The sermon can be watched here, or further down this page.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY
We acknowledge the Dharawal people who live on this land on which we now call Australia.
We honour their elders past and present and pledge afresh our commitment to work together. Today, our voices are joined with their voices in their desire & ours for reconciliation and justice making.
CALL TO WORSHIP Adapted from Words for Worship
There are a people on earth called to live in such a way that their lives glow in darkness, a people who flavour the whole meal of life and offer hope that the broken-down rubble of our lives can become something new and beautiful once again. These people will be like well-watered gardens, even in the emptiest and driest of places. And you are one of these peoples. This is who God is calling us to be – an epiphany people, chosen and claimed by God. And this God is moving amongst us today.
Come, let us worship, full of heart and full of hope.
Let us Pray – Come Holy Spirit, You who search everything, take us and lead us into the depths of love, the depths of life, guide us into all that God is and has for us. Help us to be a listening and discerning people who share in the mind of Christ. Amen
CANDLE LIGHTING Darkness is strong but light is stronger. Christ Jesus is the Light of the world. His light we pledge to follow in his service. We light this candle as a sign of what we believe.
HYMN
Praise to the living God
All praise be to God’s name
Who was and is, and is to be
For aye the same:
The one eternal God
Before what now appears
The First, the Last, beyond all thought
God’s timeless years!
God’s Spirit freely flows
High surging where it will
In prophet’s word God spoke of old
Is speaking still.
Established is God’s law
And changeless it shall stand
Deep written on the human heart
On sea, on land.
God has eternal life
Implanted in the soul
God’s love shall be our strength and stay
While ages roll.
Praise to the living God
All praise be to God’s name
Who was, and is, and is to be
And still the same!
CCLI Song # 3344026 Max Landsberg | Newton Mann Public Domain For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
OT READING John & Robyn
ISAIAH 58: 1- 9a (NIV) Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarrelling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Lord God of all creation, our Lord. Hear our prayers and help us transform our lives. These words from Isaiah are over 2,500 years old yet they speak with clarity, judgment & hope even today. You know us well Lord. We can put on a show of righteousness with our church attendance, with our words and our gifts yet we forget ‘whose we are’ by the time we are home from church on Sunday mornings.
We speak uncharitably about others and are quick to judge, a shrug of the shoulders is all we do in response to the crisis in our own lives and those around us. ‘I’ve always been like this Lord’.
Are our lives truly that special to you that you would keep persevering with us?
‘What I have is mine Lord, not yours. You know what I’m like’ and yet there is part of me deep within that longs to live the Life you call me to. Forgive the shallowness of my faith that transforms no one.
May your light break forth in me like the dawn for all to see so that your healing is freely shared.
These our prayers, these my prayers, this my life, these our lives we bring before you, in Jesus’ name.
GOSPEL READING John & Robyn
MATTHEW 5: 13 – 16, 20 (NIV) You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
In this is found God’s vocation for each one of us. Thanks be to God. Amen
REFLECTION SONG TIS 418
‘She sits like a bird, brooding on the waters’ by John Bell & Graham Maule ©Iona Community
MESSAGE: Rev Paul Bartlett
HYMN 473
A little bit of salt will quickly show its worth;
A little bit of faithfulness will change the earth.
God, make us worth our salt — a church that’s glad to be
The change that you desire in each community.
A lamp that’s in a house gives safety, warmth and light;
It’s set upon a table where it shines so bright.
God, make your church a light that bravely takes a stand
To bring your love and justice into all the land.
A garden is a place where so much beauty grows,
Where flowers bloom and food is raised and water flows.
When worship leads us out to care for the oppressed
O God, you say we’re like a garden at its best.
When worship leads us out to love and serve the poor,
To welcome in the refugee at our own door,
O God, then we’ll be called “repairers of the breach,”
And we your church will be “restorers of the streets.”
It’s tempting to remain well-hidden, quiet, bland —
Yet, God, you make us salt and light to change this land.
You send us out to love, to build and to repair
Till peace and justice flourish here and everywhere.
Text: Copyright © 2017 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved. CCLI Licence # 31951
ANNOUNCEMENTS
OFFERING PRAYER
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE & LORD’S PRAYER Rev Paul
HYMN TIS 523
Here, Lord we take the broken bread
And drink the wine, believing
That by your life, our souls are fed
Your parting gifts receiving.
As you have given, so we would give
Ourselves for other’s healing;
As you have lived, so we would live
Our God’s love revealing.
Words ©F.E.V Pilcher 1879 – 1961 Used with permission. CCLI Licence # 31951
HOLY COMMUNION Elder – Judy
The world belongs to God
The earth and all its people.
Love and peace come together
Justice and peace join hands.
How good and how lovely it is
To live together in unity.
Lord, open our lips
And our mouths shall proclaim your praise.
Let us Pray. Ever-living God, you are infinite, yet compassionate; in you we live, and move and have our being. One with us in Jesus Christ, you shared our life and our death, flowing through us like living water, you quenched our thirst. Holy One, we adore you. Holy Wisdom, we adore you, Holy Spirit, we adore you, accept the praise we bring today and every day. Amen
INVOCATION & INVITATION
Lord and giver of every good thing, we bring to you bread and wine for our communion, lives and gifts for your kingdom, all for transformation through your grace and love made known to us in Jesus Christ our Saviour. Be present in broken bread and outpoured wine. This is the joyful feast of Jesus:
Bread for beloved children, a meal for those expecting scraps, and a banquet for last-minute guests.
Come, your place is at the table. Here Christ meets you and calls you God’s own. Come all is ready.
DISTRIBUTION
HYMN
God of freedom God of justice
You whose love is strong as death
You who saw the dark of prison
You who knew the price of faith
Touch our world of sad oppression
With Your Spirit’s healing breath.
Rid the earth of torture’s terror
You whose hands were nailed to wood
Hear the cries of pain and protest
You who shed the tears and blood
Move in us the power of pity
Restless for the common good.
Make in us a captive conscience
Quick to hear to act to plead
Make us truly sisters brothers
Of whatever race or creed
Teach us to be fully human
Open to each other’s needs.
CCLI Song # 2400497 Shirley Erena Murray © 1992 Murray, Shirley Erena (Admin. by Hope Publishing Company)
For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
BLESSING & BENEDICTION TIS 780 (repeat)
May light come into your eyes
May hope spring up in your heart
May peace guide all of your mind
And keep you in God, and keep you in God.
Mandy Treagus 1955 – Used with permission CCLI Licence # 31951
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