Greetings, preachers! It’s Math Sunday, better known as Trinity Sunday for those who follow the liturgical calendar. The Sunday when somehow one and three are equal.
Are you tackling the Trinity? Or doing something else entirely? Revised Common Lectionary post with discussion is on our blog, if you need a kick-start. In the U.S., it is also Father’s Day this weekend.
Join in here with questions, conundrums (theological and otherwise), puzzlings, and thoughts. I lift you in prayer as you prepare to bring God’s word to God’s people.
Monica Thompson Smith is a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister, serving as stated supply pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Luling, TX. She is a contributor to There’s a Woman in the Pulpit.
RevGalBlogPals encourages you to share our blog posts via email or social media. We do not grant permission to cut-and-paste prayers and articles without a link back to the specific post. For permission to use material in paper publications, please email revgalblogpals at gmail dot com.
RevGalBlogPals 
I am preaching texts from the Acts of the Apostles all summer. I have found it is helpful for interim/transitional churches. We are in the 2nd and 4th chapter about how they gathered and how they shared with those in need. Not much Trinity except for a welcoming prayer at the beginning and the perhaps the liturgy for communion.
I’ve got a memorial service at 11:00 and just finished writing the welcome and prayers. I am co-officiating and not the majority of the service as a family member is a pastor and doing the majority of the service and I am good with that.
On a related note, I’ve been told of two people who were aghast that Mother’s Day was slighted. I did tell the people who told me to please encourage them to come directly to me to voice their concerns. Our worship leader led with welcoming people and wishing them a Happy Mother’s Day. I did not preach about it. The kid’s time was not about it and I did not mention it in my prayers. We will see if anything is said about Father’s Day on Sunday.
Onward…
LikeLike
Acts is a great book for churches in transition! Good luck with “aghast” reactions. (Father’s Day doesn’t carry nearly the expectations that Mother’s Day does, in my experience).
LikeLike
Monica,
My experience too. I do know that one of the aghast people is recovering from surgery and will not be present.
LikeLiked by 1 person
yes!! It’s heresy Sunday!! I have been recalling all of the heretical ways I learned about the Trinity when younger, and indeed, not so young, when hearing other people trying to pin it down into a simple definition.
My sermon basically outlines all the different modes and weird descriptions as the introduction.
And then goes on to work on the premise that God is mysterious, and so is faith, and actually it’s ok to not have all the answers.
I have a search committee visiting; and it’s communion; and we are off to concerts both tonight and tomorrow. All of that seems a lot when I write it down, but I am also feeling pretty ok about it.
Now to work on liturgy and refining the notes I made while at Messy Church this morning
LikeLiked by 1 person
Blessings as you preach/lead with a search committee present.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Have you seen this hilarious video? It’s cartoon St Patrick, explaining Trinity heresies. I don’t know that it would be appropriate to show in worship, but it’s funny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQLfgaUoQCw
Blessings on the search committee visit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
love the cartoon – we don’t have a fixed screen, so I can’t show it. But I love it!
LikeLike
Here is the sermon
https://julie-acountrygirl.blogspot.com/2019/06/trinity-sermon-star-maker-storyteller.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
I so need the preacher party today. I look after our all-age services and we have one tomorrow; BUT our pastor is in the middle of a sermon series and asked me to stick with the next text which is the Letter to the Church in Pergamum from Revelation 2. Seriously ! Kind of wish I just had to explain the Trinity.
Am planning to side-step/ignore a fair bit of the symbolism and stick with what seems clearish… AND to wrap up in 15 minutes.
(BTW in case it helps anyone else, for the Trinity, while 1+1+1=3 1x1x1 still =1.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
The math bit may find its way into my sermon–thanks!
I have…nothing to say about the letter to Pergamum. Except I’m sorry you’re expected to follow someone else’s series.
LikeLiked by 1 person
One of the joys of being a lay-preacher 😉 But hey, has pushed me to think hard about a text I would probably have avoided, so that’s probably a win !
LikeLike
True, in an “eat your vegetables” kind of way.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That video is a riot! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I really don’t have a clue what I’m going to preach on tomorrow. The one little idea I have is from a current thing at church; it’s more about unthinking habits than the Trinity per se. On Good Friday, we removed our altar rails and haven’t put them back in (amazingly, to virtually no objection from the congregation!); our altar is on a very wide low platform that now can be approached from any side. However, after nearly 20 years of being there with the rails in, I find myself still automatically walking around to the same places where we used to have openings, rather than using a new approach. I wonder if we tend to do the same with God, especially in our language: approach using only old familiar paths–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for many of us–rather than trying out new ways of and words for understanding God.
I don’t know, though; that’s about as far as my creativity goes. I may give it a shot, just writing to see what happens. Ideas welcome!
Banana bread coming up soon…low fat 😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
That “unthinking habits” works, I think! I hope the rest of it flows.
LikeLiked by 1 person
For the archived records: I developed this train of thought a bit, reminding people that the language we have for God only gets at the smallest bit of who God is. I dug around to come up with all sorts of trinitarian names for God. I’ll print them out large and tape them up all around the church, then invite people to get up and find one that speaks to them or nudges them in a new direction. I’ll allow a little time for that and then conclude with a prayer or something. Folks in our church are generally pretty good about trying out something different from time to time, so it should work okay; with the Spirit’s leading, maybe some will find the start of a path to a broader way of thinking about God .
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi. Just finished VBS so a little brain-dead. Was thinking of using little bags if M&Ms to show Trinity as ‘bigger, fuller” idea of God. One bag + one bag + one bag = not three separate bags but dumped together into one bigger, glorious bowl of Ms. Any thoughts? If this happens to be a vile heresy [as opposed of cute, little heresy] would love to hear in advance. Thanks.
LikeLike
If it’s a heresy, I think it falls into the “little, chocolate” category, which is allowable. 🙂
LikeLike
I’m pretty sure that any heresies are superceded by chocolate! Also that just about everyone who preaches on the Trinity has at least of hint of heresy…and so what? If God is glorified and God’s love proclaimed, I think it’s all good. I love your idea 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person