Sunday, June 15, 2014, Trinity Sunday (full size gallery)
We had only 23 in attendance for Trinity Sunday – disappointing. However, it was uplifting with all of the day lily blooms – in the graveyard, along the river, along the side in the back and by the fence. They thrived in the weather this Sunday with moderate temperatures and low humidity. The osprey were out on the river feeding the baby in the nest. There is a second nest on the water tower.
It was the first Sunday of Ordinary Time which Catherine explained. Actually in the Episcopal church it is called the "season after Pentecost" and will cover most of the year – up to 28 Sundays depending on the calendar. Traditionally the color for this season of “Ordinary Time” has been green, and it is a fitting choice. Green has long been associated with new life and growth. It is a time to deal with some of the most important passages of Jesus teaching, this year in Matthew.
The sermon had a section where four volunteers acted out a visual of the trinity – the circle of perfect love and unity," turning and turning. "Our challenge as Christians is also to look outward, reach outward, to draw others into this great circle of love…Unity in Community, a community of love that is never complete until all of creation has been drawn back into this vast expanding circle of perfect love." The sermon is here with the readings and bulletin
Michael was the Gospel Bearer for the first time this Sunday with Tucker showing him earlier in the service how it should be done.
We celebrated Barbara Segar’s 55th wedding anniversary. She recounted the story of getting married in the first Trinity church on Prince Edward Street. Earlier she said she had baby sat David Beck earlier in life.
Lance Ousley, Canon at the Diocese of Olympia puts Trinity Sunday into perspective:
"Not only is the Holy Trinity the ground of our being, but it also is to be the ground of our doing. This "doing," all our doing, is ultimately the expression of our devotion to God in the way we live in relationship to all humanity and Creation with our lives and our resources."
There is a baptismal font at the Episcopal cathedral at Louisville, VA with 8 sides. And why is that ? Eight-sided fonts recall the eighth day, the first day of resurrection. Saint Augustine writes about "the Day of the Lord, an everlasting eighth day." Saint Ambrose explains that a certain font is octagonal "because on the eighth day, by rising, Christ loosens the bondage of death and receives the dead from their graves."
One of the lectionary readings from Genesis recalls the story of creation. Bishop Gulick makes the agrument that creation is not over – we are vessels of creation with our baptism. St. Augustine wrote "But the sacrament of baptism is undoubtedly the sacrament of regenation." While the world was created, our baptismal provides a necessity for us a keeping creation alive. Gulick says that we are created into the image of God but that baptism makes us three dimensional. Baptism opens to us the possibilties of the Kingdom of God.
Ousley points to our responsibilties in doing so- "Creation itself was set to be sustained by us so that the whole of the earth and everything in it could be self-sustainable.. he baptism of new disciples in the name of the Holy Trinity comes as much through living into the fullness of the image of God as stewards of God’s perfect Love for one another and the whole of Creation as it does throughout the elements of water and chrism."
Augustine also talked about the role of the Eucharist. His works include the phrase "Receive who you are; become what you receive." We are being transformed.
Paul says, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” Bread, Augustine reminds us, doesn’t come from a single grain, but from many. And when we were baptized, we were “leavened”; and when we received the fire of the Holy Spirit, we were “baked.” Therefore, “Be what you see; receive who you are.” In the same way, we know that one grape doesn’t make wine. Individual grapes hang in a bunch, but the juice from all of them is mingled to make a single brew. So for Augustine, both the bread and wine are divine symbols of unity and peace."
The sermon looks at us as constantly creating unity with this Trinity:
"That’s what the Trinity is all about –Unity in Community, a community of love that is never complete until all of creation has been drawn back into this vast expanding circle of perfect love.
"As Christians, our first challenge is to long to be in this circle of love with God and with one another and with creation,
"And longing for it, to stay in it—but that’s not all. We can’t simply be in a circle looking within – Our challenge as Christians is also to look outward, reach outward, to draw others into this great circle of love, so that they, in turn, can do the same.
"Jesus puts it this way at the end of the gospel according to Matthew— “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 everything I have commanded you.”