Koonung Heights Uniting Church
Service of Worship at Home
Lent 5 – 26 March 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: “Holy, holy, holy” – (Click on this and skip the ads – words below)
Lighting the Christ Candle:
In lighting the Christ Candle this day,
may we remember to shine the light of Christ,
so that wisdom may be seen,
acknowledged and heard.
Acknowledgement of Country:
As we gather,
I acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land
and these waters,
the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung People
of the Kulin nation.
I pay my respects to their elders and leaders,
past and present, and to all their descendants.
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:
Here we seek peace.
We seek a word that calls us
into righteousness, justice, hope.
Let us gather around the wisdom of God
and let her reshape us.
Let her wonders unravel our fears
and set us free to hear her again,
to hear her knowledge of the Divine,
her compassion for God,
her possibility of life.
Here we seek faith.
A community that calls us
into servanthood and truth
with the One whose wisdom
chose to be a servant to us.
Amen.
We Sing: “Come, O God of all the earth” – (Click on this link & skip the ads –TIS words below)
Prayer of Adoration and Confession:
God of all wisdom,
you guide us in our journey through life,
giving us such insight as we have into why we are here
and how to live well in the brief time we are here,
on this beautiful, fragile planet
with its strange and complex inhabitants.
We fondly imagine that you know everything that still puzzles us;
that you have answers to the questions that perplex us;
solutions to the problems that we face,
if only we would listen more carefully
and follow more obediently.
But what if it is not that simple?
What if the life of Jesus and its tragic ending
has a different story to tell,
one that we are understandably reluctant to hear?
What if the confusion and messiness are part
of the way things are and always have been?
What if good and evil, light and darkness,
love and hate, right and wrong
are not the opposites they seem
but weights to balance each other,
each part and parcel of the world that you made,
and, when you looked upon it,
saw that it was good?
What if wisdom is not – or not very often –
about seeing the whole picture
and making the only right choice,
but about listening and learning,
making the best choices we can
and living with the consequences,
and trusting you to work the miracle of resurrection,
bringing good out of evil, hope from despair,
and life out of death?
We think of the women and men
who accompanied Jesus as he walked that path in his own time,
inspiring some to give up everything to follow him,
and stirring up others to stop at nothing to silence him.
We admire their courage and tenacity,
and ask for that same determination to keep going especially when times are hard.
We recognise their fears and failures,
and ask that we, like them, may have the courage to come to you for forgiveness
and for the strength we need to carry on,
supporting you and one another as you have promised to support us
all the days of our life until greater life shall call.
Amen.
Words of Assurance:
The God we worship is the God of life,
the God of hope, the God of new beginnings.
Feel the warmth of the presence of God,
for God is always with us.
This is good news!
Thanks be to God!
The Peace:
May the peace of God dwell with you,
and also with you.
We Listen: “Statement from the Heart” – Thomas Mayo – Initiatives of Change:
Bible Reading: Proverbs 1:20-33 –
The Call of Wisdom
20 Wisdom cries out in the street;
in the squares she raises her voice.
21 At the busiest corner she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22 “How long, O simple ones,
will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
23 Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
I will make my words known to you.
24 Because I have called and you refused,
have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,
25 and because you have ignored all my counsel
and would have none of my reproof,
26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when panic strikes you,
27 when panic strikes you like a storm
and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.
28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently but will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
30 would have none of my counsel
and despised all my reproof,
31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way
and be sated with their own devices.
32 For waywardness kills the simple,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;
33 but those who listen to me will be secure
and will live at ease without dread of disaster.”
Bible Reading: Luke 8:1-15 –
Some Women Accompany Jesus
1 Soon afterward he went on through one town and village after another, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, 2 as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who ministered to them out of their own resources.
The Parable of the Sower
4 When a large crowd was gathering, as people were coming to him from town after town, he said in a parable: 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed some fell on a path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. 6 Some fell on rock, and as it grew up it withered for lack of moisture. 7 Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. 8 Some fell into good soil, and when it grew it produced a hundredfold.” As he said this, he called out, “If you have ears to hear, then hear!”
The Purpose of the Parables
9 Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10 He said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but to others I speak in parables, so that ‘looking they may not perceive and hearing they may not understand.’
The Parable of the Sower Explained
11 “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones on the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe only for a while and in a time of testing fall away. 14 As for what fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 But as for that in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with endurance.
Reflection:
Wisdom comes in all shapes and sizes!
We have a mental image of wisdom:
an ancient academic, surrounded by books;
the minister
known to dish out welcome advice (wry look);
the schoolteacher
the who taught us to spell and do our tables.
But what if she is the quiet one
busy in the kitchen at church gatherings?
Or if she is the woman
behind the counter in the post office,
or indeed behind you in the queue?
She might even be the lady
you pass each day on your way to work,
or the lady at church you see each week,
but have no idea what she is called.
What if… what if we were to see wisdom
in the faces of everyone we meet?
What if everyone had something to teach us?
What if…
In the passage from the opening chapter of Proverbs we meet the intriguing and mysterious figure of Woman Wisdom, whose call to all is to embrace what she has to offer, namely true wisdom, the choice of which will lead inevitably to security and ease, and freedom from disaster (Prov.1:33). While Wisdom is personified as a woman, she is not like the images of women we usually have in the biblical text, and in fact goes against some of the stereotypes we may have of what makes an ideal woman (at least in the Bible). Wisdom is loud, crying out and raising her voice!
Wisdom is out there in the streets and marketplaces of the city (1:20-21), shouting out her warnings for all to hear. She is also in the busiest parts of the city: the squares, the busiest corners, and the entrance to the city gates. Wisdom is not afraid to be seen and heard. She is available for everyone, and is really, unavoidable.
When Wisdom begins to speak it becomes clear that this is not the first time that she has given her message. Her question “How long?” indicates that she has been calling to the people for a long time. She distinguishes between those who are naïve and those who have heard Wisdom and yet choose to persist in their ignorance, and are setting themselves up for catastrophe.
It seems to me that the portrayal of Wisdom evokes a time which is very similar to our own. There seems to be so much folly in the way that people run society and live their lives, that those who have insight into what has gone wrong despair of the tide of chaos ever being reversed. A look at the climate crisis shows this to be true. Wisdom is hoarse from shouting a message that nobody hears, or wants to acknowledge. She is tired and jaded – almost, but not quite ready to abandon her people to the consequences of their foolish choices. The passage ends with a quiet reminder that there is still hope of avoiding disaster, but only for those who will listen to Wisdom’s voice and act on what they hear.
The consequences of continuing to ignore her are laid out in terms that sound ominously familiar to modern readers, used to warnings about climate change and natural disaster. Panic will strike ‘like a storm’ and calamity ‘like a whirlwind’. Like Wisdom, scientists have been letting us know that if we continue to persist in ignorance, there will come a time when it is too late to act.
So is there any hope here for people on the edge of disaster, worried that it may already be too late and feeling powerless to make a difference? I think the answer might be both a ‘yes’ and ‘no’. The good news is that Wisdom is not hiding away, unwilling to be found. She is calling out loud and clear in the voices of people we all know: David Attenborough comes to mind when we think of climate, Thomas Mayo when we think of our First Nations people, and there are many more.
The bad news is that there are many competing voices and pressures, particularly on those in positions of power, to ignore the advice they know to be best. Politicians want to get re-elected; church leaders want the church to survive; people who are well off don’t want their standard of living to decline; and those who struggle to survive are tired of being told that it is all our fault.
Yet, we need to listen to Wisdom because I believe Wisdom’s message is for us, for those who are the privileged in society – the ones who have responsibility for the vulnerable. For it is our poor choices and failure to listen to the voice of Wisdom that will lead to difficulties not only for us, but also for those in our care. Let us listen to Wisdom.
Unlike Wisdom, the women we are introduced to in the gospel passage don’t have much to say, but they are there and bring wisdom in their own way. In three short verses, we are told that a group of women travelled with Jesus and the men called disciples. Three verses that could easily be overlooked, and often are, yet seem to add something to our understanding of the parable of the Sower and the seed.
Walking with Jesus and his companions through Lent, the mood is sombre and the skies are darkening as the Cross is coming into focus. We know, as Jesus knew, that the end is near. We know the thoughts of his male disciples who are in denial, and who will later scatter in fear. We don’t know the thoughts and feelings of the female followers, but thanks to the author of Luke, and these three short verses, we do know they existed. We even know some of their names: Mary from the Galilean town of Magdala; Joanna, wife of a high-ranking Jewish official Chuza (who manages Herod’s estate), and Susanna (who we know nothing more about). It is not just these three though, for we are told there are ‘many others’. These women have each made a wise choice to follow Jesus, and have sufficient resources of their own to be able to offer financial and service support for Jesus. They are a central part of the community of faith that surrounds Jesus.
It is into the context of their support, that Jesus tells the parable of the Sower. While there is no explicit connection between the parable and the support the women provide, it is not much of a stretch to suggest that these women are like those who till the soil, making it possible for Jesus to sow the seeds, the word of God. As I think further into the Easter story, I also wonder whether it is the women who end up embodying the ‘good soil’. For when the crucifixion is imminent, and the time of testing comes, the male disciples scatter. It is the women who stick with Jesus to the end, who watch from a distance as he died and who go to the tomb to anoint his body as soon as the law allows.
In listening to both these passages I am reminded that we need to be in it for the long haul, supporting one another and abiding with one another even when things get tough. And as we do this, we need to listen to the voice of Wisdom, and add our voice to hers. We need to remember that, as the privileged, Wisdom speaks to us, for our choices will also affect those who are we are called to care for. We need to be tillers of the soil, and embody the ‘good soil’.
May God grant us the strength to do these things.
Amen.
We Sing: “Jesus Christ is Waiting” – (Click on this link & skip the ads –TIS words below)
Prayer for Others (prepared by Ray Michelle):
Let us pray
Lord Jesus we give thanks for the joy and wonder and amazement of this morning.
As we are thankful, we offer our love and hope for those that are yet to find your love.
We give thanks for when we have the courage to share of love of you and pray for your voice of wisdom.
Wisdom is still crying out in our world today, but there are too many other voices trying to drown out the words . May the voice of you be the loudest.
We pray for the leaders of our land:
May those standing up not become discouraged and lose hope;
and may all leaders put their own egos and agendas aside and act for the good of all.
We pray for the leaders of our churches, may they take the privilege of leadership as role models in our community.
For all leaders, may we lift them before you this morning.
We pray for our congregation church members,
the faithful, who turn up every week,
those that work for BCO each week,
those that do the property work,
those that fill our rosters
those that do the unseen work.
May we lift them before you this morning.
We give thanks for those that can’t join us each week, and those unwell on our notice sheet.
May we honour them and respect all the faithful service they have given for many years.
May they not be forgotten over time because they are not here each week.
May we lift them before you this morning.
We pray for those that have challenges each day,
those being impacted by the increasing interest rates and cost of living
those seeking work,
those with mental and physical health challenges, may we hold them up to you.
May we lift them before you this morning.
We continue to pray in the words that Jesus taught:
Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name,
your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in Heaven.
Give us today our daily bread. 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 Listen: “For those tears I died” – (Click on this link & skip the ads to listen)
We Sing: “Immortal, invisible, God only wise” – (Click on this link & skip the ads – TIS words below)
Blessing:
Where do you find wisdom?
As we take our leave from this time and space,
keep your eyes and minds open,
you never know where wisdom will be found.
And as you go may you know the blessing of God,
Father, Son and Spirit,
the One who Mother’s us all,
with you in each and every corner of life’s twists and turns.
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) and The Women’s Lectionary: Preaching The Women Of The Bible Throughout The Year (Ashley M Wilcox), WorkingPreacher.com and Fig Tree Worship.