You can watch some parts of the service in this video here (mostly bible readings and the message) or scroll down and read the prayers and songs in the order they happened.
CHRIST CANDLE
Christ Jesus is the Light of the world.
We welcome his transforming and guiding light into our lives.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY
We acknowledge the Dharawal people, the sovereign First Peoples of the land and waters where we meet. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present, a people who have been good stewards of God’s creation since time immemorial.
CALL TO WORSHIP & OPENING PRAYER
Let us Pray: Lord Jesus Christ, at times we are like strangers on this earth, disconnected by its violence, cunning & greed. Like a gentle breeze, today, breathe upon us your Spirit of peace and reconciliation with ourselves, each other, with you and with your world.
Transform the deserts of fear and doubt where our lives are dry and barren so that we may be your bearers of reconciliation in the places where we live so your peace may be found. Amen
HYMN
Sing praise and thanksgiving, let all creatures living Now worship their maker with gladness and song; All glory and honour we come to God bringing:
O praise to the Almighty, sing praise to our God!
Our lives of his making she brings to their waking; In darkness he held us in her gracious care Now into the light we are called from our sleeping:
O praise to the Almighty, sing praise to our God!
Lord, frame our desiring to do your requiring That unto your glory be all that we do; And where we have faltered, give strength and give healing:
O praise to the Almighty, sing praise to our God!
Paul Gerhardt 1607 – 1676 Adaption © C A Gibson. Used with permission CCLI 49053
WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS
OUR PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Compassionate God, we too often follow you with an enthusiasm that soon runs dry with obsessions that divert our attention and frailties that need your healing touch. We have come today with a hunger that needs sustenance and with a weariness that needs rest.
Lord, replenish our resources and reassure us of your loving purpose for us and for your world and its many five thousands of peoples.
GOSPEL READING Matthew 14: 13 – 21 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E67RzhvAqEk
Feeding of the 5000 from The Chosen. Loudmouth Pastor 16 February 2023 (3 min 52 sec)
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
Wow what a feast! So unexpected. So abundant. God does not send us away unheeded or unfed to fend for ourselves. God is a Good Shepherd who provides us with a space to rest and the words of life to sustain us. God offers us more than we can imagine, filling our lives with enough to share. We are invited to stay, to rest and recover, to receive and be renewed. Thanks be to God.
BIBLE READING
Genesis 32: 22 – 33: 11 (NRSV) The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.
Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the day is breaking.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me.’ So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ Then the man said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.’ Then Jacob asked him, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.’ The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.
Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother.
But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he said, ‘Who are these with you?’ Jacob said, ‘The children whom God has graciously given your servant.’ Then the maids drew near, they and their children, and bowed down; Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down; and finally Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. Esau said, ‘What do you mean by all this company that I met?’ Jacob answered, ‘To find favour with my lord.’ But Esau said, ‘I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.’ Jacob said, ‘No, please; if I find favour with you, then accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God—since you have received me with such favour. Please accept my gift that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have everything I want.’ So he urged him, and he took it. In this are words of Life. Food for our journey.
MESSAGE Rev Paul Bartlett
HYMN
Bring many names, beautiful and good, celebrate in parable and story, holiness in glory, living, loving God, Hail and Hosanna! Bring many names!
Strong mother God, working night and day, planning all the wonders of creation, setting each equation, genius at play, Hail and Hosanna! strong mother God!
Warm father God, hugging every child, feeling all the strains of human living, caring and forgiving till we’re reconciled: Hail and Hosanna! warm, father God!
Old, aching God, grey with endless care, calmly piercing evil’s new disguises, glad of good surprises, wiser than despair: Hail and Hosanna! old, aching God!
Young, growing God, eager, on the move, saying no to falsehood and unkindness, crying out for justice, giving all you have: Hail and Hosanna! young, growing God!
Great, living God, never fully known, joyful darkness far beyond our seeing, closer yet than breathing, everlasting home: Hail and Hosanna! great, living God!
Brian Arthur Wren. Words © 1994 Hope Publishing Company. Used with permission CCLI 31951
OFFERING
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE Peter
THE LORD’S PRAYER Altered
Our God in heaven Holy is your name
Your kin-dom come Your loving will be done
On earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins As we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us in the times of trial And deliver us from evil.
For your holy and loving kin-dom’s sake Now and always. Amen
HOLY COMMUNION Judy
GREAT PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
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.
We offer you praise, dear God, with hearts lifted high, for in the communion of your love
Christ comes close to us and we come close to Christ. Therefore with the whole realm of nature around us, with earth, sea, and sky, we sing to you. With the angels of light who envelop us, with all the saints before and beside us, with brothers and sisters, east and west, we sing to you. And with our loved ones, separate from us now, who yet in this mystery are close to us, we join in the song of your unending greatness:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!
BREAKING OF THE BREAD
He whose table was open to all is now present in this bread.
He whose word welcomed friend and stranger offers friendship through this cup.
With people everywhere we affirm God’s goodness at the heart of humanity
planted more deeply than all that is wrong.
The gifts of God for the people of God! Thanks be to God.
DISTRIBUTION
HYMN
The great love of God Is revealed in the Son Who came to this earth To redeem every one.
That love, like a stream Flowing clear to the sea Makes clean every heart That from sin would be free.
It binds the whole world Every barrier it breaks The hills it lay low And the mountains it shakes.
It’s yours, it is ours O how lavishly given! The pearl of great price And the treasure of heaven.
Daniel Thambyrajah Niles 1908 – 1970 Used with permission CCLI 31951
BLESSING & BENEDICTION
We go in God
And God in us. Thanks be to God!
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