Koonung Heights – Surrey Hills Uniting Church
Service of Worship at Home
Pentecost 9 – 10 August 2025 – 10am or whenever possible
Crossroads of Culture and Faith – Poetry
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” – (TiS 706)
Bless the Lord, my soul, and bless God’s holy name.
Bless the Lord, my soul, who leads me into life.
Lighting the Christ Candle:
We light this candle to remind ourselves of
the light of Christ that is within and among us.
Praise be to God, who spoke Light into the world,
who sends Light to live among us,
and who brings the Light of new dawns.
Acknowledgement of Country:
This is God’s land and God’s Spirit dwells here.
I acknowledge the Wurundjeri WoiWurrung People of the Kulin nations,
traditional custodians of this land under God.
I pay my respects to their elders past and present,
and to the leaders and generations to come.
Call to Worship:
All the words that shape us
and all the questions we ask.
All the stories we tell
and all the bruises we feel.
All the desires we know
and all the joys we share.
All the pain we feel
that makes us who we are.
This is the long poem of our lives.
Here we gather with the poet
who write the first line
in each of us.
We Sing: “Colourful Creator” – (TiS 190)
Colourful Creator, God of mystery,
thank you for the artist teaching us to see
glimpses of the meaning of the commonplace,
visions of the holy in each human face.
Harmony of ages, God of listening ear,
thank you for composes tuning us to hear
echoes of the Gospel in the songs we sing,
sounds of love and longing from the deepest spring.
Author of our journey, God of near and far,
praise for tale and drama telling who we are,
stripping to the essence struggles of our day,
times of change and conflict when we choose our way.
God of truth and beauty, Poet of the Word,
may we be creators by the Spirit stirred,
open to you presence in our joy and strife,
vessels of the holy coursing through our life.
Prayer of Adoration and Confession:
God of wondrous Word,
creative energy, breath of life,
organising chaos, bringing new from old,
we rejoice in your presence.
In this familiar place,
we come to engage,
to lift our hearts in praise and our souls in joy,
knowing that you invite us into this space
of belonging and connection.
Today we come to commit ourselves
to this time of worship,
opening ourselves to the glory of your presence
at work in our lives, day by day, hour by hour,
reknitting our souls as your beloved children,
broken by experience, but reformed by grace.
Hear us, gracious God,
as we acknowledge that we are far from perfect,
making mistakes daily, choosing selfishly,
succumbing to fear, listening scantly.
Forgive us, God.
Renew us and heal us,
that we may know ourselves as children of grace,
and the world know us as creatures of love
through our deeds and our words.
Amen.
Words of Assurance:
Friends, God is always giving us second chances,
so receive God’s forgiveness.
May God’s love set you free this day and always.
Amen.
The Peace:
Christ is our peace. He has reconciled us to God,
and so we meet in his name and share his peace.
The peace of the Lord be always with you …
and also with you.
Time for All:
We are thinking about poetry today, so I thought I’d share with you the first poem I read that I remember loving. I came across it when I was a little girl, when I was given the book When We Were Very Young for my fifth birthday. It’s by AA Milne, and it goes like this.
Halfway down the stairs
Is a stair
Where I sit.
There isn’t any
Other stair
Quite like
It.
I’m not at the bottom,
I’m not at the top;
So this is the stair
Where
I always
Stop.
Halfway up the stairs
Isn’t up,
And isn’t down.
It isn’t in the nursery,
It isn’t in the town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run around my head:
“ It isn’t really
Anywhere !
It’s somewhere else
Instead ! “
For some reason this poem spoke to me. Maybe it was because I liked to sit on the large internal carpeted staircase at my grandparent’s house. Sitting there you could keep an eye on everything that was going on, but still have your own space. You weren’t really in anything and yet on that step I could be anywhere. I guess that’s one of the things that’s so special about poetry – it can transport you to different places.
The bible is full of poetry. Psalms and the Song of Songs express what we might find difficult to say in other ways. You might think of the 23rd Psalm, an expression of faith. There is poetry used in metaphors in the first Creation story and the visions of John in Revelation. There are political poems like the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) and Ecclesiastes 3 which became a protest song ‘Turn, turn, turn’, and there is love poetry. These might be passages we don’t look at often, but they invite us to encounter God in a new way. I wonder what we might discover?
We Sing: “She sits like a bird” – (TiS 418)
She sits like a bird, brooding on the waters,
hovering on the chaos of the world’s first day;
she sighs and she sings, mothering creation,
waiting to give birth to all the Word will say.
She wings over earth, resting where she wishes,
lighting close at hand or soaring through the skies;
she nests in the womb, welcoming each wonder,
nourishing potential hidden to our eyes.
She dances in fire, startling her spectators,
waking tongues of ecstasy where dumbness reigned;
she weans and inspires all whose hearts are open,
nor can she be captured, silenced or restrained.
For she is the Spirit, one with God in essence,
gifted by the Saviour in eternal love;
she is the key opening the scriptures,
enemy of apathy and heavenly dove.
Reading: A Love Poem – Song of Songs 2:8-17
I can hear my lover coming.
Look, he is leaping over the mountains and dancing over the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle, a young strong stag.
I can see him.
He’s by our garden wall.
He’s looking for me through the windows.
He’s peering through the blinds.
He’s calling to me and I can hear him.
Listen.
Get up my love.
My beautiful one, and come away with me.
Look! Winter’s past, the rains have come and gone.
There are flowers everywhere.
The birds are singing.
The doves have returned. Can you hear them cooing?
There are figs on the fig-trees.
The vines are in blossom. Can you smell them?
Get up, my love, my sweet one.
Come away with me.
He tells me I am like a dove hiding in a cave high up on the rock face.
He wants to see my face and hear my voice.
He tells me my voice is sweet and that I am beautiful.
Get up, my love, my darling.
Come away with me.
Beloved, before we go you will need to catch the foxes,
the little foxes who would spoil our vineyard, and destroy its blossom.
Get up, my love, my beautiful one.
Come now!
Come away with me.
My love you are mine.
I am yours.
I am yours as the day begins.
You are mine as the day ends.
Turn to me my love.
Come to me now like a gazelle.
Leap like a wild stag on the high mountains!
Bible Reading: Luke 12:49-53
– Jesus the Cause of Division
49 “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided:
father against son and son against father,
mother against daughter and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Reflection:
Over the last little while we have been exploring the crossroads between culture and faith, those places where these aspects of life intersect. So far we have looked at Music, Politics, Art and Story. Today we will continue this exploration as we celebrate the role of poetry in life. The two passages we have heard today are both examples of poetry – one from the Hebrew Bible and the other from the New Testament.
These passages are not definitive in any way, but are just two examples of the depth of poetic work that exists in the Bible. Poetic works within the bible often speak to the human condition, and the invitation for this week is to spend some time entering into these passages that encourage us to explore our humanity. But before that, let’s think about poets and poetry.
Poets, through their work, can encourage us to explore those things that we might otherwise find difficult to express. Their words can unlock feelings, fears, joys, passions and memories, even those that may lie dormant or seethe within. Within poetry there is a means to express truth timelessly, for all people in all ages, while also bringing honour to the memories that stir the creativity of the poet.
Poetry, as it explores the far reaches of our imaginations, can also develop and enable our spirituality, encouraging us to perceive the world differently and deepen our understanding not just intellectually but emotionally. Poetry can thrive as it is spoken aloud into our shared space perceiving, asking questions of us and letting us sit in that liminal space between confusion and understanding. Maybe it’s the ‘stair where I sit’.
We use poetry frequently during special moments, maybe because we recognise the ability of the poet to untap something which is deeply profound. At times, poetry has even become part of our cultural identity. A verse from Laurence Binyon’s poem ‘For the Fallen’, written in 1914, before the true cost of the First World War was understood, has grown beyond that original setting, because it expresses something deeply emotive and helpful.
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, not the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
The gospel reading has the tendency to make us uncomfortable. Rather than Jesus speaking about peace and love, which are easy words to hear, this passage is intense with talk of fire and division even within the most precious cohort of the family. Luke’s writing stresses that the mission of those who follow Christ is also to be their passion, just as Jesus’ was. Water is closely associated with baptism which can be understood as an immersion into the waters of purification, refreshment and life. But water also has a shadow side – we might think of destruction and chaos, or being swept along and drowning in powerlessness.
I can’t speak for you, but the reality for me is that, as a follower of Jesus there are things that I have to be at odds with. Of course this is not just because of my faith, and obviously I would not be alone in opposing injustices like genocide for example, but even within my own family there are times we are at odds. In a family that gets on well, we still feel differently about Climate Justice, First Nations Sovereignty and Politics. While some respect what I do, others think it’s not relevant or important. That’s division and that’s the human reality for most of us, particularly when we have one foot in God’s kingdom.
The Song of Songs is a huge poetic work, full of beautiful imagery, as it explores the nature of love. While love is much more palatable, some prefer to hear this passage as a story about the love of God and humanity, or Jesus and the Church, because this makes it more comfortable than the reality of passionate, human love. In the few verses we have heard this week, we begin with the woman’s first speech beginning to tell the stories of herself and her lover. It is the first visit of the man to her home and the time they spend together outside as springtime life blossoms around them, giving voice to the emotions she is feeling towards the one she loves.
As we think about this poem it does no harm to point out that the female voice is treated equally with the male voice in this poetic work. Some scholars even believe that this Song may have been composed by a woman because of the language and expression used. If you have the chance to read the whole Song do so. Within it there are images of new life as creation itself seems to delight in the passionate love of the couple as well as reminders of things that might appear harmless (the little foxes) but work to undermine love and destroy what could have been beautiful. Again this is our human reality, for it seems that love, too, is not an easy path and relationships take work to protect.
A contemporary poem which brings a glimmer of depth to our relationships, or perhaps the broken nature of relationships in our modern world, comes from Carol Ann Duffy and is entitled ‘Text’. It reads …
I tend the mobile now like an injured bird
We text, text, text our significant words.
I re-read your first, your second, your third,
look for your small xx feeling absurd.
The codes we send arrive with a broken chord.
I try to picture your hands, their image is blurred.
Nothing my thumbs press will ever be heard.
Again, poetry invites us into a space where we can explore the human condition, opening ourselves to the reality of who we are, and the way we live. In doing this, poetry can also invite us to understand how we might be in relationship to God.
In closing let me leave you with the following …
It is said, God of all, that politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose.
But what of you? What of Jesus?
Poetic or prose? Inspiring or explaining?
It is said, God of all, that poetry is the language of love,
of hearts poured out in emotional intensity, of gazing gazelles and flowers and figs.
But what of me? What of us?
Does love still burn? Does passion still rage?
It is said, God of all, that poetry can communicate before it is even understood,
and I like that thought.
But what about us? Do we pause to enjoy it?
Do we wait to think? Do we hope for understanding?
It is said, God of all, that poetry is the evidence of life,
and if life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.
But what of my life?
Help me to burn well, to bring goodness and joy,
to spread the ashes of delight wherever I can.
Amen.
We Sing: “Fairest Lord Jesus” – (TiS 203)
Fairest Lord Jesus, Lord of all Creation, Son of God and Mary’s son:
you will I cherish, you will I honour, you are my soul’s delight and crown.
Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands robed in the greenness and bloom of spring:
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer, he makes the saddest heart to sing.
Fair are the flowers, fairer still the children all in the freshness of youth arrayed;
yet is their beauty fading and fleeting; Lord Jesus, yours will never fade.
Fair is the moonlight, fairer still the sunshine, fair is the shimmering starry sky:
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines clearer than all the heavenly host on high.
Jesus, all beauty, heavenly and earthly, in you is wondrously found to be;
none can be nearer, fairer or dearer than you, my Saviour, are to me.
Prayer for Others (prepared by Annabel McCooke):
Let us pray …
God of faith we pray for your church, for those who are young in the faith, those strong in the faith and those whose faith is faltering. Help us to believe in your promises, follow your promptings, and open ourselves to your purposes.
We pray for the leaders of faith across the world that they remain strong in faith and purpose. We pray for leaders of faith in Australia in all their various communities. We pray for Uniting Church faith leaders as they prepare for Synod and for all those who will be attending Synod.
We pray for our new congregation as we consider the importance of names, as we listen to your word with all its beauty and difficulties, may we too be renewed and remain strong in faith and purpose.
Lord hear us. Lord hear our prayer.
God of justice, we pray for our war-torn world. For vision to imagine your justice in the many major conflicts such as in Gaza and Ukraine and in all the other theatres of conflict. We pray for your mercy and love to support all those working to pursue your justice in these dangerous places.
Lord of justice, help us to retain memory in this 80th year since the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima that we may retain your vision that nations may live in harmony and share the bounty of the earth.
Lord hear us. Lord hear our prayer.
God of compassion we pray for all those who are grieving the death of loved ones in recent loss and in the long coming to terms with loss. We ask that they may feel supported and cared for and that we may be part of that support and love in our immediate and wider community.
We pray for all in need, the lonely, rejected, the sick, the broken hearted, those who do quite fit the mould of society and all those who care for them. Make us people of compassion willing and able to support those in adversity, to see and respond that we may help to create a community of understanding and concern for others.
Lord hear us. Lord hear our prayer.
Lord we give thanks that we can join in praise and prayer in our worship of you. Strengthen our faith and purpose as we join in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples:
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: “Love divine, all loves excelling” – (TiS 217i)
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, till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love and praise.
Blessing and Sending:
Arise, and as you go, may you be sure of
God’s righteous love,
Christ’s merciful love,
and the Spirit’s guiding love,
this day and all your life.
The blessing of the Triune God,
One in Three, Three in One,
go with you.
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: Billabong Worship Resources and Spill the Beans (Issue 55).