Koonung Heights Uniting Church – Service of Worship at Home
Pentecost 6 – 12 July – 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: This the day

Good morning and welcome to worship and on this wonderful God given day.
It’s a privilege for me to lead you this morning, allowing for our
Reverend Heather to have a well deserved break.

Acknowledgement of Country:

As we continue to meet in our virtual space,
   let each of us remember the traditional owners of the land we are on.

I pay my respects to those who have been custodians of this place,
   and to their elders – past, present and emerging.

I give thanks for the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation
   who have held as sacred the duty of protecting the Land producing what only was needed

   Loving God
   continue to honour and bless them.

Call to Worship:

In our homes,
sacred spaces,
let us gather us together.

Because we are one,
though physically apart.

God be with us in our houses and homes,
just as God is with us when we are
in our church.

As the farmer scatters the seed
may the fruits of the Spirit
be plentiful among us,

We Sing:  : “We plough the fields and scatter”

Prayer of Adoration and Confession:

 Creator God,
you are the source of all that is:
the life in every living thing:
birds and beasts; fish and fowl;
crops and the locusts that devour them;
trees and the diseases that threaten them;
wildflowers, which are beautiful in one place,
and troublesome weeds in another.

You made them all, and you made us:
not wholly good or wholly bad,
but full of creative potential, which, like yours,
can be used for good or for harm;
squandered or never allowed to flourish.

We come to you today,
not so much to make our confession,
as to open ourselves up to your inspection:
ready to be surprised
by the good that may reveal;
hoping not to be too discouraged
by what is harmful and what needs to be changed.

But first, we need to open our eyes and look,
with you, at the ripening harvest of our lives.

What shoots of new growth can we see?

What is there in us that is stronger
and healthier than it was before?

Let us give thanks: with God and to God,
for every growth in grace; every lesson learned;
every kindness shown; every struggle overcome.

let us ask for help to nurture and encourage
every seed of life that God has planted.

And now, as we continue looking inwards,
what else can we see?

Are there weeds of tiredness or frustration;
thorns of envy or of fear that threaten
to choke the life of the kingdom, growing in us?

Let us acknowledge, before God,
the dangers that we face
and the temptations that draw us.

Let us promise not to feed these weeds with our time
or water them with our attention,
but to trust God, the farmer, to deal with them,
when the time is right.

Lord of all life, may the seeds of your kingdom,
grow in us, and be allowed to flourish,
and may we share with all your faithful people
in the joy of the harvest feast.

Amen.

The Peace:  

May the peace of the sower and nurturing Christ
Be with you with you today

Amen

A Time for All:

  How old were you when you got your first label?  You were probably not even a few hours old when you were given your name by your parents.  This is the first label you were given, but there were also many other labels you were getting like son, daughter, nephew, niece, brother, sister, and maybe  even grandchild just to name a few.  

As you grew older of course you were given many others perhaps due to your age, talent, skill level etc.  While you have been given these labels you also have chosen to give labels to people, often for the same reasons.  When we give a label to someone we then make assumptions about them.  An example might be they are a great footy player and you assume they are very fit, eat well, tall and practice a lot; or they are a great piano player and you assume they practice very hard.  If we label someone as a kind person we assume that they will not be unkind to us.

Once you are given a label you then often live up to your belief of how you believe someone with that label should act, think and behave.  For example someone calls you a good sports person, so because you feel you want to keep them thinking you are, you do extra practice and perhaps try to do many things your sportsperson idols do.  If someone calls you a brainy person, you may want to keep this label so you undertake extra study to ensure you keep getting great academic results.

Similarly what you have labeled other people, you will expect them to behave that way too.

The challenge is that once you are given a label is it possible to be seen as anything else? Also can you see other things in people that might not fit with the label you have given them?
So can a person you have labeled unkind be kind?  Can the poor sports person ever become good?

Can we see the sports person as a musician?

How do we associate the label Christian with actions, thoughts and behaviours?

Today’s Gospel reading is about seeds and weeds. Just hearing those labels you will form an opinion in your head of which is good and which is not. The opportunity is to look for the good in weeds and see how the weeds can help the seeds be even better seeds. 

Let us pray

God, we come today:
carrying a heavy bag of labels
that other people have put on us,
and that we have taken upon ourselves.

One by one, we lay them down,
or throw them as far into the distance
as they will go.

‘She’s the clever one’.
‘He’s the shy one’.
‘What a good boy!’
‘You’re just trouble!’
Too thin; too fat; too lazy;
too stupid; too clever for your own good.

Living God, we stand before you,
freed from all that clutter,
allowing you to see us as we are,
and to draw out of us
all that we may yet become.

We need only one label:
we are your own beloved children.
Thanks be to God!

Amen.

We Sing:  Children’s Song Bringing in the sheaves.

Bible Reading:   

Romans 8:12-25 Contemporary English Version (CEV)

¹² My dear friends, we must not live to satisfy our desires. ¹³ If you do, you will die. But you will live, if by the help of God’s Spirit you say “No” to your desires. ¹⁴ Only those people who are led by God’s Spirit are his children. ¹⁵ God’s Spirit doesn’t make us slaves who are afraid of him. Instead, we become his children and call him our Father.^{[a] 16} God’s Spirit makes us sure that we are his children. ¹⁷ His Spirit lets us know that together with Christ we will be given what God has promised. We will also share in the glory of Christ, because we have suffered with him.

A Wonderful Future for God’s People

¹⁸ I am sure that what we are suffering now cannot compare with the glory that will be shown to us. ¹⁹ In fact, all creation is eagerly waiting for God to show who his children are. ²⁰ Meanwhile, creation is confused, but not because it wants to be confused. God made it this way in the hope ²¹ that creation would be set free from decay and would share in the glorious freedom of his children. ²² We know that all creation is still groaning and is in pain, like a woman about to give birth.

²³ The Spirit makes us sure about what we will be in the future. But now we groan silently, while we wait for God to show that we are his children.^[b] This means that our bodies will also be set free. ²⁴ And this hope is what saves us. But if we already have what we hope for, there is no need to keep on hoping. ²⁵ However, we hope for something we have not yet seen, and we patiently wait for it.

Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52   

Weeds among the Wheat

²⁴ Jesus then told them this story:

The kingdom of heaven is like what happened when a farmer scattered good seed in a field. ²⁵ But while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and scattered weed seeds in the field and then left.

²⁶ When the plants came up and began to ripen, the farmer’s servants could see the weeds. ²⁷ The servants came and asked, “Sir, didn’t you scatter good seed in your field? Where did these weeds come from?”

²⁸ “An enemy did this,” he replied.

His servants then asked, “Do you want us to go out and pull up the weeds?”

²⁹ “No!” he answered. “You might also pull up the wheat. ³⁰ Leave the weeds alone until harvest time. Then I’ll tell my workers to gather the weeds and tie them up and burn them. But I’ll have them store the wheat in my barn.”

Jesus Explains the Story about the Weeds

³⁶ After Jesus left the crowd and went inside,^[c] his disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the story about the weeds in the wheat field.”

³⁷ Jesus answered:

The one who scattered the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸ The field is the world, and the good seeds are the people who belong to the kingdom. The weed seeds are those who belong to the evil one, ³⁹ and the one who scattered them is the devil. The harvest is the end of time, and angels are the ones who bring in the harvest.

⁴⁰ Weeds are gathered and burned. That’s how it will be at the end of time. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everyone who does wrong or causes others to sin. ⁴² Then he will throw them into a flaming furnace, where people will cry and grit their teeth in pain. ⁴³ But everyone who has done right will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. If you have ears, pay attention!

We Sing: “Lord I lift your name on high”

To listen and watch as Ray delivers the reflection please click the link below. You will need the following password 8y&209%@ (copy and paste is easiest)

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/7_Z0IeDr7WVIaY3B2k_OaqAfR4q_eaa82iRLqPYPyUq9E2bK5B8tOLce1qDtFjT6 

Reflection

As many of you are gardeners you can probably relate to the story of the weeds in today’s reading – weeds amongst the wheat. As someone whose interest in gardening has come later in life and through inheritance, I have found my passion for weeding to include such things as covering them in tan bark or attacking them with my trusty trigger bottle of roundup. This is best way to deal with weeds.

With an initial read of the story today, you can of course find yourself being quietly or loudly proud and arrogant as of course we as good Christian believers  are bound to associate ourselves with  the seed and those weeds are of course all those other people. To be fair of course, that was the intention. The idea is to  create the passion to become the seeds and not the weeds which at the end of time are bundled up and burnt.

So while we can have solace in this, when I started to spend time thinking about the reading, I started to consider what are the weeds for us? In talking with Luke, Amelia Rose’s partner, and he shared with me this graph, which has on one axis the percentage of population who say the pray daily and the wealth of a country.

This trend indicates the wealthier the county the less they prayed daily.

 This suggests that   poor countries get greater value from prayer, but why? Is it because those of us in wealthier countries are used to having the resources to get what we need and want? Do we forget that we to be dependent on God?

You could also draw the inference that as countries become wealthier they could then attribute this success to themselves and therefore spent less time on their spiritual aspects of their life.

You may or may not be surprised to see where Australia is. For me it does have a sense of reality.

When we look at our comfort that has increased over the years we have seen a decline in people I know that prayer or seek Christ in their lives.

Take a moment to look at this.

So where am I going with all this, well if we see the weeds as things that cause a distraction between us and Christ, using the above graph show that  wealth can be one  example  of a weed – distraction.

But wealth alone is too simple; wealth is an output of many inputs strived for every day, such as better job, longer hours, better investment, better car,  bigger house , more travel etc

So if you can for minute think of what things you might name that might be your weeds –

things that cause you a distraction between you and Christ? Remember even the disciples had to ask Jesus to explain so don’t be concerned if you are taking quite a few moments.

In the Romans reading today when Paul was writing to the Romans, he writes of not living to satisfy their personal  desires, but living with the help of the Holy Spirit and Gods sprit makes us come as his children and call God our father. A reminder of the trinity that had been revealed.

Weeds can also be used to good, and often it’s how we respond.. do you see any weeds in the clip below

 www.youtube.com/embed/svzPm8lT36o?feature=player_detailpage

For those not able to watch the video, Paul Smith was born with Cerebral Palsy, and uses 10 keys on a typewriter to make pictures. Two are shown below and more can be found on https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=paul+smith+typewriter+art&id=40CC1786BBF262C24185CC992A8C8065C2F41E19&FORM=IQFRBA 

Paul is deeply religious and sees his artistic ability as a gift from God.

Was the disability a seed or a weed? Have you heard stories of people who have had terrible accidents and ended up in wheelchairs etc and this event turned their life in a direction that it might not of always been heading, the obvious aside.

Recently when the autistic14 year boy William Callaghan, went missing on Mt Difficulty the miracle of him being found was tremendous. When being interviewed his mum being interviewed said “I am not one for praying, however I have been praying so much during this time of William being missing”. Also it was only twenty minutes from the main track he was found.

Again metaphorically thinking of weeds in these circumstances may have again stirred many.

So how do we start to get rid of those pesky weeds in our life? This isn’t easy when we are caught up in the day to day living of our lives and the domestic things that need to be done just to live. Many people also are often asking us to do things, or we get caught up in adding in extra weeds and like actual weeds, suddenly it creeps up, and sometimes to the point where we feel overwhelmed.

We have seen since  Covid 19, we are able to do things differently. Some have found it harder than others, others found  comfort in being at home yet we were all able to make the change.

Think about us as a church community, what are our weeds? What are the things that as a community might be choking our relationship with God?

In the coming weeks when we return to church it will be different that it was pre Covid. Will it matter to us? The way the chairs are? The way we celebrate communion? The way we socialise afterwards? Yet all these things you could consider weeds as we can be so busy with all the rituals that we diminish the reason why we are here.

So again how we get rid of the weeds? It might be you need to do a stock take of where you are at and what’s important to you, are there things that distract you from Christ? Can you remove them? It maybe some conscious decision you need to make and it may even involve others. Another view might be how do you increase the nutrients that the seeds are getting and again this is different for everyone. For me I find music is one of the nutrients that help my seed.

At times over the last few years I have felt in a whirl wind in life, life was having me go in many directions and I was reacting to them, managing each new thing that came at me and yet I at times have felt not in control. This year undertaking a year of discernment allows for me to take time, listen to what God is saying to me, where is he leading, me. You could say I am adding another weed but not all weeds are bad, some weeds in our life have a huge positive impact in helping us decided what it is we are wanting and need to alter if that is the case, depends how you view it like our typewriter artist.

Below all the good seeds are of course the roots, and these roots need to be rooted deep in the love of Christ. Having deep roots, which are then provided with good nutrients, the seeds will flourish.  You will know in your own garden of faith the weeds that pulled and then ones that are left, the ones you still need to consider.

Finally what can you praise God for today?

How might you go about having God increase in your life and your own priorities decrease?

 Happy Gardening in the love of Christ

Amen.

We Sing:  Because he Lives

Prayer for Others Written by Harriet Ziegler

In today’s prayer, you are invited to use an ancient prayer – the Psalm for today, Psalm 139:1-12

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from far away.
³ You search out my path and my lying down,
    and are acquainted with all my ways.

O Lord, we give thanks that you know us.  You know that we are exhausted.  We are disappointed.  We are afraid.  We are worried.  And yet, you search us out – you find us wherever we walk or lie down.  You are beside us in all that we do.

(Pause – let this knowledge sink into you.)

⁴Even before a word is on my tongue,
    O Lord, you know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is so high that I cannot attain it.

We give thanks, O Lord, that you lay your hand upon each of us – and upon all the people of the world.  May your hand rest upon those who make decisions today, that they may act with wisdom and justice.  We pray for leaders in governments, in religious communities, in business, in health care.  Great responsibilities rest upon all these people.

(Pause – pray for people in leadership.)

⁷Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me fast.

In these words, we find assurance that we are always with you, that there is nowhere we can be that you are not.  We pray that this word may be a comfort to all who are suffering today – those who are locked up or locked down; those who are sick or afraid of becoming sick or are caring for the sick; those who are separated by borders or oceans or death from those they love most dearly.

(Pause – add your prayers for others who are suffering, including members of your own family and of this congregation, and your friends.)

¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light around me become night,”
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is as bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

O Lord, we drink in this promise.  May we find that with You the night is as bright as the day.  In the darkness of our fear and worry and exhaustion, remind us that you are the Light.  Remind us to walk with you in strength and help us to shine your light upon others in acts of radiant kindness and generosity.

(Pause – ask God for the light you need this week to push away the darkness.)

Amen.  So may it be.

(You may conclude this time of prayer by reading aloud all twelve verses of the Psalm or by saying the prayer Jesus taught us)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your Name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today 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 for ever. Amen.

Sending Blessing:

 The Sower, God,
spreads the seed in the fertile soil of his creation.

We are God’s seed.
Let God’s Spirit feed you this week and beyond.

Grow well:
let the earth be full of God’s glory.

Grow well:
let all the earth know his love.

Blessings

(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 35)