WE GATHER IN GOD’S PRESENCE:

Lighting the Candle:

Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness

but will have the light of life.’

Let us be mindful of each other as we engage in worship,

those who worship at home

and those who worship in the chapel:

Greeting:

The Lord be with you AND ALSO WITH YOU

We Focus on God     (from Psalm 105)
Give thanks to the Lord;
    CALL UPON HIS NAME;
    make his deeds known to all people!
² SING TO GOD;    SING PRAISES TO THE LORD;
    dwell on all his wondrous works!
³ GIVE PRAISE TO GOD’S HOLY NAME!    Let the hearts rejoice of all those seeking the Lord!
⁴ PURSUE THE LORD AND HIS STRENGTH;    SEEK HIS FACE ALWAYS!

We Sing: TiS 92 SING TO GOD, WITH JOY AND GLADNESS

Sing to God, with joy and gladness,
hymns and psalms of gratitude;
with the voice of praise discover
that to worship God is good.

1. God unites his scattered people,
   gathers those who wandered far,
   heals the hurt and broken spirits,
   tending every wound and scar.
           Sing to God …
2. Such is God’s great power and wisdom
   none can calculate or tell;
   keen is God to ground the wicked
   and with humble folk to dwell.
           Sing to God …
3. God, with clouds, the sky has curtained
   thus ensuring rain shall fall;
   earth, responding, grows to order
   food for creatures great and small.
           Sing to God …
4. God’s discernment never favours
   strength or speed to lift or move;
   God delights in those who fear him,
   trusting in his steadfast love.
           Sing to God …

Paraphrase by  John L. Bell 1949–     Psalms of Patience, Protest and Praise by permission Wild Goose Publications

Prayer

Gracious and yet demanding God,

we gather to offer you this time and our focus…

Grant us that knowledge of you

and your will for us,

that we might continue to trust you;

and trust that your will

brings us ever deeper into faithful obedience

which is your way of salvation for us.

We praise you for your incredible acts

on our behalf

effected through Jesus Christ our Lord,

and made known by your Spirit

so that your Kingdom

expands as mysteriously yet inevitably

as a mustard seed grows into a place of refuge for birds,

and as yeast permeates the whole dough

preparing it to become the bread of life…

therefore we pray as our Lord taught us to pray:

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done, on earth as it is 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 forever. Amen

WE LISTEN FOR A WORD FROM GOD

Scripture

ROMANS 3.28 – 4.12

²⁸ For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. ²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰ since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 

4.1 What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ 4 Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. 5 But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. 6 So also David speaks of the blessedness of those to whom God reckons righteousness irrespective of works:

7 ‘Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven,
    and whose sins are covered;
8 blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.’

9 Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, ‘Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.’ 10 How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, 12 and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised.

¹³ The promise to Abraham and to his descendants, that he would inherit the world, didn’t come through the Law but through the righteousness that comes from faith. ¹⁴ If they inherit because of the Law, then faith has no effect and the promise has been cancelled. ¹⁵ The Law brings about wrath. But when there isn’t any law, there isn’t any violation of the law. ¹⁶ That’s why the inheritance comes through faith, so that it will be on the basis of God’s grace. In that way, the promise is secure for all of Abraham’s descendants, not just for those who are related by Law but also for those who are related by the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us. ¹⁷ As it is written: I have appointed you to be the father of many nations. So Abraham is our father in the eyes of God in whom he had faith, the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that don’t exist into existence. ¹⁸ When it was beyond hope, he had faith in the hope that he would become the father of many nations, in keeping with the promise God spoke to him: That’s how many descendants you will have. ¹⁹ Without losing faith, Abraham, who was nearly 100 years old, took into account his own body, which was as good as dead, and Sarah’s womb, which was dead. ²⁰ He didn’t hesitate with a lack of faith in God’s promise, but he grew strong in faith and gave glory to God. ²¹ He was fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised. ²² Therefore, it was credited to him as righteousness.

²³ But the scripture that says it was credited to him wasn’t written only for Abraham’s sake. ²⁴ It was written also for our sake, because it is going to be credited to us too. It will be credited to those of us who have faith in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵ He was handed over because of our mistakes, and he was raised to meet the requirements of righteousness for us.

In this is the Word of the Lord   WE HEAR AND REJOICE, O LORD

MATTHEW 13:31-35, 44-46

31 He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’

33 He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’

34 Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. 35 This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet:

‘I will open my mouth to speak in parables;
    I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.’

44 ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

45 ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; 46 on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

This is the Gospel of our Lord  PRAISE TO YOU LORD JESUS CHRIST

Prayer of Confession

Merciful and Holy God,

we acknowledge that we actually gather

not so much so as to focus on you,

as to have you focus on us

• silence –

Lord have mercy   LORD HAVE MERCY

Gracious Lord,

expose to us through your Holy scrutiny

those ways of being and acting

which echo more the ways of the ungodly

than your ways….

• silence –

Christ have mercy   CHRIST HAVE MERCY

Compassionate God,

reveal to us

that which we desire to keep hidden

from others, even ourselves…

• silence –

Lord have mercy   LORD HAVE MERCY

Declaration of Reconciliation (Romans 4:5-8)

Paul declares of God, that God is the One

who makes right the ungodly;

that to trust this God’s faithful ongoing mercy to us

independent of anything we might do,

that this is reckoned as being made right,

all wrongs obliterated and forgiven us by God;

so, thus blessed, we say with joy in our hearts

THANKS BE TO GOD

Passing the Peace…  as we raise our hands in blessing to those unseen…
The peace of the Risen Lord be with you all  AND ALSO WITH YOU.

We Sing  TIS 452 GOD OF MERCY, GOD OF GRACE

Contemporary Word   TRUST, NOT NECESSARILY UNDERSTANDING

“have you understood these things?” Jesus asked his disciples.

Matthew has Jesus ask this question

after they heard him tell the parables we listened to

for the last two weeks…

firstly the stories designed for public consumption, to the crowds;

and then Jesus’ expansion of them privately…

“have you understood these things?” Jesus then asked, (Matt 13:51).

‘Yes’, they answered him.

We so easily take that answer at face value.

We too quickly forget the numerous instances

when we learn that the disciples did not understand at all!

We do remember the one instance when Peter

appeared to give the right answer to a question Jesus asked of them,

¹⁵  “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter said, “You are the Christ.”

Very quickly Peter showed that though this truth about Jesus

had been revealed to him by the Father in heaven, (Matt.16:15-17)

he had no idea what it meant…

So, after having praised him at first,

when Jesus explained what it would mean for him,

and Peter objected to the destiny of the Christ…

Jesus had to sternly correct him  (Mark 8:29-33)

 “Get behind me, Satan.

You are not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts.”

I suspect that the disciples, true to form, thought they understood,

but at the time missed the underlying message,

or messages even, 

within this collection of parables,

some of which Jesus expounded on in private,

some of which remain in simple story form!

Mustard and yeast, a thief and a merchant.

One is struck by the shady, subversive,

corrupted presenting character of these parables,

especially in contrast to the portrayal, in the other parts of chapter 13,

of fruitfulness, separating weeds from wheat,

and judgment that sorts the true disciples from the others.

Mustard (13.31) often is a weed a farmer would pull from a field.

But here God’s kingdom is compared to the mustard seed,

deliberately sown,

starting very small but growing into a shrub,

a shrub with known, even then, medicinal properties,

Mustard is curative, and available naturally, to all,

if allowed to grow… [1]

Yeast (or leaven, 13.33), the agent that bloats and rots corpses

and what a woman would clean from her house in preparation for Passover, is here a positive:

God is fermenting the kingdom of the heaven within the world,

like the woman who mixes—or spoils—flour with yeast.

The result is bread to share, judging by the amount!

Gary Peluso-Verdend draws attention to the ethical ambiguities

within these stories:

Finding the kingdom of the heaven is compared

to a man who finds a treasure (13.44) in someone else’s field

and then liquidates all his assets to buy the field

without telling the owner about the treasure.

What was the man doing digging around

in someone else’s field in the first place?

His action is a theft.

Merchants (13.45) were held in the public esteem

about as highly as our culture values used-car salespersons.

Their motives and scruples were suspect.

This merchant, however, in effect puts himself out of business

by selling everything to make an ultimate purchase.

Once one has sacrificed everything to make the ultimate purchase,

there is nothing left to buy and sell.

These parables elevate convention-subverting persons and items to describe discipleship in the kingdom of the heaven.

Whatever else they mean,

these parables hint that God’s kingdom—

and therefore good citizenship in God’s kingdom—

cannot be too easily defined or even easily recognised.^[2]

We run the risk of assuming we can tell

who might be candidates for the description of weeds,

or the bad fish…

leave it to God, Jesus informs us…

Just be careful also then, at that time, not to whine

like the elder brother of the returned prodigal son

when we see whom God actually welcomes home!

“have you understood these things?” Jesus then asked, (Matt 13:51).

‘Yes’, they answered him.

Really??? we might well continue to ask.

Paul is a little more cautious,

I can imagine Paul, if asked if he understood these things,

shrugging his shoulders and saying, (as he did 11:33-36)

³³ God’s riches, wisdom, and knowledge are so deep!

They are as mysterious as his judgments,

and they are as hard to track as his paths!

³⁴ Who has known the Lord’s mind?
    Or who has been his mentor?
³⁵ Or who has given him a gift
    and has been paid back by him?
³⁶ All things are from him and through him and for him.
    May the glory be to him forever. Amen.

That does not stop him from articulating

whatever understanding he has

of God’s rectifying

(another possible English word for justifying)

activity on behalf of creation and us…

Paul looks at the big picture!

God’s history of divine global intervention!

He goes back to the call of Abram (and Sarai) (Genesis 12:1-3)

The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your land, your family,

and your father’s household for the land that I will show you. 

² I will make of you a great nation and will bless you.

I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing.

³ I will bless those who bless you,
    those who curse you I will curse;
        all the families of the earth
            will be blessed because of you…

Paul, throughout Romans, describes God as faithful.

He exclaims:

God must be true, even if every human being is a liar (3:3).

God had promised, following the flood, (Genesis 9:12-17)

¹² God said, “This is the symbol of the covenant that I am drawing up between me and you and every living thing with you,

on behalf of every future generation. 

¹³ I have placed my bow in the clouds;

 it will be the symbol of the covenant between me and the earth. 

¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember the covenant between me and you

and every living being among all the creatures.

Floodwaters will never again destroy all creatures. 

¹⁶ The bow will be in the clouds,

and upon seeing it I will remember

the enduring covenant between God

and every living being of all the earth’s creatures.” 

¹⁷ God said to Noah, “This is the symbol of the covenant

that I have set up between me and all creatures on earth.”

God’s covenant with Noah has given the post-flood world a sign,

in the shape of a rainbow,

wherein God’s promise ensures the world’s future.

Now there is this shift from all, to a particular, Abraham;

God’s call to the one called Abram quite some time later,

following the Babel incident,

does not mean a new world or a new divine objective for the world.

God’s goal of reclaiming, rectifying the world,

so that it reflects its original divine intention remains in place.

However, we now have a clearer view about the divine strategy

for moving toward this objective.

God devises a means by which the creation and its creatures, people…

will be reclaimed through Abraham’s family.

We do not know why God chose Abraham,

Abram at the time…

rather than another person or family.

But we do know that God chose him

so that the human and nonhuman creation

might be reclaimed and live harmoniously

with the original divine intention.

God’s choice of Abraham

constitutes an initially exclusive move

for the sake of a maximally inclusive end.

Election serves mission.^[3]

I am not suggesting Paul picked up on this association with Babel,

but the globally dispersed people

(Genesis 11:1-9, the Tower of Babel incident)

through the descendant of Abraham,

Jesus Christ, will become the globally gathered people;

Jew, Gentile, wise, fool, Greek, barbarian, male, female…

there is no distinction in the heart of God who welcomes back all!

If you take some time to recall what you know of this family

chosen through time to be the line

through which God will rectify humanity and creation,

you will appreciate that the

the stories of Israel’s matriarchs and patriarchs,

shifting from the global drama of the flood and the tower of Babel

to the intimate setting of a family drama,

continue to develop the theme of sibling rivalry

introduced with the world’s first siblings, Cain and Abel.

Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah,

and Jacob and his brothers-in-law

will trick, cheat, and threaten one another with disturbing regularity.

In each of these struggles

God will continue to favor the younger—the underdog—

seemingly regardless of either cultural norms

or the respective merits of the two siblings.

In addition to the ongoing stories of sibling rivalry,

the matriarchal and patriarchal stories

include several episodes in which sons dishonor their fathers,

husbands hand over their wives to other men…

Jesus’ parabolic descriptions of the stuff of the Kingdom of Heaven

echo this ancient mixture

of the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly!

All told, Genesis 12–36 portrays a family

whose virtues of faith, generosity, and perseverance

are matched by their jealousy, deceit, and resentment.

God’s promise guides them

but does not remove their all-too-human troubles^[4]

Paul, of course, trained as a Pharisee,

would be only too aware of these details…

Nevertheless, Abraham’s faithfulness to God,

his return to committed confidence

each time after checking in with God

to see if God still remembered the promise…

e.g.  my inheritance will go to my slave? 15.6

oh, perhaps God meant a vicarious birth, through a maid… ch.16

                I, and Sarai are certainly past conceiving a child? ch17.

resulted in a ‘Abraham believed God,

and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ Romans 4.3

Righteousness, that word with its concept of rectification

being reshaped, if you will… think of justification in that sense,

to justify as in to reshape, reposition…

if it is hard to let go of justify, justification because of its familiarity.

God’s reshaping, rectifying of the loyal Abraham,

had in mind the rectifying of all people, all nations…

Jews and Gentile, Geek and Barbarian, Wise and Foolish…

through their simple trust in God’s faithful committed

merciful and compassionate reshaping of them and creation;

is God the God of Jews only?

Is he not the God of Gentiles also?

Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰ since God is one;

and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith

and the uncircumcised through that same faith. (3.29-30)

Abraham who trusted the God

who justifies the ungodly (4.5)

who gives life to the dead

and calls things that don’t exist into existence. (4.17)

Abraham who, ¹⁸ When it was beyond hope,

had faith in the hope that he would become the father of many nations,

in keeping with the promise God spoke to him: 

That’s how many descendants you will have. 

¹⁹ Without losing faith, Abraham, who was nearly 100 years old,

took into account his own body, which was as good as dead,

and Sarah’s womb, which was dead. 

The faith in God’s promise shown by Abraham (cf. 4.17b–19)

models the true response of human beings to God,

upon which the full realization of their own humanity depends.

Faith is bound up essentially with the hope

that God can and will deliver what has been promised (4.21)

—even if that involves the “resurrection of the dead.

The focus upon faith that has prevailed up till now

begins to shift in the direction of hope—

though it might be more correct to say

that Paul is now bringing out the essential dimension of hope

undergirding his sense of faithful and committed loyalty.

Paul, as you will note by reading Romans 4,

drives home that Abraham received God’s affirmation,

having been called through an act of grace in the very first instance,[5]

before that which gives Jews their identity,

Circumcision and the Law,

had been offered by God, as Covenantal signs of favour.[6]

Paul deduced from this that:

The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe

without being circumcised

and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, 

and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised  (4:10ff).

Anyone and everyone can be justified, repaired, by God,

as N.T. Wright has it:

human beings are put back together again

and enabled to rediscover what a genuinely human life is like.^[7]

Paul wants non-Jews, the gentile Christians in Rome in his day,

and no doubt, if he were here today, such as us,

to take confidence that the God of Abraham,

Isaac and Jacob (or Israel Genesis 32:28)

makes available God’s mercy, compassion, loving kindness

and righteousness

to the people of all nations, not just one,

for Abraham models how we might be incorporated

into the LORD’s global faith family

whose initial antecedent is Abraham…

²⁰ He didn’t hesitate with a lack of faith in God’s promise,

but he grew strong in faith and gave glory to God. 

²¹ He was fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised. 

²² Therefore, it was credited to him as righteousness.

In this determined trust in God’s faithfulness,

Abraham “gives glory to God (4.20c).

Significantly, to give glory to the Creator

is exactly the reverse of what humans had refused to do

in the lapse into idolatry presented in 1:21–23

as the paradigm of human alienation from God.”^[8]

Annie Dillard is an American writer whose first published book I still turn to,

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek  (1976) London: Picador

Writing in a reflection recently, aged 75,

she contrasts what she might believe now,

in the sense of giving intellectual assent,

compared with decades ago…

there have been changes, she implies…

but this is what she stakes her life on:

I know only one thing for certain: there is holiness.

Standing there, a person can sing myriad songs.

Maybe there is a divide between people who honor holiness—

who bow down before it, who pray on their knees—

and people who don’t.

The opposite of holiness is selfishness, egotism, pride.[9]

Paul invites us to join those who honour holiness,

that awareness of an inner awe

when contemplating the mystery we name the LORD

emanating mercy and compassion,

offering faithful companionship,

inviting our trust and loyalty.

WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD

We Sing: TIS 125  THE GOD OF ABRAHAM PRAISE 

We Bring Our offering to God

setting aside our gifts to support the local and wider work of the church

and bless our gifts in an act of praise…

We Share Our Community Life 

Prayers of the People

Eternal God,

we come as a people very much aware

of our own fragility

during this time of a resurgence of infected people.

Lord hear us LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

We pray again for all whose bodies

have been attacked and invaded by this Covdi-19 virus.

Grant them your peace and strength,

their medical and personal carers your wisdom and compassion,

their families your hope…

and assurance we all are in your care

Lord hear us LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

So much of what we have taken for granted is under threat;

getting together in crowds to appreciate music

or barrack for a sporting team,

or to gather for worship

sitting shoulder to shoulder with other worshippers,

singing with gusto…

grant us new possibilities for community life.

Lord hear us LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

We pray for our leaders at state and national levels

who face awesome decisions

balancing numerous competing outcomes…

Grant them not only wisdom beyond their experience

but also a spirit of co-operation.

Lord hear us LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

We pray for the millions of people without paid work;

may the rest of us shoulder the cost of providing

shelter, food and clothing…

and the other stuff which is necessary to live

as an appreciated member of society….

Lord hear us LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

We pray for the tens of thousands of final year

secondary and tertiary students,

whose employment prospects seem bleak…

Grant us new visions for how we can manage

the economic and social welfare and cohesion of our society.

Lord hear us LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

We pray for those dear and near to us

who continue to struggle with serious ill health

and debilitating sickness.

We name …. (say aloud, or in silent though mention these folk)

Grant them your peace and daily strength

Lord hear us LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

in the name of the Christ who suffered beyond our comprehension,

AMEN

WE GO OUT TO SERVE GOD

We Sing: ONE MORE STEP ALONG THE WORLD I GO…

Daniel Shiells

One more step along the world I go,
One more step along the world I go;
From the old things to the new
Keep me traveling along with you
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
Keep me traveling along with you.

Round the corners of the world I turn,
More and more about the world I learn;
And the new things that I see
You’ll be looking at along with me
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
Keep me traveling along with you.

As I travel through the bad and good,
Keep me traveling the way I should;
Where I see no way to go
You’ll be telling me the way, I know
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
Keep me traveling along with you.

Give me courage when the world is rough,
Keep me loving though the world is tough;
Leap and sing in all I do,
Keep me traveling along with you
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
Keep me traveling along with you.

You are older than the world can be,
You are younger than the life in me;
Ever old and ever new,
Keep me traveling along with you
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
Keep me traveling along with you

Sending Out

We go as a people

called to be part of God’s Kingdom

which offers refuge and home

to those searching for a place to rest;

We go as a people

called to be part of God’s Kingdom

which steadily and surely influences

all life and all living

that everyone and everything

might be offered as bread of life…

We go as a people

totally trusting the One true and faithful God

totally committed to reconciliation

and transformation,

our salvation…

Blessing

Therefore go with the blessing of God

having wrongs righted,

overwhelmed by the grace, mercy and peace

which springs from communion with

the three in One who has brought all and us into being,

the three in One who rescues all, and us even from ourselves,

the three in One who guarantees our own homecoming…

              AMEN, AMEN, AMEN

---

[1] Levine, Amy-Jill. (2014) Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (p.167)

Harper One: New York.

^[2] Peluso-Verdend, G. (2011). Theological Perspective on Matthew 13:31–33, 44–52. In D. L. Bartlett & B. B. Taylor (Eds.), Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year A (Vol. 3, pp. 284–286). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

^[3] Fretheim, T. E. (1994–2004). The Book of Genesis. In L. E. Keck (Ed.), New Interpreter’s Bible (Vol. 1, p. 417). Nashville: Abingdon Press.

^[4] Galambush, J. (2018). Reading Genesis: A Literary and Theological Commentary (pp. 55–56). Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Publishing.

[5] Eisenbaum, Pamela (2009) Paul was not a Christian (pp245ff) New York: HarperOne

[6] Sanders E.P. (1977) Paul and Palestinian Judaism  (pp534-536) Philadelphia: Fortress

^[7] Wright, T. (2004). Paul for Everyone: Romans Part 1: Chapters 1-8 (p. 78). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

^[8] Byrne, B. (1996). Romans. (D. J. Harrington, Ed.) (Vol. 6, pp. 154–155). Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press.

[9] CHRISTIAN CENTURY 3^RD JUNE 2020