Music as We Prepare to Worship – VU#415 “God We Praise You for the Morning”
Litany of Invitation to Worship
One: God meets us where we are – in our homes this morning – as we worship together.
All: God is known to us as Kind Creator, Compassionate Friend, Ever-Present Spirit.
One: We are together this morning – one community – even though we can’t meet face to face.
All: We come together in spirit to celebrate God’s love.
One: This is a love we experience in the natural world; with our animal companions, and in our human loved ones.
All: This is a love we know in the person of Jesus of Nazareth who walked among us and promises to be with us always to the close of the age.
One: This is a love that surrounds us, fills us and enlivens us by God’s Spirit.
All: Thanks be to you O God – Holy Trinity – Holy Mystery who is Wholly Love. With Gratitude and renewed commitment, we worship you now and always. Amen.
Opening Hymn
VU#312 “Praise with Joy the World’s Creator”
1. Praise with joy the world’s Creator, God of justice, love and peace, source and end of human knowledge, God whose grace shall never cease. Celebrate the Maker’s glory, power to rescue and release.
2. Praise to Christ who feeds the hungry, frees the captive, finds the lost, heals the sick, upsets religion, fearless both of fate and cost. Celebrate Christ’s constant presence: friend and stranger, guest and host.
3. Praise the Spirit sent among us, liberating truth from pride, forging bonds where race or gender, age or nation dare divide. Celebrate the Spirit’s treasure: foolishness none dare deride.
4. Praise the Maker, Christ, and Spirit, one God in community, calling Christians to embody oneness and diversity. This the world shall see reflected: God is One and One in Three.
Bible Readings
Genesis 18.1-15
Here we have an ancient story of the experience of Abraham & Sarah, encountering God in travelling strangers in need of hospitality:
18.1 The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He looked up and saw three figures standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of his tent to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. 3 Abraham said:
“My Lord, if I have found favour with you, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves in the shade of the trees. 5 Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on – since you have come to your servant.”
So they replied, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham rushed into the tent to Sarah, and implored her, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour and knead it and make cakes.” 7 Abraham hurried to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the roast beef prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate. 9 They said to him, “Where is your wife, Sarah?” Abraham replied, “There, in the tent.” 10 Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advance in age, it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say,’ Shall I indeed bear a child, now I am old?’ 14 Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 Sarah denied that she had laughed because she was afraid. He said, “O yes, you did laugh.”
Matthew 28.16-20
28.16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him, they worshipped 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, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always to the close of the age.”
“Community in the Heart of God”
This first Sunday after Pentecost each year is celebrated as Trinity Sunday. This is an occasion when we take a few minutes to reflect on the question:
“For we as Christians, what is God like?”
“How can we best describe or understand God?”
Our United Church of Canada “Song of Faith” speaks of God as Holy Mystery who is Wholly Love.
Throughout the ages people have sought to understand this mystery. We understand that whatever we say about God is metaphor. We cannot ever fully understand or express the true nature of the Holy One.
It was in the early third century, about 200 years after the events of Holy Week and Easter, that Origen of Alexandria first coined the word Trinity to speak of the nature of God. (Alexandria, on the Nile Delta, was the largest city in Egypt and was famous for its amazing library.) Origen was a pastor, bishop, theologian and philosopher.
A hundred years or so later, St. Patrick – missionary to Ireland – used the shamrock leaf as a metaphor for God being three in one.
Then others spoke of God being like a tree – with roots, trunk and branches; or like flowing water – stream, river, lake.
Still others spoke of the way that any one of us can be son/daughter, brother/sister and at the same time father/mother.
We know God as Creator. In the very first chapter of the Bible we read the creation story – hearing again and again that as God brought sun, moon, stars, earth, sea, plants and animals into being, God declared that the whole creation was good. And we read that God made the human ones from the stuff of the earth – male and female in God’s own image – “and God saw everything that was made, and behold it was very good.”
All around us we see the awesome beauty of the creation. Especially in this month of June – with lilacs and iris and peonies and poppies blooming – with bright blue skies and sparkling lake – we do see the glory of God all around us. St. Patrick’s contemporary St. Jerome, in the fourth century, called creation “the fifth gospel”.
Our Gospel Reading this morning from the last chapter of Matthew contains the promise of the Risen Christ to be with us always – to the close of the age. Jesus loved to eat and drink. He loved to walk and to tell great stories. At the heart of Jesus was his ministry of compassion. He cared deeply for those who were blind, lame, sick, grieving, lonely or afraid. Jesus was the embodiment of love. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Pastor and Teacher who died resisting the Nazi Regime, said: “Where we see Jesus Christ, there is God.”
Last Sunday we celebrated the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church at Pentecost. God’s Spirit is breath, enlivening wind, source of enthusiasm. Each of us is gifted with the Spirit at our Baptism.
In the late middle ages, the Russian Orthodox artist Rublev went back to the story of Abraham (and Sarah) entertaining three strangers in Genesis 18 – the story that you read this morning – for his inspiration for the painting of the icon entitled: “The Holy Trinity”
In this 21st century, those of us who use computers, are accustomed to the term icon. When we click on an icon it brings us into a new program – a new realm.
In the Orthodox faith, an icon is an entrance into a deeper reality.
This painting depicts three persons around a table enjoying a meal. The truth depicted here is that there is community and communion in the heart of God. God is loving relationship. God is mutuality. God is hospitality.
A close look at this icon by Rublev indicates what appears to be a space in the foreground at the table. Some suggest this part of the painting originally contained a mirror. The artist was making the point that we are invited into the fellowship/into the community of God. We are each and all invited into the divine dance of love – along with our sisters and brothers of every race, language, nation and culture. From this dance of Love, no one is excluded.
God’s heart is broken when we, made in God’s own image, reject, abuse, and harm any other person – failing to recognize in them the face of Christ.
God help us today and always to live into this all- inclusive Love. Amen.
Community Prayers
Holy Love, Beginning and End, beyond all Names: giver of food and drink, clothing and warmth, love and hope, the beauty of the earth, life in all its goodness –
We praise and adore you.
Jesus Christ, Word and Way and Truth: lover of outcasts, friend of the poor, one of us, yet one with God, crucified and risen, life and light overcoming darkness and death –
We praise and adore you.
Holy Spirit, Wisdom, Fire and Wind, Breath of Life: building bridges, breaking chains, waking the oppressed, making us one, unseen and unexpected, untameable energy of life –
We praise and adore you.
Holy Trinity – Holy Mystery who is Wholly Love – forever One, whose very nature is community, sun-bounded dance of love: in whom we love, and grow, and know our neighbours as our kin, life in all its fullness, making all things new –
We praise and adore you.
As Jesus taught us, so now we pray:
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. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Parting Hymn
VU#268 “Bring Many Names”
1. Bring many names, beautiful and good, celebrate in parable and story, holiness in glory, living, loving God. Hail and hosanna! Bring many names!
2. Strong mother God, working night and day, planning all the wonders of creation, setting each equation, genius at play: Hail and hosanna, strong mother God.
3. Warm father God, hugging every child, feeling all the strains of human living, caring and forgiving till we’re reconciled: Hail and hosanna, warm father God!
4. Old, aching God, grey with endless care, calmly piercing evil’s new disguises, glad of good surprises, wiser than despair: Hail and hosanna, old, aching God.
5. Young, growing God, eager, on the move, saying no to falsehood and unkindness, crying out for justice, giving all you have: Hail and hosanna, young, growing God!
6. Great, living God, never fully known, joyful darkness far beyond our seeing, closer yet than breathing, everlasting home: Hail and hosanna, great, living God!
(Brian Wren 1986, alt.1993, Music: Carlton Young 1987)
Blessing
May the Sending One sing in you, May the Seeking One walk with you, May the Greeting One stand by you, in your gladness and in your grieving.
May the Gifted One relieve you, May the Given One retrieve you May the Giving One receive you, in your falling and your restoring.
May the Binding One unite you, May the One Belov’d invite you, May the Loving One delight you, Three-in-One, joy in life unending.
Amen.
Sung Response: “May the God of Hope Go with Us” VU#424
1. May the God of hope go with us every day, filling all our lives with love and joy and peace. May the God of justice speed us on our way, bringing light and hope to every land and race.
Refrain: Praying, let us work for peace, singing, share our joy with all, working for a world that’s new, faithful when we hear Christ’s call.
2. May the God of healing free the earth from fear, freeing us for peace, both treasured and pursued. May the God of love keep our commitment clear to a world restored, to human life renewed.
Refrain:
“As our Worship Service ends, we are challenged to renew our commitment to make a difference for good in our hurting, broken world. We dedicate this song to any and all who have faced discrimination based on race, on their skin colour, especially those families grieving the deaths of their children.” – Rev. Phil
Extinguishing the Christ Candle
As we extinguish the Christ Candle, we remember that Jesus said: “You are the light of the world.” So we are invited to take the light of Christ with us into all the places where we do our living; and to look for the Light of Christ in the face of everyone we meet. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
Music as We Move into the World
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