Koonung Heights Uniting Church
Service of Worship at Home
Easter 3 – 23 April 2023 – 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” – (Click this link and skip the ads – words below)
Candle Lighting:
We light this candle today
as a symbol of the light of Christ,
light which cannot be held back by distance,
and which shines in each one of us,
no matter where we are.
May this light continue to illuminate our way
and through us,
show Christ to the world.
Acknowledgement of Country:
I acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung People
of the Kulin nation, the first inhabitants of this place,
part of God’s good creation.
I pay my respects to their elders, past and present,
and all future leaders and generations.
I honour them for their custodianship of the land.
You set humanity at the heart of your creation, O God;
charging us with stewardship of all you have made.
We give thanks for those who have heeded your call.
Call to Worship:
May we hold our breath and open our ears
as we hear God’s story.
May we listen as we seek out the good news
in a difficult world.
May we be challenged, convicted and forgiven,
then encouraged, called and set free again.
Set free to live out God’s story of love and grace
in a difficult and hurting world.
Come, let us worship.
We Sing: “Let all creation dance” – (Click on this link & skip the ads – TiS words below)
Prayer of Adoration and Confession:
God of all care,
God of all understanding,
God of all love,
in hope we come this day
seeking out time and space,
a place,
physical and spiritual,
to draw close to you
in the midst of our lives,
whether going well
or facing hardships
both known and unknown.
God of all,
who knows our worries and our fears,
who sees the pain in our hearts
who knows the traumas we endure,
who looked out at nothing and created all,
who saw pain in the lives of your people
and sent a saviour, Jesus Christ,
who saw our longing
and sent your Spirit to abide with us,
hear us today, hold us today, guide us today.
God of all mercy,
you have given us a new way, a new life,
you have shown us the path we must walk in Jesus’ name,
and yet we continue to fail to live up to your expectations of us.
We continue to harm,
we continue to ignore,
we continue to discriminate,
so, forgive us merciful God.
In Jesus’ name and for his sake help us to walk in your path,
care for all, and love all as you have commanded,
and help us begin to create justice and peace.
In Jesus’ name, we pray,
Amen.
Words of Assurance:
Into our broken world God showers love.
Jesus lived out that love
and the Spirit continues to walk with us each day.
Thanks be to God.
The Peace:
May the Peace of God dwell with you …
and also with you.
We Sing: “Touch the earth lightly” – (Click on this link and skip the ads – TiS words below)
A Time for All:
– Five Leaf Eco Awards – Jessica Morthorpe
Hi everyone, my name is Jessica Morthorpe and it’s wonderful to be here to present these awards and to celebrate with you today, in my role as Director of the Five Leaf Eco-Awards.
The Five Leaf Eco-Awards are an ecumenical environmental change program I founded in 2008 as part of my conviction that God is calling the Church to do much more for the Earth and its creatures.
The Five Leaf Eco-Awards are a non-competitive awards program designed to reward, assist and inspire churches to take action for the environment. Churches complete actions to fulfil a range of criteria and are then presented with certificates of recognition. There are currently seven awards available in the program, with the Basic Certificate, Eco-Worship and Climate Activism awards being the three entry-level awards. There are then advanced awards in Eco-Building, Eco-Outreach, Eco-Congregation and the Five Leaf Award, the pinnacle of the program. Today I’m excited to be presenting you with two awards.
Firstly, your Basic Certificate award. This award asks churches to show their dedication to the environment across all five leaf areas: building, worship, congregation, outreach and community leadership. So this award recognises Koonung Heights for the completion of your energy audit, installing your solar panels, replacing your gas heating with electric, your paper and saving initiatives, hosting the Lighter Footprints guest speaker, participating in the ‘Making Noise About Climate Change Day’, writing your climate action brochure, holding your zoom climate study and hearing about the impacts of climate change on Vanuatu from your congregation members who have volunteered there, and your season of creation pamphlet.
I was delighted to hear about your long history of rehoming second-hand items through your community market and how your Social Justice Group has spearheaded climate action awareness activities.
I’m also pleased to present you with our Eco-Worship award to recognise your participation in the Season of Creation and your integration of environmental themes into worship.
Congratulations! Congratulations to every single one of you who has been involved in the achievement of these two awards, in both large and small ways. Every one of you has made a difference, and this is an amazing achievement. But of course, there is more to be done, and five more Five Leaf Eco-Awards for you to win, so I hope you’ll invite me back soon to present some more!
Bible Reading: Luke 24:13-24
– The Walk to Emmaus
13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.”
Bible Reading: Esther 2:1-18
– Esther Becomes Queen
1 After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her. 2 Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king.
3 And let the king appoint commissioners in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in the citadel of Susa under custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; let their cosmetic treatments be given them. 4 And let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This pleased the king, and he did so.
5 Now there was a Jew in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjaminite, 6 who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with King Jeconiah of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried away. 7 He had brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his cousin, for she had neither father nor mother; the young woman was fair and beautiful, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai adopted her as his own daughter. 8 When the king’s order and his edict were proclaimed and when many young women were gathered in the citadel of Susa in custody of Hegai, Esther was taken into the king’s palace and put in custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women. 9 The young woman pleased him and won his favour, and he quickly provided her with her cosmetic treatments and her portion of food and with seven chosen maids from the king’s palace, and he advanced her and her maids to the best place in the harem. 10 Esther did not reveal her people or kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to tell. 11 Every day Mordecai would walk back and forth in front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and how she fared.
12 The turn came for each young woman to go in to King Ahasuerus, after being twelve months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their cosmetic treatment: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics for women. 13 When the young woman went in to the king, she was given whatever she asked for to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. 14 In the evening she went in; then in the morning she came back to the second harem in custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines; she did not go in to the king again unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.
15 When the turn came for Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had adopted her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king’s eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was admired by all who saw her. 16 When Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, 17 the king loved Esther more than all the other women; of all the virgins she won his favour and devotion, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 Then the king gave a great banquet to all his officials and ministers: “Esther’s banquet.” He also granted a holiday to the provinces and gave gifts with royal liberality.
Reflection: Chosen
It can be quite easy for us to miss things, even, at times, when they are right in front of us. We might not see what is happening because our focus is elsewhere, maybe we just don’t want to pay attention, or it could be that what we do notice is too difficult for us to take in so we choose to dismiss it. I don’t think that it’s too much of a stretch to suggest that the extent of the climate crisis we find ourselves in has a lot to do with the fact that we have chosen not to notice … we have had other things that have taken priority and only now, as the situation worsens, we find that we might be ‘seeing’ more.
But it is not always just ‘things’ that we don’t see, sometimes human beings can also risk losing sight of one another. We can become so focused on where we are heading, that we can disregard the human dimensions of our common journey. We see this as the two friends, followers of Jesus, make their journey towards Emmaus. They have heard the women’s testimony about the resurrection and are so caught up in trying to make meaning of what has happened, and their own disappointment, that even though they are talking about Jesus, they don’t see the reality of the One who joins them … they don’t recognise that it is the risen Jesus who is now walking and talking with them.
We can speculate why the friends didn’t recognise Jesus and it is unclear as to why “their eyes were kept from recognizing him” (Luke 24:16) but the reality is that Jesus’ friends had only recently experienced his torture and death, as well as their own feelings of fear – all traumatic experiences which were impacting their present reality.
Trauma … it’s something that we don’t often speak about from the pulpit … but it is the reality for too much of humanity. According to the Australian Psychological Society, trauma is “the harm caused by very frightening or distressing events which can affect a person’s ability to copy or function normally.” Lauren Thomas (Australian Childhood Foundation) defines trauma as “the emotional, psychological and physiological residue left over from heightened stress that accompanies experiences of threat, violence, and life-challenging events.”
Whether we choose to see it or not, the text from Esther is full of trauma and this is the text that I’d like to really focus on today. The book of Esther begins with the most powerful class of people in the Persian empire: King Ahaseurus and his officials and Queen Vashti. We heard about them last week as we witnessed the downfall of Queen Vashti through her own agency. By making decisions about herself and her body, by saying ‘No’ to the king, Vashti was persecuted, rejected and disappears from the story.
Last week someone in the congregation asked where Esther was, and this week we meet her and see her rise to become Queen. Her ascension, however, is not of her own making, but rather is predicated on the desires of powerful men, including Mordecai and her soon to be husband. She comes from a people who are oppressed and enslaved, those living away from their homeland.
Esther is an orphan, marginalized and powerless, and in this she mirrors the position of the Jewish people at the time … they are marginalised, powerless exiles, living roughly half a century after the Persians defeated the Babylonians sometime after the Babylonians had defeated the city of Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and deported many of the people.
The text also introduces us to Mordecai, Esther’s cousin who adopts her as his own daughter when her parent’s die. Mordecai’s great-grandfather Kish was one of those originally taken into exile from Jerusalem.
The story of Esther and Vashti is often portrayed as a tale of a good queen and a bad one. However, looking at the text this simplistic way is a mistake. Really this is a story of women being taken from their homes and gathered into a harem. This is not something that Esther chose any more than we can imagine the other women would have chosen it. Whatever autonomy they may or may not have had previously is most certainly removed now. They are expected to exist for the pleasure of a man, removed from families and forced through ‘cosmetic treatments’ (Esther 2:12), as well as spending a night with the King in his palace.
So this story is, in effect, a story of enslavement.
You can imagine the generational trauma that has been learned through stories of the exile that parents have told their children. You can imagine the new layer added to this trauma when the women were again taken away from home and family and placed in a citadel in view of the Jewish people, but not allowing them access to their sisters and daughters.
In this narrative we do not see what God promises, paradise and glory, but the gritty reality of human life full of struggle, oppression and discrimination. Esther does become Queen, crowned in some sort of Persian beauty pageant, but at what price? Next week, we will see how Esther uses her new position to put a plan into action that will ultimately save her people. In spite of all that she has gone through she is determined that others will not suffer as she has.
It is possible that the story in Esther is not historically true, but it points to a deeper truth and speaks to the reality of life for some: the stories of these women who were enslaved and survived. For Esther disobedience would have been suicidal, and the tragedy is that this is still a reality for some.
Trauma is a fact of life that is complicated, but when we tell individual stories, we have the opportunity to look through the lens of an individual and speak to a larger truth. Women like Esther, women throughout history, and across the world today face sexual oppression and violence and enslavement. We, as people of faith, are called to name this reality, to recognise it, and to give voice to survivors. We are also called to find ways to create space for the truth of the lives that so many are forced to live. We are called to notice even when it troubles us. In doing this, we are shining Christ’s light into the darkest of spaces.
Maybe this is where we find good news when it seems that there is none. Maybe the good news lies in the fact that we are able to engage with what is difficult and struggle with it, rather than simply looking the other way. Maybe this opens our eyes to what we can do to make a difference. Maybe too, there is good news in the fact that God continues to journey with us even when we can’t see or recognise God’s presence.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Prayer for Others (prepared by Rob Fenton):
Dear Lord,
We thank you for hearing the prayers of your people. We pray for our congregation, and that it continues to grow in its understanding of your ways for us.
We pray for our minister Heather and her family. We are blessed to have such a hardworking and caring minister for our congregation.
We pray for our hard-working Social Justice Committee, who are dedicated to making the world a fairer place for all.
We pray with thanks for the many others in our congregation who serve in many different ways to make us such a vibrant and healthy church community.
We pray for the Sudanese people who are now being subject to yet another civil wall, following several previous civil walls. which over the years have killed and displaced millions of their people. The civil war is a power struggle between different factions of the Sudanese military, but as usual it is the ordinary people who are suffering.
We pray for our long suffering First Nations people, who are left behind in many ways, including housing, education and health. We are saddened that despite all the efforts made to stamp out racism, that our wonderful indigenous footballers continue to be subject to racism by a small percentage of spectators and fans, both during the games and on social media.
We pray for the referendum for a Voice to Parliament for our First Nations people. We pray that it will not be counterproductive, as it seems that many well-meaning people don’t think that they have enough information at this stage to vote at the referendum, and may decide not to vote, as it is not a compulsory vote. We pray that the arguments for and against the Voice will be presented in a clear and fair debate, without animosity, as this will be the best way to achieve the right outcome. We pray with concern that a No vote result from the Referendum would be a major setback in our relations with our First Nations people.
We pray for the home builders, both large and small, who are going down due to many pressures, including huge cost increases in building materials and shortages of building materials. We pray for the home owners who are left with unfinished homes or lost deposits. We pray for the many hard-working subcontractors who are left without payment for the work they have done.
Whilst on housing, we also pray for the many homeless people, both young and old, and who have fallen into homelessness due to many different reasons. We pray for the government, church organizations and various other organizations who work hard to provide food and shelter for the homeless.
We also pray for the families doing it tough due to the rising cost of living and rising interest rates. We pray with concern for the many families who it is expected will have negative cash flow, with costs greater than income. We pray with concern that the only weapon the Reserve Bank has to fight inflation is the very blunt weapon of raising interest rates to reduce consumer spending, which places huge pressures on families and others who are paying off a mortgage for their home.
We pray for our Federal Government as it prepares the budget. We pray for wisdom for the politicians who are having to balance needs with resources to come up with a fair and equitable budget. We pray for Medibank and healthcare in general, which is in need of additional funding. We pray for rural communities who are missing out on good healthcare, due to a shortage of doctors and other medical services.
We continue to pray for all in our church community. 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.
We now join with Christians across the centuries and pray as our Lord 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: “O Jesus, I have promised” – (Click on this link and skip the ads – TiS words below)
Blessing:
As we go today, may you stand with:
the God of the orphan, the exile, the disregarded;
the God of the poor, the persecuted, the dispossessed;
the God of the shamed, the blamed, and those unnamed.
May you stand with:
the God of the forgotten, the vulnerable, the voiceless;
the God who loves the lost and the least;
the God who offers mercy, justice, and grace.
May the God who shines light
in the dark places of the world bless you,
and, as those who know God’s blessing, go,
and in God’s name, be a blessing to others:
a hand to hold,
a voice of comfort,
a source of hope for all who despair.
The blessing of God,
Father, Son and Spirit,
the One who Mothers us all,
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:-Spill the Beans (Issue 46), The Women’s Lectionary: Preaching The Women Of The Bible Throughout The Year (Ashley M Wilcox), workingpreacher.com and Fig Tree Worship.