Sunday Service Marsden Road Uniting Church 3 January 2016

Call to worship

Great and wonderful are your deeds, Lord God.

Just and true are your ways.

Who shall not revere you and praise your name O Lord?

Let us worship you wholeheartedly with open hearts and minds. (Psalm 148)

Hymn TIS 100 “All creatures of our God and King” A song about a gentler world. That we may live in such a world, at least at a spiritual level.

Prayers of Praise and Thanksgiving

Jan on our behalf, offered our praise to God for his creation, which praises him through its  magnificent existence.

Prayer of Confession

We have confidence in God's mercy to forgive us when we shy away from new possibilities  which would grow our souls. We all know our habit of clinging to the familiar and missing out on so much. Forgive us and lead us into wisdom. Amen.

Words of Assurance

We are forgiven, so we must love and forgive. Thanks be to God. Amen

Hymn – “Star Child” In fact, every sort of child, representing every one of us and being our pathway to the Lord of all.

Holy Communion –Iona liturgy

This was a Communion Service that made me feel so accepted and so comfortable in my participation. Of course, we have no worthiness in our own right to be in God's presence at any time but the wording of this service made it clear that God reaches out to us as we are.

"It is the table of the Lord and all those who love him...sharing with the poor...the table of communion with the earth...Come...you who have much faith...you who would like to have more...you who have been...often...you who have not been for a long time...you who have tried to follow Jesus...you who have failed...come..,"

We then directed to the bread, "This is my body which is given for you." And then to the cup, "This cup is the new relationship with God, sealed with my blood." We were directed to share both.

This service then traced God's many mercies to us through time until today as we shared at this table.

In response we blessed God's name: "Holy, holy, holy Lord of power of might, Heaven and earth are full of your glory, All glory to your name. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest." The bread and wine were blessed with reference to their healing, renewing capacity, changing us into people graced by God. We were then invited to participate in that holy meal.

Bible Readings Luke 2:41-52​​ The account of Jesus staying back in the Temple to discuss theological ideas with men much older and wiser and worrying the life out of his parents at the same time. That isn't the point of the story but that's how it starts. ​​​Colossians 3:12-17 A message to live at peace with our fellow Christians (and, I think, our fellow humans and other living things). Nobody has any special claim on God's gifts to this world, so acknowledge and value each other...even the annoying ones, because, guess what? We are all annoying to someone sometime. Somewhere there is someone who think our ideas silly. It's not just for the people on whom we choose to pass judgement. (Warwick)

Sermon- Reflections on the year, and stepping forward with God. Today I took the opportunity to reflect at length on the Communion service which has left less room for other things but it was a beautiful sacrament. Jan stated her intention to reflect on the year past, take stock, and assess the possibilities for the year to come. She pointed out the benefit of committing this to God in prayer. She directed our thinking to the time in each of our lives when God left us with no other option other than to give ourselves to him and the peace it brought. For some of us that took years, for others, nothing like as long. Jan spoke of the qualities of Christians which are needed if a church is to grow, which were covered in the Colossians reading, so that we reflect out God's love to others.

Jan spoke about out how we at MRUC fulfilled our mission in 2015. As I sat there I thought that for a small congregation we did very well. But God doesn't allow for such self-congratulations and expects us to grow so that our church can grow.

Jan then spoke of possible new ways of serving the community in God's love and asked us each to consider any ideas we might have. God doesn't give us skills to have us sit back and do nothing with them.

Hymn TIS 526 “Lord Jesus Christ, you have come to us” In wonder that God should take human form, to live the life we live, and die at Calvary rather than step back from the mission to bring holiness to this broken world.

Offering

The small offering we can make of our many blessings from God to spread his love to all.

Musical interlude before prayer while we considered our own needs and those of others and while we thanked God privately.

Prayers of Intercession There's no space to cover this properly but Margaret prayed for God's hand on all people suffering in any way, even those whose suffering is self-inflicted.

Hymn TIS 305 “Let earth and heaven combine” Let all creation praise God who is beyond our comprehension and whose merciful gift of grace is the greatest gift of all.

Blessing The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and grant you peace.

Blessing Hymn TIS 779 "May the feet of God walk with you”

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.

May the smile of God be on you and his breath give you life.

May the child of God grow in you and his love bring you home.