The Spilsby & Stickney Groups
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Bolingbroke Deanery Team Parishes Faithful, Confident, Joyful 7th June 2020 TRINITY SUNDAY (Gold or White) 1 This week: Weekday Prayer: Daily TRINITY SUNDAY 9.00am Sunday Service at Home Join us for a farewell service for The Archbishop of York who will be joined by representatives of charities he founded, BBC News presenter Huw Edwards and Tariro Matsveru, a student at Cranmer Hall.https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media- centre/church-online https://youtu.be/UvNuebjkSM4 10.00am Prayer in our own homes See below Bolingbroke Churches on line: I have managed to publish a short video on YouTube and linked it to our website from our prayers it will win no prizes and makes me wince not a little but it is out there as an offering. I have created a YouTube Account Bolingbroke Team Churches http://lincoln.ourchurchweb.org.uk/spilsby/index.php I will try to make it a weekly offering and it will be on the above web site. So watch this space - if you can. PC 2 June 3 4 Bolingbroke Team Ministry Trinity Morning Worship The word of the eternal Father created us. The love of the gracious Son redeemed us. The presence of the Holy Spirit unites and empowers us. We worship the glorious Trinity, our God of power, love and peace. Hymn Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee; holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessèd Trinity. Holy, holy, holy! all the saints adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea; cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee, which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be. Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide thee, though the eye made blind by sin thy glory may not see, only thou art holy, there is none beside thee, perfect in power, in love, and purity. Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty! All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth, and sky, and sea; holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessèd Trinity! Words: Reginald Heber Music: NICAEA Invitation to Confession St Paul says 'Be imitators of God; love as Christ loved; do not grieve the Holy Spirit; put away all anger and bitterness, all slander and malice.' So let us confess our sins to God who forgives us in Christ. 5 Lord Jesus, you send us into the world, but we confess that our vision is narrow; you give us clear commandments, but we pretend not to understand them; you promise to be with us always, but we ignore your presence and follow our own way. Forgive us; give us fresh vision and restore us to your way, we pray. Amen Assurance of pardon May the God of love and power forgive us and free us from our sins, heal and strengthen us by his Spirit, and raise us to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen. Reading from 2 Corinthians 13.11-13 Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Reading from the Gospel of Matthew 28:16 - 20 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ Homily from the Diocesan Website There are no “fun” anecdotes about the Blessed Trinity. Though there was genuinely one Anglican Priest who stood up in the pulpit on this 6 Sunday and having started his sermon as usual with “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” then said – “The Holy Trinity – it’s a great mystery isn’t it? Probably best that we leave it at just that. Amen” And he sat straight down again. That isn’t all you will get for today! It might be that that particular priest was taking the easy way out. He knew just how difficult it is to preach on the Trinity, how careful preachers have to be to ensure that they don’t inadvertently fall into heresy themselves or lead their people into it. The Orthodox Church doesn’t celebrate Trinity Sunday at all – they say that if you have a Trinity Sunday you should also have a Unity Sunday as well – because both are of equal importance in the Christian Faith. It does mean that there’s an equal responsibility on a preacher to make sure that it is clear that while God is ‘Three’- he is always and at the same time- ‘One’. In the Church of England’s Prayer Book, still the foundation document of Anglican Worship and doctrine, you can find, if you know where to look for it, something called The Creed of St Athanasius – supposed to be used at Morning Prayer thirteen times a year – one of those days being today- Trinity Sunday. It’s not really a Creed; it’s not really by St Athanasius; but it is very long and very precise. It starts “Whosoever will be saved: before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith. And the Catholick Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.” If you want something to do on a lockdown Sunday do try to find it and read it. It’s in a short section headed ‘At Morning Prayer.’ It’s nothing but comprehensive and very precise when it talks about the Holy Trinity. But even from the two verses you’ve just heard or read you can see that both Trinity and Unity are stressed. And also that right belief in God as Trinity is held to be “necessary” for our very salvation. Doctrinal niceties to one side, Trinity Sunday is such a wonderful celebration each year because it brings us back to the wonder of God Himself. From Advent Sunday through Christmas to Candlemas, and then from Ash Wednesday through Holy Week and Easter to Ascension Day and finally Pentecost the Church has been celebrating great Festivals. 7 They are festivals that are all about the mystery of our Redemption and Sanctification, undertaken by the three Persons of the Trinity. And then today we are brought to honour what is the chief mystery of our faith – the Godhead itself – Creative, Majestic, Ever-Loving, Compassionate, Merciful, Burning Fire and the very Breath of Life. Today we are to bow down all our powers to adore this incomprehensible mystery. And it’s good to do this even once a year- even though every Sunday because it is set aside for the worship of this Holy Adorable Trinity, our Lord and our God, in a sense, might be called Trinity Sunday. Every Sunday after all is the Lord’s Day. Our own personal faith then should be one of proper reverence of and homage to this mystery of the Blessed Trinity. It is necessary to be saved after all. But, as in everything about being a Christian, what is in our mind is never all that matters. Thomas a Kempis, the author of the greatest devotional classic of all time “The Imitation of Christ” wrote as if in warning to all teachers about the Trinity, as well as those peaching sermons about the Trinity – “Of what use is it to discourse learnedly on the Trinity, if you lack humility and therefore displease the Trinity?” Humility of mind and heart is the best service that anyone can pay to this infinite majesty; this “God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.” In rejoicing in the Holy Trinity, in believing in the Holy Trinity, we are always to be serving the Holy Trinity. But may we always pray for the grace to have great humility before the Holy Trinity; because only if we have true humility before the Holy Trinity can we have a true and perfect love for God. Questions for reflection 1. Have you read the Creed of St Athanasius from the BCP? If so, what is your reaction to it? 2. How much of our prayer life/devotional life is truly Trinitarian? Do we find we emphasise one Person of the Holy Trinity more than the other two? If so, how might we broaden it out? 3. Is there anything else from the passage not already considered that speaks to you? What is it? 8 4. What will you do this week in your Monday-to-Saturday ministry in response to what you have heard today? #everydayfaith Let us declare our faith in God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit: We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.