WELCOME Welcome, welcome, welcome. Christ Jesus our Risen Lord welcomes us! God the Creator who has given us this land to care for & delight in welcomes us & the Holy Spirit who keeps us in touch with the words & promises of Jesus welcomes us. So come, do not be afraid.
Dharawal Elders past and present bid us come in peace, with respect and a generous heart.
For we gather on their land gifted by the Creator before recorded time began. Welcome.
CHRIST CANDLE Darkness is strong, but light is stronger. Christ is the Light of the world and not even death has overcome His light. Praise be to God whose light gives hope to all the world.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Let us join in worship to celebrate the fruit of God’s reign.
Let us sing our praise and listen for God’s living Word as we seek to serve faithfully.
All glory to God, now and forever. Let us pray…
Come Holy Spirit. Come and remind us that we are Christ’s people, called together as his Body.
Speak words of truth and goodness to us, that we may better know you and more fully serve you and our community. Holy Spirit, may we recognise your presence amongst us today. Amen
HYMN
Come, O God of all the earth
Come to us, O Righteous One
Come, and bring your love to birth
In the glory of your Son.
Sing out, earth and skies!
Sing of the God who loves you
Raise your joyful cries
Dance to the life around you.
Come, O God of wind and flame
Fill the earth with righteousness
Teach us all to sing your name
May our lives your love confess.
Sing out, earth and skies!
Sing of the God who loves you
Raise your joyful cries
Dance to the life around you.
Come, O Justice, come, O Peace
Come and shape our hearts anew
Come and make oppression cease
Bring us all to life in you.
Sing out, earth and skies!
Sing of the God who loves you
Raise your joyful cries
Dance to the life around you.
Marty Haugen Words & Music by permission GIA Publications Inc CCLI Licence # 31951
READING Dick & Jan
Exodus 17: 1 – 7 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarrelled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?” But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarrelled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
The path is harder, drier, longer, steeper, than we expected Lord
and we quarrel with you, blame you and turn from you.
But you are Holy Mercy: forgive us again, we pray.
The questions are tougher, more complex, less clear, than we expected Lord
and we quarrel with you, blame you and turn from you.
But you are Holy Mercy: forgive us again, we pray.
The answers are murkier, more slippery, with more questions than we expected Lord
and we quarrel with you, blame you and turn from you.
But you are Holy Mercy: forgive us again, we pray.
The story is gloomier, scarier, more confronting than we expected Lord
and we quarrel with you, blame you and turn from you.
But you are Holy Mercy: forgive us again, we pray.
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
Lord, we are sorry for our limited expectations, our failing to listen, our struggle to understand the fulness of your invitation and calling. Thank you for hearing our prayers, hearing of our fears yet knowing too of our hope, Merciful and Holy One so that we can always come home. Amen
SONG
Just as a lost and thirsty deer
longs for a cool and running stream
I thirst for you, the living God
anxious to know that you are near.
Both day and night I cry aloud;
tears have become my only food,
while all around cruel voices ask,
“Where is your God? Where is your God?”
Broken and hurt, I call to mind
how in the past I served the Lord,
worshipped and walked with happy crowds
singing and shouting praise to God.
Why am I now so lost and low?
Why am I so troubled and confused?
Given no answer, still I hope
and trust my Saviour and my God.
© WGRG, Iona Community, 1989. Used with permission CCLI Licence # 31951
GOSPEL READING Dick & Jan
Matthew 21: 23 – 32 Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?” Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question.
If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?” They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”
So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”
Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. Seek in this for God’s word of Life. Praise be to God!
HYMN
Bring many names, beautiful and good
celebrate, in parable and story
holiness in glory, living, loving God.
Hail and hosanna! Bring many names!
Strong mother God, working night and day
planning all the wonders of creation
setting each equation, genius at play:
Hail and hosanna, strong mother God!
Warm father God, hugging every child
feeling all the strains of human living
caring and forgiving till we’re reconciled:
Hail and hosanna, warm father God!
Great, living God, never fully known
joyful darkness far beyond our seeing
closer yet than breathing, everlasting home:
Hail and hosanna, great, living God!
Brian Arthur Wren © 1996 Hope Publishing Co. Used with permission CCLI Licence # 31951
MESSAGE Complaining can help us to be honest before God
HYMN
Father, we give you thanks, who planted
Your holy name within our hearts.
Knowledge and faith and life immortal
Jesus your Son to us imparts.
Lord, you have made all for your pleasure
And given us food for all our days
Giving in Christ the bread eternal;
Yours is the power, be yours the praise.
Over your church, Lord, watch in mercy
Save it from evil, guard it still
Perfect it in your love, unite it
Cleansed and conforming to your will.
As grain, once scattered on the hillsides
Was in the broken bread made one
So may your world-wide church be gathered
Into your kingdom by your Son.
Words © The Church Pension Fund Group From the Didache ca110.
Used with permission CCLI Licence # 31951
ANNOUNCEMENTS
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE & LORD’S PRAYER including Offertory Prayer: Bruce H
HOLY COMMUNION Elder – Kathy
It’s Passover eve and as followers of our teacher Yeshua we gather to hear the familiar words spoken in community for generations about God’s blessing and deliverance from the time of slavery in Egypt. There’s Peter, James and John Jesus’ closest disciples; there’s Judas always worried, always counting our purse as if there’s never enough; there’s Nathaniel and Philip and Andrew always introducing people to Jesus; there’s Simon the freedom fighter his sword is always close at hand; Bartholomew and Thomas they keep to themselves. The women are here too Martha and her sister Mary, Susanna who is brilliant at finding the shekels and denarii we need and of course Mary of Magdala. We think she’s the one who loves Yeshua the most. Lazarus must be late. His head has been in the clouds ever since Jesus woke him from the dead! We’re full of bravado, dread, anticipation and expectation, for tomorrow much may happen, you can feel the unspoken tension in the room We then shared in a plain but simple meal but now our teacher is about to speak. What’s that? Jeshua is saying ‘this is my body’ what does all this mean?
INSTITUTION, INVOCATION & DISTRIBUTION
I AM the bread of Life…I AM the wine of new Life…
This bread is my body, this wine is my blood…Binding us together in him, a promise for the ages…not even death…O Lord now you are scaring us. What will happen to us all?
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 till I want no more.
Feed me till I want no 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.
William Williams 1717 – 1791 Public Domain CCLI Licence # 31951
BLESSING & BENEDICTION
Recent Comments