Benediction - The Trinity of Grace, Love and Intimacy
Notes
Transcript
Benediction
Benediction
The lectionary readings for the past few weeks have taken us on a journey with King David - beginning with him talking about building the temple. We spoke about a Call to Worship, then David’s Sin - a Call to Confession, Nathan’s Confrontation - the Word of God.
Last week the topic would be The Prayers of the People - how a major part of this service of worship is a chance to turn to God again and pray.
This is after the time of David - when Solomon dedicates the temple and God speaks to him:
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
We have journeyed through the chapters of our prayers to God - the routine that we follow - it could be in a quick five minute prayer in the morning. Or a service of worship that lasts from 1-3 hours - a process - based - a lot on the LORD’s Prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Following a pattern -
Gathering, Called to Worship and Confession, Listening for God’s Voice, bringing our needs and intercessions - and then - being sent out into the world to live the lives that God has called us to live.
All of this brings us at last to the Benediction:
Benediction
Benediction
When we stand up at the end of the service and say the final blessing we know the words. They’re the words of 2 Corinthians 13:13
13 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Or maybe to hear it differently - we can read the Message Version:
14 The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.
Its not just a goodbye - but I think - or I hope - a sort of summary of all that we were doing when we gathered to worship.
We gathered to be reminded of the Trinity of God’s Grace, Love and Intimacy:
Trinity of Grace, Love and Intimacy with God
Trinity of Grace, Love and Intimacy with God
Splicing together - The Prayer St Patrick’s Breastplate:
6 I bind unto myself the name,
the strong Name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, and One in Three,
of whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word.
Praise to the Lord of my salvation:
salvation is of Christ the Lord. Amen.
We love the verse at weddings - Ecclesiastes 4:12
12 And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.
In Ecclesiastes it is about friendship - but we also know that we would like to be more like that rope - not of two or three chords - but that rope of us - our fellowship with each other - and our fellowship with God in the Trinity.
Four strands bound together - binding ourselves each day to God’s love.
So as we worship - we knit ourselves together again - after the world in which we live has frayed us apart. And so we remind ourselves:
Of the grace the Lord Jesus Christ
Of the grace the Lord Jesus Christ
Grace
The Greek word is Charis it is the root of our word ‘charity’ - it implies ‘kindness’ and we know that kindness is not just a look of sympathy - it is actual helpfulness.
I bind into myself the kindness - the charity of Jesus Christ.
At once I accept Christ’s help in my need - and I make it a part of my being.
Being helped and helpful because of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Mostly - when we hear the word Grace, we think of our sins forgiven.
It is the way English has evolved over the years - grace has come to mean giving you a grace period on your parking tickets or your home loan or something like that.
A kind of ‘stay of execution’.
The meaning of the English word ‘grace’ has changed.
But the word still holds its meaning when you talk about a ballet dancer moving with ‘grace’.
Or when you watch Olympic High Jumpers do what they do - its like an invisible hand gets involved and helps them over the bar.
So if you see me dancing the word ‘grace’ doesn’t really come to mind.
She danced like nobody was watching.
But people were watching and she looked like bees were attacking her.
But when we talk about dancers and athletes moving with grace we’re speaking of them moving as if they have an invisible helping hand.
In movies to make amazing special effects they sometimes use people dressed in green screen suits - computers can be programmed not to see them - so instead of seeing the green suit they show the image behind them.
Grace is God’s invisible hand of help in our lives.
And so we remind ourselves of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and:
Of the Love of God
Of the Love of God
So grace is not just forgiving - or giving us a second chance. Grace is helping - Grace is God’s invisible hand at work in our lives.
Love is what we think it is - love.
But it is not just love - the word used is agape - and if there are degrees of comparison of love - then agape is the highest degree of love.
One of my very dry dictionaries speaks of agape love as:
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 25.43 ἀγαπάω; ἀγάπη, ης
25.43 ἀγαπάωa; ἀγάπηa, ης f: to have love for someone or something, based on sincere appreciation and high regard—‘to love, to regard with affection, loving concern, love.’
In comparison - phileo love is just a bit Meh:
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 25.33 φιλέω; φιλία, ας
25.33 φιλέωa; φιλία, ας f: to have love or affection for someone or something based on association
Agape - described as - sincere appreciation and high regard.
Phileo - love based on association.
I’m sure in all our relationships we have some Phileo days and some Agape days…
But the love of God we are blessing each other with is not just Phileo - it is Agapé - much more passionate and purposeful.
Reminding us again of the prayer of St Patrick’s Breastplate:
6 I bind unto myself the name,
the strong Name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, and One in Three,
Our whole service of worship - our being called to worship - called together - our answer to Jesus call to us to:
31 He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
Is the act of taking the frayed and tired ropes of our lives and binding in to them -
1 - Grace - the Invisible hand of God’s help.
2 - Love - the passionate love of God’s being for us
And thirdly - The Fellowship of God the Holy Spirit:
Of the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit
Of the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is with us and in us.
Our scripture this morning spoke of not being drunk with wine - but rather being filled with the Holy Spirit:
Ephesians 5:18–20 (MSG)
18 Don’t drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him. 19 Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. 20 Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.
In Paul’s day this verse was probably even more relevant than it is today - because just about any fruit juice - or even a sort of soup / broth that people would drink would be slightly fermented.
In big cities there was not much clean drinking water - unless the Romans had done their thing with aqueducts and of course lead pipes to bring in clean drinking water.
If the Romans had had Google they might have avoided the lead pipes. But they did what they did with what they knew.
So if you’re hot - worn out and thirsty - you couldn’t grab an energade. You’d grab a beer or a wine - it had less alcohol than modern beer or wine - but if you drank it like I drink a bottle of Creme Soda - then you’d be in trouble.
Of the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit
Of the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is often compared to living water in the scriptures - life giving streams. And you know how good it feels when you are thirsty to drink a lovely cool glass of water - so you know what Paul means by being filled with the Spirit instead of wine.
The Spirit Gives life - Gives energy… That is what we are asking for and blessing each other with in our benediction.
And so we go out in the grace, love and fellowship of the Trinity.
And so we go out in the grace, love and fellowship of the Trinity.
We bind into ourselves -
The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (God’s invisible hand)
The Love of God (God’s passionate love)
The fellowship of the Holy Spirit (Intimacy and power)
We’ve taken our frayed and frazzled ropes and had them repaired.