Seasons of Creation: Humanity and the Earth

You can watch a 28-min video of our service here. It includes prayers, readings, presentation and sermon but not the music. You will find links to the songs we used in the written service below.

We extend a special welcome to Thea Ormerod who we have invited to speak to us during the service.

Caring for creation is a key focus on our Christian journey. During September ‘Seasons of Creation’ we focus on, pray, and work for a world for all to share, both now and in the future. I am also using some material shared by Common Grace today and as you will see we have filmed some of the prayers and readings outside in God’s beautiful creation.

LIGHTING OF THE CANDLE

We gather as a people of God looking to Christ, as Word, as Light and as Wisdom

in and through whom all things in heaven and on earth have their being and in whom

all things are reconciled.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF FIRST PEOPLES

We acknowledge the Dharawal People, the first inhabitants of these lands who dwelt here and cared for the land. We also acknowledge the first inhabitants of the lands on which you are worshipping this morning if you are further afield than The Sutherland Shire. We pay respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

We gather, attentive to their wisdom of living in harmony with the land and waters and in commitment to the ongoing journey of reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. May we continue think of to pray for and connect with First Nations Peoples

OPENING PRAYER

Creator God, We come before you as a small piece of your vast creation.
We come in awe at the beauty and wonder of our planet, and we feel its pain.
Let the embers of our burning bushland rekindle the flame of Pentecost.
Shine your light in us that we may strive for a greener future.
Let the dryness of the land in seasons of drought remind us to thirst for your leadership.

Holy Spirit, lead us towards the well of hope for a sustainable planet.
Let the waters of our flooded plains and rivers drench our hearts with your mercy.
Living Water, fill us with mercy for your suffering creation.
Let the roaring of raging winds and cyclones help us hear the cry of Mother Earth.
Jesus, give us your peace to calm our storm, and peace to strengthen our calling.
Let the rise in sea levels raise our concern and love towards our neighbour.

Risen Christ, resource us with your love for the world.
Creator God, we are your people, we come before you today as creatures of the land you created. Earth, our home, cares for us and witnesses our actions, as you do.
We pray to be grounded and guided as people who are earthly and joyful, called and purposed to care for all of creation In Jesus’ name, may it be so. Amen

SONG – The Earth is yours Michael Gungor The Earth is yours

Your voice it thunders

The oaks start twisting

The forest sounds with cedars breaking

The waters see You and start their writhing

From the depths a song is rising

Now it’s rising from the ground

Holy, holy, holy, holy Lord

The earth is Yours and singing

Holy, holy, holy, holy Lord

The earth is Yours

Your voice it thunders

The ground is shaking

The mighty mountains

Now are trembling

Creation sees You

And starts composing

The fields and trees

They start rejoicing

And now it’s rising from the ground

Now it’s rising from the ground

Hear us crying out

Holy, holy, holy, holy Lord

The earth is Yours and singing

Holy, holy, holy, holy Lord

The earth is Yours and singing

Holy, holy, holy, holy Lord

The earth is Yours

Songwriter: Gungor Michael

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Creator of the cosmos,

You have filled this good Earth with complex wonders, abundant beauty, resilient interdependencies, and you invite us to share this abode with all your guests: with bandicoots and banksias, bacteria and blue whales, and the billions of beings like us.

But we have abused your divine hospitality. We’ve made a right mess of the place. We have kicked out other residents and falsely claimed ownership for ourselves.

We grieve the coral bleached white, the forests burned black, the dwindling glaciers, the silenced birdsong, the oceans emptying of fish and filling with plastic.

Forgive us our habitual greed, our stunted empathy, our careful ignorance. Forgive our complicity in systems built on lies, that extract too much and funnel wealth into the pockets of too few.

Fill our lungs with your fresh wind, your Holy Breath, your life-giving Spirit, that we may sing songs of resistance, renewal, revolution, and that we may walk together in the true and living way of Jesus so that in you, all may find a home. AMEN

BIBLE READING: Mark 9:38-50

Speaker: Thea Ormerod, Chair of the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change

Sermon: John McKinnon

When I was much younger and interested in defending and proving the Christian faith, there was an argument around that said only Christians have a solid foundation for ethical behaviour. Because of our particular Christian worldview, we alone had a foundation on which could be built a moral life and ethical behaviour. That was why it was so important to keep Australia a Christian nation and so on.

I can now see that such a view is very wrong. People of all faiths and none are very capable of both good and evil. The current pandemic has brought this into sharp focus. In Melbourne there is a wonderful group of Sikhs who distribute food to the needy. They were also very active at the time of the bushfires helping those affected. At the same time, we read about Christians helping to spread conspiracy theories and anti-vaccination messages.

Another feature of my earlier days was a belief in “guilt by association”. We can’t mix with or work with or worship with those others, be they Catholic or theological liberals or whatever because somehow that interaction will impact us in some negative way. This attitude persists even here in Engadine. Some churches refuse to participate in joint activities if the Catholics will also be there. I’m not sure what they think they will catch.

At the back of both these beliefs is a sense that “we are right, we have the truth and furthermore, we are only ones who do”. There is an exclusivity in it, an elitism. Jesus’ disciples suffered from some of this. They were the close followers of Jesus, who Jesus had called to be in a special relationship with him and learn closely from him. They interpreted this as meaning that they were special, that no-one else could also do the things that Jesus was doing, it was only for them. So, when they saw people doing those things they tried to stop them. They then told Jesus this, thinking that Jesus would commend them; that Jesus would say, “great, well done, we can’t have just anyone thinking they can go around doing good deeds can we?”.

Well Jesus didn’t say that. No, he rebuked them. Jesus actually welcomed the fact that others, not of this discipleship group, were also doing good deeds. The disciples were not special, or exclusive, or members of an elite club. Doing the works of God was a path open to all. Jesus welcomed it.

Today Thea has talked to us about ARRCC. It is an interfaith group committed to climate change action. People of many religions, including those who we might traditionally thought of as hostile to Christianity and who we might have shrunk from working with. How timely that the gospel reading has Jesus speaking to such a similar situation. I’m so glad that today we can celebrate with Thea that people of such diverse faiths can work together on such a big problem. They are not against us. We all want the same thing – a safe and just world for us and our children to live in. It is a wonderful thing that ARRCC is doing and surely Jesus would celebrate its existence and its work.

Not only is ARRCC a demonstration of the inclusiveness that Jesus celebrated, it is a very necessary collaboration. Climate change is not something that any one group or individual can fix on their own. Last time I spoke, I mentioned that neo-liberalism was a destructive “power” in the world that we need to fight against. As an ideology, it over-emphasises the individual and rejects all collectivism. We see this in action in the way our government blames individuals for not being vaccinated, for being unemployed, or being poor, etc. With neo-liberalism there is no sense that structural issues (such as lack of vaccines) could be the cause. With climate change, neo-liberals like to put the emphasis back on individuals – you fix it by getting better lightbulbs in your house, you fix it by not flying anymore, you fix it by choosing green energy, etc etc. However, individual action will never solve climate change. It is a global issue and a structural issue. Only collective action can fix it. ARRCC brings the collective voices of the world’s religions together to push the most important collective, the government, to take appropriate action.

If we are going to solve this great problem, we need to take heed of Jesus’ approach in today’s gospel. We must embrace unlikely partners and co-collaborators and work together. Thanks Thea for being with us today and may the work of ARRCC thrive as we all need it to.

SONG Garden by Mikali Aganostis and brought to us by Mikali, Emma, Hannah and Gabby from Leichhardt Uniting. Garden

REFLECTION and OFFERING PRAYER

We are joined to every grain of sand: