Welcome
Call to Worship.
With the call to worship, Helen reminded us that God is the God of all time, who as a perfect parent, cares for us, which is something we can reflect on now, as many of us are older and we can look back over our lives and see the evidence of God's hand upon us. In particular we were reminded that he is the God of the life beyond that is within us now and we were given the opportunity and the words, to say out loud that we thank him, that we praise him, and that our hearts sing because of his glorious love.
This praise from our joyful hearts was given voice again in Hymn 25 "Sing Praise and Thanksgiving", where we further acknowledged our maker and guide who has brought us into the light.
Kid's Time, in which Helen focussed on Jesus being the Bread of Life, the one who sustains our needs - not our petty wants - was followed by Hymn 109 "Tell out my Soul", sung with gusto, reminding us that we are commissioned to pass on this care, this love, this enlightening, sustaining force of Jesus to others and the congregation began this in a practical way with the Offering, to make a difference in people's lives.
Carolyn read John 6: 24-35, set in the time after the feeding of the 5000, with the people following Jesus as he sought a place to rest. He lets them (us?) know that he knows their (our?) motivation is for earthly support whereas what they (we?) really hungered (hunger) for was (is) spiritual food and that there is only one way to that. Jesus said to them, "I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty" - What a promise. Totally free! No qualifying period, no HSC or tertiary qualification, no "physical" to pass - but no variations of the contract either. It's not for those who want to keep their allegiances to other gods as well.
Reflection
Helen then pointed out that the people who followed Jesus in the reading were people who struggled to feed their families and so anyone who told them, "I am the Bread of Life" was offering them Hope in an immense sense. Their hope was based on the tradition that the Messiah would provide manna as Moses had. In other words life would become one of ease and security. No more fear for the health and lives of their children. Heaven on earth. But Jesus had something else in mind. Something more basic. Something spiritual on which to build our lives. And we have to keep our hearts and minds open for God to build. We have to actively search. We should not become settled but continue looking for God's will for our growth in the faith and when we come to church this is a special time to focus on this journey with God. The familiar hymns are lovely, as are the prayers and Bible stories but our task is to look for new perspectives, new paths to follow and to still our minds to hear that Voice.
The prayer that Graham then led directed our thoughts to the hunger of our hearts and the thirst of our spirit.
It seems to me that so often we try to appease that hunger and thirst with the wrong things. New clothes; a holiday at a top resort (in the new clothes); a new car; a better address. It's a bit like feeding the roses with lamb chops. It was never meant to work that way so it won't. The silly thing is that when one holiday at a top resort in the new clothes doesn't work we try two. Hmmmm. Then we looked outwards to ask for support for those in the world at large and the community close by.
The Prayer of Confession, taken from Psalm 51: 1-12 was an opportunity to look directly to God, not trying to conceal our vulnerability; hiding nothing; pretending about less; letting the light shine on our failures and offences against the Lord and freely acknowledging our need for God's saving help.
We prayed through this to ask for God's purging, cleansing work in us. Then Helen led the plea:-
Create in me a clean heart, O God
Cast me not away from thy presence,
And give me the joy of your saving help again.
And then the challenge of a personal confession. The time to look deep within and face up to our own nature and deeds.
These confessions were followed by The Words of Assurance which we are able to take to ourselves because "God forgave my sins in Jesus' name" and after which we could move forward because "Freely, freely, you have received, freely, freely give."
The Invitation to the Table made it clear that we approach the table in God's strength and goodness; not in our own, for we have none.
The Communion Hymn 344 "Break Now the Bread of Life" recalled the feeding of the throng and our hunger for the food of the spirit, which will free us and give peace. Helen then reminded the congregation of the foundation of the communion in The Words of Institution and we responded with a declaration of being open to God's work in us and gave thanks to him for that work, following with the Lord's Prayer, prayed as an act of obedience as to how to pray and what to pray and for which reasons to pray.
The Bread was broken as a symbol of food for healing and wholeness.
The Cup was offered as a symbol of hope,
We then served each other as a sign of our relationship within Christ.
Helen then led us in prayer, asking for the gift of the Holy Spirit that God's light will shine through us, witnessing his glory to the world.
With faith that God's work is being done in us we sang with joy Hymn 147 Rejoice the Lord is King.
And then with all things attended to:
Confession, our plea for cleansing, the call on God's promise, the symbolic nourishing to indicate the work of the Holy Spirit being done to accomplish God's will,
We were sent out.
Amen, Amen, Amen.
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