Koonung Heights Uniting Church
Service of Worship at Home
Pentecost 22 – 20 October 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: “Santo, 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:
As we come to worship today,
we 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 gather, I acknowledge the
Traditional Custodians of this place,
the Wurundjeri WoiWurrung Peoples of the Kulin nation.
I pay my respects to Elders, past and present,
and to all future leaders and generations.
I also acknowledge that the land we meet on is unceded,
As First and Second Peoples walking together,
may we commit ourselves to be people of the covenant,
listening, truth telling and seeking justice for all.
Call to Worship:
As the rains pour from heaven,
soaking the earth that it may produce good things,
so God pours God’s love upon us, that we, too,
may produce goodness and peace.
We have been blessed with many gifts and talents
and God desires that we use these gifts and talents
for healing, peace, and hope.
Come, let us worship and celebrate
the generous, abundant love of God.
We Sing: “Let all creation dance” – (TiS 187)
Let all creation dance in energies sublime,
as order turns with chance, unfolding space and time,
for nature’s art in glory grows,
and newly shows God’s mind and heart.
God’s breath each force unfurls, igniting from a spark
expanding starry swirls, with whirlpools dense and dark.
Though moon and sun seem mindless things,
each orbit sings: ‘Your will be done.’
Our own amazing earth, with sunlight, cloud and storms
and life’s abundant growth in lovely shapes and forms,
is made for praise, a fragile whole,
and from its soul heaven’s music plays.
Lift heart and soul and voice: in Christ all praises meet
and nature shall rejoice as all is made complete.
In hope be strong, all life befriend
and kindly tend creation’s song.
Prayer of Praise and Confession:
Amazing God,
everywhere we look we see the imprint of your creative love.
The wondrous works of nature show your majesty,
as does the most intricate detail on the wings of the butterfly.
As we gather today to celebrate your love and creation,
keep us mindful that we are part of that created order,
and that you have called us to care and work for peace and justice.
Loving God,
regardless of what you have called us to,
we often get caught up in selfish pursuits,
and completely overlook the wonder of all that is around us.
We easily get trapped into attitudes of indifference,
or even worse, overwhelming greed or selfishness.
Forgive us and give us humble hearts.
There are times when we try to make ourselves important,
staking out our place of honour at the table,
or putting ourselves at the head of the queue,
at the expense of others.
Forgive us and give us humble hearts.
We allow ourselves to be divided in anger,
rather than being used in love,
and give in to envy and jealousy,
instead of looking out for each other.
Forgive us and give us humble hearts.
We have missed opportunities to serve others
because we have been focused on serving ourselves.
We have not shared the abundance we have,
and taken more than we have needed.
Forgive us and give us humble hearts.
Despite all of this, in your generosity you call us,
again and again, to care for one another,
and you give us the chance to turn things around
to your way of loving kindness.
We thank you,
and in Jesus’ name we pray,
Amen.
Words of Assurance:
God listens to the cries of our hearts,
sees our actions, knows our attitudes,
and yet, in the midst of all we get wrong,
reaches out to heal and forgive us.
Receive the forgiveness which God has offered.
Live in God’s love.
Amen.
The Peace:
As Christ Jesus has shared his peace with each of us,
let us share peace with each other.
May the peace of the Christ be with you
and also with you.
A Time for All:
When I was little we would sometimes have dinner at my grandparents place on a Saturday night. We all had our seats around the table, with my Bampa at the head, and my dad on his right. Next to him would be my mother. My aunt would sit on Bampa’s left hand side, and I would be next, with Mama at the other end. Mostly Mama would cook a roast and if we were really lucky it would be roast chicken.
I liked her roast chicken dinners because after we finished eating, someone would get to share the wishbone with her. As we got older, the wishbone was always given to my sister and I to break. We were always given the same instruction: hold one side of the wishbone with your pinky finger. Now close your eyes and make a wish. Once that was done we would pull on the wishbone until it broke apart. The person who ended up with the biggest piece was supposed to have their wish come true.
There are lots of things that we can wish for, and in the heat of the moment, we can make wishes without actually thinking about what would happen if our wishes really came true.
Have you ever planned to have a picnic and then your plans have to be cancelled because of the rain? Maybe you sat and watched the rain, hoping that it would clear up. Then, as it becomes clear to you that the rain is getting heavier, you might have grumped to yourself “I wish it would stop raining.” What if your wish came true and it really did stop raining forever? There would be no grass, no trees and no flowers. Rivers, lakes and streams would dry up, and all life would begin to disappear. Imagine what a miserable place the world would be if it stopped raining.
James and John were brothers and two of Jesus’ disciples. They had a wish and so one day they went to Jesus and asked him if he could make their wish come true. They want to have a place of honour sitting next to Jesus (one on his right and one on his left). They wanted to share in Jesus glory and greatness and sit beside him imagining him on an earthly throne. But they didn’t understand things the way Jesus did.
Jesus explained to them that whoever wants to be great must be the servant of all, and that he had come to earth to serve others and give his life for them. I don’t think being a servant was what James and John were wishing for!
We often say that we want to be more like Jesus, but I wonder if that really is what we wish for. If it is, then it means that we need to live our lives just the way Jesus did. That’s how we can truly be great – by following Jesus’ example and showing God’s love to the world.
Let us pray:
Dear God,
Help us to mean it when we say “I wish I could be more like Jesus”.
We thank you that Jesus came to serve us and be a friend to us.
Please show us each day how we can become more like a servant to those around us.
In Jesus’ name we pray,
Amen.
We Sing: “Brother, sister, let me serve you” – (TiS 650)
Brother, sister, let me serve you, let me be as Christ to you;
pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.
We are pilgrims on a journey and companions on the road;
we are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.
I will hold the Christ-light for you in the night-time of your fear:
I will hold my hand out to you, speak the peace you long to hear.
I will weep when you are weeping; when you laugh I’ll laugh with you;
I will share your joy and sorrow till we’ve seen this journey through.
When we sing to God in heaven we shall find such harmony,
born of all we’ve known together of Christ’s love and agony.
Brother, sister, let me serve you, let me be as Christ to you;
pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.
Bible Reading: Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35
– God the Creator and Provider
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul.
O Lord my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honour and majesty,
2 wrapped in light as with a garment.
You stretch out the heavens like a tent;
3 you set the beams of your chambers on the waters;
you make the clouds your chariot;
you ride on the wings of the wind;
4 you make the winds your messengers,
fire and flame your ministers.
5 You set the earth on its foundations,
so that it shall never be shaken.
6 You cover it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they flee;
at the sound of your thunder they take to flight.
8 They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys,
to the place that you appointed for them.
9 You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.
24 O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
35c Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord!
Bible Reading: Mark 10:35-45
– The Request of James and John
35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38 But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” 39 They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized you will be baptized, 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to appoint, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
41 When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. 42 So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 43 But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Reflection:
‘Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant’ (Mark 10:43)
Today’s gospel reading asks and answers the question: How do we become great? There have been many celebrities over the years who have been considered great, and nowadays people are known as the ‘GOAT’, the ‘Greatest of All Time’. There seem to be a few GOATs around, people who are acknowledged for their skill in sport or business, but I wonder what it means to be great in God’s eyes? Let’s spend some time exploring that this morning.
In the culture of Jesus’ time, the honour system was important. It stood for your position in society, a social rating determining with whom you might speak and interact, it gave you a place in society. This system was respected and the status it gave people was defended. Yet Jesus challenged this, as he did so many things that weren’t in keeping with the kingdom values he came to share.
We might say that there is nothing like this today, but I’m not sure that’s the case. While it may not be so clearly stated, it is there. Today, status comes with wealth, occupation, nationality, where you live and your level of education (even sometimes the place of education that you attended). Status is judged by the car we drive, the clothes we wear, and perhaps even the code of football we follow or the team we support. But how does God see all of this?
Our reading begins with James and John, two of Jesus’ disciples, wanting to share in his greatness as they understand it. James and John want to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand when he comes into glory. They want to be great in the kingdom of heaven, but they clearly don’t understand what that means. Jesus offers them a path to greatness, but it is a very different pathway than what they had envisaged. Their request leads to bickering among the other disciples and so Jesus calls them all together and explains that serving one another is the path to true greatness. The life Jesus lived, ‘coming not to be served but to serve’, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ (Mark 10:45)
We don’t normally call Jesus ‘the Great One’, or GOAT, but I think it would be fair to say that no-one has altered the course of world history more than Jesus. People of many faiths, and none, could probably agree to that. Jesus was great by any standard, but what we witness him doing in this reading is something quite radical. Jesus redefines greatness for us all, telling us that the path to true greatness actually lies in service. He not only teaches this, but lives it, showing by the example of his life.
Jesus’ life is marked over and over again not by greatness as the world defines it, but by humility. God’s Son could have been born anywhere, yet his first bed was in a feeding trough for animals. He grew up in a small, unimportant town, the son of a carpenter. He was not a trained religious leader and spent the first thirty years of his life unnoticed.
Even when his public ministry began, Jesus did not seek greatness, but went about serving, teaching and preaching. He ate with those no-one else would entertain and washed his disciples’ feet. He travelled to Jerusalem, not to be received as a great king, but to be handed over to death. All of this Jesus did to serve, and his life was great, though not in the way of the world. For Jesus, greatness is about service, and he invites his followers to do the same – to serve one another, spending our life looking for opportunities to give to others in the same way that he gave to us.
This view was, and is, counter-cultural. Clearly, the more popular choice is to be served. Most holiday brochures don’t try to lure us by inviting us to come and cook our own meals, or clean our own rooms. Most restaurants don’t try to attract customers by telling them that they can wash their own dishes. In the eyes of the world, the path to greatness clearly lies in being served in more and more ways. We might think we can be assured that we have made it when we spend our lives being served by others, but even for people who achieve that goal, their lives can still feel empty.
Albert Schweitzer was a famous Lutheran missionary. The oldest son of a Lutheran pastor in Germany, Albert studied theology and was a gifted organist. When he was thirty, he decided it was time for a change and, abandoning his promising career, he went to medical school and then headed to Africa as a medical missionary. In 1952 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. What he discovered is what Jesus was talking about – the call to serve others. In this, Albert found happiness, meaning and fulfilment, summed up in this famous quote of his …‘Every person I know who has been truly happy has learned how to serve others.’
It strikes me that people who are truly happy are not spending their lives lying on a beach somewhere, drinking cocktails and soaking up this sun. Yes, this can be great for a while, and we all need times of rejuvenation, but this is not where we will find real meaning. If serving others is what makes us happy, then how might we live lives of service.
We might think of people like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who served the poorest in India, or Father Bob Maguire, who worked with those in South Melbourne, as people who lived lives of service, but there are less well known people who do the work of putting others needs before theirs every single day. Maybe it’s the grandparent who gives up the quiet retired lifestyle to care for grandchildren when their parents are not able to. It could be the team member who stands aside so that someone else can play. What about the parent who gives up family time when they are called into work because the hospital is short staffed, or the child who decides that rather than receiving birthday gifts they would like to have their guests donate to a charity? We do not have to be well-known or wealthy or a certain age to serve – we call all do it.
Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness, and in Jesus’ eyes each person can be great because each person can serve. To serve we just need a heart filled with grace and love. We have the example of Jesus to follow, and countless opportunities to give others these gifts that Jesus first gave to us. Jesus came not to be served but to serve, and he invites us to do the same.
Amen.
We Sing: “Servant King” – (TiS 256)
From heaven you came, helpless babe, entered our world, your glory veilied;
not to be served, but to serve, and give your life that we might live.
This is our God, the Servant King, he calls us now to follow him,
to bring our lives as a daily offering of worship to the Servant King.
There in the garden of tears, my heavy load he chose to bear;
his heart with sorrow was torn, ‘Yet not my will but yours’, he said.
This is our God …
Come see his hands and his feet, the scars that speak of sacrifice,
hands that flung stars into space to cruel nails surrendered.
This is our God …
So let us learn how to serve and in our lives enthrone him;
each other’s need to prefer, for it is Christ we’re serving.
This is our God …
Prayer for Others (prepared by Wendy and Graham Ray):
This prayer is loosely based around the Graham Kendrick hymn [TiS 256] The Servant King.
Let us pray,
We rejoice today that we come together as part of Your family, welcoming all, young and old.
May we all find, in the family of God, a place of welcome and sanctuary.
We thank you for your goodness to us, and our many blessings.
Let us remember that You came as a helpless babe, not to be served, but to serve.
Therefore, let us remember all who serve; who provide love and practical help to others, here at Koonung Heights, and further afield: in the home, factory, prison, office and overseas mission.
We remember those giving aid and assistance to those affected by ongoing conflict and natural disasters around the world.
Give them the purpose, energy and vision to continue.
We remember those who are not well in mind and body.
We remember especially those known to us who are in need of prayer today.
In a time of silence, we name them before you … (time of silence)
In their garden of tears, it is their heavy load He chooses to bear.
We remember also those who are well, contented and optimistic.
Give to all of them a reminder that God is with us in our times of happiness, as well as sorrow.
We pray for all those affected by war, fire, flood and famine, and those seeking asylum.
Give to all people, an overarching desire for peace and cooperation between nations, religions and ethnic groups.
May we live lives that demonstrate mercy, forgiveness and grace.
So let us learn how to serve, and in our lives, enthrone God,
For in acting for the whole of creation, and on other’s needs,
It is Christ we are serving.
This we pray, saying the Lord’s Prayer together …
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: “Community of Christ” – (TiS 473)
Community of Christ,
who make the Cross your own,
live out your creed and risk your life
for God alone: the God who wears your face,
to whom all worlds belong,
whose children are of every race
and every song.
Community of Christ, look past the Church’s door
and see the refugee, the hungry, and the poor.
Take hands with the oppressed, the jobless in your street,
take towel and water that you wash your neighbour’s feet.
Community of Christ, through whom the word must sound –
cry out for justice and for peace the whole world round:
disarm the powers that war and all that can destroy,
turn bombs to bread, and tears of anguish into joy.
When menace melts away, so shall God’s will be done,
the climate of the world be peace and Christ it’s Sun;
our currency be love and kindliness our law,
our food and faith be shared as one for evermore.
Blessing:
Go knowing that you are loved.
Go to serve and to be served.
Go in the strength of wisdom
and the power of belonging.
And may the blessing of God
Holy One in three, three in one,
pour down over your heads,
and fill every part of you with 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, WorkingPreacher.com, mypastoralponderings.com, and Fig Tree Worship Resources.