ST ANDREW’S  CHURCH

JUNE 12 th  2022                TRINITY SUNDAY

 

LIGHTING OF THE CHRIST CANDLE

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Welcome to this online service on Trinity Sunday led by Rev. Shirley Cochrane. May it be a blessing to your week, to the glory of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
There will be no videos of the Sermons for the summer as our videographer is on an extended vacation.

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

Ascribe to the Lord all glory and honour.

Lord, our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Come and worship the Lord in holy splendour.

Lord, our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

To the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

be all honour and glory, now and forever. Amen.

 

HYMN      466  Praise the Lord with the sound of trumpets

 

Praise the Lord with the sound of trumpet,

praise the Lord with the harp and lute,

praise the Lord with the gentle sounding flute.

Praise the Lord in the field and forest,

praise the Lord in the city square,

praise the Lord anytime and anywhere.

 

Praise the Lord in the wind and sunshine,

praise the Lord in the dark of night,

praise the Lord in the rain or snow or in the morning light.

Praise the Lord in the deepest valley,

praise the Lord on the highest hill,

praise the Lord, never let your voice be still.

 

Praise the Lord with the crashing cymbal,

praise the Lord with the pipe and string,

praise the Lord with the joyful songs you sing.

Praise the Lord on a weekday morning,

praise the Lord on a Sunday noon,

praise the Lord by the light of sun or moon.

 

Praise the Lord in the time of sorrow,

praise the Lord in the time of joy,

praise the Lord every moment, nothing let your praise destroy.

Praise the Lord in the peace and quiet,

praise the Lord in your work or play,

praise the Lord everywhere in every way!

 

OPENING PRAYER

Holy God, who is One in Three and Three in One, we praise you this day as the Source of all life, Maker of Heaven and Earth. You created us and called us good, shepherding us with your steadfast love. Jesus Christ, we praise you this day, born into our midst to show us the way of goodness, mercy and grace. Holy Spirit, we praise you this day for the energy you bring us to greet each day as a gift and serve in the world with gladness.  Holy God, Three in One and One in Three what it , reveal to us this day means to live as your people so that we may honour your holy name, now and forever. Lord we confess together

 

UNISON PRAYER OF CONFESSION

God of mercy and majesty,

you are slow to anger and swift to forgive.

You have shown us the depth of your love,

yet we are reluctant to love others who differ from us.

You have shown us compassion and forgiveness,

yet we walk away from one another without concern.

You have offered us hope in Christ Jesus,

yet we lose that hope when life is challenging.

Forgive us, O Lord.

Create in us the endurance and character

which help us trust in the power of your forgiving  love. Amen.

 

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

God is ready to forgive us for God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. Be at peace with God, with yourself and with one another ,through the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

THE PEACE

 

HYMN                292  Father I adore you

 

Father I adore you

Lay my life before You . How I love You

 

Jesus, I adore You Lay my life before You
How I love You

 

Spirit, I adore You Lay my life before You
How I love You

 

SCRIPTURE READINGS

 

Psalm 8;             page  848

1 Lord, our Lord,   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory  in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants  you have established a stronghold against your enemies,  to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,  the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,  which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?

5 You have made them a little lower than the angels  and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,  and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,  and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 Lord, our Lord,  how majestic is your name in all the earth!

 

Romans 5:1-5; page  1752

 

5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

 

John 16:12-15            page 1678

 

12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

 

SERMON

God of Word and wisdom, reveal the mysteries of faith to us this day by the power of your Holy Spirit. Through the Scriptures, show us how to witness to the name of Jesus Christ, your Living Word. Amen.

 

The story begins in Eternity . The story begins with the words  “ In the beginning  God ….”   God is and God may be known .  He has  chosen to reveal  himself in and through  his creation

 

God  is  life, –is self existing – transcends creation – is utterly independent of any environment.  God’s claim is  “I am who I am”

 

God is first and foremost  Love  He is very personal. The bible is written, not to explain God  but to reveal his desire  to have a loving relationship with others  beyond himself.  God is the creator  of  heaven and earth  God has an all invading presence and power in his creation

 

God has no physical presence in the world  yet is known  through  his self revelation  Since the existence of God is not verifiable  by scientific proof , it must be accepted by faith. A widely accepted belief is  God is a mystery and works in mysterious ways

 

Now today  is Trinity Sunday. Very early in  his  self disclosure, God reveals  his divine nature as pure Spirit. Spirit is not restricted to any form of  existence, it  is a perfect form of being. It is Gods Spirit  which  brought  light out of darkness and  order out of chaos. John 4 : 24  states “ God is Spirit  and those who worship him  must worship in Spirit and in truth.

 

The Old Testament  is the story of  the peoples God  chose to call his own. Eventually these folks took to their own pathways and God made decisions on how to deal with them. So God sent  his  son  as a human being  into the world  to further reveal his love for  his creation. Jesus’ story is  told in the New testament and I  believe  we are quite familiar  with the detail in this part of the story. Jesus, nearing the end of hi earthly ministry claimed  that although  he  would die, be resurrected and  return to heaven  to be with his Father God, the Holy Spirit would continue to be  with them and  their descendants forever. The Spirit guides us into the truth of the way,- which we know already from 14:6, is not a set of instructions, but a relationship with a person who loves us.

 

Now the word Trinity  does not exist in the bible We in the Christian faith  hold to a pattern of faith in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – one God in Three persons. One in three and three in one – confusing to many who are not familiar  with Scripture !

This loving circle of God – the Father, the Son-, and the Spirit- draws us into itself and moves us out into the world with it. The Gospel presents the Trinity as a way of understanding God – for, with, and in us and of understanding ourselves – for, with, and in God as daughters and sons (1:12-13) who have seen what it means to be children of God in Jesus

The relationships described here are not just the ones among the three Persons of God. Theis is also a description of God’s relationship with God’s people. God’s interdependent relationship with Godself provides an example for humanity’s interdependent relationship with God. This text moves from God to Jesus through the Spirit to us, and from Jesus back to the one who sent him.

 

Theologians would later name the three Persons of the Trinity present in this passage. This text describes these Persons in relationships flowing in and out of one another. Followers of the Anointed One know God’s peace through Jesus. They know God’s love through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit pours God’s love into the hearts of Jesus believers.

In our reading from Paul , he is working out how peoples radically different from one another in culture, legal and religious practices, language and history can be part of the church.

Theologians of the church would develop the doctrine of the Trinity centuries after Paul wrote this letter to the church at Rome. Paul isn’t writing as a systematic theologian;- that vocation did not yet exist. Paul is instead more of a pastor. He’s a pastor trying to solve the very particular and limited problem of how Jews and all other nations conquered by Rome can break bread at the same table together.

Paul writes that we boast in our hope of sharing God’s glory. He continues that we also boast in our suffering. The shadow side of glory is suffering. Not only suffering, but perseverance, endurance and character, which produce hope. This hope does not disappoint. But many people might read this passage and think, is this guy nuts? How many here want to learn to endure their sufferings? Thought is more likely -I don’t want to learn how to endure them; I want to know how to avoid them all together.

I’m sure you know from my comments from time to time I am “Peanuts fan”. In one cartoon Charlie Brown is telling his problems to Schroeder To comfort Charlie, Schroeder says, “Don’t be discouraged, Charlie Brown. These early defeats help to build character for later on in life.” Charlie Brown asks, “For what later on in life?” Schroeder answers, “For more defeats!” Here in the fifth chapter of Romans the apostle Paul declares, “we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”

Perspective makes a world of difference. When Goliath came against the Israelites, the soldiers all thought, “He’s so big we can never kill him.” David looked at the same giant and thought, “Man, he’s so big I can’t miss.”

Paul’s perspective changes. After all Paul had endured, after all he had suffered for the sake of Jesus, he’d learned to say, “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” We must learn, as Paul did, that hope does not come first. Hope must be developed along our journey. If you want hope, you have to have character. Character is developed in the sufferings we face in this life and along our journey. To endure our sufferings we must remember this truth, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.”

As Christians, hope is central to our faith. Hope rests in the understanding that we are not alone in our sufferings. Because of God’s grace we can learn how to endure our sufferings, which produce character, which springs into hope. This is a promise we can stand on. Jesus, who endured all things for us, offers to us His strength by which we can endure. As Paul said, “I can do all things in Christ, who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13)

Hope is critical because we can know that God will be faithful to us, and that no matter what may happen now, our hope for the future is secure. Now it doesn’t seem like suffering and hope would have much in common, aside from the fact that most people would hope that their suffering would end!

The words in verse three, “we boast in our sufferings”, don’t mean that Christians should go looking for ways to get hurt. The verse says boast IN our sufferings, not BECAUSE of our sufferings. As Christians, we know that our suffering is not meaningless. Our suffering is just part of God’s process. We have to accept the reality of suffering in our lives, trusting God to help us through them. You see, God can do great things with those who trust Him in the tough times as well as the easy ones.

God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” This is a hope of which we can be certain. When we reach the stage of hope we will realize that God does love us. Which leads us to this promise & the core of this message: “God proves his love for us, in that while we still were sinners, Christ died for us.” That is the fulfillment of the promise God made back in Isaiah 53.

We don’t deserve it. We don’t earn it. But God, through Jesus, as an act of love, kept His promise and saved us.

The Hebrews in the desert didn’t deserve water. God gave it to them. The crowd by the lakeside didn’t deserve food. Jesus gave it to them. Lazarus didn’t deserve a second chance at life. Jesus gave it to him. As sinners, we don’t deserve anything, says Paul. But God, out of love, gives us what we need anyway.

No one promised us it would be easy when we became Christians. No one promised us we would never get sick, never have any problems, always choose the quickest line at the grocery store, or our children would be perfect. We weren’t promised a perfect life. What we were promised is that no matter how much we suffer, as we learn to endure our sufferings and grow through them, we will end up at hope. We will get what we need, when we need it. God promised it. And that’s a promise we can stand on.

Jesus said, “He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (v.14) We are Christocentric, meaning Christ-centered because there is no way to know God without knowing Jesus Christ. Only in Jesus, we understand what God is like. In the same way, we have no way to know the Holy Spirit except through Jesus.

12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

God navigates our life according to what we can handle. The navigators job is to get you to your destination!. We live in an age of confusion. We know so much yet the more we know, the more we know what we don’t know. Jesus knows this reality and that’s why he sends us a Counselor,  I like the term Navigator to guide us into a fruitful future. . All your inadequacies and failing are left behind under the precious love of Jesus and the leading of the Spirit

When the Holy Spirit is navigating then you will not end up in a ditch. The Holy Spirit as your navigator only has victory in mind. May God bless you, Amen!

 

HYMN                298   Glory be  to God the Father

 

Glory be to God the Father, Glory be to God the Son,
Glory be to God the Spirit, Great Jehovah three in One.
glory, glory. Glory while eternal ages run.

 

Glory be to Him who loved us, Washed us from each spot and stain.
Glory be to Him who bought us, Made us kings with Him to reign.
glory, glory. Glory to the Lamb who once was slain.

 

Glory to the King of Angels, Glory to the Church’s King.
Glory to the King of nations, Heaven and earth your praises bring.
Singing glory, glory. Glory to the King of Nations bring.

 

Glory blessing praise eternal, Thus the choir of angels sings.
Honor riches power dominion, Thus its praise creation brings.
Singing glory, glory. Glory, glory to the King of Kings

 

Glory be to God the Father, Glory be to God the Son,
Glory be to God the Spirit, Great Jehovah three in One.
Singing glory, glory. Glory while eternal ages run.

 

OFFERING

The season of Pentecost celebrates the outpouring of God’s Spirit upon the Church with the gifts need to serve others in Jesus’ name. Let us offer God our gifts this day with grateful hearts and the generosity revealed in Christ himself.

 

DOXOLOGY

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;

Praise him all creatures here below

Praise him above ye heavenly host.

Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost

 

OFFERTORY PRAYER

Generous God, thank you for blessing our lives with gifts, both visible and invisible which bring us hope and joy.    Bless the gifts we bring and work with them to establish your reign in the world you love. In the name of your greatest gift, Jesus Christ, we pray.

 

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

God Almighty, Creator of all things, build your kingdom among us. Jesus Christ, son of the living God, give us your grace. Holy Spirit, breath of the living God, renew all things. Let us serve you willingly and joyfully to the benefit of each other, to share one faith and respond to your calling.

 

Eternal God, , we bless you for bringing us into communion with you, offering us the same unity in love you share as the blessed Trinity. Help your church in all its branches discover the unity for which Christ prayed. May our unity in Christ show the world how to overcome divisions and enjoy the diverse gifts you have created in us. By your Spirit, equip us to explore unity in diversity through local mission and ministry.

 

Gracious  God, draw the human family together in the love that unites us with you.  We pray for our nation and our local communities in this time when different experience and opinions  so easily divide us. Inspire us to work for justice and fairness. open our eyes to opportunities for reconciliation and caring. Guide the peoples of Canada to establish relationships of mutual respect and honour with indigenous communities, and those with different expressions of faith and celebrate our diverse gifts together.

 

God who sees the many faces of hope, we pray for all who feel despair or anxiety in these challenging days. Lift up in love those who find their illness unrelieved. Comfort those who grieve the loss of someone dear or some important opportunity .Support those who are denied dignity by the attitudes or actions of others and sustain those who long for healing of some kind. Hear us in this time of silence as we name before those on our hearts this day: May they know your loving care upholding their lives.

 

Lord  we  lift before you all the people who stand on the front lines . Fire fighters. Police officers,  ambulance  paramedics medical staff All have  been under  enormous  pressure for far too long  nad  we  pray  for  strength, renewal, comfort , and that support  is readily available  for all areas  needed by these hard working people

 

Thank you  Loving God  fro  hearing  and acting   upon the requests  we bring before you  We  pray for ……………….

 

And as always  we  bring to you  those  concerns of our hearts …………

 

God in community, thank you for the fellowship we share in our congregation. Strengthen us in faithful worship and equip us for service in changing times and challenging days. We offer our prayers, spoken and unspoken, as the Spirit prays within us, in the name of Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together, saying

 

THE  LORD’S PRAYER

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 debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

 

HYMN      479  The Church’s one foundation

 

The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord;
we are his new creation by water and the word;
from heaven he came and sought us that we might ever be
his living servant people, by his own death set free.
Called forth from every nation, yet one o’er all the earth,
our charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth,
one holy name professing and at one table fed,
to one hope we are pressing, by Christ’s own Spirit led.
Though with a scornful wonder the world sees us oppressed,
by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed,
yet saints their watch are keeping; their cry goes up, ‘How long?’
But soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.
 ‘Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of our war,
we wait the consummation of peace forevermore;
till with the vision glorious our longing eyes are blest,
and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.
 We now on earth have union with God the Three in One,
and share, through faith, communion with those whose rest is won,
O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we,
like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with thee.

 

BENEDICTION

May the grace of God, the love of Jesus  and the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit  be  with you  today and always

 

CLOSING SONG

Take O take me as I am; summon out what I shall be

set your seal upon my heart and live in me