Prayers of Approach
God calls us in this moment. Jesus welcomes us to this moment. The Spirit unites us in this moment. Come and worship!
Loving God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
as we gather in this moment, we celebrate your welcome. Speak to us; challenge us; reassure us. Take what we offer in worship and praise that your name may be glorified now and for ever.
Father God, you are full of joy and love. You delight in the world you created. What love you have for us, all created in your image. We love you and adore you. What delight you have in the Son, who is all that you are and who you sent in love in order that we may be in relationship with you. We adore you and glorify your name. What joy and pleasure you had in sending your Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth and make you known to us. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we give you all glory.
Lord God, you are bigger than our imaginations, beyond our words or description, and yet you call us to your heart and invite us to join your dance. Accept our praise and inspire our worship that we may draw closer to you and to one another. Amen.
Hymn Father, we love you, we worship and adore you (R&S 30, MP 142)
Readings: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
John 16:12-17
Introduction
On Trinity Sunday, we think about God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and reflect on how God invites us in to be part of that community. We ask ourselves how we could, in turn, include others to be part of God’s welcome.
The passage from Proverbs introduces us to the woman called Wisdom, one expression of the creative role of the Spirit within the Godhead. She can advise human beings how to live because she has the knowledge that comes from seeing the act of creation, and her advice reflects nature itself, for divine order and stability were built into the universe through her.
The Gospel reading is part of a longer passage where Jesus explains the work of the Holy Spirit to his disciples. There is much for the disciples to understand, but Jesus reassures his friends that they know enough for now, and the Holy Spirit will come to guide them into a greater understanding in the future. What was true for the disciples is true for us too. Our experience of God grows and develops, it is informed by the past, and we will always have more to learn and understand. But we live in the now, and the Holy Spirit will give us what we need to do that.
Hymn O God, your love’s undying flame (R&S 327)
Sermon
You have probably all heard the saying, “two’s company, three’s a crowd” meaning that two people can get on together (especially in matters of love) but that the addition of another will create competition and rivalry thus leading to arguments and enmity. There is another school of thought however that advocates there should always be an odd number so that when there is a difference of opinion there will always be a “casting vote”. But how and what does this have to do with a God who is one, and definitely only one?
Most of us, including ministers, find the Trinity a difficult concept to understand but the very fact that it is such a complicated subject gives the Trinity an air of mystery and inspires the imagination. Throughout the ages the Trinity has inspired great works of art and has led to many ingenious attempts to explain how one God can be three, and yet three is still one. St. Patrick famously used a shamrock to explain – a leaf with three lobes (representing Father, Son and Holy Spirit) but just the one leaf (one God).
What can the Bible tell us about the Trinity though? In the Hebrew scriptures there is no mention of such a confusing concept since the Jewish people were very sure that there is one God, and only one God. And yet throughout what we think of as the Old Testament there is mention again and again of the ‘Spirit of God’. From the very beginning the Spirit is active, hovering over the waters of creation. In today’s reading from Proverbs we meet Wisdom, who declares that she was created at the beginning of God’s work and was present before the earth was shaped. Although Wisdom is not involved in the act of creation and is merely an observer she reminds us that God was not alone.
It is not until the New Testament however that we finally meet the idea of God as a Trinity. At the beginning of his Gospel John identifies Jesus as the ‘Word’, the agent of creation, existing alongside God and the Spirit at the very beginning. Throughout the Gospel Jesus talks of his relationship with his Father and then promises that when he returns to the Father he will send a helper, the Spirit of truth, who will guide them. John’s Gospel then gives us a revelation of God, introducing us to Jesus, the ‘Son of God’ who is ‘one’ with the Father, who was present in the act of creation, and who sends the Holy Spirit that we too might be one with him.
‘The Spirit of truth’, underlines the link with Jesus as the truth. Like him, the Spirit is sent by God to teach God’s truth. The Spirit as teacher and guide will enable Jesus’ disciples to understand what he means when he calls them to ‘love one another as I have loved you’
The early church very quickly adopted the blessing, ‘in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit’. It was a way of expressing that mystery that was at the centre of their lived experience of God, a God who later came to be described as ‘three in one and one in three’ or simply as the Trinity. The word trinity comes from the Latin trinitas , which means ‘three-ness’. At the heart of the Trinity is an invitation. It is not a mathematical formula meant to confuse us but a community of love that invites us to join in.
In this community, with others and with God – we allow the future to be created together. The ability to listen to others, and to hear God, is what we might call wisdom. Wisdom is found, in busy places – at crossroads, at gates, places of transition and decision. These are the places in which we should listen most clearly for wisdom, and try to hear the divine conversation that the Spirit invites us to enter into. It’s a three-way conversation that draws us in to discover more of God and causes us to be changed by that intimate participation in the very life of God.
Hymn Father in heaven, grant to your children (R&S 28)
Prayers of Intercession
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 own humble concerns, accept your invitation, and enter your glorious presence. But as we worship you we are aware that our world is in great need of your peace, hope and love and so…
Holy Trinity, we bring to you in our prayers those whose relationships are breaking down; and we pray for your healing. We think of relationships that have gone wrong and have caused division and bitterness; and we pray for your healing. We think of relationships between nations where there is hostility, tension and mistrust; and we pray for your healing. We think of our relationships where we feel inadequate or helpless or used; and we pray for your healing. And we thank you for your relationship with your world, and with your Church, and with each one of us. Amen.
Hymn Thou whose almighty word (R&S 38, MP 699)
Blessing
May the strength of almighty God support you, may the love of Jesus the Son surround you, and may the wisdom of the Spirit inspire you, this day and for evermore. Amen.
Prayers and other material (adapted) © Roots for Churches Ltd. Used by permission.
