Trinity Sunday, first Sunday after Pentecost First Sunday after Pentecost – 7 June 2020 The Faith Nurture Forum would like to thank Joanna Love, Development Worker for the Wild Goose Resource Group, for her thoughts on Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday after Pentecost. Our new online music resource is now live: here you can listen to samples of every song in the Church Hymnary 4th edition (CH4). The search function allows you to bring up a list of songs by keyword, tune, theme, author, composer and metre, covering all of the indexes in the hymnbook. The site features Weekly Worship and thematic/seasonal playlists, alternative settings and background information on the hymns.

Introduction .................................................................................................... 2

Genesis 1:1-2:4a .............................................................................................. 3

Psalm 8 ............................................................................................................ 3

2 Corinthians 13:11-13 ..................................................................................... 4

Matthew 28:16-20 ........................................................................................... 5

Sermon ideas ................................................................................................... 5

Prayers ............................................................................................................ 6

Alternative Material ........................................................................................ 9

Musical suggestions ....................................................................................... 14

Introduction A few words about my usual approach, for what they are worth. I put the four readings side by side and I read them, several times, and chewed on them, and slept on them. Genesis and Psalm 8 struck me for their high regard for both God’s incredible artistry and the honour conferred on humanity, expressed poetically – an art form in itself! The much shorter verses from the Epistle and Gospel struck me for their instructive, advisory tone on actions and attitudes fit for faithful living. Holding these all together, then, how might they help us? After the drama of Pentecost, which homes in on one extraordinary experience of God’s presence being seen, heard, felt and reacted to – now we have a cluster of passages taking a wide sweeping view, back to the primal story of creation, through one of the ancient worship poems Jesus would have known, to Jesus promising and tasking the disciples as His earthly life ends, and to the newborn church learning how to live. Taken together, these passages give us perspective, shedding light on who God is, who we are, and our place and purpose within the world God is ever creating. God is prime mover and the ultimate permission giver! The wisdom of our ancestors testifies to the smallness and the greatness of humanity. We have work to do which is given both as gift and as responsibility. The thread through all these texts is God staying present – mover, muse, maker, minder. After Pentecost, how then shall we live? Here are helpful, grounding reminders to carry with us. We walk in the everlasting companionship of the Spirit who is holy, empowering and connecting. We will find ourselves sometimes wondering at the stars, sometimes doubting even as we worship, sometimes wrestling with the challenge of building community and living in peace. And always the mark of God is in the essence of our very being. We need the perspective. We need the permission. We need the poetry. And we need the presence.

Genesis 1:1-2:4a There is a strong sense of rhythm in this story. It is told in a repeated pattern of God speaking, God doing, God noticing, God pausing. It describes God first setting an intention, always with the intriguing language of, “Let there be…” Arguably this is a picture of God as enabler – allowing things to happen, without coercion – the supreme permission-giver! The next stage describes God in action, making the intention into reality. In the first three days, there is then also a naming of what has come into being. The significance of names is worth pondering – in other stories of the Bible, whenever a person is named, something important is being expressed about their identity and character. What do we make of God’s naming of Day, Night, Sky, Earth, Seas? What mattered to the storytellers in saying this about God and about the foundations of the created world? The pattern then has God looking at and taking in and enjoying what now exists, and noticing that it is good! What makes this stage important? What might we gain from practising this same noticing and really seeing? What happens when we stop and savour the things that God has made and the things that we, too, have brought into being? What if it was more habitual for us to acknowledge the goodness of such makings? Then there is the stage of pausing and resting as evening comes and the hours of the night pass, before the sun comes up again, completing the cycle leading into the next intention being set. Each part of the story evolves from what has gone before. In what ways might this rhythm of speaking, doing, savouring and stopping be helpful in our daily and weekly living, or in our times of worshipping together? The bigger picture of this pattern brings in the hallowed seventh day of course. This day is called holy because God rested. What for us is holy about our resting? How does it feel to put holiness and restfulness together? Why do you think this connection is made, especially in this ‘first’ of stories about God and the world?

Psalm 8 What a stunning, evocative poem this is. What a call to make space for wondering. How much wondering do we do, and what are the fruits of those times? What if we more often allowed the natural world to be our teacher? What stories can we share of times when we have learned something from our contemplation of nature, or from nature breaking in on our preoccupations? There is a strong echo of sentiments from the Genesis story in the second half of the Psalm. The Psalmist was clearly familiar with the community’s narrative of people holding this God-

given status of below-yet-above. We have our place in relationship with all other creatures of the land, air, sea, and heaven. What perspective does this give us of ourselves and the wider world? If this is our right status, what tensions must we live with? What freedoms and what limitations come with it? How well do we respect both the boundaries and the generosity of our mindful, caring God? The poet begins and ends with the same cry of affirmation – that the name of the Sovereign Lord is majestic. Again there are resonances with the namings in the Genesis story. The Biblical authors use many names for God, expressing different aspects of God’s nature and identity. It could be interesting to think what new names this Psalm suggests, and any fresh insights such names bring, or add to our praying… Star-maker, Glory-giver…

2 Corinthians 13:11-13 Like the Gospel passage, these are words given at an ending. Simple and succinct, like a summary or recap of what really matters. They could form a litany for sending out at today’s worship: As we go from here, this we will do: We will put things in order, listen to the appeal of truth, agree with one another, and live in peace, faithful to the God of love and peace. So may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Perhaps more than the other readings, this one even in its shortness lands us squarely on the depiction of God as Trinity, in the well-known and well-used words which have become The Grace. Today is the best of opportunities to stop and sink down into the awareness of God as a relational being – God as Relationship within God’s own nature. Richard Rohr and Mike Morrell in their collaborative book, “The Divine Dance: the Trinity and your transformation”, make the intriguing comment that if we take the Trinity seriously we have to say “In the beginning was the Relationship”. Where do our thoughts go from there? If we are made in God’s image, how does that essential relationality show up in our nature? How does the example of God as three in one affect our ways of living, worshipping and serving?

Matthew 28:16-20 These closing words of Matthew’s Gospel begin with an overlooked gap. It is no longer a group of twelve disciples, but eleven. Nowhere in the New Testament is there acknowledgement of quite how the tragic death of Judas was felt by the others in its immediate aftermath. It surely made for a compounded and confusing experience of griefs, as two huge losses were followed by one bewildering resurrection. Knowing His closest friends were in this totally vulnerable state, Jesus came and commissioned them. There is that one hint of people not feeling strong and ‘sorted’ – “but some doubted.” Perhaps it would be good today to spend some time with that phrase, as we live in these soon-after-General-Assembly days. What losses and grieving is with us? What sense of resurrection? What are we doubting? What strength, or lack of it, are we feeling? What is the work we now have to do? How deeply are we able to trust Jesus, to take Him at His word, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Taking time to share honestly where we’re at with some of this, might well strengthen our solidarity and teamwork as a congregation. The eleven disciples cannot possibly have been all on the same page in processing these life-changing events. At this devastating ending that also led into a remarkable beginning, they were not the finished article, but had to continue to learn, relearn, make mistakes, take risks, get it right, get it wrong, fall out, fail, and keep going. The only sure things for them and for us are that we belong to God and will never be abandoned.

Sermon ideas A simple, creative, tried and tested alternative for the ‘sermon slot’ – time to stay with “The staying power of God”. (A few photos are included on page 16, by way of illustration.) In advance, set out a line of long tables with a roll of black paper laid out along the tops. Print out the four phrases, arising or adapted from each of the four readings, as below, in an easily read font size, and cut them into separate strips. You may need a few of each, depending how many tables and people you have! (If space is restricted, you could provide individual sheets of white or pastel coloured card, A5 or A4, and pencils. The softness of mark-making is key here, rather than felt pens or biros.)

• God created humankind, reflecting God’s nature… and God blessed them. • What are human beings that you are mindful of them; mortals that you care for

them? • The grace, the love, and the companionship of the Trinity are with us. • Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Lay the quotes in different places on the black paper. Provide soft pastels in a variety of colours, in small bowls or baskets. This reflective activity would work well following the singing of “O Lord, our Lord, throughout the earth” (Ps 8), and ending after about 10 minutes with “Ubi Caritas”. Here are some suggested words of invitation: “After our next song, you are invited, if you wish, to spend time in a quiet reflective activity which allows us to stay with God’s words of promise about staying with us – God known to us as our Creator, as Jesus, as the Holy Spirit. The music will continue to play and if you wish, come to the table. Read one or more of the Bible verses which are there, then take the pastels and copy out a word or phrase, perhaps with a few repetitions, or simply make patterns in any way you choose, using this activity as a way to let these promises sink in, and let us stay with God who always stays with us. As the music and singing of ‘Ubi Caritas’ begins, we can return to our seats.”

Prayers Approach to God God, there has been no time when You have not been creating; no space where You have not been imagining. Before our earliest ancestors existed, You were dreaming and designing what people could be. We were born into the flow of Your creativity and breathe our every breath in Your company. Come close to us, come alive in us, stir us like clouds caught by a summer breeze, may we cling to You like sweet peas to a fence and be as open to You as a blossoming sunflower to the sun.

Give us an expansive vision of what our world is and can be, and let us move to the music of Your resounding call. We surrender to You, Abundant and Almighty God, and offer You our worship. Amen Thanksgiving and intercession Thankyou God, for Your immeasurably big heart. You don’t need the credit for what You do. You don’t need the recognition. You don’t need the thanks. Where would we be without Your refusal to despair; Your resolve to never give up; Your willingness to keep working to sustain the cosmos which You love. The ingenuity of Your mind is unfathomable! How perfectly You set up all the ecosystems of earth, the balances of climate and vegetation and interdependent species. How deep Your trust in us, to implant in us the wisdom to care for the land and the sea, to be Your co-workers in ensuring the flourishing of all. Thank you for the expertise of people who work most closely with the environment – ecologists and botanists, zoologists and conservationists. Thank you for the successes of the work they do and for their persistent efforts to educate and inform so that all of us know the habits we must get out of and get into for the protection, survival and wellbeing of the whole world. Intercessions – draw on up-to-date matters of concern on – specific environmental issues; developments relating to COP26; international peace-building needs; that the church will increase its collaboration and co-operation internally and with partner organisations. [Note from Editors: This material was written before the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in the UK. Worship leaders can use the most up-to-date sources of information and take into account the experience of their communities for creating appropriate prayers around this issue.]

Confession Dear God, how does it happen? After all Your constant, faithful, unconditional commitment to us, there are times we want to escape You. When we don’t even know what gets in the way, when our closed minds are a mystery to ourselves, when our thinking gets clogged up with the pollution of self-hatred, please will You come and speak some gentle sense to us again. When loving us is a thankless task, and You watch our futile efforts to clean up our own act, please will You prod us into noticing You, down on Your hunkers beside us, willing us to reach out and grab Your hand. God, You know the bitter taste of failure, You fully understand the temptation to give up. You stay with us and quell all those gremlins of defeatism and pessimism and discouragement. You have forgiven us for all that’s gone wrong in our living and loving. Pick us up as we pick up our mats and walk on. So be it. Collect Holy Trinity, sacred sharing of reciprocal love; free flowing relationship of grace: Give to us, Your friends, that deep regard for interdependence which You manifest, so that our practice may be collaboration, drawing strength from each other, and that, freed from isolation and operating like the lone wolf, we may reflect Your nature which is community; through Jesus Christ, at one with You, Creator and Sustaining Spirit. Amen

Alternative Material This material has been supplied by kind permission of Spill the Beans and allows you to explore the readings or theme of the service in creative ways that include everyone gathering for worship. New material from Spill the Beans is provided in the latest issues available from their website. Bible notes – Genesis 1:1-2:4a Universal Selfies and Co-Workers In March 20014 scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics brought us the news that they had discovered that the Universe had sent a message about its own existence and particularly its formation. Described as being “like a message from the dawn of time”, it was said to be a ground-breaking discovery giving a glimpse into how the universe was born. Some described this as the universe sending out its very own “Selfie”– a self-portrait of its early moments. This breakthrough will undoubtedly be useful to all of us someday in widening our understanding of the world, but our theological understanding informs us that the universe has actually been sending messages about itself for a very long time and continues to do so today in many different ways. Throughout the history of humanity, different cultures (from the moment the ability to ‘reason’ and ‘formulate’ ideas into beliefs became possible), have recognised the planet, nature and the universe sending out messages from the very core of its existence. Over time cultures, tribes, and faiths have discussed, argued over, and formed conclusions on ‘big picture’ and ‘small picture’ matters as the universe has spoken. The creation stories we are familiar with in Genesis sit neatly alongside many other such creation stories. Some describe the story we are familiar with as a ‘Hymn of Praise’ – a poem that illustrates the magnificence of God at the heart of creation. As we read the Bible, letting the ‘Word of God’ speak to us, then it becomes clearer that rather than a random collection of ideas and unconnected teaching, the Genesis story is part of a big story that helps us celebrate the wonder of creation and human life, and allows us to understand our place in it. The verses from Genesis 1:1-2:4a provide us with an account of how an ancient people made sense of the messages they were hearing from the universe. They did very well to understand that in these messages was something more than just a message from the flora

and fauna, the endless sky and ocean depths. These ancient people recognised a voice that we call “God”. The story tells us that God did, and does not, work alone. Appropriately on this Trinity Sunday we see that creation originates and is established by God who is ably supported by the Holy Spirit, the ‘wind of God’. While not finding mention of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, in this account, we recognise the inherent connection with the Gospel of John where it is established that this second person of the Trinity was and is with God in all his creativity. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1). In Genesis 1:26 we are given further notice of the activity of a God who is not a single dimension but who is ‘many’ dimensions. “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.” These plural references may refer to other collaborations, but the point is they confirm the activity of God who is multifaceted, and they sit well with the Trinitarian understanding that informs our own post Easter resurrection faith today. The story of creation is permeated with layer upon layer of anecdote emphasising the importance of relationship. We have the relationship of God, Spirit and Son (Trinity), and the relationship between this God and all living things. It is when we appreciate what it means to say we each have the ‘likeness’ of God in us that we truly understand the significance of living well together, and taking care of each other. The Bible’s story of creation demands we become ‘co-workers’ with God in the ongoing activity of creation with a focus on both the environment and all the people who inhabit it. Retelling for Young People Stories of Beginnings There are lots and lots of stories about how the world was made. Some of the stories were not written down to begin with, people remembered them and told them to each other and to their children. Some of the stories were later written down and we find two of them at the start of the bible. One of the stories in the bible imagines God making a world out of nothing and doing it in six days and then having a rest on the seventh day. Read the Message version of creation Genesis 1:1-2:4a. A man called James Weldon Johnson wrote a poem about creation which talks about God being lonely and creating the world. [Read The Creation by Johnson.]

In the bible it says that God made us to be makers ourselves. God made us able to dream and draw and tell stories and have great ideas. Suggested activities developing from the story • Imagining new plants and animals and naming them

• Imagining new stars and planets

• Art work

• Mobiles of planets and stars

• Listen to parts of The Planets Suite by Gustav Holst

• Develop a sound track with voices and musical instruments and sounds to go with The

Message version of Genesis 1 v1-2v4a. Perform it for the congregation at the close of the service.

Some Creation Stories • Genesis (in The Message version) available on line from www.biblegateway.org

• The Creation, by James Weldon Johnson available on line at

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15589

• The Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling

• The Labour Of Love, by Kathy Galloway, a creation story linked to the birth of a child

• Seven Hard Days, a script by John Bell and Graham Maule

• The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery describes a number of worlds

Activities Gathering activity Have pieces of nature (pebbles, leaves, bits of bark, twigs, feathers, and so on) in a basket and offer everyone something as they come in. Encourage discussion about what they have and what is beautiful about it. Taste And Try You will need: jelly cubes, water, premade jelly, spoons, bowls. A good Trinity activity is to have your jelly in all three forms for the children to try. Jelly cubes, jelly with the water added and the jelly made the day before set in a bowl. They are all jelly but in three different forms similar to the Trinity. You could let the children add in three different types of cream; single, double and whipping or let them try three forms of milk; full fat, semi-skimmed and skimmed. Creation Stories You will need: a collection of different story books talking about creation and beginnings. Let the children spend some time looking at the pictures and reading the books to each other. Use this as a starting point for talking about the creation stories we find in the bible. Examples you could use are ‘In the beginning’, by Bara van Pelt and Anja A de Fluiter; ‘When the world was new’, by Alicia Garcia de Lynam; and see the suggestions above in the section Retelling for Young People. An image is included at the end of this document, on page 17, which you could use as a visual stimulus while retelling the biblical creation story. Note: In dealing with questions that literal young minds may have of a mythic story (a story of beginnings that aids a culture’s understanding of itself), it can be helpful to start your retelling with something akin to the Native American tradition of beginning a story with, “Now I don’t know if it happened this way or not, but I know this story is true.”

Reflection Like a lovers’ knot: each strand intertwined, each supported by another, none complete without the whole, distinctive elements existing together, enhancing one another. As old as creation. As new as life itself. Encompassing the mystery of faith and hope and love: the Trinity of God. Prayers Call to worship Creation: the moon, the stars, the sun, the sky, the hills, the seas, beauty abounds before our eyes. Gather round as we come before our Creator God, maker of all we see and hear, smell and touch. Gather round as we wonder again at our story of creation. Responses Father God of Creation we wonder at your handiwork. Son of the Creator we wonder at your example. Creative Spirit we wonder at your power.

Holy Creating Trinity we bow down in wonder and awe. Sending God has made us, God has shaped us, God has chosen us, God has sent us. May we go now to be makers of God’s peace, shapers of God’s love, choosers of God’s way and senders on the journey. And may God be ever with us, ever creating us, ever moulding us, ever calling us and ever leading us.

Alternative Material ©2014 Spill the Beans Resource Team

Musical suggestions You can hear samples of these suggestions in the ‘Weekly Worship’ section of https://music.churchofscotland.org.uk/. This new online music resource will allow you to listen to and search the breadth of music available in the Church Hymnary 4th edition (CH4). You will find hidden gems and alternative arrangements to familiar songs that will inspire creativity and spark fresh curiosity about how we best use music in worship.

• CH4 5 – “O Lord, our Lord, throughout the earth” – a setting of Psalm 8 to a Scottish folk melody

• CH4 138 – “Nourished by the rainfall” – a beautifully poetic testament to the whole creation in worship of God, and affirming the place of humanity, set to a lively dancing tune from Puerto Rico

• CH4 149 – “Let all creation dance” – echoing the Genesis sentiment ‘let there be…’

• CH4 112 – “God whose almighty word”

• CH4 793 – “Stay with me” – the reciprocal call of Jesus for us to pray

• WGRG Enemy of Apathy – “God the Spirit come to stay” – a paraphrase of Jesus’ promise in John 14

• WGRG Enemy of Apathy – also in Known Unknowns – “The love of God comes close” – Can be sung to the familiar tune Love Unknown, expressing how God is in all of life, with the repeated line, ‘here to stay’

• WGRG – One is the Body – also in Known Unknowns – “God’s Spirit is here” – a lively, post-Pentecost affirmation of the Spirit, here that we may never be alone. Goes to the familiar tune Hanover

Photos to illustrate the sermon ideas

You are free to download, project, print and circulate multiple copies of any of this material for use in worship services, bible studies, parish magazines, etc., but reproduction for commercial purposes is not permitted.

Please note that the views expressed in these materials are those of the individual writer and not necessarily the official view of the Church of Scotland, which can be laid down only by the General Assembly.

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seven days of creation

The Seven Days