Introduction
Trinity Sunday affirms the imagery of threefold unity that was formulated and developed by early Christian thinkers, who determined from the biblical text that the nature and person of God consists of One God in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Some traditions now use the alternative rendering of Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. It is the Sunday after Pentecost.
Symbols, Colours, Music, Images, Ritual Actions, Miscellaneous Ideas.
Colour: White
Call to Worship – Trinity Sunday
Today is Trinity Sunday. The day in the Church Year when we particularly remember the Trinity that is the God we serve and follow – the threefold community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. – Creator, Redeemer, Life Giver.
In Maori tradition tuurangawaewae means a place to stand. Traditionally a person had tuurangawaewae through their placenta being buried in a certain area. That symbolized their life being tied to that place.
Added to a place to belong was the concept of Ahi Kaa – the need to keep your fire burning at this place.
To have rights to a certain territory, you had to live there, to keep your fire burning constantly, for three generations.
That connects with our Pentecost services last Sunday where we remembered the Holy Spirit of God as fire – the fire that enables and the fire that reveals.
Ahi Kaa also connects with the Trinity.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are our three generations; we are the land that God occupies and calls his own.
Play Track : Ahi Kaa ex Ki a Ihu (Unto Jesus) by Nga Karihiki (the Weightlifters) with OHT of lyrics
Rublev’s Icon of the Trinity (Can be found in art books on the worldwide web)
(Have on OHT and/or slide projector and/or video screens)
Introduction:
In Christian history an icon is an image – either painted or carved – that is used as an aid to Christian devotion or worship. Contrary to popular opinion, the icon itself is not worshipped, it is used as an aid to worshipping God. They may be very small (often just centimetres square) or large (more than 3 metres high). The painting of icons is a very technical art. Iconographers don’t call themselves painters as they do not consider they draw the images. Rather it is the Holy Spirit who creates the icon. The iconographer simply traces the image. So they are said to write icons. The process of writing an icon originally required the permission of the church followed by a significant time of meditation and prayer about the subject. Others in the iconographer’s community (usually a monastery) would also be in prayer during this time. The drawing technique has a strict discipline and is completely linear, without shadow or shading. Perspective is often unfamiliar to 21st Century eyes. Inverse perspective makes the viewer the vanishing point. Most icons are ‘copied’ from earlier ones without alteration, though this process is called ‘multiplying’ rather than copying.
One monk, Andrei Rublev oversaw the community painting of the famous ’Trinity’ icon in 1411. The icon was meant to represent our communion with God, and the community of or within God. In the background of the icon there is the oak of Mamre, where Abraham met with the Lord in the form of three visitors (Genesis 18). Abraham shared food and drink with his visitors, and at this meal they gave him the promise of the son which was the beginning of the covenant people of God.
On the table in the middle of the picture is the cup of sacrifice – the centre of the icon and the centre of the Trinity is the sacrificial ‘opening up’ through suffering that draws humanity into the circle of the Community of God. We enter this community by sharing the sufferings of Christ and each other – by drinking the cup of sacrifice.
Symbolism in the icon:
Golden background – heavenly awareness
Blue – divinity
Haloes – holiness
Sceptres – Lordship
The Son and the Spirit are turned towards the Father
The Father is in the act of giving and sending (see lifted hand)
The Son gives himself – the blood red robes symbolise the Son’s assumption.
The Spirit’s robes are translucent – giver of divine life
The icon uses inverse perspective – a device used to draw the figures into each other. The space of the icon reaches out to the viewer, who is drawn into their communion.
Hymn: ‘Holy Holy Holy’ invokes the Trinitarian God.
Texts, Prayers, Readings
For Lectionary texts consult your lectionary or www.textweek.com
Read together the Nicene Creed, perhaps with an explanation of the process towards developing the classical Trinity statements.
St Patrick’s Breastplate — this comes in the form of a hymn and of a prayer. The prayer below has slightly different words to the hymn. The verses are from a text which has been attributed to St Patrick – sometimes known as The Deer’s Cry. Its present form dates back to a period several centuries after the death of the saint. It’s 8th Century, Old Irish.
I rise today
in power’s strength, invoking the Trinity,
believing in threeness,
confessing the oneness,
of creation’s Creator.
I rise today
in the power of Christ’s birth and baptism,
in the power of his crucifixion and burial,
in the power of his rising and ascending,
in the power of his descending and judging.
May Christ protect me today
against poison and burning,
against drowning and wounding,
so that I may have abundant reward;
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me;
Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me;
Christ to the right of me, Christ to the left of me;
Christ in my lying, Christ in my sitting, Christ in my rising;
Christ in the heart of all who think of me,
Christ on the tongue of all who speak to me,
Christ in the eye of all who see me,
Christ in the ear of all who hear me.
I rise today
in power’s strength, invoking the Trinity,
believing in threeness,
confessing the oneness,
of creation’s Creator.
For to the Lord belongs salvation,
and to the Lord belongs salvation
and to Christ belongs salvation.
May your salvation, Lord, be with us always.
I rise today
in heaven’s might,
in sun’s brightness,
in moon’s radiance,
in fire’s glory,
in lightning’s quickness,
in wind’s swiftness,
in sea’s depth,
in earth’s stability,
in rock’s fixity.
I rise today
with the power of God to pilot me,
God’s strength to sustain me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look ahead for me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to protect me,
God’s way before me,
God’s shield to defend me,
God’s host to deliver me:
from snares of devils,
from evil temptations
from nature’s failings,
from all who wish to harm me,
far or near,
alone and in a crowd.
(Translator/source unknown)
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