WELCOME & ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Who is welcome here in the presence of God? Should we all come on bended knees with heads bowed and voices silent into the presence of the One who is Lord of all Creation? But in Christ Jesus our heads are lifted up, our knees strengthened and our ears hear God’s voice of invitation and love. So welcome to all, that’s every one – for we are all made in God’s image!
We gather, on the land of the Dharawal people whose land was never ceded but taken because our forebears could. We acknowledge their voice for justice and reconciliation and their elders past and present. We give thanks for their stewardship of the land and their link with the Creator.
CHRIST CANDLE
Despair is strong, but hope is stronger, evil is strong but love is stronger, bitterness is strong but forgiveness is stronger. Darkness is strong, but light is stronger! Let us light our Lenten candle!
CALL TO WORSHIP
Abram and Sarai heard a risky call: leave what was known, familiar and safe, in older age to play their part in God’s promise and blessing. But first came an encounter with God, an encounter to discover who they really were and who they might become. We pray: Come, let us draw near to the Living God who speaks to ordinary people their lives a conduit of God’s blessing and life.
Come Holy Spirit, transform our human limitations through your faithful promises. Amen
HYMN Music – Judy
Lord, you have been our dwelling-place
In every generation;
Your people have received your grace
And blessed your consolation;
Through every age you heard our cry
Through every age we found you nigh
Our strength and our salvation.
Persisting sins we long have wept
Your patience long have tested
But steadfast faith in you we kept
Still to your name devoted:
For you have kept and loved us well
And granted us in you to dwell
From your love never parted.
Lord, nothing from your arms so sure
Shall your own people sever
Our helper ever will endure
God’s love will fail us never.
Your people, Lord, have dwelt in you
And you remain our dwelling true
For ever and for ever.
Thomas Hornblower Gill 1819 – 1906. Public Domain. Used with permission CCLI Licence 31951
WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS
PRAYER OF CONFESSION Inspired by John 3: 1 – 17
Human sin separates us from God. It is everywhere. But with God, we can begin again even when we have turned away. Come back God cries. We can always come home. It seems impossible that God could be so generous. But it is true. Everything God does is for love. God made the world out of love. God teaches a way of living with kindness and wisdom because God loves us and wants us to be well as best as is possible in this life in body, mind, spirit & heart. God is grief stricken when we are not kind, when we do not love. And God forgives—because God loves. The mystery that was beyond Nicodemus – is love. If you practice love, the agape love of Jesus in the way he loved then we can discover this amazing new life in the Spirit and the Spirit will live in you and in me.
HYMN TIS 684
Love will be our Lenten calling
love to shake and shatter sin
waking every closed, cold spirit
stirring new life deep within
till the quickened heart remembers
what our Easter birth can mean.
Peace will be our Lenten living
as we turn for home again
longing for the words of pardon
stripping off old grief and pain
till we stand, restored and joyful
with the Church on Easter day.
Truth will be our Lenten learning:
hear the Crucified One call!
Shadowed by the Saviour’s passion
images and idols fall
and, in Easter’s holy splendour
God alone is all in all.
Words © Elizabeth J Smith. Music by permission Oxford University Press CCLI Licence # 31951
BIBLE READINGS John & Robyn
Genesis 12: 1 – 4a The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; he was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.
Romans 4: 1 – 3, 13 & 17c What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith, in whom Abraham believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. In this we discover faith and vocation at work. Thanks be to God.
WE LISTEN TO ‘Blowin in the wind’
MESSAGE ‘Blessed to be a blessing’ (Video to be posted shortly)
HYMN TIS 691
Faith will not grow from words alone
From proofs provided, scripture known
Our faith must feel its way about
And live with question-marks and doubt.
The pattern Jesus showed us, we share
Life comes through death, hope through despair.
God is made known in brokenness
And faith feeds on God’s emptiness.
The church still tells how Jesus came
Through death to glorious life again
The strangest story! Yet, maybe
Our faith will thrive on mystery.
Faith takes the little that we know
And calls for hope and tells us: Go!
Love and take courage, come what may
Christ will be with us on the way.
Elizabeth J Smith. Words with permission. Music by permission Faber Music, London CCLI Licence # 31951
OFFERTORY PRAYER
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE & LORD’S PRAYER Karen
HOLY COMMUNION Elder – Sue
Of bread broken and wine poured out blessed and transformed by Christ Jesus
Spiritual food for a hungry world made possible at great cost, given in love.
HYMN TIS 569
Guide us, O our great Redeemer
Pilgrim through this barren land
We are weak but You are mighty
Hold us with Your powerful hand
Bread of heaven, Bread of heaven
Feed us now and ever more
Feed us now and ever more.
Open now the crystal fountain
Whence the living waters flow
Let the fiery, cloudy pillar
Lead us all our journey through
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer
Be O God our strength and shield
Be O God our strength and shield.
When we tread the verge of Jordan
Bid our anxious fears subside
Death of death, and hell’s destruction
Land us safe on Canaan’s side
Songs of praises, songs of praises
We will ever give to You
We will ever give to You.
CCLI Song # 1448 John Hughes | Peter Williams | William Williams © Words: Public Domain Music: Public Domain For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com
CCLI Licence # 31951
BLESSING & BENEDICTION
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