(Image: Porcelain item created in the manner of artwork by James C. Christensen, “The Widow’s Mite”)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
For thousands of years, the Dharawal people have walked on this ancient land, on country. The Creator spoke to them in their Dreaming, for they too are made in the image of God. We honour and pay our respects to their elders, past and present and pledge ourselves to work together for reconciliation & justice making.
ENGADINE’S CHURCH STATEMENT
You are welcome – the story of God is bigger, wider, more inclusive and welcoming than we can imagine. There is room here for everyone; there is room here for you. God’s love for the world.
CHRIST CANDLE
We believe Christ Jesus is the Light of the world. We are drawn to His light lest we lose our way. To his Name be honour, praise and glory. A candle is lit.
CALL TO WORSHIP (Psalm 127 vs 1) Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.
Welcoming God, you invite us to come and spend time ‘at home’ with you.
Through God’s mercy and grace we have been invited.
Encouraging God, you call us to a purposeful life in a God-centred community.
Through God’s mercy and grace we live ‘at home’ with God and each other.
Gracious God, you call us and have given us in Christ Jesus a pattern for daily life.
We are called to live this pattern with you, with each other in your Creation. Watch over each of us this day Lord that we may be alive to your presence and purpose.
HYMN ‘Let us build a house’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKJgcv8SdnQ
Let us build a house where love can dwell, And all can safely live, A place where saints and children tell, How hearts learn to forgive, Built of hopes and dreams and visions, Rock of faith and vault of grace, Here the love of Christ shall end divisions, All are welcome, all are welcome, All are welcome in this place
Let us build a house where prophets speak, And words are strong and true, Where all God’s children dare to seek, To dream God’s reign anew, Here the cross shall stand as witness, And a symbol of God’s grace, Here as one we claim the faith of Jesus, All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place
Let us build a house where all are named, Their songs and visions heard, And loved and treasured, taught and claimed, As words within the Word, Built of tears and cries and laughter, Prayers of faith and songs of grace, Let this house proclaim from floor to rafter, All are welcome, all are welcome, All are welcome in this place.
Songwriters: Marty Haugen
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Lord, your Psalm says, ‘unless the Lord builds the house and unless the Lord watches over the city’
Lord, the hymn we have just sung talks of houses built where love can dwell and where children can experience love and forgiveness.
Too often love does not inhabit the houses where we and others live: voices raised in anger, compassion seldom experienced, love too often conditional, hurts retained and rarely forgiven.
In your mercy Lord, build afresh our houses.
Too many people Lord in our city are waiting for community housing and for affordable housing, too many still live on the streets, couch surf or sleep in cars. Our taxation system too often favours the wealthy, while our compassion for those seeking shelter as long as it isn’t our children is seldom acted upon. In your mercy Lord, build afresh our cities.
In your House, all are welcome; in your City all find shelter. In your heart all are loved; in your mind all are held accountable. Set us free Lord from our self-centred preoccupations, from our lack of trust in you, in ourselves and in each other. Open wide the gates to your house & ours, for Jesus sake. Amen
BIBLE READINGS
Hebrews 9: 24 – 28 (NIV) For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Mark 12: 38 – 44 (NIV) As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
In this we hear God’s Word. Thanks be to God!
MESSAGE ‘Giving out of our poverty’
The 1st World, or Global North, which includes most of those who live in Australia, can usually spend what they wish without too much thinking at supermarkets, on clothes, on meals out and on holidays. But many in our land and arguably over 70% of those elsewhere in the world live day to day, literally counting the pennies…deciding what bills to pay this month, how much food they can buy this week.
I remember in my childhood, there were many meals of tripe, of ‘treats’ like baked beans on toast or fish fingers, while meat was mostly sausages & forequarter chops. I now know that my parents had very little to live on and mum took on extra work to help make ends meet. Hire purchase was also the go.
Maybe you have similar stories too?
What a picture we have in this story from Mark of the Temple treasury and of those Jesus watches as they put in their money. Who of us would be comfortable having Jesus watch what we put in! For he is the One who looks at the heart and knows our very thoughts and priorities; with Him there are no plain unnumbered offering envelopes for us to use – all is known and revealed!
Jesus watches: many he determines put in out of their – abundance, wealth or excess.
The closest English word to that in the Greek is superfluity – giving out of that which we do not need for daily life, that giving didn’t influence one way or the other how they lived and determined life’s priorities. It may have been a relatively large amount but it was superfluous to their daily life.
Jesus watches: one poor widow, the two words mean the same thing. To be a widow meant you were poor! She gave out of her – poverty, want, need or closest to the Greek ‘out of her deficiency’.
So this isn’t the two coins she has budgeted for each week. The Greek word used states that she didn’t have enough to live on, to make ends meet, she had no surplus, every coin’s use was critical to how she lived life. Every penny precious beyond measure. Her giving showed deep faith and trust.
That she gave all she had is an affront to our sensibilities, her act seems wanton, almost irresponsible, it isn’t prudent. Surely she would keep back something. But she doesn’t.
She gives without coercion, without publicity, indeed she is not noticed as she gives compared with those who give large amounts of money. That too is part of the key to the authenticity of her deep, trusting faith. So how do you respond to this story? Do you feel uncomfortable?
Because a response is what Jesus (and Mark) requires of you and I.
Irrespective of whether it is money or the talents and gifts God has given or the time and energy and health we can bring to serving Christ, if we give ‘a widow’s mite’ in faith and trust then it becomes life transforming, and we and those whose lives we touch are blessed.
What we give then makes a positive difference to how we live the WHOLE of our lives; for Jesus asks, nothing more than what he gave, his whole self, to us and God’s creation. When we do this we catch a glimpse of the life in abundance with a capital L that John talks of in John 10 vs 10 where generosity and humility are at the heart of all that we are and (where possible) in all of our relationships.
And our world desperately needs the freeing up of our 1st world’s resources of time, talents and money, in our commitment to the equitable sharing of COVID vaccines and to climate change which already more adversely affects those in the 3rd world especially our near neighbours in the Pacific. The establishment of deep and abiding relationships which can also flow out of this generosity of sacrificial giving within our family, church family and across the world is also deeply needed.
Praise be to God for this widow and for Jesus’ once and for all gift of His crucified and Risen life. Amen
HYMN ‘God whose giving knows no ending’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUKNNdpMdHs
God, whose giving knows no ending, From Your rich and endless store: Nature’s wonder, Jesus’ wisdom, Costly cross, grave’s shattered door. Gifted by You, we turn to You, Offering up ourselves in praise: Thankful song shall rise forever, Gracious donor of our days.
Skills and time are ours for pressing, Toward the goals of Christ, Your Son: All at peace in health and freedom, Races joined, the church made one. Now direct our daily labour, Lest we strive for self alone: Born with talents, make us servants, Fit to answer at Your throne.
Treasure, too, You have entrusted, Gain through powers Your grace conferred: Ours to use for home and kindred, And to spread the Gospel Word. Open wide our hands in sharing, As we heed Christ’s ageless call, Healing, teaching, and reclaiming, Serving You by loving all.
CCLI Song # 5356074
Robert Lansing Edwards © 1961, Renewed 1989 The Hymn Society (Admin. by Hope Publishing Company) For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
ANNOUNCEMENTS & OFFERING
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
HOLY COMMUNION
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.
A PRAYER OF THANKGIVING
With what shall we come before the Lord the maker of heaven and earth? Who in Christ Jesus became one with us, flesh of our flesh, a person of faith, like us yet is Lord of all.
We come before your table in our poverty, we are beggars looking for crumbs which fall from His table. You feed us extravagantly, you overwhelm us with your provision and we are grateful Lord!
You give us the gift of community in your Name and the gift of humanity in your created world. Fruit of the vine and work of our hands, the gift of your life through arms out stretched on a cross.
In gratitude and thanksgiving, in humbling awe we bring you our lives that we may be fed and transformed into your likeness as disciples of Jesus. And when words are never enough we join 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.
WORDS OF INSTITUTION & INVOCATION
DISTRIBUTION
HYMN ‘How deep the Father’s love for us’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=174ITyd_PU0
Celtic Source Vol. 1 – How Deep the Father’s Love For Us (Lyric Video) – YouTube
How deep the Father’s love for us, How vast beyond all measure, That He should give His only Son, To make a wretch His treasure. How great the pain of searing loss, The Father turns His face away, As wounds which mar the Chosen One, Bring many sons and daughters to glory.
Behold the man upon a cross, My sin upon His shoulders. Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice, Call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held Him there, Until it was accomplished, His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished.
I will not boast in anything, No gifts, no power, no wisdom. But I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer, But this I know with all my heart, His wounds have paid my ransom.
CCLI Song # 1558110
Stuart Townend © 1995 Thankyou Music (Admin. by SHOUT! Music Publishing Australia) For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
COMMISSIONING AND BENEDICTION
God calls us to live in wholeness. God calls us to grow community. God calls us to build justice. Let us go, called by God, in companionship with Jesus and filled with the Spirit. Amen.
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