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.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY
With flannel flower and wattle, with acacia and blue gum branches we dance our own corroboree as we celebrate life with Christ Jesus our Lord. We welcome him into our lives on Dharawal land, gifted to them by the Creator since time immemorial. We acknowledge their land and their elders past and present joining our voices with theirs in our search for reconciliation and justice making.
YOU ARE WELCOME
All people are made in the image of God. If you know what it is to love and to be loved, you are welcome. If you have spent your whole life searching for such love and acceptance you are also welcome. We are all welcome to this safe place where Jesus is acknowledged as Lord. You are welcome in His name on this day of new beginnings. The Peace of the Lord be with you…
WE LIGHT OUR LENTEN CANDLE
We gather to worship God. We gather so we can turn to Christ.
Whose life gives Life to all. We will journey with him to Calvary and beyond.
This is our prayer and our hope. Praise be to God!
CALL TO WORSHIP
Let us Pray: In wanders God to a temple once departed. God looks around – No healing. No renewal. Buying and selling in place of adoration and prayer. So God leaves, for a short time, and returns once more with zeal, with honesty, with anger, with words about being broken down broken apart broken open and put together again anew. Come, let us glimpse the hope of the resurrection. Come, let us rejoice in the hope of Christ.
HYMN
The heavens shall declare, the glory of his name
All creation bow at the coming of the King
Every eye shall see, every heart will know
Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
See the coming of the King
Holy is the Lord.
Words and music by permission Geoff Bullock. Nightlight Music Group. CCLI Licence # 31951
WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS
PRAYER OF ADORATION AND THANKSGIVING
The sky is lit up with your radiance;
the earth is your masterpiece!
Each sunrise tells a God-story in silent brilliance.
Out comes the sun – full of joy; basking in love;
brimming with purpose; programmed with divine genius; delighted at the task it has been given!
Your wisdom is like sweet honey to us, O God. Your leadership is pure gold.
We give you thanks, O rock and restorer, for you redeem and revive us. In Jesus’ name. Amen
BIBLE READING Exodus 20: 1 – 17
And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
“Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. “You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour. “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”
HYMN ‘I have brought you out of Egypt’
“I have brought you out of Egypt,” Moses heard the Lord God say.
“I have saved you! I have freed you! people, listen and obey.
Have no other gods before me; don’t make idols for yourselves.
I will judge those who reject me; worship me and no one else.”
“Do not use the Lord’s name wrongly, use God’s name for what is good.
Keep the Sabbath; keep it holy; rest and worship as you should.
Honour father, honour mother; do not murder! Honour life!
Do not wander to another from your husband or your wife.”
God continued these commandments: “Do not steal another’s things;
And you shall not bear false witness — see the anguish that it brings.
Do not seek with bitter longing what you see across the street.
Keep these laws and find within them where my love and justice meet.”
God of grace, we see your promise in the covenant you give.
For your law is wise and wondrous as it shows us how to live.
Loving God and loving neighbour, may we follow where you call.
Saved by grace, may we together seek to live your gracious law.
Copyright © 2012 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved. CCLI Licence # 31951
BIBLE READING John 2: 13 – 22
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.
So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle;
he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
May these words of Scripture help us to remember who Jesus is too! Thanks be to God!
MESSAGE The Temple of Love
HYMN
Your words to me are life and health
Pour strength into my soul
Enable, guide and teach my heart
To reach its perfect goal.
Your words to us are light and truth
From day to day they show
Their wisdom, passing human thought
As in their truth we grow.
Your words to me are full of joy
Of beauty, peace and grace
From them I learn your blessed will
Through them I see your face.
Your words are perfected in One
Yourself, the living Word:
Within our hearts your image print
In clearest lines, O Lord.
Words © G.C. Martin Music by permission Oxford University Press. CCLI Licence # 31951
OFFERTORY PRAYER
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE & LORD’S PRAYER
HOLY COMMUNION adapted from a Liturgy for Autumn by Rex A E Hunt
Loving and caring God, you have searched us out and known us, all that we are is open to you…
Look not upon our shortcomings but upon our faith.
Break down all barriers which we erect against your love.
Wrap us in the blanket of your peace.
And let your justice reach to the ends of the earth.
So that we come glad to this celebration, and tell us again about the changing colours of Autumn, and currawongs, and of a God who loves and seeks after us. Silence
O God, bring new life, where we are worn and tired; new love, where we have turned hard hearted; forgiveness, where we have wounded, and the joy and freedom of your holy spirit,
where we are the prisoners of our selves. Silence
In time beyond our dreaming God hovered over the water, and was revealed in fire and storm and in the Law. Likewise humanity in this creative likeness, evolved on this earth, along with earth’s minerals and waters, flowers and fruits, living creatures of grace and beauty!
We offer this our thanks and praise.
In the forty days of Lent, we also remember the love made manifest in the birth, life, and
death of Jesus of Nazareth. In his healing acts and radical teachings we recall the words he spoke
to call forth love, care and respect for one another.
We are grateful for this assurance of love amidst human betrayal, care amidst hatred, respect amidst oppression. And so, with Elizabeth who prophesied a birth, Martha who longed for the Christ, and James and John who sought to follow in the Way, we continue our praise, saying:
Holy, holy, holy, vulnerable God, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of God. Hosanna in the highest.
(Holy Communion is celebrated)
HYMN
Lord of creation, to you be all praise!
Most mighty your working, most wondrous your ways!
Your glory and might are beyond us to tell,
and yet in the heart of the humble you dwell.
Lord of all power, I give you my will,
in joyful obedience your tasks to fulfill.
Your bondage is freedom, your service is song,
and, held in your keeping, our weakness is strong.
Lord of all wisdom, we give you our minds;
enrich it with truths that express your design.
What eye has not seen and what ear has not heard
is taught by your Spirit and shines from your Word.
Lord of all bounty, I give you my heart;
We praise and adore you for all you impart:
your love to inspire me, your counsel to lead,
your presence to shield us, whatever betide.
Words © Mrs J Tyrell & Music © E Routley OUP Used with permission. CCLI Licence # 31951
BLESSING & BENEDICTION
Love will be our Lenten calling, love to shake and shatter sin
Waking every closed, cold spirit, stirring new life deep within
Till the quickened heart remembers, what our Easter birth can mean.
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