(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF) numbers will be given where available)
Call to worship:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.
Song – StF 4 – Father in heaven
Song – StF 15 – The splendour of the King (How great is our God)
Song – StF 11 – Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty
Opening prayers of approach and adoration:
The peace that comes through God invites us in.
The grace that Jesus brings invites us in.
The love of the Spirit invites us in.
God, the most mysterious and awe-inspiring Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
we lay aside our humble concerns, we accept your invitation,
we enter your glorious presence.
We come to worship you. Amen.
Lord God, our finite minds can’t comprehend
your vastness, your majesty, your awesomeness.
We come to you now in humble adoration.
We praise and bless you because you gave us the Holy Spirit,
who fills our hearts with your wonderful love and brings us into relationship with you.
We worship you, mighty Lord. Amen.
Readings:
Food for thought:
“And now, my brothers and sisters, goodbye!” No, I’m not skipping off early from the service this morning! But in this way Paul addresses those who will receive his letter. The word Paul uses for goodbye really means ‘rejoice’, and it is a reminder to us that in each and every circumstance the keynote should be one of joy. In our time of worship together, and as we leave this place, our hope for each other should be that we quite literally should ‘fare-well’. In my sermon today, I want to explore further how we might truly fare-well as we share more fully in the life of the divine.
In the church’s calendar, today is marked as Trinity Sunday, the day on which we are asked to pay close attention to the teaching of the church that God is Trinity, one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Not that Paul would have expressed his faith in those terms, because the doctrine of the Trinity was really a later development in the life of the church. Nevertheless, we see in Paul’s conclusion to his letter, the threefold statement that is common amongst our gatherings and which we refer to as ‘the grace’. ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all forevermore.’
For Paul, these words are not so much about a doctrinal statement, but a reflection on experience. And this is emphasised by the way in which Paul makes his list. The name of Christ comes first, followed by the naming of God and the Holy Spirit. It is through the good news of Christ that we come to know God, and this experience is expressed as life in the Spirit. So today, on this Trinity Sunday, I don’t want to get caught up in trying to give an explanation of God as three persons, but rather to put the stress on the threefold experience of grace, love and fellowship.
Grace. Grace is all about gift. That’s what grace means. Jesus Christ was given to us, he came among us full of grace and truth. He was characterised by his self-giving. It’s what Alan Dale, in the paraphrase of the Bible that I grew up with, called Christ’s graciousness – that’s what people noticed about him. His life, his ministry, his death all spoke about the grace of Christ. In the Christian life, baptism is a symbol of that gift. Baptism is about what God in Christ has already done for us and what he will continue to do for us. As we share in Christ’s suffering and death in faith, so we will continue to share in all that Christ does for us. All this has been given for us.
Love. Love is the source of the gift. God gave us the gift of Christ and God is love. Paul calls God the God of love and peace. The title ‘God of peace’ is used by Paul in some of his other letters and in other New Testament writings, but interestingly this is the only use of the term God of love in the whole of the New Testament. This may come as a surprise, especially to Methodists, who always seem to be going on about the God of love; it came as a surprise to me. But that may be because we should more correctly say that God is love. That God doesn’t just have a store of love to hand out, but that the very nature of God is love. And it is this love which motivates the self-giving of Christ and should motivate our self-giving in the name of Christ.
Fellowship. Fellowship is the result of the giving of the gift. The life of the church should be an expression of the gift. The fellowship of the Spirit is what holds us together as Christians. A church that enjoys such fellowship will, according to Paul, show good order, mutual encouragement and agreement, in other words the attributes of peace. Does the quality of our shared life bear the attributes of peace? In some versions of the Bible, the word communion is used instead of fellowship, ‘the communion of the Holy Spirit.’ When we get opportunity to share in celebration of holy communion, as I will be doing with the congregation at Calverley on this Trinity Sunday, of eating bread and drinking wine together, let this be an even deeper expression of what it means to live in peace with one another.
Grace is the gift, love is the source of the gift, and fellowship is the result of the giving of the gift. But we cannot stop there. Just as the life of the Trinity, of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, flows out into the world, so our experience of grace, love and fellowship should flow out beyond our own concerns. Paul recognised that the reality of the church did not always live up to the ideal. The church in Corinth certainly had its difficulties. The Christians at Corinth were arguing amongst themselves, and some of them were arguing with Paul himself. But Paul did commend the church at Corinth for one thing – for being committed to making a collection for the struggling church in Jerusalem. As a church we are called to share in the sufferings of others. Because with the gift comes responsibility, and that is a responsibility which reaches out beyond ourselves – with a concern to share the good news with all people everywhere – and with the whole of creation, as Psalm 8 expresses it. And that responsibility begins with our own personal response to the divine initiative. May all of us be blessed by the grace, love and fellowship we experience in this place. May it be a sign of the presence of the Trinitarian God in our midst. And may it become a sign of blessing to those around us in our neighbourhood and in our world. Amen.
For reflection: Saying farewell
In origin, the word Goodbye – literally, God be with you – expresses our hope that the presence of God remains with us even though we may be separated. Some words from other languages express a similar sentiment – Adieu or adios – ‘to God’ as we commit someone into the care of God upon taking our leave.
Some ‘goodbyes’ can be casual, knowing that, in all likelihood, we will meet again, very soon; other ‘goodbyes’ can be more freighted with meaning. This year, my life has been overwhelmed by the loss of two family members; a parting through death is the hardest goodbye, even when held within God’s eternal promise.
This written service is a ‘goodbye from me’, as it is the final written service I shall produce before moving on. Farewells can be times of both sadness and happiness.
You are invited to bring to mind some goodbyes you have had to say in recent times – how did each make you feel? Were you able to recognise the gospel truth that God is with us in each act of farewell?
Intercessions
Creator God,
we praise you for your awe-inspiring majesty and thank you for the riches and beauty of Creation inspired and brought to being by your love.
We pray for the world, sharing our concerns
for countries where there is war and unrest…
natural disaster, famine, disease, for ….
Creator God, guide the nations and their leaders with your love and mercy.
Creator, Saviour and Holy Spirit:
Hear our prayer
Saviour God,
we praise you for your deep and indestructible love and thank you for coming to share our human life with us
so that we might share the joys of eternal life with you.
We pray for those needing to feel your touch upon their lives
because they seek comfort, healing, forgiveness or strength.
We pray people we know who are
ill, sorrowful, anxious, for ….
Saviour God, soothe the lives of those who suffer with your love and mercy.
Creator, Saviour and Holy Spirit:
Hear our prayer.
Spirit of God,
we praise you for your amazing, life-changing power
and thank you for the love that makes and shapes the Church,
filling your people with a joyful need to worship and serve.
We pray for your Church throughout the world,
asking that we might uphold one another in times of difficulty
and learn from one another’s example and discoveries.
We pray for Church communities:
anxious about their future; challenged by the needs around them;
seeking to mend broken relationships; embarking on new projects….
Spirit of God, bless the life of your Church with your love and mercy.
Creator, Saviour and Holy Spirit:
Hear our prayer.
Song – StF 707 – Make me a channel of your peace
Song – StF 410 – Lord your church on earth is seeking
Acknowledgments: Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Prayers of approach and adoration, Copyright, Roots For Churches Ltd, rootsontheweb.com, with permission to use in acts of worship. Prayers of intercession by Christine Odell, Open With God, downloaded from the Worship Cloud, with permission to use in local worship.
