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 communi-

cates 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 wor-

shipped. Exodus 34.1-8

Reader Hear the word of the Lord ALL 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 in-

corporation 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 ALL and bear much fruit to your glory.

Gospel Acclamation

ALL Alleluia! Alleluia!

Glory to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit;

to God who is, who was and who is to come.

ALL Alleluia!

Reader The Lord be with you.

ALL And also with you.

Reader A reading from the holy gospel according to

Matthew

ALL 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 every-

thing that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you al-

ways, to the end of the age.’

Mtt28.16-20

Reader For the Gospel of the Lord ALL 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 re-

turned 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)