Good morning everyone.

Please know that you are welcome among us this morning. Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, wherever you’ve come from, wherever you’re going to, whatever is in your heart you are welcome here.

As we walk alongside First Nations People seeking truth and justice we begin our service with our:

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge that we meet on the lands of the Dharawal people, the first inhabitants and custodians of this place from time beyond remembering. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, thank them for their continued care of the land and waters and we commit ourselves to listening to their knowing and learning from their wisdom.

Lighting of the Candle

We light this candle as a symbol of the light of Christ,  which shines in each one of us. May we bring light and hope into dark places. AMEN

Opening Prayers

We come to worship God,

whose love and grace are revealed in Jesus.

We come to worship God,

who calls us to acts of service and justice.

We come to worship God,

who invites us to stop and listen and reflect.

We come to worship God,

who is present in all we do.

Come, let us worship.

Gracious God,

as faithful listeners and faithful servants,

may we listen with intent to your word,

and our lives

reflect the way of Jesus. AMEN

AS THE DEER PANTS
As the deer pants for the water
So my soul longs after You
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You

You’re my friend and You are my family
Even though You are a King
I love You more than any other
So much more than anything

I want You more than gold or silver
Only You can satisfy
You alone are the real joy giver
And the apple of my eye

CCLI Song # 1431 Martin Nystrom

© 1984 Universal Music – Brentwood Benson Publishing (Admin. by SHOUT! Music Publishing Australia)

CCLI Licence # 31951

Prayer Of Confession

Forgiving God,

Some days we are flustered.

Distracted and worried, we complain about our situation.

In our fluster, we can forget to see and feel your presence with us.

Help us pause, take time, and breathe in the calm of your love.

Words Of Affirmation

God always shows us the better way available to us.

Forgiven, we are set free.

Uniting World – Spotlight on Women in Ministry in the Pacific – Kathy

Women in Ministry Profiles: Daphne, Geraldine, Susana (Photos and other slides can also be viewed, along with Kathy’s presentation, in the video clip below from the 2.00 mark)

Uniting World is one of our mission partners whom we purposefully engage with as a church here at Engadine. We have a specific project that we support in Timor Leste, we regularly fundraise for UnitingWorld  and we have Rev Sureka Goringe who is the National Director of UnitingWorld coming to share with us in a few weeks’ time

Today we will hear a familiar gospel reading of two women and I thought it would be appropriate to hear about  women in Ministry in the Pacific via UnitingWorld

Meet Daphne: She is from Papua New Guinea Studying a Master of Theology at Pacific Theological College in Fiji

Daphne says: “I plan to use what I learn to go back and work with the church ministry, developing a Ministry framework that would respond to the needs of the local church or community in terms of social justice issues to safeguard the human dignity of all people. Her inspiration is her Grandparents in particular their ability to adapt to different languages and cultures, their perseverance and their passion to serve God and His people.”

She asks for prayer for the continued struggles of rights and freedom in West Papua for the Kanaky people and their struggles for freedom and also for all countries who are at war, as well as for her mother who is unwell.

Meet Geraldine: From Fiji Studying a PhD in Theology at Pacific Theological College, Fiji.  Her Research topic: An Interfaith Reading of Hagar and Ishmael in Genesis 16 and 21 through the lens of Tefui and a Contribution to Pacific Biblical Hermeneutics on Interfaith Dialogue. A tefui hermeneutic speaks of equality and how such understanding can help people recognise and identify how they view each other despite their ethnicity, religion, age, or gender.

She is inspired by her sister who she says always reminds me that theory and practice go together. Geraldine asks for prayer for her studies and family and for people to be kind to animals

Finally, meet Susana: She is from  Fiji Studying a Master of Theology at Pacific Theological College, Fiji

Her area of study is about suffering and silence in the Fijian modern context. There are many suffering in our world today. Some are hidden and some are not Susana says  I used the book of Habakkuk to revisit a new meaning of suffering and silence in the Fijian context. “I want to thank the Uniting Church in Australia I believe without their support and assistance; I wouldn’t be here last year and this year. I pray that the good Lord will continue to bless the Uniting Church in Australia

Susana ask for prayer for her studies and for her family

So that is a quick snapshot of three women in Ministry in the Pacific who are doing God’s work in their local communities supported by UnitingWorld. Studying the bible, learning and growing and becoming even stronger women for their communities and the world. Let’s pray together and give thanks to God for these faithful women:

Gracious and loving God, We give thanks for these women , for Daphne, for Geraldine and for Susana. Thank you for their faithfulness, for their love for you and for their love for their communities. We pray that they may know that they are loved and supported and encouraged by us from afar.

We specifically pray for Daphne’s mother who is unwell with Kidney failure. May she have access to treatment and medical assistance and support as she needs. We pray too for Daphne as she continues her studies for strength and determination May you guide her work, direct its progress and bring it to completeness.

We pray the continued struggles of rights and freedom in West Papua for the Kanaky people and their struggles for freedom  We pray for all countries who are at war, for men, women and children suffering injury, trauma and displacement. We pray for peace.  God in your grace – hear our Prayer

We pray for Geraldine – for her family in Fiji   and for Geraldine’s studies. May you be with her as she works to complete her PhD. Give her wisdom and insight as well as patience as she studies.  We pray too that people will be kind to animals. God in your Grace – Hear our prayer

We pray for Susana and for her family in Fiji – her study area of people living in suffering and fear – is perhaps known to her family. We pray for peace and blessings and good health for Susana and her family. We pray too for Susana’s studies and thesis writing.  May she be guided by her faith and love for Jesus in her thinking and writing and may she be encouraged  and strengthened on her journey. God in Your Grace – Hear our prayer

We pray that we as a church and as individuals will continue to think of, pray for, support and connect with Uniting World partners and particularly these women and their colleagues in ministry in the Pacific We pray in Jesus loving name, Amen

Let’s join together in a song that has been of comfort and strength to me over the last few months and I think is also appropriate to the women of the Pacific.

SONG – “Your Labour is not in Vain” (watch clip with lyrics) Your labour is not in Vain

Your labour is not in vain
Though the ground underneath you
Is cursed and stained
Your planting and reaping are never the same
Your labour is not in vain

Your labour is not unknown
Though the rocks they cry out
And the sea it may groan
The place of your toil may not seem like a home.
But your labour is not unknown

Chorus

For I am with you I am with you
I am with you I am with you
For I have called you
Called you by name
Your labour is not in vain

The vineyards you plant will bear fruit
The fields will sing out and rejoice with the truth
For all that is old will at last be made new
The vineyards you plant will bear fruit

The houses you laboured to build
Will finally with laughter and joy be filled
The serpent that hurts and destroys will be killed
And all that is broken be healed

CCLI Song # 7097868  Isaac Wardell | Paul Zach | Wendell Kimbrough

© 2017 Hymns From The Porter’s Gate (Admin. by Crossroad Distributors Pty. Ltd.) Porter’s Gate Publications (Admin. by Crossroad Distributors Pty. Ltd.) Porter’s Gate Publishing (Admin. by Crossroad Distributors Pty. Ltd.) Wendell K Songs (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC) CCLI Licence # 31951

Bible Reading: Amos 8: 1-12

This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.

“A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.

Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

3“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.[a] Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”

Hear this, you who trample the needy
    and do away with the poor of the land,

saying,

“When will the New Moon be over
    that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
    that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
    boosting the price
    and cheating with dishonest scales,
buying the poor with silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals,
    selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.

“Will not the land tremble for this,
    and all who live in it mourn?
The whole land will rise like the Nile;
    it will be stirred up and then sink
    like the river of Egypt.

“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,

“I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning
    and all your singing into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
    and shave your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son
    and the end of it like a bitter day.

11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
    “when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
    but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
    and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the Lord,
    but they will not find it.

Second reading: Colossians 1:15-28

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of[a] your evil behaviour. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.

Third reading: Luke 10: 38-42

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

MESSAGE –  Martha and Mary, The Best Part – being fully, extravagantly present

Message by Kathy, referencing Debby Thomas and Sue Grace. (Sermon from 15.00 on the video; spotlight on Women in Ministry in the Pacific from 2.00min)    Painting – Molle Walker Freeman “One Thing”

REFLECT I am going to give some time now to reflect on the Mary Martha story and it’s encouragement for your life with some music and a time of quiet. There will be some words on the screen for reflection if you choose or just sit quietly with Jesus.

SONG Seek ye first the Kingdom of God Instrumental

Offering – for our gifts of money, both given here and electronically and for gifts of food for Project Youth. Let us give thanks

Gracious God, bless the gifts that we give, and the gifts that we are. May each step of our journey lead us closer to you, and may our lives reveal your love to the world. Amen

Prayer for Others

Gracious God, We pray for all who work to protect Earth against the ravages of natural disaster, indifference, or acts of violence in warfare without regard for what becomes of Earth beneath the weapons and the destruction and the chemicals.

We pray for all people living with the effects of climate change,  for those facing rising temperatures, drought and water shortages, unpredictable weather, disrupted seasons and failed crops. Creator God renew the damaged land for the sake of the poor, the vulnerable, the displaced, the refugee. For the sake of us all. Stir in us a willingness to speak and act for the sake of your good creation

We pray for those who are vulnerable, who are unwell or have limited options at this time. For those who are struggling financially, struggling with fear and despair or the reality of abuse and domestic violence. For those living with the trauma of war and displacement. Expand our hearts and vision to respond with the greatest of compassion to those around us

We pray for First Nations people of our country. We bring before you the pain and anguish of dispossession of land, language, culture and family kinship experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We acknowledge past injustices and those that persist today. Help us to continue the journey of healing to create a just and hopeful future as we walk together with First Nations sisters and brothers

Please spend some time praying for those known to you who are in need at this time

God, we trust that you are good and do good. May we be your faithful people. Even when we feel you are distant; you accompany us on the way. You are persistent, waiting for us, Loving us, Bringing hope and healing and loving us with a love that will not let us go. May we be door openers, plea hearers, people who use our voices and power for others and the common good, and to love and to serve.

We pray together as Jesus taught us,

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours.
Now and for ever.

Amen.

Our final Hymn – in response to our message and prayers today:

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated Lord to Thee
Take my moments and my days
Let them flow in ceaseless praise

Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee

Take my voice and let me sing
Always only for my King
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee

Take my will and make it Thine
It shall be no longer mine
Take my heart it is Thine own
It shall be Thy royal throne

Take my love my Lord I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store
Take myself and I will be
Ever only all for Thee

CCLI Song # 2873921 Frances Ridley Havergal | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

© Words: Public Domain

Music: Public Domain

CCLI Licence # 31951

Thank you all for being part of our service this morning. My prayer is that you will spend time this week reflecting on today’s readings, songs and message and being extravagantly attentive to Jesus.  We will finish the service with our blessing and a blessing song – a repeat of last week’s song because I liked it so much and its highly appropriate for this week. And please stay for morning tea if you are able and have a chat and a cuppa.

Blessing

May the justice of God be a driving force in your life.

May the hospitality of God inspire you to serve.

May you be like Mary attentive to Jesus and chose the best part

May the peace of God flow through your life into the community where you live.

Amen

Blessing Song

I love You Lord, and I lift my voice; to worship You,

 O my soul rejoice
Take joy my King, in what You hear;

may it be a sweet,  sweet sound, in Your ear.

CCLI Song # 25266  Laurie Klein

© 1978, 1980 House Of Mercy Music (Admin. by SHOUT! Music Publishing Australia)

CCLI Licence # 31951