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 PSALM 13
[To the leader. A Psalm of David.]
1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me for ever?
HOW LONG WILL YOU HIDE YOUR FACE FROM ME?
2 How long must I bear pain in my soul,
AND HAVE SORROW IN MY HEART ALL DAY LONG?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 CONSIDER AND ANSWER ME, O LORD MY GOD!
GIVE LIGHT TO MY EYES,
OR I WILL SLEEP THE SLEEP OF DEATH,
4 and my enemy will say, ‘I have prevailed’;
my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
5 BUT I TRUSTED IN YOUR STEADFAST LOVE;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I WILL SING TO THE LORD,
BECAUSE HE HAS DEALT BOUNTIFULLY WITH ME.
We Sing: TIS 217 LOVE DIVINE, ALL LOVES EXCELLING
Prayer
Holy and present God,
we come to acknowledge who you are,
and to accept your claim on us;
keep our eyes open to creation’s witness
to your sustaining presence;
strengthen our will to focus on you and Jesus who brings to us
your truth, your way and your life;
alert us to the cadences of your Spirit
as you guide us into your future for us,
your will fulfilled within creation and humanity.
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
Prayer for Understanding
God of grace and mercy,
you invite us to heed your word
as preserved by your ancient people,
revealed through Jesus Christ,
and interpreted through your Spirit;
We gather in response,
and offer you this time and our focus!
Show us what you would have us know,
and strengthen our resolve
to live according to our understanding, AMEN
Scripture
JOB 38:1-21
38 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
2 ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Gird up your loins like a man,
I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
4 ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?
8 ‘Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb?—
9 when I made the clouds its garment,
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10 and prescribed bounds for it,
and set bars and doors,
11 and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stopped”?
12 ‘Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
13 so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
14 It is changed like clay under the seal,
and it is dyed like a garment.
15 Light is withheld from the wicked,
and their uplifted arm is broken.
16 ‘Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.
19 ‘Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
and where is the place of darkness,
20 that you may take it to its territory
and that you may discern the paths to its home?
21 Surely you know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great!
ROMANS 1:16-32
16 I have complete confidence in the gospel; it is God’s power to save all who believe, first the Jews and also the Gentiles. 17 For the gospel reveals how God puts people right with himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. As the scripture says, “The person who is put right with God through faith shall live.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; 21 for though they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools; 23 and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. 29 They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters,[f] insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious towards parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 They know God’s decree, that those who practise such things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practise them.
In this is the Word of the Lord
WE HEAR AND REJOICE, O LORD
MATTHEW 10:40-42
40 ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because they are my disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’
This is the Gospel of our Lord
PRAISE TO YOU LORD JESUS CHRIST
Prayer of Confession
Creator God,
whose grandeur and power humble us
as we think of the vastness of the cosmos
and the minuteness of life forms within and around us;
we confess nevertheless,
to turning our science, technology, philosophy, political ideologies,
economic theories, theology even,
into idols in which we put our trust,
rather than you!
Lord have mercy LORD HAVE MERCY
Saving God,
who as Jesus of Nazareth became one of us,
enduring all that life can throw at us,
even suffering death at our hands;
we confess how quickly we accuse you of not caring
for humanity’s pain
forgetting the pain humanity thrusts on you!
Christ have mercy CHRIST HAVE MERCY
Renewing God,
who as Holy Spirit blows where you will,
enlivens who and what you will;
we confess to preferring the temporary comfort
and false security of the familiar
to the new life you invite us into.
Lord have mercy LORD HAVE MERCY
Words of Reconciliation
8 God proves his love for us
in that while we still were sinners,
Christ died for us…
in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,
not counting their trespasses against them.
Declaration of Reconciliation
In Christ we are forgiven
therefore we say with utter trust 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 447 LORD, YOUR ALMIGHTY WORD
Contemporary Word
LIVING WITHIN THE WRATH OF GOD
I began to read the book review
attracted by the title of the book being reviewed.
Then I realized the book was not what I imagined it to be.
However the reviewer had me hooked, so I finished the article.
Then I immediately bought the book through, of course, Amazon;
Kindle version, therefore instant gratification!
I am reading it, not so much enjoying it, as appreciating it!
Oh, the book’s title? A CHILDREN’S BIBLE: A NOVEL by Lydia Millet[1].
Now you know why I got sucked into reading
the review by Amy Peterson[2]
I read the phrase A CHILDREN’S BIBLE
and clicked onto the review link instantly,
the rest, A NOVEL, not even registering!
Lydia Millet’s novel takes its title from A Children’s Bible youngsters,
who are friends, find in a holiday rental which their families share.
Their holiday is disrupted by natural disaster…
I am only a bit into the story,
but this is how Amy Peterson describes the adults’ reaction:
When the storm hits, the parents,
afraid to leave and lose the security deposit on the rental,
make a short-lived attempt to secure the house.
When they can’t keep the water from flooding in,
they give up, dosing themselves with ecstasy, alcohol, and sex.
That connected me to the Romans text (1:16-32) for this Sunday.
The connection was reinforced when I began to realise that Jack,
one of the younger of the children
used the stories in A Children’s Bible lying around the place,
to guide him through the hurricane and its consequences.
Please note, though, this is not a book for young children!
Having read, or heard, the text from Romans only a moment ago,
maybe you also picked up its references to:
lusts of their hearts to impurity;
to the degrading of their bodies among themselves;
degrading passions (1:24,26)
an imagerymore or less paralleling
dosing themselves with ecstasy, alcohol, and sex.
Most of us recall Paul’s critique of the sexual excesses of his time!
Just as most of us ignore the rest
of the list of ungodly behaviours
with which Paul describes the human condition of his time…
and all times.
Not surprisingly, really.
I remember when fires and drought ravished our country,
and some preachers claimed this was God’s judgment on us
because Australia had legalized same-sex marriage.
As if that was more of an abomination to God’s standards
than the way we had been treating, and still treat, Asylum seekers,
(note here Rom. 1:31 heartless and ruthless)
or, until recently, starved job seekers
through providing a pittance of an allowance…
there is still no surety yet
that the current allowance will be maintained after September.
Yes, scripture uses the word ‘abomination’
to describe forbidden sexual practices in Leviticus 18.
It also in Leviticus 20 uses the word to describe eating unclean animals;
in Proverbs 6 we read:
There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that hurry to run to evil,
19 a lying witness who testifies falsely,
and one who sows discord in a family.
Paul’s list of ungodly behaviours echoes,
and expands on, what is recorded in Proverbs.
The bush fires now forgotten,
the current Covid-19 virus pandemic also stirs up questions
to do with God:
is this God’s judgment on an immoral global society?
or, how could a caring God allow this suffering!?
Is this a sign of an unfolding divinely driven apocalyptic finale
for humanity and our world?
Better minds than mine have applied themselves to these questions.
Fortunately we have a public broadcasting entity,
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation,
through which thoughtful persons can articulate their wisdom,
including theologians and scientists[3].
For this morning, to begin with,
I want to draw our attention to what Paul is actually saying here!
Paul has made a significant switch!
Another complete turn-around.
I remind us of how we have already been startled
by Paul’s topsy-turvy teaching so far:
Firstly, Paul preached that a crucified man, Jesus,
is resurrected because he is in fact God…
This was totally counter-intuitive to the Roman mind,
who thought only the most powerful person could achieve
elevation to divinity.
Being crucified was the complete and total opposite to being powerful.
Secondly, Paul argues for a God who does not have to be appeased,
a God who is not angry, nor capricious…
unlike the divinities within the Greek and Roman Parthenon,
but a God who, in Jesus, acting out of love,
initiates reconciliation between God and humanity.
Thirdly, God reframes the meaning of righteousness/justice
when God in Jesus, makes right, whatever and whoever, is wrong.
And now again, for a fourth time, Paul turns settled thinking on its head!
We read (a lengthy repetition of the text):
18 For the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrightousness of those
who by their unrightousness suppress the truth.
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them,
because God has shown it to them.
20 Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are,
have been understood and seen through the things he has made.
So they are without excuse;
21 for though they knew God,
they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him,
but they became futile in their thinking,
and their senseless minds were darkened.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools;
23 and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for images resembling a mortal human being
or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them up
a sentenced repeated in verse 26
For this reason God gave them up…
and repeated in verse 28
God gave them up
Paul’s description of the wrath of God
focusses not on specific immoral and anti-social behaviours
which result in the wrath of God….
what brings on the wrath of God instead,
is, denying God, ignoring God as creator,
replacing the devotion and loyalty due the Creator,
to constructs of mere creatures, human and animal…
they exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.
Therefore God gave them up…
they exchanged the truth about God
for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions…
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
God gave them up
God’s response of wrath,
allows the flourishing of consequences
of a God minimizing life,
a God ignoring life,
a God belittling life,
to bear fruit…
to develop the mind sets and behaviours
which thwart God’s desire for humanity fully alive!
The wrath of God is not to be understood
as somehow an unbelievably magnified human emotion such as anger.
But though the Wrath of God (orgē theou)
is not to be regarded as bad temper,
we must not blind ourselves to the fact
that for Paul it was a very serious thing.
It is happening now,
this revelation of God’s wrath…
just as the salvation of God is active within the believer’s life,
within the community and even within creation (Romans 8).
It might also well reach its culmination
in the way Paul describes this theme in chapter 2,
5 But by your hard and impenitent heart
you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath,
when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.[4]
Nevertheless, wrath is not the final word.
Even though Paul expects further enactments of wrath to take place
in the very near future,
the ultimate purpose of God
is that all people, and creation, will be saved
(5:18; 8:19-22, 11:26, 32; 14:9) for example:
8 But God proves his love for us
in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood,
will we be saved through him from the wrath of God
which proves to be the very purpose of the Gospel Paul preached.[5]
We do well to note,
as we did in our prayer of confession,
that the signs of an ungodly, unrighteous people
as listed by Paul
include behaviours we all indulge in!
These verses lay bare
“not only the idolatry of ancient and modern paganism
but also the idolatry ensconced in Israel,
in the Church, and in the life of each believer”.[6]
Some commentators see a downwards slippery slide
in Paul’s list;
beginning with a lack of love for God,
the unjust/unrighteous person reaches his or her lowest point
with character traits the very opposite of God:
without faithfulness, without heart, without mercy,
mind sets which argue it is folly to love neighbour…
Jesus’ summation of the law is abrogated…
neither love of God, nor love of neighbour
survives in a culture
which has given up on God…
a mindset which infects humanity and creation
spreading like a cancer in a healthy body…
an anti-God fixation
which spreads like weeds taking over a garden.
God created humans to bear the divine image within the creation
and called Israel to shine the divine light into the dark world.
Faced with human rebellion and faithlessness,
will God abandon these projects?
In the opening chapters of Romans
Paul repeatedly emphasizes that God will remain faithful,
though he does not yet explain how—
The revelation of wrath
18 For the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrightousness
is itself, however paradoxically,
part of the good news[7].
It has been very common to think of a day of wrath
as a day of destruction,
much paralleled with thinking of judgment
merely in terms of condemnation.
The word “apocalyptic” in popular use
has been almost reduced to these ideas.
But the real meaning of “apocalypse” is “revelation,”
as in ‘the righteousness of God revealed’ in v. 17 and
the wrath of God is being revealed in v. 18;
where the verbal form of apocalypse is used;
so the appropriate question to ask
is not when and how the world’s destruction will take place
but rather what will be revealed?
If the day of wrath is a full revelation of God’s
dealings against ungodliness
then it most likely will look very different
from how it has been popularly conceived.[8]
Mind you, Paul gives us a few more topsy-turvy concepts
to prepare us for the unexpected!
To return now to the issue of God and the Covid-19 pandemic
mentioned at the start of this message;
Paul lists the behaviours of the ungodly,
left by God to indulge as they will.
He describes the resultant distorted personal and societal relationships.
Whilst aware of similar discord within creation (8:19ff)
Paul, not knowing what we know now
about the effect of human behaviour
driven by an ungodly paradigm
of consumerism, consumption and acquisition
on a fragile creation,
does not progress into describing the consequences
of ungodly global economics
and abuse of the environment.
Within these macro-spheres
humanity has also chosen to serve the creature,
rather than the Creator;
God here, as in the more personal aspects of life,
has allowed the consequences of godless mindsets
to surface…
These include climate and other environmental disturbances
with resulting distortions within nature and to nature!
Whilst we may know much more than Job
about the cosmos, nature and its creatures
and the interminable and fragile connections
between all living, the divinely ordained web of life;
we seem to live as though we know less!
For example:
New evidence has emerged of a link
between human exploitation of nature and pandemics.
Close contact with wild animals through hunting, trade or habitat loss
puts the world at increased risk of outbreaks of new diseases.
Coronavirus is thought to have originated in bats,
with other wild animals, possibly pangolins, playing a role in transmission to humans.
“As natural habitat is diminished, wildlife come into closer contact with people,” Dr Christine Johnson of the University of California, Davis, US,
told BBC News, “Wildlife also shift their distributions to accommodate anthropogenic activities and modification of the natural landscape.
This has hastened disease emergence from wildlife,
which put us at risk of pandemics
because we are all globally connected through travel and trade.”[9]
Rather than pointing the finger at God
and merely urging God to fix matters,
hopefully humanity through international and national leadership
will re-examine ungodly but cherished economic paradigms
which effectively destroy sustainability
threatening the survival of all species, including humanity!
Reminding us that apocalypse means revelation,
two theologians, Catherine Keller and John J. Thatamanil,
challenge Christians who get excited
thinking the Apocalypse as destruction and judgment
is about to arrive,
with the following:
When the term is understood as “unveiling,”
we can then ask the right questions:
What does this pandemic unveil?
What have we refused to see about ourselves
and the precarious world we’ve built,
a world that now stands exposed
and tottering in the harsh light of this unasked-for revelation?
If we permit this crisis to expose the fissures of our failing world,
this pandemic will have served as properly apocalyptic.
If instead, despite its devastating toll,
we return to an obsolete and unsustainable world,
nothing meaningful will have been revealed.[10]
If the normal we return to
when the all-clear is sounded concerning Covid-19,
is merely a return to pre-pandemic mind sets
than society, in the analysis put before us by Paul,
will continue to live within the milieu of the wrath of God,
having life interrupted by the flow-on consequences
of ungodly and unjust expectations for ourselves–
expectations which ignore God’s directives
and which perpetuate global injustices.
Yet, there is still God…. the One true God
who provides more than A CHILDREN’S BIBLE
to guide us through life,
indeed we are gifted the living Word;
who offers us the Spirit of wisdom and discernment
to guide us through this pandemic storm and all life’s storms;
who renews to sustain what is God’s purpose;
a God who has revealed divine righteousness/justice
as an act of love
and calls us to live in the milieu of the obedience of faith
in grateful celebration of the God
in whom we can place our total trust!
WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD
We Sing: TIS 129 AMAZING GRACE
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
Creator God, both beyond and within us
as you urge reconciliation between yourself and all you have made;
through Jesus Christ you acted towards us in love,
and with your Holy Spirit you seek to renew
all who are and all that is through your active salvation,
Lord hear us LORD HEAR US
We ask that you will stir humanity to save itself and your planet
through living responsibly as your stewards,
those to whom you have entrusted everything
even as you stamped us with your image.
Lord hear us LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER
We pray still for everyone struck down with this virus;
as we pray for those who care for them.
Grant them your strength and peace
Lord hear us LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER
We are mindful, O Lord, of those who remain isolated,
encourage us to maintain fellowship with each other,
that we might continue to encourage and affirm all,
and find that for ourselves from others.
Lord hear us LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER
In the name of Jesus we pray, AMEN
WE GO OUT TO SERVE GOD
We Sing: We Sing: TIS 606 SON OF GOD, ETERNAL SAVIOUR
Sending Out
Go into this week
looking beyond yourself
to wonder with awe at God’s creation;
looking within yourself
to recognise God’s salvation
bringing transformation and renewal;
looking around yourself
to discern the Spirit of God
in care received and offered.
Blessing
The grace of the One
who offers the cup of salvation,
the love of the One who welcomes all,
the communion of the One
who rewards like with like,
bless and sustain you all your days and beyond!
AMEN
[1] https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07ZTTH5VD/ref=pe_1007802_166382322_TEM1DP
[2] Lydia Millet’s A Children’s Bible is a believable climate fable Christian Century 24th June 24, 2020
[3] Australian contributions include the following two (once accessed, the ABC site offers more articles for reading)
I can provide printed copies of the following to anyone without internet access, just get in touch…
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/coronavirus-creation-and-the-creator-biblical-faith-and-problem/12200508 https://www.abc.net.au/religion/coronavirus-the-judgment-of-god-and-spiritual-opportunity/12225334
[4] Next week we explore chapter 2 more fully
[5] Jewett, R., & Kotansky, R. D. (2006). Romans: A commentary. (E. J. Epp, Ed.) (pp. 150–151). Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
[6] Cranfield, C. E. B. On Romans and Other New Testament Essays. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1998
[7] Wright, N. T. (1994–2004). The Letter of the Romans. In L. E. Keck (Ed.), New Interpreter’s Bible (Vol. 10, p. 428). Nashville: Abingdon Press.
[8] Lancaster, S. H. (2015). Romans. (A. P. Pauw & W. C. Placher, Eds.) (First edition, p. 41). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
[9] https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52204724
if interested, see also https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52775386 and other links there.
[10] https://www.abc.net.au/religion/catherine-keller-and-john-thatamanil-why-we-hope-this-is-an-apo/12151922
Prayers for Christmas Day, 25th December 2021, conducted by Mr Geoffrey Webber 
Service for Sunday 1st May 2022, including Communion, conducted by Mr Geoffrey Webber 
Service for Sunday 10th April 2022, Palm Sunday, conducted by Mrs Jillian Ross 
Service for Sunday 19th February 2023, which was conducted by Mr Ian Kerr 
