WELCOME & ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Who is welcome here in the presence of God? Should we all come on bended knees with heads bowed and voices silent into the presence of the One who is Lord of all Creation?
But in Christ Jesus our heads are lifted up, our knees strengthened and our ears hear God’s voice of invitation and love. So welcome to every one – for we are all made in God’s image!
We gather, on the land of the Dharawal people whose land was never ceded but taken because our forebears could. We acknowledge their voices for justice and reconciliation and their elders past and present. We give thanks for their stewardship of the land and their link with the Creator.
CHRIST CANDLE
Despair is strong, but hope is stronger, evil is strong but love is stronger, bitterness is strong but forgiveness is stronger. Darkness is strong, but light is stronger! Let us light our Lenten candle! OR
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!
HYMN TIS 684
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.
Peace will be our Lenten living
as we turn for home again
longing for the words of pardon
stripping off old grief and pain
till we stand, restored and joyful
with the Church on Easter day.
Truth will be our Lenten learning:
hear the Crucified One call!
Shadowed by the Saviour’s passion
images and idols fall
and, in Easter’s holy splendour
God alone is all in all.
BIBLE READINGS
Genesis 12: 1 – 4a The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; he was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.
SONG
One more step along the world I go
one more step along the world I go
from the old things to the new
keep me traveling along with you:
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
keep me traveling along with you.
Round the corner of the world I turn
more and more about the world I learn;
all the new things that I see
you’ll be looking at along with me:
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
keep me traveling along with you.
As I travel through the bad and good
keep me traveling the way I should;
Where I see no way to go
you’ll be telling me the way I know:
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
keep me traveling along with you.
Give me courage when the world is rough
keep me loving though the world is tough
leap and sing in all I do
keep me traveling along with you:
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
keep me traveling along with you.
You are older than the world can be
you are younger than the life in me
ever old and ever new
keep me traveling along with you:
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
keep me traveling along with you.
Romans 4: 1 – 3, 13 & 17c What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith, in whom Abraham believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. In this we discover faith and vocation at work. Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE ‘Blessed to be a blessing’
HYMN TIS 691
Faith will not grow from words alone
From proofs provided, scripture known
Our faith must feel its way about
And live with question-marks and doubt.
The pattern Jesus showed us, we share
Life comes through death, hope through despair.
God is made known in brokenness
And faith feeds on God’s emptiness.
The church still tells how Jesus came
Through death to glorious life again
The strangest story! Yet, maybe
Our faith will thrive on mystery.
Faith takes the little that we know
And calls for hope and tells us: Go!
Love and take courage, come what may
Christ will be with us on the way.
Elizabeth J Smith. Words with permission. Music by permission Faber Music, London CCLI Licence # 31951
OFFERTORY PRAYER
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE & LORD’S PRAYER
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 thanks and praise.
Dear friends, we come to eat a meal of bread and wine which Jesus has already prepared for us, knowing that without his Spirit present in our lives we would starve both as individuals and as a faith community and lose our way. This meal has been prepared at great cost to himself.
Yet it is freely given. An unearned meal of extravagant grace.
If only we will accept it with no sense of privilege or superior knowledge or of service.
So come, enjoy, drink deeply and eat well. There is enough for each one of us and more.
WORDS OF INSTITUTION & INVOCATION
With this bread and with this cup
The gifts of God for the people of God.
DISTRIBUTION
HYMN TIS 569
Guide us, O our great Redeemer
Pilgrim through this barren land
We are weak but You are mighty
Hold us with Your powerful hand
Bread of heaven, Bread of heaven
Feed us now and ever more
Feed us now and ever more.
Open now the crystal fountain
Whence the living waters flow
Let the fiery, cloudy pillar
Lead us all our journey through
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer
Be O God our strength and shield
Be O God our strength and shield.
When we tread the verge of Jordan
Bid our anxious fears subside
Death of death, and hell’s destruction
Land us safe on Canaan’s side
Songs of praises, songs of praises
We will ever give to You
We will ever give to You.
BLESSING & BENEDICTION
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord with all that you are in body, mind, spirit & heart.
And the blessing of God: Creator, Redeemer & Life-giving Spirit
delight in you who are, and in whom you are becoming. Amen
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