Parish Notes for Trinity Sunday

Trinity Sunday
Excerpted from a Sermon by The Most Reverend Mark Haverland,
Archbishop and Metropolitan, Anglican Catholic Church

Revelation iv, verse 8 – Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

A separate feast of the Most Holy Trinity began in the Middle Ages. The feast was particularly beloved by Saint Thomas Becket, who was Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry II in the 12th century. The result was that in England both before and after the Reformation, Sundays in the second half of the Church year are counted as Sundays after today, after Trinity, while in the Roman Catholic and Lutheran worlds, they are counted as Sundays after Pentecost.

That little bit of trivia aside, what are to make of this day? Clearly the first half of the Church year moves towards this feast. The Trinity, the personal and perfectly united comm-unity of the one true God, is the goal towards which we all move. This life is passing quickly, but you and I, although we were created and have a beginning, are now eternal and will have no end. Unity with God the Holy Trinity is the goal of your life and of mine. This life is brief and passing, eternity is unending. Human desire is infinite. It can only be satisfied by an infinite good. We long for God, even if we do not understand that longing. Our hearts are restless until they rest in God. So this feast of the Trinity is at the hinge of the Church year, as the great seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost, give way to the long green season of Trinitytide.

The temptation for the preacher on this Sunday is to try to explain the Trinity, as if God is fundamentally a problem or a puzzle. If God is basically a problem or a puzzle, then you and I would like the solution or the answer. We want the key that will unlock the riddle.

Of course there are things that Christians believe about the Trinity, answers that we can make to some questions. . . We say that there is one God, not three. That there are three divine Persons. We say that Jesus Christ is one of those divine Persons, and that in his human life lived in our world we saw as much of God as our limited human minds can grasp... But in the end, God is infinite and we are not: our small human minds cannot understand God directly and fully. We cannot look at the sun directly either, but the sun makes it possible for us to live and to see everything else. We cannot understand God directly, but only by what he does in our world as Creator and Preserver, as Saviour and Sanctifier. We do not grasp God, because that would make him smaller than our minds. Yet God is and in him we live and move and have our being.

So if we can only understand God partly, the most important thing today is not to explain God, as if solving a puzzle. Let me offer another approach to the Trinity. The main goal today is not to grasp God but rather to love God. My text today from Revelation is a glimpse of the worship of heaven. Today is not mainly about a sermon in which things are explained for our minds to understand, but rather is about the hymns that we sing, the music that we hear, that beauty of this very beautiful place that we enjoy, and the prayers of adoration by which our hearts are lifted beyond this passing world into the peace and eternity of heaven. Today is mainly about our hearts. I am not telling you to turn off your minds, but rather to recognize that in regard to God, love reaches farther than intellect and that our hearts grasp more than our heads.

REMEMBER THE WORDS OF THE LORD JESUS, HOW HE SAID, IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE

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Upcoming Events

Sunday Services, 7:45, 9:00 & 11:15 AM nursery care provided during 9 & 11:15 AM services (for online participation for the services go to: https://www.facebook.com/saintsofscotland/ )
Nursery at 9:00 AM & 11:15 AM Services

Sunday School is on recess for the summer

Wednesday at Noon – Holy Communion

Parish Picnic, Sunday September 18, Fort Hunt Park after combined 10 AM Service (7:45 AM Service will be held)

Next Vestry meeting in September

Please pray for everyone on the parish's prayer list that is in the attached bulletins.

As I wrote last week, two of the ongoing ministries of our parish are our monthly donations of food for the food bank and baby items for the pregnancy crisis center in Alexandria. During the summer months, our donations are even more important as the food bank and crisis pregnancy center each receive fewer during the summer months. Please continue your support during these summer months. Below are the needs for each.

Food Donations
Please help this month with a food donation if you are able. Christ House is very thankful for the food we provide to them each month. Please also buy low sugar cereals (and not the kid's types that have lots of sugar). Current needs include the following:
• canned meats (chicken, corned beef, spam)
• peanut butter
• jelly
• tuna
• canned vegetables (corn, green beans - (regular and low sodium)
• individual fruit cups (low sugar)
• canned fruit (low sugar)
• cereal (low sugar)
• pasta (regular and gluten-free)
• instant potatoes
• Macaroni & cheese kits
• Coffee, cooking oil, flour, sugar

MaRIH Center (crisis pregnancy center)
MaRIH Center with its all volunteer staff has been providing help to mothers-to-be and mothers in need. If you can provide some of the items that are needed, please do so. (You can leave the donations where the food for the food bank is collected on the pew in the undercorft.)

Especially Needed
Baby wipes (an ongoing great need)
Diapers (sizes 4, 5, & 6)

Clothing
Bibs
Sleep Sacks: Girls 0-6 mos.
Socks: Boy/Girl 2T
Short sleeved onesies: Boy/Girl 3-6 mos.

Our mailing address is:
St. Andrew & St. Margaret of Scotland
1607 Dewitt Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22301-1625

Parish Notes for Trinity Sunday

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