You can watch the service here, or scroll down to read the rest of the Sunday prayers and content, and watch the sermon at the point it occurs during worship.
Welcome! God loves and accepts us just as we are. Engadine Uniting seeks to be a safe place for all people to gather regardless of age, ability, sexuality, or culture. We gather today accepting each other in our diversity to seek love and joy in the presence of God. Know that you are loved and that your presence here this morning both enriches each one of us and our worship time together. A special welcome to our friends on zoom and to anyone visiting us this morning.
Acknowledgement of country
As we gather this morning to worship on Dharawal land, let us acknowledge and remember the first nations peoples who also gathered, lived, cared for and worshiped on this land. We acknowledge the great sorrows and injustices brought on the Dharawal peoples through the past and present actions and inactions of the church, the government and the society in which we live. We seek forgiveness.
All: In doing so, we recommit to the path of reconciliation and justice that God lays before us.
Lighting the candle
The light of the world is Jesus who shares our worship today.
The joy of the Lord be with you all.
And also with you.
Call to worship
Come to us Mother of ages, weave us into faith. Come to us wisdom in humanity, spin us into freedom.
Come to us, Nurturer of community, stitch us into your tapestry of life, that we may know the colour of hope, experience the texture of grace, and celebrate the fabric of wholeness in the mystery of your creativity. Amen
HYMN: God of Jeremiah
Confession
Heavenly God,
you gifted this world
and made us stewards of it,
gave us family from many lands
and ask us to care for them,
put your word upon our heart
and ask that we share it.
But we have thought only of ourselves
and the blessings of our lives,
forgetting that your grace
and love are for the benefit of all.
We are sorry for our moments of greed and apathy, for our tendency towards self-centred comfort, and for our tendency to look away from those in need. Forgive us for the systemic injustices that are embedded in our systems and for the barriers we have allowed to separate humanity. Renew our hearts and spirits, enlarge our vision, enable us to be the people we could be, so that we might truly follow You in love and service.
Assurance of forgiveness
God is the God of new beginnings and second chances. Restoration and jubilee. Hope after failure. Renewal in spirit. Life after despair. We are forgiven and have opportunity to redress and make amends. Thank you God. Amen.
Bible readings: Susan and Brad
1 Tim 6:6-19
Lk 16:19-31
Reflection: Heather, bringing writings by Ched Myers and Martin Luther King (begins at 16.48)
Announcements
We can now consider this creed together: The immigrant apostle’s creed, by Rev. Jose Luis Casal, Director, Presbyterian World Mission.
“I believe in Almighty God, who guided the people in exile and in exodus, the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants.
I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.
When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate, the servant of a foreign power. Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured and unjustly condemned to death.
But on the third day Jesus rose from the dead, not as a scorned foreigner but to offer us citizenship in God’s kingdom.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God’s kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries, and reunites all races.
I believe that the Church is the secure home for foreigners and for all believers. I believe that the communion of saints begins when we embrace all God’s people in all their diversity.
I believe in forgiveness, which makes us all equal before God, and in reconciliation, which heals our brokenness.
I believe that, in the Resurrection, God will unite us as one people in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time.
I believe in life eternal, in which no one will be a foreigner but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever. Amen.”
Offertory
Dear Provider God, we offer today our money, time and talents. May they be used to bridge the gap between the haves and have nots, may our offering remind us of our privilege and responsibility, and may our ability to make an offering foster humility not self-satisfaction.
In your name we pray, Amen
HYMN 690 Beauty for brokenness
Prayers of the people: Sarah
Benediction
Holy God, you are the beginning of all things good. You desire truth, healing, and justice. Let us be partners in your work of reconciliation, peace-making and loving-kindness today and every day. Amen.
HYMN 674 Inspired by love and anger
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