060606 June Winkel Service
Gathered to Confess the Three in One
June 6, 2006
AS WE GATHER
The Festival of the Holy Trinity is the one major celebration of the church year which finds its focus in a doctrine. We are people gathered around our shared confession of God as we know Him to be in the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is our ordered faith, expressed plainly in the words of our common creeds, that for us is the source of hope which does not disappoint.
WELCOME and SHARING GOD’S PEACE
HYMN (stand) "Father Most Holy, Merciful and Tender" [TLH 240]
OPENING SENTENCES
Pastor: We gather in the name of God, our mighty Father. We gather at the word of Jesus Christ, His Son. We gather by the call and power of the Spirit. And once again we share the joy that is to come.
People: The word of God is here; in silence now we listen. The gifts of God are here; the feast is now prepared. And God Himself is here; He who calls us as His people. Our circle is complete; the banquet ready to be shared.
All: We gather in the name of God, our mighty Father. We gather at the word of Jesus Christ, His Son. We gather by the call and power of the Spirit who in this fellowship forever makes us one.
CONFESSION AND DECLARATION OF GRACE
Pastor: Let us now make confession to our gracious God.
People: With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high?
Pastor: He has shown you what is good. And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.
People: We cannot boast before the Lord. He has shown us what is good. We know what He requires, but we have not done it.
Pastor: But in His Son, Jesus Christ, our God of mercy has shown us His love and through Him promises forgiveness of sins to all who repent. He has called and gathered each of us, buried us together with Christ in Baptism and raises us to share His life daily in His body. The power of the Holy Spirit will guide us to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with each other.
People: Amen.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Pastor: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Pastor: Let us pray.
Almighty and ever-living God, You have given us grace, by the confession of the true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity and, in the power of Your divine majesty, to worship the unity. Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see You in Your eternal glory, one God, now and forever.
People: Amen.
OLD TESTAMENT LESSON Proverbs 8:22-31
(The creation is celebrated.)
22 “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. 23 Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. 24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. 25 Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, 26 before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. 27 When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28 when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, 29 when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30 then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, 31 rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.
EPISTLE Romans 5:1-5
(Our peace with God through Jesus Christ leads us to joyful hope.)
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
HOLY GOSPEL John 16:12-15
(The promise of the Holy Spirit)
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
HYMN "My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less" [TLH 370]
SERMON
CREED Athanasian Creed
Whoever will be saved
shall, above all else, hold the catholic faith.
Which faith, except everyone keeps
whole and undefiled, without doubt he will perish eternally.
And the catholic faith is this,
that we worship one God in three persons and three persons in one God,
neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.
For there is one person of the Father,
another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.
But the Godhead of the Father, of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one:
the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
Such as the Father is,
such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.
The Father uncreated,
the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.
The Father incomprehensible,
the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
The Father eternal,
the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.
And yet they are not
three eternals but one eternal.
As there are not
three uncreated nor three incomprehensibles
but one uncreated and one incomprehensible.
So likewise the Father is almighty,
the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty.
And yet they are not
three almighties but one almighty.
So the Father is God,
the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God.
And yet they are not three Gods
but one God.
So likewise the Father is Lord,
the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord.
And yet they are not three Lords
but one Lord.
For as we are compelled by the Christian truth
to acknowledge every person by himself to be both God and Lord,
So we cannot by the catholic faith
say that there are three Gods or three Lords.
The Father is made of none,
neither created nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone,
not made nor created but begotten.
The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son,
neither made nor created nor begotten but proceeding.
So there is one Father, not three Fathers;
one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
And in this Trinity none is before or after another;
none is greater or less than another;
But the whole three persons are coeternal together and coequal,
so that in all things, as is aforesaid,
the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshiped.
He, therefore, that will be saved
is compelled thus to think of the Trinity.
Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation
that he also believe faithfully the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, is God and man;
God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds;
and man of the substance of his mother, born in the world;
Perfect God and perfect man,
of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.
Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead
and inferior to the Father as touching his manhood;
Who, although he is God and man,
yet he is not two but one Christ:
One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh
but by taking the manhood into God;
One altogether, not by confusion of substance
but by unity of person.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man,
so God and man is one Christ;
Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell,
rose again the third day from the dead.
He ascended into heaven, he sits at the right hand of the Father, God Almighty,
from whence he will come to judge the living and the dead.
At whose coming all men will rise again with their bodies
and will give an account of their own works.
And they that have done good will go into life everlasting;
and they that have done evil, into everlasting fire.
This is the catholic faith which,
except a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH
Pastor: In response to the holy Word proclaimed, let us pray for ourselves that we may be faithful, and for all people that they may find in the Church the one hope of God's call.
For the Church, built up with living stones into a temple for God in the Spirit,
For our pastors and for their ministry of praise and sanctification,
For vocations to the ministry that they challenge us with the vision of a more humane world, let us pray:
People: Lord, have mercy.
Pastor: For our civic leaders that they guide us to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with each other,
For all professional people that they challenge us with the vision of a more humane world, let us pray:
People: Lord, hear our prayer.
Pastor: For all the persecuted that they take courage in the promise of Christ,
For the terminally ill that God grant them the grace of persevering in His love,
For those who may meet with sudden death that they find peace in God's merciful judgment, let us pray:
People: We ask You to hear us, good Lord.
Pastor: For all of our schools that both teachers and students grow in wisdom and grace,
For this holy assembly that our communion in one bread and one cup unite us in one body for the service of one Lord, let us pray:
People: Lord God, source of all that is good, mercifully hear the prayers of Your people; grant that we may advance without faltering toward the fulfillment of Your promises; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord. Amen.
PREFACE AND PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
Pastor: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Pastor: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them to the Lord.
Pastor: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: It is right to give Him thanks and praise.
Pastor: Blessed are You, Lord of heaven and earth, who of Your tender love for all people gave Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to take our nature upon Him and to suffer death on the cross for our redemption. Assembled in His name and in the communion of all saints, we pray You to send down Your Holy Spirit on us and through Him to sanctify and renew us in body and soul for the sake of Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray together:
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.
For thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory
forever and ever. Amen
WORDS OF INSTITUTION
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said:
“Take, eat; this is my body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also he took the cup after supper, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying:
“Drink of it, all of you; this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
COMMUNION
POST-COMMUNION COLLECT
Pastor: Grant, O Lord, that what we have received with our lips we may keep with pure hearts, and that through the gift imparted to us in this present life, we may hereafter receive life everlasting; through Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.
People: Amen.
BENEDICTION
Pastor: The blessing of almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be upon you and be with you all.
People: Amen.
CLOSING HYMN "Now Thank We All Our God" [TLH 36]