St. Albans and Welwyn Circuit Service for Sunday 4th June 2023

by admin · Published June 1, 2023 · Updated June 10, 2024

prepared by Mr. Graham Phillips

Welcome :-

An opening prayer for today which is Trinity Sunday

Father God, Holy Three-in-One
We join with the saints on earth and in heaven as we bring our worship to you.
Come and meet us now by your Holy Spirit, and gather our dispersed voices into one single church of praise.
In Jesus name. AMEN

Hymn StF:- 17 With gladness we worship, rejoice as we sing.

George Rawson ( 1807-1889 )

A Prayer of Adoration

Creator God we glimpse your beauty
in setting sun and mountain top
We sense your power in thunder crash
lightening flash and oceans roar.

Creator God. We praise you

Precious Jesus, we see your love
stretched out upon a cruel cross.
We stand in awe at your sacrifice,
love poured out for human kind

Precious Jesus. We praise you

Holy Spirit, we see your power
in lives transformed and hearts on fire.
We listen for your still, small voice,
comforting, guiding, calling

Holy Spirit. We praise you. AMEN

A Prayer of confession

In our moments of doubt and unbelief,
when worldly pressure or circumstance
become the distance between us,
draw near we pray.

Remind us of the grace that we first knew,
the fathers love, the Spirits breath.
Grant us courage, a faith that endures
and the sure knowledge
that you are with us today and always,
never further away than a whispered prayer.

AMEN

A Reading of Psalm 8

O lord our sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouths of babes and infants you founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower then God, and crowned them with glory and honour.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord our sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth

The Epistle reading from 2 Corinthians 13 v 11-13

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 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 you all.

Gospel reading form Matthew 28 v 16-20

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him the worshiped him, but they 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, baptising 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.”

A Reflection for Trinity Sunday

As it said in the welcome, today is Trinity Sunday, so how is your Maths. Here we have the three elements of the Trinity.

So what does 1+1+1 equal? I came up with 3, mind you my maths is pretty appalling.

When I was much younger I loved participating in sports of all kinds, but sadly I am now just an armchair sportsman. I wonder if any of you have watched golf on the television? The ball ends up on the green, far easier than it did when I hacked my way round the course.

The picture is of a short putt maybe four feet at the most, the green is flat. A quiet descends as he or she lines up the putt, why take so long I ask myself it’s only a short simple putt. The final whispers of noise are no longer heard. the ball is struck. Not only was the putt around ten to twelve feet but there was a slight incline before a sharp descent to the hole, not to mention a slope from left to right. The ball shoots past the hole by some six feet.

That’s the problem with only seeing things in a single dimension or even two dimensions, it only gives us a partial and deceptive image of the picture we see on our screen. The Trinity reminds us that when it comes to God three dimensions are equally important.

The Holy Trinity is without doubt one of the most challenging, thought provoking doctrines of our faith. But it isn’t an exam question, nor should we think of it as such. Neither is it something we need to answer before we will be admitted by his grace to God’s eternal kingdom, and it’s certainly not an IQ question to identify those of a so called superior intellect, or to weed out those who in our eyes are not worthy.

The Holy Trinity is about relationships and indwelling It is about collaboration and the self-communication of God in three guises or personalities, or as it says in a hymn we will be having later ‘God in three persons blessed trinity’ that all emanate from the one Godhead. The Greek term Theiotes refers to the creator’s divine nature, God’s divine essence, his limitless power and infinite wisdom which are demonstrated to a perceptive humanity by means of the marvellous work of his creation, and such has been evident since the dawn of time.

I’m not sure that I could worship a one dimensional God, because it would somehow be an incomplete picture of what God is. Like the putting green I mentioned earlier, a distorted picture, lacking in depth and dimension, a false interpretation of what I was seeing, unable to see the differing ways the green effected the way the ball travelled towards the cup.

God in the three dimensions we have in the trinity gives us a complete picture of God, each of which is equally important. We speak, and rightly so of God being almighty, omnipotent, the creator of the universe and the ends of the earth, something we read of in our reading from Psalm 8, but if we only see this then I believe our picture is incomplete.

We speak of Jesus our Saviour, the divine entity of God in human form, who shared our joys and sorrows, experiencing temptation just as we do. But even if we imagine this together with the image of God the creator as a complete image, for me that image is still incomplete.

We speak of God being spirit, his power at work in the world, his presence experienced deep within us, even that taken in isolation would be to settle for a one dimensional view of God.

I began with a simple maths question. What does 1+1+1 equal? and of course the answer was three. But in the context of the trinity it turns out to be one. We sometimes struggle to get our heads round the notion, that strange sounding idea of God being three in one and yet one in three.

However nonsensical the idea of 1+1+1 equalling one, however strange and ridiculous that sounds, to talk about God the Father without God the Son, or God the son without God the Holy Spirit, diminishes God and robs him of his full power. It is only when we recognise that God’s love flows to us through the Father, within us through the Son and from us through the Spirit that we begin to glimpse the wonder of who God is.

For only when we totally immerse ourselves in God and see him as at once Father, Son and Holy Spirit do we begin to glimpse the complete, wonderful three dimensional picture of our amazing God.

HYMN StF:- 6 Father we love you

Donna Adkins b 1940

A Short reflection on Our Gospel reading from Matthew which is well known as the ‘ The great commission’

These words are the closing words of Matthews Gospel. Jesus has been resurrected. The two Mary’s had encountered an angel, who charged them with telling the disciples what had happened and that they were to go to Galilee where he would meet with them. No wonder then that some of them had doubts and reservations.

Jesus tells them “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.”

I wonder how they felt on hearing those words, a massive task to say the least for such a small band, but none the less they took this task on in the bravest of ways. We too as followers of Jesus are charged to do the same, but how I hear you ask yourselves. I haven’t got the time, my age is against me, I couldn’t stand up and preach the gospel. These may all be valid reasons for backing away from such a challenge, but remember Jesus final words to his disciples, “I am with you to the end of the age”. So should you rise to the challenge remember you are never alone. Jesus stands with you. I can vouch for that. The first time I led worship I was full of trepidation, but I suddenly found myself embraced in what I can only describe as a bubble of love and a sense of unimaginable peace.

Even If you find the challenge too much, or even if your housebound, we can all help spread the gospel by the way we live our lives. Below is a poem by Edgar Guest entitled ‘Sermons we see’ I have changed some of the words to make the language more appropriate for the time we live in.

I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day;
I’d rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way;
The eye’s a better pupil and more willing than the ear,
Fine counsel is confusing, but examples always clear;
And the best of all the preachers are the folk who live their creeds,
For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.

I can soon learn to do it if you’ll let me see it done;
I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may run.
And the lecture you deliver may be very wise and true,
But I’d rather get my lessons by observing what you do;
For I might misunderstand you and the high advice you give,
But there’s no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.

When I see a deed of kindness, I am eager to be kind.
When a weaker person stumbles and strong people stay behind
Just to see if we can help them, then the wish grows strong in me
To become as big and thoughtful as I know that friend to be.
And all travellers can witness that the best of guides today
Is not the one who tells them, but the one who shows the way.

One good person teaches many, folk believe what they behold;
One deed of kindness noticed is worth forty that are told.
Who stand with folk of honour learn to hold their honour dear,
For right living speaks a language which to every-one is clear.
Though able speakers charm me with their eloquence, I say,
I’d rather see a sermon than hear one, any day

So whatever situations we find ourselves in we can all play our part in making disciples and spreading the gospel by the way we live our lives

We come to our prayers of intercession followed by the Lord’s prayer

Please add your own prayers to those I have begun

We pray for your church here on earth both internationally and locally. For all who work within both ordained and lay. May they be empowered by your Holy Spirit to spread your gospel message even when it seems an almost impossible task.
We pray for our own churches and their particular concerns………….