Koonung Heights Uniting Church
Service of Worship at Home
Easter 3 – 19 April, 2026 – 10am or whenever possible
You may like to light a candle during your time of worship.
Feel free to text the Peace to other members of the congregation.
Introit: Santo, Santo – (TiS 723)
Santo, santo, santo. Mi corazón te adora!
Mi corazón te sabe decir: Santo eres Señor!
Holy, holy, holy. My heart, my heart adores you!
My heart knows how to say to you: Holy are you, Lord.
Candle Lighting:
In lighting the Christ Candle this day,
we remember that the light of Christ is what guides us,
going before and lighting our path.
May we look to emulate the light of the world,
loving others as Christ loves them.
Acknowledgement of Country:
As we come to worship,
I acknowledge that this is God’s land
and God’s Spirit dwells here.
I acknowledge the Wurundjeri WoiWurrung
People of the Kulin nations,
traditional custodians of this land under God.
I pay my respects to elders past and present,
and to all future leaders and generations.
Call to Worship:
Come among us, risen Christ,
as we gather, as we listen,
as we pray and as we sing.
Open our eyes to you.
Set our hearts on fire with you love.
Come and walk beside us,
and stay with us.
We Sing: You are holy – (TiS 753)
You are holy, you are whole.
You are always ever more
than we ever understand.
You are always at hand.
Blessèd are you coming near;
blessèd are you coming here
to your church in wine and bread,
raised from soil, raised from dead.
You are holy, you are wholeness,
you are present, let the cosmos praise you, Lord!
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, our Lord!
Prayer of Praise and Confession:
Eternal God,
we praise and thank you for the gift of your Son,
crucified, then raised by your loving power,
who is with us to the end of time.
Lord Jesus, we exult in your deliverance;
you bring us from darkness into light,
from despair into living hope,
from gloom to joy.
Through the Spirit you come alongside us,
and give us understanding of the Scriptures,
and our hearts warm to you,
and when you break bread with us,
we know you as the very Bread of Life.
We worship and adore you.
Lord Jesus you journey with us in true fellowship,
present to us in every time of temptation,
doubt and need:
as our Saviour whose grace is sufficient to us,
always.
May we know this in our hearts by faith,
and live to praise and serve you.
Gracious God we confess that sometimes we have walked away,
full of fear, full of doubt, full of shame,
and feeling unworthy of your deep and abiding love.
We have closed our ears to your cries echoing around the world.
We have closed our eyes to the sign of you –
bereft, bedraggled, hungry and hurting.
We have closed our hearts, quenching the flames of faith
with the gushing waters of whatever catches our eye and turns our heads.
Forgive us. Meet us on the road. Stay with us.
Amen.
Words of Assurance:
Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls …’ (Acts 2:38-39)
Sisters and brothers in Christ,
hear the promise, you are forgiven.
Thanks be to God, Amen.
The Peace:
God makes peace within us. Let us claim it.
God makes peace between us. Let us share it.
Let us greet another as a sign of God’s peace.
The peace of God be with you
and also with you.
Time for All – Earth Day:
This coming Wednesday (22 April) is Earth Day – a global day dedicated to environmental protection, sustainability and climate action. Among other things, Earth Day focuses on reducing plastic pollution, restoring ecosystems, and encouraging conservation. The Earth Day 2026 theme for Australia and globally is Our Power Our Planet, focusing on the power of community, workers, and families to drive sustainability through collective action rather than relying on policy alone.
Collective Action – focuses on how communities (schools, workplaces, churches) can make lasting daily changes themselves.
Renewable Energy – champions the transition to solar, wind and other clean energy sources.
Environmental Stewardship – reminds us about local actions like community cleanups, tree planting and the importance of reducing waste.
Sustainability Habits – encourages us to move from temporary actions to daily sustainable habits in our homes, businesses and other gathering places.
These are actions that we can take without waiting on policy to be implemented.
Almost three years ago to the day, Koonung Heights Congregation was the recipient of two Five Leaf Eco Awards. Some of you might remember this. For those who don’t, Five Leaf Eco Awards are given to congregations in recognition of the work they have done in taking action for the environment. We received the Basic Certificate for our dedication to the environment through our building, worship, congregation, outreach and community leadership. Installing our solar panels was part of this, and one way this community moved towards renewable energy. We also received the Eco-Worship Certificate for our participation in the Seasons of Creation and for integrating environmental themes into worship.
I wonder what simple changes we might be able to commit to this coming Earth Day, to continue to care for our planet.
Let us pray …
Generous God,
we thank you for the wonders of this planet Earth that we call home,
for its beauty, and the way it sustains a myriad of life.
We pray, with urgency, that the leaders of our species
will have concern for our common home.
Give us a vision of healing for the whole of creation.
May we live out your love for the Earth we are part of.
In Jesus’ name we pray,
Amen.
We Sing: Touch the earth lightly – (TiS 668)
Touch the earth lightly, use the earth gently,
nourish the life of the world in our care:
gift of great wonder, ours to surrender,
trust for the children tomorrow will bear.
We who endanger, who create hunger,
agents of death for all creatures that live,
we who would foster clouds of disaster,
God of our planet, forestall and forgive!
Let there be greening, birth from the burning,
water that blesses and air that is sweet,
health in God’s garden, hope in God’s children,
regeneration that peace will complete.
God of all living, God of all loving,
God of the seedling, the snow and the sun,
teach us, deflect us, Christ re-connect us,
using us gently and making us one.
Bible Reading: Acts 2:14a, 36-41
– Peter Addresses the Crowd
14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them,
36 “Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” 40 And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
41 So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.
Bible Reading: Luke 24:13-35
– The Walk to Emmaus
13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
A Story – The Emmaus Road:
The Emmaus Road they call it.
It is the road from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus, a journey of about 7 miles.
If you walked it the other way around you could call it the Jerusalem Road,
but no-one ever does.
Something happened on that road a long time ago that made it famous.
Two travellers walked along it one spring night and a third traveller joined them.
The two travellers were sad. A friend of theirs had just died. They were missing him.
The traveller who joined them was a stranger to them.
He seemed to be a preacher … a story teller … a teacher …
As they walked together they talked about life and its meaning,
about the things that were important to them.
They listened to each other. They asked each other questions.
Sometimes they smiled. Sometimes they nodded.
Sometimes they struggled with their hopes and fears.
When they got near to Emmaus the stranger walked ahead of them
as if he meant to walk on,
but this was their home and they wanted to invite him in.
And the stranger stayed and they shared each other’s food.
And he was a stranger no longer.
He was their friend.
They say that the two travellers were friends of Jesus.
And the evening of their journey
was the evening of the day
that Jesus had risen from the dead.
And they also say that when the meal was finished
the two travellers hurried back
those seven long miles to Jerusalem
to share their story:
the story of the road to Emmaus
and of Jesus who they recognised in the sharing of bread.
Reflection:
Who doesn’t love a good road trip? Leaving the routine behind for a while as you travel down the road to see new things, often on holidays! When I was a child our family used to have lots of road trip holidays, and even the times that we were going somewhere we had been before, the adventure began when we got in the car. I remember fondly singing along to the Beatles and Abba in the portable tape deck we carried, or unaccompanied to much older songs like Bicycle Built For Two, occasionally punctuated by my mum saying ‘O John!’ when my dad started singing alternate words. I have continued to enjoy these holidays with my own family and was always thankful that Elizabeth was a good car traveller … and she even learnt some of those alternate words from her Granddad.
One of the fantastic things about road trips are that they facilitate space for connection and conversation. Friendships can deepen as you have the time together that you might not always have. Passing comments can make way for discussions of the deep things of life.
Most, if not all of us, will be familiar with the story of the walk to Emmaus. It is a beautiful, gentle story about two friends, walking home after some very eventful and disruptive experiences, maybe a little like a long trip home after an interstate funeral. As they walk, they are in deep conversation, trying to make sense of what has happened and wondering about what lies ahead. As they journey to Emmaus the two friends take time to process the events of the weekend – Jesus’s crucifixion and death, and of the report from some of the women that he was alive again.
I’m sure they had mixed emotions – grief because their friend had died, disappointment because they had hoped Jesus would prove to be the Messiah, confused by rumours that he had risen from the dead and wondering what this all might mean for them. They had been companions of Jesus in his early life, so what are they supposed to do now. Their lives had changed in the last few days and they are trying to work through it.
Somewhere along the way they are joined by someone else, a third person, someone who helps them process their thoughts and shows them a way forward. By the time they reach their destination it is getting dark and they urge the stranger to stay with them. Hospitality was a huge cultural imperative, and it still is in many places, so there is no way that the friends would have let this stranger continue on, without an invitation to stay. The invitation is accepted, they prepare food and sit down to eat together. It is then that their guest becomes the host. As Jesus offers hospitality, breaking bread with them, they realise that they are sitting with the resurrected Jesus himself, and that all along it had been Jesus who was walking with them, explaining the scriptures and giving them hope and a way forward.
This news is so startling to them, but also so amazing, that the friends can’t keep it to themselves. They get up and hurry the seven miles back to Jerusalem where they find the disciples and share their experience with them … it is too important to keep it to themselves.
The news of God journeying with the world is always too big to keep it to ourselves. When we encounter the good news of the gospel, from friend or stranger, it stays with us on our journey and we are compelled to share it with others that we meet. In fact, journey, travel and people moving from one place to another, is a theme that recurs in the gospel of Luke and its sequel, the book of Acts. It begins before Jesus’ birth with Mary, his mother, travelling from her home in Nazareth to see her aunt, Elizabeth. Later, she travels with Joseph to Jerusalem and gives birth in a stable. As a boy of twelve, Jesus travels with his parents to the temple, and later, as a man, he travels all around the country with his disciples until he finally ends up back in Jerusalem. It is one life-long journey.
In the book of Acts we find Jesus’ followers journeying on, too, from Jerusalem into the wider world, all around the Mediterranean, to Rome and even further, to the ends of the earth. As people embark on these journeys, the gospel, the good news about God in Jesus, travels with them. From the moment the priest Zechariah hears of it first in the temple at the beginning of the gospel, all the way up until Paul shares it from captivity in a prison in Rome at the end of the book of Acts.
The way Luke represents it, the gospel is on a journey, from the start meant to travel, made to go out into the wider world and find itself shared about different people, in many and varied communities and circumstances. We have been reminded of two of these today – two friends meeting Jesus on the road, and Peter sharing the good news with a gathered crowd, calling them to repentance and baptizing around three thousand! These narratives remind us that God can turn up anywhere, and any time and for anyone, even when and where we least expect it.
Faith, purpose, direction and clarity grow in relationship, as we travel; talking and sharing together. The gospel reminds us that God, Christ, can become present anytime, anywhere, in any given circumstance. Formally or informally, purposefully and carefully curated in a worshipful liturgical setting like communion, or in an ordinary meal that turns into something more.
Where might Jesus meet you next? Where might you be surprised to recognise the Risen One?
Amen.
We Sing: Alleluia! Christ is risen! – (TiS 395)
Alleluia, Christ is risen! Alleluia, he is here –
now he walks the road beside us,
gone our grief and fear.
Where before was separation,
in the pain of Friday’s gloom,
now we know it could not hold him –
open is the tomb:
Alleluia, Christ is risen! …
All our doubts come crashing downwards,
darkness melting into light;
death’s horizon just becomes
the limit of our sight:
Alleluia, Christ is risen! …
There’s a promise for the grieving, further on than tears and pain –
there’s a place where we shall meet all those we love again:
Alleluia, Christ is risen! …
In the depths of all our knowing, we can sense that life goes on;
hope expanding, glad hearts singing Alleluia’s song:
Alleluia, Christ is risen! …
Prayer for Others (written by Graham and Wendy Ray):
Let us pray
Lord, we have again this Easter heard of Your appearance to the disciples.
Today we are reminded of Your presence to the two disciples on the Emmaus Road.
As they sensed Your presence at that time, in the breaking of the bread and conversation on the road, You overcame the darkness of their fear and doubt.
You gave them energy and hope, in the assurance of Your companionship on the journey of life.
Bring to us now, as we pray, the sense of Your living presence.
Bring to us today, ways of seeing You in our daily lives.
We think of those who strive tirelessly to bring peace to this troubled world.
There are many places of conflict at this time.
In a moment of silence, we pray for our troubled world …
In Australia, and around the world, there are those who lack what we take for granted.
Lift our eyes to their needs.
Help us to meet these needs.
Let the hungry, the refugees, and the asylum seekers know that Christ is alive.
We pray for those suffering the aftermath of bushfires, floods and cyclones in Australia and other parts of the world.
We pray for those assisting with the effects of these disasters.
We pray for those who care compassionately for the physically sick, the mentally disturbed and the deeply troubled.
We pray for those who have been unwell, and for those who may have lost loved ones and who feel that grief will not end.
In a moment of silence, we bring before You, what is most on our hearts and minds this morning …
May all of us here at Koonung Heights have a strong sense of Your living presence.
As You revealed yourself to doubting Thomas, and to the disciples on the Emmaus Road, guide each one of us.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who taught us to pray …
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours,
now and for ever.
Amen.
We Sing: Lord, take my hand and lead me – (TiS 593)
Lord, take my hand and lead me along life’s way;
protect and guide and feed me from day to day.
Without your care and favour I go astray;
so take my hand, O Saviour, and lead the way.
Lord, take my heart and hide it within your grace;
through pain and pleasure guide it to be at peace.
Hold close your child, dear Saviour, and stay with me,
and help me trust whenever I cannot see.
For when it seems you’re hiding your saving might,
still you are safely guiding me through the night.
So take my hand and lead me along life’s way:
protect and guide and feed me to endless day.
Blessing and Sending:
Their ears were blocked, they couldn’t see,
and then they knew!
As we have worshipped so we go out into the world,
our hearts burning, needing to share the Good News:
Jesus is Risen!
The blessing of God the Father,
God the Son and God the Spirit,
the One God who is Mother to us all,
go with you today and always.
Amen.
Thanks to all those who have assisted in preparation for this liturgy with encouragement, prayers and conversation. I have also utilised the following resources: Fig Tree Worship. Worship Words, and Spill the Beans (Issue 34).
Prayer of Praise and Confession adapted from Rev Ron Gordon, Dad and Daughter, 2012.