You can watch the bible readings and sermon here, or scroll down to read the rest of the Sunday prayers and content, and watch this video at the point it occurs during worship.
Welcome
I welcome you all here today. Our aim at Engadine Uniting Church is to make this a safe place for all peoples regardless of gender, ethnicity, abilities, or sexual orientation to worship so you can gain spiritual nourishment. Today the theme is on hope. Throughout the service there will be songs, videos and words of hope from people who have experienced trauma or marginalisation.
Acknowledgment of Country
As we meet here today in a building on Chipilly Ave, on land that has been cared for for thousands of years by Dharawal peoples, let us now pay respect to those Elders, and to the elders of this church, past present and emerging.
Lighting the Christ Candle
In this place we light the candle to remind us that as we meet, Christ is in our midst, Christ is the light of the world and Christ is our hope.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Based on Psalm 92:1–2
It is good to give thanks to God.
to declare God’s steadfast love in the morning,
It is good to give thanks to God.
To speak of God’s faithfulness by night.
It is good to give thanks to God.
We gather in hope.
It is good to give thanks to God.
Song1: This is a day of new beginnings
PRAYER OF INVOCATION
Christ our brother,
in parable and story
you bring to life the dream of God’s reign.
Create this dream in us
that we might live no longer for ourselves,
but for you.
In gathering today, may your words of life
be scattered around and planted in us,
that they might grow beyond our imagining.
Amen.
Bible Reading 1: Ezekiel 17:22-24.
22 Thus says the Lord God:
I myself will take a sprig
from the lofty top of the cedar;
I will set it out.
I will break off a tender shoot
from the topmost of its young twigs;
I myself will transplant it
on a high and lofty mountain.
23 On the mountain height of Israel
I will transplant it,
and it will produce boughs and bear fruit
and become a noble cedar.
Under it every kind of bird will live;
in the shade of its branches will nest
winged creatures of every kind.
24 All the trees of the field shall know
that I am the Lord.
I bring low the high tree;
I make high the low tree;
I dry up the green tree
and make the dry tree flourish.
I the Lord have spoken;
I will accomplish it.
PRAYER OF ADORATION AND THANKSGIVING
God of wonders,
everything begins in smallness.
Each of us alive now began as a tiny collection of cells,
the universe began out of the smallness of nothing.
Love between us begins out of a look or only a word.
Thank you for the truth that what is small can be full of dynamic life and can grow and become so large that it envelopes us in the wonders of the world.
For small beginnings,
for tiny ideas,
for fragile hopes,
for smallness,
we thank you.
In the name of the one
who birthed everything
out of nothing, we pray. Amen.
Bible Reading 2: Mark 4:1-20
4 Again he began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on a path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “If you have ears to hear, then hear!”
10 When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret[a] of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything comes in parables, 12 in order that
‘they may indeed look but not perceive,
and may indeed hear but not understand;
so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’ ”
13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.[b] 18 And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the age and the lure of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. 20 And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”
The following song is about hope and starting small. Our First nations people can show us how to keep hope alive.
Bible Reading No 3: Mark 21- 32.
21 He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket or under the bed and not on the lampstand? 22 For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. 23 If you have ears to hear, then hear!” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and it will be added to you. 25 For to those who have, more will be given, and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”
26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle because the harvest has come.”
30 He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
Sermon. John McKinnon
The church has marginalised many people. This video is about a marginalised group who has not given up on the church and finds a place in her branches.
Offering Prayer:
Prayers of the People
Song: Trees of the Field
BENEDICTION
Sisters and brothers,
friends of Jesus,
lovers of justice and truth,
children of God.
You are called to be seeds in the world,
to give yourselves to love and to care,
to hope and to joy.
You are called to be alive in the world
with your eyes wide open!
Go in the hope of the God who made you.
Go in the joy of the God who goes alongside you.
Go in the love of the God who always has and always will dwell in you.
Amen.
As you leave, the following song of prayer and peace for the Middle East sung by people from the 3 Abrahamic faiths. This composition was created late last year at the commencement of the conflict from 7 October but now more than ever we need hope for our world and reconciliation.
The words are:
Hebrew:
Peace on you, angels of peace, angels of heaven Come down and bring peace on earth King of the angels, bring peace on us.
Arabic:
God is great, I witness the greatness of God and his prophet Come to prayer, come to success, God is the greatest.
English:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.
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