Marcia introduced
Hugh who will be our minister for the next three months. How blessed we have been to have our services
led each week by such a variety of people willing to share with us as we
continue the process of calling a new minister.
Hugh called us to share in Worship together.
Hymn TiS 156 Morning
has broken
Morning has broken like the first
morning; blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Eleanor
Farjeon: (1881 – 1965) wrote this beautiful song inspired by several Bible
verses. Lamentations 3 : 22-26 “It is
of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail
not. They are new every morning: great
is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I
hope in him. The Lord is good unto them
that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and
quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” For our first Sunday Service in a brand new year
– I was struck by the opportunity God gives us, not only with a brand new year,
but with each new day.
Prayers of
Praise & Confession
Loving God maker of
heaven and earth we join together this morning to praise you;
We enter your gates
with thanksgiving and into your courts with praise
After we confessed our sins, we were reminded of the faithfulness and
forgiveness of God. We prayed we may be
filled afresh this New Year, to follow God more closely and share His love and
worship Him with gladness.
Hymn TiS
643 I
want to walk as a child of the light
I want to walk as a
child of the light, I want to follow Jesus.
God set the stars to
give light to the world: the star of my life is Jesus.
More looking forward
to so many things - with such joy and expectation - as we sang this hymn!
Bible
readings Psalm
84 - Page 441 &
Luke 2: 41–52 - Page 780
Our Bible
passages this morning were read for us by Jack who took a few moments to
welcome our dear friend Bill whose devotion as the carer of his precious wife
of 64 years prevents him from joining us very often these days. For me this reflected the way the people in
our church and their relationships are the “glue that keeps us together”,
encouraged in our love of God and our love and care for each other. Psalm 84: Verse 4: Happy are those that
dwell in thy house; they never cease from praising thee. Happy the men whose refuge is in thee, whose
hearts are set on the pilgrim way! The interesting thing about this positive
Psalm Jack told us – is that it follows a series of “doom and gloom” Psalms.
The
reading from Luke presents the familiar story of Jesus at a very young age
asking his parents who had been worried about him; “Did you not know that I
was bound to be in my Father’s house?”
Reflection: “Don’t
be afraid. From now on you will catch people.”
Hugh began his sermon: “On this first Sunday of
this new year, I hope and pray that many churches across the world, including
us, will go beyond their church walls out to the world as a community of faith,
doing everything possible to let the world know that God is real and He is
love.” The word HOPE stood out like
a beacon for me!
With
happy memories of his childhood, when he loved to watch magicians perform, Hugh
told us he and his son have booked tickets to watch world-class magicians
perform at the Sydney Opera House this month.
He wonders if these professional magicians will be able to amaze him now
he is “fully grown-up” and now that he is used to the “magic” which is
common place due to, “All sorts of state-of-the-art computer graphics.”
He certainly struck a
chord here with me as I have often thought with regret that children today
cannot experience the pure wonder and amazement we enjoyed as kids.
Hugh told us he had done some Bible research on passages where people were “amazed or astonished” and he discovered more than 40 events in the Gospels alone where words like ‘amazed, astonished and surprised’ are used to describe people’s responses to Jesus. As most of us quickly began to search our memories, Hugh reminded us of the miracles of the water turned into wine at the wedding,
the healing of the sick and handicapped, getting Lazarus back to life and feeding 5,000 people with five small loaves of bread and two small fish. That was certainly a pretty impressive start! Another amazing event that left everyone astonished was the huge haul of fish Peter and his friends caught when they cast their nets where Jesus told them to cast
.
“But I think,
what’s so amazing about the Bible is not just the stories themselves that took
place two thousand years ago, but the stories that will take place through you
and your lives, and our church in this new year,” Hugh told us. If we stop being amazed by Jesus, sharing the
Gospel, considering others and their pains, remembering God outside the church
and become comfortable and self-centered; “People around us will stop being
amazed by our Christian Faith.” “Living as Jesus’ follower in this secularized society is a very risky
job from the start,” he
said. I think it is well worth going back and re-reading Luke 2:
41–52. I think I failed to see all the
amazement and astonishment when I heard this story prior to today – I had
always thought Jesus showed lack of consideration to his parents.
“In the Gospels the biggest thing that amazes me is not the
numbers of people that Jesus touched, healed and blessed. The biggest
challenge, the biggest amazement that I see in the bible is how people lived
after the Gospel touched their lives. This seems to be the biggest amazement we
can share among ourselves in this New Year.
And Jesus still calls to you: “Don’t be afraid, my friend. From now on you will catch people.” Amen.”
Hymn TiS 640 Kneels
at the feet of his friends
Loving puts us on our
knees, silently washing their feet, this is the way we should live with you.
Yesu, Yesu, fill us with your love,
show us how to serve the neighbours we have from you.
Thomas
Stevenson Colvin, (1925-2000) was a Church of Scotland missionary in Malawi and
Ghana, who encouraged community development in Africa by Christians. He used
the African musical heritage to write hymns arising from the African context
for worship and this lovely hymn certainly embraces this idea.
Offering /
Prayer Chris and Chrysanthi took Oliver and Caliope
with them to carry the offering plates.
Everyone enjoyed the children’s pleasure in helping and Hugh involved
them in the offering prayer. We were all
reminded of the joy and privilege of being able to give something to others.
Prayers
for Others Pat began the Prayers of Intercession with
thanks for all the blessings of the year just finished - before praying for the
year just beginning and the special needs of the church and the people we know
who are in need. It is always a blessing
for us to remember that these prayer needs are passed on to our Insomniacs
Prayer Group and brought to God many times during the week.
We said
the Lord’s Prayer together and shared the Communion Meal before “Passing
the Peace” and silently joining in a prayer of thanks for the tradition of
Communion through the centuries and we proclaimed our Faith. “Christ has died: Christ is risen: Christ will come again.”
Hymn TiS 409 O breath of life, come sweeping
through us
O breath of life,
come sweeping through us, revive your church with life and power;
O breath
of life, come cleanse, renew us, and fit your church to meet this hour.
This was
certainly a motivating hymn to send us on our way to think some more about the
ways we might work to make God’s church, (our Marsden Road Church) a place to
meet the needs of people during the coming year.
The
Benediction & Blessing Hugh urged us to go
with God into the New Year.
May the feet of God
walk with you and His hand hold you tight.
May the eye of God
rest on you and His ear hear your cry.
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