(Image: Lukas Schulze/Getty)
Acknowledgement of country
(a poem by Jonathon Hill, which can be found here)
Today we stand in footsteps millennia old. May we acknowledge the traditional owners whose cultures and customs have nurtured, and continue to nurture, this land, since men and women awoke from the great dream. We honour the presence of these ancestors who reside in the imagination of this land and whose irrepressible spirituality flows through all creation.
Lighting the Christ Candle
As this candle is lit, many we remember that Christ Jesus is the light of the world, Christ, the light clarifies our thoughts. Christ the light brightens our darkest days. Christ the light points us in his way. Let us be willing to humbly follow the light wherever it leads.
Call to Worship.
Let this hymn, Praise to the Lord call you to worship together with all the Commonwealth.
Hymn 1. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty.
As you watch this well-known hymn being sung in this very well-known place with some familiar faces, you are invited to reflect on the role of colonialism and the church’s part in that.
Prayer of Confession
Christ, you have come that we might live and have abundant life. Forgive us as our comfortable lives cloak us in a false sense of all is right in the world. As we sit down to eat whenever we feel hungry, or even when we are not hungry, many others have no food for the day. As we snuggle under the covers of a warm bed in a secure home, many others shiver in the cold of a temporary shelter.
As we embrace our family members, or even have disagreements with them, many others have no family to laugh with, to cry with or to even argue with.
As we have that barista brewed, double shot, flat white, soy, no sugar, regular coffee during the weekly catch up with friends, many others have insufficient money to even cover their bare essentials.
As we loudly berate poor decisions of our politicians and leaders but continue to live our comfortable life, many others suffer directly from these decisions and live a live on the edge.
As we listen to inspirational sermons, podcasts and webinars and nod sagely, many others are frustrated and confused by convoluted policy explanations as to why minimum wages, or Centrelink payments cannot be increased.
Help us Lord to know how to live, how to act and how to help so those who are suffering so they too can also enjoy the promise that Christ has come so that all might live and live abundantly.
Written by Loraine Holley, © 2021.
Let us listen to this next song, based on Psalm 15, in which the Psalmist tell us how we should live.
Psalm 15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL4RBjBdHug
O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart; who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors; in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the LORD; who stand by their oath even to their hurt; who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved.
Words of affirmation
Hear the promise of God.
through all these times, amidst all these conditions,
God offers the Spirit’s abundant, transformative power
for our companion, guide, and hope.
Thanks be to God!
Bible Readings: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
7:1 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,
7:2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.
7:3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders;
7:4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.)
7:5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
7:6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
7:7 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
7:8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
7:14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand:
7:15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
7:21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder,
7:22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.
7:23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
James 1:17-27
1:17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
1:18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
1:19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger;
1:20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.
1:21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
1:22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
1:23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror;
1:24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.
1:25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act–they will be blessed in their doing.
1:26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.
1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Sermon by John McKinnon here “Is this the time?”
While the next song is played, consider the following question posed by John and put your thoughts in the chat.
What is our equivalent of “widows and orphans today”?
Hymn: Illuminate the shadows; The Porters Gate, 2020
Prayers of the People:
Offering Prayer:
Hymn: God of Justice, Love and Mercy
Benediction:
May the God of truth – open our ears and eyes to the wind whistling through the Grasstrees.
May the God of justice – open our minds to the flowing actions of the waters from refreshing rain, to gentle brook, from mighty river to raging sea.
May the God of love – open our hearts to the beat of the Clapsticks calling us into rhythm.
Now go. . . to pursue Jesus, with truth, justice, and love.
Amen.
Written by Brooke Prentis (Common Grace)
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