You can watch the bible readings and sermon here, or scroll down to read the rest of the Sunday prayers and content, and watch this video at the point it occurs during worship.
LIGHTING THE CANDLE
Together we acknowledge the Traditional Custodians on whose lands we stand today and pay our respects to the Elders past, present and future. We commit to walking together across these lands in solidarity and friendship for trust, justice and healing.
At our church here we believe all people are created lovingly and wonderfully, and everyone is welcomed regardless of race, age, ability, sexuality and gender.
As a community we believe that God reaches out to us in love and acceptance and that our relationships with each other express love and respect.
Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, wherever you’ve come from, wherever you’re going, whatever is in your heart – you are welcome here.
PRAYER OF APPROACH
It is time to become focussed,
not on our wants or complaints but on God:
In the silent places of my soul I turn to God,
for God alone is our rock and salvation.
Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the good news of God,
saying the time has come, the realm of God is at hand.
The realm of God is not very far from any one of us,
for in God we live and, move and have our being.
Jesus said: repent and believe the good news.
The time has come. In the silent places of my soul I turn to God,
for God alone is our rock and salvation.
God of Christ Jesus and our God, delighted with our good fortune we
come to accept the gospel invitation.
Your deliverance surpasses the loftiest visions of the prophets,
your generosity exceeds the wildest expectation of the psalm singers,
your grace outstrips the hopes of the great lawgivers as the sun outshines a camp fire.
Glorious are you, God of unspeakable good news!
With every breath of our being, we come to give you thanks and praise.
Through Christ Jesus our hope and salvation.
Amen!
HYMN I the Lord of Sea and Sky
I, the Lord of sea and sky,
I have heard my people cry.
All who dwell in deepest sin
My hand will save.
I who made the stars of night,
I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?
Here I am Lord. Is it I Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.
I, the Lord of snow and rain,
I have borne my people’s pain.
I have wept for love of them.
They turn away.
I will break their hearts of stone,
Give them hearts for love alone.
I will speak my word to them,
Whom shall I send?
Here I am Lord. Is it I Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.
I, the Lord of wind and flame,
I will tend the poor and lame.
I will set a feast for them.
My hand will save.
Finest bread I will provide
Till their hearts be satisfied.
I will give my life to them.
Whom shall I send?
Here I am Lord. Is it I Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE
Most holy and most loving God, sometimes we come before you not very aware of any particular sins for which we need to make confession. Rather we are acutely conscious of the general stupidity and corruptibility of the human race of which we are an integral part.
Every day we are entangled, like it or not; in a web of distortions and compromises.
Every morning we feel inadequate in the face of evil and injustices in the community and world.
Each evening we know we have been a part of wrongs done and the good left undone.
It seems our fate to see distant mountain-peaks of faith and love, yet have to spend our days plodding around foothills, sometimes covering the same ground as the week before, or tripping over the same stones, or being bluffed by the same steep slopes.
As members of the whole human race, we cry for ourselves and on their behalf:
Lord have mercy
Christ have mercy
Lord have mercy
Holy Friend, by the initiative of your grace in the Crucified and Risen One, may we all know the forgiveness of sin, the healing of the spirit, the toughening of the will, and in our hearts the renewal of belief. That yours may be the honour and praise, throughout the world we humbly pray. Through Jesus our Saviour
Amen!
AFFIRMING FORGIVENESS
My friends, God is not a ruthless judge who is “out to get us,” but the Divine Lover who in the Gospel of Christ exposes our excuses, forgives our sin and delivers us from all evil. Though we are patently unworthy, God names us as worthy, and asks us to face the future without anxiety.
Trust in God at all times,
pour out your heart and find refuge.
God is our rock fortress and our salvation,
in whom is deliverance with honour.
HYMN Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)
PSALM 62: 5-12
We wait in quietness for God alone,
from whom all hope comes.
God is like an Uluru at the centre of salvation,
my foothold which cannot be shaken.
Here is deliverance with honour,
on the mightiest rock I rest in God.
Stake your life on God, all people,
pour out your heart in security.
The life of the lowly hangs on a breath,
but so also do the high and mighty.
Put the powerful and rich on God’s scales
and they are lighter than a breath.
Don’t put confidence in making money
through dubious business practices.
If your bank balance does happen to grow,
never trust your heart to it.
God, you have once spoken your Word,
and I have heard it repeated:
True power belongs to You alone-
all the might of redeeming love.
You do not repay any human creature
according to the things we have done.
BIBLE READING Sue and John McK
Jonah 3 1-5 10
Mark 1 14 – 20
Questions :
Do you think of the call of Jesus as a one-off thing or a daily thing? Where is your comfortable and familiar place? Where do you sense Jesus might be calling you in this time and place? What do you see as your congregation’s call to the community?
Announcements
Giving Prayer, and Prayers of the People Kathy S
HYMN Oh Jesus I have promised
O Jesus, I have promised
to serve you to the end;
Lord, be for ever near me,
my master and my friend:
I shall not fear the battle
if you are by my side,
nor wander from the pathway
if you will be my guide.
Still let me feel you near me;
the world is ever near;
I see the sights that dazzle
and tempting sounds I hear;
my foes are ever near me,
around me and within;
but, Jesus, draw me nearer
and shield my soul from sin.
O let me hear you speaking
in accents clear and still,
above the storms of passion,
the murmurs of self-will;
Lord, speak to reassure me,
to chasten or control;
O speak, and make me listen,
true guardian of my soul.
Lord, let me see your footmarks
and in them plant my own;
that I may follow boldly
and in your strength alone;
O guide me, call me, draw me,
uphold me to the end;
and then in heaven receive me,
my Saviour and my friend.
As we prepare to leave this sanctuary and move out to fulfil our calling in the wider world, let us pray together for God’s help.
Loving God, we ask you to fulfil
the word sown in our lives today.
Make us fruitful every hour
throughout all the days of our lives.
Give us a faith
as wide as the world,
as high as the stars,
and as deep as the soul of Jesus.
The grace of Christ Jesus,
the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
will be with you all. Amen
HYMN Give Thanks
Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the holy one
Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son
And now let the weak say I am strong
Let the poor say I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us
Give thanks
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