Service Type: Trinity

Welcome to All who are joining us for worship by reading this service.

Question: Which two family members are you emotionally closest to?

Call to Worship: Psalm 8 (Divine Majesty and Human Dignity)
O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Let us worship our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer!

Prayer of Adoration and Confession
Creator God,
we gather with joyful hearts to remember all you have done for us
and to seek your holy presence.
You spoke, and the world came into being,
in beauty and in balance between all things.
In loving partnership, you made humankind in your image
and called us to walk with you in creation.
 
When we wandered away,
You came to us in Christ, to show us how to live in this world
and how to love you and each other more fully.
Your Holy Spirit keeps coming to us,
to guide us the work of your kingdom.
In all ways and for all time, you are with us,
and so we worship you in love and gratitude,
trusting you will never leave us, ever Three and ever One.

God our Creator,
we confess that we have not lived wisely in your creation,
and so the earth suffers.
God our Redeemer, we have not valued ourselves or one another
as those made in your image, and so our relationships are strained.
God our Sustainer, we have not trusted in your loving guidance,
and so we follow paths that lead to foolish ends.
Forgive our mistaken choices and selfish desires.
Call us back to your loving presence and teach us again how to follow you.
This we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon
Dear friends, St. Paul declared to us that, from now on, we regard no one from a human point of view. If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away. See, everything has become new! (2 Corinthians 5:16-17)
Thanks be to God that we can all make a new start this day and every day.

Hymn: “Glorify thy name” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8_Hu4iWTpE
Words / Music: Donna Adkins

Prayer for Understanding
Eternal God, help us to hear your Word in these words; to listen and understand. May we embrace your truth, which you give us in Jesus Christ, through the patience of your guiding Spirit. Amen.

Scripture Readings
Genesis 1:1-2:4a The first of two stories of Creation found in Genesis.

2 Corinthians 13:11-13 Paul’s final charge and blessing to the Christians at Corinth.

Matthew 28:16-20 Jesus’ gives the church the “Great Commission” or our Missional Marching Orders.
 
Sermon: “The Pandemic and the Holy Trinity”

This week I want to share with you on this Trinity Sunday (a week late if you are counting) a sermon by the Rt. Rev. Frank Logue. He is the Episcopal Bishop of Georgia. He previously served on the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church and was the church planter for King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland, Georgia. His sermon along with other wonderful sermons can be found at https://episcopalchurch.org/sermons/year-a
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In this time of pandemic, grasping the essence of the nature of God is urgent and important. How might an abstract-sounding church doctrine matter now? We find in scripture and the teaching of the Church that the nature of God is an essential connectedness. This communion within God’s own self gives us a glimpse into the very heart of God – and, knowing that a deep connectedness describes well the universe in which we live, speaks to the longings in our own hearts as we are separated from others.

Before God created everything we see and know, there was a communion of three separate persons of the Godhead who created you out of love, for love. Not just one being, but relationships and communion, before time and forever. This is why you were created: to be in healthy, loving, generative relationship with God and all creation. And out of this web of relationships comes both your salvation and the redemption of all creation.

The word Trinity never appears in the Bible. Yet, in passages like our reading from the Great Commission in Matthew’s Gospel, we read of baptizing new followers of Jesus in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We read a different Trinitarian formulation in Second Corinthians, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”

We find that the first Christians were less concerned about doctrinal formulation than in following the way of Jesus. They patterned their daily lives in prayer and fasting, in service to others, and gathering for worship. Into that community, they baptized new followers using that same Trinitarian formula. In time, they came to think through what it meant to speak of a God who is both one and three.

All through the Bible, there was both the idea of one God and the description of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Greek writers would use the term trias, and the early church writer Tertullian coined the Latin word, Trinitas, or “Trinity.” He also coined “Person” and “Substance” to describe what his mind saw when he contemplated the scriptures regarding the three-in-one God. Tertullian would say that there is a Trinity—a threeness—with three separate persons of a single substance.

 
The analogies used to describe what we mean fall short. Saint Patrick’s three petals forming a single shamrock. John Wesley’s example of three candles in a room, yet one light by which to read. We could speak of other analogies for the Trinity, like H20 being steam, water, and ice. But whatever language we use, we know God is not two dudes and a bird. In fact, when we use any single image, like the shamrock, we are describing an early church heresy. Better is to use a number of images, knowing that while our words are helpful, they can’t clearly and precisely express the ineffable. (ineffable means: too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words.)

John Wesley put it this way: “Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the triune God!” God is more than we can wrap our minds around and that is necessarily so. Yet the Trinity is not a mystery in the sense of a puzzle we can’t solve; the Trinity is a mystery in that we see the truth of it, but there is more than we can fully comprehend.

Using the word mystery, in this case, is closer to describing as mystery the love among humans or even humans and pets. We know so much about those we love, and yet new occasions arise which reveal there was more to discover in the relationship with our child or spouse or parents. We can and do know of God from God, by the revelation of scripture, from the way God is revealed in nature, and through that most perfect revelation of God, Jesus the Christ. And yet, there is more than we know – a mystery that is deeper than our minds can fathom.

Early Christians looked to God as known in scripture and, with a nudge or two from that undivided Triune God, forged the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Then, moving back from that concept, they looked anew at the scripture and discovered how well it all fit. Reading the Bible with new eyes, they saw that God was in communion with God’s own self before creation. God is a relationship among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and then God creates all that is for relationship.

If we humans preferred to be alone and came together only rarely to procreate and then separate as some animals do, the theory would fall short at this point. But we humans love to get together. This is a lesson learned so well during the shelter-in-place orders that have come with the pandemic. We are, in fact, the beings in communion we were created to be. Being separated by the coronavirus has not broken that sense of communion. Across the Church, people are finding ways to stay connected. Imperfect as they are, our new ways of joining together come from a deep longing which is in the very heart of Holy Trinity.

Jesus would put it this way: Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. This is that for which we were created: love upward toward God and outward toward humankind. That web of relationships is very interconnected. When we come to love God more, we get that heart for other people God has, and so love of God draws us to other people. Loving other people fully means seeing them as God sees them, and so loving people can also draw us to God. It is the communion for which we were created.
If we are being candid about the interconnectedness of creation, we must acknowledge that woven within the tapestry are not just people and animals, but bacteria and viruses. Rather than accidents, they are part of the created order which give rise not just to pain and suffering, but also a world where generosity, kindness, and self-sacrificial love are possible.

In this time of physical distancing to stop the spread of the virus, we are discovering more about how deep our human longing is for community. Christian mystics affirm the essential oneness they see revealed running through all that is. Those same mystics describe the love that is shot through all creation. And that love brings a loving response from us if we open ourselves to it.

While we may not gather for in-person worship, the essential truth of God as revealed in the Holy Trinity is all the more urgent in our present moment. We are connected deeply to all creation. That is the essential reality the Trinity helps us to understand.

We also live in a society with great divisions and we all know of people who are alone in a time of despair and anxiety. The love we are created to show then must find expression in our reaching out to others in the ways available to us. This is not something we do to earn the favor of the Holy Trinity. Instead, staying in contact with others is part of how God blesses us, letting us be a conduit of grace to those we call, write, and meet with online.

Early Christians put the practices of faith ahead of trying to be precise about what they meant when referring to God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We, too, can prioritize practices of faith and let our understanding catch up later. The real grace in our understanding of the Holy Trinity is that it shows us that none of what we want to do for others relies on us alone – for the Holy Spirit will work through the imperfect words and actions to connect us to other people and more fully to our Triune God. Amen.

Hymn: “When long before time” (Book of Praise # 295) Words / Music: Peter Davidson

Over the past number of weeks, we have been singing familiar hymns, but this week I want to introduce you to a new hymn that fits the theme of today’s service and one I want us to learn. Let us as the Psalmist says, “Sing a new song to the Lord, sing to the Lord all the earth.” Psalm 96:1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs6NKOacN2A

1. When long before time and the worlds were begun,
when there was no earth and no sky and no sun,
and all was deep silence and night reigned supreme,
and even our Maker had only a dream…
 
2. …the silence was broken when God sang the Song,
and light pierced the darkness and rhythm began,
and with its first birth-cries creation was born,
and creaturely voices sang praise to the morn.

3. The sounds of the creatures were one with their Lord’s,
their harmonies sweet and befitting the Word;
the Singer was pleased as the earth sang the song;
the choir of the creatures reechoed it long.

4. Though, down through the ages, the Song disappeared,
its harmonies broken and almost unheard,
the Singer comes to us to sing it again:
our God is with us in the world now as then.

5. The Light has returned as it came once before;
the Song of the Lord is our own song once more;
so let us all sing with one heart and one voice
the song of the Singer in whom we rejoice.

6. To you, God the Singer, our voices we raise;
to you, Song Incarnate, we give all our praise;
to you, Holy Spirit, our life and our breath,
be glory forever, through life and through death.

Prayers of the People
God ever creating,
God ever loving,
God ever leading:
We turn to you in uncertain times, trusting in your steadfast love.
Wherever people are anxious about the future,
overwhelmed by their responsibilities,
or worried because of the upheavals the pandemic has caused,
Bring peace and hope, we pray,
And let your kingdom come.
 
God of all compassion:
Where people are lonely or isolated, longing for love,
where spouses, family, and friends are unable to see loved ones in nursing homes and hospitals
where people are trapped in unhealthy relationships or facing violence each day,
where people are grieving the loss of routines or purpose in their lives,
or the loss of someone beloved:
Bring courage and hope, we pray,
And let your kingdom come.

God of tender strength:
Where people feel pain and exhaustion in their bodies, in their minds, or spirits,
where people seek healing or help,
where caring fatigue has set in for those in compassionate giving professions,
where illness has eroded hope and desperation fills each day,:
Bring healing and hope, we pray,
And let your kingdom come.

God of trustworthy truth:
Where leaders work to guide the world and their communities to renewed life,
where professionals discern scientific, medical and economic insights to protect and restore the quality of life after the pandemic,
where priests, pastors, ministers, lay leaders continue to make every effort to care and guide their congregations through these difficult times
where congregations in Banff, Canmore and beyond make plans to gather in person to worship,
where individuals still strive to care for the earth and its vulnerable inhabitants:
Bring wisdom and hope, we pray,
And let your kingdom come.

God in whom we live and move and have our being:
By your Spirit, tend your promise of new life
amid the current struggles in the world you love.
Where hope flickers, reignite its power;
Shine the light of Christ’s love into each life and renew our trust in you
as we pray together in the words that Jesus taught us:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen.

 
Offering of our Time, Talent, Treasure to God

Thank you for ongoing gifts to St. Paul’s. And thank you for the sharing of the time, talent and treasure God has given to you to bless, love, serve, and witness to your neighbors. Donations for St. Paul’s can be sent by mail to St. Paul’s, Box 1264, Banff, AB T1L 1B3.

Hymn: “Lord you give the Great Commission”

Words: Jeffery Rowthorn /Music: Charles Venn Pilcher

Pastoral Charge and Blessing (2 Cor 13.13, The Message)

We go into this new week,
to continue the mission that our Lord has given us
to glorify and bring honor to Father, Son and Spirit in all we do,
to fulfill the Great Commission to make disciples, baptize and teach,
and to fulfill the Great Commandments
to Love God with all we are and to Love Neighbor as ourselves.

May the amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ,
the extravagant love of God,
and the intimate friendship with the Holy Spirit
be with all of you.

We bless each other using the words of the Spirit Song,

Mission Moment – Sunday, June 14

A Light in the Community
Kenora Fellowship Centre is one of nine Indigenous ministries supported by generous gifts made to Presbyterians Sharing. Known in the community as “Anamiewigummig,” meaning House of Prayer in the Ojibway language, the drop-in centre offers basic essential services such as food, shelter, showers, clothing, laundry and transportation, in addition to offering skills training courses and health and wellness programs. Even more, the centre offers a place of hope, encouragement and safety for those who come through its doors, many of whom are displaced, living in poverty or struggling with addiction and mental health issues. Please pray that this ministry would continue to be a light in the community and a safe space where people can find the healing love of Christ.
Presbyterians Sharing reaches out with the love of Christ

Prayer Partnership for June 15-20

Monday, June 15 God of new beginnings, we give thanks for the renewal experienced in congregations.

Tuesday, June 16 We pray for the Rev. Gavin Robertson who serves as the convener of the Ministry Committee for the Presbytery of Kootenay.

Wednesday, June 17 We pray that the Rev. Lyim Hong-Tiong, General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, will be restored to full health as he recovers from a medical condition.

Thursday, June 18 We celebrate in prayer for the 525 latrines that have been constructed in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai by Presbyterian World Service & Development’s partner in Malawi.

Friday, June 19 We pray for Dr. Bernard Sabella, Executive Secretary, and the staff of the Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees as they work tirelessly to provide services to Palestinian refugees.

Saturday, June 20 (World Refugee Day) We give thanks for congregations and groups engaging in refugee sponsorship to help provide sanctuary for those fleeing conflict and violence.