A community of dignity, and hope for all

WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD

We gather to worship God in community as the body of Christ.

We gather to celebrate the life we have in Christ, sustained by the loving power of the Holy Spirit.

As we gather we declare in Jesus’ name that this is a safe physical, emotional and spiritual environment for all who search for meaning and purpose in life.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY

For many thousands of years, Indigenous peoples have walked and lived on this land. The Spirit of God has long dwelled with the First People of this land. We honour the Dharawal People on whose lands we now gather and pay our respects to their elders, past, present and emerging.

CHRIST CANDLE

We light this candle because it brings light to this place. We light this candle because it reminds us of Christ Jesus whom we proclaim is the Light of the world and we want His light to be part of our lives.

WELCOME

Today is Older Persons Sunday. We will reflect on what it means to be a faith community of people who are continually ageing. We are all slightly older than we gathered for worship last week and some of us are disoriented and increasingly preoccupied with the ageing of our bodies, minds and emotional wellbeing while others revel in the wisdom and experience we have discovered.

HYMN – Leanne

Great is your faithfulness O God my Father
In you no shadow of turning we see
You never fail and your love is unchanging
As you have been, you for ever will be.

Great is your faithfulness
Great is your faithfulness
With every morning new mercies I see
All that I need your hand has provided
Great is your faithfulness Lord to me

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest
Sun, moon and stars in courses above
Join with all nature in unspoken witness
To your great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that’s enduring
Your living presence to cheer and to guide
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
these are the blessings your love will provide.

CCLI Song # 5089011 Thomas Obediah Chisholm © Words: 2007 Hope Publishing Company

WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS

BIBLE READINGS Bruce & Judy

RESPONSIVE PSALM 103: 1, 4 – 17 (NIV) Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. The Lord, redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, and satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel:
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love

is with those who fear him and his righteousness with their children’s children.

PRAYER OF ADORATION & CONFESSION – Michael

God of all ages, your breath gives us life. Your hands shape our being.

Your artistry in creation leaves us gasping in wonder, longing to experience that which is of you.

In each person, there you are, if we could but discern you.

Accept us again, O ancient yet ever new God, as we worship and adore you.

God of all ages, we know that there is a time to be born, for some a time to grow old and for all, a time to die. We know that ageing is a part of life. Yet sometimes we wish it wasn’t so.

To quote an ad on TV, sometimes we just want we have what we have now, for it to go on forever.

We rarely embrace older age. Assuming too often that we are only of value when we are most independent or most healthy and that your blessing is primarily for those such days.

We forget that in every decade of our lives you have promised to be with us and to provide resources for us to live with the health that we do have. We confess too that many Indigenous Australians never know older age, dying 20 – 25 years before most of us. Forgive us when we fail to notice and to act.

God of all ages, Giver of Life, bring us to the awareness that our life depends on each other.

We are called to uphold each other, especially those who are frail and vulnerable.

Fill us with your compassion, love and grace, the grace that walks with us, embracing even our death.

In your crucified and risen Name we pray. Amen

BIBLE READINGS – INTRODUCTION

One of the stories I love is of Anna and Simeon faithfully watching for God’s salvation. The story reminds me of the power of faith tested over time and of the wisdom of older people to know how to watch and wait for God’s new thing and to embrace that new thing….as a society in modern Australia we are gifted by the many contributions, diverse experiences and loving care we receive from the older Australians in our lives. In the Uniting Church, we believe all people should be treated with respect and dignity…and our need to transform our aged care system to ensure older people can live their fullest life. Rev Sharon Hollis, President, UC Assembly

LUKE 2: 25 – 38 (NIV) Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” The child’s father and mother marvelled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother:

“This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher.

She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

In this we hear God’s word of Wisdom and Life. Praise be to God.

HYMN

Praise to the Lord the Almighty, the King of creation
O my soul, praise Him, for He is your health and salvation.
Come all who hear, brothers and sisters draw near
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord who in all things is wondrously reigning
and, as on wings of an eagle, uplifting, sustaining:
have you not seen all that is needed has been

Sent by his gracious ordaining?

Praise to the Lord, who will prosper our work and defend us
Surely his goodness and mercy here daily attend us:
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do
as with His love he befriends us.

Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that has life and breath, come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from his people again
Gladly for ever adore him.

CCLI Song # 43073 Catherine Winkworth | Joachim Neander © Words: Public Domain Music: Public Domain

MESSAGE ‘A community of dignity and hope for all’

May we be sustained by the Biblical stories from Luke Ch 2, may we continue to believe that God still has work for us to do and be at whatever our age and may we look out for those vulnerable older Australians who also need to be loved and cared for so that all of us may life lives of dignity and hope.

HYMN

Guide me, O thou great Redeemer
Pilgrim through this barren land
I am weak, but thou art mighty
Hold me with thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven
Feed me now and ever more
Feed me now and ever more.

Open now the crystal fountain
Whence the living waters flow
Let the fiery, cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through
Strong deliverer, strong deliverer
Be thou still my strength and shield
Be thou still my strength and shield.

When I tread the verge of Jordan
Bid my anxious fears subside
Death of death, and hell’s destruction
Land me safe on Canaan’s side:
Songs of praises, songs of praises
I will ever give to Thee
I will ever give to Thee.

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 Lic # 31951

OFFERING

COMMUNITY AWARENESS OF AGE CARE Michael

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE – Jan

LORD’S PRAYER

HOLY COMMUNION Elder – Judy

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

We praise you, O God, that in your mercy you gave your only Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. We give thanks for his humble birth, for his life and ministry of love, for his sufferings and death on the cross, for his glorious resurrection and ascension and for the promise that he will come again. O God, by your Word and Spirit, bless and sanctify this bread that it may be for us the body of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and that he may ever live in us and we in him.

As the bread is broken, he gave it to each one and said “take, eat, this is my body”.

Response: “It will be for us, spiritual food for our journey”.

INVOCATION & DISTRIBUTION

HYMN

I danced in the morning, when the world was begun
And I danced in the moon, and the stars and the sun
And I came down from heaven, and I danced on the earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth.

Dance then wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance said he
And I’ll lead you all
Wherever you may be
And I’ll lead you all
In the Dance said he.

I danced for the scribe, and the Pharisee
But they would not dance, and they wouldn’t follow me
I danced for the fishermen, for James and John
They came with me, and the dance went on.

I danced on the Sabbath, and I cured the lame
The holy people said it was a shame
They whipped and they stripped, and they hung me on high
And they left me there, on a cross to die.

I danced on a Friday, when the sky turned black
It’s hard to dance, with the devil on your back
They buried my body, and they thought I’d gone
But I am the dance, and I still go on.

They cut me down, and I leapt up high
I am the life, that’ll never, never die
I’ll live in you, if you’ll live in me
I am the Lord, of the dance said he.

BLESSING & BENEDICTION – Scripture in Song 72

Now unto him who is able to keep

Able to keep you from falling

And present you faultless

Before the presence of his glory

With exceeding joy

To the only wise God our Saviour

Be glory and majesty

Dominion and power both now and forever. Amen.

A community of dignity, and hope for all

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