Koonung Heights Uniting Church – Service of Worship at Home
Pentecost 13 – 30 August – 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.
We Sing: “I love you Lord”– (Click on this skip the ads to sing – words below)
Acknowledgement of Country:
Today, as I come to this time of worship,
I would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations,
the first inhabitants of his place.
I would also like to pay my respects to their elders,
past, present and emerging.
For thousands of years these traditional custodians
have walked on country,
cared for the land and nurtured it.
I acknowledge their contribution and commitment.
I am also mindful of those who have faithfully worshipped,
and continued the story of faith
by sharing the good news of Jesus.
May I continue this tradition.
Call to Worship
We gather, O God,
apart and yet together,
knowing that we are your people.
We gather, O God,
trusting you without wavering,
walking with integrity.
We gather, O God,
singing in our souls with thanksgiving,
telling of your wondrous deeds.
We gather, O God,
not in the church building that we love,
but each in our own home,
a place where your love also dwells.
Let us worship you in the place where we are.
We Sing: “Praise to the Lord” – (Click on this link and skip the ads to sing)
Prayer of Adoration and Confession:
God, you are solid and sure and reliable,
while at the same time being creative,
adaptable and free.
We change too, but not always in a good way.
We catch sight of something new and life-changing
in the teaching of Jesus
and we vow to be different,
to follow him forever.
Then the kaleidoscope turns and a new picture emerges:
one that involves cost,
and letting go,
one where people do not come flocking to hear what we say,
but are hostile,
or, worse still, indifferent;
a future that holds what we are not ready for.
Gentle God,
help us to take things a bit more slowly;
to get our balance and find a way of following
that is sustainable for us and honouring to you.
May we neither shame ourselves by dwelling
on the mistakes we have made in the past,
nor frighten ourselves by looking too far into the future.
Help us rather to take one day at a time,
to keep going by putting one foot in front of the other,
lifting our eyes now and then
and surprising ourselves
to see just how far we have come.
If the way for a while is easy, let us enjoy it;
and if suffering comes, give us strength to bear it.
In both remind us that you have been there before,
and have promised to stay with us to the end,
which may,
if the impossible promises of our faith turn out to be true,
not be the end at all,
but a glorious new beginning.
Keep us faithful,
keep us hopeful;
above all, O God,
keep us going.
In Jesus name,
Amen.
Words of Assurance:
In the power of the burning bush,
in the quiet stillness,
in the everyday noises of living,
God is calling to each one of us,
telling us to trust in the gifts God has given.
You are beloved and blessed by God
to be a blessing to others.
Rejoice! This is good news!
Thanks be to God.
The Peace:
The One who spoke to Moses from the burning bush
is the same One who wants to connect with us.
The One who explained to Peter the importance of denying self to follow him
is the same One who followed the path which was to bring life for all.
The One who we sense in the breath of the wind and the buds of new life
is the same One who will not leave us alone.
May the peace of this One, the Triune God, be with you.
A Time for All:
Who has a bucket list? Most of us do in one way or another. A bucket list is a list of things that you would like to achieve by a certain time – before you finish school, before you have a family, before you retire, or before you get too old.
We all have a different bucket list depending on who we are and what is important to us. I wonder what things might be on your bucket list? I’ve got quite a few things on mine, and some of them are to:-
- Drive around the coast of Australia
- Visit the chalk horse of Uffington
- See Petra
- Go to the Edinburgh Tattoo
The reality is that it isn’t always possible to do the things that we want to do, the things that might be on our bucket list. No matter how focussed or determined we are, stumbling blocks can get in our way. Stumbling blocks are not always bad because they can make us re-evaluate how important something is, but when we know that the thing we need to do is important, stumbling blocks can be really frustrating.
Last week Peter had declared that Jesus was the Messiah, the Chosen One, the Son of the living God, in answer to Jesus’ question to the disciples “Who do you say I am?” Jesus then told Peter that he would be important in the formation of the church. In Jesus path were many, many stumbling blocks, and in the passage today we find that Peter is a bit of a stumbling block to Jesus. Even though Peter is one of Jesus’ friends, he becomes a stumbling block because he wants to change Jesus focus, taking it away from the path that Jesus has been called to travel.
Even though Peter is a bit of a stumbling block for Jesus, Jesus still keeps focused on the important things that he has to do. Even though Peter’s behaviour made it a bit hard for Jesus, Jesus continued to call Peter his friend. Peter even started to understand a bit more about what it really meant to follow Jesus and be a disciple.
Let us pray
Loving God, you made us and you know us outside and inside.
Some of us look tough and hide our soft centre.
Some of us look fragile on the outside but have a core of steel within.
Help us accept all the qualities that make us uniquely the people we are.
May we use our strength to support other people and not to trip them up.
May we risk sometimes showing our softness,
so that we can feel with others when they are hurting
and share with them when they are joyful.
Help us always be our best selves for you.
Amen.
We Sing: “I have decided to follow Jesus” – (Click on this link and skip ads to sing – words below)
Bible Reading: Exodus 3:1-15 –
Moses at the Burning Bush
1 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”
The Divine Name Revealed
13 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’:
This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.
We Sing: “I, the Lord of sea and sky” – (Click on this link and skip the ads to sing – words below)
Bible Reading: Matthew 16:21-28 – Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection
21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
The Cross and Self-Denial
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
27 “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Watch and listen to Rev Heather present the Reflection
Reflection: The God who changes plans
How do we live in a changing world? This is a not a question that we can simply ignore, but something that we are currently facing in a very immediate way. Even for people who don’t mind something new, the way the world has changed this year was something none of us could have ever prepared for. Cancelled holidays, home schooling, border checkpoints, loss of jobs, restrictions on where we can go, where we can shop and the realisation that we don’t all agree on what is deemed “essential” has taken its toll. What might have seemed like a bit of an adventure at the beginning, has now become tedious and our spirits are tired. Even the natural world that captivated us early on doesn’t seem to be quite as vital now. Something is going on. It isn’t what we planned. It isn’t comfortable. We don’t like it. Yet somehow, in the midst of all this, God is doing something, and we might not see the complete picture until we are able to look in the rear view mirror.
God often works that way, it seems. I can make plans and checklists, and then something happens which changes things. Of course, I don’t always see it as God directing the change, and sometimes I have even been known to wonder why the powers that be are not on the same page as I am. But hindsight is a wonderful thing, and when I look back I can often see that God was moving in my life even when things were not going the way I expected, and that the adventures I was planning wouldn’t have been nearly as amazing as the ones I’ve actually had.
God’s movement in our lives is not something new, as the story of Moses reminds us. Moses is all grown up now and minding his own business. He is caring for his father-in-law’s flocks out in the wilderness and suddenly, in the middle of nowhere, there is a bush that is burning but not burning up. Moses decides to investigate and then God calls out to him. I can’t imagine that a burning bush was part of Moses’ plan for the day, or a conversation with God that was quite so dramatic was expected. God explains to Moses that he is standing on holy ground, what was once ordinary is now holy because of the presence of God. Once Moses has removed his shoes, God lays out God’s plan for rescuing the Israelites from the oppression of Pharaoh. As God lays out this plan, we discover that God has already been active in the lives of the Israelites for he has seen their misery, heard their cries, knows their sufferings and has come to deliver them. The God-of-the-incredible-bush cared about Israel, and about justice, and about protecting those who couldn’t protect themselves, and chose to act.
Moses himself knew what it was to protect and defend others, so it would have been with great joy that he heard God’s declaration. What Moses wasn’t prepared for is that God is going to send him to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. God promises he will be with Moses, but understandably, Moses still has questions. “When I go and tell the people this, they are going to think I’m crazy. Who should I say told me this plan?”
“I am who I am” is the answer Moses gets.
This is an interesting name. “I am who I am” – all present tense, not “I am who I will be” or “I am who I was”, but “I am who I am.” This suggests a God who is so completely unlike all other existing persons and things that making comparisons would be meaningless. This is the God who generates, but who also stands outside that. This is the God who is right now – always in the present and always in the midst of everything.
If we know the story of Moses we can be tempted to say “okay, it is God here, eventually everything will work out.” But the reality is that for Moses the story ends before the Israelites reach the Promised Land. Moses could have said “no”, but like many other faithful people, when encountering the living God, the call to service was one he could not ignore.
Peter is again a major player in the gospel reading for today, which follows on directly from what we read last week. You might remember that in last week’s reading, Peter was the one to proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah and Son of God. This profound insight in to the essence of Jesus’ being is followed immediately by a complete misunderstanding of what that means. In Peter’s first move after his dramatic proclamation, he gets things profoundly wrong. Jesus begins to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem where he will be killed but then raised to life. The Greek word we translate as ‘show’ is only used three times in the Bible and it means to expose the eyes. Jesus is trying to explain to the disciples that death is integral to fulfilling his Messianic role.
This is not what Peter is imagining. You can almost hear him thinking that Jesus has got it all wrong. Going into Jerusalem and being tortured and dying are not part of Peter’s reality. How quickly the rock, a symbol of strength and security, has become a stumbling block, a source of risk and potential injury. This is a valuable reminder that the world isn’t as neatly divided into good and bad as we think, we all have the capacity for both. In fact those things that can be our greatest strengths also have the potential to be our greatest weakness. In Peter’s case, it might be that his independence of thought, strength of conviction and willingness to speak his mind with blunt honesty were what gave him his rock-like qualities. These are the same qualities which enable him to challenge Jesus – “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”
Jesus gets angry with Peter, telling him that he is just like Satan (the image of the forces of evil and death), trying to distract him from what he is supposed to be doing. He then challenges the rest of the disciples, that if they want be part of what “I am” intends to accomplish, then they have to be ready for the hard things that are going to come. They have to deny self. Following Christ won’t necessarily be easy and sometimes it will be really hard.
More than once Jesus has to remind his followers (and sometimes himself) that the values of the Kingdom are paradoxical and counter-intuitive. What we think of as wealth and success are worthless if the life of the spirit is extinguished. We think of the cross as a religious symbol or an object of devotion but for Jesus it was an implement of death by torture. This is the challenge of following Jesus.
If we apply this teaching not merely to ourselves as individuals, but to the institution of the Church, what might we learn? The Church is not the centre of society as it used to be and in much of the developed world it seems we struggle desperately to hold on to life at any cost.
Sale of buildings, pruning of jobs, mission strategies to get young people through the door, virtual worship from home – there is nothing wrong with any of these things as such, but if they are born out of the fear of “losing our life in this world”, what does that say about the well-being of our corporate soul.
What does it mean in our situation and our time for the church to “take up its cross and follow”, to “lose its life” in order to find it? Are we a rock or a stumbling block for those who are yearning for depth and meaning in their lives, for a leader worth following and a cause worth living, and if necessary, dying for?
We all have ideas and construct plans in our heads, but sometimes God has something else in mind, something that we are not fully aware of. It can make us uncomfortable and isn’t always easy, but God moves in our lives, despite all that. And with God moving in our lives we are never alone.
God travels with us each step of the way. Sometimes our vision of God is miraculous like the burning bush, and sometimes it is challenging like a wooden cross, but always Gods plan is to go with us as we embark on our next journey. Amen.
We Sing: “Will you come and follow me?” – (Click on this link and skip the ads to sing – words below)
Prayer for Others: (written by Peta Lowe)
Lord of all creation, we praise and magnify your name above all things.
We pray for your world, living through the Coronavirus pandemic.
We pray for governments, making decisions and plans. Please grant them wisdom to discern what is best for their people and courage to do right.
We pray for scientists, researchers and medical authorities and their work. Please guide them in formulating the right advice to give to leaders and the public.
We pray for frontline medical, nursing, hospital and paramedical workers, who daily risk their lives and health to help others. Refresh and encourage them as they put the needs of others before their own. We also pray for their families’ health, safety and well-being.
We pray for the complex crisis situation in so many aged care establishments, and in the governing of the Aged Care sector.
We pray for all those who continue to provide essential services throughout these strange days. Grant them strength, patience and a sense of peace amid the difficulties.
We pray for refugees, and for people trying to recover from disasters, for whom the Coronavirus emergency overlays an already desperate situation.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Lord of the Church, guide your people’s response to the pandemic, towards those who are sick, those who are bereaved, those who are isolated and those who are disadvantaged.
Remind us to look to Jesus as our guide, and to follow him as closely as we can.
Loving God, help us to hold on as tightly to you as you hold on tightly to us.
We praise and thank you for all unselfish actions, all acts of kindness and all expressions of love in this troubled time. Help your people not to grow weary of doing good.
We pray for Rev. Heather and her ministry with us, for all ministers and their families, for our Presbytery and Synod, for all those people who are working, largely unseen, in the life of congregations.
We pray for Rev. Natalie Dixon-Monu and her work with vulnerable people in the community.
Strengthen, empower and bless all such work.
Lord, hear our prayer.
God who loves us all, we hold before you the members of our Church community who are on our prayer list because of their special needs. We also remember before you other people for whom we have particular concerns, and those whom we love.
We pray for all those who are ill, and for those who are bereaved. We ask that your comfort and healing reach them. We pray for all who minister to them in formal and informal ways.
We pray for all residents of aged care, their families, and the staff and management of these workplaces. You know the individual needs of each person in each place, and how much your wisdom and guidance are needed at so many levels. We ask that empathy, respect and compassion will predominate in these situations, as well as fairness and good ethics.
We pray for the many people who have become unemployed, or underemployed, and are facing financial hardship. We pray for those who are trying to help, in the face of overwhelming need.
We pray for those who are finding the isolation associated with the lockdown difficult to cope with. Help each of us to be a blessing to others.
Lord, hear our prayer.
God of all wisdom, may your mercy and compassion surround us today and every day.
Help us to persist in caring for each other, remaining connected and looking outward, alert to new opportunities for service within our current situation.
May we honour your Word as we listen for your presence in our times.
Let us join with your people across the world as we pray 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,
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.
Blessing:
As this time of worship draws to an end,
continue to walk with Jesus.
Whatever burdens you carry,
know that Jesus shares your load.
May God’s love,
Jesus’ compassion
and the Spirit’s guidance
be with you as you go about your daily living.
And the blessing of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
the One who Mother’s us all,
be with you evermore.
Amen.
We Listen: “The Blessing – Aotearoa / New Zealand” – (Click on this link and skip the ads)
(Thanks to all those who have assisted in preparation for this liturgy with encouragement, prayers, conversation and sharing. I have also utilised the following resources:- Spill the Beans Issue 36, Billabong Worship Resources, Ministry Matters, Texts for Preaching and By The Well Podcast.)