Service for Sunday 2nd October 2022, which included communion, and was conducted by Mr Geoffrey Webber

Servicing the Bald Hills and nearby Communities

Service for Sunday 2nd October 2022, which included communion, and was conducted by Mr Geoffrey Webber

Welcome:   –

Call to Worship:   –   

Behold the mighty Prince of Peace

His grace and love to all extend;

His power shall evermore increase

And never shall his mercies end,

For they shall flow to Humankind,

His arms of love would all embrace,

May every man and woman find

The power of his all-pardoning grace.

He will the steadfast mind impart

The power that never shall remove,

Make firm in every sinless heart

His throne of everlasting love;

Bring in the Kingdom of his peace,

Fill all our souls with joy unknown,

Establish us in righteousness,

And perfect all of us as one.

  (from Wesley’s Prayers and Praises p83) 

Prayer of Praise  

(Lamentations 3: 21 to 26, 31a & 32, 37 & 38, 40 & 41, 55 to 58, and 5: 19) 

One thing I will remember,

The LORD’s unfailing love and mercy shall continue,

Fresh as the morning, as sure as the Sunrise.

The LORD is all I have, and so in Him I put my hope.

The LORD is good to everyone who trusts in Him,

So it is best for us to wait for Him to act for us with patience.

The LORD is merciful,

He may allow sorrow to come our way, but His love for us is sure and strong.

The will of the LORD alone is always carried out,

Good and evil alike take place at His command.

Let us examine our ways and turn to the LORD,

Let us open our hearts to God in Heaven.

I cried out to you from the depths of despair,

You heard me and you answered me and told me not to be afraid.

You came to my rescue, LORD,

And you saved my life.

You, O LORD, are King forever,

And you will rule to the end of time.  Amen.

We sing 2 Songs:

The first song is ‘Thou will keep him in perfect peace’  Scripture in Song volume 1 number 89

Composer anonymous

The second song is ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God’  Scripture in Song volume 1 Number 96

Karen Lafferty

Prayer of Confession 

(Moira Laidlaw in Liturgies On-line Pentecost 20C,  David Hostetter in Prayers for the Seasons of God’s People Year C p178,  Norman Wallwork in Companion to the Revised Common Lectionary volume 5 p65,  Wesley’s Prayers and Praises p52) 

Merciful God, when we think of your great faithfulness and love, we confess how far we fall short of both.

There are times when we judge others by our standards of faithfulness rather than yours.

We confess that there are times when we believe that our works of faith earn us ‘merit points’ with you.

And there are times when we consider that our faith grows just by speaking words about faith without making that faith evident in and through our lives.

We confess that our busy-ness can so distract us that we let opportunities slip by to plant even the smallest seeds of faith.

Forgive our lack of hope that the future could be better than the past, or that our faithfulness could make some difference.

Forgive us, O God, so that we can uproot any obstacles which may hinder our faithfulness.  Quicken our conscience, enlarge our vision, and increase our faith.

Jesus, Shepherd of the sheep,

Pity my unsettled soul,

Guide and nourish me and keep

Till your love shall make me whole.

In me perfect soundness weave,

Make me steadfastly believe.  Amen.

Assurance of Forgiveness  

(based on Lamentations 3:22; 2 Timothy 1:9,10)  

Through the steadfast love and endless mercy of God, our sins confessed are forgiven, not according to our works, not according to our own righteousness, but according to God’s purpose and grace – His grace revealed through our Saviour, Jesus Christ.  Let us rest assured then of God’s forgiveness upon us.

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

Psalm 137:

1  By the rivers of Babylon we sat down; there we wept when we remembered Zion.

2  On the willows nearby we hung up our harps.

3  Those who captured us told us to sing; they told us to entertain them:

“Sing us a song about Zion.”

4  How can we sing a song to the LORD in a foreign land?

5  May I never be able to play the harp again if I forget you, Jerusalem!

6  May I never be able to sing again if I do not remember you, if I do not think of you as my greatest joy!

Lamentations 1:

1  How lonely lies Jerusalem, once so full of people!  Once honoured by the World, she is now like a widow; the noblest of cities has fallen into slavery.

2  All night long she cries; tears run down her cheeks.  Of all her former friends, not one is left to comfort her.  Her allies have betrayed her and are all against her now.

3  Judah’s people are helpless slaves, forced away from home.  They live in other lands, with no place to call their own – surrounded by enemies, with no way to escape.

4  No one comes to the Temple now to worship on the holy days.  The girls who sang there suffer, and the priests can only groan.  The city gates stand empty, and Zion is in agony.

5  Her enemies succeeded; they hold her in their power.  The LORD has made her suffer for all of her many sins; her children have been captured and taken away.

6  The splendour of Jerusalem is a thing of the past.  Her leaders are like deer that are weak from hunger, whose strength is almost gone as they flee from the hunters.

2 Timothy 1:

1  From Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, sent to proclaim the promised life which we have in union with Christ Jesus.

2  To Timothy, my dear son:

May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy and peace.

3  I give thanks to God, whom I serve with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did.  I thank Him as I remember you always in my prayers night and day.  4  I remember your tears, and I want to see you very much, so that I may be filled with joy.

5  I remember the sincere faith you have, the kind of faith that your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice also had.  I am sure that you have it also.  6  For this reason I remind you to keep alive the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you.

7  For the Spirit that God has given us does not make us timid; instead, His Spirit fills us with power, love and self-control.

8  Do not be ashamed, then, of witnessing for our Lord; neither be ashamed of me, a prisoner for Christ’s sake.  Instead, take your part in suffering for the Good News, as God gives you the strength for it.

9  He saves us and called us to be His own people, not because of what we have done, but because of His own purpose and grace.  He gave us this grace by means of Christ Jesus before the beginning of Time,  10  but now it has been revealed to us through the coming of our Saviour Christ Jesus.  He has ended the power of death and through the Gospel has revealed immortal life.

[Today’s English Version]

This is the Word of God.

Praise to you Almighty God.

Luke 19 and 21:

5  Some of the Disciples were talking about the Temple, how beautiful it looked with its fine stones and the gifts offered to God.  Jesus said:

6  “All this you see – the time will come when not a single stone here will be left in tis place; every one will be thrown down.”

41  Jesus came closer to the city, and when he saw it, he wept over it,  42  saying:

“If you only knew today what is needed for peace!  But now you cannot see it!  43  The time will come when your enemies will surround you with barricades, blockade you, and close in on you from every side.

44  They will completely destroy you and the people within your walls; not a single stone will they leave in its place, because you did not recognise the time when God came to save you!”

[Today’s English Version]

This is the Gospel of our Lord.

Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

We sing Hymn:  ‘Our God to us all extended His plea’  Wesley’s Hymns number 212(amended)

[This hymn is sung to the tune Hanover . The video clip is for ‘O worship the king’ to provide the music for this hymn]

Verse 1 of 3

Our God to us all extended His plea,

In Jesus approved, no goodness have we,

No riches or merit, no wisdom or worth

But all things inherit through Christ’s work on Earth.

Verse 2 of 3

Not many are wise, His summons obey,

And great ones despise so simple a way,

And strong ones will never their helplessness own,

Nor stoop to find favour through mercy alone.

Verse 3 of 3

God’s offer of love we trust and believe,

His mercy unbought we freely receive;

His gracious compassion we gladly embrace,

Rejoice in our blessing, salvation by grace.

Charles Wesley 

Sermon:

Screen 1

  In 1970, ‘The Melodians’, a Jamaican Reggae band, produced a song titled “Rivers of Babylon”.

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By the rivers of Babylon
Where he sat down
And there he wept
When he remembered Zion.

  The song commences with the words:

By the rivers of Babylon
Where he sat down
And there he wept
When he remembered Zion.

Below is a link to a YouTube recording of the song.  The words of their version of the song are listed at the end of the service.

  The song is an adaptation of Psalm 137.  All well and good, you may say, except that the members of the band were Rastafarians, and, by ‘Babylon’, they were portraying the Government of Jamaica, who took a dim view to the Rastafarian’s use of marijuana as a sacrament in their worship services, and had a habit of arresting members of the Rastafarians for doing so.  From the Rastafarian’s point of view, they were living under a source of oppression; at first, the British Government, as Jamaica, during the rise of the Rastafarian movement in 1930s, was still a British colony, and, later, the Jamaican National Government, after its Independence on 6th August 1962. 

  One of the writers of the song, Brent Dowe, the lead singer of ‘The Melodians’, told an interviewer that he had adapted Psalm 137 to the new reggae style because he wanted to increase the Public’s consciousness of the growing Rastafarian movement and its calls for black liberation and social justice.  Their song, “Rivers of Babylon”, is meant to be understood as referring to their living in a repressive society and their longing for freedom, in a similar way to the desire of the Jews while they were experiencing their captivity and exile in Babylon.  The song was initially banned by the Jamaican Government because “its overt Rastafarian references to ‘King Alpha’ and ‘O Far-I’ were considered subversive and potentially inflammatory”, so the account reads.  Leslie Kong, the group’s producer, criticized the Government for banning the song, “arguing that the words of the song were taken almost entirely from the Bible stating that the Psalms had been sung by Jamaican Christians since time immemorial”.  (Stowe, David W. (Spring 2012). “Babylon Revisited: Psalm 137 as American Protest Song”. Black Music Research Journal. 32 (1): 95 and 2008.,  as referenced in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivers_of_Babylon)  Subsequently, the ban was lifted. 

  I would argue that Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton, who, together, wrote the song, adapted not just the words of Psalm 137, but also the context of the Biblical passage, with the result that, in effect, they used Psalm 137 for their own purposes and not for God’s purposes.

  If there could be a bright side to this story, a German band, ‘Boney M’, released their own version of this song in 1978.  In their version, they removed the Rastafarian lyrics and replaced them with the original or paraphrased Biblical words.  It is their version of the song with which we are probably familiar.

  Below is a link to a YouTube recording of the song.  The words of their version of the song are also listed at the end of the service.

  But Psalm 137 should not be viewed as a ‘pop song’ nor as a song calling for social justice and social change.

Screen 3

By the rivers of Babylon (An den Wassern Babylons), a painting by Gebhard Fugel, c. 1920

  It is a plainly a lament; the heading for this psalm in the Good News Bible reads, “A lament of Israelites in Exile”.  Although Boney M’s version has a catchy tune and an upbeat rhythm, the song, in its original form as Psalm 137, is very much a mournful and despondent song.

  The words are the bitter and melancholy memories of the People of Israel as they lived in exile beside the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that flowed around the great city of Babylon, the capital of the Nation of Babylonia, who were their Conquerors and Masters. 

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The Babylonians leading the People of Judah into exile while Jerusalem burns

  Psalm 137 reflects the sufferings of a People who had experienced the humiliation of military defeat at the hands of a foreign army in 587BC, the tragedy of the descendants of their King and other civil and religious leaders being put to death as they watched, the violation of God’s holy Temple and the theft of the riches that it contained, the degradation of being uprooted from their homes and their livelihoods and forcibly marched 700 miles to the east to an unknown future in an unknown land, the arrogant mockery of their Babylonian captors and of their allies, specifically the Edomites, the shocking sight of the utter destruction of their once proud and beautiful city, Jerusalem, and of its magnificent Temple, and the feeling of hopelessness and helplessness associated with their sense of being abandoned by their God, the LORD Almighty, who had promised to be with them and to protect them against just such a happening as they were now experiencing.

  In addition, though God had demonstrated His Lordship in the lands of Israel and Judah, there was great uncertainty among the exiles in Babylon as to whether He could be worshipped “in a strange land where other gods seemed to be in control”  (Bernard Anderson in The Living World of the Old Testament p 419)  .

  And we read:

“we wept when we remembered Zion”  (Psalm 137: 1) 

“on the willows nearby we hung up our harps (we are not motivated and are unwilling to play them)  (Psalm 137: 2)  

“(for) how can we sing to the Lord in a foreign land?”  (Psalm 137: 4) 

  (Artur Weiser in The Psalms p794 to p797, Leslie McCaw & Alec Motyer in Psalms in the New Bible Commentary p535 to 536) 

  The Book of Lamentations similarly refers to the destruction of Jerusalem in 587BC.  One writer notes that Psalm 137 and the Book of Lamentations are annually recited in Synagogues in mid-July on the Festival of Tisha B’Av,  [on the ninth day of the fourth month – refer to Jeremiah 52: 6]  ,which commemorates the destruction of the Temples of Jerusalem; of King Solomon’s temple in 587BC and of the second Temple in 70AD, which had been recently renovated by King Herod.

  Henry Halley describes the Book of Lamentations as “a funeral dirge over the desolation of Jerusalem”.  (Henry Halley in Halley’s Bible Handbook p246)  The heading for today’s passage in chapter 1 in the Good News Bible  reads “The sorrows of Jerusalem”.  Chapter 1 is characterised by feelings of doom, of reference to desolate ruins, and to a sense of national collapse.  (Leo Stephens-Hodge in Lamentations in the New Bible Commentary p660)  Jewish and early Christian traditions attribute the writings to the Prophet Jeremiah, and they certainly reflect the experiences of someone who saw first-hand “the heart-rending calamities which befell Jerusalem at the time of her capture by the Babylonian armies in 587BC”.  (Leo Stephens-Hodge in Lamentations in the New Bible Commentary p660)  In these verses, we find Jeremiah, “stunned, dazed, heartbroken, and weeping with inconsolable grief.”  (Henry Halley in Halley’s Bible Handbook p246) 

  And we read:

“how lonely lies Jerusalem”  (Lamentations 1: 1) 

“Judah’s People are helpless slaves, forced away from home”  (Lamentations 1: 3)  

“Her children have been captured and taken away”  (Lamentations 1: 5) 

“Her enemies succeeded, they hold her in their power”  (Lamentations 1: 5) 

“the splendour of Jerusalem is a thing of the past”  (Lamentations 1: 6) 

  In both Psalm 137 and Lamentations 1 we see a lament of the events that took place in 587BC.  We see a lament of the repercussions of these events; repercussions for God’s People, for God’s city of Jerusalem, and for God’s Temple in Jerusalem; repercussions that can only be described by such adjectives as destruction, desecration, desertion, and desolation.  But where, one may ask, is there a lament for the causes leading up to these events?  Where is the sorrow felt by the People of Judah themselves relating to their behaviour, their actions and their attitudes, that which was lacking which had led to the events in question?  There is nothing in Psalm 137 that mentions any such sorrow.  There is one short phrase in today’s passage from Lamentations 1, for in verse 5 we read, in reference to the People of Judah, “The LORD has made her suffer for all her many sins.”

  So, the situation becomes a little clearer.  The events that took place in 587BC did not arise because God had deserted and abandoned his People on a whim.  The events that took place did not arise to fill a vacuum that was brought about because God suddenly exited the scene in a rejection of the People of Judah, who He had once called “His People”.  No, the events that took place in 587BC were initiated by God as punishment for the People of Judah, a people who He continued to call, “His People”.  

  There are verses in the remainder of Lamentations that mention this, for we read:

“Jerusalem made herself filthy with terrible sin”  (Lamentations 1: 8c)  

“(God) took note of all my sins and tied them all together; He hung them around my neck, and I grew weak beneath the weight”  (Lamentations 1: 14a)  

“Your prophets had nothing to tell you but lies; their preaching deceived you by never exposing your sin.  They made you think you did not need to repent.”  (Lamentations 2: 14)  

“The LORD has finally done what He threatened to do: He has destroyed us without mercy as He warned us long ago”  (Lamentations 2: 17)  

  There is the realisation that “the People of Judah (had) brought the catastrophe upon themselves by their sins.”  (Henry Halley in Halley’s Bible Handbook p247) 

  As one Commentator wrote:

“To the People of Judah, the fall of their city meant more than the loss of their beautiful capital.  It was more than just the destruction of a Nation’s capital city, because Jerusalem was in a very special sense God’s city.  His Temple was there.  This was where He chose to live with His People.  And when Jerusalem was burned, the Temple destroyed, and the People deported, they knew that God had given them up to the enemy.  It could not have happened otherwise.  So, these laments express the writer’s grief, not simply over the suffering and humiliation of His People, but over something deeper and far worse, that God had rejected His People because of their sin.”  (The Lion Handbook p414) 

  “(The People of Judah had) failed to consider the consequences of (their) actions, until it became too late.  Countless warnings (had) gone unheeded, and now (they were) reaping the fruits of (their) iniquity.  (Leo Stephens-Hodge in Lamentations in the New Bible Commentary p660)  The Covenant curses for unfaithfulness towards God, as detailed by Moses in Deuteronomy 28, “(were) now falling upon the People of Judah (as a consequence of) their wilful sins”.  (Gordon McConville in Exploring the Old Testament vol 4  A Guide to the Prophets p77 & 78) 

  But the despair and despondence being experienced by the People of Judah at this time were not to be the finale of their relationship with their God.  The author of Lamentations writes:

“Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing: The LORD’s unfailing love and mercy still continue, .. The LORD is all I have, and so in Him I put my hope.  The LORD is good to everyone who trusts in Him,”  (Lamentations 3: 22 & 24 & 25)  

“The LORD is merciful and will not reject us forever. He may bring us sorrow, but His love for us is sure and strong.”  (Lamentations 3: 31 & 32)  

“The will of the LORD alone is always carried out.  Good and evil alike take place at His command.  Why should we complain when we are punished for our sin?  Let us examine our ways and turn back to the LORD.  Let us open our hearts to God in Heaven and pray, ‘We have sinned and rebelled,”  (Lamentations 3: 37 to 42a)  

“Bring us back to you, LORD!  Bring us back!”  (Lamentations 5: 21) 

Screen 5

God’s unfailing mercy and unconquerable love

  Jeremiah rightly notes that ‘steadfast love’, ‘compassion’ and ‘faithfulness’ are everlasting and “essential traits of God’s character”.  Upon this understanding, he comes to a confident faith that “the present affliction of (God’s People) is not the whole story.”  Though God punishes sin, “He will also have compassion”, He will restore His relationship with His People and He will restore His People to the land that He promised to them so many centuries before.  (Gordon McConville in Exploring the Old Testament volume 4  A Guide to the Prophets p77 & 78)  When all hope dies and all seems lost, there remains the remembrance of God’s unfailing mercy and unconquerable love,  (Leo Stephens-Hodge in Lamentations in the New Bible Commentary p662)  and the knowledge that He is near, such that Jeremiah therefore has the confidence to pray to God for restoration.  (The Lion Handbook p414) 

  Jeremiah recognises that even acts of evil, as had been experienced by the People of Judah at the hands of the Babylonian army, “are subject to the control of God and (have) no independent existence.  God is supreme and can use trouble for beneficial ends.”  (Leo Stephens-Hodge in Lamentations in the New Bible Commentary p662)  Jeremiah encourages the People of Judah “to return to the LORD and to seek reconciliation with Him, to examine themselves in the light of His Commandments (against which they have sinned), and to let the lifting up of their hands to God (in prayer) (be) accompanied by the lifting up of the hearts to God, (such that) their prayers for pardon are true and sincere.”  (Leo Stephens-Hodge in Lamentations in the New Bible Commentary p662)  “God’s tender mercy is in view and in keenly awaited.”  “Only in God is there hope for the stricken People of Judah, and, thus, Jeremiah concludes his pleas to God with “a great longing for reconciliation and renewal.”  (Leo Stephens-Hodge in Lamentations in the New Bible Commentary p662 & 663) 

Screen 6

  We need not go into too much detail, but Jeremiah’s hopes were fulfilled, for at the right time, and according to the will and purpose of God, the People of God were able to return to Judah, to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, to rebuild the Temple, to rebuild their lives, and to rebuild the Nation of Judah as God’s People.  Jeremiah himself foretold that their travails would last for 70 years  (Jeremiah 25: 11 & 29: 10 and Daniel 9: 2)  after which God will “Keep (His) promise to bring (them) back home”.  Ezekiel, in his parable of the Valley of Dry Bones, foretells that God will gather His People from the foreign lands in which they were residing, to “bring them back to the Land of Israel”  (Ezekiel 37: 12)  , to “bring them back to life, and let them live in their own land”.  (Ezekiel 37: 12b & 14a) 

  Isaiah foretells of a powerful King who will come from the north to defeat the Babylonians.  (Isaiah 45: 1 & 13 and 48: 14 & 15)  It is Cyrus, King of Media, who will accomplish the will of God in 538BC, just as Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, accomplished the will of God at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile in 587BC.  It is Cyrus who will allow the exiles in Babylon “to return home”  (Gerhard von Rad in The Message of the Prophets p212)  , so as to initiate the reconciliation and renewal for which Jeremiah so longed.  And we read of exiles returning to Judah, principally in three groups, under the leadership of Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel in 538BC, Ezra in 458BC, and Nehemiah in 445BC.

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“how beautiful the Temple looked”  Luke 21: 5

  We have a short passage in Luke 21: 5 where the Disciples commented to Jesus about “how beautiful (the Temple) looked with its fine stones and gifts offered to God”.  We have a short passage in Acts 2: 46 where we read that the first Christians “met as a group, day after day, to worship in the Temple”.  One writer comments that Jerusalem “did rise from its ruins .. and (the city and the Temple were) rebuilt, and in Jesus’ day (Jerusalem) had again become a great and powerful city, (and, overtly at least, dedicated to the worship of God).  But, they note, Jerusalem “failed to learn its lesson, (and) climaxed its sin by crucifying the Son of God”.  (Henry Halley in Halley’s Bible Handbook p246 & 247) 

  We see the People of Judah continuing to place their trust in their city walls, in their commercial success and economic wealth, and in their own sense of security; of continuing to value, above all else, their fine buildings, their established culture and way of life, and their established learnings and rigid beliefs; and of offering worship to God only with their heads and not with their hearts.  We see the People of Judah failing to heed the call of God to repent, failing to recognise that Jesus was God’s Son, their Messiah, and failing to put their trust and faith in God’s saving work achieved through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

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Paul writing his letters while in prison

“a prisoner for Christ’s sake”  2 Timothy 1: 8 

  We see a parallel between the writings of Jeremiah in Lamentations 3 and Paul’s second letter to Timothy. 

  Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3: 22 of God’s “unfailing love and mercy”.  Paul reminds Timothy that God (has) saved us and (has) called us to be His own People, not because of what we have done, but because of His own purpose and grace.”  (2 Timothy 1: 9a) 

  Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3: 24 that “The LORD is all I have, and so in Him I put my hope.”  Paul assures Timothy that he is “full of confidence” in God  (2 Timothy 1: 12a)  ,that he “(is) sure that (God) is able to keep (him) safe”  (2 Timothy 1: 12c)  , and that it is “through the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives in us”  (2 Timothy 1: 14a)  that God will accomplish His purpose and will.

  Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3: 25 that “The LORD is good to everyone who trusts in Him.”  Paul writes of God saying, “I know whom I have trusted.”  (2 Timothy 1: 12b) 

  Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3: 32 that “God’s love for us is strong and sure.”  Paul reminds Timothy that God “ended the power of death and through the Gospel has revealed immortal life”.  (2 Timothy 1: 10b) 

  Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3: 37, “The will of the LORD alone is always carried out.”  Paul writes that God planned to display His grace through Christ Jesus “before the beginning of Time”.  (2 Timothy 1: 9b)  

  Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3: 40 of “examining our ways and turning back to God.”  Paul encourages Timothy to “hold firmly to the true words that (Paul) had taught (him)  (2 Timothy 1: 13a)  .

  Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3: 41 of how essential it is to “open our hearts to God in Heaven”.  Paul writes of serving God “with a clear conscience”  (2 Timothy 1: 3a)  ,and of remembering “the sincere faith” of Timothy.  (2 Timothy 1: 5a) 

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a call for all people to love and serve God above all else

  God’s call to the World has always been the same.  It has not been altered by date or place or race or politics or culture or world crises or ‘Climate Change’.  It is a call for people to repent of past mistakes and of past disobedience to God.  It is a call for people to come back to a right relationship with God and of right relationships with others.  It is a call for people to serve God alone, and not any other gods, whether they are spiritual or material gods.  It is a call for people to live a life of purity, holiness and righteousness.  That was the desire of Jeremiah for the People of Judah upon their return to Judah after their exile in Babylon.  That was the message of Jesus Christ to the People of God living in Judah and in Galilee.  That was and continues to be the message of God’s Church to the peoples “in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the Earth”  (Acts 1: 8b)  .

  That was the message that Paul strove for Timothy to preach when he wrote:

“do not be ashamed of witnessing .. for our Lord”  (2 Timothy 1: 8a)  , be always ready to “proclaim the Good News”  (2 Timothy 1: 11b)  , hold firmly to the good things (that talk of God’s words of hope for the World) that has been entrusted to you”  (2 timothy 1: 14b)  , (that talk of) “the promised life that we have in union with Christ Jesus”  (2 Timothy 1: 1b)  .  That is the message of assurance and encouragement and challenge that Paul has for us as well.

  The Band, Boney M, concluded their version of the song, “Rivers of Babylon”, by paraphrasing these words from Psalm 19: 14:

“Let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart
Be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my refuge and redeemer.”

  May this be our prayer as we seek to “remain in the faith and love that is ours in union with Christ Jesus.”  (2 Timothy 1: 13b)  Amen.

Offering

Offering Prayer    

“For the life that you have given”  TiS774 

[This hymn is being sung to the tune Austria ]

[This YouTube 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

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

We pray for the Church, that we may be a fruitful garden, producing a harvest rich of justice, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness.

We pray for all who have suffered rejection, that you will heal their wounds, fill them with hope and guide them into the acceptance of a community of faith.

We pray for all religious leaders, that you will free them selfish pursuits and help them recognize that their opportunities and authority are gifts from you for the good of those entrusted to their care.

We pray for a deeper relationship with you, that we may not be satisfied with simply using religious words and gestures but rather make the Gospel the source of all our words and deeds.

We pray for humility, that we may recognize what is truthful, just, honourable, and worthy of praise in ourselves and one another, and further your reign through them.

We pray for all who experience anxiety or live with fear, that your peace that surpasses all understanding may fill their minds and hearts.

We pray for all with mental illness, particularly those with depression, that your healing love will free them and open new possibilities for them.

We pray for all who tend the fields and bring food to our tables, that you will strengthen them and protect them in their labours.

We pray for greater respect for human life, particularly for the unborn, that you will open all hearts to the beauty of the gift of each life.

We pray for all who are struggling financially. that you will calm their fears and guide them to new opportunities to support themselves and to use their gifts.

We pray for all who are recovering from natural disasters, that you will give them the strength to face their challenges, speed the assistance that they need, and fill their hearts with peace.

We pray for better international co-operation, that Nations will join together in addressing the crises that are impacting your creation and work to preserve our common home.

We pray for healing of injustice, that you will help us recognize systemic injustices and give courage to all who are working to change society.

We pray for civility in public life, that public discourse may focus on ideas and programs, and that the election speeches and materials will respect the dignity of each person.

Copyright © 2020. Joe Milner. All rights reserved.<br> Permission is hereby granted to reproduce for personal or parish use.  https://liturgy.slu.edu/27OrdA100420/ideas_other.html

We pray that you will keep the Church faithful to its calling to serve you in the World, and faithful to the teaching in your Word.

We pray for your mercy on those whose work is heavy and brings little reward.  May they experience your provision for their needs.

  (Raymond Chapman in Leading Intercessions P118) 

We pray for the sick and suffering in homes and hospitals, that they will not despair for their health but that they will experience your complete healing and recovery.

  (David Hostetter in Prayers for the Seasons of God’s People Year C P180) 

We pray for the peoples of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Peru.

We are thankful for the distinctive rhythms, music, dance, food and natural medicine in this area; for the beauty of the region, forests, mountains, rivers, lakes, and ocean coastlines, and especially indigenous peoples’ relationship with, and care for, the natural environment; for churches who witness and work both ecumenically and with those of other faiths to build relationships of trust and commitment amid ongoing injustice and oppression; and for the diversity of languages and cultures flourishing in the region despite disruptions that have occurred through colonization, and political and economic turmoil.

We pray for Christians to have the courage, imagination and energy to build bridges of peace and understanding against conflict and division, and to pursue justice for the poor, marginalized and dispossessed; for an end of corruption in all levels of the society, including economic exploitation which impoverishes and hinders economic growth from benefitting all; for immigrants and refugees seeking a new home, and those who accompany and support them; and for an end to drug trafficking, and effective assistance for those who are addicted.

Prayers

A Mapuche* Blessing

God of life, Mother of all, you renew creation.
Bring us peace and justice, ‘balance’ in the Mapuche sense:
balance and harmony for the earth,
balance and harmony for the peoples of the world,
balance and harmony for men and women,
balance and harmony between nature and ourselves and God.

(*Mapuche means ‘people of the earth’. They are the aborigines living in the south of Chile and Argentina. Source: the Mapuche Pastoral Team, Santiago, Chile. From: The website Red de Liturgia, Latin American Council of Churches)

Our Father in heaven, holy is your name.We thank you for the gift of life,
which is renewed every moment with your beauty.
Your mercy, God, confirms your love.
In your hands are our destiny and our life.
All-powerful and merciful God, we pray for the future of Peru,
for the poor who often go hungry,
for the victims of disasters.
Provide them with all they need from you,
with all they require of you.
For the salvation of our souls through the death of your Son,
we thank you,
but we pray for those who are left out,
who do not have a relation with you,
who do not even know of your existence.
Lord, no longer allow human evil to go forward.
Keep corruption, which often touches the life of churches,
from proliferating.
We especially pray for the authorities of Peru,
that they be given the wisdom to plan towards a better future.
We pray for justice because here, too, the rich dominate
while justice is denied to the poor.
Lord, we pray for the leaders of your churches,
give them courage to bear with the poor, and the ignorant,
but also with those educated, who in their hypocrisies scorn your people.
Grant, O Lord, peace in all the world
and an end to war which only destroys and kills.
May the strength of the Holy Spirit dwell in our hearts.
May we live under your refuge and protection.
Bless our families.
Give us your happiness.
Thank you, Lord, for turning your ears towards our requests.
Give us the humility to accept your will.
In your hands we place our future and our livelihood.
Thank you, Lord, for giving us much more than we deserve,
especially for giving us the happiness
of having access to your word.
Receive our adoration and our prayers.
Thank you, Lord, for answering us.

(Victor M. Ascanio Huaringa, Peru, 2005. English transl. Terry MacArthur/WCC)

Prayer for peace and justice in Bolivia

O God, from Bolivian soil,
The Bolivian people implore you to listen to their voice,
feel their sadness and see the tears of your people,
which are also your tears.
So many bodies without any life left
have fallen in the streets,
in the roads and in the fields,
leaving behind pain and sorrow within the Bolivian family.

In those moments in which their hearts are mourning from such suffering,
give them consolation.
Do not allow them to relinquish their self-control,
but give them a vision
so they can see with their own eyes the way they ought to go,
so they can reach life by the path of justice.
Hear, O God, the voices of the multitudes
who march in the streets and highways
crying for justice,
tired of so much misery,
the lack of work, corruption and violence;
tired of so much authoritarianism by the people in power,
who take decisions without consulting the people
and who are guided by their own stingy interests;
tired that the natural resources
that you have given for the well-being of all the people
are once more being used to benefit the economic interests of the large
transnational corporations.

Hear the voice of the Bolivians
and give them discernment and strength
so that they can respond
to hatred with love,
to injustice with righteousness,
to apathy with commitment to their people,
to individualism with solidarity,
to violence with peace.

Hear their voice and inspire within their hearts (and within ours)
the knowledge of peace,
the strength of justice,
the joy of being close to one another.
Guide them to walk with the crowds on the way of peace with the signs of justice.
O God, hear their voice
and grant to them (and us) your eternal peace.

(Gustavo Loza and Mirela Armand Ugon, Cochabamba, Bolivia. © Red de Liturgia y Educación Cristiana CLAI-CELADEC.)

Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Peru | World Council of Churches (oikoumene.org)

We pray your support and guidance for the leaders and helpers at Scripture Union school holiday camps that are finishing this weekend.  We pray that the holy spirit is working in the hearts and minds of the children and youth attending these camps, that they will return home convinced of the need to develop a closer relationship with you and to continue contact  wit their local churches.

We pray for Kylie Conomos, the Chaplain at Bald hills State School, that she will be renewed in energy and enthusiasm as she commences a new School term.

We pray for those whom we have not seen for some time.  May they feel your presence with them each day.  May they know that our thoughts are with them.  Please keep them in good health.

Loving God, we bring these prayers to you, trusting in your compassion and care.  To your glory we pray. Amen

We sing the hymn:  ‘I’m not ashamed to own my Lord’  TiS562  AHB470  MHB485

Isaac Watts

Sacrament of Communion  (following Uniting in Worship 2 p162 to p222) 

The Peace

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

And also with you.

The Invitation

Christ, our Lord, invites to his Table all who love him, all who earnestly repent of their sin and who seek to live in peace with one another.

Prayer of Approach

Lord God, we come to your Table, trusting in your mercy and not in any goodness of our own.  We are not worthy even to gather up the crumbs under your table, but it is your nature always to have mercy, and on that we depend.  So, feed us with the body and blood of Jesus Christ, your son, that we may for ever live in him and he in us. Amen.

Narrative of the Institution of the Lord’s Supper

Hear the words of the institution of this Sacrament as recorded by the Apostle Paul:

  “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body which is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’  In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new Covenant in my blood.  Do this, as often as you drink it, for the remembrance of me.  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.’”  (1 Corinthians 11: 23 to 26) 

  And, so, according to our Saviour’s command, we set this bread and this cup apart for the Holy Supper to which he calls us, and we come to God with our prayers of thanksgiving.

Great Prayer of Thanksgiving

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

With all we are, we give you glory, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the one and holy God, Sovereign of all Time and Space.  We thank you for this wide red land, for its rugged beauty, for its changing seasons, for its diverse people, and for all that lives upon this fragile Planet.  You have called us to be the Church in this place, to give voice to every creature under Heaven.  We rejoice with all that you have made, as we join the company of Heaven in their song:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, Heaven and Earth are full of your glory.  Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed be the One who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest.

We thank you that you called a covenant people to be the light to the Nations.  Through Moses you taught us to love your Law, and, in the Prophets, you cried out for justice.  In the fullness of your mercy, you became one with us in Jesus Christ, who gave himself up for us on the cross.  You make us alive together with him, that we may rejoice in his presence and share his peace.  By water and the Spirit, you open the Kingdom to all who believe, and welcome us to your Table: for by grace we are saved through faith.  With this bread and this cup we do as our Saviour commands: we celebrate the redemption he has won for us.

Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ will come again.

Pour out the Holy Spirit on us and on these gifts of bread and wine, that they may be for us the body and blood of Christ.  Make us one with him, one with each other, and one in ministry in the World, until at last we feast with him in the Kingdom.  Through your Son, Jesus Christ, in your holy Church, all honour and glory are yours, Father Almighty, now and for ever.

Blessing and honour and glory and power are yours for ever and ever.  Amen.

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.

Breaking of the Bread

The bread we break is a sharing in the body of Christ.

The cup we take is a sharing in the blood of Christ.

The gifts of God for the People of God.

Lamb of God

Jesus, Lamb of God,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, bearer of our sins,

Have mercy on us.

Jesus, redeemer of the World,

Grant us peace.

The Distribution

Receive this Holy Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, and feed upon him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving.

(after all have received the bread)

The body of Christ keep you in eternal life.

(after all have received the juice)

The blood of Christ keep you in eternal life.

Prayer after Communion

Blessed be God who calls us together.

Praise to God who makes us one People.

Blessed be God who has forgiven our sins.

Praise to God who gives us hope and freedom.

Blessed be God whose Word is proclaimed.

Praise to God who is revealed as the One who loves.

Blessed be God who alone has called us.

Therefore, we offer to God all that we are and all that we shall become.

Accept, O God, our sacrifice of praise.

Accept our thanks for we have seen the greatness of your love.  Amen.

We sing the hymn:  ‘When the Roll is called up Yonder’  Alexander’s Hymns No.3 number 70

James Black

Benediction 

(Wesley’s Prayers and Praises p96) 

Now Lord, to your almighty hand

The keeping of our hearts we give,

Firm in one mind and spirit stand,

To you and only you we cleave.

Unite and keep your servants one,

In heart and word, as deeds are done,

That as we glorify your name,

We may all speak and think the same.

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

Benediction Song

“Now to him who loves us saves us”  TiS771

(only the one verse is needed)

Now to him who loved us, gave us

Every pledge that love could give,

Freely shed his blood to save us,

Gave his life that we might live,

Be the Kingdom

And dominion

And the glory evermore.

Samuel Miller Waring