Printed Service – Sunday 26th May 2024
Prepared by Rev. Ian Gardner
“Trinity Sunday”

Call to Worship – Come let us worship God, the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen

Hymn – STF 21 – Born in song
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  1      Born in song!
          God’s people have always been singing.
          Born in song!
          Hearts and voices raised.
          So today we worship together;
          God alone is worthy to be praised.

  2    Praise to God!
        For he is the one who has made us.
        Praise to God!
        We his image bear.
        Heaven and earth are full of his glory;
        let creation praise him everywhere.

   3   Christ is King!
        He left all the glory of heaven.
        Christ is King!
        Born to share in our pain;
        crucified, for sinners atoning,
        risen, exalted, soon to come again.

   4   Sing the song!
        God’s Spirit is poured out among us.
        Sing the song!
        He has made us anew.
        Ev’ry member part of the Body;
        given his power, his will to seek and do.

   5   Tell the world!
        All power to Jesus is given.
        Tell the world!
        He is with us always.
        Spread the word, that all may receive him;
        every tongue confess and sing his praise.

   6   Then the end!
        Christ Jesus shall reign in his glory.
        Then the end
        of all earthly days.
        Yet above the song will continue;
        all his people still shall sing his praise.

                                Brian Hoare (b.1935)

Prayer

Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy Name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Let us confess our sins to God.

Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought and word and deed.
We have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.

Silence

In your mercy,
forgive what we have been,
help us to amend what we are,
and direct what we shall be;
that we may delight in your will
and walk in your ways;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

If we confess our sins,
God is faithful and just
and will forgive our sins,
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Amen. Thanks be to God.

Collect

Almighty and everlasting God,
you have given your servants grace,
by the confession of a true faith,
to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity
and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity.
Keep us steadfast in this faith,
that we may evermore be defended from all adversities;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Scripture:  Isaiah 6: 1 – 8 and John 3: 1 – 17

Reflection

Are you the perfect person that God intended you to be? If you are then please let me know your secret because I’m certainly not – but I also believe that God continues to mould me today.  Being Trinity Sunday I would like us to think of the triune God in relation to 3 points: 1. Our First Creation, 2. Our Second Creation; & 3.  Our Continuing Creation. But that first begs the question as to what we mean by God?

The popular notion is that God the Father is the creator.  We get this idea from the traditional division of the Apostles’ Creed which is divided into three parts.  The articles deal with God the Father as creator, God the Son as redeemer, and God the Holy Spirit as sanctifier.  God is one but manifests himself in three persons.  In God there is plurality.  Remember in the story of Creation in Genesis we read about God the Father – “God created.”  In the next verse, we learn that the Spirit participates in the creation – “The Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.”  In the prologue of John’s Gospel, we find that God the Son shared also in the creation – “All things were made through him.”  (John 1:2, 3)  It is not the whole story, then, to confine the creation only to God, but to the triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  These three are not finished creating the universe, nor each of us.  Let us see how the Trinity is at work in us to create us “after his likeness.”

1.  Our First Creation

Who started the universe and who is guiding its continuous creation? How did we get on earth?  The very first verse of the Bible gives the answer: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  This includes every living thing on earth including man, the culmination and crown of creation.  In the interest of time, we will limit our discussion to the creation of humanity.

Since God the Father created humanity originally, it is an important fact that humanity is not here by accident nor by some accidental meeting of cells, nor by some automatic, natural selection ending in a human being.  It does not really matter how God created homo sapiens, nor how long it took him to create the human race.  The essential fact is that God the Father is responsible for our being what & where we are.

Out of this basic fact of this first creation come several implications.  One of them is the truth that we human beings belong to God and to no one else!  And since God is love, he made us as being capable of receiving and giving love.  God made us in his image so that we can share love and have fellowship with him and our neighbours.

As people, we instinctively want someone or something to worship and adore.  Apart from God, we are dissatisfied with ourselves, feel hollow inside, and have the conviction that we are not complete.  Apart from God, we feel lost, like orphans.  We are restless, unhappy, and perturbed.  Many of us do not know what is wrong with us.  To gain peace of mind and fulfilment, some turn to alcohol, drugs, or sex.  Experience proves over and over that not one of them is the answer to the malaise of modern society because they only aggravate the problem.

But the Father knows our problems and our needs.  Unlike all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, God is able to put the human Humpty Dumpty together again because he made us and therefore knows us to the very number of hairs on our heads.

A further implication of the fact that God the Father is our Maker is that, since God by nature is good, all, including “man,” were originally made good.  In the Genesis account of creation, there is a refrain repeated six times, “God saw it was good.”  The material world, including human beings, was made good by a good God.

Accordingly, we have no right to call anything God made as bad or unclean.  Every created thing is by nature good and iIf people were originally made good, they are indeed very precious.  Every person is of real worth.  The value is not in the commercial cost of the body’s chemicals but in being a product and child of God.  Here is the real source of a person’s dignity and true worth.  It is not in the value we claim for ourselves but in the nature of our being God’s creation   His nature is good.  He made us good, to be good, and to do good.  Thus, evil-doing runs counter to God’s nature and his purpose for creation.  Consequently, the Father condemns humanity for going against his nature and honours and rewards those who seek to be good and to do good.  This is the original destiny of humanity.  This is our first creation as human beings.  God the Father, the first person of the Trinity, made us in his image that we might be like him.

2.  Our Second Creation

Though we have been created physically in the image of God, he is not yet finished with us.  In God the Son we have a second creation as a Christian.  Our first creation by the Father made us human beings, but we failed to live up to what we were made to be.  Since Adam and Eve, we have spoiled the original creation through rebellion and disobedience.  We did not and we still do not live up to our first charter: to be good and to do good according to God’s likeness.  Because of sin, it is now a fact that by nature we are sinful and in need of a second creation.  The truth of the matter is that, since Adam, humanity has chosen to live contrary to God’s original intention for goodness.  Humans can be, and too many are, nothing but savages, barbarians, and killers.  The daily newspapers are packed with accounts of murder, rape, burglary and fraud.  That is why we need the second creation, which is also the work of God, the second person of the Trinity, God the Son.

In Psalm 51 David prays, “Create in me a clean heart, O God …” The prophet Ezekiel reports God’s promise, “A new heart I will give you.”  This promise of a creation of a new heart is fulfilled by God the Son, for Paul writes to the Corinthian church, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”  The heart is the source of life and goodness.  Humanity needs a heart that loves and obeys God.  “O for a heart to praise my God!”

This is the new life that Christ offers.  We must die to self and sin.  St. Paul explained how he experienced the second creation: “I am crucified with Christ.  Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.”  Christ died for us to pay the price of our sin and rose again in triumph over sin and death to eternal life.  By faith, we die to self with Christ and we rise with him to a new life with a new heart.  As a result of this second creation of a new heart, you and I have been made Christians.  This is the work of God the Son, Jesus Christ. 

3.  Our Continuing Creation

Even though God the Father has created me and God the Son has re-created me as a new person in Christ, God is still not finished with you and me.  You see, by our second creation, we are cleansed of our evil and been adopted by the Father for Jesus’ sake as a child of God.  We are re-born in the new life that Christ offers.  That is all well and good, but God is not finished with us yet, because now we must be made to be in reality what we are – to live as children of God.  This calls for a continuing creation by God the Holy Spirit.  To have the Holy Spirit is to have God in us constantly make and re-make us to be what he originally made us.  Paul understood this by writing to the Philippians, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work in you …” In other words, God the Holy Spirit is continuing his creation in us to the end that we might be like our Creator – holy and good.  Though we are Christians by Christ’s second creation, we still need to be sanctified and made perfect in love and life.  And that no one can do on his/her own power or strength.  Only God can make us good.  This is the continuing creation of God the Spirit.

Summary:  In and through the Word and Sacraments, the Holy Spirit comes to motivate us to godly living.  God the Spirit creates godly people.  He continually works in us to produce character.  As the Spirit gave us nine gifts, he also produces in us the fruit of nine virtues such as love, joy, and peace.  Today I may be a good person, but if I allow God the Spirit to work in me, next year I should be a better person.  This is the reason we need to be patient with each other, allowing the Spirit to work within us.  The issue, then, is not for us to talk or admonish ourselves or others to do better and to try harder to live a Christian life, but to let the Spirit work in us to make us after his likeness.

God is not finished with us yet.  Will he ever be finished with us?  The fact is that God never gives up on us.  We may fail and disappoint him.  We may slip backwards, but God does not lose patience with us.  We have the assurance that God will make for us a new heaven and earth where our creation will continue until we become what he made us – a likeness to him.  Amen

Prayers of Intercession

God our maker, you so love the world,
that you entrust us with its safe keeping,
to cultivate, nurture and tend the garden;
to relax and enjoy the produce of its bounty;
to push away at the boundaries of science,
and make our own contribution.
Grant us wisdom and understanding.

God our Saviour, you so love the world,
that you bequeath us your ministry, 
to spread the good news, to care as neighbours;
to speak out against what is not right;
and herald the coming of your kingdom.
Grant us wisdom and mercy.

God the Holy Spirit, you so love the world,
that you fill us with your power
to make a difference and bring about change; 
to draw others to a deeper knowledge of you
and leave a better legacy for generations to come.
Grant us wisdom and grace.

We pray also for continuing areas in our world where warfare continues, such as Ukraine and Gaza. We pray that there may be peace soon.

We ask this in your name: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity of God. Amen.

Our Father, who art in heaven ……. 

Hymn – STF 346 – Christ is the world’s light 
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Christ is the world’s light, Christ and none   other;
born in our darkness, he became our brother
If we have seen him, we have seen the Father:
glory to God on high.

Christ is the world’s Peace, Christ and none other;
no one can serve him and despise another; 
who else unites us, one in God the Father?
Glory to God on high.

Christ is the world’s Life, Christ and none  other;
sold once for silver, murdered here, our brother
he, who redeems us, reigns with God the  Father:
glory to God on high.

Give God the glory, God and none other;
give God the glory, Spirit, Son, and Father;
give God the glory, God with us, my brother:
glory to God on high.

Fred Pratt Green (1903–2000)

Blessing

The blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit 

be with you and those you love, this Trinity Sunday and for ever more.  Amen