St George s Anglican Church Malvern Trinity Sunday 11 June 2017 Sentence Proclaim the Name: The Lord, the Lord, a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Exodus 34.6 Collect Trinity of love, deposing the powers of hate and isolation; gathering creation in bonds of mutual care: through the waters of baptism may our relatedness be reborn in justice, mercy and peace; through Jesus Christ, who is with us always. Amen. A reading from the book of Exodus This is the story of a theophany or a making known of God s name, and Moses response, which is to worship. In revelation, the transcendent God communicates out of the depths of God s own being. God makes God s self known as merciful and gracious, and steadfast in love, that is to say loyal to creation without refusing to come to judgement concerning human wrongdoing. The Lord said to Moses, Cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you broke. Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me, on the top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you, and do not let anyone be seen throughout all the mountain; and do not let flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain. So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the former ones; and he rose early in the morning and went up on
Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name, The Lord. The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children s children, to the third and the fourth generation. And Moses quickly bowed his head towards the earth, and worshipped. Exodus 34.1-8 Reader Hear the word of the Lord Thanks be to God Psalm: Song of the Three 29-34 APBA, page 399 This canticle, taken from the deuterocanonical portions of the Book of Daniel (inserted between 3.23- and 3.24 in bibles with the apocyrpha) is part of the Song of the Three Young Men, put into the mouths of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as they moved unscathed through Nebuchadnezzar s fiery furnace. The song evokes the liturgical language of the Hebrew psalms and is now part of Evening Prayer for Tuesday.
A reading from the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians. The Christian experience is summed up in these words: the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship (koinonia) of the Holy Spirit. It speaks of the experience of grace, love, and fellowship. The order Son, Father, Spirit reflects the order of Christian experience. It is in Jesus Christ and his gracious life and death that we encounter the love of God, and this encounter leads to our incorporation into the redeemed community, in which we participate in the common life of the Spirit. 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. 2 Corinthians 13.11-13 Reader May your word live in us and bear much fruit to your glory. Gospel Acclamation Alleluia! Alleluia! Glory to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; to God who is, who was and who is to come. Alleluia! Reader The Lord be with you. And also with you. Reader A reading from the holy gospel according to Matthew Glory to you Lord Jesus Christ. Often called the great commission this conclusion to Matthew s gospel compels the Church s mission to the whole world. Initially people must have been baptised in the name of Jesus but as the unique Christian teaching about God as Trinity came to full expression, so only baptism in this formula, with water, was recognised as valid, as is still true today.
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. Mtt28.16-20 Reader For the Gospel of the Lord Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ Prayer for the Week Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and give more than either we desire or deserve: pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, save through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, your Son our Lord. Amen. Bible Readings next week Second Sunday after Pentecost Genesis 18.1-15 Ps. 116 Romans 5.1-11 Matthew 9.35-10.8 Pray for the Faithful Departed. We remember before God: Edmund Hagerty, William Wedlake, George Hill, Sydney Haselden, Caroline Sanderson, Alexander Green, Eric Douglas Brangwin Green, Ula Sanderson, Eric Vanden Driesen, Vera Theobald, Joan Jackson, Lillian Lobb, Michael Duffield, Iain Courcoux, Judith McMullen, Harry Hewett whose anniversaries occur this week.
Commemorations of the Week. June 11 Barnabas, apostle and martyr. Companion of Paul on Paul s first missionary journey and at the Council of Jerusalem, where he supported Paul. Later he quarrelled with Paul and returned to Syria. June 13 Antony of Padua, missionary and preacher (1185-1231). A Fransciscan friar and priest, born in Lisbon. In 1220 he sailed for North Africa but ill-health forced him to return. He then went to Italy where he spent the rest of his life. June 15 Evelyn Underhill, spiritual writer (1875-1941). English poet and mystic, who produced many books on mysticism and spirituality; one of them, Mysticism (1911), becoming a classic. Thanksgiving for the Holy Communion. Thursday following Trinity Sunday; often called by its Latin name Corpus Christi (Body of Christ). Begun in the fourteenth century, it fostered devotion to the Eucharist. Anglicans keep this day to give thanks for the gift of the meal Jesus left us and reflect upon those ways that regular participation draws us more deeply into God. St Augustine of Hippo wrote this of holy communion: You hear the words The Body of Christ and you reply Amen. Be, then, a member of Christ s body, so that your Amen may accord with the truth.. Just as the unity of the faithful should be like the kneading together of many grains into one visible loaf, so with the wine. Think how wine is made. Many grapes hang in a cluster, but their juice flows together into an indivisible liquid. St Augustine Sermon 272 in Celebrating Sundays. Reflections from the early Church on the Sunday Gospels. (Canterbury Press, 2012)