Worship for Trinity Sunday
Good morning,
Today is Trinity Sunday, and so here is a service of readings and music, poetry and art for the day. You are welcome to click on the youtube links for the music. Again, with churches inaccessible, and with gathering for worship not yet permitted in Scotland, we begin by being drawn to St Salvator’s Chapel by its characteristic bells.
Bell-ringing
From the tower of St Salvator’s Chapel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzebyGK1rHk
Call to worship
Through Jesus Christ we have access to the Father in the one Spirit.
(Ephesians 2:18)
Hymn Thou whose almighty word
1 Thou, whose almighty word
chaos and darkness heard,
and took their flight;
hear us, we humbly pray,
and where the gospel-day
sheds not its glorious ray,
let there be light.
2 Thou, who didst come to bring
on thy redeeming wing
healing and sight,
health to the sick in mind,
sight to the inly blind,
O now to all mankind
let there be light.
3 Spirit of truth and love,
life-giving, holy Dove,
speed forth thy flight;
move on the water’s face,
bearing the lamp of grace,
and in earth’s darkest place
let there be light.
4 Holy and blessèd Three,
glorious Trinity,
Wisdom, Love, Might;
boundless as ocean’s tide
rolling in fullest pride,
through the earth far and wide
let there be light.
Prayer
O Father, our hope,
O Son, our refuge,
O Holy Spirit, our protection.
Holy Trinity, glory to you.
God the creator
For your love found in sun, wind and rain,
in soil, leaf and flower,
in bird, beast and human being,
We thank you.
God the redeemer
For your love found in forgiveness, healing and in hope,
We thank you.
God the sustainer
For your love found in faith, in fruitfulness despite our frailty,
We thank you.
God the creator
Embracing loving father
Have mercy on us
God the redeemer
Jesus the gentle Saviour
Have mercy on us
God the sustainer
Spirit of the living God
Have mercy on us
For our sinful selves
A beloved son given
Redeemed through his grace
Blessings from on High
Father, Son, Holy Spirit
An empty heart filled
A sinner’s reprieve
God’s Son has suffered for us
Prayerfully rejoice!
Amen.
Reading George Herbert, Trinity Sunday
Lord, who hast formed me out of mud,
And hast redeemed me through thy blood,
And sanctified me to do good;
Purge all my sins done heretofore:
For I confess my heavy score,
And I will strive to sin no more.
Enrich my heart, mouth, hands in me,
With faith, with hope, with charity;
That I may run, rise, rest with thee.
Music John Sheppard, Libera Nos
Performed by the Sixteen, A Virtual Performance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAbAtsaApZk
This beautiful film shows the singers performing in the midst of everyday lives at home – and watch to see evidence of a particular form of delivery.
Libera nos, salva nos, justifica nos, O beata Trinitas.
[Deliver us, save us, defend us, O blessed Trinity.]
Old Testament Lesson Genesis 18:1-8
18 The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. 3 He said, ‘My lord, if I find favour with you, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.’ So they said, ‘Do as you have said.’ 6 And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, ‘Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.’ 7 Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
Andrei Rublev, 1411 or 1425-27, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
And now two reflections on this icon, and of the Holy Trinity which it depicts.
Reading Rowan Williams, Rublev
One day, God walked in, pale from the grey steppe,
slit-eyed against the wind, and stopped,
said, Colour me, breathe your blood into my mouth.
I said, Here is the blood of all our people,
these are their bruises, blue and purple,
gold, brown, and pale green wash of death.
These (god) are the chromatic pains of flesh,
I said, I trust I shall make you blush,
O I shall stain you with the scars of birth
For ever, I shall root you in the wood,
under the sun shall bake you bread
of beechmast, never let you forth
To the white desert, to the starving sand.
But we shall sit and speak around
one table, share one food, one earth.
Reading Carrie Purcell Kahler, After Rublev’s Trinity
Each face turned toward
a face at table leaving
always a space for
one more. An open
door to run through when someone
can’t quite make it home
on their own. Though the
wings work, humans haven’t got
them, and it’s hard to
converse from heights so,
in one hand a staff to lean
on. The other hand
ever reaches down.
Music Father I Adore You
Performed by Matt Brouwer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPbj0qywSqw
A song to the Trinity I remember from teenage years, three verses of three lines each.
Father I adore you
I lay my life before you
How I love you
Spirit I adore you
I lay my life before you
How I love you
Jesus I adore you
I lay my life before you
How I love you
New Testament Lesson Matthew 28:16-20
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
Reading Malcolm Guite, Trinity Sunday
In the Beginning, not in time or space,
But in the quick before both space and time,
In Life, in Love, in co-inherent Grace,
In three in one and one in three, in rhyme,
In music, in the whole creation story,
In His own image, His imagination,
The Triune Poet makes us for His glory,
And makes us each the other’s inspiration.
He calls us out of darkness, chaos, chance,
To improvise a music of our own,
To sing the chord that calls us to the dance,
Three notes resounding from a single tone,
To sing the End in whom we all begin;
Our God beyond, beside us and within.
Hugo van der Goes, The Trinity Altarpiece, c. 1478 – 1479, National Galleries of Scotland
This panel formed part of one of the most important altarpieces ever painted for a Scottish chapel. The work was commissioned by Edward Bonkil, Provost of the Collegiate Chapel of the Holy Trinity in Edinburgh. The chapel was demolished in 1848 to make way for Waverley Station.
Hymn I bind unto myself today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFskt-H5g74
It is said that soon after arriving, probably in 432, St Patrick composed the hymn I bind unto myself today. Written in Irish, it is sometimes known as a lorica, or a breastplate. The legend states that Patrick lit a fire to celebrate Easter one night near Tara in present-day Co. Meath, which angered the High King of Ireland King Laoghaire, who was holding a pagan festival ten miles away. He sent soldiers to destroy the Christians’ fire, but as they approached they heard Patrick and his people singing I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity. And apparently the King’s soldiers mistook the Christians for deer in the darkness by their fire, and so the hymn has become known as The Cry of the Deer.
1 I bind unto myself today
the strong name of the Trinity
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One and One in Three.
2 I bind this day to me forever,
by power of faith, Christ’s incarnation,
his baptism in the Jordan river,
his death on cross for my salvation,
his bursting from the spiced tomb,
his riding up the heavenly way,
his coming at the day of doom,
I bind unto myself today.
3 I bind unto myself today
the virtues of the starlit heaven,
the glorious sun’s life-giving ray,
the whiteness of the moon at even,
the flashing of the lightning free,
the whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
the stable earth, the deep salt sea
around the old eternal rocks.
4 I bind unto myself today
the power of God to hold and lead,
God’s eye to watch, God’s might to stay,
God’s ear to hearken to my need,
the wisdom of my God to teach,
God’s hand to guide, God’s shield to ward,
the word of God to give me speech,
God’s heavenly host to be my guard.
5 Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
6 I bind unto myself the name,
the strong name of the Trinity
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One and One in Three,
of whom all nature has creation,
eternal Father, Spirit, Word.
Praise to the Lord of my salvation;
salvation is of Christ the Lord!
Address
Trinity Sunday is a peculiar day in the Christian calendar. Almost every other special day has a story at the heart of it. The birth of Jesus at Christmas. The presentation of the infant Christ at Candlemas. The Last Supper on Maundy Thursday; crucifixion on Good Friday; resurrection at Easter. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, celebrated last week. But what is the narrative behind today? Where is the passage in the Bible when the Trinity happened? Of course there isn’t one: the Trinity is less a story and more a doctrine. And apart from the handful of strange people who read theology for pleasure (step forward Donald), who else should particularly care to have a Sunday set aside for a doctrine?
And it is true that some of the readings and music brought together in this service do emphasise the doctrinal nature of trinitarian belief. For example, these words from that fine hymn Thou whose almighty Word:
Holy and blessèd Three,
glorious Trinity,
Wisdom, Love, Might
Malcolm Guite’s sonnet for Trinity Sunday beautifully expresses a profound theology of “Our God beyond, beside us and within.” As does the motet by Thomas Tallis:
With all our hearts and mouths we confess, praise and bless thee.
God the Father unbegotten, and thee the Son, only begotten with the Holy Ghost
the comforter, holy and unseparable Trinity.
The Bible doesn’t use the word Trinity which is a later coinage to express what St Patrick describes as “the Three in One and One in Three.” But there is a threefold understanding of God in the words given by the risen Jesus for baptism, “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And theologians continue to devote time, energy, thought and ink (literal and on screens) to the inner-trinitarian relations of the three persons of God.
But most of the artistic reflections on the Trinity do not emphasise theology but story. They see in our encounter with God a threefold narrative of God’s engagement with the world, as the imaginative creator, forgiving redeemer, and inspiring presence.
Rublev’s icon (and the poets who reflect on it) find in the story of the three visitors to Abraham a depiction of God as Trinity, sharing our table, food and earth, with space for one more – we who gaze on the icon, drawn into the life of God.
The other painting, an altarpiece in the Western tradition (from Scotland) also expresses the Trinity in story – of the loving Father giving his suffering Son for the world, by the power of the Holy Spirit, depicted as a dove.
The Trinity then is not some dryasdust bit of philosophising. It is the way which Christians have best found to express how the divine is experienced, as creator, saviour and protector (as in the hymns I bind unto myself today and Eternal Father, strong to save). In the poem called Trinity Sunday, George Herbert experiences God as forming him, redeeming him and making him holy, able to do good. And he does this in three verses, each of three lines, and with threefold references (heart, mouth hands; faith, hope, charity; run, rise, rest.)
We needn’t then worry too much about not understanding the doctrine of the Trinity, how one God can be in three persons. Few people are inspired by propositions. Most of us are captured by a story. Trinity Sunday is really the day when God’s whole story is offered to us. Perhaps that’s why it’s the final named Sunday in the Christian year. The next six months or so are Sundays after Trinity, until Advent comes to begin a new year. We need half the year to reflect on this whole story.
And so, captured by the whole story of God with us, today can be a chance to praise God for creation, for grace, for presence with us. And a chance, in this time of the virus, to express our hope in God as maker, forgiver and inspirer. And a chance, wherever we are – in gardens wet with rain, by the deep salt sea, or wherever – to lay our lives before God, and ask what part in the story we can play.
Music Thomas Tallis, With all our hearts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQkyHIzjeEI
Performed by the Oxford Camerata
With all our hearts and mouths we confess, praise and bless thee.
God the Father unbegotten, and thee the Son, only begotten with the Holy Ghost
the comforter, holy and unseparable Trinity.
To thee be glory for evermore. Amen.
Prayer of intercession and Lord’s Prayer
Three folds of the cloth, yet only one napkin is there,
Three joints in the finger, but still only one finger fair,
Three leaves of the shamrock, yet no more than one shamrock to wear,
Frost, snowflakes and ice, all in water their origin share,
Three Persons in God: to one God alone we make our prayer.
God the creator,
Bring hope to a world
Marked by loss and fear,
Give insight to researchers,
Wisdom to authorities,
Courage to staff and students of the University,
Bring justice to the poor,
To all races and peoples,
And fairness to our public life.
God the redeemer,
Bring hope to our lives,
Constrained for this time;
Calm our anxiety,
Give peace in our anger,
And acceptance for our losses;
Share your love with our families,
At home and elsewhere,
And our friends across the world.
God the sustainer,
Deepen faith in the church,
Unable to gather;
Bless the works of love,
In connection and action,
In St Andrews and beyond;
Bring us, at the last,
With the faithful who have departed,
Into the love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
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.
Hymn Eternal Father, strong to save
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjcSpCSUjdk
This hymn for those in peril on the sea is known as the Navy Hymn, but was also sung with feeling in St Monans, a fishing village where I was minister. In a time of peril, it evokes our trust in God as Trinity.
Eternal Father, strong to save
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
O Saviour, whose almighty word
The winds and waves submissive heard
Who walkedst on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
O sacred Spirit, who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
Who bad’st its angry tumult cease,
And gavest light and life and peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger’s hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe’er they go;
And ever let there rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.
Benediction
The guarding of the God of life be on us,
the guarding of the loving Christ be on us,
the guarding of the Holy Spirit be on us
to aid us and enfold us
each day and night of our lives.
Amen.
Music Van Morrison, In the Garden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g6rb2bH5hQ
This song touches on creation, and human love, and our individual connection with God, as Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
The streets are always wet with rain
After a summer shower when I saw you standin’
In the garden in the garden wet with rain
You wiped the teardrops from your eye in sorrow
As we watched the petals fall down to the ground
And as I sat beside you I felt the
Great sadness that day in the garden
And then one day you came back home
You were a creature all in rapture
You had the key to your soul
And you did open that day you came back to the garden
The olden summer breeze was blowin’ on your face
The light of God was shinin’ on your countenance divine
And you were a violet colour as you
Sat beside your father and your mother in the garden
The summer breeze was blowin’ on your face
Within your violet you treasure your summery words
And as the shiver from my neck down to my spine
Ignited me in daylight and nature in the garden
And you went into a trance
Your childlike vision became so fine
And we heard the bells inside the church
We loved so much
And felt the presence of the youth of
Eternal summers in the garden
And as it touched your cheeks so lightly
Born again you were and blushed
And we touched each other lightly
And we felt the presence of the Christ
Within in our hearts
In the garden
And I turned to you and I said
No guru, no method, no teacher
Just you and I and nature
And the father in the garden
Listen no guru, no method, no teacher
Just you and I and nature
And the Father and the
Son and the Holy Ghost
In the garden, wet with rain
No guru, no method, no teacher
Just you and I and nature and the Father
And the Son and the Holy Ghost
In the garden, in the garden, wet with rain
No guru, no method, no teacher
Just you and I and nature
And the Father in the garden
Yours,
Donald.