This week, instead of celebrating a biblical event or a characteristic
of God, the lectionary leads us to celebrate a doctrine – the Trinity.
In the face of this “theological” theme, it can be tempting to avoid the lectionary altogether, but the doctrine Trinity can be an exciting and creative playground in which to worship.

May you be inspired as you prepare, and transformed as you worship this week!

READINGS:
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31: Wisdom sings of being with God at the creaiton of the world, and of humanity.

Psalm 8: A song of God’s majesty, and the honour God has given to humanity.

Romans 5:1-5: In Christ God has given us peace and a place of privilege, and has also strengthened us by giving us the Spirit.

John 16:12-15: Jesus promises the Spirit who will lead us into truth, and teach us all that belongs to Jesus and the Father.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
The theme this week is clear – the nature of God as Triune. This “difficult” doctrine of the Church is a tough one to address in a sermon or in worship, which tempts us either to treat it as an academic exercise, or to skip over it completely. However, the very mystery of this doctrine – and of the texts that are wrapped around it this week – provide a wonderful array of options. There is the opportunity to acknowledge again the limitations of our language and thinking about God, and to embrace God’s glorious, infinite mystery. There is the chance to recognise how God has chosen to reveal God’s self to humanity in flesh and Spirit, and how Jesus and the Spirit really do show us what God is like. There is also the chance to recognise the work of all three Persons in the life of every woman and man. There is also the opportunity to explore God’s nature as community, as Love, as relationship, and what this means for us. Ultimately, though it is wise to bear in mind Richard Rohr’s words: “Trinity leads you into the world of mystery and humility where you can not understand, you can only experience.” And perhaps the heart of that experience is ‘mutuality’ – of God within God, and, miraculously, of God with humanity.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
GLOBAL APPLICATION: One of the massive challenges facing our world is competing ideas about God. This does not only apply to religions in conflict, but also to the way God is viewed from the perspective of the sciences – physics, anthropology, sociology and psychology. Within these competing visions of the divine lies the problem of human arrogance, and the need to impose our visions on others. Ultimately when we believe that God is on our side (who or whatever that God may be – from the warrior of a fundamentalist to the science of a Dawkins), we easily deny the humanity, the wisdom and/or the worship of others. As followers of Jesus, though, we are offered a vision that denies us this arrogance. It makes our speaking and thinking about God hesitant and humble, because we are forced to acknowledge the mystery behind the words. It also calls us to allow God’s relational image within us to shine forth, leading us to seek connection, mutuality and love with all. These are not two separate attitudes. Humility and mutuality are based on each other, and are a necessary ingredient for any work of reconciliation, peace-making and problem-solving in a world where the struggles we face are bigger than any one person or group.

LOCAL APPLICATION: In the Western culture of individuality and self-interest, we too easily lose our sense of connectedness and responsibility for others and for the collective. In the Eastern and African cultures of community and social responsibility, we too easily lose our sense of self-determination and accountability. In both cases, the vision of God that is offered to us in the Trinity gives us what we lack, and enables us to lean into the paradox which values both individuality and mutuality. In our communities and churches, then, we recognise God’s call to hold individuals accountable – those in leadership, and those who follow – and to challenge each one to take responsibility and live faithfully and justly (there are no grand children in faith!). But, we also recognise God’s call to bring people into humble, respectful, compassionate and generous relationships of mutuality and sharing, in which grace and respect and mercy triumph over judgment, exclusion and partisanship. The Trinity reveals to us both God’s confrontation of our human weakness, sinfulness and injustice, and God’s invitation to share in God’s love and mutuality in communities of faith. The glory is that justice can only truly be enacted when the trust of mutuality is assured, and mutuality can only be maintained when justice is upheld. We are called both to live this truth, adn to proclaim it to the world.

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
Life-Giving, – Restoring, -Fulfilling God
God, Saviour, Counsellor
A Desperate World

Hymn Suggestions:
Holy, Holy, Holy
Father, We Praise Thee
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
Immortal Invisible
Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow
Father, Spirit, Jesus (Link to YouTube video)
Praise The Father, Praise The Son (Link to YouTube video)
Glorify Your Name (Link to YouTube video – best one I could find, I’m afraid!)
Father, I Adore You (Link to YouTube video)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy for the Breaking of Bread

Video Suggestions:
Trinity
Psalm 8

Image:
Trinity 1
Trinity 2

As what I call the “God’s Story” part of the Liturgical Calendar begins to draw to a close, we are prepared for the second half of the year – the “Our Story” part which happens in Ordinary Time. And that preparation is in the form of a gift – the Pentecost gift of God’s Spirit, God’s community and God’s call. It is easy, after all of the work of the calendar so far to just breathe a sigh of relief and just get through the last few weeks with as little effort and stress as possible. But, the Pentecost event needs our best efforts – and some new ways of thinking about it. Which I hope I’m helping to stir up in this post.

May your eyes be opened and your heart be filled as you celebrate the ever-present Spirit of God this week, and as you receive the empowerment of God for the journey ahead.

READINGS:
Acts 2:1-21: The believers are filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and they start to praise God in various languages.
Or Genesis 11:1-9: Humanity seeks to build a tower that reaches the heavens, but God confuses their language and they scatter over the earth.

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b: The world and all its creatures depend on God for provision and breath – which leads the Psalmist to commit to praise God.

Romans 8:14-17: God has given us God’s Spirit by which we know we are God’s children, sharing both in God’s glory and God’s suffering.
OR Acts 2:1-21: See above.

John 14:8-17, (25-27): Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to be an advocate for his followers, and to lead them into truth.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
Pentecost is another season that is easy both to underestimate and to grow too familiar with. The potential themes are also many and varied and which can make this celebration difficult to tackle well. Perhaps the oldest mistake we make with this season is to speak of it as the Spirit’s “coming” – as if God’s Spirit was absent from the world before this. Jesus gives us a clue to a different understanding, though, when he says that “the world cannot receive him because it isn’t looking for him…” Pentecost is essentially a breakthrough in our human capacity to apprehend and experience God’s activity which is (and always has been) active in all of creation (including us). At Pentecost we learn to look for God’s Spirit – and the readings for today make it clear that God’s Spirit can be seen and found anywhere and everywhere we look. It is this awareness that there is nowhere that God is not that breaks down Babel’s walls of division. In receiving the new awareness of God’s Spirit we find that we all speak a common Spirit-enabled language – the language of God-imaged, Spirit-filled, humanity. Once our eyes are opened to see God’s Spirit in all things (including those who are different from us, who are hostile toward us, and who are most repulsive to us), everything changes. We know ourselves (and all creatures) as St. Francis did – as God’s children and siblings of one another – and we willingly share Christ’s suffering (as Paul says) to bring God’s creation into awareness of this unity and community in God’s Spirit.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
GLOBAL APPLICATION: Across the globe human beings suffer from a blindness to the Spirit’s presence and activity. When we use the earth as nothing more than a resource to enrich ourselves, we have failed to recognise the Spirit. When we justify killing, exploiting, marginalising or dehumanising others, we have failed to see the Spirit in them. When we embrace a rampant individualism and consumerism, we have failed to recognise God’s Spirit and the community of all things in God’s Spirit. Pentecost is a wake up call for our world – how different might our politics, economics and environmental policies be if we recognised God’s Spirit in all things, and if we took time to really learn our common language? How would this consideration impact how you pray, speak, act, vote, spend, advocate and play? How can you and your community participate in the Spirit’s work and help others to recognise God’s Spirit in all things?

LOCAL APPLICATION: It is all too common among Christians to speak of God’s Spirit beign “with” us and “not with” others who believe differently from us. We speak of churches and people where God’s Spirit has “left” and we talk about places where we think God is no longer present. Whenever we fall into this trap, we have missed the gift of Pentecost, and have made our God too small. But, when we realise that God’s Spirit is everywhere – although we and/or others may not be looking for or able to recognise God’s Spirit for whatever reason – we find our view of these others changes. We suddenly discover that God can be encountered in every person, and every place – from a untouched places of breath-taking natural beauty to slums and disaster areas. And, once we have seen this, we discover that, like Jesus, we would rather suffer than inflict suffering on these Spirit-filled ones. We would rather sacrifice than exploit Spirit-filled people and the Spirit-filled world for personal gain. We would rather listen for the language of our common humanity than deny the humanity of a single person – even if they deny ours. What would it mean for you and your community to take Pentecost seriously? What defenses might have to come down? What hands might have to be offered to others? What beliefs might have to be released? What actions might have to become obsolete? What people might have to be welcomed and embraced?

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
A Pentecost Thanksgiving
A Pentecost Confession
Ordinary People
Building Blocks Of The Kingdom

Hymn Suggestions:
Breathe On Me Breath Of God
O Thou Who Camest From Above
Spirit Divine Attend Our Prayers
O Spirit Of The Living God
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Deep Calls To Deep: Chord Chart; Lead Sheet; mp3
Breathe (Link to YouTube video)
All Who Are Thirsty (Link to YouTube video)
Spirit Of The Living God (Link to YouTube video)
Shine Jesus Shine (Link to YouTube video)
O Let The Son Of God Enfold You (Link to YouTube video)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy for Pentecost
A Liturgy for the Spiritual Feast

Video Suggestions:
Pentecost – Acts 2
Pentecost Prayer
Pentecost
Pentecost

Image:
Flame

If you decide to celebrate the Ascension on Thursday, then you’ll be looking at Easter 7 for Sunday. This is the last Sunday before Pentecost (which closes out the 50 days of Easter), and appropriately, the focus is on God’s invitation to all people to enjoy the life and grace that is offered in Jesus. The scene is set, then, for the welcoming of all nations in the reversal of Babel which happened on the birthday of the Church.

May you hear God’s gracious invitation again as you worship and prepare this week.

READINGS:
Acts 16:16-34: After casting a demon out of a fotune-telling slave girl, Paul & Silas are imprisoned. They continue to worship even while in jail, and the prison bursts open, giving Paul and opportunity to lead the jailer and his family to faith in Christ.

Psalm 97: God is great and mighty over all, above all gods and idols, causing the earth to tremble, and rescuing and protecting those who are God’s people

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21: John’s conclusion to the Revelation proclaims Christ as the one who invites all to find life in Christ, and who is coming to  ‘set things to rights’ bringing rescue and the safety of the Holy City to those who respond to God’s invitation.

John 17:20-26: Jesus prays for his disciples and for all who will come to believe in him, that they may be one, and that through their love and their ‘belovedness’ the world may be brought to knowledge of Jesus.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
At first glance, the readings this week seem completely unconnected. But a closer look reveals the simple theme of invitation. In Acts, Paul and Silas are given a unique opportunity to invite a jailer into Christ’s life. In the Psalm, God’s gory and power are the context for an invitation to those who are ‘godly’ to find refuge in God. In Revelation the invitation to all who would ‘drink of the waters of life’ is proclaimed, along with the assurance of Christ’s return to love and welcome those who respond to the invitation. In John Jesus prays for unity and love among believers so that others may see this, know the truth about Jesus, and be drawn (invited) into the life of Christ, and loving, beloved community of faith. It is approproate that this theme should follow closely behind last week’s focus on hospitality, and on the celebration of the Ascension – which proclaimed both God’s divine reign, and God’s gracious immanence. God seeks intimate relationship with humanity, and, as an integral part of this intimacy, we need to share God’s love with one another. Thus, even as we accept God’s invitation to beloved life, we are called to extend the invitation to others. The Gospel is, after all, at its heart an extravagant, divine invitation.

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
GLOBAL APPLICATION: When it comes to the Gospel invitation, we inevitably find ourselves debating things like the uniqueness of Christ, and what happens to people of other religions. But, the invitation of the Gospel is not to grow a particular religion (even one that calls itself by Christ’s name). Rather, it is to invite people into the grace and love of God which is embodied and offered in a person – Jesus Christ. The invitation is not intended to create a bunch of philosophical and religious hoops for people to jump through before they can be accepted as ‘in’, but rather to remove obstacles, and, through practical, lived and shared love, make God’s grace as easy to access as possible. Perhaps, if we were less concerned about religious dominance (or the dominance of other religions that are ot ours), and more concerned with the practical expression of love for those within (and without) our own faith community globally, we would have to worry less about evangelism, and more about how we welcome the people streaming to join us. As I read on a poster the other day: “A suggestion for global peace – all Christians should promise not to kill each other”. What if we also promised to feed, clothe, house and educate each other?

LOCAL APPLICATION: A lot of the conversation around “Church” these days (be it emerging church, seeker church, worship evangelism, denominational structures or whatever) boils down to “church growth” or, worse, “church survival”. We are constantly bombarded with statistics about people leaving the church and stories of those who have been hurt/disillusioned/marginalised by the church. Both the stats and the stories are good and need to be heard, but our responses are often to seek new “solutions” or “programs” or “techniques” or even “theologies” to stop the bleed and get back on top – or at least back to being alive to some degree. Jesus, though, doesn’t particularly concerned about “the Church” and whether it grows or not. What he is concerned is that people should now about God’s grace and life which is available through Christ and which is demonstrated by a community of love. God’s invitation, in the end, is not a message or an institution. It is a relationship with God and with those who love God and know they are beloved of God. Perhaps the best way we can be a people of invitation is to stop speaking, “reaching out” or trying to be attractive, and to start simply loving God and each other – and anyone else who happens to enter our circle of awareness.

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
The Amazing Invitation
Extending The Invitation
Chains

Hymn Suggestions:
And Can It Be
To God Be The Glory
Come Let Us Sing Of A Wonderful Love
Come Sinners To The Gospel Feast
You Are (Link to the Every God-Beloved Life CD page, where you can download a free mp3 & chord chart)
Everyone Under The Sun (Link to Yahoo listening page)
All Who Are Thirsty (Link to YouTube video)
Come Now Is The Time To Worship (Link to YouTube video)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy for Communion

Video Suggestions:
Invite
Invitation
You Are
Invitation To The Thirsty

As you know, the Ascension Of Our Lord can be celebrated on Ascension Day (Thursday 13 May) or on the following Sunday (Sunday 16 May). Whatever you choose, this is perhaps one of the most underrated festivals in the Liturgical Calendar. The reality, though, is that this is the climax of Christ’s earthly ministry, and it prepares for everything that must follow – Pentecost, Trinity, and the Ordinary Time journey of learning to live out the meaning and message of Christ’s life. For this reason, Ascension is a celebration that must be treated with care and with great thoughtfulness.

The obvious message of Christ’s reign stands out in this celebration, but with a little more thought and reflection, there are some very exciting and surprising themes that can be explored. I hope I have managed to highlight at least one of these in this week’s resources.

May you be challenged and blessed as you prepare!

READINGS:
Acts 1:1-11: Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to his disciples. Then he is taken up into heaven, with the assurance of the angels that he will return.

Psalm 47: A celebration of and call to praise the God who is high over all.
OR
Psalm 93: A psalm celebrating God’s reign and majesty.

Ephesians 1:15-23: Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians that they may know the power of Christ who is over all and fills all.

Luke 24:44-53: Jesus reminds the disciples of how he has fulfilled the Scriptures, then he promises the Holy Spirit, blesses them and is taken up to heaven.

REFLECTIONS ON THEME:
Ascension is one of those festivals that, in spite of its importance, can end up feeling old and second hand. We’ve heard the story so many times, and we’ve interpreted it so many times that we struggle to find anything new. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with revisiting the basics – God in Christ is not just immanent, but also transcendent, high over all, and truly and justly reigning over all of creation even though it doesn’t always seem like it.
But, perhaps there’s another angle to this celebration (if this is an old way of looking at it for you, please forgive me). The link between ascension and Pentecost is clear and strong – Jesus shifts from a specific, localised human body in a specific geographical location, to a universal Presence, seeking to indwell multitudes of bodies. This to happens when Christ gathers all things to himself, and fills all things with himself (as Paul says in Ephesians). Thus, there is a sense in which the Ascension is the most immanent and inclusive picture of God we ever see. In the feast of Ascension we discover that Christ’s love goes further even than resurrection, but leads Christ to embrace all of creation, and fill it all with himself, while also carrying our humanity into the Godhead – the ultimate, intimate union of God and God’s universe!

CONNECTING WITH LIFE:
GLOBAL APPLICATION: One of the problems with the traditional “power over” view of the Ascension is that this model of power is all too common, and all too destructive in our world. We begin to frame faith in the language of conquest, and we begin to view Jesus’ lordship as some sort of military victory. This image of Christ goes against the Jesus of the Gospels, and the message he proclaimed. What our world needs rather is a new way of viewing power: not as “power over” (dominion) nor as “power under” (manipulation), but as “power with” – shared, collaborative, dialogic and relational. When we view the ascension as an extension of Christ’s death and resurrection (which is has to be), then we recognise God’s purpose of bringing all things into relationship with Godself and with each other, and of making all things one – consciously filled with the Presence of God. This proclaims the power that is found in self-giving and in connection. This is a power that the world desperately needs to learn.

LOCAL APPLICATION: Too much of the faith conversation in our communities revolves around who can claim the “authority” of rightness based on the Bible, or a unique experience of God, or a connection with a particular Church tradition or leader. In too many ways we use this “authority” to play “power over” games with each other, “dividing and conquering” whenever we can – lay & clergy, believer & seeker, conservative & liberal. Ultimately, these power games simply lead to conflict and destruction. Jesus’ approach to power – as revealed in the Ascension – is radically different. He embraces all (invites all to sit at his feet) and seeks to fill all – finding unity with all. For us, this offers the example of hospitality and invitation, relationship and dialogue, and the quest for unity. We are called not to “rule over” but to seek a life that brings dignitity, grace and self-determination for all, while creating systems of unity and shared power wherever we can. This can apply to every sphere of life, from the family, to the church community, to the public discourse. What does it mean to live “Ascension power” in your world today?

RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP:
Prayers:
Cosmic Community
A New Vision Of Power
Set The World To Rights
In Name Alone

Hymn Suggestions:
Be Thou My Vision (I have also uploaded a version of the words for this hymn that are completely gender inclusive)
The Head That Once Was Crowned
Hail To The Lord’s Anointed
At The Name Of Jesus
Above All (Link to YouTube video)
How Great Is Our God (Link to YouTube video)
Everlasting God (Link to YouTube video)
Now And Forever (From my CD Every God-Beloved Life. Link to Amazon Mp3 download page.)
The Lord Reigns (From my CD Songs for the Road. Link to Sacredise Music Page where you’ll find a chord chart and a link to the page where you can hear a preview)
We Bow Down Before You (Link to Sacredise Music Page where you’ll find a chord chart, a lead sheet and an mp3 for free download)

Liturgy:
A Liturgy for the Foretaste of the Heavenly Banquet

Video Suggestions:
The Ascension & Jesus Christ
The Ascension & The Church
Rise

Image:
Sky