Koonung Heights Uniting Church
Service of Worship at Home
Easter 6 – 14 May 2023 – 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: “Bless the Lord, my soul” – (Click on this link and skip the ads – TIS words below)
Candle Lighting:
As we light the Christ candle,
we thank God for the light of Christ in our world today.
This is the light that shines in the darkness –
the light the darkness cannot overcome.
Acknowledgement of Country:
As we gather to worship today,
I acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land,
the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin nation.
I also pay my respects to elders, past and present,
and to all descendants and future leaders.
As First and Second Peoples walking together,
we commit ourselves to be people of the covenant,
listening, truth telling and seeking justice for all.
Call to Worship:
In the care of a God
who gives everything.
In the call of a God
who invites us all.
In the brooding of a God
who nurtures the least,
we gather under the wings
of compassion and worship.
We Sing: “Joyful, joyful, we adore you” – (Click on this link and skip the ads )
Prayer of Adoration and Confession:
God of love and wonder,
as we look to the sky, the water, the land
and the web of creation, we see your hand in all of it.
God of many names,
none of which is adequate to describe you,
perhaps, instead of searching for the right words,
we should simply be silent and
draw as close to you as we dare.
Will we be dazzled by the light
or enfolded in loving arms?
Let us be silent and see.
(Silence)
God of compassion and restorative grace,
instead of listing all our faults and asking for forgiveness,
perhaps we should simply sit beside you
and look at ourselves and our world,
as far as we can, from your point of view.
Will we see deliberate wrong doing;
or well-meaning people doing their best
and sometimes getting it wrong;
confused, or hurting or fearful ones
not knowing where to turn?
Let us be silent and see.
(Silence)
God of many aspects,
and one eternal truth,
thank you for hearing our prayers
and guiding our thoughts.
For comforting, challenging,
reassuring or inspiring us
according to our need,
we give you thanks and praise.
Amen.
Words of Assurance:
Sisters and brothers,
hear the good news!
Christ has promised us that we are not alone.
Jesus offers us the Holy Spirit to be with us forever.
We live as those who are loved and known.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
The Peace:
The peace of the Christ, who knows and loves us, be with you
and also with you.
We Sing: “God of many names” – (Click on this link and skip the ads – TIS words below)
A Time for All:
Good morning everyone. My name is Kathryn D’Alessandro and you might remember that I talked to you last year about some of the new ways of being church and our future directions at Koonung Heights.
In 2022 the Koonung Heights UC (KHUC) Church Council realised they were faced with two significant issues: namely (1) a decrease in membership and mission and service giving while operational costs were increasing, (2) significant repairs required to fix the organ and appropriate use of congregational funds and a review of music styles. Both these issues saw the need for Church Council and the congregation to address the future directions for KHUC to ensure the viability of the church into the future.
Church Council invited Rev Deacon Mat Harry, New and Renewing Communities Catalyst, Synod eLM unit, to speak with us. Mat provided guidance, context and examples to help us consider new or renewing ways of being church in the future. The congregation, through different activities, began thinking about possible changes for the future. One activity was the extremely well attended congregational Future Directions workshop day.
A Future Directions Task Group was then set up, met, collected feedback from conversations, survey and workshop sessions, considered how these linked to our mission plan, and submitted a proposal to Church Council identifying possible future directions for KHUC.
The group agreed that the purpose of our future directions was growth but not in terms of ‘more bums on seats’ at Sunday morning worship, rather growth focussing on the sustainability of the congregation by ensuring the church is an integral part of the local community and the ability to share the gospel/faith with those outside the church in other formats additional to the Sunday morning worship. While financial sustainability is key, missional sustainability is even more imperative to ensure future survival.
At the May meeting of Church Council it was agreed an ongoing sub-committee of the Council should work to implement the future directions activities and continually look for new and renewing of being the Koonung Heights UC.
So where do we begin:
1. Current Congregational Activities
We have identified the incredible and numerous activities already happening at Koonung Heights. These include Chat and Sew, Choir and Band, Social Justice and Bin3 Coffee Mornings. You will know of many others.
The new committee will design and implement marketing to ensure communication to the wider community all of what is happening here through the sign, social media, community newsletters etc.
Inviting those from outside the congregation to join us also means we need to make sure those who come feel welcome and accepted. We need to be intentional to make sure these activities are inclusive for all. Each one of us needs to involved in welcoming and building relationships.
Our incredible facilities also should be marketed, and those who hire them should be viewed as community connections we aim to build relationship with.
2. Current Community Connections
We already have these through the Passion Walk, Christmas Carols, Manningham Social Justice events, Rotary (who use our shed), Melbourne Ballet School, Touch Church and a Quintet. We can engage community speakers and invite people to attend (eg: Road Safety Talk) and Touch Church. We can firm up connections we have with other institutions (eg: Friend Street Kindergarten).
3. New Initiatives
These might include employment of an admin person, weekly drop in coffee and chat mornings, installing a community notice board and a prayer tree. We can also investigate other projects suggested by the congregation.
4. Worship
At present no major change to worship is proposed, aside from being open to different music and worship styles. This has been embraced through the choir, inclusive language and the women’s lectionary, and work will commence on the organ soon.
As relationships are formed the congregation will be better resourced to determine what might make worship more accessible, attractive and engaging for potential new members. Changes could be around time, location, worship style, music, communion etc.
This is just the beginning. With the movement of the spirit and development of new connections and relationships, new paths, directions and initiatives will immerge. We pray that we as a congregation will be open to this movement of the spirit and be guided by it even when it may be difficult, challenging or out of our comfort zone. The context of the world around us has changed and the church must adapt and change too. If we embrace this change it will hopefully enable the church be sustainable both missionally and financially, change lives and continue to bring the good news to the increasingly secular world.
So now we’re asking all members of the congregation to reflect on these exciting new steps and think about how you can be involved. If you think you can be on a sub-committee that meets monthly to keep activities ticking over or you’re happy to come and serve tea, coffee and conversation on occasion, or cook a sausage a couple of times a year please let me know or be ready to put your hand up when the rosters for these new activities come out. Serving and offering hospitality to others is a wonderful way to share Christ’s love.
Let us pray …
God of the past and the present, God of the future,
We thank you that you journey with us always.
We thank you for this vibrant congregation and all that we have to celebrate.
We thank you for the work of so many individuals here
and the passion people have for this community.
Be with us as we strive to be attentive to the movement of your Spirit,
especially when this is difficult and moves us out of our comfort zone.
May all our working be for your kingdom and your glory.
Amen.
Bible Reading: Job 1:1; 2:1-10
– Job and His Family
1:1 There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
Attack on Job’s Health
2:1 One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and the accuser also came among them to present himself before the Lord. 2 The Lord said to the accuser, “Where have you come from?” The accuser answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.” 3 The Lord said to the accuser, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.” 4 Then the accuser answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! All that the man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.”
6 The Lord said to the accuser, “Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life.”
7 So the accuser went out from the presence of the Lord and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself and sat among the ashes.
9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive good from God and not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Bible Reading: Luke 13:31-35
The Lament over Jerusalem
31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32 He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. 33 Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ 34 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35 See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”
Reflection:
Have you ever been in one of those situations where you just had to keep going regardless? Maybe you are the sort of person who, because you have committed to something, is determined to see it through to the bitter end, even when it isn’t going the way you expect. Or maybe you are more likely to walk away as soon as things get uncomfortable, happy to throw your hands in the air and say “not my problem”. If I am honest, I know that I can be a little bit of both, depending on the situation. Sometimes I can be really frustrated with things and almost instantly decide it’s time to move on. I can remove myself quickly with others only becoming aware of my frustration and departure when they hear the door slam behind me. Other times, particularly when I’ve made a personal commitment to an individual, I find it hard to take a step back and re-assess whether I am actually being a help or a hindrance.
The book of Job begins like a fairy story … ‘there was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job.’ (Job 1:1) Job is described as upright and as one who fears God. He is also a very wealthy man with seven sons, three daughters, extensive livestock and servants. All these things (including his children) belong to him. God and the Accuser talk about how blameless Job is, and then agree to test his integrity by taking away what he has. By the time we come to the second chapter Job and his wife have lost much in the way of livestock as well as their children. Job has been afflicted with sores and we find him scraping himself with a piece of pottery.
Job’s unnamed wife has only the tiniest bit part in the long biblical saga of Job and his undeserved sufferings and his attempts to make some theological sense of them. We assume her existence early on (as he is unlikely to have produced his children on his own) but she does not make her appearance until after disaster has befallen them both and even then, she only has one line to deliver. She says nothing (or at least nothing we are permitted to hear) when Job loses all his wealth and their shared children, but when his body breaks out in putrid sores she can hold back no longer. ‘Why can’t you just curse God and die?’, she says.
Without seeing the expression on her face, or hearing the tone of voice in which she delivers these words, it is hard to know whether they are meant kindly or cruelly. It may be that she is angry … at a human level she did not sign up for this when she married a wealthy man and would be far better off now if she was widowed and free to marry again. But if we are more generous we might interpret her remarks coming from her deep distress at watching her husband’s pain. Cursing God is a capital offence (Leviticus 24:10-16) which will lead to his death, but this will also end his suffering and pain.
Whatever her motives, Job dismisses her words as foolish and quotes her a line about receiving whatever God wants to give – good or evil. It might be that God is right about Job whose goodness seems more than superficial. Yet it might also be that Job’s wife is the honest one here, saying out loud what her respectable husband has been thinking but is afraid to say. We are only told that ‘Job did not sin with his lips’. (Job 2:10)
Of course Job’s wife may be speaking from a place of compassion, distressed at her inability to help her husband. It is this that brings her close to Jesus as we see him in the brief passage from Luke’s gospel. Warned that his life is in danger, Jesus knows that the time and place are not quite right yet. He knows that like other prophets before him he will be killed in Jerusalem, and he (or the gospel writer) chooses an unambiguously female image to express his anguish as he sees history repeating itself. He weeps over Jerusalem and the people of this holy city who reject God’s offer of salvation.
Jesus is warned by a group of Pharisees that Herod Antipas wants to kill him. This could be a sincere warning or simply a tactic to scare Jesus or get rid of him, but either way, this gruff roaming rabbi greets the threat of violence with a message for Herod, comparing him to a cunning and destructive fox.
In contrast, Jesus sets himself up as someone who heals and makes whole – ‘casting out demons and performing cures’. (Luke 13:32) Jesus then uses an animal metaphor for himself. Unlike the dangerous predatory fox, he describes himself as a mother hen, desiring to keep her brood safe under her wings. This shows us Jesus’ nurturing and tender side, and reminds us that Jesus has come to protect God’s people. Jesus laments over Jerusalem because just like the mother hen who wants nothing more than to gather her chicks under her wings and keep them safe, she cannot force them to come to her. Neither does Jesus, the God-one, force anyone to come to him. On this day when we celebrate Mother’s, and all women who have nurtured us and protected us, let us spare a thought for those women who, no matter how hard they try, are not able to keep their children from harm.
In our world today there are still those we might names as foxes – those who are cunning and on the prowl to devour others. They may be individuals or corporations, institutions or governments, particular religious or political extremists –those who prey on people who, for a variety of reasons, are less powerful and often silenced. If we are serious about the call to follow Jesus, the One who journeyed to Jerusalem for us, then I wonder if part of that call is to provide places of shelter for those in need. Shelter might be physical (food, clothing, a place to stay) but shelter can also be as simple as a smile, a welcome and a safe place to belong. And as we offer shelter, maybe we are inviting those who stand with us to stand safe in God’s shadow.
Amen.
We Sing: “Safe in the shadow of the Lord” – (Click on this link and skip the ads )
Prayer for Others (prepared by Paul Tonson)
As followers of the Way of Jesus, let us fellowship together in a spirit of prayer.
Most of this prayer is for silent reflection and spiritual mindfulness that leads to a personal response.
We move from our own personal concerns to those of the church and the wider world.
An old hymn begins: “Prayer is the heart’s sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed.” (James Montgomery 1818)
Bring to mind and to prayer your deepest longings for your own life or for that of another person.
___
We saw in the Coronation the future king William affirm his loyalty to Charles as “liege Lord of life and limb”.
Around each of us are those in our circle of love who depend on our loyalty and our expressions of affection and even our forgiveness. Some are like chicks who need our mother hen care.
Be aware of what you can say or do to show your love and loyalty to one of them.
___
We saw in the Coronation a mature couple so long in the public eye whose life-long love has triumphed over adversity and criticism.
In love, let us hold up in prayers couples we know whose relationships are difficult or not accepted by others.
___
We saw in the Coronation an archbishop striving to make an ancient faith relevant to national leadership.
Be aware of ways that your love and spiritual wisdom can help to make our faith meaningful in this neighbourhood?
___
At the centre of the coronation was the theme of the kingdom and the servanthood of true kingship.
Let us reflect on the satisfaction and joy of our voluntary service and self-giving and pray for some of those whom we assist in any way.
___
“Practical prayer is harder on the soles of your shoes than on the knees of your trousers.” (Austin O’Malley, 1858-1932 – US Prof of English)
Now we have given this hour to sustaining our life of faith, the week awaits us for working out our salvation in the world. How is the Spirit prompting us to contact someone, to be with someone, or to do something for others in the week ahead?
___
In our life of adventurous faith, following in the way of Jesus, May peace be with you.
Amen.
We Sing: “Jesus Christ is Waiting” – (Click on this link & skip the ads )
Blessing:
As we go from here,
may we know that we are loved,
may we know that we are cared for,
may we know that even in the wildest of storms,
God is with us.
May the ever-present,
compassionate and comforting
God, Son and Spirit,
the One who shelters us like a mother hen,
be with us all,
today, tomorrow and forever more.
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:-Spill the Beans (Issue 46), The Women’s Lectionary: Preaching The Women Of The Bible Throughout The Year (Ashley M Wilcox) and Fig Tree Worship.