Welcome: –

Call to Worship: –  

Clive Ayre, in his devotional book titled, “Reflections on Faith and Life”, writes of the prayer of Jesus recorded for us in John’s Gospel, chapter 17 verses 21 to 23, where Jesus pleads with God for his disciples saying,

“may they be one, just as you and I are one, I in them and you in me, so that they may be completely one, in order that the World may know that you sent me and that you love them as you love me.”

  Clive Ayre writes,

“Unity is not just an end in itself.  It is the basis on which the task of mission goes forward; to let all those people out there know that there is another option to the fear that dominates their lives, that leads them even to the point of ultimate despair.  An increasingly unavoidable extension of that issue relates to interfaith relationships, in which a key question is whether we focus on our differences or look for areas of agreement.

  Are we to be agents of unity or division?  We come together as those who name Christ’s name.  Whatever the issues that divide us, we have a commitment to each other because we have a commitment to our Lord.”  (Clive Ayre in Reflections on Faith and Life p59) 

  It is with that focus on our unity that we gather for worship today, for we all share that commitment to our Lord.  We may have our differences, but it is the unity of our faith that brings us together and gives life to our worship and to our fellowship.

  On the understanding that we are “one people of God”, let us be united in our worship of God and in our fellowship together and read together these words from Psalm 124: 6 & 8:

 Our help comes from the LORD, who made Heaven and Earth.  Let us thank the LORD. 

Prayer of Praise

(from Uniting in Worship Red Book p209, An Australian Prayer Book p249, Opening Prayers p97, Moira Laidlaw Liturgies On-Line Year A Pentecost 11) 

  Almighty God, we gather here as your people, the flock that you have dedicated yourself,

to protect and nourish.  We give you praise for the life you have given to us; for the way that the darkness of being lost and alone has been replaced with the light of your acceptance and grace.  We rejoice in the knowledge of your limitless love and mercy, and celebrate together because of our shared experience of your forgiveness.

  For you are a redeeming God who seeks to bring back those who have wandered away.  In your eyes no-one is deemed worthless or a lost cause.  In your eyes no race nor language, no status nor background nor way of life precludes anyone from receiving your love.  Your greatest desire is for all to open their eyes to see their need to come back to you.  And you welcome us with an embrace that casts away all fears.  We give you the honour and glory that you deserve.

  God, our Lord, we put our trust in you to lead us.  Your Word to us provides the wisdom and values to guide us in our daily life.  Your walk beside us and lead us away from temptation.  You steer us away from all that would draw us away from your company and companionship.  You strengthen us to live boldly through the gift of the Holy Spirit, empowering us to live our lives in gratitude and praise for your presence with us, and all your gracious gifts to us.  For this we offer you our heartfelt thanks, now and always.  Amen.

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing 2 Songs

‘Make a joyful noise unto the Lord’  (Scripture in Song volume 1 number 132)

Composer Unknown

The second song is ‘God is so good’  (Scripture in Song volume 1 number 121)

Paul Makai

Prayer of Confession 

(from Uniting in Worship Book One, p580 & 581, numbers 3 & 4) 

Gracious and loving God, we come before you as contrite and broken people.  You love us unconditionally, but we place conditions on how much and how far we are willing to love you.

Have mercy on us we pray.

You call to us in clear concise words, but we refuse to listen to you.  You have shown us how to love by example and deed, but we walk away from neighbours in need, wrapped up in our own concerns. 

Have mercy on us we pray.

We declare our desire for justice, yet we go along with prejudice and greed. 

Have mercy on us we pray.

We claim the name of Jesus Christ, yet we have not departed from sin.  We prefer to stumble in the darkness rather than to walk securely in the light. 

Have mercy on us we pray.

Our lives have brought you disappointment and grief as we turn away from your directions and your advice, and turn towards what is foolish and senseless.

Have mercy on us we pray.

We cast aside what is worthwhile and strive for what is worthless.  We value self-centredness and avoid what you value and hold dear.

Have mercy on us we pray, help us to face up to ourselves.

We repent of our wilful ways and turn to you. 

Forgive our sins and cleanse us, so that we may serve you in newness of life, to the glory of your holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Assurance of Forgiveness 

(from Romans 10: 10) 

The Apostle Paul states, “For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved.”  And so, having confessed our sins and trusting in the grace and mercy of God, we can be confident in declaring that our sins have been forgiven, and our lives cleansed in the sight of God.

Thanks be to God.

Prayer of illumination

 (from Uniting in Worship Book 1 number 13 & 14 p599) 

  Prepare our hearts, O Lord, to be guided by your Word and the Holy Spirit, that in your light we may perceive your mercy and grace, that in your truth we may find freedom, and that in your will we may discover peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Bible Readings:

Deuteronomy 6:

1a  Moses called together all the People of Israel and said to them:

4  “Israel, remember this!  The LORD – and the LORD alone – is our God.  5  Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

Isaiah 51:

1a  The LORD says,

“Listen to me, you that want to be saved, you that come to me for help.

4  Listen to me, my People, listen to what I say:  I give my teaching to the Nations; my Laws will bring them light.  5  I will come quickly and save them; the time of my victory is near.  I myself will rule over the Nations.  Distant lands wait for me to come; they wait with hope for me to save them.

6  Look up at the heavens; look at the Earth!  The heavens will disappear like smoke; the Earth will wear out like old clothing, and all its people will die like flies.  But the deliverance I bring will last forever; my victory will be final. 

7  Listen to me, you that know what is right, who have my teaching fixed in your hearts.  Do not be afraid when people taunt and insult you;  8  they will vanish like moth-eaten clothing!  But the deliverance I bring will last forever; my victory will endure for all time.”

Romans 12:

1  So then, my sisters and brothers, because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to you:

Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to His service and pleasing to Him.  This is the true worship that you should offer.  2  Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this World, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of the mind.  Then you will be able to know the will of God – what is good and is pleasing to Him and is perfect.

This is the Word of God.

Praise to you Almighty God.

Matthew 15:

10  Then Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them,

“Listen and understand!  11  It is not what goes into a person’s mouth that makes them ritually unclean; rather, what comes out of it makes them unclean.”

15  Peter spoke up,

“Explain this saying to us.”

16  Jesus said to them,

“You are still no more intelligent than the others.  17  Don’t you understand?  Anything that goes into a person’s mouth goes into their stomach and then out of their body.  18  But the things that comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and these are the things that make a person ritually unclean.  19  For from their heart come evil ideas which leads them to kill, commit adultery, and do other immoral things: to rob, lie, and slander others.  20  These are the things that make a person unclean.

This is the Gospel of our Lord.

Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

For the Young at Heart

Paragraph 10 of the Basis of Union reads:

Basis of Union 1992

10. REFORMATION WITNESSES
The Uniting Church continues to learn of the teaching of the Holy Scriptures in the
obedience and freedom of faith, and in the power of the promised gift of the Holy Spirit,
from the witness of the Reformers as expressed in various ways in the Scots Confession
of Faith (1560), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the Westminster Confession of
Faith (1647), and the Savoy Declaration (1658). In like manner the Uniting Church
will listen to the preaching of John Wesley in his Forty-Four Sermons (1793). It will
commit its ministers and instructors to study these statements, so that the congregation
of Christ’s people may again and again be reminded of the grace which justifies them
through faith, of the centrality of the person and work of Christ the justifier, and of the
need for a constant appeal to Holy Scripture.

(https://ucaassembly.recollect.net.au/nodes/view/668?keywords=&lsk=eaca1a6230f992cb2e0c1b96ac02db6a)

  So what are these documents?

  The on-line encyclopedia, Wikipedia, states that the Scots Confession was approved by the Parliament of Scotland on this day in 1560.  The website of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland states that it was ratified by the Parliament of Scotland on 17^th August in 1560.  I have inserted relevant web articles on the Scots Confession and their web addresses below.

  Scots Confession

The Scots Confession (also called the Scots Confession of 1560) is a Confession of Faith written in 1560 by six leaders of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland. The text of the Confession was the first subordinate standard for the Protestant church in Scotland. Along with the Book of Discipline and the Book of Common Order, this is considered to be a formational document for the Church of Scotland during the time.^[1]

In August 1560 the Parliament of Scotland agreed to reform the religion of the country. To enable them to decide what the Reformed Faith was to be, they set John Knox as the superintendent^[2] over John Winram, John Spottiswood, John Willock, John Douglas, and John Row, to prepare a Confession of Faith. This they did in four days. The 25 Chapters of the Confession spell out a contemporary statement of the Christian faith as understood by the followers of John Calvin during his lifetime. Although the Confession and its accompanying documents were the product of the joint effort of the Six Johns, its authorship is customarily attributed to John Knox.

While the Parliament approved the Confession on 27 August 1560,^[3]   (Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1560)  acting outside the terms of the Treaty of Edinburgh to do so, Mary, Queen of Scots, a Roman Catholic, refused to agree, and the Confession was not approved by the monarch until 1567, after Mary’s overthrow.^[4] It remained the Confession of the Church of Scotland until it was superseded by the Westminster Confession of Faith on 27 August 1647. However, the confession itself begins by stating that the Parliament “ratifeit and apprevit [the confession] as wholesome and sound doctrine grounded upon the infallible truth of God’s word”; thus, though changes within societies may have diminished its relevance, believers hold that the authority of its statements is rooted not in parliamentary approval but in, as it says, “the infallible truth of God’s word”.

In 1967, it was included in the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.‘s Book of Confessions alongside various other confessional standards, and remains in the current Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)‘s Book of Confessions.

As the Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1560, the Confession remains part of Scots law.^[5]

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_Confession)

The Scots Confession of Faith of 1560

The Confession Of Faith Professed And Believed By The Protestants Within The Realm Of Scotland, Published By Them In Parliament, And By The Estates Thereof Ratified And Approved, As Wholesome And Sound Doctrine, Grounded Upon The Infallible Truth Of God’s Word.

These acts and articles were read in face of parliament, and ratified by the three estates of this realm, at Edinburgh, the seventeen day of August, the year of God 1560.

Source: https://www.fpchurch.org.uk/Beliefs/ScotsConfession/index.php

(https://www.fpchurch.org.uk/about-us/important-documents/the-scots-confession-1560/)

  For our purposes today, the date is not important.  What is important in the intent in formulating this confession, which was a statement of “what the Reformed Faith of the Church of Scotland was to be”.

  It is of interest to read that the Scots Confession was superseded by the Westminster Confession of Faith on this day in 1647.  And I have also inserted a web article on this Confession and its web address below.

Westminster Confession of Faith

The Westminster Confession of Faith, or simply the Westminster Confession, is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the “subordinate standard” of doctrine in the Church of Scotland and has been influential within Presbyterian churches worldwide.

In 1643, the English Parliament called upon “learned, godly and judicious Divines” to meet at Westminster Abbey in order to provide advice on issues of worship, doctrine, government and discipline of the Church of England. Their meetings, over a period of five years, produced the confession of faith, as well as a Larger Catechism and a Shorter Catechism. For more than three hundred years, various churches around the world have adopted the confession and the catechisms as their standards of doctrine, subordinate to the Bible. For the Church of Scotland and the various denominations which spring from it directly, though, only the Confession and not the Catechisms is the subordinate standard, the Catechisms not being re-legislated in 1690.

The Westminster Confession was modified and adopted by Congregationalists in England in the form of the Savoy Declaration (1658) and by Particular Baptists in the form of the Second London Baptist Confession (1677/1689). English Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and some others, would together come to be known as Nonconformists, because they did not conform to the Act of Uniformity (1662) establishing the Church of England as the only legally approved church, though they were in many ways united by their common confessions, built on the Westminster Confession.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Confession_of_Faith)

  This confession is a systematic exposition of Calvinist theology (which neo-orthodox scholars refer to as “scholastic Calvinism“), influenced by Puritan and covenant theology.^[2]

  (Karlberg, Mark W. (2013). Engaging Westminster Calvinism: The Composition of Redemption’s Song. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 13. ISBN 9781621896647.) 

  There is a curious paragraph that forms part of this confession in its original format.  It states that the Pope is the Antichrist, which was a very common belief in seventeenth-century England. ^[3]

  (McGinn, Bernard (2000). Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil. New York: Columbia University Press p220) 

Chapter 25 – Of the Church, paragraph VI reads:

. There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God.

(https://www.presbyterian.org.au/index.php/index-for-wcf/chapter-25-the-church)

  So, from where arises the issue of who is “the Head of the Church”?

  In the reading from the Gospel of Matthew set down in the Lectionary for today, is the passage in which Peter proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah.  It is then that Jesus states,

“Peter, you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my Church, … I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.”  (Matthew 16: 18a & 19a) 

  It is from this passage that we gain some of the understanding of why the Apostle Peter was seen as a Leader of the early Christian Church.  But there is a wider and more current matter that arises, for one of the basic tenets of the Roman Catholic Church is that the authority of the Pope as their Leader is based on his succession to this position of leadership of the Church.

  I obtain my responsive Prayers for Others from the website of the St Louis University, a Roman Catholic University.  One of the prayers in their list for today, which I have not inserted in our Prayers for Others today, is this:

“For Pope Francis, successor to St. Peter: that the Holy Spirit will guide him in proclaiming the Good News, promoting unity in the Church, and inspiring us to greater love and service.”

Copyright © 2023. Joe Milner. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce for personal or parish use.  https://liturgy.slu.edu/21OrdA082723/ideas_other.html 

  My intent in raising this issue today was not to make a judgement one way or the other regarding the validity of the stance taken by the Roman Catholic Church regarding the need for all Denominations to recognise the authority of the position of Pope based on their succession to a position instigated by Jesus as we read in the above mentioned passage from Matthew 16.

  It is my intention just to bring to your attention an historical frame of reference to the stance taken by the Roman Catholic Church on the matter of the authority that they attribute to the position of Pope, and the different stance taken, in general, by Protestant denominations, as expressed in the Confessions that are recognised as of value by the Uniting Church in Australia, and by the majority of Protestant Denominations, in defining our shared Christian beliefs and understandings.  And, if you wish to look into this matter more deeply, the websites that I have listed for you may make a good place to start.  Happy reading.

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing Hymn TiS563

‘Let him to whom we now belong’ 

Charles Wesley

Sermon

heartbeats

(https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/07/15/18/15/health-846780_640.png)

Several weeks ago we received the disturbing news that Betty had a pacemaker inserted as an aid to her maintaining a regular heartbeat.  Last weekend, Kerry and I caught up with friends of ours, Helen and Peter, a couple that we have known for the past 40 years from our days in a Young Adults Group, only to find that Helen has recently had a pacemaker inserted to aid her heart.  Darryl Horn, who some of you may remember when he and his wife Margaret and their two sons attended worship in our Church, has had a pacemaker inserted to aid his heart for a number of years.  A healthy heart does lead to a healthy life, or, at the very least, to sustained life.

  In today’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus, while talking about the heart, is talking about something completely different.

Slide 2

“But the things that comes out of the mouth come from the heart, and these are the things that make a person ritually unclean.”  Matthew 15: 18

  Jesus makes this statement:

“But the things that comes out of the mouth come from the heart, and these are the things that make a person ritually unclean.”  (Matthew 15: 18) 

  The setting of this passage is his criticism of some Pharisees and Teachers of the Law who complained that the Disciples of Jesus “didn’t wash their hands in the proper way before eating “, according to the traditions of “the Elders” as these traditions had been passed down.  (Matthew 15: 1 & 2)  By not following these traditions, the Disciples were defiled before God, spiritually and ritually unclean, in the eyes of these Pharisees and Teachers of the Law.

  A Study Note in the NIV Study Bible  (p1489)  states:

“After the Babylonian exile, the Jewish Rabbis began to make meticulous rules and regulations governing the daily life of the people.  These were interpretations and applications of the Law of Moses, handed down from generation to generation.”  Robin Nixon writes in his Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew that:

“these traditions were regarded as supplement to, and often as interpreter of, Scripture.  They were treated as of equal authority with the Old Testament Law.”  (Robin Nixon in Matthew in the New Bible Commentary p836) 

  Jesus called these Pharisees and Teachers of the Law “blind men leading the blind”  (Matthew 15: 14)  , that they “adhered to the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit of the law”.  (Study Note in NIV Study Bible p1535)  .  He sought to explain how erroneous was their understanding of what made a person ‘defiled’ in the eyes of God.  He sought to explain that “defilement comes from an impure heart, not the violation of external rules” relating to hygiene and the consuming of food.  (Study Note in NIV Study Bible p1535) 

  To the mind of the Jew, the concept of the heart “came to stand for a person’s entire mental and moral activity, both the rational and the emotional elements, the expression of their thoughts and attitudes, their imagination and their will”.  It came to cover the person’s true character, that which is at the centre of a person’s inward life, and which is often concealed or hidden from others.  (William Vine in An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words volume 2 p206 & 207, Robin Nixon in Matthew in the New Bible Commentary p836) 

  Jesus is saying that when sin “has its seat in a person’s inward life”, sin defiles what the heart expresses, irrespective of any meticulous or appropriate observance of ritual or rules or regulations.  (William Vine in An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words volume 2 p206 & 207)  He is stating quite clearly that “Fellowship with God is not interrupted by unclean hands or unclean food,  but by sin.”  (Study Note in NIV Study Bible p1535) 

  But there is hope for Humanity, for “Scripture regards the heart as the sphere of Divine influence.”  (William Vine in An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words volume 2 p206 & 207) 

  To the people of Israel, God had revealed Himself to them as the one true God, who has created all things, who sustains all things and who governs all things.  They could live serenely in the knowledge that all things and all times were under the rule of their Almighty LORD God, whose ways are righteous, and whose purpose with them and through them was to bring salvation for all of Humanity, from sin and judgement and every evil that has burdened Human life.  Such serenity in the midst of the ragings of History and all of its seeming chaos remains a precious gift, offered to all who know and trust God.  (Study Note in NIV Study Bible p252) 

  What does God seek as our response?  Firstly, we are to acknowledge the majesty, the wonder, the power, the authority, and the glory of God, who, as the Creator of all there was and is and is to be, demands not just our respect but our submissive worship and praise.  This was the Covenant response that was required of the people of Israel to the God who had delivered them from slavery, and who had entered into an agreement with them to be the God of the people of Israel and to lead them to a land of plenty and of promise for the future.  How could they not respond in that way based on their first-hand experience of the demonstration of the power and authority of God in their deliverance.  And, likewise, how can we not respond in the same manner when we see and experience the power and majesty of God at work in the world around us, in Creation and in God’s involvement in the affairs of Human History through the Ages.

  But it is here that the true nature of a loving God is paramount, for, above all else, God seeks to be in a close warm relationship with individual people, you and I and everyone else.  We are to love the God who loves us more deeply and completely than we can ever imagine.  Our love for God is to mirror, to parallel, the depth and completeness of His love for us.  Our love “is to be total, involving our whole being”  (Study Note in NIV Study Bible p253)  , thus it is phrased “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength”  (Deuteronomy 6: 5)  .

  It is not to be a forced love on our behalf, a half-hearted love as it were.  Our whole being is tied to our relationship with God, thus, if our response to God is true and honest and earnest, then our whole being should be the vehicle through which we love God.  It is this conscious, intentional response for which God seeks.  But there is another aspect to this.

  The Word of God given to the Prophet Isaiah was:

“Listen to me, you that know what is right, who have my teaching fixed in your hearts.”  (Isaiah 51: 7) 

  This concept of God’s teaching or God’s Law being fixed in someone’s heart is mentioned in other passages, most noticeably is Psalm 37: 31 and Jeremiah 31: 33, but also elsewhere  (Deuteronomy 11: 18 & 30: 14, Ezekiel 11: 19, 18: 31 & 36: 26 & 27)  .  If you are following God’s teachings, His Laws, in what you do and say, there is the understanding that you are doing what is right, living a righteous life, not wandering or being enticed away from ‘the right path’.

  If these teachings are fixed in your heart, then your emotions, your thoughts, your feelings, your attitudes, every part of you that motivates your thoughts and actions is focused on doing what is right, living a righteous life, not wandering or being enticed away from ‘the right path’.  (Study Note in NIV Study Bible p794) 

  As such, how God desires for you to interact with others and how God desires for you to think and to fill your minds “effectively governs your life”, your thoughts and actions.  (Study Note in NIV Study Bible p1188) 

  But, and there’s always a but isn’t there, if our propensity is not to listen to the voice of God, not to heed the teachings of God, not to consider God’s place in our lives, then how is all of this to take place?

William Barclay writes:

“The teaching of Jesus is that not all the outward observations (of social or religious rules and regulations, of traditional and cultural practices passed down and enforced by cultural elders) can atone for a heart where pride and bitterness and lust hold sway.  It is a teaching which condemns every one of us, that no-one can call themselves good because they observe (these) external rules and regulations.  A person can call themselves good only when their heart is pure.  That very fact is the end of pride, and the reason why every one of us can only say, ‘God be merciful to me.’”  (William Barclay in The Gospel of Matthew p119 & 120) 

  Paul writes that the solution to the puzzle is that it is always through the mercy of God, and for the glory of God.  What does this mean in practice?

  Paul commences by reiterating what Moses said to the people of Israel as we read in Deuteronomy 6: 5 & 6, our life is to be “consecrated to God”  (Francis Davidson & Ralph Martin in Romans in the New Bible Commentary p1039)  , our life is to be one of worship of God and service to God.  Paul phrases it as being “a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to His service and pleasing to Him”.  (Romans 12: 1)  We cannot be this “living sacrifice” if our heart is not in tune with what is pleasing to God, that is, if we are living our life “conforming to the standards of the World”  (Romans 12: 2a) 

  Paul asserts that for our lives to be consecrated to God, our lives must undergo a “transformity to God”  (Francis Davidson & Ralph Martin in Romans in the New Bible Commentary p1039)  , as he writes:

“let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of the mind.  Then you will be able to know the will of God.”  (Romans 12: 2a) 

  William Barclay writes:

“So, Paul is saying that to worship and to serve God, we must undergo a change, not of our outward form, but of (our heart), of our inward personality, of the very essence of our being.  When Christ comes into a person’s life, they are a new person; the centre of their being is different; the driving power of their life is different, their mind is different; for the mind of Christ is in them.”  (William Barclay in The Letter to the Romans p170 & 2171) 

  John Wesley talks of Christians as “people renewed and reconstituted”.  (John Lawson in Selections from John Wesley’s ‘Notes on the New Testament’ p135) 

  This is the role of the Holy Spirit, the “helper” Jesus promised to his Disciples who would come after his ascension, the one “who reveals the truth about god and who will lead us into all the truth”.  (John 15: 16 & 17, 16: 13) 

  Paul writes of two outcomes from this renewing of our heart.  A renewing of our heart will enable us to discern the will of God  (Romans 12: 2b)  (Study Note in NIV Study Bible p1993)  , “the recognition of God’s will as right and fit and ideal”  (Francis Davidson & Ralph Martin in Romans in the New Bible Commentary p1040)  A renewing of the heart will lead to “spiritual and moral growth of the Christian”, doing “what is good and is pleasing to God and is perfect”  (Romans 12: 2c)  (Study Note in NIV Study Bible p1758) 

  Roger Bowen writes that “the Christian Gospel has practical results”.  In his Letter to the Church in Rome, Paul commences by “describing what God has done for people”.  He concludes his Letter by “describing how people should live for God”, not through “deeds of virtue”, but “depending on the power of the Holy Spirit”.  “As members of Christ’s new Family, Christians possess the Spirit of Christ, who leads us to live in a way pleasing to God.”  (Roger Bowen in A Guide to Romans p189 & 190) 

  Charles Wesley wrote a poem titled “The will to please God”:

Lord, that I may the doctrine know,

A will to do Thy will bestow,

A humble ready mind

To follow truth where’er it leads;

And then the light from Thee proceeds,

And then my God I find.

My simple childlike heart inspire

With fervour of intense desire

Thee, only Thee, to please;

And make Thy great salvation known,

And bring Thy docile follower on

To perfect holiness.

  (Charles Wesley in Poetical Works volume XI p402 in Alan Kay (ed) Wesley’s Prayers & Praises p63 & 64) 

  May this be our prayer also.  Amen.

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing the Hymn

‘Lord of Creation, to you be all praise!’  (TiS626)

Jack Winslow

Offering

Offering Prayer    

“For the life that you have given”  TiS774 

 [This YouTube clip is for another hymn so disregard the words – only the one verse is needed.]

For the life that you have given,

For the love in Christ made known,

With these fruits of time and labour,

With these gifts that are your own:

Here we offer, Lord, our praises;

Heart and mind and strength we bring;

Give us grace to love and serve you,

Living what we pray and sing.

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Prayers for Others

Almighty God, knowing of your love for all of Humanity, especially of your compassion for the needy, we come to you with our cares and our concerns.

We bring to you our prayers for the World around us and for people individually.

We pray for all who exercise authority, whether in religion, business, education, or government,

that they may recognize you as the source of all authority and use their power for promoting justice and the common good.

We pray for a deep appreciation of the beauty and dignity of life,

that your wisdom and knowledge may open our minds and hearts to honour and respect life, especially in the aged, the disabled, and the mentally ill.

We pray for all who are searching for the keys to new life,

that you will help those who feel bound by addiction or destructive habits to recognize Christ as the key that will liberate them.

We pray for all who are recovering from disasters, the people of Hawaii, of Canada, of east Asia, and of many parts of Europe,

that you will relieve their pain, give them strength of spirit, and speed the assistance that they need.

We pray for a greater stewardship of the Earth,

that our hearts may be moved as we behold your wondrous works in nature, and that we may care for it so that future generations may share of its bounty as we do.

We pray for healing in our cities and neighbourhoods,

that you will guide leaders in addressing issues of racism, discrimination, and injustice in our communities, turn hearts from violence, and open pathways that will lead to reconciliation.

We pray for all who have been rejected by their family,

that they may experience your loving acceptance and find a place of welcome and nurture in a faith community.

We pray for all who are in abusive situations,

that you will guide them to freedom and wholeness where they can be healed and renewed.

We pray for the Church,

that we may boldly profess in word and deed that Jesus is Lord and help others to come to know and follow him

We pray for all who follow Jesus,

that Christ will unite us in witnessing to the Gospel, in a better understanding of each other, and in working together in helping those who are suffering.

Copyright © 2023. Joe Milner. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce for personal or parish use.  https://liturgy.slu.edu/21OrdA082723/ideas_other.html 

Lord God, we bring these prayers to you, trusting in your lovingkindness.  To your glory we pray.

The Lord’s Prayer

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.

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing the Hymn ‘I need Thee every hour’ (Alexander’s Hymns No.3 Number 71)

Annie B Hawks and Robert Lowry

Benediction    

‘Strength and courage for the weary,

God’s own hand to guide each day;

This and more are for the asking

When we meditate and pray’

  (Our Daily Bread 21 August 2007) 

And may the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and remain with you always.  Amen.

You are invited to listen to, or join in singing the Benediction Song

“I am His, and He is mine.”  Alexander’s Hymns No. 3 number 193