Hymn TiS 155 “Yours is the
glory, risen, conquering Son”
Edmond
Louis Bundry, who wrote this much-loved hymn was a Pastor at Cully and St. Croix for eight years before becoming
the Pastor of the Free Church in Vevey ,
Switzerland
Sharing of the Notices: Malcolm told
of the Australia wide launch of the “Eat Like a Refugee Challenge” where last
Sunday night, thirty people shared a frugal meal in our church hall, listened
to two speakers from “Act for Peace” and raised around $1,200 to help the more
than 100,000 people who live in nine refugee camps on the border of Thailand
and Myanmar.
Everyone was
invited to stay for the Friendship Circle Morning Tea of home made soups and
fresh bread rolls and we enjoyed the inviting smells that wafted through the
church as the service continued.
Prayer of Confession Dermot provoked our thoughts by talking of the nine lives of a cat and
asking; “How many lives do we need?”
Although God breathes life into us and gives us every chance to accept
and follow him throughout our life, we are sometimes “ridiculous” - and the way we “see
ourselves” takes us away from God and our commitment to Him. Dermot’s prayer invited us to think of our
lives as a beautiful green lawn riddled with onion weed, which has grown there
because of the way we “use our lives.” We prayed for God to help us to discover and
remove the roots of the weeds. Any of us
who have ever had onion weed in our lawn will understand the depth of this
plea!
Offering /
Prayer Pat and Bob were helped with the offering by two
of the children and our gifts were blessed.
Children’s
Address: Dermot told a
story of two brothers, with the older one being the selfish Duke and the
younger one, with no real authority, being a hard worker for the good of his brother’s
subjects and the dukedom. This story
presented a thought provoking message on “self imprisonment” that can come
about if we make poor choices. The
younger brother simply provided a comfortable home with an abundance of
excellent food for his brother, whose weakness and selfishness made him
increasingly fat and lazy and soon lost him his dukedom. His younger brother did not imprison him – he
imprisoned himself - and his younger brother became the duke in his stead.
Hymn 422 "Blessèd assurance, Jesus is mine!"
Fanny Crosby who wrote this much loved hymn, wrote more than 8,000 hymns
- probably more than any other hymnist in history. The gift of offering praise and thanksgiving
to God through her hymns made Fanny one of the best known women in America
“Blessèd assurance, Jesus
is mine! O what a foretaste of glory
divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.”
Bible Reading
“Have you forgotten that when we were
baptized into union with Jesus Christ we were baptized into his death? By baptism we were buried with him, and lay
dead, in order that, as Christ was raised from the dead in the splendour of the
Father, so also we might set our feet on the new path of life.” This
affirmative reading is both assuring and challenging and should inspire us to
be “Alive to God”.
Reflection: “New
Life”
Dermot
raised the discussion about our sin and the Grace of God – a discussion which
took place in Romans Chapter 5. Of
course, to us, it sounds ludicrous to think that by sinning more we are giving
God the opportunity to be more gracious towards us even after reading the part
that says; “Where sins multiply, Grace
exceeds it.” However Dermot did go on to say that some
prominent religious figures, like Rasputin, the Russian “mad monk” have
suggested “Salvation may be gained
through sin – so if one sins with abandon – one may be on the road to salvation!” Then he made a suggestion which brought a
murmur of assent; “Rasputin did not go on
to read Chapter 6.”
Without
God’s Grace we too would speak the “Language of Death” – as spoken by the slave
Spartacus in the movie about his life as a slave. Spartacus said; “Death is the only freedom a
slave knows – that is why we are not afraid of it.” But as Christians we have the opportunity to
life our lives in freedom through God’s Grace and we have also come to understand
that some of the earlier religious protocols were more harsh, because of fear
of diminishing the influence of sin.
Dermot cited this as the reason for the earlier unequivocal belief that
even a new born baby must be baptized to save the child from dying in sin.
The
message that I heard was; “Baptism is being immersed or overwhelmed in water –
baptism is also being immersed or overwhelmed in the spirit – it is being
overwhelmed by the love of God – it is being grafted into Christ and being united
with Christ.” I wonder if this was the
message other people in the church heard?
Did I hear the complete message?
Dermot did
say directly; “The key is for us to
desire only that which is in the nature of God.” And he challenged each one of us about the
depth of our commitment. He also
acknowledged that we are human and sometimes experience a struggle to accept
the Grace of God because of our interest in self.
Hymn TiS 231 “At the name of Jesus every knee
shall bow”
Caroline
Maria Noel was the daughter of an English Vicar and niece of hymnist Baptist
Noel. In her middle years she suffered a
long and serious illness which left her an invalid. But it was then she began her most productive
period of writing and sharing her trust in God’s love and power.
“In
your hearts enthrone Him; there let Him subdue - All that is not holy, all that
is not true;
Crown Him as your captain in temptation’s
hour; Let His will enfold you in its light and power.”
Prayers of
Intercession: Grahame led our prayers for the people of the
World this morning. He prayed for
support for all people throughout the world who work to aid refugees and all
people in need. He also prayed for those
people who lack other blessings we have, things like a home, a job, friends,
good health and healthcare and an education.
Then we prayed for the people mentioned in our “red” books that had been
passed through the congregation before joining together in the Lord’s
Prayer.
Hymn TiS 720 “Mine eyes have seen the Glory of
the coming of the Lord”
This
“Battle Hymn of the Republic” is much loved by our enthusiastic Marsden Road Church
The
Benediction & Blessing
We were sent out by
Dermot - to “Go with God and discover new
life in Christ.” We sang one of our favourite farewell songs; “Now
unto Him, who is able to keep, able to keep you from falling.” Amen.
