Koonung Heights Uniting Church
Led by Rev Dr Paul Tonson
Those watching online may like to light a candle during your time of worship.
Consider sending the Peace by SMS to other members of the congregation.
WE GATHER WITH GRATITUDE
Let us remain seated and quiet as the choir draws us into worship, singing the words from Isaiah that Jesus took as his calling.
The Spirit of the Lord is now upon me
To heal the broken heart and set the captives free
To open prison doors and make the blind to see
The Spirit of the Lord is now on me
We light the Christ candle
Today’s service theme – Gratefulness
In this quiet moment, please think of one thing for which you are grateful, that later you may share with a neighbour.
Thanksgiving prayers
- for our experiences of living in the world …
- for our inner life of thoughts and feelings …
- for our indigenous and immigrant heritage …
- for the Way of the Cross
Hymn: TiS 154 – Great is your faithfulness (Based on Lamentations 3:22, 23)
Great is your faithfulness, O God my Father,
in you no shadow of turning we see;
you never fail and your love is unchanging:
as you have been you for ever will be.
Men first time.
Great is your faithfulness. Great is your faithfulness,
morning by morning new mercies we see;
all we have needed your hand has provided:
great is your faithfulness, Lord God, to me.
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
join with all nature in unspoken witness
to your great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Women
Great is your faithfulness. Great is your faithfulness,
morning by morning new mercies we see;
all we have needed your hand has provided:
great is your faithfulness, Lord God, to me.
Pardon for sin and a peace that’s enduring,
your living presence to cheer and to guide,
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow —
these are the blessings your love will provide.
Everyone
Great is your faithfulness. Great is your faithfulness,
morning by morning new mercies we see;
all we have needed your hand has provided:
great is your faithfulness, Lord God, to me.
Together in a Spirit of Prayer – Our Lamentation and Confession
This is the house of God, a place of prayer for all people.
Here, there are no insiders and outsiders, no favourites, no strangers.
With our gratefulness for so much we bring our sorrow and anxiety for many things that are not right, in the world, in the church, and in our lives.
We lament that our lives are quite peaceful, while people elsewhere live with destruction and death.
We are not grateful for unwelcome experiences of physical pain and emotional hurt, for being misunderstood, overlooked or unwanted,
Yet we give thanks for forgiveness, healing and spiritual nourishment that we find in a community of faith, which enables us to overcome adversity, and to be made whole.
We admit that at times we are our own worst enemy, reluctant or unable to change our life patterns or our ways of thinking about others or about ourselves.
As we confess the sin in human life, we also confess our faith in Christ, and in the power of forgiveness to transform life.
May an inner flow of gratitude set us free from worry and bitterness and self-doubt, and enable us to make lemonade out of every lemon life throws us.
We accept forgiveness for ourselves, that sets us free to live in deep peace, even in our frailty.
We are deeply obligated by the word of Jesus:
Whose sins you forgive on earth are forgiven in heaven
In the saving grace of our Lord Jesus, may we never miss the opportunity to be forgiving towards others.
May our mindfulness here today sustain our faith,
May gratitude inspire us to use our creative gifts for others, to transform our world and the lives of those around us.
SO BE IT
The Peace
May the peace of God always be with you
And also with you
You are welcome to sit a moment, to offer a smile to someone else here today, or to send the peace to someone on your phone.
WE LISTEN WITH EARS OF FAITH
Responsive reading Psalm 118 –
Give thanks to the Eternal because He is always good.
He never ceases to be loving and kind.
2 Let the people of Israel proclaim:
“He never ceases to be loving and kind.”
3 Let the priests of Aaron’s line proclaim:
“He never ceases to be loving and kind.”
4 Let the people who fear the Eternal proclaim:
“He never ceases to be loving and kind.”
8 It is better to put your faith in the Eternal for your security
than to trust in people.
9 It is better to put your faith in God for your security
than to trust in princes.
22 The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very stone that holds together the entire foundation.
23This is the work of the Eternal,
and it is marvellous in our eyes.
24 This is the day the Eternal God has made;
let us celebrate and be happy today.
Chat time – sharing our gratitude
A video greeting from the UCA President – Rev. Charissa Suli
Hymn: TiS 162 – Thank you for giving me the morning
Thank you for giving me the morning, thank you for every day that’s new, thank you that all my hurts and troubles I can take to you.
Thank you for all my friends and helpers, thank you for people everywhere, thank you for showing me, Lord Jesus, how to help and care.
Thank you for times of working, playing, thank you for all that I can do, thank you for all that’s bright and cheerful, and for music too.
Thank you for comfort in my sadness, thank you for all who understand, thank you that your hand holds and leads me, everywhere I am.
Gospel Reading
Matthew 10:32-39 – The paradoxical teaching of Jesus
32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.
33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For in the words of the prophet Micah I have come to turn “a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
Reflection: “Thank you so much” and “Get Lost” (Matt 10: 38f)
Every so often, we visit our son James in Cootamundra with son Flynn aged 6. At meal times, Flynn will often reach out to hold hands and announce: “Gratefulness”. Sometimes he will say: “You first Nan” and Gillian will begin the pattern, sharing something she is grateful for. Of course grandchildren is high on her list. More importantly, we want them to grow up grateful, with a sense of obligation rather than entitlement
How grateful are you this morning? I am so grateful that I left mathematics and government work to enter ministry, such an enriching privilege. I’ve been trusted by many and challenged by quite a few, and told more than once that I should move on – painful times. Ministry at Koonung Heights was a resurrection and what lasting friends we made here. The musical Cool in the Furnace was joyful and satisfying.
My testimony to gratefulness is right up to date today, because I had a wonderful serendipity when I found the reading for today is a text that has become the heart of the gospel for me. If we love family more than we love Jesus we are not worthy of him. If we don’t take up the cross we are not worthy of him. Isn’t this a tough text! Jesus goes on to say: Those who grasp at life will lose it, and those who relinquish their life for his sake will find it. This is the Get Lost bit. Does it appeal to you at all?
I can only be a hypocrite preaching this text to you but I would fail my calling if I skirt around it. This text appears in all gospels, six times in all without counting parallels. It is found in different settings, as if the gospel writers knew it was so important they had to put it in somewhere. It is the most frequent NT text about salvation – finding life.
I am grateful for this text for three reasons. 1) It succinctly sums up the meaning of Jesus’ life and his death. Jesus was a totally giving man, a homeless itinerant. H G Wells described Jesus, ironically, as a flop at thirty-three, because he relinquished his life in every way and seemed to have achieved nothing. And yet here we are among millions whose lives have been formed around following his Way.
I am grateful for this text because 2) it communicates to anyone, with no GOD talk to get in the way. It is not about religion. Over the last 10 years I have had a unique role as a Christian minister in dialogue and friendship with groups of Humanists, Rationalists, Existentialists, Sceptics, Agnostics and Atheists, none of whom believe in a GOD although some have a sense of the spiritual aspect of life. Quite a few of them have a passion for justice like we do. Speaking of my faith to them, I feel like St Paul talking to the Greeks! I am looking for language that can make sense to them. This is a text that does so, a kind of taster full of possible meanings. They listen and engage.
I am so grateful for this text because 3) it gives me an agenda for living that will last my whole life. Somehow at age 6 I asked Mother: Can I accept Jesus as my Saviour. She said Yes with a prayer and life went on. At 17 through bible reading I was captivated anew by Jesus. He was his own man, with a clear mission and able to engage others with love or challenge as needed. I so wanted to be like him.
For some years, I felt the challenge of being a Christian was about what I could believe, about GOD or about Jesus. Now I find the greater challenge is about whether I can live and let go like Jesus. Paul tells us that unless we believe in resurrection we are lost. Such a belief is a challenge. But this text tells us we can share in the experience of resurrection, new life, through letting go.
To inspire us, here is what the Rev Dr Co-pilot – AI tells us in three sentences about Jesus’ way of losing life.
Clinging to our curated identities and survival strategies only traps us in a smaller life, a life that slips through our fingers the harder we try to hold it. Jesus’ call to lose our life is not passive resignation but an active release of our ego’s need to control everything. It’s profoundly counter-intuitive, yet it’s the doorway into a freer, truer way of being.
I have found a joy in letting go of things, dependence on things; joy in moving on after disappointments, joy in letting go of prejudiced ways of thinking and ways of expressing faith that are meaningless to others, joy in gratitude for the great diversity of lifestyle and culture in our world.
I can imagine that after church if we try to say thank you in every conversation, we will fan a fire of life among us. Being grateful blesses both the giver and the receiver. Gratefulness really is a form of godliness. Through gratefulness and a sense of privilege, we experience the divine in our lives.
TiS 686 – Because we bear your name
We remain seated as we sing
Lord Jesus, we belong to you, you live in us, we live in you; we live and work for you — because we bear your name.
Let nothing that we do or say offend the weak so that they fall and lose their faith in you — because we bear your name.
Keep us from missing out on life; give hands that help, and single sight,
and feet that walk your way — because we bear your name.
Prayers for others – Harriet Ziegler
Let us pray
God of love and light, we come before you this morning, grateful for your faithfulness to us, for the sure and certain knowledge that we can open our hearts to you and that you will move in us that we may be your more faithful witnesses.
Our thoughts turn especially this morning to the church which grew from those first frightened followers of Jesus. We pray for Christians everywhere, remembering those in countries where authorities imprison and silence them and those where greed and materialism silence the message of love and sacrifice. We pray for all people of faith that each in our own way will reflect your divine nature.
We give thanks today for our own small branch of the large tree of Christian faith – the Uniting Church in Australia. We are grateful to the men and women who saw that the future might be well served by a stronger Christian voice and who laboured to bring together the Presbyterians, the Methodists and the Congregationalists in this country. We give thanks for the 49 years that we have been a church. We pray that we may press on in hope and faith as your witnesses in this country and the world. We pray for the leadership of the Uniting Church, whether at the Assembly, the Synod or the Presbytery, that all may have the courage and vision of the founders of our church.
We pray for all who minister in the Uniting Church. Today, we give thanks for the ministry of Rev. Paul Tonson, and the support of his wife, Gillian, who ministered here and in many other places over the past 50 years. We pray for Rev. Heather Hon and give thanks for our memories of her; we pray for Rev. Ray Gormann, who will come to us; we pray for Rev. Randall Prior, who is also assisting during our vacancy, and our pastoral assistant, Ray Michelle.
We give thanks for the joys of belonging to a congregation where we uphold one another in prayer and fellowship, and where these bonds of Christian friendship give us courage and strength. We pray for the leaders in this congregation and other congregations, that all may seek to discern your way forward in these difficult times. We pray for Helen Telfer and the counselling project that will soon be launched under her leadership. We are grateful that she has the support of the CC and of her husband, David, and others, as she begins this venture.
We ask you to hear these, our many prayers for your church on this special anniversary day.
And we pray also for your world. We are mindful of the many who have no peace… poor health…. insufficient food and shelter…. those who are troubled in their hearts by grief or illness or unemployment… and we pray for the earth itself, tortured by climate change.
We ask that those who have opportunity to change people’s circumstances will seize those opportunities – leaders in business and government, workers in health care and emergency services, teachers and parents. May they act for the good of those who are most in need.
We pray for peace in the world. If indeed there is to be peace between Iran and the USA, we give thanks.
Finally, we pray for ourselves and those dearest to us. In these moments of silence, we lay before you the deepest concerns of our hearts, confident that you know our yearnings even before we do.
Silence
With gratitude and hope, we commend all this to you, praying that we may have the wisdom to help bring our prayers to fruition. And now we pray a modern version of the great prayer Jesus taught his followers:
Our heavenly Father, may your presence be honoured by all.
May Jesus’ vision of the kingdom of heaven become real on earth. May we have just what we need for today.
May we know forgiveness for ourselves
just as we are wholeheartedly forgiving to others
Sustain us through all that is a trial
And guide us away from all that is evil
For the kingdom and the reign and the praise are yours forever, Amen
Song: A weaving hymn (Tune TiS 134 – Praise my soul)
God calls each in common purpose,
Weaving individual threads,
Forming with our varied colours
Tapestries of life widespread,
Integrating strength with weakness,
Picturing God’s love unsaid.
Thus our lives are interwoven,
Friend with stranger, young with old,
Softer colours forming balance
With those strands more strong and bold
Linking threads from all our histories
To a future yet untold.
As each tune weaves in its picture
We give thanks for all God’s grace,
Seeing beauty in each pattern,
Finding everywhere God’s face.
Thus secured we each move forward,
New designs from God to trace.
Blessing:
We go out into life following the self-giving way of our Lord, who had nowhere to lay his head, and ended his life a lot younger than many of us.
• By the inspiration of the Spirit of God, • may we grasp less and relinquish more, • and walk more truly in the Way of Jesus
Singing together: TiS 781 – Father bless us as we go.
We sing once together then we sing as a three part round.
Father bless us as we go,
Jesus walk beside us,
Holy Spirit guide us
