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.
GATHERING THE PEOPLE
The service starts today with the playing of “Holy is the Refugee” by Hannah C Brown and Mark A Miller
Welcome and Announcements Friends, you are welcome in this place. Our time together is God’s gift to each of us. 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. Together let us seek to be Christ’s light and salt in the world. So welcome!
Lighting of the Christ Candle
Let us light the Christ candle.
Jesus said: “I am the light of the world”. The light shines in the darkness; and the darkness has not overcome it.
Acknowledgement of country
As we look upon the hills and valleys, we see the love poured out upon this Land by those who have cared for this Land since time beyond measure.
We acknowledge the Dharawal people, traditional custodians of this land under God. and pay our respects to their elders for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of the living Dharawal today.
Ours is the age of the refugee, the displaced person and mass immigration. We recognise that Aboriginal people and refugees share the experience of displacement and dispossession of their lands. Aboriginal people have often been as internally displaced – forced to leave their homes, their land, and move to somewhere else in the country – as many others around the world.
So let us remain committed to justice and reconciliation in this land, to realize a fair and just Australia, where as a nation we extend – and are able to receive – the gifts of generosity, understanding, compassion, hospitality and respect.
All: In doing so, we recommit to the path of reconciliation and justice that God lays before us.
Call to worship
Come, Jesus is inviting us to cross over
to a place we’ve never been before—
leading us into the unfamiliar,
into the risky way of costly love,
into the very heartbeat of God.
We will be different on the other side.
Come, let us join the ‘wild man’ of God,
Come, he is calling us now. Let us pray:
Prayer Of Welcome
O Spirit of Christ,
as you lead us into the unknown
be not far away.
Hold us and lead us.
Fill us with your courage and wisdom.
Come, Spirit of Christ, come.
We come, God of the journey, people from different places, different histories, different cultures.
We come hoping to find companionship for the journey, solidarity for the struggle. We gather, God of Hospitality, around your ‘welcome table’,
We gather seeking to become a ‘round-table’ people, welcoming of all, with no preferred seating, no firsts and no lasts, and no corners for the ‘least of these’.
We yearn, God of diversity, for a new way of living and relating as neighbours not strangers; as siblings, not ‘them and us’.
We yearn to live fully celebrating both the diversity of our human family, and the unity of our call to peace, love and justice. Amen.
Hymn: Diverse in culture, nation, race (Ruth Duck, 1991)
Diverse in culture, nation, race, we come together by your grace.
God, let us be a meeting ground where hope and healing love are found.
God, let us be a bridge of care connecting people everywhere.
Help us confront all fear and hate and lust for power that separate.
When chasms widen, storms arise, O Holy Spirit, make us wise.
Let our resolve, like steel, be strong to stand with those who suffer wrong.
God, let us be a table spread with gifts of love and broken bread,
where all find welcome, grace attends, and enemies arise as friends.
Item: World Refugee Sunday is an opportunity for you to join other churches around the world in praying for refugees and internally displaced people. This short video from the Refugee Highway Partnership focuses on the words of Jesus and invites us to respond: https://iwas.live/ (1.37min)
Prayer of adoration and confession
O God, you invite us to find you in surprising places—among the poor and hungry, in prisons and in hospitals.
You ask us to face our vulnerable humanity.
You invite us into the risk of caring, to witness oppression and injustice in our world. Often, this is too much for us. We look away.
We do not want to be unsettled.
Forgive us, God.
On this Refugee Sunday, we acknowledge with sorrow the way that other languages, cultures and religious practices are too often denigrated. We acknowledge with sorrow the injustice and abuse that has so often marked the treatment of those who desire refuge in this land. We acknowledge with sorrow that in our own time injustice and abuse has continued. We have been indifferent when we should have been outraged, have been apathetic when we should have been active, we have been silent when we should have spoken out.
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
Hear these words of assurance: our God is merciful and quick to forgive and will keep coming to us with grace and invitation. Our sins are forgiven. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Item: Refugee voices: seeing photos of, and hearing the voices, of refugee Ambassadors, courtesy the Refugee Council of Australia
Hymn: Build a longer table (David Bjorlin) Tune: Noel Nouvelet
Build a longer table, not a higher wall feeding those who hunger, making room for all
Feasting together, stranger turns to friend Christ breaks walls to pieces; false divisions end
Build a broader doorway, not a longer fence. Love protects all people, sparing no expense.
When we embrace compassion more than fear, Christ tears down our fences; all are welcome here.
When we lived as exiles, refugees abroad, Christ became our doorway to the reign of God
So must our tables welcome those who roam None can be excluded; all must find a home.
CCLI Song # 7193460 Dave Bjorlin | Greg Scheer © 2020 Scheer, Greg; Remaining portion is unaffiliated For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com
HEARING THE WORD
Readings (Margaret )
Let us pray: God, please open our ears and minds and hearts so that as we hear the words of the Bible, you will speak to us and bring us new life.
The first reading today is from Galatians 3:23-29, from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition:
23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be reckoned as righteous[a] by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
The second reading is from Luke 8:19-39
19 Then Jesus’ mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. 20 And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” 21 But he said to them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”
22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they put out, 23 and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A windstorm swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. 24 They went to him and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And waking up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 Then he said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were terrified and amazed and said to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him?”
26 Then they arrived at the region of the Gerasenes,[a] which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he stepped out on shore, a man from the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had not worn any clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, shouting, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me,” 29 for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. 31 They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.
32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding, and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd stampeded down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they became frightened. 36 Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37 Then the whole throng of people of the surrounding region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged that he might be with him, but Jesus[h] sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.
Reader: Through these readings we hear God speak.
All: Thank you, God, for your words of life.
Sermon John M
In the following video which covers all, or nearly all, of the service, the bible readings commence 23m47s and the sermon commences at 29m53s
RESPONDING TO THE WORD
Response This week we may wish to ask ourselves how we can speak out stories of justice, peace, inclusiveness and non-violence, and point people towards Jesus’ way being hope for the world.
Hymn: A hymn for ‘boat people’
O God of mercy, at whose call the ocean waters rise and fall, protect the people on the sea who from oppression seek to flee. O hear us as our prayers we speak for those who safe asylum seek.
They come from lands where tyrants reign to seek a refuge from their pain. They look to us to give them scope to build a life of peace and hope. O hear us as our prayers we speak for those who safe asylum seek.
Yet politicians mock their plight and commentators whip up fright. Now let their noise and lies depart: convert each demagogic heart! O hear us as our prayers we speak for those who safe asylum seek.
God bless this nation, “girt by sea”, with broader hospitality. May gen’rous hearts around this land obey with love your great command. O hear us as our prayers we speak for those who safe asylum seek.
(Source: Robert J. Fraser, 29th June 2014; Tune: Melita, 88.88.88 This hymn is available free-of-charge to any congregation, denomination, ecumenical gathering, or interfaith gathering who wishes to use it in worship, particularly in a service focusing on our response as people of faith to asylum seekers.)
Announcements
Offertory prayer
God is always bringing love and life into the world. We share in that love by bringing our gifts for others. Let us pray: Loving God, we pray that these offerings bear witness to your kindness and love for all. Amen.
Prayers of the people (Bruce)
Hymn/Song: Let us build a house (Marty Haugen)
Let us build a house where love can dwell And all can safely live A place where saints and children tell How hearts learn to forgive
Built of hopes and dreams and visions Rock of faith and vault of grace Here the love of Christ shall end divisions All are welcome, all are welcome All are welcome in this place
Let us build a house where prophets speak And words are strong and true Where all God’s children dare to seek To dream God’s reign anew
Here the cross shall stand as witness And a symbol of God’s grace Here as one we claim the faith of Jesus All are welcome, all are welcome All are welcome in this place
Let us build a house where love is found In water, wine and wheat A banquet hall on holy ground Where peace and justice meet
Here the love of God, through Jesus Is revealed in time and space As we share in Christ the feast that frees us All are welcome, all are welcome All are welcome in this place.
Benediction
God bless our eyes, that we may recognise injustice.
God bless our ears, that we may hear the cry of the stranger.
God bless our mouths, that we may speak words of welcome to newcomers.
God bless our shoulders, that we may bear the weight of struggling for justice.
God bless our hands, that we may work together with all people to establish peace.
God bless our hearts, that we may be transformed into witnesses of truth, justice and love. And the blessing of God, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer be upon you and remain with you always. Amen
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