Sunday Service Marsden Road Uniting Church 3 and 10 November 2019

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.