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Printed Service – Sunday 31st May 2026
Prepared by Liz Cope
Trinity Sunday – The Great Commission.
Call: Jesus calls us to meet with him today, to recognise his resurrection life and to hear again our commission: to go and make disciples of all nations. Let us come and worship him, our Lord and King.
Let us pray: Risen Jesus, you are alive and you are here. Speak to us again, and equip us to do your will and speak your Word that we might continue the mission you gave your first disciples. Amen
Hymn: STF 82
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O Lord my God! when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hand hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed:
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee,
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
And hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze;
Refrain
And when I think that God His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die-I scarce can take it in.
That on the cross my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin:
Refrain
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home-what joy shall fill my heart!
Then shall I bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!
Refrain
Stuart K Hine (1899-1989) © 1953 Stuart K Hine Used By Permission. CCLI Licence No. 1085607
Prayer of praise: (poem by Dave Hopwood based on Psalm 8)
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, When I see the moon and the stars that you have established,
What are human beings that you are mindful of them, ordinary people that you care for them?
When I look at the snow-smeared mountains, massive and imposing, When I see the raging oceans and the depths still waiting to be discovered,
What are human beings that you are mindful of them, ordinary people that you care for them?
When I wonder at the intricate science of creation, And the fragile features of this world,
What are human beings that you are mindful of them, ordinary people that you care for them?
When I hear about the news, about a planet so often at war with itself, When I have to face another day, another week, another month of duty and difficulty,
What are human beings that you are mindful of them, ordinary people that you care for them?
When I realise that I still have so much to learn, When I find again that I do not have all the answers,
What are human beings that you are mindful of them, ordinary people that you care for them?
When I remember Jesus, his humility and compassion, When I look again on that darkened cross,
What are human beings that you are mindful of them, ordinary people that you care for them?
When I look at the moon and the stars, the work of your fingers, The glory of your presence, writ large in the heavens, What are human beings that you are mindful of them, ordinary people that you care for them?
Amen
Prayer of confession: When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Lord, sometimes we can’t figure things out, and because they don’t make sense to us, we put them aside. Forgive us, Lord, for the times when we doubt. Sometimes we don’t do what you want us to do, finding your call to us too daunting.
Forgive us, Lord, for letting fear hold us back
Sometimes we outwardly worship, but inwardly we doubt. Sometimes we don’t feel your presence, overwhelmed with our own problems.
Forgive us, Lord, and restore us.
Jesus says, “all authority in heaven has been given to me.” Lord God, we have confessed our sins to you. Thank you for your all-encompassing forgiveness, so that we are now released from our sins into your wholeness and everlasting love. Amen
Lord’s prayer: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen
Reading: Matthew 28:16-20 The Great Commission
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Hymn: STF 405
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Great is the darkness that covers the earth,
Oppression, injustice and pain.
Nations are slipping in hopeless despair,
Though many have come in Your name.
Watching while sanity dies,
Touched by the madness and lies.
Come, Lord Jesus, come, Lord Jesus,
Pour out Your Spirit we pray.
Come, Lord Jesus, come, Lord Jesus,
Pour out Your Spirit on us today.
May now Your church rise with power and love,
This glorious gospel proclaim.
In every nation salvation will come
To those who believe in Your name.
Help us bring light to this world
That we might speed Your return.
Refrain
Great celebrations on that final day
When out of the heavens You come.
Darkness will vanish, all sorrow will end,
And rulers will bow at Your throne.
Our great commission complete,
Then face to face we shall meet.
Refrain
Noel Richards & Gerald Coates © 1992 Thankyou Music Used By Permission. CCLI Licence No. 1085607
Message:
Today is Trinity Sunday when we think about Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three in one. There are various ways to illustrate this concept – the solid, liquid and gaseous forms of water; even the tasty pretzel – developed by monks in the 7th century to represent the Holy Trinity.
In the short but important passage at the end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus gives the disciples his Great Commission; “go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Name – singular, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three in one.
And this Great Commission is three in one, each separate but linked together.
- Go and make disciples 2. Baptize 3. Teach
Go and make disciples. This is, at face value, a simple instruction. However, if you delve under the surface, it is some responsibility. Go, means leaving here, leaving the place and the people we know. Jesus, tells the disciples where to go – to all nations. The Jews had thought that the Messiah would come exclusively for themselves, yet here Jesus is telling the disciple to go far and wide. These were fisherman, and tax collectors and others who had not travelled further than their home towns and villages, and local fishing waters. Yet they would indeed go on to make new disciples in places as far away as India, Ethiopia, Spain, Greece and Rome, and beyond. These uneducated men rooted in one small corner of the mediterranean would indeed go on to make disciples of all nations.
So, we are called, commanded even, to go and make disciples. We may not feel we can travel far, we may feel we are not qualified or ill-equipped. Yet there are always opportunities to share the message of the good news, not in an aggressive or bullying way, but as Peter says, “with humility and respect.” It may not happen straight away, we may never see the results of our mission, we are only the messengers, it is God who brings people to Him.
Baptize – whilst I was thinking about this passage it struck me that this is a commandment, not an optional extra. In every Christian denomination baptism is an important and serious holy sacrament. Baptism is an acknowledgement that Christ died for you, and for me, so that we could be born to new life in him.
The act of baptism with water symbolizes the washing away of our sin, death to sin and being born again into a new life. For some people this is done as a baby, for others it is at a time when the individual makes the decision to be baptised. I have had the privilege of witnessing infant baptism of a very sick premature baby, and the comfort this brought to the grieving parents after the death of that tiny baby.
Becoming a Christian, however doesn’t stop once we have committed ourselves to Christ, or once we’ve been baptised. In their ministry those disciples went out and took the message of salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ. They also, through what they said and how they lived, taught those who wanted a new life in Christ.
Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians, some are preachers, others are teachers. We can all be teachers in some small way by the way we witness our faith, by what we say and what we do, by our attitudes and our lifestyle. We turn away from greed and self-centredness, to love and forgiveness, kindness and generosity.
This may all sound quite daunting and demanding, yet Jesus assures his disciples and us today that “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Thinking about the Trinity, Jesus tells his disciples, “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Jesus is the true and final revelation of God, yet he is also the reality of our human nature. He is God the Father, God the Son, and he is with us as God the Holy Spirit, to the very end of the age. Jesus really is Emmanuel – “God with us.”
And the point of God revealing himself as the Son and as the Holy Spirit, is the mission to bring all nations to him. Jesus was sent in human form to bring the nations back to God, to pay the price for the sins of the world once and for all. And now in his divine authority he gives us the task as his disciples to go and make new disciples.
We might find this overwhelming, too big a task when we look at all that is wrong in the world. We are in good company. Matthew says of the eleven disciples who met with Jesus on the mountainside, some doubted, some hesitated. We might doubt, we might hesitate, we might be tempted to simply pray that Jesus would come again and sort it all out, but Jesus is calling us, he is giving us the responsibility to go out and make real in the world the authority that he already has in heaven and on earth. We pray “may your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” We have a responsibility and a role to play in that prayer, Jesus is calling us to play our part in completing the work that he began, in ridding the world of all that harms God’s creation and allowing his life-giving love to reach all peoples in all nations.
So let us each play our part in bringing God’s kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. Let us worship Jesus who has all authority in heaven and earth, and may we be emboldened, empowered and equipped by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Amen
Hymn: STF 30
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Jesus, stand among us
At the meeting of our lives;
Be our sweet agreement
At the meeting of our eyes.
O Jesus, we love You, so we gather here;
Join our hearts in unity and take away our fear.
So to You we’re gathering
Out of each and every land;
Christ the love between us
At the joining of our hands.
O Jesus, we love You, so we gather here;
Join our hearts in unity and take away our fear.
(Optional verse for Communion🙂
Jesus, stand among us
At the breaking of the bread;
Join us as one body
As we worship You, our Head.
O Jesus, we love You, so we gather here;
Join our hearts in unity and take away our fear.
Graham Kendrick © 1977 Thankyou Music Used By Permission. CCLI Licence No. 1085607
Prayers of Intercession: We bring before you, O God, the needs of the Church, in its weakness and its potential; revive and refresh us, teach and direct us, inspire all who preach, and teach the good news, and uphold all who suffer for their faith in any way.
We bring before you, O God, the particular problems of our times. The ongoing wars and conflicts in Ukraine, in the Middle East, in Sudan as well as others places. Renew in us all the desire for peace, a commitment to community and mutual trust. Give a sense of value to all who despise themselves; protect the vulnerable and sensitise the hearts of all who have become anaesthetised by the images of violence.
We bring before you, O God, the hungry and malnourished, the greedy and complacent; those who are ill and those who care for them; the unhappy and those who comfort them; all who are awaiting results of investigations or treatments, and all who have no one to turn to for support. We bring before you, o God, those who have died in faith and will now see you face to face; those for whom death speaks of fear and finality, and for those unprepared to meet you.
We bring before you, O God, our own lives and all that we are, our successes and our failures.
God of mystery and compassion: you know us and love us all. Accept these and all our prayers in the name of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
Hymn: STF 410
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Lord, your Church on earth is seeking
your renewal from above;
teach us all the art of speaking
with the accent of your love.
We would heed your great commission:
Sending us to every place-
preach, baptise, fulfil my mission,
serve with love and share my grace.
Freedom give to those in bondage,
lift the burdens caused by sin.
Give new hope, new strength and courage,
grant release from fears within:
light for darkness; joy for sorrow;
love for hatred; peace for strife.
These and countless blessings follow
as the Spirit gives new life.
In the streets of every city
where the bruised and lonely dwell,
let us show the Saviour’s pity,
let us of his mercy tell.
In all lands and with all races
let us serve, and seek to bring
all the world to render praises,
Christ, to you, Redeemer, King
Hugh Sherlock © Successor to Hugh Sherlock Used By Permission. CCLI Licence No. 1085607
Blessing: (for Trinity Sunday) May God be the beginning and end of our story. May Christ be the centre and foundation of our story. May the Spirit be the spark that brings our story to life. May God bless us, Father Son and Holy Spirit. Amen