Koonung Heights Uniting Church
Service of Worship at Home
Pentecost 12 – 11 August 2024 – 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: “Sing Amen” – (TiS 704)
Sing Amen: Amen, we praise your name, O Lord.
Sing Amen: Amen, we praise your name, O Lord.
Sing Amen: Amen, amen, amen, amen,
amen, we praise your name, O Lord.
Candle Lighting:
We gather and light this candle
as a symbol of the light of Christ,
the light which cannot be held back by distance,
and which shines in each one of us no matter where we are.
Acknowledgement of Country:
As we worship today,
I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of these unceded lands and waters,
the Wurundjeri WoiWurrung People of the Kulin Nations.
I pay my respects to Elders, past and present,
and to all future generations.
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:
We gather for worship,
some of us returning to a familiar place
and some of us from the comfort of our own homes.
Whether we are worshipping here,
or through printed work,
or through the gift of technology,
we are a community of faith.
Here we seek a connection to God,
the One we believe in,
the One who believes in us.
So come, all of you who are hungry,
for here is the bread of life.
Come and want no more
for here is all you need to sustain your soul
and it is offered abundantly.
You were invited into this gathering by the Spirit,
who calls you and yearns for you.
You are welcome here.
Opening Prayer:
Loving God,
we come to you this day with so many things going on in our lives.
Some of these things are wonderful and cause us to rejoice,
but many things cause us fear and anxiety.
Humbly we wait for your presence with us,
because we need your healing touch.
Strengthen us to do your will,
for it is in Jesus’ Name, we pray.
Amen.
We Sing: “Morning has broken” – (Together 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,
spring from completeness where his 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.
Prayer of Adoration and Confession:
Gracious God,
you are the creator of all that we perceive,
the light in every darkness.
As the morning breaks your glory is reflected
in the rising sun which sheds light and warmth,
and sung in the voices of calling birds.
In the cool of the evening, your glory is seen
in the rainbow of sunset hues,
reflecting the diversity of your creation.
You are always present with us,
and so we come before you today as we are:
sometimes uncertain,
yet with the Spirit’s gentle reminder
that we are forever beloved by you.
Despite all that you offer us,
we sometimes want the easy way out!
When things go wrong,
we want to find who to blame for our misfortune.
When we don’t get what we want,
we want to punish whoever or whatever
has prevented us from reaching our goals and desires.
We don’t want to look at the ways
in which we have perverted your love for us.
We treat you as though you are a puppet
who will dance to our demands,
and act like spoiled children who want it all immediately.
Worst of all, we have stopped listening to you,
instead letting systems of greed and injustice
replace your command to ‘love one another’.
In light of all this, we come to you now,
asking for forgiveness and healing.
Forgive us when we have forgotten you
and forgotten one another,
instead focusing on what we want.
Give us, again, your life-sustaining bread,
the food that heals our souls.
Help us to truly worship you each day,
living lives that work for healing and hope.
We ask in Jesus’ name,
Amen.
Words of Assurance:
Hear these words of assurance:
God’s cherishing love lasts forever.
After our tears, there is joy and celebration
for our lament is heard
and God’s response is grace upon grace.
Rejoice and be glad, dance and sing,
for we are loved and forgiven.
Thanks be to God.
The Peace:
God’s deep and abiding peace be with you
and also with you.
A Time for All:
Today we are blessed to have Stacey Aslangal join us from Uniting. Stacey is going to share with us a little about the work of Uniting, and she will be around during morning tea if anyone would like to hear more from her. Our conversation will centre around the following questions:
1. What does Uniting do that attracted you to become part of the Uniting team?
2. How does Uniting share the abundant love of God in the community?
3. What is a particular area of focus of Uniting and its work at present?
4. How might we be able to support Uniting projects in our own area?
Let us pray: (prayer written by Peta Lowe and shared by Prue Field, both Uniting supporters)
Lord, we hold before you the people who seek help from Uniting.
You know exactly, the needs of every person. We ask you to bless each person with the things they need, and with the firm knowledge of being listened to, respected and wrapped in care.
Bless them with an awareness of your great love, we pray.
We hold before you the individuals who deliver care and services on behalf of Uniting.
Grant these people strength, patience, compassion, insight and resourcefulness. Help them to respond sensitively, respectfully and effectively to their clients’ needs. Help them not to grow weary of doing good, and reassure them that their work is valued and important.
Bless them with an awareness of your great love, we pray.
We hold before you the people responsible for the planning of programmes and services, of working out the practicalities of implementing them, for administration and finance, and all that must happen behind the scenes for successful work to be done. Guide their efforts and grant them wisdom. Reassure them that their work is important.
Bless them with an awareness of your great love.
We hold before you donors and supporters of Uniting.
Encourage them in their support and reassure them that their giving is worthwhile and that their contributions, large or small, are all helping those in need.
Bless them with an awareness of your great love.
Use Uniting’s work for your purposes, and bless all involved, we pray,
Amen.
We Sing: “Kneels at the feet of his friends” – (TiS 640)
Kneels at the feet of his friends silently washes their feet:
master who acts as a slave to them.
Yesu, Yesu, fill us with your love,
show us how to serve the neighbours we have from you.
Neighbours are wealthy and poor, varied in colour and race,
neighbours are near us and far away.
Yesu, Yesu …
These are the ones we should serve,
these are the ones we should love;
all these are neighbours to us and you.
Yesu, Yesu …
Loving puts us on our knees, silently washing their feet,
this is the way we should live with you.
Yesu, Yesu …
Bible Reading: Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2
– Rules for the New Life
25 So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbour, for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not make room for the devil. 28 Those who steal must give up stealing; rather, let them labour, doing good work with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is good for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2 and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Bible Reading: John 6:35, 41-51
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
41 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise that person up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Reflection:
One of my favourite characters in the Bambi story is Thumper. Thumper, known and named for his habit of thumping his left-hind foot, is quite impulsive and, even though he means well, sometimes enthusiastically says or does things without thinking. His mother pulls him into line by asking, ‘What did your father tell you this morning?’ When Thumper first meets the young fawn, Bambi is trying to learn to stand. Thumper comments that Bambi ‘walks kind of funny’ at which his mother again asks what his father had told him. Thumper responds, ‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.’
Just like Thumper’s mother prompts him to remember how he should behave, in the passage we have heard from Ephesians, Paul is reminding us of the way that we are called to behave, living in ways that encourage others through our words and actions. We probably all remember the children’s verse, ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’? The older we become, however, the more we realise that words do hurt. Hurtful words and hurtful actions are much more painful than ‘sticks and stones’, and their sting can stay with us for years. I’m sure that each one of us has at one time or another, felt the sting of hurtful words and actions. Likewise, we have no doubt been the perpetrators of pain because of our own careless words, actions or inaction. Yet, as people of faith, we are called to ‘clothe [ourselves] with the new self, created according to the likeness of God’ (Ephesians 4:24).
For Paul, the call to live in this new way is, in essence, is all because of the wonderful things about God and God’s love for us. The practical implications of our response to God are how we should live and behave and relate to one another. The call on each of us is that there should be no deceit or pretence in our relationships with one another. Often, it’s okay to be angry, but that cannot be an excuse for actions that are not okay. We are called to work honestly and to make sure that what we say is not destructive but rather is generous and life-giving. There should be no bitterness, no vindictiveness, no backstabbing or mud-slinging, and so the list goes on. Instead, we are called to become big-hearted, compassionate, tolerant and forgiving, all things which will encourage others.
Encouraging others by removing falsehood and speaking the truth in love is a two-sided coin. One side states that we need to be honest with each other, while the other side of the coin says that speaking the truth must be done lovingly. Who hasn’t tried to avoid conflicts by fudging the truth? We don’t want to hurt the other person’s feelings, or so we tell ourselves. Actually, the truth might be that we don’t want to get involved to the point where we put ourselves at risk. But loving relationships mean that we do put ourselves in a place where the welfare of the other person matters. At the same time, we should not needlessly offend, particularly to make ourselves feel better – always we should ask ourselves what is the most loving way to express the truth.
We can also encourage others by keeping our anger in check. Anger is an emotion that arises in any relationship … the trouble is when anger gets the better of us and causes us to want to hurt others or get revenge. Anger should not damage a relationship and should not be allowed to fester and consume us, hence the call to ‘not let the sun go down on your anger.’ (Ephesians 5:26).
Paul also suggests that we can encourage others (particularly those who are less fortunate than ourselves) as we share what we have. There is the encouragement to work hard so that we can be in a position to share, and over the last couple of weeks, our readings have touched on the abundance that can come from a little bit of generosity. One small boy sharing his lunch led to the feeding of over 5000 individuals, and Jesus sharing his life gave so much more. There are many in our communities in need, and assisting them, if we are able to do so, can be a real encouragement. Uniting and BCO are a couple of ways we might do this, as well as sharing a smile, some conversation and our time, often the most precious thing we have.
The way we speak to others makes such a difference and each one of us knows that words are not neutral. What we say can be positive and build one another up, or negative and tear each other down. It’s important that we evaluate our words before we speak to them, being mindful not just of what we say, but why we are saying it and the tone we use. We also need to be mindful of the way others hear and receive what we say – what might seem funny or obvious to me, might be hurtful or belittling to someone else. In this digital age, we also need to be careful how we use social media … just because it’s easier for us to quickly send a text or post something feeling anonymous, the damage we can do is no less real.
Knowing that it is so easy to get things wrong, reminds us of the importance of forgiveness. There will be times when we are all in need of forgiveness, and we need to remember that we can forgive others even when they don’t ask for it. This can be particularly difficult, as we want people to acknowledge when they have hurt us, but this is not a requirement to forgive them. While reconciliation is only possible when we acknowledge what we have done, think about how have felt when you received forgiveness. This is the call to be ‘forgive one another, as God in Christ has forgiven [us].’ (Ephesians 4:31).
The final exhortation we have in this passage is to walk in love. Our whole attitude and demeanour should be characterised by love. Love is not soppy and sentimental but an action. Love includes putting others before ourselves and hoping and believing in them. Walking in love means that our relationships with one another really matter and deserve the greatest effort we can exert.
How do we walk in love? We model ourselves on God – the God that we have seen in Jesus, Christ. We go out into the world and make it our first work to love. We bear witness with our words, our actions and our very lives to the generous love of God.
May we each strive to live like this, offering true worship to God, through lives lived in generous, self-giving love.
Amen.
We Sing: “Be Kind to One Another” – (Tune TiS 457)
Be kind to one another, be tender-hearted too –
forgiving one another, as Christ has pardoned you.
Refrain from any gossip, for gossip is a sin.
Be open to new friendships and welcome people in.
Be kind in all your speaking and hear what others say.
Be open to Christ’s teaching, and in all matters, pray.
Be gentle, loving, faithful and keep a humble mind.
Remember what is truthful. In everything be kind.
Be kind within your circle, but look past what you see;
be kind to those in trouble – the poor, the refugee.
The world is filled with violence, write letters, call out sin!
Don’t ever sit in silence and let the evil win.
O God of love, you’ve taught us. You’ve shown us what to do:
be just, commit to kindness, walk humbly here with you.
Your Spirit gives us courage to truly live this way.
May love become our message, may kindness win the day.
© Carolyn Winfrey Gillette
Prayer for Others – based on Ephesians 4:25-5:2 (prepared by Harriet Ziegler)
Let us pray.
Loving God, we give thanks for the Living Word, your Son, who showed us how to live a life of love. And we give thanks for the enduring words of Scripture which also guide us. We turn our hearts today to the words of Ephesians to shape our prayers for others and ourselves.
God of truth – let us live in truth. Give us the strength to accept the hard truths of life and the courage to speak those truths to others. May we listen carefully to those who are hurt by life – by Indigenous people around the world, by those who lack life’s necessities, by those who experience stigma. We pray that leaders of church and state may know the truths of their situations and act to improve them. We pray that you would give us
what we need to live in truth.
God of justice – let us live justly. Help us to be angry only at what makes You angry. Help us to put aside the anger that arises when we feel slighted or misunderstood. Help us to use righteous anger – your anger – for such causes as peace-making, racial justice, adequate health care and housing. We pray for all involved in these causes, that they may be fuelled by your justice. We pray for peace in all the war-weary world, for justice between all races, and for enough for all to live with dignity. We pray that you would give us what we need to live justly.
God of kindness – let us live kindly. Help us to think tenderly of others – whether they be our nearest and dearest or people far away and wildly different. Help us speak gently and listen well to all whom we meet, and to give and receive kindness whenever we can. We pray especially for our church family, for our minister, for our own families and friends, that we may treat everyone – even ourselves – with kindness. In this way, we can be imitators of you. We pray that you would give us what we need to live kindly.
And now, taught by your Son, we pray the prayer He taught us:
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 forever. Amen.
We Sing: “Help us accept each other” – (TiS 648)
Help us accept each other as Christ accepted us;
teach us as sister, brother, each person to embrace.
Be present, Lord, among us and bring us to believe
we are ourselves accepted and meant to love and live.
Teach us, O Lord, your lessons, as in our daily life
we struggle to be human and search for hope and faith.
Teach us to care for people, for all – not just for some,
to love them as we find them or as they may become.
Let your acceptance change us, so that we may be moved
in living situations to do the truth in love;
to practise your acceptance until we know by heart
the table of forgiveness and laughter’s healing art.
Lord, for today’s encounters with all who are in need,
who hunger for acceptance , for righteousness and bread,
we need new eyes for seeing, new hands for holding on:
renew us with your Spirit; Lord, free us, make us one!
Blessing:
Go out to live in kindness and compassion,
and to build others up with words of grace.
In imitation of Christ,
forgive, live in love and be a fragrant offering.
Go into your daily lives knowing that the Spirit goes with you.
May the face of God turn toward you
and give you peace.
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: Ministry Matters, www.laughingbird.net, By the Well Podcast and The Fig Tree Worship Resource.