Today Helen led us in a devotion where we considered our need for God's steadying hand and comforting, enfolding love.
In the Call to Worship, Helen declared:
We're a mixed bag, but in the presence of God who loves and who forgives us we have nothing to fear.
Christ calls us and welcomes us here today.
With this, I felt relaxed and confident to enter into God's presence, opening up all that I am to Him.
With this confidence, we raised our faces and our voices to him in Hymn TIS 474, ...
"Gather us in, the lost and forsaken; gather us in, the blind and the lame; call to us now, and we shall awaken, we shall arise at the sound of our name."
And awaken and arise we did.
The Opening Prayer used the physical comfort we all enjoy, wrapped up in cooler times, to allude to the comfort of being "enfolded..in (your) his unconditional love." Nothing like it.
Hymn TIS 105 "Let all the world in every corner sing:
My God and King!" - No ifs, no buts. Praise him because he is!
Prayer of Confession
We considered our sins. Nothing world-shattering, just our pathetic weaknesses that stand in the way of God's Kingdom growing around us.
"Forgive us
We listen for your voice calling us back to you."
Words of Assurance Psalm 32. Read it in full. Tread the path with the psalmist from
"Happy are those whose transgressions are forgiven, and those whose sin is put away.”
through
"While I held my tongue, my bones withered away because of my groaning all day long."
onto
"Be glad, you righteous, and rejoice in the Lord; shout for joy, all who are true of heart."
Scripture Reading Luke 15: 1 - 3, 11b - 32 was delivered by Joyce. The parable of the prodigal son. A story to set the listeners on their respective ears: from the son asking for his inheritance, equivalent to wishing his father dead, to that same son being welcomed back - no questions asked.
Luckily the story didn't end with the son getting what he deserved because then the message to each of us wouldn't be all that comforting. I wouldn't want what I deserve. I'm looking for God's loving mercy.
Then there's that other message - about others. God's loving mercy is for everyone, regardless of any judgement we might make.
Reflection "Guess who's coming to dinner."
Helen began by directing our attention to an inordinately large collection of "Easter Eggs" at the front of the church. She pointed out that many were, in fact, not eggs but chocolate in the shape of ducks, wombats, rabbits and hens etc. She also pointed out that she could have bought even more unusual "eggs", including a huge crocodile.
At this stage she decided to take a "righteous" position, insisting that the only true Easter Egg is egg- shaped and empty, symbolizing the empty tomb.
Having established this sense of a "righteous" person, she went on to introduce the story of The Prodigal Son which was Jesus' response to the 'righteous' people of the day questioning him as to why he was associating with the low-life of the place.
Jesus' could have gotten himself off the hook by saying that he wasn't enjoying it all that much and was only putting up with these people to convert them - to get bums on pews in church, maybe.
He told the scandalous story of a celebration thrown for a kid who had been an absolute shame and disaster. And the story of his faithful brother who was offended by the attention being given to this ne'er-do-well and who needed to be placated by the father.
Our attention was directed to the father who had been watching for his son to return and when he did, forgot all the dignity of his position and lifted up his hem and ran to meet the son and embraced him.
The congregation were asked for any lessons about God this story had to offer. There were many suggestions, including that God is the peacemaker, that God's forgiveness is unstinting, that God loves, extravagantly, and goes on loving.
Helen related this to her own experience and said she was able to love because she is loved by God and, because of her own experience, knew the pain of giving the gift of such love.
That love that Helen received is available to us all, the faithful and the unfaithful; the eggs and the non-eggs. We are all invited and treasured and loved.
God wants a relationship with us. God is throwing a party. Come along and bring a neighbour.
Helen then led us in a Prayer, asking that we will open our hearts and minds to the same company Jesus hung out with.
There's always a temptation to think we are what we are or have what we have because we deserve it. Or to think that, for whatever reason, that we are better than "that lot".
And then we thank God or his many blessings without any sense of contradiction.
Hymn "There is no-one worthy of the feast" Humbling and encouraging at the same time. There is nothing we can do to deserve or contribute but "God will gladly come and bless."
The Freewill Offering was taken up with the prayer that we will be instruments of compassion and reconciliation.
Prayers for Others
We sat, listening to Grahame playing, putting before God our personal concerns.
After this Helen lit candles for particular needs suggested by the congregation
.
Then Helen and Margaret read a reflection by Walter Brueggemann called "Dreams and Nightmares" from Prayers for a Privileged People.
The focus was, initially, the dreams of how God would have the world and then the nightmare of how it is.
But then God's sovereignty was acknowledged and the prayer was that "our nightmares (be) less toxic and our dreams more real."
In confidence, thanks was given that God would "Come among us this day; dream us toward health and peace"
After the reflection we joined in The Lord's Prayer.
The Lord's Prayer keeps us on track; it ensures that we attend to all those concerns that underpin our lives. As long as we take notice of what we are saying and pray the words and not just recite them,
Hymn TIS 179 "Praise with joy the world's creator" Praise to the God of rightness, of power; the healer, the liberator, the forger of bonds and the One that holds us together in unity.
The Blessing
beyond self to neighbour
beyond protection to growth and
May almighty God bless you
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
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