We acknowledged our
first people and their care for this land high is sacred because it was created
by the God of all.
Call
to Worship
Whoever is faithful in
a very little is also faithful in much; and whoever is unfaithful with a very
little is also unfaithful in much. May we, who are asked to give an accounting
of our lives, be found faithful...
Hymn TIS 90: I’ll praise my maker
while I’ve breath. A declaration of a life long devotion to our creator. Singing
this on a Sunday is reasonably easy to do, but living it day by day needs
attention to our focus on the Spirit’s urgings and action in keeping with
those.
Opening
Prayer
With
reference to scripture, we called out to God for healing because there is none
other that can provide that sort of healing anywhere in Creation.
Prayer of Confession
We acknowledged God’s
ways as being unfathomable to us and beyond us in degree. We then confessed how
hard it is to pray for the people we find hard to love but how we yearned to be
faithful stewards. We then asked forgiveness for missing the mark. Day by day
we need to do this. We intend to be faithful stewards but just can’t seem to
keep focussed.
“Heal our brokenness
and our self-centred ways, for you alone are our one true physician, and you
alone can make us well. Amen.”
Sometimes I’m surprised
by how how self- centered I am.
Declaration of
Forgiveness
“The
author of our salvation, the one who weeps for us and for our world, is the God
of compassion. God meets us in our need and heals our many failing. Rejoice and
be glad. Thanks be to God! Amen.”
The Peace
When
we offer supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving for others, we
discover a peace that passes all understanding. Let us share signs of this
peace as we pass the peace of Christ. Peace be with you!
And also, with you
The children’s talk began with reference to the balm of
Gilead. This was a reference to a God being the final balm to heal those inner
wounds and hurts when all other soothers fail. We may try to fill that inner
emptiness in a thousand ways but we will still feel empty and at a loss until
we respond to God’s invitation of healing.
Offering Prayer
God of manifold
blessings, you provide for our every need, and call us to be good stewards of
your many gifts. May we be found faithful in a little, that we may also be
faithful in a lot…
Hymn TIS 665: “Jesus Christ is
waiting” It is so easy to say the words but so much more difficult to see Jesus
in the ordinary daily situations where we are called on to act with God’s love.
The
Service of the Word
The First Reading: Jeremiah 8.18 - 9.1We may well cry in our national and
international situations: “Hark, the cry of my poor people.” and “Is there no
balm in Gilead? Is there no physician here?”
The
Gospel Reading: Luke 16.1-13 This reading is mostly a mystery to me but
the final declaration is quite clear: Nobody can serve two masters.
Preaching
the Word –
Lost Again - Luke 16:1-13
The
following is an abridged version of Rev.
John’s words:
This
is a difficult parable—if not for first-century ears then at the very least for
moderns. How could the master praise the manager when he had lost so much?..Is
Jesus endorsing the behaviour of the manager, suggesting that his followers
secure the future for themselves by dishonest means?...However: “make friends
for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth” means that the manager has now,
and has always had, a choice: he could have used the wealth—either his master’s
or his own— for the good of his master, himself, and most of all for God and
creation (which includes debtors). The manager, however, let the wealth become
the master instead of making it a means to the master, or to the “Master.”
Hence, Jesus points out
that “no slave can serve two masters,” that no person can “serve God and
wealth” (Luke 16:13). In the light of Jesus’ call to first-century people and
to us to serve God rather than our wealth, what shall we do? Most of us have
money, and
perhaps all the
listeners and readers of this passage and my musing have lots of “stuff.”
Do we ALL sell our
homes and CARS. If we do (and stretch that to mean all our possessions.) who
will provide for the poor? Who will offer hospitality? Who will transport the
elderly? ......
Hymn TIS 534:“Love is his word, love
is his way” In fact, God is pure, undiminished, love.
Intercessory
Prayers
Often
these prayers reveal the deepest fear of loss of those who have added their
prayer requests to the prayer sheet. This is when we are most aware that God is
our only “balm”.
Hymn
TIS 672:“Lord of earth and all
creation.” Another call for God to direct the daily decisions of those who
run the organizations of our lands.
Benediction
Go forth and be
faithful in a little that you may also be found faithful in much. Go to be
faithful in much that you may be entrusted with the wealth and welfare of
others. Go to be faithful with the wealth of this generation, that you may be
given the true riches that come from above. Go to be faithful children of
light, that you may know the grace, hope, and peace of the one who is truly
faithful, in the name of Jesus Amen.
HymnTIS
780:
“May
light come into your eyes.” … signaling that we have, at last opened our
minds to God’s teaching.
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