After the
welcome and notices, which included the Lamington Drive and the bowls challenge
and which also called attention to the availability of large print TIS hymn
books for those who need them during the service, the Call to Worship followed, as a conversation between Helen
and the Congregation, affirming our life as a community, with our stories,
food, wisdom, hope, laughter and pain shared as we travel the way of justice
and truth, living a life of discovery as we journey home to God. (In my own
case, with more than one or two hiccups along the way.) There's nothing like a
church service to remind us of where we should be and how we have been losing
our way in the previous week.
Prayer A plea to be moulded by the
source of our life into a holy community which will reveal the face of Christ.
Hymn TIS 217 A prayer that the source of
all love should dwell within us, and save us from our flawed, failing selves. A
declaration that we know we can only be whole when God restores us. For this we
are ever wondering and praising, overwhelmed by this unending blessing. When we
sit back and think about our own behaviour, not to mention that of those who
live lives deliberately causing carnage, I wonder why God persists loving us.
But He does. Amazing!
Prayer of Confession Acknowledging God's patience,
and confessing our own neglect of seeking for God in the depth of our lives,
because of our rush to get through the day, Helen prayed for us that God would
teach us to trust Him so that we can learn to wait. I find that this can be
frustrating, but answers come at the most unexpected times - often when we are
focussing on the needs of others rather than on our own perceived needs.
Words of Assurance "To all who turn to him,
Christ says, 'Your sins are forgiven.' He also says, 'Come, follow me.' An
amazing gift and invitation. I can never understand why I am distracted by
trivialities from the wealth offered here.
Thanks be
to God. Amen.
Scripture Reading Acts 11: 1 - 8
Revelation 21: 1 -
6 Delivered by Malcolm and well worth reading again, privately. The message is
clear: all things are made new. The rules have changed. In fact it seems the
rules are not so important now. "To the thirsty I will give water as a
gift from the spring of the water of life." AS A GIFT.
Hymn Songs for a Hopeful
Church 24 "John, in the Spirit, saw the First and
the Last"
John, in
the Spirit, saw........so much. "O God, as you gave John the eyes to
see...open our eyes and ears and hearts to know your wisdom, honour, glory,
blessing, might." And forgive me
for sometimes being so thick.
Reflection God gives a vision.
Helen recounted her experiences with her grandchildren during the previous few
weeks and passed on to us the children's unwillingness for her to dwell on a
question or to leave any uncertainty as answer. Their advice was, "Google
it!" Early Christians didn't have Google, but did have dreams and visions.
These dreams and visions were the result of their thinking about the questions
that arose in their lives and of God intervening via the dreams and visions to
provide them with solutions.
These
people didn't have any easy time. There was no freedom of worship. They were
persecuted. Helen then proposed that, even so, they may have been better off
than we are.
We are so
comfortable. There is no pressure on us to grapple with the depth of things. We
have information in our heads but not in our hearts. We recite beliefs and
repeat insights we have heard others put forward without grabbing hold of the
substance of it all. We do not, because we don't have to, open our minds to the
challenge and extent of our faith. The early church had to or they would not
have held together. In the vision of Peter in the reading, God tells him to eat
of any food but Peter initially refuses until God points out that everything He
has created is acceptable. From this Peter learnt that God loves all people and
was able to answer the criticism directed at him by the Jewish Christians in
regard to his fraternizing with Gentiles and baptizing them.
God is
inclusive; He wants a relationship with all people.
Demonstrating
their willingness to open themselves to God's guiding hand the Jewish
Christians saw the truth of Peter's explanation and praised God. They saw the
bigger vision. They didn't know how it was going to work but they said,
"Yes." to God's direction. In the second reading there is the vision
of The New Jerusalem, the completion of creation. The relationship broken by
the disobedience of people will be restored.
This
gives us hope. This will be the
future.
Helen then returned to the theme of our reciting our lives
by rote and referred to a book of prayer she has been using. In this book
people from all walks of life speak about the prayers that have given their
lives impetus. In the book, the Rev. Marta Benavides from El Salvador, who was
involved in humanitarian work during the civil war there, and who has set up
refugee centres, nominated the Lord's Prayer as her most important and symbolic
prayer. She calls it "Our Father and Mother Prayer" and recites it,
not as a wish or request, but in recognition of all that has already been given
to us by the Great Spirit.
She
prays: “Our Father-Mother who art in
heaven, hallowed be thy name
Your kingdom is. Your will is
done, on earth as it is in heaven,
You give us each day our
daily bread and I work to make sure we all enjoy it.
You have forgiven us from the
beginning.
We have never had any debts, so no one owes
me anything.
You never
lead us into temptation, but you give us a life that challenges us to grow in
wisdom and grace, thus you do not have to deliver us from evil, for you are my
and our light, if I so choose it, thus no evil is in my path and life.
For, I am
in you as you are in me. And so it is.”
This is
Marta's driving force. What are we grabbing onto? Where is our vision? Where is
our energy? What can I do to bring about "Thy Kingdom Come"?
Prayer God is all that is good and
yet He is at home in us. Just as we have been loved, so that our old life is
ended because God is making us new, we must love each other. That is what we
are here for. We are to love each other, not just the people we like.
Hymn TIS 432 "Christ is made the sure
foundation" Christ is the cornerstone binding the church together and we
are His hands, feet and heart in the task of making that happen.
Freewill Offering "Loving God, we offer
you these gifts, our money time and prayers, and place them in your hands. May
they make a new world."
Prayers for Others and The
Lord's Prayer We
were given a quiet space to consider our prayer and then Grahame, for us,
prayed to God, our Holy Father and Mother, The Alpha and Omega, giving thanks
for life's riches and then turned our attention to the people mourning all over
the word because of the loss of life, not just in warfare but in incidents such
as in the Boston bombing and the collapse of the workplace building in Dhaka.
He prayed for forgiveness for our lack of progress to accept refugees or to
attend to the needy. He asked that we should be shown our vision for MRUC and
for blessings on our leaders. We then prayed The Lord's Prayer with new
perception.
Hymn TIS 224 "All hail the Power of
Jesus' name" In every place, among every people, under every condition:
"Crown Him Lord of all!"
Sending Out ..." Go now into this day
knowing that all around you are signs of the new world coming - and within you
are the resources for the new world building - and among you is the reality of
God's renewed world.”
Doxology to the tune of the old
hundredth
Praise
God, from whom all grace flows forth!
Praise
Life, all creatures here on earth!
Praise
Light who guides us on our way!
Praise
Love who forms us day by day! Amen.
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