Chariots of Fire

WELCOME

Friends, you are welcome in this place as I am welcome. Our time together, is God’s gift to each of us. We come with what we know of and have experienced in life, we come seeking to discover what we don’t yet know about ourselves, our God and God’s hopes and dreams for our lives. 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. Together let us be Christ’s light and salt in the world. Welcome.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY

We gather on the first day of this new week of God’s creation on Dharawal land. We acknowledge their continuous link with the land and its Creator. We acknowledge that their land was never sold or ceded. It was just taken because our forebears could. We acknowledge their elders past and present and our journey together of justice making and reconciliation and we too long for their Uluru Statement of the Heart to be accepted by our Federal Parliament and the Australian People.

CANDLE LIGHTING

Today, flames like chariots of fire remind us of God’s promise, purpose and connection with and for our lives. We also reaffirm that Christ Jesus is the Light of the world and that darkness has not overcome His light or ability to carry His light & to discover it at work in the world. We light a candle.

OPENING PRAYER

Today Lord, we celebrate the lives of those who have faithfully followed you in the past and those who have passed the baton of faith on to us. Christ the Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. Amen

HYMN Music – Leanne

Come Holy Spirit come
Inflame our souls with love
Transforming every heart and home
With wisdom from above
O let us not despise
The humble path Christ trod
But choose to shame the worldly wise
The foolishness of God.

Give us the tongues to speak
In every time and place
To rich and poor to strong and weak
The word of love and grace
Enable us to hear
The words that others bring
Interpreting with open ear
The special song they sing.

Come Holy Spirit dance
Within our hearts today
Our earthbound spirits to entrance
Our mortal fears allay
And teach us to desire
All other things above
That self-consuming holy fire
The perfect gift of love.

CCLI Song # 1073482 Colin Mawby | Michael Forster © Words: 1992 Kevin Mayhew Ltd Music: 1992 Kevin Mayhew Ltd For use solely with the SongSelect® All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951

WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS

OT READING Dick & Jan
2Kings 2: 1 – 2, 6 – 14 Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.”

But he said, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on. Fifty men of the company of prophets also went and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and the two of them crossed on dry ground.

When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I may do for you before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.” He responded, “You have asked a hard thing, yet if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not.” As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha kept watching and crying out, “Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. He picked up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him & struck the water. He said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah? Where is he?” He struck the water again, & the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha crossed over.

2 Kings 5: 1 – 14 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favour with his master because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from a skin disease. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his skin disease.” So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, “Go, then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.”

He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his skin disease.” When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his skin disease? Just look & see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.” But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.”

So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and would wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Loving God, ever faithful, John Wesley wrote ‘deliver us O God, from a lazy mind and from all lukewarmness of heart.’ Lord has it been one of these weeks for us? Disengaged from the world, not really listening to those around us or with no fire in our belly for anything? May your Spirit help us.

Loving God, ever faithful, if we’ve heard all of today’s words of Scripture many times before, forgive us if we don’t believe they can still speak to each one of our lives, today, with life transforming power.

And if this past week has overwhelmed us and if in this past week we have spoken words and held thoughts that have not honoured you, each other or ourselves, forgive us and set us free. Know this day that even when we are ‘afar off’ our lives still a work in progress, you embrace and receive us. Hallelujah! In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen

GOSPEL READING Dick & Jan

Luke 10: 1 – 11 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way; I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’

In this we discover God’s Word of Life. Thanks be to God.

MESSAGE Chariots of Fire – a forestate of the Resurrection

Rev Paul Bartlett, on ”Chariots of Fire”

HYMN 416

Great God, your Spirit like the wind
Unseen but shaking things we see
Will never leave us undisturbed
Fulfil our dreams or set us free
Until we turn from faithless fear
And prove the promise of your grace
In justice peace and daily bread
With joy for all the human race.

Lord shake us with the force of love
To rouse us from our dreadful sleep
Remove our hearts of stone and give
New hearts of flesh to break and weep
For all your children in distress
And dying for the wealth we keep
Help us prevent while we have time
The blighted harvest greed must reap.

And then in your compassion give
Your Spirit like the gentle rain
Creating fertile ground from which
Your peace and justice spring like grain
Until your love is satisfied
With all creation freed from pain
And all your children live to praise
Your will fulfilled your presence plain.

OFFERING

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE: Kathy

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.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and gave it form, substance and life.

In the fulness of time this planet came into being and with it all life on Earth.

In the fulness of time Abraham & Sarah and all the Patriarchs and Matriarchs sought God.

In the fulness of time Moses & Aaron, Ruth & Naomi, Samuel & Elijah spoke about God.

In the fulness of time Jesus of Nazareth, flesh of our flesh and Son of God lived and spoke God’s Word to the first century peoples of Palestine. Through his death and resurrection we have the gift of the Holy Spirit that enables us to break bread not just in remembrance but as the Body of Christ, the Bread of Life.

So come dear friends, eat and drink in community with our Risen Lord and know his presence & Peace

And so let us now praise the Lord along with the faithful of every time and place, by joining with the choirs of angels and the whole creation in the eternal hymn:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

INVOCATION & DISTRIBUTION

HYMN

An upper room did our Lord prepare
For those He loved until the end
And His disciple still gather there
To celebrate their risen friend.

A lasting gift Jesus gave His own
To share His bread His loving cup
Whatever burdens may bow us down
He by His cross shall lift us up.

And after supper He washed their feet
For service too is sacrament
In Him our joy shall be made complete
Sent out to serve as He was sent.

No end there is we depart in peace
He loves beyond our uttermost
In every room in our Father’s house
He will be there as Lord and host.

BLESSING & BENEDICTION

The Lord bless you and keep you

The Lord make his face to shine upon you

And be gracious unto you

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you

And give you peace and give you peace.

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