05/31/2026
Trinity Sunday
A service for use at home
Light a single candle as a reminder of Christ who is the light of the world.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Blessed be God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Response: And Blessed be His kingdom now and forever. Amen
Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let us join together in the prayer our savior taught us:
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,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity: We beseech thee, that thou wouldst keep us steadfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities, who livest and reignest, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
The First Reading
Old Testament Reading
Genesis 1:1-2:3
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Psalm 150
1 Praise the LORD. Praise God in his holiness; *
praise him in the firmament of his power.
2 Praise him for his mighty acts; *
praise him for his excellent greatness.
3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet; *
praise him upon the lute and harp.
4 Praise him with the timbrels and dances; *
praise him upon the strings and pipe.
5 Praise him with the resounding cymbals; *
praise him with the loud cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. *
O praise the LORD.
The Epistle:
2 Corinthians 13:5-14
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test. But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for. For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down. Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
The Holy Gospel
Matthew 28:16-20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The Sermon
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, Matthew
Today is Trinity Sunday. On this day, most preachers feel compelled to try to explain the doctrine of the Trinity to their congregations. And so let me make this very brief stab at it. God is communion. Not the kind of communion that we do here on Sunday, but that points at the same communion that we are talking about. What I am talking about is the interrelationship, the communion, the relationship between the Father with the Son and with the Holy Ghost. God is three and yet the three are so much in communion that they are one. The word Communion, means to be in common, to have all things in common, the word communion has in its roots the word community. The three persons of the Trinity are so in community that they are one. And we are called to be in community with them. In fact it is written in our genes, imprinted in our souls that we are made to be in communion.
Genesis tells us that God said, within the communion of himself “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.” The image and likeness of God that has been implanted with in us It shows up in our desire, our need, to be connected, to be in communion with God and with each other. The need for community may well be our most basic human need. We need God, and we need each other. Just think about this for a minute. The worst punishment that we inflict in our prisons, aside from the death penalty, is solitary confinement. Indeed the death penalty is to cut someone off from human society completely and forever. To be alone is a terrible thing. To be alone and without God is a horror.
Communion is family. Now most of us know what it means to be in a dysfunctional family. A family where communion is broken, but can you imagine what a real family looks like, an ideal family? I mean, not like Ozzie and Harriet, not a television family, but a real family where cooperation actually takes place voluntarily. Where everybody has their role to play, their part to do. When I was a kid, we ate together at the family table, we made family decisions around that table. We sorted out family problems around that table. We made commitments, we built a family around that table. It wasn’t a perfect family, but in recent years I have come to appreciate more and more what we DID have. The communion that we shared.
In our Gospel today, Jesus gives us what we call the Great Commission, he commands us to spread the Gospel, to build the Church. “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, and teaching them to obey everything that I ha0ove commanded you.” That’s the great commission. It was the mission Jesus gave to his disciples some two thousand years ago, and it is our mission as Christian people today. To bring people into communion with God. For each of us to take our proper place in the family of God.
In our Gospel lesson Jesus says to his disciples “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” But that is not a very good translation. The original Greek would actually be better translated “as you are going on your way, make Disciples of all nations.” My point is that all too often we believe that missionary work, is out there somewhere. In some far off strange land with funny people who don’t look or speak or act like us. We like to think that Missionaries do their work way out there, a long way away from here. But that’s not it, it’s not true, missionary work is all around us. Everywhere we turn, from deepest darkest Africa, to beautiful Tahiti, to every point on this globe there is a need for God, a need for communion. Everywhere on earth there are people who are living dark and lonely lives, without God and without the communion that comes from belonging to a Christian community. And that includes this little corner of the world right here in Wise County and all around us. Our mission work as disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ is among our neighbors, our friends. It is among all of those whom we encounter “as we are going on our way”. It is not complicated. It is not hard. What we are offering people is our friendship, and friendship with God.
That’s what is meant by our Communion service here in church. God made a sacrifice of himself. He made a sacrifice to bring everybody who would come into relationship with Him. Our Lord Jesus Christ offered himself to heal the breach between God and man and between man and other men. In our Communion service, to quote Paul, the dividing wall between God and man is broken down so that we may approach God and call Him Father. We come here and we are fed by God with the most precious gift that he could possibly have given us. He feeds us with Spiritual food and Spiritual drink. This is like the dinner table we had as a family. A place where difficulties are resolved. A place where plans are made. A place important things and unimportant things are discussed. A place where something Divine is created.
In our Communion Service we are fed and we are strengthened, we are equipped by the Holy Word of God, and then we are to go out and do our work in the world in that strength. Indeed, our communion with God, Our nearness to God will create within us the desire to take His love into the world.
What you and I are called to do as our first responsibility and our first Joy because we belong to this Holy Fellowship, is described in our Gospel today. It is called the Great Commission. It is the first and foremost way that we show God that we love him and are grateful to Him for pouring out on us all of the tremendous blessings that we have.
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, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. It is our most fundamental mission to bring people to God, baptizing them and teaching them. That is our function as a church. That is our work as a missionary society. It is the way that we show God that we love him. And from that Great Commission, we are to do all such good works as He has prepared for us to walk in. God has set us this task. He has given us this mission. It is the plan that was laid from our family dinner table.
Jesus, in his ministry; preached to, he taught, he challenged, he healed, he ministered to the people that he encountered in his daily life. Jesus reached out to all sorts and conditions of people; rich and poor, arrogant and humble, religious and sinners. He comforted the afflicted and he afflicted the comfortable, He ministered to all those that he encountered as he was “going on his way.” And he left us with his command to do the same thing. We are his missionaries my friends. We are called to bring into communion all that we encounter. We are missionaries, commanded by our savior to go and make Disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; And we don’t have to go very far to find a whole world of people who need what we have.
The Apostles' Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
The Leader and People pray responsively
Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church;
That we all may be one.
Grant that every member of the Church may truly and humbly serve you;
That your Name may be glorified by all people.
We pray for all bishops, priests, and deacons;
That they may be faithful ministers of your Word and Sacraments.
We pray for all who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world;
That there may be justice and peace on the earth.
Give us grace to do your will in all that we undertake;
That our works may find favor in your sight.
Have compassion on those who suffer from any grief or trouble;
That they may be delivered from their distress.
Give to the departed eternal rest.
Let light perpetual shine upon them.
We praise you for your saints who have entered into joy;
May we also come to share in your heavenly kingdom.
Let us pray for our own needs and those of others.
Silence
The People may add their own petitions.
In union, Dear Lord, with all your faithful people, gathered together in your Holy Name, accept the offering of our lives and our labors; Grant that our lives here on this earth may be wholly dedicated to you and that we may in due time be gathered into your kingdom where we will dwell forever in Light and Peace. Amen.
We give you thanks, Eternal God, for all of the good things of this life; for our creation, preservation, and for all of your blessings; but above all we give you thanks for the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of Grace and for the hope of Glory. Grant that we may always see your hand at work in the world and that we may always be mindful of your mercy. Help us to praise you with our lips and with our works, and grant that we may serve you joyfully in this life and in the next: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us always. Amen.
The candles may be extinguished.
I have been asked to include a note for those of you who have no church home or are looking for a connection.
If you are looking for a place to call your spiritual home, Ascension and St. Mark’s would like to welcome you. We are a traditional Anglican Church, which means that we are a part of the world wide Anglican Communion, a branch of the tree from the ancient Church of England. Everywhere the British Empire went, she took her ancient church with her. As a result our little congregation is alive with the faith of our Fathers and is steeped in the worship of traditional Christianity from before the break-up of the Protestant Reformation. As a result we are both catholic and reformed - deeply embedded in the scriptures and enlivened by the sacraments as understood by the ancient church.
If you would like more information, would like to discuss the faith as we understand it, or would like to become a part of our little community, please send a message. You will be connected directly to Fr. Keith who will be glad to help you in any way that he can.
If you wish to financially support the ministries of Ascension and St. Mark Church, we can be reached by mail at:
Ascension and St. Mark’s Church
5094 US Hwy 380
Bridgeport, TX 76426
OR
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Ascension and St Mark Church
