Your worth (more than skin deep)

CHRIST CANDLE

In darkness, Christ Jesus came to be light to the world, so that we might follow and not lose our way. We light the Christ candle acknowledging the One who is the Light, the Truth & the Way. Everything we do in this Service and in life flows through the prism of this acknowledgment.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY

Dharawal land gifted by the Creator is where we gather today. We acknowledge those who have been good stewards of this land for 60,000 years and give thanks to God for them. We honour their elders past and present and commit ourselves to this shared journey of reconciliation.

WELCOME

We say it all the time: ‘you are welcome’, yes, you and you and you; there is room here in this place and in God’s heart and ours, for you, and you and you; and yes God knows all about your life, & all about your life & all about my life. We are all welcome. So let us worship God together with one Voice!

CALL TO WORSHIP

Creator God, as the sun warms the earth & scatters the mist, so your Son warms our very being & scatters the darkness of regret, failure, disengagement & despair. Come Spirit of God & set on fire every part of our being so that we may worship you with all that we are & with all we can become.

HYMN TIS 156

Morning has broken
like the first morning,
blackbird has spoken
like the first bird.
Praise for the singing!
Praise for the morning!
Praise for them, springing
fresh from the Word!

Sweet the rain’s new fall
sunlit from heaven,
like the first dewfall
on the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness
of the wet garden,
sprung in completeness
where God’s feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight!
Mine is the morning
born of the one light
Eden saw play!
Praise with elation,
praise every morning,
God’s recreation
of the new day!

Eleanor Farjeon 1881 – 1965 Words and music Enlarged Songs of Praise 1931 Oxford University Press.

Used with permission CCLI Licence # 31951

WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS

RESPONSIVE PSALM 13

How long, Lord?

Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, Lord my God.

Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing the Lord’s praise, for God has been good to me.

Let us pray: In God, Source of Life, our deaths are not the final word, our moments of crisis are part of eternal possibility & our weakness is taken up into the courage of God. As followers of Jesus of the Way, our humanness is touched with divine life, our tears are mingled with longing love & our solidarity with those who suffer is joined by divine presence. In the Spirit of Creativity, there are no boundaries on the dream, there is no end to hope and we will never live beyond the cherishing of God. © Rev Dr Dorothy McRae – McMahon

Hymn: Seek the Lord while God is near (Words modified)

Seek, O seek the Lord, while God is near

Trust him, speak to God in prayer

And she will hear.

God be with us in our lives

Direct us in our calling

Break the snares the world contrives

Keep us from falling.

God, increase in us the life

That Christ by dying gave us

Though we faint in mortal strife

His blood will save us.

Strengthen in our hearts the love

We owe to one another

How can we love God above

And not each other?

Words by permission Curtis Brown; Music © R Connolly. James Phillip McAuley 1917 – 1976 Used with permission CCLI Licence 31951

GOSPEL READING

Matthew 10: 40 – 42 (NIV)“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

Matthew 10:40 – 42 (The Message) We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God’s messenger. Accepting someone’s help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I’ve called you into, but don’t be overwhelmed by it. It’s best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out on a thing.” In this we hear God’s all-embracing word. Thanks be to God.

Message: Rev Paul Bartlett

HYMN: There’s a spirit in the air

There’s a spirit in the air
Telling Christians everywhere
Praise the love that Christ revealed
Living working in our world.

Lose your shyness find your tongue
Tell the world what God has done
God in Christ has come to stay
Live tomorrow’s life today.

When believers break the bread
When a hungry child is fed
Praise the love that Christ revealed
Living working in our world.

When a stranger’s not alone
Where the homeless find a home
Praise the love that Christ revealed
Living working in our world.

May the Spirit fill our praise
Guide our thoughts and change our ways
God in Christ has come to stay
Live tomorrow’s life today.

HOLY COMMUNION

As if this were the only time, and this the only place

and we the only people, Jesus Christ will meet us here.

WE GATHER IN PRAYER

You found out what we were doing and you intervened

‘Come and do it together, come and do it with me’ you said.

So, thank you, Lord, for intervening in our private lives.

You promised us nothing by way of success, recognition, possessions or reward.

‘These things will come at the right time when you walk with me’ you said.

So, thank you, Lord, for promising us nothing.

You gave us no resources apart from ourselves – hands meant for caring, lips meant for praising, hearts meant for loving – and the Holy Spirit to make us restless until we change.

So, thank you, Lord, for the essential gifts.

INVITATION

So, come, you who have much faith and you who have little, you who have been here often and you who have not been for a long time, you who have tried to follow and you who have failed.

Come, not because it is I who invite you: it is our Lord. It is his will that those who want him should meet him here.

THE SETTING

Bread and wine are broken and poured out:

This is my body broken for you…this cup is God’s Covenant, sealed with my blood.

PRAYER OF INVOCATION

DISTRIBUTION

THE PEACE:

Not an easy peace, not an insignificant peace, not a half-hearted peace, but the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with us now. Lord Jesus Christ, you have put your life into our hands: Now we put our lives into yours. Take us, renew and remake us. What we have been is past, what we shall be, through you, still awaits us. Lead us on. Take us with you. Amen! (We share the Peace)

HYMN: An Upper Room

An upper room did our Lord prepare
For those He loved until the end
And His disciple still gather there
To celebrate their risen friend.

A lasting gift Jesus gave His own
To share His bread His loving cup
Whatever burdens may bow us down
He by His cross shall lift us up.

And after supper He washed their feet
For service too is sacrament
In Him our joy shall be made complete
Sent out to serve as He was sent.

No end there is we depart in peace
He loves beyond our uttermost
In every room in our Father’s house
He will be there as Lord and host.

BLESSING & BENEDICTION

Lord Jesus Christ, you have put your life into our hands:

Now we put our lives into yours. Take us, renew and remake us.

What we have been is past, what we shall be, through you

still awaits us. Still lead us on. Take us with you. Always. Amen!

And the blessing of God be with you always.

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