May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all. Amen.
Theme Prayer
O God our mystery, you bring us to life, call us to freedom, and move among and between us as wind and fire. May we so participate in the dance of the Three in One that our lives may resonate with your love, now and for ever. Amen.
Confession
Hear what Paul writes: “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 the Lord our God.
Father, you come to meet us when we return to you. Lord, have mercy:
Lord, have mercy.
Jesus, you died on the cross for our sins. Christ, have mercy:
Christ, have mercy.
Holy Spirit, you give us life and peace. Lord, have mercy:
Lord, have mercy.
May almighty God cleanse us from all our sin, and renew us in the fellowship of his Son, who calls us sisters and brothers, and may we know the freedom of his Holy Spirit, who declares that we are God’s children. Amen.
READINGS
Isaiah, chapter 6, verses 1 to 8 :-
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the skirt of his robe filled the temple. Seraphim were in attendance on him. Each had six wings: with one pair of wings they covered their faces and with another their bodies, and with the third pair they flew. They were calling to one another, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.’
As each called, the threshold shook to its foundations at the sound, while the house began to fill with clouds of smoke. Then I said, ‘Woe is me! I am doomed, for my own eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts, I, a man of unclean lips, I, who dwell among a people of unclean lips.’
One of the seraphim flew to me, carrying in his hand a glowing coal which he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, ‘This has touched your lips; now your iniquity is removed and your sin is wiped out.’ I heard the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?’ I said: ‘Here am I! Send me.’
John, chapter 3, verses 1 to 17 :-
One of the Pharisees, called Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish Council, came to Jesus by night. ‘Rabbi,’ he said, ‘we know that you are a teacher sent by God; no one could perform these signs of yours unless God were with him.’ Jesus answered, ‘In very truth I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he has been born again.’ ‘But how can someone be born when he is old?’ asked Nicodemus. ‘Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘In very truth I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born from water and spirit. Flesh can give birth only to flesh; it is spirit that gives birth to spirit. You ought not to be astonished when I say, “You must all be born again.” The wind blows where it wills; you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born from the Spirit.’
‘How is this possible?’ asked Nicodemus. ‘You a teacher of Israel and ignorant of such things!’ said Jesus. ‘In very truth I tell you, we speak of what we know, and testify to what we have seen, and yet you all reject our testimony. If you do not believe me when I talk to you about earthly things, how are you to believe if I should talk about the things of heaven?
‘No one has gone up into heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, in order that everyone who has faith may in him have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that everyone who has faith in him may not perish but have eternal life. It was not to judge the world that God sent his Son into the world, but that through him the world might be saved.
Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.
Reflection on the Reading
“God is one, and beside him there is no other.” This is the faith Christians share with Jews and Muslims. But Christians go on to say that God is not only one but three, that he makes himself known to us as Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit - as three persons and yet still as one God. Actually, not all Christians share this creed, but the vast majority do, every member of the World Council of Churches.
We can know God as the Father, the Creator; we can know God as Jesus the man, God’s love lived out in a human life; and we can know God as Holy Spirit, not remote and far off but present with his people to inspire and to guide, and to bond us in fellowship. Yet Father, Son and Holy Spirit are together one single and undivided God. How can this be? St Patrick famously illustrated it with a shamrock leaf, three leaflets joined to make one whole. Or we could think of the same person being a child to one person, a partner to another, and a parent to a third. Images like that may help, but they don’t tell the whole story. How could they?
What the doctrine of Trinity isn’t, is the last word about God, God completely explained, expressed in mathematical formula. What the doctrine of Trinity is, is our admission that saying that God is One somehow isn’t enough. It can’t fully express the mystery of how the God who is utterly beyond our understanding and imagining nonetheless calls us his people, and seeks to draw us into a relationship with him.
Think of Isaiah in the temple, suddenly and traumatically finding himself in the presence of God. He was transfixed by an abject fear, knowing his own sinfulness and the sins of his people, knowing himself not fit to be in that place at all. What God has created to be perfect and good, he and his people have spoiled. But then his lips are touched with a burning coal, and he is made clean. And when he hears the words, “Who will go for us?” he replies, “Send me.”
Think of Nicodemus, coming to Jesus by night so no-one will know, and amazed and bemused by what Jesus says about being born again. “God so loved the world,” Jesus tells him. We can think of the cross as the ultimate and decisive mark of that love; what we could never do for ourselves, Jesus Christ achieves for us - all evil is confronted, all sin is named for what it is, and God’s justice, the justice based in love, is triumphant over the chaos of this world’s selfishness and prejudice.
Think of that love gifted upon the disciples as wind and flame on the first Christian Day of Pentecost, as we recalled last Sunday - giving them confidence, authority, turning them into apostles, men with a message, making them worthy to serve, making them fruitful in service. Under the sign of the cross we are made new, in our baptism, and in our daily meeting with God in prayer.
Lovers have a strong sense of belonging to each other. And in one of my former churches, the altar frontal shows the Trinity as a triangle interlaced by a circle: the three persons of the Godhead, and the dynamic play of love in which they belong together and are part of each other - a love that isn’t held within the triangle but is released to the world, to become our refuge, our hope, and our call to serve.
Statement of faith
We believe in the Father, the Creator, who lit the world and breathed the breath of life for us. We believe in the Son, Jesus Christ, who by his cross saved the world, stretching out his hand to his people. We believe in the Holy Spirit, who ranges over the world, and plants seeds of yearning in our souls. We believe in the Trinity of love, God above us, and beside us, and beneath us, the one who is from everlasting to everlasting. Amen.
Prayers - Pray for the Church everywhere to respond in joyful service for the love of God in Trinity. Pray for the churches of Mexico, and for the Anglican Province of Mexico. In our own Diocese, pray for the churches and communities of the Ross and Archenfield Deanery.
Pray for the peace of the world, and for all who live under tyranny or in war zones. Pray we may support one another in the world fight against Covid, and against other infectious disease. Pray for families and children across our world, and for all children to be able to learn and grow and play in safety.
Pray for all in need today: for all who grieve, for the worried and anxious, and for those struggling with isolation and loneliness. Pray for all who are ill, those in hospitals and other places of care, and those waiting for treatment or diagnosis. Pray for all who care for others, and for their safety and protection.
Pray for families and friends, and for the life of our communities. Pray for all who work in the tourist and entertainment industries as rules are relaxed, and that this may be done safely. Pray too that we may continue to act with care, looking out for each other, and keeping safe ourselves.
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 trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Blessing
May God the Father, who made all things, embrace us for ever in his creative love; may God the Son, our Servant King, bear our burdens of grief and sin and shame; may God the Holy Spirit inspire and enthuse our life together; and so may the blessing of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, surround and sustain us now and always. Amen.
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