Introit– God the Spirit, Guide and Guardian - CH 450
Welcome
Good morning, church! I’m Pastor Ashley Dargai.
Happy Trinity Sunday! Welcome to this very special occasion where we will celebrate the community of the Trinity as we enjoy each other’s community this morning in worship.
The Trinity is notoriously a mysterious way of understanding God. As Nadia Bolz-Weber puts it, “This is not a ‘me’ God, but a ‘we’ God. God from the beginning is not God as bad math, but God as community.”
It’s one thing for us to say that God values community, or thinks community is good for us, or hopes that we’ll build our own. It’s altogether another thing to say that God is community. That God is relationship, connection, and communion.
This morning, we celebrate that! We invite you into the mystery, the whimsy, the playfulness of God, three-in-one. This is a morning that beckons your imagination.
Trinity Sunday shifts us into Ordinary Time. After having spent approximately 6 months in holy season, now we will spend 6 months in Ordinary Time. The calendar of the church is like a pendulum swinging back and forth, or a pair of lungs breathing in and out. We alternate between these two seasons each year: the high holy days and everyday life, the joys of celebration and meditation, and the mundane work of slow and steady growth.
As we go into Ordinary Time this year, may we bring with us what we have received during the holy season: the promise of the incarnation of God in Jesus, the contemplation of our own mortality, the rejoicing of Easter, and the celebration of Pentecost, and may these truths be seeds sown into the ground, germinating unseen until its work is finished in us.
Let me turn your attention to your worship guide. You’ll see that the order of worship is on both sides to help guide you. Each of the scriptures that will be read this morning are on your guide and will also be on the screen. The Chalice Hymnal numbers are by each hymn, and those hymns will also be on the screen.
In just a moment, we will begin our service with a scripture and prayer. We will then move through the persons of the Trinity: God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It is important to note that persons of the Trinity have many names, and we will consider those together. Some refer to the three parts of the Trinity as Father, Son, and Spirit. Others use Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Perhaps you have your own way of thinking of each part. I invite you to use your imagination.
So this is how the morning will go: someone will read the scriptures for the person of the Trinity, I will call to our minds the many ways we think about this person, and then we will sing a hymn together.
We will end the sanctuary portion of our service with a communion meditation and the Words of Institution, beginning our meal in here with the bread and cup, and concluding it together in the Fellowship Hall over brunch.
Hear now this scripture from John 16:12-15:
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you into all the truth, for she will not speak on her own but will speak whatever she hears, and she will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 The Spirit will glorify me because she will take what is mine and reveal it to you. 15 All that the Abba God has is mine. For this reason I said that the Spirit will take what is mine and reveal it to you.
Pastoral Prayer
Our prayer this morning is from St. Patrick's Breastplate:
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every on who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every on who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.
We ask this is the name of our brother and redeemer Jesus, who taught us to 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
And 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, the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
God
Genesis 1:1-3 (Scottie)
When God began to create the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Exodus 3:13-15 (JD)
But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is this god's name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” God said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”15 God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Sarah and Abraham, the God of Rebekah and Isaac, and the God of Leah and Rachel and Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.
God. We know God as Father, Mother, Creator, Monarch, Holy One, the Great I AM, Ancient of Days, The God who sees, the Lord of Hosts, Rock of Ages, and Yahweh.
Song - All Creatures of Our God and King - CH 22
Jesus
John 1:1-4, 14, 16-18 (Galen)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The Word was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through the Word, and without the Word not one thing came into being. 4 In the Word was life, and the life was the light of all people.
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen the glory, the glory as of an only child, full of grace and truth.
16 From this One's fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is the Only Begotten, who is close to God’s heart, who has made God known.
Jesus. We know Jesus as Son of God, Most Human One, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Savior, Redeemer, the Alpha and Omega, Friend of Sinners, Emmanuel, and the Good Shepherd.
Song - Of the Father’s Love Begotten - CH 104
Holy Spirit
John 3:6-8 (Linda Williams)
6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:22-23, 25 (Dan)
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit. We know the Spirit to be like…the wind, ancient wisdom, mischief-maker, our advocate, the one who groans unutterable prayers on our behalf, a heavenly dove, holy fire, breath of God, and a wild goose.
Song - O Holy Spirit, Root of Life - CH 251
Communion
I invite you to prepare your communion elements now.
My daughter Annie is a dual citizen of the United States and Hungary. Even though she has never been to Hungary, she has a Hungarian passport and birth certificate. She speaks Hungarian. She sings songs that I don’t understand.
My husband, JD, and I will sometimes make Hungarian dishes, but we’re always substituting spices or vegetables. While he grew up in Hungary, he didn’t grow up making dinner, and while I’m a more seasoned cook, some of the meals I make, I have never had before because I grew up here in Texas.
All of the dishes that he and I make are at best, approximations, built on shadow flavors, memories, guesses. That doesn’t stop us from lapping it all up.
But when Annie’s Hungarian Nagyi, her grandmother, came over, and she spent hours in the kitchen making dough and stirring pots of magic, Annie learned what some of these dishes were supposed to taste like. Each bite was like coming into a birthright, everything her Hungarian blood wanted and deserved and craved but didn’t know how to ask for.
When she ate the food of her Hungarian heritage, she was learning who she is. She was literally ingesting her identity, making it a part of her.
There is something about food, entering our body, becoming our blood and our energy, our very breath. It’s a truth we practice when we come to this table. We eat this bread and drink this cup in the name of Jesus, saying “this is his body, this is his blood, this is his promise, this is his love,” and we come into our birthright as children of God. Everything we’ve been craving, but don’t know how to ask for.
When we come to this table, when we gather around tables in the name of Jesus, we are literally ingesting who we are, making it a part of us, slowly and methodically and carefully becoming like the One we love and follow. It gets into our bloodstream, it animates our bodies, it becomes our very breath.
In just a moment, I will recite the Words of Institution and we will begin our communion with the bread and cup, but it is only a beginning. Once we finish, Nicole will lead us in the doxology, a very Trinitarian song, and we will continue our communion in the Fellowship Hall as we dine together in community, living our identity of a loving, covenantal body, that is the image of the One we love.
Join me in prayer now.
Gracious Host of this Table, Generous God who gave us life, Living Spirit who fills us now, we ask that you bless this bread and this cup and all that it represents between us. Bless the food we will eat together today, and the love we share. Amen.
And so the story goes that on the night he was betrayed, Jesus broke the bread and said, “This is my body, broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
And then he took the cup also and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” All are welcome at the Table of Christ.
Doxology