WELCOME
At Engadine Uniting we believe all people are created lovingly and wonderfully in the image of God, and we welcome everyone to this church and worship time regardless of race, age, ability, sexuality and gender. We love sharing our love and care to everyone sitting in our pews or watching on Zoom or other devices. Please feel very welcome here this morning.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
LIGHTING THE CANDLE
Be still for the presence of the Lord
The holy one is here
Come bow your heads now
With reverence and fear.
In him no sin is found,
We stand on holy ground
Be still for the presence of the Lord
The holy one is here.
Here we have opportune time to re-ground ourselves in God.
The love of Christ so leads us.
The joy of the Lord be with you all.
And also with you.
It is time for pausing and praising, for thinking and thanking,
for listening and learning, for confessing and forgiving.
This is time for allowing ourselves to be loved and cherished
by a God who will never leave us or forsake us.
PRAYER OF APPROACH
Holy Friend, please release in us that spirit of joyful thanks which is too often cramped down by our work and worries, or ignored by our trivial pleasures and entertainments.
Release the real joy of Christ in us, that with adoring gratitude we may link our little spirits with your majestic Spirit, and find that inflow of health which rejuvenates our whole being. Through our Saviour and friend.
Amen!
Hymn God of grace and God of Glory
1 God of grace and God of glory,
on your people pour your power;
now fulfil your Church’s story,
bring the bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom,
grant us courage,
for the facing of this hour,
for the facing of this hour.
2 See the hosts of evil round us
scorn your Christ, assail his ways.
Fears and doubts too long have bound us;
free our hearts to work and praise.
Grant us wisdom,
grant us courage,
for the living of these days,
for the living of these days.
3 Cure your children’s warring madness;
bend our pride to your control;
shame our wanton selfish gladness,
rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom,
grant us courage,
lest we miss your kingdom’s goal,
lest we miss your kingdom’s goal.
4 Save us from weak resignation
to the evils we deplore;
let the gift of your salvation
be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom,
grant us courage,
serving you whom we adore,
serving you whom we adore.
CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE
God is always ready to hear our confession. Are we ready to front up and to ‘fess up”? Let us pray.
When others expose our obvious faults and sins, when we ourselves get angry with our less obvious and secret sins, thank goodness, loving God, for Christ Jesus our Redeemer!
Other people may project shame on us and shun us, we may find ourselves hard to live with, but you come to us with a relentless grace and therapeutic mercy that forgives and heals.
You are the light that exposes all shabbiness, the physician who diagnoses with total accuracy, the surgeon who cuts away disease and corruption, the pharmacist who prescribes the right salve, and the nurse who encourages our sore spirits back to health.
You, Jesus Christ, are our loving judge and our enduring Saviour. Please deal with us not exactly as we ask, and not as we deserve, but with that wise compassion which knows what is best for us, now and always.
Amen!
FORGIVENESS
My friends in Christ: God knows from personal experience how difficult it is to be a truly good person, when living under the pressures of a busy life in a world where evil seems to prosper and goodness appears to languish.
Our God knows and provides mercy and renewal. We are a forgiven, trusted and empowered people. The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all
And also with you! Lets pass this peace with others
Hymn: O Christ the healer we have come
O Christ the healer, we have come
To pray for health, to plead for friends
How can we fail to be restored
When reached by love that never ends?
From every ailment flesh endures
Our bodies clamour to be freed;
Yet in our hearts we would confess
That wholeness is our deepest need.
How strong, O Lord, are our desires
How weak our knowledge of ourselves!
Release in us those healing truths
Unconscious pride resists or shelves.
In conflicts that destroy our health
We diagnose the world’s disease;
Our common life declares our ills’
Is there no cure, O Christ for these?
Grant that we all made one in faith,
In your community may find
The wholeness that, enriching us,
Shall reach the whole of humankind.
Children’s time
PSALM 66: 1-12 A modern paraphrase by Bruce Prewer
Circle the earth with a ‘Mexican wave’ for God!
Surround the globe with rapturous songs!
Shout together about God’s awesome deeds,
of the power that makes devils cringe!
Let all the earth combine in worship,
sing psalms and joyful songs to God’s name.
Just take a look at what our God has done,
such sensational things for humanity.
The sea becomes a path like the dry land,
deep rivers are easily crossed.
When it’s all happening we celebrate our God,
whose strength goes on forever.
God keeps an eye on the nations,
Lest politicians become full of themselves.
It’s our privilege to praise in city and country,
to make sure joy is everywhere heard.
God gives us a place among the living,
and does not allow our feet to fatally slip.
We know that you have tested us, God,
we are like silver purified by fire.
You make us fight our own way out trouble,
our backs have bent under the strain.
Others may have walked all over us,
yet from flood and fire we breath again.
Luke 17 11 – 19: Ten Men with Leprosy
11 On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus went along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men with leprosy[b] came toward him. They stood at a distance 13 and shouted, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
14 Jesus looked at them and said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.”[c]
On their way they were healed. 15 When one of them discovered that he was healed, he came back, shouting praises to God. 16 He bowed down at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The man was from the country of Samaria.
17 Jesus asked, “Weren’t ten men healed? Where are the other nine? 18 Why was this foreigner the only one who came back to thank God?” 19 Then Jesus told the man, “You may get up and go. Your faith has made you well.”
May these words bring fresh understanding to the life of Jesus.
Sermon: from one written by Rev Bruce Prewer for this reading (from 9.40, below)
Announcements
Prayers for giving: Bruce
Prayers of the People: Bruce
Hymn: Lord I come to you
Lord I come to You
Let my heart be changed, renewed
Flowing from the grace
That I’ve found in You
Lord I’ve come to know
The weaknesses I see in me
Will be stripped away
By the power of Your love
Hold me close
Let Your love surround me
Bring me near
Draw me to Your side
And as I wait
I’ll rise up like the eagle
And I will soar with You
Your Spirit leads me on
In the power of Your love
Lord unveil my eyes
Let me see You face to face
The knowledge of Your love
As You live in me
Lord renew my mind
As Your will unfolds in my life
In living every day
By the power of Your love
Hold me close
Let Your love surround me
Bring me near
Draw me to Your side
And as I wait
I’ll rise up like the eagle
And I will soar with You
Your Spirit leads me on
In the power of Your love
And I will soar with You
Your Spirit leads me on
In the power of Your love
And I will soar with You
Your Spirit leads me on
In the power of Your love
SENDING OUT
Gratitude is a healthy reaction to grace. Let us pray.
Holy Friend, words about you are no substitute for the real thing. We thank you for the special times of the spirit; for those brief moments of Divine light, when nothing separates us from you and we can experience a fragment of pure wonder and love.
We thank you for the simple triggers you choose for these moments of light: A piece of music, a walk by the sea, a phrase in a prayer. The song of the magpie, the eyes of a friend, a line in a hymn. A ripple on still waters, a word of Scripture, the soft cheek of a baby. A tiny bush orchid or a bright red Waratah , a loved one’s hug, a parable from Jesus.
The midnight stars, an awakened memory, the sharing of bread and wine. Recovering from an illness, a thought in a sermon, the scent of a flower. A child’s smile and hug, the striking of a clock, the glimpse of a mountain peak.
We thank you that we cannot manufacture these times of awe; or predict them; that they are your serendipity gifts, free as grace, more precious than gold. Help us to treasure them, to measure them by what Christ taught us, and to use them as inspiration as we leave this morning for the common love and service of ordinary days. To your endless praise and glory.
Amen!
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