First Sunday after Pentecost
The Holy Trinity May 30, 2021

Today’s Theme for Worship: The LORD is one God in three Persons. Needing nothing and needing no one, all three Persons of the one true God have loved us from eternity and eagerly sought to save us.

Opening Hymn: 170 Draw Us to Thee

1 Draw us to thee, For then shall we

Walk in thy steps forever

And hasten on Where thou art gone

To be with thee, dear Savior.

2 Draw us to thee, Lord, lovingly;

Let us depart with gladness

That we may be Forever free

From sorrow, grief, and sadness.

3 Draw us to thee; Oh, grant that we

May walk the road to heaven!

Direct our way Lest we should stray

And from thy paths be driven.

4 Draw us to thee That also we

Thy heav’nly bliss inherit

And ever dwell Where sin and hell

No more can vex our spirit.

5 Draw us to thee Unceasingly;

Into thy kingdom take us.

Let us fore’er Thy glory share;

Thy saints and joint heirs make us.

Text: Friedrich Funcke, 1642-99; tr. August Crull, 1845-1923, alt.

P: The grace of our Lord + Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.

C: And also with you.

Confession of Sins

P: We have come into the presence of God, who created us to love and serve him as his dear children. But we have disobeyed him and deserve only his wrath and punishment. Therefore, let us confess our sins to him and plead for his mercy.

C: Merciful Father in heaven, I am altogether sinful from birth. In countless ways I have sinned against you and do not deserve to be called your child. But trusting in Jesus, my Savior, I pray: have mercy on me according to your unfailing love. Cleanse me from my sin, and take away my guilt.

P: God, our heavenly Father, has forgiven all your sins. By the perfect life and innocent death of our Lord Jesus Christ, he has removed your guilt forever. You are his own dear child. May God give you strength to live according to his will.

C: Amen.

P: In the peace of forgiveness, let us praise the Lord.

♬ Oh Taste And See

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Bless-ed are they who take re-fuge in him.

Your Word, O Lord, is e-ter-nal;

it stands firm in the heav-ens.

Your faith-ful-ness con-tin-ues for-ev-er.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Bless-ed are they who take re-fuge in him.

Prayer of the Day

P: Let us Pray.

Almighty God and Father, dwelling in majesty and mystery, filling and renewing all creation by your eternal Spirit, and manifesting your saving glory through our Lord Jesus Christ: in mercy cleanse our heart and lips that, free from doubt and fear, we may ever worship you, one true immortal God, with your Son and the Holy Spirit, living and reigning, now and forever.
C: ♬ Amen.

First Lesson: Isaiah 6:1-8
Isaiah saw the triune God in the splendor of his holiness.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. ²Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two they covered their faces. With two they covered their feet. With two they flew. ³One called to another and said,

Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Armies!

The whole earth is full of his glory!

⁴The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of the one who called, and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵Then I said, “I am doomed! I am ruined, because I am a man with unclean lips, and I dwell among a people with unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies!”

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me, carrying a glowing coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. ⁷He touched my mouth with the coal and said, “Look, this has touched your lips, so your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.”

⁸Then I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?”

Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!”

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 150 – Special Music

Refrain

Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary;

Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise the LORD!

Praise him for his acts of power;

Praise him for the LORD is great.

Praise him with the sound of trumpet,

Praise him with the harp and lyre.

Refrain

Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary;

Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise the LORD!

Praise him with timbrel and dancing,

Praise him with the strings and pipe,

Praise him with resounding cymbals,

Praise him with a mighty clash.

Refrain

Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary;

Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise the LORD!

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!

Refrain

Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary;

Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise the LORD!

Second Lesson: Romans 8:14-17
God is three persons. This lesson refers to each person of the Trinity.

¹⁴Indeed, those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery so that you are afraid again, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we call out, “Abba, Father!” ¹⁶The Spirit himself joins our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children.

¹⁷Now if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.

Verse:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

These words are written that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Gospel: John 3:1-17
The Father loved and gave. The Son was lifted on the cross. The Spirit gives us new birth in our lives of faith.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. ²He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these miraculous signs you are doing unless God is with him.”

³Jesus replied, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”

⁵Jesus answered, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God! ⁶Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh. Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Do not be surprised when I tell you that you must be born from above. ⁸The wind blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹“How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

¹⁰“You are the teacher of Israel,” Jesus answered, “and you do not know these things? ¹¹Amen, Amen, I tell you: We speak what we know, and we testify about what we have seen. But you people do not accept our testimony. ¹²If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven, except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

¹⁴“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

C: ♬ Praise be to you, O Christ!

Hymn of the Day: 177 Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest

1 Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest, And make our hearts your place of rest;

Come with your grace and heav’nly aid, And fill the hearts which you have made.

2 To you, the Counselor, we cry, To you, the gift of God most high;

The fount of life, the fire of love, The soul’s anointing from above.

3 Your light to ev’ry thought impart, And shed your love in ev’ry heart;

The weakness of our mortal state With deathless might invigorate.

4 Drive far away our wily foe, And your abiding peace bestow;

If you are our protecting guide, No evil can with us abide.

5 Teach us to know the Father, Son, And you, from both, as Three in One

That we your name may ever bless And in our lives the truth confess.

6 Praise we the Father and the Son And Holy Spirit, with them One,

And may the Son on us bestow The gifts that from the Spirit flow!

Text: attr. Rhabanus Maurus, 776-856, abr.; tr. Edward Caswall, 1814-78, alt.

Sermon

Athanasian Creed

Whoever wishes to be saved must, above all else, hold to the true Christian faith. Whoever does not keep this faith pure in all points will certainly perish forever.

Now this is the true Christian faith:

We worship one God in three persons and three persons in one God, without mixing the persons or dividing the divine being.

For each person— the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit— is distinct, but the deity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory and coeternal in majesty.

What the Father is, so is the Son, and so is the Holy Spirit.

The Father is uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated; the Father is infinite, the Son infinite, the Holy Spirit infinite; the Father is eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal;

yet they are not three who are eternal, but there is one who is eternal, just as they are not three who are uncreated, nor three who are infinite, but there is one who is uncreated and one who is infinite.

In the same way the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Holy Spirit is almighty; yet they are not three who are almighty, but there is one who is almighty,

So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; yet they are not three Gods, but one God.

So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord; yet they are not three Lords, but one Lord.

For just as Christian truth compels us to confess each person individually to be God and Lord, so the true Christian faith forbids us to speak of three Gods or three Lords.

The Father is neither made nor created nor begotten of anyone. The Son is neither made nor created, but is begotten of the Father alone.

The Holy Spirit is neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeds from the Father and the Son.

So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.

And within this Trinity none comes before or after; none is greater or inferior, but all three persons are coequal and coeternal,

so that in every way, as stated before, all three persons are to be worshiped as one God and one God worshiped as three persons.

Whoever wishes to be saved must have this conviction of the Trinity.

It is furthermore necessary for eternal salvation truly to believe that our Lord Jesus Christ also took on human flesh.

Now this is the true Christian faith:

We believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, is both God and man.

He is God, eternally begotten from the nature of the Father, and he is man, born in time from the nature of his mother, fully God, fully man, with rational soul and human flesh, equal to the Father as to his deity, less than the Father as to his humanity;

and though he is both God and man, Christ is not two persons but one, one, not by changing the deity into flesh, but by taking the humanity into God;

one, indeed, not by mixture of the natures, but by unity in one person; for just as the rational soul and flesh are one human being, so God and man are one Christ.

He suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose the third day from the dead. He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty, and from there will come to judge the living and the dead.

At his coming all people will rise with their own bodies to answer for their personal deeds. Those who have done good will enter eternal life, but those who have done evil will go into eternal fire.

This is the true Christian faith.

Whoever does not faithfully and firmly believe this cannot be saved.

Offering Prayer

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Prayer of the Church

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.

Hymn: 361 Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

1 Let all mortal flesh keep silence

And with fear and trembling stand;

Ponder nothing earthly-minded,

For with blessing in his hand

Christ, our God, to earth descending,

Comes our homage to command.

2 King of kings, yet born of Mary,

As of old on earth he stood,

Lord of lords in human likeness,

In the body and the blood

He will give to all the faithful

His own self for heav’nly food.

3 Rank on rank the host of heaven

Spread its vanguard on the way

As the Light from Light, descending

From the realms of endless day,

Comes the pow’rs of hell to vanquish

As the darkness clears away.

4 At his feet the six-winged seraph,

Cherubim with sleepless eye,

Veil their faces to the presence

As with ceaseless voice they cry:

“Alleluia, alleluia!

Alleluia, Lord Most High!”

Text: Liturgy of St. James, 5th century; tr. Gerard Moultrie, 1829-85, alt.

Prayer and Blessing

P: O Lord God, our heavenly Father, pour out the Holy Spirit on your faithful people. Keep us strong in your grace and truth, protect and comfort us in all temptation, and bestow on us your saving peace, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

or

P: Almighty God, we thank you for teaching us the things you want us to believe and do. Help us by your Holy Spirit to keep your Word in pure hearts that we may be strengthened in faith, guided in holiness, and comforted in life and in death, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

C: ♬ A-men.

P: Brothers and sisters, go in peace. Live in harmony with one another. Serve the Lord with gladness.

The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you.

The Lord look on you with favor and + give you peace.

C: ♬ A-men, A-men, A-men

Closing Hymn: 465 Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken

1 Jesus, I my cross have taken, All to leave and follow you.

Destitute, despised, forsaken, You on earth once suffered, too.

Perish ev’ry fond ambition, All I’ve ever hoped or known;

Yet how rich is my condition! God and heav’n are still my own.

2 Let the world despise and leave me; They have left my Savior, too.

Human hearts and looks deceive me; You are not, like them, untrue.

And since you have smiled upon me, God of wisdom, love, and might,

Foes may hate and friends may shun me-Show your face, and all is bright.

3 Go, then, earthly fame and treasure! Come, disaster, scorn, and pain!

In your service pain is pleasure; With your favor loss is gain.

I have called you Abba, Father! You my all in all shall be.

Storms may howl, and clouds may gather; All must work for good to me.

4 Haste, my soul, from grace to glory, Armed by faith and winged by prayer.

All but heav’n is transitory; God’s own hand shall guide you there.

Soon shall end this earthly story; Swift shall pass the pilgrim days,

Hope soon change to heav’nly glory, Faith to sight and prayer to praise.

Text: Henry F. Lyte, 1793-1847, abr., alt.