KOONUNG HEIGHTS UNITING CHURCH
Introit: “Gather us in” – (TiS 474)
Gather us in, the lost and forsaken, gather us in, the blind and the lame
Call to us now and we shall awaken, we shall arise at the sound of your name.
Call to Worship
The Lord is Risen! Allelujah!
Allelujah! He is Risen indeed!
In the midst of darkness, Light has dawned
In the midst of despair, hope has been born
The last word is no longer death, but life, life in all its fullness
HYMN – TiS 474 ‘Here in this place’
Here in this place new light is streaming, now is the darkness vanished away, see, in this space, our fears and our dreamings, brought here to you in the light of this day.
Gather us in, the lost and forsaken; gather us in, the blind and the lame; call to us now, and we shall awaken, we shall arise at the sound of our name.
We are the young, are lives are a mystery; we are the old, who yearn for your face; we have been sung throughout all of history, called to be light to the whole human race.
Gather us in, the rich and the haughty; gather us in, the proud and the strong; give us a heart so meek and so lowly, give us the courage to enter the song.
Here will take of the wine and water, here we will take the bread of new birth, here you shall call your sons and your daughters, call us anew to be salt of the earth.
Give us to drink the wine of compassion, give us to eat the bread that is you; nourish us well, and teach us to fashion lives that are holy and hearts that are true.
Not in the dark of buildings confining, not in some heaven light years away, but here in this space, the new light is shining, now is the kingdom now is the day.
Gather us in and hold us forever; gather us in, and make us your own; gather us in, all peoples together, fire of love in our flesh and our bone.
Praise and Confession
We rejoice in you O God – Father, Son, Holy Spirit – You are way beyond our understanding or imagination, and yet making yourself fully known and available to us in Christ your Son; … creator of all that is, and yet inescapably near to each and everyone, … lord of all history and yet intimately in our every moment
We turn to you at this time and in this place, because you have turned to us – in love, in mercy, in grace; you have made your home with us so that we might find our home in you.
In the presence and power of your Holy Spirit, come again to us this morning. Awaken within us all a living faith – confident to move mountains, an expansive hope that protests at every point of despair, a burning love that crosses every enemy boundary.
Make us worthy to be your people, in and for the world.
Through Jesus Christ, our crucified and risen Lord, AMEN
SERMON
From the Gospel of Matthew 10:42
‘Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me.’
The artist of the sketch of ‘The Lord’s Supper’ is Fritz Eichenberg, a German Jew, born in Cologne in 1901. In 1933, Adolph Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, and Eichenberg, already an outspoken critic of Nazis, was no longer welcome in the land he called ‘home’. Anticipating the worst, he and his family fled to the United States where he continued his career. He created this wood carving in 1951, soon after the unspeakable horrors of a 6yr World War, and by now a confessing Quaker, he was inspired by the story of Jesus and his compassion for the poor and the outcast.
The picture was first hung on the walls of a Roman Catholic Refugee
House in Kansas, run by a close friend and Quaker colleague, Dorothy Day. It seemed the most suitable place for it to be hung – this version of the Lord’s Supper, and the post-war Refuge House in Kansas – a place where the homeless could find a home, and where the socially outcast could find a welcome.
It wasn’t long before other copies of this picture were to be found in the majority of Catholic Refuge Houses across the United States.
This particular image came from a similar context – it was spotted by a member of this Koonung Hts congregation a number of years ago when he was doing overnight shifts as an ambulance officer in the inner city streets of Melbourne … it was hanging on the walls of a ‘Doss House’ in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy – refuge accommodation for people on the streets, who would never be brave enough to enter the doors of a church.
Strikingly, this image has just very recently been adopted as the ‘logo’ of a newly created group who call themselves, ‘the church of the unqualified’. The word ‘unqualified’ in this instance does not refer to school dropouts, those who have no certificates to put on the table of a work interview, or social misfits. It refers to people who have not found a church where they seem to fit in. They have felt like church mis-fits, unqualified to be welcomed into a church community.
‘Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me.’
It may come as a shock if I say to you that ‘no church community should claim of itself to be a welcoming community’.
Indeed, we need to know that there are some people in this congregation who don’t find this as a welcoming place to be.
‘No congregation should speak of themselves as being a welcoming church’. That may be something that others might say about us, but it is never what we are permitted to say about ourselves.
But what we are to say, and what we must say, more than anything else because it IS ‘gospel’, is that we worship a God who has proven God-self to be shockingly and extravagantly welcome, and that welcome reaches out so immeasurably broadly that it claims every social mis-fit, every cultural outcast, every un-qualified human person …even ourselves ! Indeed it does so in such a way that we come to know ourselves as a community of church mis-fits, ecclesial outcasts, those who shouldn’t, but only by the grace of God, do belong.
… more to come …!
HYMN – TiS 477 Jesus calls us here to meet him
Jesus calls us here to meet him as, through word and song and prayer, we affirm God’s promised presence where his people live and care. Praise the God who keeps his promise; praise the Son who calls us friends; praise the Spirit who, among us, to our hopes and fears attends.
Jesus calls us to confess him Word of life and Lord of All, sharer of our flesh and frailness, saving all who fail or fall. Tell his holy human story; tell his tales that all may hear; tell the world that Christ in glory came to earth to meet us here.
Jesus calls us to each other, found in him are no divides; Race and class and sex and language such are barriers he derides. Join the hand of friend and stranger; join the hands of age and youth; join the faithful and the doubter in their common search for truth.
READINGS
Romans 6:1-11
– Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
1What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may increase? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For whoever has died is freed[a] from sin. 8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Matthew 10:40-42
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
SERMON “Church of the Unqualified”
Prayers of the People Rob Fenton
Dear Lord,
We thank you for hearing the prayers of your people.
We pray for your church, in all its forms and shapes across the world.
We pray for this congregation of Koonung Heights, and all its people.
We pray for the many in our congregation who contribute in so many ways, including church council, pastoral care contacts, the choir and musicians, the Property Committee, and all those on the various rosters. We pray for our Pastoral Care Assistant Ray. We give thanks for the warm and caring fellowship which our church community provides to us, and the focus which it provides to our lives as Christians.
May we continue to grow in our understanding of your ways for us. Open the doors of our hearts and minds that we might welcome others as you so extravagantly welcome us.
We pray for our past minister, Rev Heather Hon and Tony as they continue to enjoy their well-earned holiday in Europe, and pray that Heather will be refreshed to begin her new ministry in Colac.
We pray for the world in which we live, for all nations and peoples.
We pray for the peace of the world and for an end to warfare and oppression. In a moment of silence, we pray for the nations and peoples on our hearts at this time … (silence) …
We pray with concern for a real lasting agreement to be reached for an end to the war between USA and Iran, for peaceful settlement between Israel and Lebanon, for resolution of the conflicts across the middle east.
We pray for our own nation of Australia
We pray for all those who are struggling to make ends meet and to keep a roof over their heads and food on their tables, while others bask in abundant wealth.
We pray for our political leaders, that they may be worthy of their calling. Make them humble servants, peace-makers, pioneers of reconciliation. Free them from the temptations to grasp for power, to attack opponents, to generate fear and violence. Make us a nation with a heart as vast as our land, where we welcome strangers, embrace migrants, respect indigenous peoples, and uphold the weak and vulnerable
We pray for our environment, and that we all work to take care of it. We pray with concern for global warming with news of ever increasing high temperatures and unpredictable weather patterns. We pray that all political leaders will continue to push for more renewable energy to be used.
We pray for those involved in our health services – doctors, nurses, specialists. We give thanks for those whose lives have inspired and resourced further learning – Neale Daniher in Motor Neurone Disease; . Richard Scolyer, in brain tumours.
We pray for our public health system, which is struggling to cope with demand; we pray for the medical staff in the Emergency Departments and in the hospitals in general, who are doing their best despite shortages of staff and beds.
We pray for safety on our public transport system. We pray for those who are responsible for maintaining safety in our communities. We pray with concern about the increasing incidences of unprovoked violence around our streets.
We pray for our families and friends … in a moment of silence, we name them before you …
We now join with Christians across the centuries and pray as our Lord has 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.
HYMN – TiS 217(i) (Tune; Hyfrodol)
Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven to earth come down:
fix in us thy humble dwelling, all thy faithful mercies crown:
Jesus, thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation, enter every trembling heart.
Come, almighty to deliver, let us all thy life receive;
suddenly return, and never, never more thy temples leave.
thee we would be always blessing, serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray and praise thee without ceasing, glory in thy perfect love.
Finish, then, thy new creation; pure and spotless let us be:
let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee;
changed from glory into glory, til in heav’n we take our place,
til we cast our crowns before thee, Lost in wonder, love, and praise.
Blessing and Commission
The candle is extinguished, the Bible is processed out
RECESSION HYMN TiS779 ‘May the feet of God …’
