This Sunday is Trinity Sunday which is the beginning of Ordinary Time in the church year. Ordinary Time is the longest season in the church year stretching from Trinity Sunday to Christ the King Sunday (Totenfest). This is the season when the altar cloths always seem to be green. (Communion Sundays the altar cloths are white.) Ordinary Time lacks church holidays such as Christmas or Easter. Ordinary Time does offer an opportunity for transformation and growth in faith. That is why the color for this season is green.
If you would like a home visit, conversation, or home communion, please call me at 573-437-2779 (church) or 573-832-2475 (cell).
- Youth Trip Planning Meeting after worship on Sunday.
- Dorcas meeting Monday at 7pm
- Church Council meeting Monday, June 12 at 6:30pm
- MU Extension Pressure Canning Class Monday, June 19, here
- Pub Theology, Thursday, June 22 at 6:30 at Clancy’s
- All Church VBS Day at the Angell Farm on Sunday, June 25 4pm
Blessings,
Pastor Stephanie DeLong
Scripture: Genesis 1:1-2:4a, Psalm 8, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, Matthew 28:16-10
Sermon: God as Community
The first lines of St. Patrick’s Breastplate are:
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the oneness of the Creator of Creation.
The Trinity is God as community. Community has a mighty strength. St. Patrick arose each day through the mighty strength instilled in him by the invocation of the Trinity.
How does understanding God as Trinity inform and empower our daily lives? The invocation of the Trinity provided strength for St. Patrick and provides strength to those who recite this prayer today. The Trinity is like a cord braided together from three strands giving strength to the whole.
Our God is a one God, but our God is also a community of three God’s intertwined together. The three persons of the Trinity are embedded together in ways that allow them to function together as one and as individuals representing the other two. Jesus operated with the authority of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit when he lived among ordinary people.
In Matthew 28:18 Jesus speaks of his Trinitarian authority when he says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Jesus then delegates that authority to the disciples in Matthew 28:19, “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,” Jesus delegated that authority to the disciples and authorized. authorized them to create a worldwide community of believers.
What is that community of believers to do? “Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20 The Message). The community of believers is to live as Jesus modeled for us to live. How did Jesus live? He loved people. He healed them. He fed them. He listened to them. He taught them. He forgave them. He blessed them. He died for them so that we might live through him.
Christian faith is to be lived and practiced in community. Practicing a life that lives the way that Jesus taught is not easy. It requires a community. No one person can go it alone. Jesus encouraged the disciples to be one in community as he and the Father are one. (John 17:11) The disciples were all unique individuals. We too are unique individuals who seek to practice our faith as one community.
A few weeks ago, I compared the community of believers to a cake which requires many ingredients and parts of the kitchen to create it. A lot of work goes into baking a cake. All the ingredients, mixing, baking, and more must work together to create a delicious cake. Baking a good cake is not easy. Creating a faithful community of believers takes work and God’s help. No wonder Jesus promised to be with the disciples and with us until the end of the age!
We live in a culture that values rugged individualism. But no one person really does anything alone. If you drive to work, you drive on a road built by a road crew in a car built on an assembly line. You may have purchased the car with money that you earned, but you would not be driving in it if not for the work of the community.
God recognizes the need for community. God created an entire world out of chaos and filled it with living creatures. God made humans to be in God’s image out of a desire to partner with someone to care for creation. God called all of creation good. God calls all of us to live in community strengthened daily by the Trinity. Or as St. Patrick ends his famous prayer:
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the oneness of the Creator of Creation.
Prayer: God surround me with the strength of the Trinity and help me to live in community. Amen.
Prayer list: Elizabeth, Cheryl, Dave, David, Evelyn, Jason, Paulette, Bobby, Kevin, Jim, Darryl (doing better!), Marilee, Beverly, Jim, Jenny, Jaqueline-Dixon’s daughter, Kirk, Barbara, Mitchell, Mahala, Mary, La Rae, Bud, Tyra, Marilyn, Tom, Jeff, Jesse, Kate, Kyle, Carmen, Sandy, Gary, Terry, Bob, Mark’s brother Billy and sister-in-law Jane, Delores W., Tyra, Freya, Vicki B., Barb Z. and for peace.
