life, the presence within us and all around us.

But we can’t profess to know all about God, God is always greater than our knowledge of him - but we do know what God has shown about himself in our lives.  We know him in three ways, we experience him in three ways and we love him in three ways.

The key point is: our belief in God as Trinity isn’t just a line in the Bible, nor is it a mere answer to a question in the catechism.  Our belief in God is an invitation to experience, and the Trinity is the way we experience God in his different dimensions. 

But we might lose the significance of the mystery of the Trinity, if we just fossilize that mystery in a dogma and think we know it all, so we should be open to the varieties of ways we experience God.  

The Trinity is a model that captures the three ways God has revealed himself; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a loving parent, a dear brother, and a caring presence.

It also reminds of the three ways in which we – as individuals and as community – might experience Him today.

That my friends, is just part of the truth that Jesus spoke of to Nicodemus. Poor soul, he had a hard time grabbing hold of that truth, he couldn't quite understand how one could be born anew by the divine gift of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

But hopefully we’ve done our best today!  Amen

 

 

Affirmation of our faith

Let us declare our faith in God.

We believe and trust in God the Father, source of all being and life, the one for whom we exist.  We believe and trust in God the Son, who took our human nature, died for us and rose again.  We believe and trust in God the Holy Spirit, who gives life to the people of God and makes Christ known in the world.  This is the faith of the Church. This is our faith.

We believe and trust in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

Our Intercessions this week are written by Helen Dunbar

 

Let us pray to God, in whose love and power all things are possible.

God so loved the world he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life and we thank him for his love so freely given.  We bring before, you, O God, the needs of the Church, and its weakness and its potential; revive and refresh us, teach and direct us, inspire all who preach, teach and gossip the good news, and uphold all who suffer for their faith in any way.

Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer

 

We pray for our church family whether they are here in Church or at home this morning.  We ask for your blessing on all those in need in our community, the elderly, the housebound and those in care homes, and hospices and for those who with skill and compassion, look after them. For all those who spend their lives trying to make ours better – for those in public service, for all people who commit themselves to charitable works, and for all those who help others to find you.

We ask God’s blessing on our clergy, on Archbishop Justin, Bishop Philip and Suffragen Bishop Hugh. We also ask your blessing on our own Revd Diane and her family.

Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer

Dear Lord, we pray for the leaders of nations, and for those in authority, under them; may they work towards international unity to stop the threat of war and terrorism.

We remember all who suffer as a result of political unrest and those who live under the threat of terrorism and oppressive regimes.

We think of the countries where there is ethnic cleansing, we pray for all those people living in places like China and Myanmar.

We live in hope that the cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians will hold up.

We pray for the safety of dissident Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich, who was arrested on arriving in Minsk last week and remains in detention.

Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer

 

We pray for our Queen and ask God’s blessing on her and all members of  her family.

 

Dear Lord, we bring before you all those who are suffering in any way and who need your special affection; for all those who feel discarded and marginalized, the weak and the vulnerable. 

We pray for all those who find life an exhausting struggle, or who long for some respite from pain or depression.

Please Lord, support them in their troubles, bring healing and reassurance, and touch them with the gentleness of your peace. We pray for all those known to us to us and we pray for: Sandra, Derrek, Ken and Di, Rupert and Linda, Brian Dobson, Martin and Liz and Daniel.

Lord in your mercy; hear our prayer

 

 

Dear Lord, teach us to understand death in the context of your eternity, so that our fears are calmed as we approach it. Welcome with merciful love those who have recently died and shelter their loved ones, too, in the shadow of your wings. We pray for Susan (sister of Penny) and her family.

 

Rejoicing in the fellowship of St Clement and St Andrew

Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. 

Amen.

 

Gathering our prayers and praises into one,

Let us pray with confidence as our risen Lord 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.

 

The Peace

We wish peace to each other from God our heavenly Father. 

We wish peace to each other from his Son Jesus Christ.

And we wish peace to each other from the Holy Spirit.

May the peace of the triune God be always with us.  Amen.

 

Blessing

May God the Holy Trinity make us strong in faith and love, defend us on every side and guide us in truth and peace.  And may the presence of God watch over us, the power of God protect us, those whom we love, and may we never forget that wherever we are, God is with us always, to the end of the age.  Amen.