TRINITY SUNDAY, Year B

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Oswald Spencer
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TRINITY SUNDAY, Year B June 2/3, 2012 Rosemary and Bill Hallinan ANNOUNCEMENTS: SHARING JOYS AND CONCERNS CALL TO WORSHIP Lord God, Father/Mother, Son, and Holy Spirit, We come before you to give you

1 TRINITY SUNDAY, Year B June 2/3, 2012 Rosemary and Bill Hallinan ANNOUNCEMENTS: SHARING JOYS AND CONCERNS CALL TO WORSHIP Lord God, Father/Mother, Son, and Holy Spirit, We come before you to give you thanks and praise. God of Abraham and of Sarah, of Joseph and of Mary, We come before you to learn and to do your will. God of Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire, We come before you in wonder and in awe. Creator, Redeemer, and Holy Spirit. We come to worship here tonight. Amen OPENING HYMN Gather Us In (302) OPENING PRAYER Heavenly God, we invoke your presence in the way you have revealed yourself to us Father/Mother, Son, and Holy Spirit - Three in One and One in Three. We invoke you by the strong name of the Trinity. We pray that you will hold and lead us, your eye will watch us, your might will stay us, your ear will hear us, your wisdom will teach us, your hand will guide us, and your voice will give us speech. Help us celebrate your love - both now and evermore. Amen. 1 st READING (Isaiah 6:1-8) In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw God sitting on a throne, high and 1

2 lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the God of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke and I said, "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the Majestic, the God of hosts!" Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said, "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out." Then I heard the voice of God saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!" 2nd READING (Visitation North Spirituality Center, 2012) I wonder if you and I don t sell short God s presence to us. In trying to talk about this living, loving, relational God, we speak of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Well... God the Father sent the Son, and then when the Son died, rose and ascended to heaven, the Son sent the Holy Spirit upon us. I wonder if we don t, unconsciously think of the Spirit as sort of the third string God. God the Father is way up there, and Jesus has gone to sit at the right hand of God... and so we get one of God s high-ranking ambassadors: the Spirit. Now, we know enough to get it right on a religion test that the Spirit is God. But I wonder if we don t sell short the presence of the Spirit within us. Our doctrine of the Trinity teaches us that you can t have one Person of the Trinity without the other two Persons being present as well. You can t have one without the other two. At the Last Supper table, Phillip said to Jesus, Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied. Jesus said, To have seen me is to have seen the Father... I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Then Jesus told them that he was going away, and they would see him no more, but he would send the Spirit, and would be with them through the Spirit. So, if you have Jesus you have the Father, and if you have the Spirit, you have Jesus. 2

3 I think we need to be more aware that the whole, great God is with us through Jesus, and through the Spirit. When I am going through a regular day, and realize that the Spirit is within me, it is the whole, great God who is within me wherever I am. [Christians baptize,] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. When we pray the fundamental prayers of [Christianity], we pray to God the Father, through Jesus Christ your Son, who lives with you in the unity of the Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen GOSPEL ACCLAMATION GOSPEL (John 3:1-17) God be with you. And also with you. A reading from the Gospel of John. Glory to you, O God. Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother s womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, You must be born from above. 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." Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you 3

do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

4 do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Listen to what the Spirit is saying to the Church. Glory and Praise INTERCESSIONS God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. Let us pray for the needs of God s world and give thanks to God for love so freely given. Loving God, we thank you for the beauty and wonder of your creation. Help us to love and respect all that you have made: to share your gifts with our brothers and sisters in need and to protect and nurture all that is fragile and vulnerable on this earth. God in your love, Hear our prayer. Loving God, we thank you for the huge diversity of peoples who share this world. We pray for a renewed spirit of longing for peace and reconciliation wherever there is conflict, injustice, and oppression. Help us to do what we can to bring peace into our own lives and to seek your ways of peace for the welfare of all your children. God in your love, Hear our prayer. Loving God, we thank you for the love and fellowship of friends and families. Help us to be generous with our time, with our love, and with ourselves to care for all who are lonely and in need of our support. God in your love, Hear our prayer. Loving God, we thank you for all who work to improve care and treatment of those who are physically ill or mentally distressed. We pray that your loving and 4

healing presence will surround all who are suffering today and that your Holy Spirit will comfort and uphold them throughout their troubles. God in your love, Hear our prayer.

5 healing presence will surround all who are suffering today and that your Holy Spirit will comfort and uphold them throughout their troubles. God in your love, Hear our prayer. Loving God, we think of those we know who are in special need of our prayers at this time and after a moment of silence (be still)..we now name them in our hearts and aloud. God in your love, Hear our prayer. Loving God, we offer you our prayers, trusting that in your love you will use them and us for the fulfillment of your purpose for your creation. Give us courage to be part of your answer to prayer and when you ask, Whom shall I send, free us from fear that we may answer, Here am I. Send me! BREAKING BREAD PRAYER (Source: Ellen Smith, R.S.M., 1999) God be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to God. Let us give thanks to God our Creator. It is right to give God thanks and praise Creator of all that has life, look upon us who have formed this circle of love. Our love is first an offering of ourselves and then an offering of all those others who have touched our experience and have formed us into who we are today. Accept this bread as a symbol of our fidelity to you as you offer yourself to each one of us. Keep reminding us that to break bread together is to share in each other's blessings and is to say yes to each other's fate. We offer you our thanks in this bread. Thanks for your love, for the love of our families and our faith community. Together, we recognize and accept our right and responsibility to bless this bread, which symbolizes all of humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. In turn, we accept the gift of yourself to us. For to break bread with one another is to share each other's blessings and is to say yes to each other s fate. Through Jesus, who offers himself to us in total fidelity and love, with Jesus, in thanksgiving for our personhood, and in Jesus who has blessed us with us all of creation. 5

6 Let us join hands and sing the Our Father. BREAKING BREAD HYMN Companions On The Journey (606) CLOSING PRAYER God, we are gathered here under the shelter of your wings, nurtured by your motherly love, and encouraged, then to fly by faith on the wind of your Spirit. You have spoken to us saying, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles. Teach us how to wait, then, that we may learn how to fly. May this nest we call our faith community be built with sturdy materials. Don t let us forget, though, that this nest was not created as a fortress behind which to hide, but as a perch from which to take off. And strengthen us with the assurance that we do not fly alone. This we pray, in Jesus name. AMEN BLESSING May God the Holy Creator keep your soul and make you strong in faith and love. Amen. May God the Holy Redeemer direct your heart and defend you on every side. Amen. May God the Holy Spirit guide your mind and lead you in truth and peace. Amen. And May God bless us and keep us, may God s face shine upon us and grant to us and to all our broken world, peace. May the blessing of Almighty God the Creator, the Redeemer and the Holy Spirit, come upon us and remain with us forever. Amen CLOSING HYMN: On Eagles Wings (433) 6

TRINITY - RCL YEAR B MAY The Old Testament: Isaiah 6:1-8. Reader: A Reading from the Book of Isaiah.

TRINITY - RCL YEAR B MAY The Old Testament: Isaiah 6:1-8. Reader: A Reading from the Book of Isaiah. TRINITY - RCL YEAR B MAY 27 2018 The Old Testament: Isaiah 6:1-8 Reader: A Reading from the Book of Isaiah. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the