Welcome(Morag)

Good Morning and welcome to worship here at MPN. Wherever you join us from we come together as God’s people in this time and this place. Today is Trinity Sunday, we think of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit today. God in community with others. In this lockdown time when we have experienced new ways of being community together, we give thanks for the example of God and that he created us to be together. I’m encouraged by the expressions of online community we have had to adapt to very quickly and I am also very aware of those who haven’t been online and folks who have not been able to adapt their services and groups. For God calls us to worship in community as the people of God in our time and place and we miss those who can’t be in community but last week we celebrated Pentecost and God’s Spirit connects us all to him no matter how many miles we are apart from each other.

A reminder that at 12 O’Clock we will have a short communion service on Zoom. If you need login details just get in touch and we will send them to you. This service will not be recorded so you will have to tune in live at 12.

Psalm 103:1-5

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

    and all that is within me,

    bless his holy name.

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,

    and do not forget all his benefits—

3 who forgives all your iniquity,

    who heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the Pit,

    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

5 who satisfies you with good as long as you live[a]

    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Call to worship
Life-providing God, we gather to praise you.
All: Receive the humble praise we offer.
Leader: Lead-giving Christ, we gather to follow you.
All: Guide us in your ways in our worship.
Leader: Love-sharing Spirit, we gather to grow.
All: Nurture our faith this hour.

Let us worship God Together:

Reading :- Matthew 28:16-20

Talk 2 (Morag)

We would have been coming to that time of year when we would have had end of term. There would have been graduation ceremonies and prizegivings and proms. Things to mark the end of one part of life, school, training. I remember my graduation and the it was a special day, a day where as a family we could celebrate the hard work of study and training and mark an ending and a new beginning as you then are set into the world to put your new found knowledge and skills into practice. Sent out with wise words from a nominated speaker at the ceremony, encouraged that we have enough knowledge and skills to do what we have studied for. We know also that the whole of life is an experience we learn from and that if we wait until we think we are the fully trained person, we will never go and do anything.

Today we hear that Jesus had such a ceremony for his disciples. We see them again at the mountain, a significant place for them. A place of teaching and training. A fitting place to have your graduation and be sent out from. Jesus sets out their roles and responsibilities and that they know what they need to do. He encourages them and reminds them they are equipped for the tasks he sends them to do. The disciples have lived with Jesus, watched him, been able to ask questions, have been pushed in their thinking and encouraged.

 

For the last five years I have had a mentor. Like the disciples I have been able to question, be pushed to think and move beyond where I was in my thinking and ministry, I’ve been encouraged many times to keep going. I’ve been able to see life and ministry and have observed and now am able to do things in my way. For me it has been a very valuable part of my training. When we find folks who are good at being mentors and discipling us it can change the way we live out our faith. I can see where the disciples are in their journey. Like me they are at the start of their ministry and have been fortunate to have a great mentor to train them, they been able to witness Jesus in his every day life. They have travelled with him and he’s shown them how to minister to people and who to walk with them, teach them and point them to God. And now they are ready to be let loose in the world. And Jesus tells them “All Authority in Heaven and earth has been given to me.”

Jesus was not just a good mentor he was the best mentor. He had the authority of heaven behind him and that is what he is telling the disciples. I send you out with all the authority of God.  It’s not just a graduation, yes the disciples have been trained and have observed and are ready to go into the world but sent out with the authority of God. And then Jesus sets out their new roles and responsibilities. Like any new job, they had to know what was expected of them.

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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. 

 

Today is Trinity Sunday, the day we think of God in community with the Son and Spirit. The disciples sent out to remember the community of God. That the Church they would be sent out to plant would be that community on earth. When they would go and preach and teach and encourage they would do so in the name of the Father,Son and Holy Spirit. That they would not go out there alone. They were to go and do as they had been trained to do, minister and teach as they watched Jesus. And as they discipled and taught others the goal if you like was to always be adding to their number. What a job description and yet one they tried their best to do in difficult times. The Roman empire were trying all the time to persecute and destroy them and yet still they stuck to the job and today we are here as a result of the early disciples. It’s our job description too if you like.

 

We still have that role and responsibility. To go out and make disciples and add them to the number of followers of Jesus. Times have changed for us from the days of the disciples. Times have changed for us in these last few months. We are working out what it means to be followers of Jesus, just like the disciples. Each generation works out what that means for their time and their place. But the role doesn’t change, it’s just the way and the methods in which we use.

Who would have thought that we would watch this online, or have Zoom/teams in our Church meetings, Zoom communion. Encouraging each other on WhatsApp or email. We can change and adapt and yes we do miss seeing each other physically. But the calling we have to keep going and adding to our number still applies and we know that we can change and it is important for us as well as supporting those we know but to think as the disciples had to how do we now disciple and connect to those around us. The last few words of this passage for me are all the encouragement I need. “And I am with you always to the end of the age.”

 

Jesus was saying to his disciples all those years ago that he had been with them, he had trained them, now they were being sent out to tell his story. They didn’t go alone. They would go in the strength and the courage of the Spirit.  The disciples had witnessed the Trinity in action. They had seen Jesus in conversation and contact with his Father, they now were being taken care of by the Spirit.

 

For us today as disciples of Jesus in our time, we have that same promise. I am with you always to the end of the age. What a promise for us in these times. The world changes, right now we have to live in this in-between time, where one day we can do something and the next we can’t and vice-versa. But as followers of Jesus we know that we still have that promise that God is with us always.  In life people come and go, jobs come and go and change inevitably comes but Jesus promises us that he is always with us.

 

May God Bless us;

May God Keep us in the Spirit’s care

And lead our lives in warm love.

May Christ’s warm welcome shine in your Hearts

And Christ’s own peace previal

Through this and everyday

 

And the Blessing of God Almighty

Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Be with you and all those you love

Now and always

 

Amen.

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