Koonung Heights Uniting Church
Service of Worship at Home
Seasons of Creation 2 – 8 September 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: “Like A Rock” – (Seasons of the Spirit)
Like a rock, like a rock God is under our feet.
Like the starry night sky God is over our head.
Like the sun on the horizon God is ever before.
Like the river runs to ocean, our home is in God evermore.
Candle Lighting:
As we come to worship today,
we light the Christ candle,
and in doing so we remember …
We remember that light is a gift from God,
a gift to be shared.
We remember that Jesus came into our midst
as the light of the world,
the light that the darkness cannot extinguish
no matter how hard it tries.
May the Holy Spirit’s constant presence
continue to illuminate our walk and witness.
Acknowledgement of Country:
This land is God’s land and God’s Spirit dwells here.
I acknowledge the Wurundjeri WoiWurrung People of the Kulin Nations,
the first inhabitants of this place,
a part of God’s good creation.
I honour them for their custodianship of the land.
God set humanity at the heart of creation,
charging us with stewardship of all that was made.
I give thanks for those who have heeded the call,
have listened to the voice of the Creator,
and walked lightly upon the earth.
Call to Worship:
Here, our Beloved speaks to us;
the voice of our Beloved sounds in our hearts:
calling us to generous acts,
to share the gifts we have been given.
Now, our Beloved speaks to us;
the voice of our Beloved sounds in our land:
calling us to generous acts,
to open our hearts to all in need.
In every place, in every moment, our Beloved speaks to us; the voice of our Beloved sounds in all creation:
calling us to generous acts,
to stand with God:
for the least, the lost, the little, the last.
© Thom Shuman
We Sing: “Come, O God of all the earth” – (TiS 181)
Come, O God of all the earth: come to us, O Righteous One;
come, and bring our love to birth: in the glory of your Son.
Sing out, earth and skies! Sing of the God who loves you;
raise your joyful cries; dance to the life around you.
Come, O God of wind and flame: fill the earth with righteousness;
teach us all to sing your name: may our lives your love confess.
Sing out, earth and skies …
Come, O God of flashing light: twinkling star and burning sun;
God of day and God of night: in your light we all are one.
Sing out, earth and skies …
Come, O God of snow and rain: shower down upon the earth;
come, O God of joy and pain: God of sorrow, God of mirth.
Sing out, earth and skies …
Come, O Justice, come, O Peace: come and shape our hearts anew;
come and make oppression cease: bring us all to life in you.
Sing out, earth and skies …
Prayer of Adoration and Confession:
Creator God,
you are present in all your creation;
and in the work of your Spirit
you are present with us,
your human creation.
In your generosity you have
shaped us into your likeness,
and formed us as part of Creation.
Your love is our ongoing inheritance.
Loving God,
we praise you for the circle of life.
We are so grateful for the signs of spring,
the green shoots,
bright flowers and blossoms,
for warmer days, and the rains
that encourage our seedlings and our hearts.
We thank you for all the promises we find
in the renewal that the season offers,
the joy of new life.
We confess that we have not always
responded in the way you hoped,
we have not respected and cared
for Creation as we should have.
We have not always been generous,
instead we have been greedy,
taking what we want rather than only what we need.
We have not always been impartial,
instead we have favoured our friend –
those who look like us,
and those who might favour us in return.
We have not noticed those who are most in need,
or we notice, but turn away.
Forgive us for our lack of generosity,
of openness, or shortsightedness,
caring for ourselves before others
and seeing our country as more important than others
and the values we hold as ‘right’.
Help us love one another and all of Creation
in the way that you love us.
In Jesus name we pray,
Amen.
Words of Assurance:
God surrounds us with forgiveness and love.
Let us be thankful and rest in our faith and God’s love.
Amen.
The Peace:
May the Peace of God dwell with you
and also with you.
A Time for All:
Today I’d like to share another story with you. This story is quite well known, written by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram. It’s a favourite among children and is called ‘Guess how much I love you’. It goes like this …
Little Nutbrown Hare, who was going to bed, held on tight to Big Nutbrown Hare’s very long ears.
He wanted to be sure that Big Nutbrown Hare was listening. ‘Guess how much I love you,” he said. “Oh, I don’t think I could guess that,” said Big Nutbrown Hare.
‘This much,’ said Little Nutbrown Hare, stretching out his arms as wide as they could go.
Big Nutbrown Hare had even longer arms. ‘But I love YOU this much,’ he said. Hmm, that is a lot, thought Little Nutbrown Hare.
‘I love you as high as I can reach,’ said Little Nutbrown Hare. ‘I love you as high as I can reach,’ said Big Nutbrown Hare. That is quite high, thought Little Nutbrown Hare. I wish I had arms like that.
Then Little Nutbrown Hare had a good idea. He tumbled upside down and reached up the tree trunk with his feet. ‘I love you all the way up to my toes!’ he said. ‘And I love you all the way up to your toes,’ said Big Nutbrown Hare, swinging him up over his head.
‘I love you as high as I can HOP!’ laughed Little Nutbrown Hare, bouncing up and down. ‘But I love you as high as I can hop,’ smiled Big Nutbrown Hare – and he hopped so high that his ears touched the branches above. That’s good hopping, thought Little Nutbrown Hare. I wish I could hop like that.
‘I love you all the way down the lane as far as the river,’ cried Little Nutbrown Hare. ‘I love you across the river and over the hills,’ said Big Nutbrown Hare. That’s very far, thought Little Nutbrown Hare.‘ He was almost too sleepy to think any more.
Then he looked beyond the thorn bushes, out into the big dark night. Nothing could be further than the sky. ‘I love you right up to the MOON,’ he said, and closed his eyes. ‘Oh, that’s far,’ said Big Nutbrown Hare. ‘That is very, very far.’
Big Nutbrown Hare settled Little Nutbrown Hare into his bed of leaves. He leaned over and kissed him good night. Then he lay down close by and whispered with a smile, ‘I love you right up to the moon … AND BACK.’
This story is a little bit like the Bible passage we will hear from Song of Solomon later this morning. Set among the trees, near the river and hills, and under the expanse of the sky, Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare try to find a way to measure what is unmeasurable. The love that they feel for one another is more expansive than they can explain. Little Nutbrown Hare says ‘I love you right up to the moon’ which is as far as he can imagine, but Big Nutbrown Hare declares ‘I love you right up to the moon – AND BACK’.
That’s what it’s like with God. No matter how much we love God, we can be sure that God loves us even more. God’s love for us reaches far beyond the moon and the stars and the galaxies, and all the way back to us. In fact, God’s love for us is so big, that no matter where we are, we are held in that love. Let us always remember that the God who created the whole cosmos, is the God who loves us more than we can ever imagine.
We Sing: “God’s love is so wonderful” – (Hymnary.org)
God’s love is so wonderful, God’s love is so wonderful,
God’s love is so wonderful, Oh wonderful love.
So high you can’t get over it, so low you can’t get under it,
so wide you can’t get round it, Oh wonderful love.
Bible Reading: Song of Solomon 2:8-13
– Springtime Rhapsody
8 The voice of my beloved!
Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Look, there he stands behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
looking through the lattice.
10 My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away,
11 for now the winter is past,the rain is over and gone.
12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
Bible Reading: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
– The Tradition of the Elders
1 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders, 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash, and there are also many other traditions that they observe: the washing of cups and pots and bronze kettles and beds.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?” 6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
8 “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Reflection:
‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’ might be the words that came to mind when you listened to the readings for this week, the second in this Season of Creation. Of course it could have been worse, you might have been the person who was rostered on to read! These passages both take us by surprise and are fairly confronting to our sensitive ears, particularly, I would suggest, if you have just heard them for the first time. So why do we feel like this? Maybe we feel uncomfortable because both passages deal with things we don’t expect to find in the Bible, or because they challenge us in some way. When we read Song of Solomon (also known as Song of Songs) we find ourselves engaging with an erotic love poem, and in the gospel passage we are brought face to face with a really grumpy Jesus. Neither of these things sit well with us, yet this week they are brought together and we are invited to explore them in light of the Season of Creation. So where might we begin?
Let’s start with the song. The love song that is Song of Solomon (Song of Songs) is a small book, a few pages sandwiched between the larger books of Ecclesiastes and Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament). Whether your preference is to name it as a beautiful love song or as an erotic poem, the passage we have read this morning contains the only verses of the book that we hear, just once, in the three year lectionary, so today is our opportunity to attend to it. It is one of the only two books in the bible that don’t mention God, so people have often wondered how it ended up being included, and how we are supposed to respond to it. Maybe, as some suggest, this song is an allegory the love between God and Israel or Christ and the church, but maybe it is just a literal love poem which invites us to celebrate the love of God that is manifest in the wonder of human love and Creation. While the book doesn’t mention God by name, I think it implies that God is close to us in the earthly love that we feel. God is, in fact, all around in this book because it is all about love, and God’s very nature is love.
‘Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away, for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.’ Our context is important as we read this text for here it is the season of blossom! For once the seasons and the biblical text align for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere.
This is the season where things burst into life again, and this frames a sense of vitality, rebirth and hope. It is the time of year when we observe the natural world, and a sense of wonder as we see new shoots and spring forth.
This human love song is set within the natural world which is full of the colours, scents, seasons and fertility of Creation. The lovers in the song observe creation around them, delight in what is happening for Creation and apply the signs of spring to their own lives. In fact the sensuality and joy with which the two lovers engage is mirrored in the land as it puts forth it’s song of Creation in the flowers which bloom, the call of the doves, the fruits and blossoms on the trees. It is as if the whole Earth joins in this love song, as the humans are set within the landscape and are a part of it. Their passion is expressed in terms of the created order – mountains and pastures – and it is as if they are co-creators as they sing a world into being through their desire for one another. All is caught up in the greatest love of all – the love of the Creator for the beautiful blue-green marble floating in space, and all that it contains.
In the highly edited passage from Mark’s gospel, we come face to face with Jesus who appears grumpy as he is faced with complaints about his followers’ and their perceived lack of hygiene (washing their hands) and observance of ritual. Jesus is having none of it and blasts those who are complaining, reminding them that they have lost sight of what is important. While they might be offended by what they see, Jesus reminds them that the greater offence is that which comes from the heart, and this is what matters. It is not what is taken in that matter, but rather what we give out and how we relate to others and the world around us, for it is our deeds that show what is truly in our hearts. How we live in relationship with the created order says a lot about who we really are, and we this needs ongoing reflection.
The tendency for human beings is to put ourselves, our pleasures and satisfactions, our needs and wants, our desire for more and more stuff to satisfy our greed and pride, right at the heart of our existence. It is this, above all else, which disconnects us from the world around us. We are separated from our sisters and brothers across the world, but also from the rest of Creation as well. We act as if everything revolves around us, in the same way that we once believed that the universe revolved around the Earth.
Early in the love poem, before the section we read today, we hear these words … ‘You are beautiful, my love; ah, you are beautiful … you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely.’ (Song of Solomon 1:15-16) The lovers are so enraptured with one another that all they can breathe in and breathe out is beautiful. This is their posture they have towards the world.
I wonder what we would hear if we could breathe in and breathe out the beauty of the cosmos that is all around us? Where might we see beauty in the places that we don’t expect? How would this change our posture to creation? Certainly Creation has huge challenges, as do we. Australia has just lived through the hottest August on record, with temperatures 16 degrees above normal. Can we look to see the beauty of springtime faith even through the polluted skies and while noticing the damage?
I wonder if, by noticing the beauty in the world, we might bind ourselves more to it and have a greater appreciation for our connectedness. I wonder if this might make us more aware of Creations fragility and our call to care for what we have. I wonder, too, if in doing this, we might bring ourselves closer to the Creator who breathed the Cosmos into being.
Amen.
We Sing: “Breathe on me, breath of God” – (TiS 407)
Breathe on me, breath of God, fill me with life anew,
that I may love all that you love and do what you would do.
Breath on me, breath of God, until my heart is pure,
until with you I will one will, to do and to endure.
Breathe on me, breath of God, and all my life refine,
until this early part of me glows with your fire divine.
Breath on me, breath of God; so shall I never die,
but live with you the perfect life of your eternity.
Prayer for Others (prepared by Ray Michelle):
Let us pray …
God, the creator of human and earth,
we give thanks for out time together this morning,
time to be together, here in this building,
online, in memory and thought.
We honour those that cannot be here also,
unwell and such like,
may they have peace with this decision.
We give thanks for those who have gone before us in this church
and the wonderful legacy they have left us.
Conflict surrounds us on every side, and we are drawn into it in spite of ourselves.
We feel threatened and all our instincts are to run and hide or to get in the first blow.
That’s not the way you want your children to live.
We give thanks for those people who put their fears aside to act as mediators
in situations of conflict,
their only equipment a set of ears to listen to the stories they hear.
We think of those that have the conflict and are powerless to act …
those in Domestic abusive relationships,
those in Elder abusive relationships,
those unwell physically and mentally,
those without strength or voice.
We pray for their strength for the ability to seek help, support and love.
We pray for all whose lives are troubled, whether by outward circumstances or by inner worries and fears:
those for whom the rains do not come in season, and whose crops do not grow;
for all who have been affected already by climate change,
and all who live in fear of what the future may bring.
We pray for countries and people at war, hardly knowing where to begin because there are so many: for aggressors and victims, and those who are both at the same time.
To all whom we have remembered here today, and for whom we have prayed, we say, “SHALOM”, “God’s peace be with you”.
We Sing: “He is Lord” – (SiS 49)
He is Lord, he is Lord, he is risen from the dead and he is Lord.
Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
And together we say the Lord’s Prayer:
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: “God gives us a future” – (TiS 687)
God gives us a future, daring us to go,
into dreams and dangers on a path unknown.
We will face tomorrow in the Spirit’s power,
we will let God change us, for new life starts now.
We must leave behind us sins of yesterday,
for God’s new beginning is a better way.
Fear and doubt and habit must not hold us back:
God gives hope, and insight, and the strength we lack.
Holy Spirit, teach us how to read the signs,
how to meet the challenge of our troubled times.
Love us into action, stir us into prayer,
till we choose God’s life, and find our future there.
Blessing:
Friends, let us go from this place
trusting God and loving Creation
as we seek to make the world a better place.
May God the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer
be with you every step of the journey.
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:- Fig Tree Worship, Seasons of Creation, and By The Well Podcast.
The book Guess how much I love you was written by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram.