Gathering God’s People
(November 3)
Prelude:
This time of quiet music is meant to be a preparation for the service to
follow. Many of us are doing that by greeting each other so that we will
worship as a unit, but we all need some time of quiet preparation to make a
connection between ourselves and our Lord. We are not there to simply socialize
although building community is important.
We
are there to worship as individuals and as a church. Be still in the presence
of the Lord.
Acknowledgement of First
Peoples
From
river to ocean, from campfire to hearth,
May the First People who
have cared for this Land where we worship, the Wallumedgal, be blessed.
From breath to song, from
step to dance,
May those who follow Your
Song lines guide us on the journey of living honourably in this place.
From greeting to Amen,
from silence to chorus,
May our worship join with
the voices of the First Peoples of this Land.
Call to Worship - (B. J.
Beu, Abingdon 2016)
Praise the Lord! Sing to
the Lord a new song! Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless
those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the
cheek, offer the other also; And from anyone who takes away your coat do not
withhold even your shirt.
Give
to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask
for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Praise
the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song.
Expressing goodwill to
people who hate us or abuse us is hard enough but praying for them and asking
God’s blessing on them asks for a level of selflessness which is hard to meet.
BUT. Take courage, all you
people. Take courage, says the Holy One, I am with you...
Opening Prayer
...Before your throne we
are one with a great multitude which no one could number, and in praising you
we join with people from every nation. Grant to your church on earth that as we
celebrate the triumph of your saints in glory we may profit by their example
and enter with them into the inexpressible joys you have prepared for those who
love you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A Prayer of
Confession
You call us to bring
good news to the broken-hearted, and to be your living body to a broken and
hurting world. Yet, we are afraid to claim your promise of grace, filled as we
are with despair at the problems we see around us.
Forgive us when we forget
your promise to bring justice and kindness.
Declaration of Forgiveness
Let us hear again, the
word of truth: in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.
And we need to do this
over and over and over!
Thanks, be to God!
Announcements and Offering
Our
response to God’s love working in us. We must, day by day, open ourselves to
God, so that this can happen ...again and again. Stephen
read
to us from Ephesians and then
Luke 6:20-31Then he looked up at his
disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of
God. And then continued in the same way, saying that all those who we
would say are lacking in God’s blessing are in fact, the blessed. Our values
are all wrong.
Preaching
Rev.
John pointed out, using many examples, that Jesus’ values were nothing like
ours. However, regardless of how many times we are told or how many times we
are stung because we choose according to the values of the world, we still head
off in the wrong direction.
A
book I am reading points us in the right direction - again - via another route:
if we enter into deep contemplation we allow ourselves to reveal the “essential
us”. That is, we respond to God from the person we are. Not the person we
present, covered by all sorts of defensive strategies or the person disguised
by the right thing to say - the thing to say that we learned during our formal
or cultural education.
We
waste so much time and energy over things that don’t matter at all.
Benediction
In all things, give thanks
to God, for you have been called to bear witness to the good news. And may the
Creator of all, Holy Spirit, and Christ Jesus— one God, living in you and through
you and around you, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work
and deed. Amen.
Gathering
God’s People (November 10)
Call
to Worship
Focused on Christ, our centre, we find faith, hope, life,
and love. Anticipating these gifts, we bring our hearts of praise to worship.
Great is our God, and worthy of our praise. How can we stop our lips from
singing of God’s mighty deeds? How can we stop our hearts from rejoicing in
God’s glory as the morning dawns? Great is our God, and worthy of our praise.
Can we
just keep that front and centre????
Opening
prayer
Living,
loving God, breathe among us this day. Breathe new life into our midst, that we
may remember and reclaim our place as children of the resurrection.
Prayer
of Confession
When
sin floods our lives with deadly temptation, lift us from the flood into the
safety of your mercy and grace.
It is
so hard to see when we are acting in our own interests and not in the interests
of others. Others who may be right before our eyes and in need.
Declaration
of Forgiveness
Do
not be alarmed in times of trial, temptation, and doubt. Stand firm, for God is
with you. Take courage, for Christ is our strength. And rest assured, that we
are safe in the arms of God’s love and grace. In Christ’s resurrection, we are
given new life to be children of the living God, now and forevermore.
Thanks
be to God.
Offering
It’s not so much the amount we give or the time we give but
more the attitude in which we give. We owe God our everything. Give with open
hearts.
The Service of the Word
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17 (The
last sentence is the one to keep.)
Now
may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through
grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and
strengthen them in every good work and word.
Luke
20: 27-38
(This
is the part that grabs me:)... they cannot die anymore, because they are like
angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection...Now he is
God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.’
Preaching
of the Word – Don’t Be Fooled (2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17)
...Have you ever been fooled? I have, but I don’t like to
admit it. My hunch is that you have been fooled in various ways too. However,
we don’t like to acknowledge our gullibility...
The writer is trying in this Epistle to explain to the
Thessalonians that they have been fooled. The Thessalonians have been fooled by
teachers who claim to have come from Paul. Their message has upset the church.”
This can be an important message today but in the space of
the blog, I don’t want to do more than acknowledge that it was Rev. John’s
theme. But something he said later in the sermon stands out to me:
“They have believed the truth of the gospel, and as a
result they have been made holy by the work of the Holy Spirit in their
lives...Their goodness follows out of their belief...”
“...the individual does not receive this gift as a reward
for good behaviour. Good behaviour flows out of receiving the gift...”
I was thanking someone, just last week, for the help she has been. Her response was
that God had put her together in a way that resulted in her being able to help
people in certain ways... “to God be the glory”.
Benediction
As
children of the living God, we go forth with the promise of new life, the hope
of resurrection in our world, and the passion to keep our hearts focused on
your love and life. And may the blessing of God Almighty, Creator, Redeemer and
Giver of life be with you always. Amen.
