ORDER OF SERVICE – REFUGEE WEEK
Introduction Karen
Good morning, all are welcome in this space. Whatever your background, your life history, your current life status or whatever your beliefs, you are loved by God and are most warmly welcomed to join us in worship and to hang out with us at Engadine Uniting Church
Acknowledgement of Country Karen
We acknowledge the Dharawal people the traditional custodians of this land and pay our respects to Elders past and present. The Traditional Custodians who have been and continue to be caretakers of this beautiful part of these lands in this country now called Australia. We shall always endeavor to walk softly, gently and respectfully on this land. We thank them for their patience, courage, faith, spirit and graciousness.
Our Call to Worship – Come friends (Karen)
Let us listen for the voice of our Lord this morning (silence)
Let us seek his direction for our lives (silence)
Let us seek ways to speak out for our Lord (silence)
Let us deepen our spiritual connection with the Lord and with each other (silence)
Let us listen to each other (silence)
Let us listen for and look out for those seeking a place to call home (silence)
For the Lord himself had been a refugee he knows the harshness of such a journey.
Lighting the Christ candle Paul
We light our Christ candle and in doing so we – remember the displaced, the refugees, the asylum seekers, may there be light for them and a safe place for all to call home.
PRAYER Paul
Almighty and merciful God, whose Son became a refugee and had no place to call his own,
look with mercy on those who today are fleeing from danger, homeless and hungry.
Bless those who work to bring them relief. Inspire generosity and compassion in the hearts of all of us. Guide us and every nation of the world towards that day when all will rejoice in your Kingdom of justice and of peace; Through Jesus Christ, our Brother and our Lord . Amen
HYMN
Praise with joy the world’s Creator
God of justice, love and peace
Source and end of human knowledge
Force of greatness without cease.
Celebrate the Maker’s glory
Power to rescue and release.
Praise the Son who feeds the hungry
Frees the captive finds the lost
Heals the sick, upsets religion
Fearless of both fate and cost.
Celebrate Christ’s constant presence –
Friend and Stranger, Guest and Host.
Praise the Spirit sent among us
Liberating truth from pride
Forging bonds where race or gender
Age or nation dare divide.
Celebrate the Spirit’s treasure –
Foolishness none dare deride.
Praise the Maker, Son and Spirit
One God in community
Calling Christians to embody
Oneness and diversity.
Thus the world shall yet believe
When shown Christ’s vibrant unity.
CCLI Song # 3351325 Graham Maule | John Goss | John L. Bell © Words: 1987 WGRG, c/o Iona Community, Glasgow, Scotland (Admin. by Willow Publishing Pty. Ltd.) Music: Public Domain For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
Prayer of Thanksgiving Paul
Ever present Lord we come before you today. We are awed by your magnificence, your grace
Despite the troubles in this vast world you bring us comfort and beauty as a balm for our hurts and troubles. Thank you for the singing of birds, the beauty of winter flowers and shrubs, the smell of damp earth, the crunch of fallen leaves under our feet, the beauty of a blue sky.
The joy of a random act of kindness, a stranger’s smile. We lift our hearts and eyes to you Lord, help us to keep our God focus and not to be discouraged by the sights and sounds of trauma that can often be going on around us. Help us to block out the white noise of life and keep our eyes fixed on you.
PSALM READING Reader
Psalm 71 selected verses: In you, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me. Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent. O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me! In you, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me.
Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.
Prayer of Confession Paul
Lord, we confess that we are flawed that we often give lip service and not substance
We talk of what we can and should do but so often we don’t get around to it
Forgive us when we dream of a better world but fail to put effort into making the dream a reality
Forgive us when we judge our fellow Christians instead of praying for them asking for God’s guidance and wisdom to be theirs.
Lord, you see, hear and feel our weaknesses, yes we are flawed, we humans are full of kindness and compassion one minute and hard and selfish the next or just plain confused
Yet through it all you are still there gently prodding us to rise, forgive ourselves and continue to keep going & soldiering to be loving people of God. Let us “Be still and know that you are God.”
WORDS OF ASSURANCE & AFFIRMATION Karen
God is generous, loving. No one comes too late to receive God’s mercy.
God does not withhold forgiveness or impart it to a select few. It is freely given to us all. Let this knowledge lift us from all our wrongdoings transform our lives. We are your creatures caught up in the web of creation that is nurtured by grace. Lord we will never escape your love, no matter how far we try to go. We are loved, supported and held in the family of all living things.
God challenges us to not seek ‘fairness’, as our idea of fairness is different to God’s but he asks that we seek justice, compassion, to be generous and to show mercy.
General spot – Karen reflecting upon Refugee week…
Today is the beginning of refugee week and how does that look to us? (Ask Alan to put up refugee camp photos)
The organisers of the various activities during refugee week see their main objective as being to raise the main issue of awareness of issues that affect refugees. It seeks to make refugee week a national celebration attempting to unite separate activities into a single nationwide celebration. Refugee week seeks to promote harmony and togetherness and to unite individuals and communities from different backgrounds to address a common cause. This year the theme is ‘Healing’ – Australia and the rest of the world have a once in a lifetime opportunity to hit a reset button on how we behave towards one another. The importance of human connections has been vital to how we survived the pandemic. The importance of human connection was certainly a major talking point. Healing for refugees can occur through storytelling, through community and also through realisation of our intrinsic interconnectedness as individuals.
In a perfect world refugees returning to their homeland to live in peace and prosperity would be an amazing blessing.
But sadly this so often is definitely not the reality for thousands of refugees. Hence to open our hearts and homeland to displaced people is a huge step but doable if we follow Jesus way and care and share for the homeless and hurting.
(Ask Alan to Show Muruguppan Biloela photos). Here are Nades, Priya, Tharnicca and Kopi a Tamil Sri Lankan family. With the sad state that Sri Lanka is currently in the Muruguppan family are safe here.
We would all be aware of this wonderful blessing, the power of love, tenacity and hope was written all over this joyous outcome. Sure they are not quite over the line but they are nearly there.
I would like to invite our friend Gillian Minto to come up and share with us her involvement in a local organisation called Sutherland Shire Refugee Connection
Ask Alan to play the video World Refugee Sunday
BIBLE READINGS
Gen 12:10; Exodus 22:21-22 & Leviticus 19:34 Now there was a famine in the land and Abram went down to Egypt to live there because the famine was severe…Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner for you were foreigners in Egypt…the foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
Luke 4: 14 – 19 Then Jesus, in the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding region. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” In this we find God’s Word of Life. Thanks be to God.
SONG TIS 745
Seek ye first the kingdom of God
And His righteousness
And all these things
Shall be added unto you
Allelu, alleluia.
Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, allelu, alleluia.
Ask and it shall be given unto you
Seek and ye shall find
Knock and the door
Shall be opened unto you
Allelu, alleluia.
Man shall not live by bread alone
But by ev’ry word
That proceeds
From the mouth of God
Allelu alleluia.
CCLI Song # 1352 Karen Lafferty © 1972 CCCM Music (Admin. by SHOUT! Music Publishing Australia) Universal Music – Brentwood Benson Publishing (Admin. by SHOUT! Music Publishing Australia) For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
MESSAGE Paul: God’s Manifesto
Last month our new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gave his acceptance speech early on that Sunday morning. Maybe you can remember some of what he shared?
And maybe you can remember some of what Scott Morison shared 3 years earlier?
Today, in a way, Jesus fresh from his wrestling in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights and full of the power, purpose and blessing of the Holy Spirit delivers his ‘acceptance speech’ on having overcome and put on notice the many temptations he will encounter during what became his 3 yrs.
It’s a benchmark statement. Everything Jesus does from this point on will be measured against what he now says. He begins by recalling the famous passage from Isaiah 61, proclaimed 500 years earlier:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
Jesus says that this long awaited time has arrived NOW!
His ministry of renewal and healing and of cancelling peoples debts both religious and economic with his reference to ‘the year of the Lord’s favour’ has arrived in their hearing – in Nazareth of Galilee.
Throughout his ministry sojourners, aliens and foreigners, those who weren’t Jewish, who didn’t belong, could now be part of God’s ‘new’ Covenant community built upon the one established in Moses’ day. In fact the pointers to this new beginning were already there in Exodus and Leviticus:
Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner for you were foreigners in Egypt…the foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. In Jesus’ day God’s people had forgotten their God’s command.
We can be in no doubt about God’s desire for it, as it is at the heart of God’s relationship with God’s people who themselves were freed slaves and sojourners in a foreign land, who heard their cries.
Again and again throughout Scripture God reminds and challenges the people to remember their own journey and live that out each day as the prism and compass for their engagement with others. Throughout the Psalms, as in today’s Psalm 71 God as our refuge physical & spiritual is a key part of our faith.
All of my great and great, great grandparents between 1843 and 1864 came to Australia as social & economic refugees from Ireland, Scotland and England, seeking a better life for their children. I am a recipient of their deep longing, hope & courage that taking such a trip required. They were all boat people who paid to come to our shores. Even my Irish Catholic ancestors were al-most welcomed.
And just as Abram went south from Canaan to Egypt in a time of severe famine and just as some of my ancestors sought to escape religious bigotry and the stifling class system of 19th century England, so today many millions of refugees seek a better & safer life. The Murraguppan family are now back in Biloela. Some of the Afghan interpreters, their families & some Ukrainians fleeing war have joined the many hundreds of thousands who came to our shores after WW2 and after the fall of Saigon in 1975.
But fear is a powerful thing. The Old Testament passages today confront directly the challenges people who look and sound and act differently, face – these aliens, sojourners and foreigners.
But we are called to embrace them because that is how God embraces us! We who were ‘afar off’ as Paul refers to it as in Ephesians chapter 3.
And if we don’t? Then the love and acceptance we have received loses its power to heal and renew and the Great Commandment to love God and our neighbours as ourselves, is turned inwards and our lives are diminished; and the power of the Cross dismantled.
Far from keeping ourselves ‘safe’ we risk becoming enslaved by fear and apathy.
So let us choose rather to be a people of love and acceptance, alive to the Spirit’s work in us and in all who seek safety and new beginnings. Let us continue to see the best in others, so all may be blessed.
HYMN
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 generous 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. Faser, 29th June 2014; Tune: Melita, 88.88.88)
Acknowledgement of Offering – Karen
Lord we bring to our gifts given in service to you, for those who give through online direct giving, putting money in an offering box or bring non- perishable food for the young getting their lives back together, we bring to you our offerings Lord and ask that you bless the fruits of our congregation’s generosity so that we may use these gifts to make a difference in this your world.
Notices/ Announcements – Paul Talk about Elder Abuse Awareness Week
Prayers of the People – Leanne
Song
Make me a channel of Your peace
Where there is hatred let me bring Your love
Where there’s injury grant mercy O Lord
and where there’s doubt true faith in You.
O Master grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled
As to console, to be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there’s despair let me bring Your hope
Where there’s darkness let me bring Your light
and where there’s sadness ever joy.
O Master grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled
As to console, to be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
In giving of ourselves that we receive
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.
CCLI Song # 6399315 Ed Bolduc | John Angotti | Thomas W. Jefferson © 2009 World Library Publications (Admin. by G.I.A. Publications, Inc.) For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
Benediction Prayer Karen
May you always see the beauty of the Earth
May you always taste the sweetest fruit
May you always hear the laughter of the People
May you always feel the warmth of the Flame
May you always smell the perfume of the flowers
May your dreams always be happy ones
May your friends always be with you when you have need
May your stomach always be full
May you never feel hurt.
By Francis Bodkin of the Bodkin-Andrews clan of the D’harawal Peoples
Benediction – Song Paul
Now unto Him who is able to keep
Able to keep you from falling
And present you faultless
Before the presence of his glory
With exceeding joy.
To the only wise God our Saviour
Be glory and majesty
Dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen
© Gordon Wood 1972
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