Koonung Heights Uniting Church – Service of Worship at Home
Pentecost 2 – 19 June – 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: “Bless the Lord, my soul” – (Click on this link and skip ads – TiS words below)
*Lighting the Candle:
We gather as many different people,
yet with a common desire to follow Christ.
We light a candle to recall
that we are the body of Christ,
and the light of Christ shines amongst us.
Acknowledgement of Country:
As we gather for worship today,
I acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung
People of the Kulin Nation
the first inhabitants and custodians of this place.
I pay my respects to their elders and leaders,
past and present,
and pray for the future of their communities.
As First and Second Peoples walking together,
may we work for a justice filled future.
Call to Worship:
Paul’s message to the Galatians is simple,
yet astonishing:
those in Christ are one in Christ.
Whatever distinctions or divisions
we create or find comfort in
make no sense in God’s way.
Let us clothe ourselves in Christ,
let us worship God.
We Sing: “Joyful, joyful, we adore you” – (Click on this link and skip ads – TiS words below)
Prayer of Adoration and Confession:
God of many names and none,
you know us each by name
and you know who we are
in a way that no-one else ever fully can:
the good and the bad together:
what is broken,
what is whole,
what is on the long, slow way to being mended.
You see the outside face that we present to the world;
and you know about the doubts
and questions churning around inside.
You know where we have come from,
and how we are today
and who, one day we will become.
You see all the many facets of the complex jewels that we are,
and—as we are—you love us.
Living God, that needs time to sink in. (Pause … and let it)
There is a part of us that wants to jump for joy
to know that at last we have been recognised;
another part that wants to run and hide.
We do neither of these things, but take time, in our imaginations,
to look on the one who looks on us,
and deep down inside us without judgement, disgust or fear,
but only with compassion and welcome.
We come, as many did to Jesus in his lifetime,
in search of wholeness … integration …
a piecing together of the shattered fragments of our lives,
not in an invisible repair but highlighted in gold,
as Japanese potters do,
so that our wounds become part of our story
and your skill is on display for all to see.
Cast out the demons of prejudice and fear, we pray,
from our homes and our churches and our world,
so may our lives bear witness to your goodness
and the transforming power of love.
Amen.
Words of Assurance (Psalm 42, Galatians 3):
The steadfast love of God is with you –
yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Whether you turn away or doubt,
whether you follow timidly or joyfully,
you are loved and forgiven in Christ.
The Peace:
May you know the peace of Christ in the midst of suffering,
may you feel the hope of the Holy Spirit in the midst of sorrow,
and may you touch the love of God in the midst of pain.
Feel God’s love blowing through your life,
as you turn to one another and pass the peace of Christ.
The peace of Christ be with you … and also with you.
A Time for All:
Have you ever tried to listen for the sound of the sea in a shell? Have you actually heard it? Well it’s true that you can hear something when you listen to seashells. That’s because of their unique shape which amplifies the ambient sound. Basically that means that any air that makes its way through the seashell produces sound when bounced around in the curved inner surface. The sound that is produced sounds ocean-like, and so we say that we hear the sound of the sea when we hold a shell to our ear.
Have you ever tried listening for God? Have you heard God in an unexpected way? The Old Testament reading for today comes from 1 Kings 19 and speaks about listening and hearing. It tells the story of God’s prophet Elijah. Elijah has just been involved in a conflict with Ahab and Jezebel. He has killed 400 of Queen Jezebel’s priests of Baal, and is now in fear of his life. Queen Jezebel is obviously angry with Elijah and so he is running for his life and ready to stop being God’s prophet. As he flees, Elijah ends up at Mount Horeb (also known as Mt Sinai) the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments. Here he finds a cave and hides there. Yet God finds Elijah and asks him why he is hiding. Elijah answers out the reality that is before him, yet still God calls him to come out of the cave for the Lord is going to pass by. There is a great wind, splitting mountains and breaking rocks, and an earthquake like fire but God’s voice is not in those. Elijah hears God in the silence, and hearing this calming voice is what allows Eiljah to come out of the cave.
Few of us have had personal experiences where we have actually heard God physically calling to us in an audible voice. If you have had such an experience you might want to keep it to yourself, least you be seen as being weird or deluded. If you have not heard God speak then you might believe that God doesn’t speak this way, or feel your faith is not strong enough which is why God seems silent. Don’t go down this path.
I believe that God speaks to each one of us in the way that we need to hear. It may, however, not be in the way we imagine or expect. God might speak to us through stories we hear; through what we feel when we are in nature; through the call of a bird, through the touch of a friend, through a piece of music, through a conversation or a piece of artwork. We may not hear anything at all, but instead feel a sense of profound calm, in that is the voice of God. God will speak what we need to hear, in the way that we need to hear, even if the voice isn’t audible.
And God likes us to talk back. After Elijah hears God, he is still able to tell God exactly how it is for him … that he is frightened and unhappy. He was not intimidated by God’s presence and was able to be completely honest with God. Yet God’s presence with Elijah, in the cave and the silence, enables Elijah to come out of hiding and be who he was called to be.
We Sing: “Dear Father, Lord of humankind” – (Click on this link and skip ads – TiS words below)
Bible Reading: Galatians 3:23-29
23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
Bible Reading: Luke 8:26-39 –
Jesus Heals the Gerasene Demoniac
26 Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me’— 29 for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30 Jesus then asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘Legion’; for many demons had entered him. 31 They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. 2 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.
Watch and listen to the reflection.
Reflection:
“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians3:28)
No divisions against one another, nothing to separate us. We don’t really think like that do we? We tend to think in terms of either this or that, or them and us, or one thing or the other. We have this tendency to think in the binary, to use oppositional thinking. Black or white, city or country, happy or sad, cat or dog, boy or girl, rock versus country, beach versus bush, right versus left, my team versus your team, Catholic versus Protestant.
Did you notice that I snuck versus in there? From black and white it subtly turned into right versus left. I think that is what often happens when we divide things into opposites. Richard Rohr suggests that we speak in dualistic opposites we empower the ‘vested interests [to] pull against each other’[1] which prevents truth being present in the conversation. Rohr continues to suggest that it is the “us and them lens” which is at the foundation of all human suffering and violence … perhaps even the violence we do to the world itself. We exploit and take what we need without giving much thought to those who miss out because of our greed. It is a by-product of the colonisation of this land we call home which we still have not corrected.
‘Us (us, us, us, us) and them (them, them, them, them)
And after all we’re only ordinary men
Me and you
God only knows
It’s not what we would choose (choose, choose) to do (to do, to do)’[2]
These words from Pink Floyd suggest that the way we behave is not a choice, but it is, and when we operate out of the “us and them lens” people always end up being excluded.
In both of today’s readings we encounter division. The passage from Galatians tells us that through faith we have been released from legalism and set free to live lives of love. There are no longer divisions which need to separate us from one another because through faith we are all one in Christ. We still have diversity, but not division. Divisions can bring pain and death and the elevation of one over another, but living as one in Christ means we are liberated to see things differently. In the gospel reading, Luke’s story tells of the healing of a man who is excluded from family, from supports, even from the city where he lives. Yet Jesus calls him and invites him back into community again.
At first hearing, the story of the healing of this man seems entirely alien to us. We don’t believe in demon possession and thinking about Jesus casting out demons can make us uncomfortable, even though the Bible stories indicate it was as much a part of his ministry as teaching or healing, and a sign of his power. Even though this story might be hard for us to enter, it is not hard to see that something here has disrupted the norm. We are confronted by a naked man who has been excluded from the living and is making his home among the dead. He is so excluded that he has even lost his own identity, yet Jesus has compassion on him.
Nothing is going well for him in terms of his acceptance in the Jewish community, the original hearers of this passage. He is a Gentile, is living in the area where pigs are raised for food (something that only happens because the Jewish people are under Roman rule), and is naked which is definitely a mark of shame. Having contact with pigs would have rendered him ritually impure, as would the proximity of dead bodies in the graveyard which has become his home.
While we can speculate on what was the issue for this man, we know that something has gone wrong. At some point in his life something has happened which has disrupted the norm for him. He is excluded and while people know he’s there, he is somewhat of an embarrassment. I wonder if he is a bit like the homeless people we pass on the street. At some point something has happened that has disrupted their norm and they end up excluded and something of an embarrassment. They are the ones that get told to move on because their presence offends our sensibilities. They have names, but we don’t know them and it’s probably easier that way.
Into this situation steps Jesus and having compassion on the man he calls to him, asking his name. Our name and identity are entwined; and something of our essence is awakened at the sound of our name. By asking his name Jesus claims the man as unique and precious and this is the beginning of the end of his exclusion.
It is interesting that the man’s contemporaries seem more afraid when they see him ‘clothed and in his right mind’ sitting at the feet of Jesus’. Jesus actions with the man have overturned all their expectations about how the universe operated. They have also enabled the man to be restored to life … to home, family and community, and this is where Jesus tells the man to remain.
How often do we become afraid when those who we have ignored or excluded because of their difference suddenly start behaving like us? It shakes our sense of reality. It is disconcerting to think that if they are like us now, maybe we have the potential to be like they were.
The reality is that because of what Christ has done we are all One. We are all welcomed into the love of God which is for all of us. No matter how we respond to God, or whether we respond at all, we are loved. Our identity is often contested but as the text from Galatians reminds us, ‘in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.’ (Galatians 3:26) Our identity in Christ will not obliterate our other identities, but it should inform our other identities and impact our relationships with others. The identity of Oneness in Christ transforms us and invites us to seek justice, grace and faith in our relationships. It might also encourage us to look around for those people who are living without a home or community. Having received God’s love and acceptance, surely we can offer that to others.
These words from Galatians are words of inclusion and acceptance, not eliminating differences but revitalizing them. What matters most is that we are all God’s children. We all belong. We are each worthy of God’s attention and care. Christ has come, sought us out and called us, so that we can be enfolded in God’s love, even when we don’t know it. This is good news!
Let us pray
Loving God,
we dedicate our offerings to you now,
but we know that if money is all we bring it is not enough.
Jesus gave nothing less than himself to all he met,
as he tested boundaries and challenged perceptions,
and put his life on the line to show what love is really about.
Insofar as we can,
we offer our commitment to his way of inclusion and acceptance,
of breaking down barriers,
of enabling people, ourselves included,
to find their true identity in Christ.
Amen.
We Sing: “Beauty for Brokenness” – (Click on this link and skip ads – TiS words below)
Prayer for Others (prepared by Harriet Ziegler):
Our service today has reminded us of Elijah, waiting to meet God in the wind and the earthquake and the fire, and then finding God in the sheer silence.
In this prayer, which I have adapted from Bruce Prewer, when I say ’God of our lives’ respond if you wish with ‘Help us to be alert to meet you.’
Let us pray.
God, your love is so powerful we cannot fathom it. But we believe that you meet us – as you met Elijah – in the silence, in the unexpected places, and in the unexpected people.
God of our lives, Help us to be alert to meet you.
We ask today that you may heal our wounds and make us ready to serve you in the needs of our neighbours. Where you are hungry and homeless, help us to be your loving people, giving food and shelter.
God of our lives, Help us to be alert to meet you.
Where you are imprisoned or oppressed – in gaols or refugee camps or in grief and hopelessness – help us to be your liberating people, giving comfort and help.
God of our lives, Help us to be alert to meet you.
Where you are anxious and despairing over issues close to home or encompassing the world, help us to be your concerned people, working with others to share hope and encouragement.
God of our lives, Help us to be alert to meet you.
Where you are sick with illness or fear, help us to be your consoling people. Where you are rejoicing in a new start or a renewed relationship, help us to be your celebrating people. In this moment of silence we hold in our hearts the people of our own congregation and others known to us, and especially Karen Eller as she is ordained today.
(time of silence)
God of our lives, Help us to be alert to meet you.
Where you are the victim of violence and warfare, help us to be your peace-filled people, active in peacemaking and rich in love. We uphold those in government, in business, and in the churches who work for peace, knowing you are with them.
God of our lives, Help us to be alert to meet you.
May we see you in the silence, in the unexpected people and in the unexpected places. And may we always praise you with our lips and serve you with our lives.
We join now in the prayer Jesus 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: “Praise the one who breaks the darkness” – (Click link & skip ads for tune –words below)
Blessing:
As we leave this place may we go
delighting in the diversity of creation,
and bearing the light of Christ.
May we be amazed and encouraged
by all the differences we encounter,
remembering that in Christ we are all One.
May we go in peace and in wonder,
knowing that God, who is light and truth,
goes with us.
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 43), Billabong Worship Resources, Ministry Matters, www.bruceprewer.com, The Fig Tree Worship Resource and By The Well Podcast.
[1] Richard Rohr daily meditations (Center for Action and Contemplation, June 3rd 2022).
[2] Roger Waters & Pink Floyd, ‘Us and Them’, Dark Side of the Moon, 1973.