Theme: God breaking into the world: –

Call to worship: –

We are called to worship our Lord Jesus, this morning
as the one who removed the greatest barrier between God and us.

We know that the power of the Holy Spirit enables us to tear down artificial and human-made barriers which stop us from living and loving in accordance with His will.

Psalm 100

¹ Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth!
²     Serve the Lord with gladness;
    come before His presence with singing.

³ Know that the Lord, He is God;
    it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
    we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

⁴ Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
    and into His courts with praise;
    be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
⁵ For the Lord is good; His mercy endures forever,
    and His faithfulness to all generations.

Let us pray together. 

Lord, it is so easy to be part of the crowd,
following behind others,
not knowing what is taking place in front.
Give us the power to make our way through the moving throng,
and the courage to touch you,
to receive that life-transforming experience.
But we also ask that you stop and turn around,
and call us by name,
saying those words that make us know
we are completely forgiven and unconditionally loved.  Amen.

TIS 147   To God be the glory – a hymn of magnificent praise  

INTRODUCTION

Crowds tend to be noisy and at times rowdy. It is hard to be heard or seen in a crowd. As in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus was surrounded by noisy crowds wherever he went.  We can imagine the noise.  In the midst of this chaos, a synagogue ruler, Jairus, falls at Jesus feet pleading for Jesus to heal his very sick daughter.  Jesus interrupts his journey to follow Jairus to his house.  Within the chaos that followed a desperate woman, an outsider because of her condition, cries desperately for healing.  Jesus stops.  Jesus listens.  The crowd is silenced and God’s healing touch breaks through.  By the time that Jesus arrives at Jairus’s house, it is announced above the weeping and wailing, that the girl has died.  But God’s healing power breaks through, turning upside down earthly reality.  Against ridicule, Jesus announces that the girl is sleeping.  He speaks the words, “Little Girl, Arise!  Immediately she gets up, walks and the scoffers are astonished.  In the middle of the everyday God breaks through.

As we worship today let us ask ourselves how God breaks through in our everyday lives.

When we stop to think, maybe we also will be astonished to find that God is still alive and active today.

TIS 703          AS THE DEER PANTS FOR THE WATER

As the deer pants for the water
So my soul longs after Thee
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You.

You alone are my strength, my shield
To you alone that my spirit yield
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You.   

Martin Nystrom 1956 –

Prayer of confession:

Let us bow humbly before our Lord and confess our sins against God and our neighbour.  We pray together.

Almighty God,

You love us, but we have not loved you as we ought.

You call but we do not listen or obey.

We walk away from neighbours in need,

and share in the world’s prejudice and greed.

As you come to us in mercy,

may we turn to you in faith and receive forgiveness,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.        Amen

Assurance of forgiveness

As we hear the good news of the Christian Faith.

that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

We are assured and can confidently say.

Our sins are forgiven.

PASSING OF THE PEACE

In that knowledge of our forgiveness, we lift our hands and hearts to each other and those beyond

and we say   Peace be with you.

and we reply And also with you.

TIS 233     I will Sing the Wondrous Story

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

O Lord, our God, you have given your Word to us that it may be a lamp for our feet and a light for our path.  Grant us grace to receive your truth in faith and love, so that we may be obedient to your Will and live always for your glory, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.  Amen.

BIBLE READINGS

2 Corinthians 8:7-15    Modern English Version

⁷ But as you abound in everything—in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love to us—see that you abound in this grace also.

⁸ I say this not as a command, but to prove through the authenticity of others, the sincerity also of your love.  ⁹ For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that through His poverty you might be rich.

¹⁰ And in this matter I give my advice.  It is appropriate for you, who began last year not only to give, but also to willingly give.  ¹¹ Now therefore complete the task, so that, as there was a willingness to do so, there may be a performance of it according to your means.  ¹² For if there is a willing mind first, the gift is accepted according to what a man possesses and not according to what he does not possess.

¹³ I do not mean that other men have relief, and you be burdened, ¹⁴ but for equality, that your abundance now at this time may supply their need, and their abundance may supply your need—that there may be equality.  ¹⁵ As it is written, “He who gathered much had no excess. And he who gathered little had no lack.”^[a]

This is the Word of God.

Praise to you Almighty God.

Mark 5:21-43    Modern English Version

Jairus’ Daughter and the Woman Who Touched Jesus’ Garment

²¹ When Jesus had crossed again by boat to the other side, many people gathered to Him.  And He was beside the sea.  ²² One of the rulers of the synagogue, named Jairus, saw Jesus and came and fell at His feet ²³ and earnestly asked Him, “My little daughter is lying at the point of death.  I ask You, come and lay Your hands on her, so that she may be healed.  And she will live.”  ²⁴ So Jesus went with him.

And many people followed Him and pressed in on Him.  ²⁵ And a certain woman had a haemorrhage for twelve years, ²⁶ and had suffered much under many physicians.  She had spent all that she had, and was not better but rather grew worse.  ²⁷ When she had heard of Jesus, she came in the crowd behind Him and touched His garment.  ²⁸ For she said, “If I may touch His garments, I shall be healed.”  ²⁹ And immediately her haemorrhage dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.

³⁰ At once, Jesus knew within Himself that power had gone out of Him.  He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?”

³¹ His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing against You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”

³² And He looked around to see her who had done it.  ³³ But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came, and fell down before Him and told Him the entire truth.  ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well.  Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

³⁵ While He was still speaking, some came from the house of the synagogue ruler and said, “Your daughter is dead.  Why trouble the Teacher any further?”

³⁶ As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not be afraid, only believe.”

³⁷ He let no one follow Him, except Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.  ³⁸ He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw the tumult, and those who wept and wailed loudly.  ³⁹ When He came in, He said to them, “Why make this uproar and weep?  The girl is not dead, but sleeping.”  ⁴⁰ They laughed at Him in ridicule.

But when He had put them all out, He took the father and the mother of the girl and those who were with Him and entered where the girl was lying.  ⁴¹ He took the girl by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”  ⁴² Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age.  And they were greatly astonished.  ⁴³ He strictly ordered them to let no one know of it and directed them to give her something to eat.

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This is the Gospel of our Lord.

Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

MESSAGE

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14

 

To break into the hard shell of a nut to extract the tasty morsel inside, one must use a nut-cracker.  Walnuts and pecans, the normal type is needed.  That’s fine, but a macadamia, the real Queensland nut, with its spectacularly hard shell, a special screw type or as most kids found a hammer and an indentation in the concrete was the way to go.  Determined bashing the shell with the hammer and a willingness to chase after the bits that went flying:  that was what was needed to find the real gold inside.

Often we use the description that difficult person was a “hard nut to crack.” People often build a hard shell around themselves to protect them from heart break.  A shell so thick that even hammer and concrete cannot break through.

The only thing that can break through is the word of God and the power of the Spirit.

For we read in Hebrews that

For the word of God is alive, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

    There are many examples of God’s power breaking through into humanity and John himself writes at the end of his account that:

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book.^.. But these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.  John 20:30,31

There are also many other things which Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written.  Amen.  John 21: 25

In our Gospel reading from Mark, we find the power of God breaking through to heal broken lives.

The scene is chaotic and noisy with everyone clamouring for Jesus’ attention to meet their needs.  It is out of darkness and despair that springs God’s light of salvation.  We witness God’s love and mercy breaking through.

Crowd follows Jesus.  Jesus is the man.  

In the middle of this chaos Jairus, a synagogue leader, apprehends Jesus “Please come, my little daughter is dying, please lay your hands on her and she will be healed and live.”  Jesus stopped.  Jesus listened.  Jesus went.

The crowd followed and pressed in on him.  Jesus acted.

On the way, an unidentified woman touches Jesus’ cloak.  He realises the power has gone out from him.  He turns and says, “Who touched my clothes?”  The woman trembling with fear, told him her whole story.  She had heard of Jesus and she acted on what she had heard.  Approaching Him, she showed the greatness of her faith, not merely in that she believed that Jesus could heal her, but in that she merely had to grasp the hem of His robe.  That would be sufficient.

Jesus stopped.  Jesus listened.  Jesus spoke.  He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well.  Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

Jesus stopped and listened, pushing aside the oppressive clamour of the crowd, treated this woman with compassion and God’s healing power broke through into her suffering.  We can imagine the silence that surrounded them.  Every single person could see and hear and be a witness to this miracle.  This woman of timid faith became herself a faithful witness. 

Suddenly, some men arrive from Jairus’ house announcing that his daughter was dead saying “Don’t bother the teacher anymore”.  But Jesus said to Jairus “Don’t be afraid. Just believe.”

Jairus’ despair was God’s opportunity.

The crowd was instructed to remain while Jesus pressed on with a few disciples.

As they approached, a new commotion was heard in the house.  Weeping and wailing rent the air, the outcry of mourning.

Jesus’ response was to announce, “The girl is not dead but asleep.”  The scoffers remained outside while a few went in – “talitha koum” said Jesus,  “Little girl. I say to you get up.”  There were no incantations.  Jesus exercised His authority over sickness and death, gave a direct order and God’s healing and resurrection power breaks through.

Jesus stopped.  Jesus listened.  Jesus exercised authority.  Jesus acted in mercy.  The young girl stood up walked around and everyone was astonished.

What can we learn for our living today?

We are blessed, then, in turn, we are to bless. The Holy Spirit enables us to excel in everything: faith, utterance, diligence, love, and as we abound in this, we also can also prove ourselves give willingly, not just financially as suggested in the Corinthians reading, but giving out of our abundance and also a generous spirit, using our God given time and talents to create a space in which the Spirit of God may break through.

As we come closer to God, our generosity becomes not just second nature but the first and evident nature demonstrating all fruits of the Spirit becoming so ingrained in us that we do not even notice when God is working through us.

We can Stop and Listen.  – we may not have the amazing answers and power like Jesus – but we have the power to create a space in which the Holy Spirit can work His miracles amongst us.

Sometimes it may be just a moment in the midst of business or an acknowledgement of another.  Little and serendipity moments.  (The other day I was asked to pick up my grandchildren from the high school.  They were late back from a school band trip, and I had to wait.  I was leaning on the car near the school gate when a young student said hello to me, obviously quite excited about something.  I wasn’t expecting a conversation but, as I replied and started asking him about his day, he quite excitedly told me about how he had just completed his Certificate 2 in Automotive Engineering, had made contacts and was looking for an apprenticeship and how he had bought himself a 1971 Leyland mini.  We had quite a chat until his lift arrived.  This young year 10 student just need someone to tell.

There may be times when we are called again and again to listen. (a little like forgiving 70 times 7)

Jordan Petersen, a clinical psychiatrist and author, comments that the most important thing we can do to help is just to listen and not try to solve the other’s problems.  One patient he worked with took ten years of listening as the patient sorted himself out.  Maybe that is our experience too, even though sometimes in our very boots we don’t want to listen.  Maybe we would rather tell your own story or jump in and provide answers, but by holding our tongue and perhaps nodding in the appropriate way, we allow something special to happen.  In this way the power of God breaks through.  We become less, and God becomes more.  His grace and mercy is able to work through us. 

There may come a time, in the course of conversation that we may be asked about our experience and faith journey, and then it may be appropriate to share our story, remembering that the person we are with is on their own journey.  We will be able to join with Paul as he writes,

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, Romans 1:16

 Let us be generous out of our abundance.

Let us take time to share with others.

Let allow space for genuine conversation to happen.

Let us learn to listen to another’s story.

This may become a touching place where God’s grace and mercy breaks through the hardest nut in the midst of difficult times.

Amen.

TIS 136 THERE’S A WIDENESS IN GOD’S MERCY

OFFERTORY

Oue freewill offering will now be received.

TIS 774 – For the life that you have given

[to be sung to the tune ‘Austria’ – there is no introduction]

[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.     

Carl P Daw Jr 1944 –

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE –

Let us come before God with our cares and our concerns.

Almighty God, we pray for the Church, that the seed of faith planted in the heart of each believer may grow into a bountiful manifestation of your reign in the World.

We pray for a deeper love and appreciation for your Word, that it will nourish and enrich us as we strive to be true disciples of Jesus.

We pray for a renewal of faith, that the Holy Spirit will enable us to live in a trusting reliance with you, who is always faithful and who desires to share life with us.

We pray for growth in hope, that your faithful love will sustain us in times of discouragement and empower us to persevere through difficult times with the confidence that you make all things new.

We pray for a spirit of Evangelization, that we may scatter your Word through our work, daily activities, and conversations so that many people may encounter Christ today.

We pray for a renewal of stewardship, that we may recognize our gifts of time, talent, and treasure that you have entrusted to us and place these at your service and the service of one another.

We pray for the sick, that you will bless and strengthen those preparing for or recovering from surgery, that you will restore them to health, and fill their hearts with peace about their new healing and wholeness.

We pray for all who are in need, that you will give strength to those struggling with addictions, protection to runaway youth and refugees, and comfort to the isolated and the grieving.

We pray for the protection of the human family, that you will strengthen those who are working to defeat the Covid-19 virus, speed resources to those in crisis, and bring healing to all who are sick.

We pray for all levels of our Governments, that you will help them to fulfill their duties, seek the truth and the common good in all the issues that arise, and be open to learning from one another.

We pray for safety and protection for those responsible for safeguarding our personal, medical, and public data to greater awareness and insight as they work against destructive internet attacks and ransomware intrusions.

We pray for peace, that you will help World leaders to dialogue honestly so that violence may end, the weak, and innocent may be protected, and that the dignity of each person may be respected.

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.

CONCLUSION –

This morning we engaged in worship of our Lord Jesus, as the one who removed the greatest barrier between God and us.
We know that the power of the Holy Spirit enables us to tear down artificial and human-made barriers which stop us from living and loving in accordance with His will.

It is the power of God, like a two-edged sword, which cuts through into our very soul and makes the changes we cannot, in order that we my share His love with all we meet.  May we, in the strength of the Holy Spirit, cut through busy lives and create moments of time to allow, through our actions and conversations, the power of the Lord to work His miracles in all the people we meet in the serendipity of life.

VIDEO – BE THOU MY VISION

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TascsWZPj8U

Sit back, relax and enjoy.  Knowing that millions all over the world worship the Lord, our God today.  Be encouraged.

Psalm 139

1. Where shall I go from your Spirit?
       Or where shall 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 dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
   ¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
       and your right hand shall hold me.

Join with me to say

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

  Traditional

TIS 161     TELL OUT MY SOUL

BENEDICTION

Lord, as we head into a new week,
help us to be people who choose to stand out from the crowd,
rather than simply to follow it.
By the power of your Spirit,
help us to also step out of our comfort zones,
and give us the courage to challenge barriers
that confine or constrain or control us.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.

Benediction Song: SIS 72 Now Unto Him

Now unto Him who is able to keep, able to keep you from falling,

And present you faultless before the presence of His glory

With exceeding joy.

To the only wise God our Saviour Be glory and majesty,

Dominion and power both now and forever.   Amen