God Is In Three Persons! So What?
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For May 31, 2026:
God Is In Three Persons! So What?
by Tom Willadsen
Genesis 1:1-2:4a, Psalm 8, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, Matthew 28:16-20
In the Church
Trinity Sunday is the only Sunday in the liturgical year focused on a doctrine of theology. And Trinity Sunday is a kind of hinge in the liturgical year. Starting this year on February 18, Ash Wednesday, we’ve been in a particular season of the church year until last Sunday. Lent was succeeded by the Season of Easter — it’s not only one day, mes amis!. Last week we marked the third most significant holy day in the church year, Pentecost. I heard a sermon recently in which the preacher wondered why Walmart doesn’t stock and sell Pentecost merch. There’s plenty of stuff for Christmas and Easter, but nothing for Pentecost. The preacher concluded that it’s because Pentecost is a forward-looking holy day. There’s no nostalgia associated with Pentecost, no manger, no empty tomb, nothing to look back on with fondness. Eleven apparently drunk fishermen speaking languages they’ve never even heard before can only point us into the future, which we haven’t found a way to commodify. Yet.
My Presbyterian Planning Calendar used to call the Sundays between Pentecost and Advent “Ordinary Time,” which I liked. I especially liked that green is the color of Ordinary Time, as though growth is to be expected among Christians, even when most churches shutter their Sunday schools for the first three months of Ordinary Time; growth in Christ should be considered ordinary.
The last Sunday in Ordinary Time used to be “Christ the King Sunday,” now there’s a slash and it’s Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday. We made that change prior to the No Kings movement, which has emerged to protest the copious abuses of power and violations of constitutional separation of powers by the current administration. The doctrine of the Trinity has some helpful things to say the emerging consolidation of power under what some are espousing as a unitary executive. Some political scientists are now arguing that the United States has left liberal democracy for competitive authoritarianism. Under competitive authoritarianism elections take place, but the ruling party has managed to skew the system to the point that they will always win the elections. The President threatening “You won’t have a country anymore,” if the other side wins justifies their extreme partisan gerrymandering, for example. Well, read on, the Trinity comes to the rescue!
In the Scriptures
Genesis 1:1--2:4a
Good luck getting your congregation to hear anything new in what may be the most widely read chapter (plus) in the Bible. When people resolve to read the entire Bible, they usually peter out around Genesis 3 or 4. When the determination returns, the ambitious reader starts again at Genesis 1:1. This time maybe they make it to the flood in Genesis 6. After a few false starts, Genesis 1:1--2:4a, today’s portion, begins to look like a rutted road across an unpaved field. Why not shake up your worshipers this time? Read from the Jewish Publication Society’s revised 2023 edition, which begins, “When God began…” or The Message, which starts, “First this:”
Psalm 8
The Lord is the creator of all, and everything is majestic and awe-filling. You might want to call attention to the parts of God’s body mentioned: fingers, hands, feet. What other parts of God’s body parts are mentioned specifically in the Bible? Heart. Eyes. The Lord’s strong hand and outstretched arm led the people out of slavery in Egypt. In Jonah, the Lord changes his mind.
The contrast between the vastness of the cosmos and “little ol’ me,” is bracing. And it makes understanding that the Lord who crafted all this, the stars and moon and all that stuff up in, and beyond, the sky, even more humbling.
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
I know a colleague who put together a whole Sunday school curriculum using what he called, “the gospel in postscripts.” He pulled the last verses of Paul’s letters, and some letters whose authorship is questioned, and used them as clues to tell about the early Christian churches. Today’s verses from the end of Paul’s second letter to the Christians in Rome reads like the ends of letters I would send to people I met at church camp each summer. After covering my news, and with more than half a page to fill, I would start a barrage of questions, before concluding with “Your friend, Tomw.” This recollection makes me realize how close the letters of a generation ago were to those exchanged among people long ago. We’ve lost something essential now that we communicate through texts and email.
This is the only time in all of Paul’s writing that he uses a whole triadic blessing.
Matthew 28:16-20
The Great Commission. The only place in the gospels that Jesus goes full bore Trinitarian. Scholars are certain that Jesus did not say these words. Still, they’re familiar and the foundation of the words Christians have used for centuries at baptisms.
In the News
We aren’t having heresy trials this century and most people in our pews’ understanding of the Trinity is summed up in the hymn you sing exactly once a year, “Holy, Holy, Holy…God in three persons, blessed Trinity.”
Karl Rahner said that if the Doctrine of the Trinity were dropped as false, most Christians’ lives would be unaffected. The Trinity may be in the printed catechism, but it is not in the catechism of the heart.
Twenty years ago William Placher wrote an article in the Cresset titled, “God is Triune — So What?” Placher was a postliberal Presbyterian theologian who spent most of his career teaching at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Among the 13 books he wrote is one called The Triune God. Placher graduated from my alma mater, Peoria High School. Among other PHS graduates are feminist Betty Friedan and NBA star Shaun Livingston. The most famous person to attend PHS was Richard Pryor. He did not, however, graduate. After punching his algebra teacher, Mr. Fink, Pryor was expelled.
In The Triune God, Placher gives three reasons why the Trinity matters:
First, “the doctrine of the Trinity…reminds us that persons are essentially in relation.” [Placher, p. 17] To be human is to be in relationship with other people. John Donne wrote “No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were…” The Trinity reminds us that God is in relationship with Godself. Relationships involve living things, and living things change. Voltaire said, “Life lies in movement.” The Trinity reminds us of God’s dynamism.
In the Sermon
Placher’s second reason the Trinity matters — and you won’t have to wait until Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday for this one — monarchs dislike it. Here, Placher cites Jurgen Moltmann who wrote, “It is only when the doctrine of the Trinity vanquishes the monotheistic notion of the great, universal monarch in heaven and his divine patriarchs in the world, that earthly rulers, dictators, and tyrants cease to find any justifying religious archetypes anymore.”
When we get the doctrine of the Trinity correct — and do not imagine the Triune God as any kind of hierarchy, we conceive God as the dynamic, related, mysterious, fluid, creative force behind the universe. Now, a Presbyterian might be tempted to thus imagine the living God as a three person committee. Don’t. Embrace the mystery of the metaphor; then leave it alone.
It is not a stretch at all to see the wisdom of the founding fathers of the United States, separating powers, putting in checks and balances as an earthly expression of the Trinity. Yes, in the United States there are local, state, and federal levels of government. But there are also legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the government — each with the power, when properly balanced, to rein in the excesses of the other two branches.
Placher’s third use for the Trinity is that it bridges a gap that allows humanity into relation with the eternal. We believe — and experience — God as transcendent and imminent. Psalm 8 captures both of these nicely. We marvel at the beauty of the stars and the firmament into which the Creator placed them, but also that that same creator is mindful of us, and has given us dominion over the earth. All at the same time, the Creator is amazing, enormous, terrifying, and powerful, but also profoundly concerned about life on earth. Jesus says the Creator even knows the number of hairs on our heads!
SECOND THOUGHTS
Jesus’ Sure-Fire, 100% Guaranteed System for Managing Your Fears
by Mary Austin
Matthew 28:16-20
What if we never had to be afraid again?
What would it be like not to worry about saying the wrong thing, attending diversity training, making a cultural mis-step, or having people talk around us in a language we can’t understand? By the way, are they laughing at us? What if we knew we would get first dibs on jobs, housing, and plenty of chances to build and pass on wealth?
If that sounds good, maybe Christian Nationalism is the answer for us.
Professor Warren Throckmorton, author of the new book The Christian Past That Wasn't, argues that one appeal of Christian Nationalism is “terror management.” White people see our cultural dominance fading, and our economic privilege waning, and we feel afraid. We’ve never trained ourselves to live among equals in a multi-cultural world, and instead of learning new ways of being, we turn to rigid ideologies to keep ourselves special. If “terror” is too strong a word, we could also call it “uncertainty management.”
As the country’s 250th birthday approaches, the vision of the United States as a “Christian nation” is getting lots of airtime. The President recently hosted a prayer rally on the National Mall, which hoped “to crystallize the narrative that the nation’s founding was an intentionally Christian project, a framing disputed by many scholars.” The event had the endorsement of official Washington, DC, with the President and Vice President appearing by video. House Speaker Mike Johnson “appeared in person toward the end of the program, delivering a long prayer that surveyed decades of American history, describing events from the Civil War to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as moments that showed God’s hand in American history. ‘We hereby rededicate the United States of America as one nation under God,’ he concluded.”
Jesus, though, has something different to say in this passage from Matthew 28:16-20. Talking to people who have been close to him during his life, he says, “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.” Take this insider knowledge and share it, he tells them. Go where people are, and give them this gift.
He doesn’t say to take over the government, or to make everyone believe the same things. He doesn’t seem to be worried about toppling Rome and making the Roman empire a Jesus nation.
In my favorite part of this story, even in the presence of Jesus, the story says that “some doubted.” When they should be basking in the glow of resurrection power, doubt is still a companion. Brian Stofregen notes that the verse could also be translated as “Seeing him, they worshiped and they doubted.” The same people have a mixture of both. The verb translated as “doubted” has a prefix of “dis,” or double — they’re double minded, or of two minds. He adds, “It is not ‘disbelieving’ (apisteuo) so much as wavering between two (or more) strong possibilities.” Stofregen adds that the only other time this verb shows up in the New Testament is when Peter walks on the water, and then falls in when he begins to doubt — or waver. Jesus asks him then why he doubted — wavered — and then the disciples in the boat worship Jesus. The very same combination as on the mountain — wavering and worship go together.
This complicated time demands being double-minded as a skill, not a deficit.
We hold fear and faith together. We blend our Christian faith with the awareness of other faiths, or no faith. We live with a mixture of trust, and also the fear that God has forgotten about us. Gratitude for what we have and lament for what we’ve lost. A sure sense of God’s presence some days, and then the feeling of complete absence of it on other days.
It’s nice to know that we’re not alone. Even on the mountaintop, in the presence of Jesus, it’s hard to get it right.
The cure is not rigid systems to manage our fears. Fear is part of the deal, along with doubt, grief, regret, and sorrow. Fortunately, Jesus doesn’t say to wait until you have everything perfectly in place. He doesn’t say to wait until you understand everything. He doesn't even say to wait until you all believe the same thing. He says to go out into the messy world and share what we have.
And he promises to be with us, to the end of the age. That’s the counterbalance for our anxiety, the only true system for terror management.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Knowing God As “Father”
Literature and cinema are replete with father figures that serve well as roll models. When I think of God as Father, these men and their unfailing love are often who I think of.
If self-sacrificing love is a criterion for perfect fatherhood, the nameless father in Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road certainly qualifies. He is absolutely devoted to his son and kills, steals, and exhausts himself to keep the boy alive.
The gentle, patient, and protective foster father, Hans Hubermann in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief teaches Liesel to read and gives her emotional refuge during WWII.
Ned Stark in George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones is deeply principled, motivated by love for his children, and willing to risk everything for their safety.
But the greatest father of all time has to be Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. He is accessible to his children and manages to exemplify moral courage, compassion, and parental wisdom. He may be imperfect, but he is principled, steady, and deeply humane, and he raises his children to be the same.
* * *
Knowing God As “Son”
Okay, please promise me you won’t use that worn out son/sun pun. Better that we should explore how it is that we see God through the son, Jesus Christ.
Usually, we think of Jesus as the perfect son because he is obedient to the father even when it is painfully difficult to do so. But Jesus’ divine perfection is exhibited in other ways as well.
If we follow Jesus in the gospels we see God in him. His life is one of compassion, truth, holiness, mercy, justice, humility, self‑giving love, and a relentless desire to heal and restore. Jesus is not simply like God; he is the clearest revelation of God’s heart, character, and intentions.
It has been well said that Jesus is not simply a messenger of God’s character; he is God’s character in human form. “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus:
His compassion shows God’s mercy.
His courage shows God’s justice.
His humility shows God’s heart.
His cross shows God’s love.
His resurrection shows God’s hope.
Everything Jesus does and says is a window into eternal God.
* * *
Knowing God As “Spirit”
The Greek word pneuma and its exact counterpart in Hebrew, rauch, can mean wind, breath, life, spirit, or spiritual being, so translators must rely heavily on context. The word always carries the sense of invisible force that moves, animates, or empowers.
Often, when we experience the presence of God’s (Holy) Spirit moving, animating, and/or empowering us, we recognize that experience only in retrospect.
During a massive winter storm in January 2022, Interstate 95 in Virginia was shut down for nearly 50 miles due to heavy snow, ice, and jack‑knifed tractor‑trailers. Drivers were stranded for 20-21 hours without food or water, with many in freezing temperatures.
A Schmidt Baking Company bakery truck, driven by Ron Hill, was stuck just ahead of a Maryland couple, Casey and John Noe, who were traveling to visit family before John’s Air Force deployment. After not eating for over 30 hours Michelle turned to her husband and said, “That truck is full of bread. People are hungry. Someone should call them.”
So, she did.
She looked up the company’s number, got through to the owner, and explained the situation: “There are families out here with babies. Elderly people. Folks who haven’t eaten in a day. Your truck is stuck with us. Would you consider letting the driver hand out some bread?”
The owner, Chuck Paterakis, didn’t hesitate. He told the driver, “Open the truck. Give it all away.” So he did.
The driver and the couple went car to car, handing out loaves of bread and rolls to anyone who needed them. No one asked for money. No one asked for ID. No one asked who was deserving.
People who had been strangers minutes before were suddenly sharing food, blankets, phone chargers, and stories. A frozen, silent highway became a kind of community — a place where people looked out for one another.
One woman later said, “It felt like God showed up in the middle of the interstate.” Moving, animating, and empowering people to acts of charity and generosity. Sounds like that lady was right. God’s Spirit was present on that highway. (NBC4 Washington)
* * *
Matthew 28:16-20
Sent With A Message
In Sam Mendes’s World War I film 1917, two young British soldiers are given a mission that seems nearly impossible. A battalion of 1,600 men is about to march into a deadly trap, and the only way to stop it is to deliver a message across miles of devastated countryside — through trenches, craters, snipers, and darkness. There is no backup plan, only a clear command: Go. Deliver the message. Lives depend on it.
One of those soldiers, Lance Corporal Schofield, presses on even as the mission becomes isolating, frightening, and costly. He crawls through mud, runs through gunfire, wades through a river, and pushes past exhaustion. He continues not because the journey is noble or exciting, but because he understands what is at stake. He has been entrusted with a message that could save lives. So even when he is wounded, discouraged, and tempted to give up, he keeps moving toward the people who need it.
When Schofield finally reaches the front line, he does not arrive quietly. He runs, shouts, and pushes through the chaos because the message matters more than his comfort, reputation, or safety. Because he remains faithful to his mission, hundreds of men are saved.
* * * * * *
From team member Chris Keating:
Speaking of the Trinity
Those who preach and those who listen to preachers may find sermons about the Trinity to be a daunting task. In his development of a trinitarian theology, Daniel Migliore named some of the problems faced in contemporary discussions about the Trinity. Before constructing his conception of the Trinity, Migliore wondered if the very idea of God in three persons might be a “prime example of the problem of thinking and speaking of God.” “Is not this doctrine a paradigm of sterile theological speculation?” he wrote in Faith Seeking Understanding (2nd Edition, 2004, Eerdmans, p. 67). Among the difficulties Migliore cites are problems with language, biblical references, and postmodern questions about God. Despite these limitations, Migliore calls the church to embrace the “depth grammar of trinitarian faith,” which he saw as “the grammar of wondrous divine love that freely gives of itself to others and creates community, mutuality, and shared life” (p. 76).
* * *
Genesis 1:1--2:4a, Psalm 8
The magnificent poetry of both these texts evokes wonder, awe, and appreciation of God’s creative majesty. Inevitably, we are drawn to the great question of Psalm 8:4, “What are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” Science author Frank White coined the phrase “the overview effect” in 1987 to describe the shift in perspective that happens when humans catch a glimpse of the Earth against the galaxies of the universe. Astronaut Christina Koch explained her experience of this phenomenon from her experience aboard the International Space Station. Koch, who was also a crew member aboard the recent Artemis II flight, once said that viewing the Earth from space is a transforming experience.
Koch was overwhelmed by realizing how the thin band of atmosphere surrounding our planet makes all of life possible. “Everything else outside of it is completely inhospitable,” she said. “You don’t see borders, you don’t see religious lines, you don’t see political boundaries. All you see is Earth and you see that we are way more alike than we are different.”
* * *
Matthew 28:16-20
When doubt and worship share the same pew
On our way to continue the mission Jesus gives the church in Matthew 28:16-20, we often sidestep Matthew’s little speedbump detail in verse 17. “When they (the disciples) saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.” The NRSV’s change in the language of the verse is notable, and helpful. It may be especially helpful in a world where any conversation about a Trinitarian God is met with skepticism and intellectual scrutiny.
The reminder that even the earliest witnesses of the resurrection worshiped with a mixture of adoration and doubt was likely no comfort to Michael Servetus in 1553. Servetus was a Spanish physician and theologian who was executed by the Genevan church for denying the Trinity. (Barbecues in Presbyterian churches today are much more enjoyable.) But it is a reminder that throughout history, Christians have always held faith and doubt in close tension. Sir Isaac Newton, who was no fan of the Trinity, kept his beliefs quiet, while his friend Samuel Clarke was more public. When Queen Anne wanted to make Clarke her archbishop of Canterbury, she reportedly asked the French philosopher Voltaire his opinion. “Madam,” he said, “Mr. Clarke is the wisest and most honorable man in the kingdom. He only lacks one thing.” “What is that?” the queen asked. “He is not a Christian.” (See William Placher, The Domestication of Trascnedence, Westminster/John Knox Press, p. 164).
* * *
Matthew 28:16-20
Acts of Mercy and Compassion
Jesus commissions the disciples to teach the world “everything that I have commanded you.” For Matthew, Jesus’ teachings are rooted in acts of compassion and mercy. From the Sermon on the Mount through the eschatological focus of Matthew 25, Jesus speaks of compassion as the hallmark of discipleship.
Those monitoring the rising rates of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa note that Ebola is often called “a disease of compassion,” because of the way it spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. “It spreads when a family member tends to the sick, when a nurse stays at the bedside, or when a community gathers to bury their dead,” Dr. Emily Smith writes. “In other words, it’s spread through acts of care.”
But there’s a new wrinkle, adds Smith, that has created less focus on international compassion. “But the phrase disease of compassion has been sitting differently lately because this outbreak is spreading not only through compassion but also through the global withdrawal of it. It’s impossible to ignore the quiet (or not-so-quiet) shift from “we” to “me” over the past several years (decades?), now contributing, to some extent, to a body count.”
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
All: You have set your glory above the heavens.
One: When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers;
All: what are humans that you are mindful of them?
One: Yet you have made them a little lower than God.
All: You have crowned them with glory and honor.
OR
One: The God of all creation comes to dwell among us.
All: In humility we open our lives to our Creator.
One: The Son, our Savior, comes to lead us into the Reign of God.
All: We will follow the one who leads us to eternal life.
One: The Spirit comes to dwell within and to guide us.
All: We open our hearts to the Spirit of the living God.
Hymns and Songs
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty
UMH: 6465
H82: 362
PH: 138
GTG: 1
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELW: 413
W&P: 136
AMEC: 25
STLT: 26
Renew: 204
Come, Thou Almighty King
UMH: 61
H82: 365
PH: 139
GTG: 2
AAHH: 327
NNBH: 38
NCH: 275
CH: 27
LBW: 522
ELW: 408
W&P: 148
AMEC: 7
All Creatures of Our God and King
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
GTG: 15
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELW: 835
W&P: 23
AMEC: 50
STLT: 203
Renew: 47
This Is My Song
UMH: 437
GTG: 340
NCH: 591
CH: 722
ELW: 887
STLT: 159
O Zion, Haste / O Christian, Haste
UMH: 573
H82: 539
NNBH: 422
CH: 482
LBW: 397
ELW: 668
AMEC: 566
Lead On, O King Eternal
UMH: 580
PH: 447/448
GTG: 269
AAHH: 477
NNBH: 415
NCH: 573
CH: 632
LBW: 495
ELW: 805
W&P: 508
AMEC: 177
Renew: 298
Lord, you Give the Great Commission
UMH: 584
H82: 528
PH: 429
GTG: 298
CH: 459
ELW: 579
W&P: 592
Renew: 305
Here I Am, Lord
UMH: 593
PH: 525
GTG: 69
AAHH: 567
CH: 452
ELW: 574
W&P: 559
Renew: 149
God of Grace and God of Glory
UMH: 577
H82: 594/595
PH: 420
GTG: 307
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELW: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
Jesus Calls Us
UMH: 398
H82: 549/550
GTG: 720
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171/172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
ELW: 696
W&P: 345
AMEC: 238
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who comes to your creation in many, different ways:
Grant us the grace to share the good news of the gospel
in different ways so that all may hear;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you come to your creation in so many, different ways. You come in the majesty of the cosmos, the tender caring of a shepherd, and the calm, inner voice within. Help us to share your good news by helping others to hear you voice in many ways. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially when we act like we have a monopoly on understanding God.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another, that we have sinned. We have been blessed to have been taught about you and, yet, instead of using that knowledge to help others we use it to exclude them. Instead of enjoying the diversity you made when you created humans in your own image, we want everyone to be like us. Forgive us and renew your Spirit within us so that we may truly worship you and rejoice in your creation. Amen.
One: God loves all creation even when we act unlovingly. Receive God’s grace and share the good news of God’s love with others.
Prayers of the People
We praise you, O God, because your loving communion begins within your own self. You pour out your love for creation by inviting us to share in communion with you all you created.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have been blessed to have been taught about you and, yet, instead of using that knowledge to help others we use it to exclude them. Instead of enjoying the diversity you made when you created humans in your own image, we want everyone to be like us. Forgive us and renew your Spirit within us so that we may truly worship you and rejoice in your creation.
We give you thanks for the wonderful diversity of your creation. Every part of creation has its own uniqueness and yet all are one in you. We thank you for the stories of creation that remind us we are all your creatures and we are all made in your image and likeness. We thank you for those who work to overcome the barriers that separate us from one another.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all of your creation. You called us forth to be in harmony with you and with one another. Help us to live out our calling by humbly walking with you as we care for one another and all of creation. We pray for those who have been told they do not belong; that they are not good enough. We pray for all who feel rejected because of their beliefs, their skin color, nationality, or place of origin. We pray for those who are rejected because they don’t ‘fit in’ with others.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
Hear us as we pray for others: (Time for silent or spoken prayer.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN’S SERMON
God Made Everything Good
by Nazish Naseem
Genesis 1:1--2:4a
Good morning, children.
Today, I want you to think about something beautiful you saw this week. Maybe it was the sky, a flower, a bird, the rain, your pet, or someone smiling at you.
In our Bible story today, Genesis tells us that God created the world. God made light and darkness, the sky and the water, the land, the trees, the sun, the moon, and the stars. God made animals, birds, fish, and all living things.
And then, God made people.
The Bible tells us that after God created everything, God looked at it all and said, “It was good.” This means the world is not just something around us; it is a gift from God.
When we see the sun shining, we can say, “Thank you, God.” When we hear birds singing, we can say, “Thank you, God.” When we see flowers growing, we can say, “Thank you, God.” And when we look at each other, we can remember that God made every person special.
God did not just create the world and walk away. God cares for creation, and God asks us to care for it, too. We can take care of God’s world in small ways. We can be gentle with animals, pick up trash, avoid wasting water, share with others, and be kind to people because they are part of God’s good creation as well.
Today, remember this: God made the world good, and God made you good, too. You are part of God’s beautiful creation.
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for making the world.
Thank you for the sun, the moon, the animals, and the trees.
Thank you for making us.
Help us care for your world
and love the people you created.
Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 31, 2026 issue.
Copyright 2026 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- God Is In Three Persons! So What? by Tom Willadsen.
- Second Thoughts: Jesus’ Sure-Fire, 100% Guaranteed System for Managing Your Fears by Mary Austin based on Matthew 28:16-20.
- Sermon illustrations by Dean Feldmeyer, Chris Keating.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children’s Sermon: God Made Everything Good by Nazish Naseem based on Genesis 1:1--2:4a.
God Is In Three Persons! So What?by Tom Willadsen
Genesis 1:1-2:4a, Psalm 8, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, Matthew 28:16-20
In the Church
Trinity Sunday is the only Sunday in the liturgical year focused on a doctrine of theology. And Trinity Sunday is a kind of hinge in the liturgical year. Starting this year on February 18, Ash Wednesday, we’ve been in a particular season of the church year until last Sunday. Lent was succeeded by the Season of Easter — it’s not only one day, mes amis!. Last week we marked the third most significant holy day in the church year, Pentecost. I heard a sermon recently in which the preacher wondered why Walmart doesn’t stock and sell Pentecost merch. There’s plenty of stuff for Christmas and Easter, but nothing for Pentecost. The preacher concluded that it’s because Pentecost is a forward-looking holy day. There’s no nostalgia associated with Pentecost, no manger, no empty tomb, nothing to look back on with fondness. Eleven apparently drunk fishermen speaking languages they’ve never even heard before can only point us into the future, which we haven’t found a way to commodify. Yet.
My Presbyterian Planning Calendar used to call the Sundays between Pentecost and Advent “Ordinary Time,” which I liked. I especially liked that green is the color of Ordinary Time, as though growth is to be expected among Christians, even when most churches shutter their Sunday schools for the first three months of Ordinary Time; growth in Christ should be considered ordinary.
The last Sunday in Ordinary Time used to be “Christ the King Sunday,” now there’s a slash and it’s Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday. We made that change prior to the No Kings movement, which has emerged to protest the copious abuses of power and violations of constitutional separation of powers by the current administration. The doctrine of the Trinity has some helpful things to say the emerging consolidation of power under what some are espousing as a unitary executive. Some political scientists are now arguing that the United States has left liberal democracy for competitive authoritarianism. Under competitive authoritarianism elections take place, but the ruling party has managed to skew the system to the point that they will always win the elections. The President threatening “You won’t have a country anymore,” if the other side wins justifies their extreme partisan gerrymandering, for example. Well, read on, the Trinity comes to the rescue!
In the Scriptures
Genesis 1:1--2:4a
Good luck getting your congregation to hear anything new in what may be the most widely read chapter (plus) in the Bible. When people resolve to read the entire Bible, they usually peter out around Genesis 3 or 4. When the determination returns, the ambitious reader starts again at Genesis 1:1. This time maybe they make it to the flood in Genesis 6. After a few false starts, Genesis 1:1--2:4a, today’s portion, begins to look like a rutted road across an unpaved field. Why not shake up your worshipers this time? Read from the Jewish Publication Society’s revised 2023 edition, which begins, “When God began…” or The Message, which starts, “First this:”
Psalm 8
The Lord is the creator of all, and everything is majestic and awe-filling. You might want to call attention to the parts of God’s body mentioned: fingers, hands, feet. What other parts of God’s body parts are mentioned specifically in the Bible? Heart. Eyes. The Lord’s strong hand and outstretched arm led the people out of slavery in Egypt. In Jonah, the Lord changes his mind.
The contrast between the vastness of the cosmos and “little ol’ me,” is bracing. And it makes understanding that the Lord who crafted all this, the stars and moon and all that stuff up in, and beyond, the sky, even more humbling.
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
I know a colleague who put together a whole Sunday school curriculum using what he called, “the gospel in postscripts.” He pulled the last verses of Paul’s letters, and some letters whose authorship is questioned, and used them as clues to tell about the early Christian churches. Today’s verses from the end of Paul’s second letter to the Christians in Rome reads like the ends of letters I would send to people I met at church camp each summer. After covering my news, and with more than half a page to fill, I would start a barrage of questions, before concluding with “Your friend, Tomw.” This recollection makes me realize how close the letters of a generation ago were to those exchanged among people long ago. We’ve lost something essential now that we communicate through texts and email.
This is the only time in all of Paul’s writing that he uses a whole triadic blessing.
Matthew 28:16-20
The Great Commission. The only place in the gospels that Jesus goes full bore Trinitarian. Scholars are certain that Jesus did not say these words. Still, they’re familiar and the foundation of the words Christians have used for centuries at baptisms.
In the News
We aren’t having heresy trials this century and most people in our pews’ understanding of the Trinity is summed up in the hymn you sing exactly once a year, “Holy, Holy, Holy…God in three persons, blessed Trinity.”
Karl Rahner said that if the Doctrine of the Trinity were dropped as false, most Christians’ lives would be unaffected. The Trinity may be in the printed catechism, but it is not in the catechism of the heart.
Twenty years ago William Placher wrote an article in the Cresset titled, “God is Triune — So What?” Placher was a postliberal Presbyterian theologian who spent most of his career teaching at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Among the 13 books he wrote is one called The Triune God. Placher graduated from my alma mater, Peoria High School. Among other PHS graduates are feminist Betty Friedan and NBA star Shaun Livingston. The most famous person to attend PHS was Richard Pryor. He did not, however, graduate. After punching his algebra teacher, Mr. Fink, Pryor was expelled.
In The Triune God, Placher gives three reasons why the Trinity matters:
First, “the doctrine of the Trinity…reminds us that persons are essentially in relation.” [Placher, p. 17] To be human is to be in relationship with other people. John Donne wrote “No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were…” The Trinity reminds us that God is in relationship with Godself. Relationships involve living things, and living things change. Voltaire said, “Life lies in movement.” The Trinity reminds us of God’s dynamism.
In the Sermon
Placher’s second reason the Trinity matters — and you won’t have to wait until Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday for this one — monarchs dislike it. Here, Placher cites Jurgen Moltmann who wrote, “It is only when the doctrine of the Trinity vanquishes the monotheistic notion of the great, universal monarch in heaven and his divine patriarchs in the world, that earthly rulers, dictators, and tyrants cease to find any justifying religious archetypes anymore.”
When we get the doctrine of the Trinity correct — and do not imagine the Triune God as any kind of hierarchy, we conceive God as the dynamic, related, mysterious, fluid, creative force behind the universe. Now, a Presbyterian might be tempted to thus imagine the living God as a three person committee. Don’t. Embrace the mystery of the metaphor; then leave it alone.
It is not a stretch at all to see the wisdom of the founding fathers of the United States, separating powers, putting in checks and balances as an earthly expression of the Trinity. Yes, in the United States there are local, state, and federal levels of government. But there are also legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the government — each with the power, when properly balanced, to rein in the excesses of the other two branches.
Placher’s third use for the Trinity is that it bridges a gap that allows humanity into relation with the eternal. We believe — and experience — God as transcendent and imminent. Psalm 8 captures both of these nicely. We marvel at the beauty of the stars and the firmament into which the Creator placed them, but also that that same creator is mindful of us, and has given us dominion over the earth. All at the same time, the Creator is amazing, enormous, terrifying, and powerful, but also profoundly concerned about life on earth. Jesus says the Creator even knows the number of hairs on our heads!
SECOND THOUGHTSJesus’ Sure-Fire, 100% Guaranteed System for Managing Your Fears
by Mary Austin
Matthew 28:16-20
What if we never had to be afraid again?
What would it be like not to worry about saying the wrong thing, attending diversity training, making a cultural mis-step, or having people talk around us in a language we can’t understand? By the way, are they laughing at us? What if we knew we would get first dibs on jobs, housing, and plenty of chances to build and pass on wealth?
If that sounds good, maybe Christian Nationalism is the answer for us.
Professor Warren Throckmorton, author of the new book The Christian Past That Wasn't, argues that one appeal of Christian Nationalism is “terror management.” White people see our cultural dominance fading, and our economic privilege waning, and we feel afraid. We’ve never trained ourselves to live among equals in a multi-cultural world, and instead of learning new ways of being, we turn to rigid ideologies to keep ourselves special. If “terror” is too strong a word, we could also call it “uncertainty management.”
As the country’s 250th birthday approaches, the vision of the United States as a “Christian nation” is getting lots of airtime. The President recently hosted a prayer rally on the National Mall, which hoped “to crystallize the narrative that the nation’s founding was an intentionally Christian project, a framing disputed by many scholars.” The event had the endorsement of official Washington, DC, with the President and Vice President appearing by video. House Speaker Mike Johnson “appeared in person toward the end of the program, delivering a long prayer that surveyed decades of American history, describing events from the Civil War to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as moments that showed God’s hand in American history. ‘We hereby rededicate the United States of America as one nation under God,’ he concluded.”
Jesus, though, has something different to say in this passage from Matthew 28:16-20. Talking to people who have been close to him during his life, he says, “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.” Take this insider knowledge and share it, he tells them. Go where people are, and give them this gift.
He doesn’t say to take over the government, or to make everyone believe the same things. He doesn’t seem to be worried about toppling Rome and making the Roman empire a Jesus nation.
In my favorite part of this story, even in the presence of Jesus, the story says that “some doubted.” When they should be basking in the glow of resurrection power, doubt is still a companion. Brian Stofregen notes that the verse could also be translated as “Seeing him, they worshiped and they doubted.” The same people have a mixture of both. The verb translated as “doubted” has a prefix of “dis,” or double — they’re double minded, or of two minds. He adds, “It is not ‘disbelieving’ (apisteuo) so much as wavering between two (or more) strong possibilities.” Stofregen adds that the only other time this verb shows up in the New Testament is when Peter walks on the water, and then falls in when he begins to doubt — or waver. Jesus asks him then why he doubted — wavered — and then the disciples in the boat worship Jesus. The very same combination as on the mountain — wavering and worship go together.
This complicated time demands being double-minded as a skill, not a deficit.
We hold fear and faith together. We blend our Christian faith with the awareness of other faiths, or no faith. We live with a mixture of trust, and also the fear that God has forgotten about us. Gratitude for what we have and lament for what we’ve lost. A sure sense of God’s presence some days, and then the feeling of complete absence of it on other days.
It’s nice to know that we’re not alone. Even on the mountaintop, in the presence of Jesus, it’s hard to get it right.
The cure is not rigid systems to manage our fears. Fear is part of the deal, along with doubt, grief, regret, and sorrow. Fortunately, Jesus doesn’t say to wait until you have everything perfectly in place. He doesn’t say to wait until you understand everything. He doesn't even say to wait until you all believe the same thing. He says to go out into the messy world and share what we have.
And he promises to be with us, to the end of the age. That’s the counterbalance for our anxiety, the only true system for terror management.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:Knowing God As “Father”
Literature and cinema are replete with father figures that serve well as roll models. When I think of God as Father, these men and their unfailing love are often who I think of.
If self-sacrificing love is a criterion for perfect fatherhood, the nameless father in Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road certainly qualifies. He is absolutely devoted to his son and kills, steals, and exhausts himself to keep the boy alive.
The gentle, patient, and protective foster father, Hans Hubermann in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief teaches Liesel to read and gives her emotional refuge during WWII.
Ned Stark in George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones is deeply principled, motivated by love for his children, and willing to risk everything for their safety.
But the greatest father of all time has to be Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. He is accessible to his children and manages to exemplify moral courage, compassion, and parental wisdom. He may be imperfect, but he is principled, steady, and deeply humane, and he raises his children to be the same.
* * *
Knowing God As “Son”
Okay, please promise me you won’t use that worn out son/sun pun. Better that we should explore how it is that we see God through the son, Jesus Christ.
Usually, we think of Jesus as the perfect son because he is obedient to the father even when it is painfully difficult to do so. But Jesus’ divine perfection is exhibited in other ways as well.
If we follow Jesus in the gospels we see God in him. His life is one of compassion, truth, holiness, mercy, justice, humility, self‑giving love, and a relentless desire to heal and restore. Jesus is not simply like God; he is the clearest revelation of God’s heart, character, and intentions.
It has been well said that Jesus is not simply a messenger of God’s character; he is God’s character in human form. “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus:
His compassion shows God’s mercy.
His courage shows God’s justice.
His humility shows God’s heart.
His cross shows God’s love.
His resurrection shows God’s hope.
Everything Jesus does and says is a window into eternal God.
* * *
Knowing God As “Spirit”
The Greek word pneuma and its exact counterpart in Hebrew, rauch, can mean wind, breath, life, spirit, or spiritual being, so translators must rely heavily on context. The word always carries the sense of invisible force that moves, animates, or empowers.
Often, when we experience the presence of God’s (Holy) Spirit moving, animating, and/or empowering us, we recognize that experience only in retrospect.
During a massive winter storm in January 2022, Interstate 95 in Virginia was shut down for nearly 50 miles due to heavy snow, ice, and jack‑knifed tractor‑trailers. Drivers were stranded for 20-21 hours without food or water, with many in freezing temperatures.
A Schmidt Baking Company bakery truck, driven by Ron Hill, was stuck just ahead of a Maryland couple, Casey and John Noe, who were traveling to visit family before John’s Air Force deployment. After not eating for over 30 hours Michelle turned to her husband and said, “That truck is full of bread. People are hungry. Someone should call them.”
So, she did.
She looked up the company’s number, got through to the owner, and explained the situation: “There are families out here with babies. Elderly people. Folks who haven’t eaten in a day. Your truck is stuck with us. Would you consider letting the driver hand out some bread?”
The owner, Chuck Paterakis, didn’t hesitate. He told the driver, “Open the truck. Give it all away.” So he did.
The driver and the couple went car to car, handing out loaves of bread and rolls to anyone who needed them. No one asked for money. No one asked for ID. No one asked who was deserving.
People who had been strangers minutes before were suddenly sharing food, blankets, phone chargers, and stories. A frozen, silent highway became a kind of community — a place where people looked out for one another.
One woman later said, “It felt like God showed up in the middle of the interstate.” Moving, animating, and empowering people to acts of charity and generosity. Sounds like that lady was right. God’s Spirit was present on that highway. (NBC4 Washington)
* * *
Matthew 28:16-20
Sent With A Message
In Sam Mendes’s World War I film 1917, two young British soldiers are given a mission that seems nearly impossible. A battalion of 1,600 men is about to march into a deadly trap, and the only way to stop it is to deliver a message across miles of devastated countryside — through trenches, craters, snipers, and darkness. There is no backup plan, only a clear command: Go. Deliver the message. Lives depend on it.
One of those soldiers, Lance Corporal Schofield, presses on even as the mission becomes isolating, frightening, and costly. He crawls through mud, runs through gunfire, wades through a river, and pushes past exhaustion. He continues not because the journey is noble or exciting, but because he understands what is at stake. He has been entrusted with a message that could save lives. So even when he is wounded, discouraged, and tempted to give up, he keeps moving toward the people who need it.
When Schofield finally reaches the front line, he does not arrive quietly. He runs, shouts, and pushes through the chaos because the message matters more than his comfort, reputation, or safety. Because he remains faithful to his mission, hundreds of men are saved.
* * * * * *
From team member Chris Keating:Speaking of the Trinity
Those who preach and those who listen to preachers may find sermons about the Trinity to be a daunting task. In his development of a trinitarian theology, Daniel Migliore named some of the problems faced in contemporary discussions about the Trinity. Before constructing his conception of the Trinity, Migliore wondered if the very idea of God in three persons might be a “prime example of the problem of thinking and speaking of God.” “Is not this doctrine a paradigm of sterile theological speculation?” he wrote in Faith Seeking Understanding (2nd Edition, 2004, Eerdmans, p. 67). Among the difficulties Migliore cites are problems with language, biblical references, and postmodern questions about God. Despite these limitations, Migliore calls the church to embrace the “depth grammar of trinitarian faith,” which he saw as “the grammar of wondrous divine love that freely gives of itself to others and creates community, mutuality, and shared life” (p. 76).
* * *
Genesis 1:1--2:4a, Psalm 8
The magnificent poetry of both these texts evokes wonder, awe, and appreciation of God’s creative majesty. Inevitably, we are drawn to the great question of Psalm 8:4, “What are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” Science author Frank White coined the phrase “the overview effect” in 1987 to describe the shift in perspective that happens when humans catch a glimpse of the Earth against the galaxies of the universe. Astronaut Christina Koch explained her experience of this phenomenon from her experience aboard the International Space Station. Koch, who was also a crew member aboard the recent Artemis II flight, once said that viewing the Earth from space is a transforming experience.
Koch was overwhelmed by realizing how the thin band of atmosphere surrounding our planet makes all of life possible. “Everything else outside of it is completely inhospitable,” she said. “You don’t see borders, you don’t see religious lines, you don’t see political boundaries. All you see is Earth and you see that we are way more alike than we are different.”
* * *
Matthew 28:16-20
When doubt and worship share the same pew
On our way to continue the mission Jesus gives the church in Matthew 28:16-20, we often sidestep Matthew’s little speedbump detail in verse 17. “When they (the disciples) saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.” The NRSV’s change in the language of the verse is notable, and helpful. It may be especially helpful in a world where any conversation about a Trinitarian God is met with skepticism and intellectual scrutiny.
The reminder that even the earliest witnesses of the resurrection worshiped with a mixture of adoration and doubt was likely no comfort to Michael Servetus in 1553. Servetus was a Spanish physician and theologian who was executed by the Genevan church for denying the Trinity. (Barbecues in Presbyterian churches today are much more enjoyable.) But it is a reminder that throughout history, Christians have always held faith and doubt in close tension. Sir Isaac Newton, who was no fan of the Trinity, kept his beliefs quiet, while his friend Samuel Clarke was more public. When Queen Anne wanted to make Clarke her archbishop of Canterbury, she reportedly asked the French philosopher Voltaire his opinion. “Madam,” he said, “Mr. Clarke is the wisest and most honorable man in the kingdom. He only lacks one thing.” “What is that?” the queen asked. “He is not a Christian.” (See William Placher, The Domestication of Trascnedence, Westminster/John Knox Press, p. 164).
* * *
Matthew 28:16-20
Acts of Mercy and Compassion
Jesus commissions the disciples to teach the world “everything that I have commanded you.” For Matthew, Jesus’ teachings are rooted in acts of compassion and mercy. From the Sermon on the Mount through the eschatological focus of Matthew 25, Jesus speaks of compassion as the hallmark of discipleship.
Those monitoring the rising rates of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa note that Ebola is often called “a disease of compassion,” because of the way it spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. “It spreads when a family member tends to the sick, when a nurse stays at the bedside, or when a community gathers to bury their dead,” Dr. Emily Smith writes. “In other words, it’s spread through acts of care.”
But there’s a new wrinkle, adds Smith, that has created less focus on international compassion. “But the phrase disease of compassion has been sitting differently lately because this outbreak is spreading not only through compassion but also through the global withdrawal of it. It’s impossible to ignore the quiet (or not-so-quiet) shift from “we” to “me” over the past several years (decades?), now contributing, to some extent, to a body count.”
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
All: You have set your glory above the heavens.
One: When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers;
All: what are humans that you are mindful of them?
One: Yet you have made them a little lower than God.
All: You have crowned them with glory and honor.
OR
One: The God of all creation comes to dwell among us.
All: In humility we open our lives to our Creator.
One: The Son, our Savior, comes to lead us into the Reign of God.
All: We will follow the one who leads us to eternal life.
One: The Spirit comes to dwell within and to guide us.
All: We open our hearts to the Spirit of the living God.
Hymns and Songs
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty
UMH: 6465
H82: 362
PH: 138
GTG: 1
AAHH: 329
NNBH: 1
NCH: 277
CH: 4
LBW: 165
ELW: 413
W&P: 136
AMEC: 25
STLT: 26
Renew: 204
Come, Thou Almighty King
UMH: 61
H82: 365
PH: 139
GTG: 2
AAHH: 327
NNBH: 38
NCH: 275
CH: 27
LBW: 522
ELW: 408
W&P: 148
AMEC: 7
All Creatures of Our God and King
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
GTG: 15
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELW: 835
W&P: 23
AMEC: 50
STLT: 203
Renew: 47
This Is My Song
UMH: 437
GTG: 340
NCH: 591
CH: 722
ELW: 887
STLT: 159
O Zion, Haste / O Christian, Haste
UMH: 573
H82: 539
NNBH: 422
CH: 482
LBW: 397
ELW: 668
AMEC: 566
Lead On, O King Eternal
UMH: 580
PH: 447/448
GTG: 269
AAHH: 477
NNBH: 415
NCH: 573
CH: 632
LBW: 495
ELW: 805
W&P: 508
AMEC: 177
Renew: 298
Lord, you Give the Great Commission
UMH: 584
H82: 528
PH: 429
GTG: 298
CH: 459
ELW: 579
W&P: 592
Renew: 305
Here I Am, Lord
UMH: 593
PH: 525
GTG: 69
AAHH: 567
CH: 452
ELW: 574
W&P: 559
Renew: 149
God of Grace and God of Glory
UMH: 577
H82: 594/595
PH: 420
GTG: 307
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELW: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
Jesus Calls Us
UMH: 398
H82: 549/550
GTG: 720
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171/172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
ELW: 696
W&P: 345
AMEC: 238
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who comes to your creation in many, different ways:
Grant us the grace to share the good news of the gospel
in different ways so that all may hear;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you come to your creation in so many, different ways. You come in the majesty of the cosmos, the tender caring of a shepherd, and the calm, inner voice within. Help us to share your good news by helping others to hear you voice in many ways. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially when we act like we have a monopoly on understanding God.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another, that we have sinned. We have been blessed to have been taught about you and, yet, instead of using that knowledge to help others we use it to exclude them. Instead of enjoying the diversity you made when you created humans in your own image, we want everyone to be like us. Forgive us and renew your Spirit within us so that we may truly worship you and rejoice in your creation. Amen.
One: God loves all creation even when we act unlovingly. Receive God’s grace and share the good news of God’s love with others.
Prayers of the People
We praise you, O God, because your loving communion begins within your own self. You pour out your love for creation by inviting us to share in communion with you all you created.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have been blessed to have been taught about you and, yet, instead of using that knowledge to help others we use it to exclude them. Instead of enjoying the diversity you made when you created humans in your own image, we want everyone to be like us. Forgive us and renew your Spirit within us so that we may truly worship you and rejoice in your creation.
We give you thanks for the wonderful diversity of your creation. Every part of creation has its own uniqueness and yet all are one in you. We thank you for the stories of creation that remind us we are all your creatures and we are all made in your image and likeness. We thank you for those who work to overcome the barriers that separate us from one another.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all of your creation. You called us forth to be in harmony with you and with one another. Help us to live out our calling by humbly walking with you as we care for one another and all of creation. We pray for those who have been told they do not belong; that they are not good enough. We pray for all who feel rejected because of their beliefs, their skin color, nationality, or place of origin. We pray for those who are rejected because they don’t ‘fit in’ with others.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
Hear us as we pray for others: (Time for silent or spoken prayer.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN’S SERMONGod Made Everything Good
by Nazish Naseem
Genesis 1:1--2:4a
Good morning, children.
Today, I want you to think about something beautiful you saw this week. Maybe it was the sky, a flower, a bird, the rain, your pet, or someone smiling at you.
In our Bible story today, Genesis tells us that God created the world. God made light and darkness, the sky and the water, the land, the trees, the sun, the moon, and the stars. God made animals, birds, fish, and all living things.
And then, God made people.
The Bible tells us that after God created everything, God looked at it all and said, “It was good.” This means the world is not just something around us; it is a gift from God.
When we see the sun shining, we can say, “Thank you, God.” When we hear birds singing, we can say, “Thank you, God.” When we see flowers growing, we can say, “Thank you, God.” And when we look at each other, we can remember that God made every person special.
God did not just create the world and walk away. God cares for creation, and God asks us to care for it, too. We can take care of God’s world in small ways. We can be gentle with animals, pick up trash, avoid wasting water, share with others, and be kind to people because they are part of God’s good creation as well.
Today, remember this: God made the world good, and God made you good, too. You are part of God’s beautiful creation.
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for making the world.
Thank you for the sun, the moon, the animals, and the trees.
Thank you for making us.
Help us care for your world
and love the people you created.
Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 31, 2026 issue.
Copyright 2026 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
