Call to Worship: –

(Psalm 71: 5 to 8) 

Sovereign LORD, I put my hope in you; I have trusted in you since I was young.

I have relied on you all my life; you have protected me since the day I was born.  I will always praise you.

My life has been an example to many, because you have been my strong defender.

All day long I praise you and proclaim your glory.

Comment on Psalm 71: –

These words are an acclamation by someone who has experienced God’s grace throughout their life, who acknowledges with praise to God that this was not something that they deserved but that it has come simply because of God’s love for them.  They state with confidence their trust in God’s unfailing love to continue to bless them in the future. 

The writer acknowledges that their life has been an example to others.  “How (they) react to trouble now, and how God deals with (them), will be seen (by others) as a revelation of what God is like and can do.”  (Leslie McCaw and Alec Motyer in Psalms in The New Bible Commentary p495).., “a portent or sign of God’s power and providential care.”  (John Walton, Victor Matthews and Mark Chavalas in Psalms in The IVP bible Background Commentary on the Old Testament p539) 

To the writer, God is “a source of trust and hope, and also a means of orientation which enables them to see the ultimate meaning of their life and how it all hangs together.”  It is this understanding that promotes in them the urge to continually praise God and to make that the priority in their life.  (Artur Weiser in The Psalms p498) 

May this be our approach as we gather for worship today to offer our worship to God.

Prayer of Praise    

Bounteous God, we give thanks for this ancient and beautiful land of ours,
A land of despair and hope,
A land of wealth and abundant harvests,
A land of fire, drought and flood.
We pray that your Holy Spirit may continue to move in this land
and bring forgiveness, reconciliation, and an end to all injustice.
We bless you, God of the Universe, for this land,
for its contrasts of landscape and climate,
for its abundance of wealth and opportunity.
We bless you for our history,
with all its struggles in adversity,
its courage and hope.
Give us, in our diversity,
tolerance and respect for each other,
and a passionate commitment to justice for all.
Bless us so that we might be a blessing to others.

[https://www.defenceanglicans.org.au/resources/events/australia-day-26-january/]

God, Great Creator,
From the dawn of Creation you have given your children
the good things of our Earth.

You spoke and the gum tree grew.
In vast deserts and dense forest,
and in cities at the water’s edge,
Creation sings your praise.

Your presence endures
as the rock at the heart of our Land.

When Jesus hung on the tree
you heard the cries of your people
and became one with your wounded ones:
the convicts, the hunted, and the dispossessed.

The sunrise of your Son coloured the earth anew
and bathed it in glorious hope.

In Jesus we have been reconciled to you,
to each other and to your whole Creation.

Lead us on, great and glorious God,
as we gather from the four corners of the Earth.
Enable us to walk together in trust,
from the hurt and shame of the past
Into the full day which has dawned in Jesus Christ.

To your glory and honour we pray.  Amen.

  Rev Lenore Parker, NATSIAC Life Member, A Prayer Book for Australia p.218

We sing the Hymn ‘In the name of Jesus’  Scripture in Song Volume 1 No 187[the verse is sung three times]

Composer Unknown

We sing ‘Our God Reigns’ (How lovely on the Mountains)  Scripture in Song Volume 1 No 201

Leonard Smith

Prayer of Confession   

God our Creator and Healer
We confess that we have sinned:
We have used creation not cherished it;
We have lived selfishly; not watched the balance of life;
We have been greedy – not sharing Earth’s gifts;
And our footprints are heavy not gentle.
Forgive us the damage that disturbs our planet.
Grant to us to live for the World’s healing and our own.
In you lies our hope for transformation

(https://www.arrcc.org.au/reflect-prayers-christian)

Jesus,
The one fully engaged in life
Forgive us for our ‘whatever’ attitude.
Forgive our nonchalance in the face of your call.
Forgive the indifference we show in regards to the suffering and life needs of others.
Forgive our apathy to join wholeheartedly in your work for justice and the common good.
Forgive our hesitancy in giving more of ourselves in loving service to people who need it from us.
Forgive our fear of really following you which we mask with false confidence in doctrine and surface spirituality.
Forgive our attempts to defer guilt from not truly living out your way through Sunday religion and weekly religiosity.
A silence is kept
Awaken real faith in us again.
Startle us anew with the power of your love.
Engage us once again in your work of love and grace.
Call us back to the transformative power of loving service and faithful witness to you,
That we might know that you are in our lives, and the lives of all people,
Working for good no matter whatever we do.
But calling us to do whatever we can to work with you
To do whatever is needed for the good of all
Whatever the cost.
Whatever can be,
We pray.
(Source: Jon Humphries, Transforming Worship Facebook page, Uniting Church in Australia)

I sometimes forget
that I was created for Joy.
My mind is too busy.
My Heart is too heavy
for me to remember
that I have been
called to dance
the Sacred dance of life.
I was created to smile
To Love
To be lifted up
And to lift others up.
O’ Sacred One
Untangle my feet
from all that ensnares.
Free my soul.
That we might Dance
and that our dancing
might be contagious.

(~Hafiz)

Christ, Lover of our struggles,
Embodiment of care and compassion.
Help me step up to the threshold of my hurt, disappointment, guilt or pain.
May it be the boundary of my growth into betterment,
That when I step into it I might discover strength and support in faith,
A gift for myself, from you and from others.
May my future be on the other side of my failure.
May failure simply enhance the story of my life,
Bringing an epic plot twist
And adding to the narrative of my growth and development.
May my faith not make things easier,
But resource me in the struggle and suffering which comes.
May I not seek greater comfort ,
But, rather, may my faith make me stronger in the midst of my struggles.
Ambitiously I pray. 
(Source: Jon Humphries, Facebook post, October 2019)

In the stopping, in the pausing, in the quiet,
we cannot avoid what we are not:
Our faults, our lack of faith,
our lack of vision and of action,
our lack of trust – all bubble to the surface.
You, Loving God, see who we are
and still stand by us – offering us hope
and above all, forgiveness. 

Amen.

(https://pilgrimwr.unitingchurch.org.au/?p=400)

Assurance of Forgiveness 

(from 1 Peter 1: 3) 

The Apostle Peter reminds us that, because of God’s great mercy, He has given us new life by raising Jesus from death, filling us with living hope and keeping us safe by His power.  Having confessed our sins before God, we have the assurance then that God has heard our prayers, that our sins have been forgiven and our lives made clean in God’s sight.

Thanks be to God.

Prayer of illumination 

(from Uniting in Worship Book 1 number 12 p599) 

  Prepare our hearts, O Lord, to receive your Word.  Silence in us any voice but your own.  In hearing these words may we perceive new truths that you seek to teach us, and may we perceive your will that you seek for us to follow, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Bible Readings

Jeremiah 1:

⁴  The word of the LORD came to me:  ⁵  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you  for my own; before you were born I consecrated you, I appointed you as a Prophet to the Nations.”  ⁶  “Ay, Lord god.” I answered, “I do not know how to speak, I am only a child.”

  ⁷  But the LORD said, “do not call yourself a child, for you shall go to whatever people I send you and say whatever I tell you to say.  ⁸  Fear none of them, for I am with you and will keep you safe.”  This was the very word of the LORD.

⁹  Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and said to me, “I put my words into your mouth.  ¹⁰  This day I give you authority over Nations and over Kingdoms, to pull down and to uproot, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant.”

1 Corinthians 13:

¹  I may be able to speak the languages of people and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell.  ²  I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all faith needed to move mountains – but if I have no love, I am nothing.  ³  I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned, but if I have no love, this does me no good.

⁴  Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud;  ⁵  love is lot ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs;  ⁶  love is not happy with evil, but happy with the truth.  ⁷  Love never gives up; and faith, hope and patience never fail.

⁸  Love is eternal.  There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass.  ⁹  For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial;  10  but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear.

¹¹  When I was a child, my speech, feelings and thinking were all those of a child; now that I am a man, I have no more use for childish ways.  ¹²  what we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face.  What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete – as complete as God’s knowledge of me.

¹³  Meanwhile, these three remain: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love.

[Today’s English Version, New English Bible]

This is the Word of God.

Praise to you Almighty God.

Luke 4:

²⁰  Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.  All the people in the Synagogue had their eyes fixed on him  ²¹  as he said to them, “This passage of Scripture has come true today, as you heard it being read.”

²²  They were all well impressed with him and marvelled at the eloquent words that he spoke.  They said, “Isn’t he the son of Joseph?”

²³  He said to them, “I am sure that you will quote this proverb to me, ‘Doctor, heal yourself.’  You will also tell me to do here in my hometown the same things you heard were done in Capernaum. 

²⁴  I tell you this,” Jesus added, “a prophet is never welcomed in his hometown.  ²⁵  Listen to me: it is true that there were many widows in Israel during the time of Elijah, when there was no rain for three and a half years and a severe famine spread throughout the whole land.  ²⁶  Yet Elijah was not sent to anyone in Israel, but only to a widow living in Zarephath in the territory of Sidon.  ²⁷  And there were many people suffering from a dreaded skin disease who lived in Israel during the time of the Prophet Elisha; yet not one of them was healed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸  When the people in the Synagogue heard this, they were filled with anger.  ²⁹  They rose up, dragged Jesus out of town, and took him to the top of the  hill on which the town was built.  They meant to throw him over the cliff,  ³⁰  but he walked through the middle of the crowd and went his way.

[Today’s English Version]

This is the Gospel of our Lord.

Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

Passing the Peace

  Whether we gather for worship in the Church building on Sunday morning, or whether we offer our worship in the ‘digital sphere’, it is important to recognise that, together, we remain one in Christ Jesus, we remain one in fellowship, and we remain one in worship of our God.  With that thought in mind, let us uplift our hands and greet those both here and those in their homes: May the peace of God be with you all.

  And also with you.

We sing the Hymn ‘Fill thou my life O Lord my God’  AHB515  MHB604  TiS596[sung to the tune Richmond)

Horatius Bonar

Sermon

There was an ad on TV for Uncle Toby’s Oats, where we see a mother and a daughter in their kitchen.  The mother recounts how the daughter’s favourite band was one she listened to in her youth, and that her daughter’s favourite style of dress was one the mother had also worn in her youth.  Then we see the daughter advocating the benefits of eating Uncle Toby’s Oats, exactly as the mother had been doing for many years.  The ad finishes with the mother saying, with some sarcasm, “Ah, the wisdom of youth.”.

    Wisdom is something that is valued by most people in today’s society.  From a review of recent events, the only people who seem to act without a regard for demonstrating wisdom in their decisions and actions appear to be politicians and sportsmen.  Wisdom has been described as “the quality that keeps you from getting into situations where you need it”  (Christian D Larson in Quotable Quotes p25)  .  Elbert Hubbard, an American writer, states that “every man is a fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists of not exceeding the limit”  (Pocket Positives p319)  .

    Wisdom is generally seen as accumulating through age and experience.  Marcel Proust, a French writer and critic, once said that “we don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us”  (Enduring Words for the Teacher)  .  It has also been said that “wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk”  (Christian D Larson in Quotable Quotes p24)  .

    Youth, on the other hand, have not been looked on favourably in the recent media nor in literature.  Media coverage of “Schoolies Week” on the Gold Coast or the nightclub scene in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane clearly illustrate that youths are not the ones who are likely to demonstrate self control nor to exercise a temperate lifestyle.  Robert Benson, an English novelist, goes so far as to say that “Youth is a disease that must be borne with patiently!  Time, indeed, will cure it.”  (Pocket Positives p320)  .

    The generally held view about wisdom being gained through age and experience seems to be supported by the Bible.  In the Book of Proverbs we read “Here are proverbs that will help you recognise wisdom and good advice, … They can make an inexperienced person clever and teach young people how to be resourceful.  These proverbs can even add to the knowledge of wise men and women and give guidance to the educated,”  (Proverbs 1: 2a, 4 and 5)  .

    Trouble, though, seems to arise when young people are given the task of leadership over others who are older than they are, of telling their elders what to do.  This appears to contradict this commonly held view that older people have more wisdom, and, therefore, are preferred leaders and managers of people.  But we do have such instances occurring in the Bible of young leaders.  We have the Apostle Paul writing to a young Church leader, Timothy, “Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young.”  (1 Timothy 4: 12)  .  And in one of today’s passages, we read of the young Prophet Jeremiah being told by God that he had been chosen to be a Prophet, and how Jeremiah then exclaimed, “Sovereign Lord, I don’t know how to speak; I am too young.”  (Jeremiah 1: 6)  .  In later verses God warns Jeremiah that “Everyone in the land – the Kings of Judah, the officials, the priests, and the people – will be against you.”  (Jeremiah 1: 19)  .  Now, why would this be so?  What did they have to fear from Jeremiah’s ‘wisdom of youth’?

    God tells Jeremiah that the People of God had committed two sins  (Jeremiah 2: 13a)  .  Firstly, they had “rejected (God’s) authority; (and had) refused (to) obey (God) and to worship (God) alone  (Jeremiah 2: 20a)  .  Secondly, they had instead turned to the worship of other gods, “as many gods as (they) had cities”  (Jeremiah 2: 28b)  .  They had turned from the one who was like “a spring of fresh water”  (Jeremiah 2: 13b)  , who had fed and nourished them as He “rescued them from Egypt and led them through the wilderness” to safety and prosperity in their own land  (Jeremiah 2: 6a)  .  They had turned to gods of their own making  (Jeremiah 2: 28a)  , gods of wood and stone  (Jeremiah 2: 27)  , and God challenges them, “When you are in trouble, let them save you – if they can!”  (Jeremiah 2: 28b)  .

    God announces through Jeremiah, and the other prophets that God had sent to His people, that He had passed judgement upon them.  In spite of God’s warning to reconsider their choices, in spite of God’s warning of the consequences for the future of the People of Judah, they “had not paid attention”  (Jeremiah 25: 3b)  , they had “refused to listen”  (Jeremiah 25: 7a)  ,and had refused “to obey the Lord”  (Jeremiah 25: 6b)  .  God makes a promise that He will punish His people’s sin by bringing the “peoples from the north”  (Jeremiah 1: 15)  , the Babylonians, to ‘fight against Judah’, “to destroy (the) nation” of Judah, to “leave them in ruins”, and to be a “shocking sight” for all people to view  (Jeremiah 25: 9)  .  We can then understand the people’s reaction to the words of Jeremiah, for who wants this young upstart telling them what to do and what not to do; who wants this young upstart giving them nightmares about the future; who wants this young upstart challenging their self-assurance that they could continue with their religious choices without any adverse consequences, in effect, their self-assurance that they could indeed challenge the very authority of God. 

    Even the people from Jeremiah’s home town of Anathoth sought to kill him so as to silence him from “proclaiming the Lord’s message”  (Jeremiah 11: 21)  .  Craig Keener, in his Commentary on the NT, notes that “the tradition that Israel rejected its own prophets was strong in Judaism”  (The IVP Bible Background Commentary New Testament p199)  .  For do we not see a parallel between Jeremiah and Jesus?  We read in Luke 4 of Jesus coming to his home town of Nazareth.  He attends the synagogue and is given the honour of reading from Scripture and of commenting on what was read  (Luke 4: 17)  .

  News of the teaching of Jesus and of miracles that he had performed had spread throughout the region; and we can understand the people’s great anticipation concerning what will happen, for we read that “all the people in the Synagogue had their eyes fixed on him”  (Luke 4: 20b)  , expecting Jesus to do and to say the very things about which they had heard Jesus doing and saying elsewhere, the very things that would prove to them who and what he was. 

    Jesus read from the Book of Isaiah a passage  (Isaiah 61: 1 and 2)  in which God promises a time when He will bring salvation to His People and to care for the oppressed and needy (Craig Keener in The IVP Bible Background Commentary New Testament p199)  .  Then Jesus makes the bold statement, that God’s gracious promise has been fulfilled that very day, in and through the very person who had just read out the passage to them  (Howard Marshall in Luke in The New Bible Commentary p896)  .  The people’s initial enthusiasm changed to confusion and doubt, for they then asked amongst themselves, (how can this be so, how can he possibly be the promised Messiah because) “isn’t he (just) the son of Joseph?”  (Luke 4: 22b)  .

    It was at this point that “they failed to recognise Jesus as a prophet”  (Howard Marshall in Luke in The New Bible Commentary p896)  , they failed to pay attention to what Jesus was saying, they failed to listen to the very Word of God with their hearts and not just with their ears.  Jesus knew this and said, “Look, I know that you don’t believe me, I know that you are unwilling to change your preconceived image of who and what the Messiah should be.  In reality, you are only doing what God’s people have been doing throughout their history.  In the past, God’s prophets faced similar disbelief and therefore they carried out God’s work among the Gentiles.”  And he gives them two such examples  (Luke 4: 25 – 27)  ; the widow in Sidon, mentioned in 1 Kings 17, an occasion when the Prophet Elijah was rejected by a Jewish King, Ahab, but welcomed by a Gentile woman  (1 Kings 17: 15)  , and the Syrian General, Naaman, mentioned in 2 Kings 5, an occasion when God, through the actions of the Prophet Elisha, sought to demonstrate to the Gentile Nations outside of Israel that “there (was) a Prophet in Israel”  (2 Kings 5: 8)  through whom God was speaking to Humanity and demonstrating His authority, His power and his grace.  (Gregory Beale and Donald Carson in Commentary on the Old Testament Use of the Old Testament p290)  .

    The people in the Synagogue sought a sign from Jesus, a miracle, exactly like those that they had heard had occurred in Capernaum, just to give them proof that Jesus was indeed special and was the person that others claimed him to be.  Instead, here he was implying that God’s work, the Gospel, would be focused on the hated Gentiles.  How could he possibly say that God would be with other people as well as His chosen people, the Jews?  How could he possibly say that God’s love and saving grace would be shown to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews?  And, so, their amazement at the eloquent words of Jesus  (Luke 4: 22)  turned to rage and hostility,  (Luke 4: 28)  (John Carroll in Luke p114)  .  The very people from Jesus’ home town of Nazareth, people who had known him virtually all of his life, sought to kill him by throwing him off the nearby cliff  (Luke 4: 29)  .

  William Barclay, in his Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, comments that:

“What angered the people was the apparent compliment that Jesus paid to Gentiles.  The Jews were so sure that they were God’s people that they utterly despised all other peoples.  They believed that ‘God had created the Gentiles to be fuel for the fires of Hell.’  And here was this young upstart Jesus, whom they all knew from his childhood in the village, preaching as if the Gentiles were specifically favoured by God.  It was beginning to dawn upon them that there were things in this new message the like of which they had never dreamed of.”  (p44)  Their interpretation of the passage that Jesus had read, was that it “spoke not so much of the universal love of God, as of their specialness and their perceived (racial, religious, social and moral) superiority as Jews.”  (Rev Gordon Jones in notes for January 20 in Notes on Bible Readings 1989 p21)  .

  Yet, Joel Green clearly explains that, at this early point in his ministry, Jesus is “asserting the universal embrace of God’s (work of salvation in the World)”, “of God’s purpose to form a people of all nations”  (Joel Green in The Gospel of Luke p208)  .  He continues saying that when Jesus addressed those in the Synagogue with the words “This passage of Scripture has come true today, as you heard it being read.”  (Luke 4: 21)  , he was “building on the traditional role of hearing the revelation of God’s will and purpose in the words being spoken, with the symbol of the listening ear as a sign of openness to the divine message.”

  This is the essence of the understanding the growth of the seed that fell on good ground in the Parable of the Sower  (Luke 8: 8)  , and it is the basis for Stephen’s condemnation of the Jewish Council as we read in Acts 7: 51 to 53.  Thus, in using this phrase, “Jesus invites, even demands a response” from his listeners.  In Luke’s narrative, “the episode moves from address to reaction.”  (Joel Green in The Gospel of Luke p214) 

  Their response was that they sought to silence God’s messenger because they did not like the message, because they refused to listen to the Word of God with an open mind and an open heart, and because they refused to humbly trust and obey what they had just heard from God’s spokesperson.

    We read today how God chose Jeremiah to carry out God’s work and consecrated Jeremiah for the task.  So too with Jesus.  The Apostle John tells us “We have seen and tell others that (God) the Father sent His Son to be the Saviour of the World”  (1 John 4: 14)  .  We read how Jeremiah was commissioned by God to the role of a Prophet, empowered by God to this role, and supported by God as he fulfilled his tasks.  So too with Jesus, as we see what happened at his baptism, where God confirmed the ministry that Jesus would commence and fulfill over the coming three years  (Luke 3: 21 & 22)  .

  Jeremiah had a vision of the restoration of God’s people.  In Jeremiah 3 we read of God’s promise to bring His people back from exile so that they could again worship Him in the Temple  (Jeremiah 3: 18)  , and to heal their sinfulness and disobedience  (Jeremiah 3: 22)  .  Jeremiah spoke the divine message from God, in which God was both proclaiming his judgement upon the people of Judah and promising a time of restoration and renewal.  So too with Jesus, for he boldly proclaimed in the Synagogue “the time has come when the Lord will save His people”, a time of judgement for the sinner and of restoration and renewal for the repentant.  (Luke 4: 19b)  .

  Both Jeremiah and Jesus acted under God’s authority.  Both boldly spoke God’s words to the people of God and challenged their self assurance and preconceived notions.  God promised Jeremiah that he would always be present beside Jeremiah, to protect him and to give him the right words to say  (Jeremiah 1: 7 & 8)  .  Jesus, the Son of God, God’s presence on Earth in Human form, announced the message from God of the coming of His Kingdom  (Mark 1: 15)  .  (Frederick Cawley and Alan Mallard in Jeremiah in The New Bible Commentary p629) 

    Now, it is all too easy for us to pass judgement upon those who refused to listen to the Prophet Jeremiah or upon those who refused to listen to Jesus preach in the synagogue at Nazareth.  But we need to stop and consider for ourselves, if we were there, what would we have done?  What would have been our response?  And, just as importantly, what is our response now to the voice of God?  What is our response now to those who speak to us on behalf of God, to those who challenge our comfortable religion, to those who give us a message from God that we don’t like?  Do we listen or do we block our ears.  Do we pay attention and seek to understand what we hear or do we avert our eyes?  Do we welcome the message or do we seek to get rid of the messenger?  Are there idols in our lives that turn our attention away from God?  Are we blind to the possibility of God working in the lives of others upon whom we have already passed judgement?  Are there aspects of our own lives that oppress us or from which we need release?  Have we a readiness to bring good news to the poor?

    God didn’t stop His work in the past, He continues to work in the hearts and minds of all people, He continues to challenge each of us to heed his every word and to follow his footsteps more closely.  He challenges us to be able to truthfully claim as did the writer of Psalm 71, “God, you are my refuge, I put my hope in you, I trust in you, I rely on you, I seek to be sheltered by you”  (Psalm 71: 3b, 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b)  .  May this indeed be our claim, may we be listening to God with an open mind, an open heart, and a readiness to obey, so that we too are led to honestly say to God, “I will always praise you”  (Psalm 71: 6b)  .

  Amen.

We sing the hymn Hymn ‘God is love, let Heaven adore Him’  AHB93  TiS153[sung to the tune Abbot’s Leigh)

Timothy Rees

Offering

Offering Prayer    

“For the life that you have given”  TiS774 

[ sung to the tune Austria

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

For the life that you have given,For the love in Christ made known,

With these fruits of time and labour,

With these gifts that are your own:

Here we offer, Lord, our praises;

Heart and mind and strength we bring;

Give us grace to love and serve you,

Living what we pray and sing.

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Prayers for Others

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

We pray for this Land, our culture, our customs,
our languages, our people and our Nation.
Gather us together to look after this land,
so that the beauty of our Earth
may be preserved for all future generations.

Jesus, our example and pattern for life, give us your grace,
may we be united in one mind, one heart, and in one
action so that we can continue the journey of reconciliation,
to solve the divisions of our growth
and enable all Australians to work together
in love, peace and joy.

We ask you God the Holy Spirit,
overshadow us with your presence,
especially this our nation.
We ask you to guide all people, whether black,
white or yellow, so we can truly learn
and have better understanding in the the knowledge
of language and culture of this land, Australia.

(https://www.ncca.org.au/ncca-newsletter/january-2020-1/item/1970-reflection-for-january-26-2020011)

Lord, we thank you for the beautiful, life-sustaining gift of Creation.  We pray that, as individuals and communities, we become better stewards of what you have entrusted to us.

Lord, we pray that we will see the World through the eyes of faith.  May we bring whatever gifts we can to the work of making your Kingdom come on Earth.

Lord, we pray that the way we live our lives is guided by your values of love for people, especially the poor, and not by the allure of having and possessing more.

Lord, we pray for those in the World already affected by rising sea levels and more frequent extreme weather events.  We pray that Humankind responds to their need to live full and healthy lives.

Lord, we pray for our own political leaders.  May they be guided by concern for the common good, not by expediency of vested interests.

Lord, hear us.

Lord, we pray that we in the Church respond more fully to your call for ecological conversion.

Lord, we pray for the discernment to recognise the teachers and prophets of our times, and the courage to respond to them.

Lord, we pray for this generation of children and generations yet to come.  May we preserve for them an environment that is able to meet their needs.

Lord, we pray that we maintain the inspiration and strength to live simply so that others may simply live.

Lord, we thank you for the beauty and diversity of all that lives on earth.  We pray that world leaders will respond to the call to protect the environment.

Lord, hear us.

Lord, help us to trust that you are the bread of life, and not to seek false happiness from worldly comforts and possessions.

Lord, help us to recognise and speak the truth about caring for Creation.

Lord, we thank you for providing so well for us in our society.  Keep us mindful of sharing what we have with the needy.

Lord, we pray that World leaders respond generously to the fact that an environmental crisis and an economic crisis are both hitting the poor the most heavily.

Lord, we pray for World leaders.  May they make wise and courageous decisions that promote a healthy, safe climate.

Lord, hear us.

Creator God, we thank you for the beauty of your Creation, and for giving us the privilege of caring for it. We confess that we have not cared for the Earth with the self-sacrificing and nurturing love that you require of us.  We mourn the broken relationships in Creation.  We repent for our part in causing the current environmental crisis that has led to climate change.

Faithful God, sustainer of all – we pray with hope, because you are already at work through Christ to reconcile all of Creation to Yourself and to renew all things.

Loving God, help us to turn our lives around to be people of restoration.  Help us build just relationships among Human beings and with the rest of Creation.  Help us to live sustainably, rejecting consumerism and the exploitation of Creation.

God of justice, give us courage and persistence to work for justice for those most affected by environmental degradation and climate change.

God of mercy, hear the cry of the poor who are already suffering and will continue to suffer water and food shortages and who will be displaced by climate change.

God of all wisdom, give wisdom to the leaders of all the World’s nations to work together for agreement to tackle climate change.  Give them the determination to find a just solution that protects the people who are most vulnerable in our World, and protects Creation.

Creator God, give us your Spirit to work together to restore your Creation and to hand on a safe environment and climate to our children and to theirs.  Let our care for Creation be our act of worship and obedience to you.  

God of Creation,
You created night and day.
You separated the sea from the sky.
You gave life to all living creatures and saw that it was good.
Help us to reconnect with the majesty of your creation.

God of Love, fill us with your love for all Creation.
Empty us of apathy, selfishness and fear.
Inspire us to live simply and in harmony with Creation.
Help us to be good stewards, caring for all Creation with self-sacrificing and nurturing love.

God of Compassion, breathe into us solidarity with all who suffer now
and the future generations who will suffer
because of our environmental irresponsibility.
Help us to put people before profit and ‘being’ before ‘having’.

God of Justice, empower us to work together as one global community, 
To find creative and just solutions to protect those most vulnerable in our world, and all of creation for future generations.
Move us into action for climate justice and to restore your creation.

(https://www.arrcc.org.au/reflect-prayers-christian)

We pray for each one of us, that as we listen to and reflect upon the Word of God, that it will nourish and guide us, and when it disturbs us, find the grace to mature in our Christian life.  Lord, hear us.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for all families, that the inspiring words of Saint Paul will open for all the richness of the gift and virtue of love.  Lord, hear us.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for the protection of the gift of life, formed by God in the womb, that along every stage into the most senior of years, society and governments will affirm its dignity with respect.  Lord, hear us.

Lord, hear our prayer.

We pray for the rebuilding of Tonga after the recent tsunami, for an ease of tensions between Russian and Ukraine, for an end to violence in Burkina Faso, and relief from famine in Afghanistan, Yemen and Ethiopia.  Lord, hear us.

Lord, hear our prayer

Loving God, we come to you with heavy hearts, remembering the six million Jewish souls murdered during the Holocaust.

In the horrors of that history, when so many groups were targeted because of their identity, and in genocides which followed, we recognise destructive prejudices that drive people apart.

Forgive us when we give space to fear, negativity and hatred of others, simply because they are different from us.

In the light of God, we see everyone as equally precious manifestations of the Divine, and can know the courage to face the darkness.

Through our prayers and actions, help us to stand together with those who are suffering, so that light may banish all darkness, love will prevail over hate and good will triumph over evil.

(https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/a-prayer-for-holocaust-memorial-day/)

Lord God and Father,

We remember before you all those who bear the inner and outer scars of the
Holocaust and of subsequent acts of genocide.

Let them not be overwhelmed by the horrors that engulfed them.
Be close to them.

Help them to see that you suffer with those who suffer,
and that no wickedness can ever extinguish your infinite love.

Restrain those who are filled with hatred and use violence to pursue their ends.
Change their hearts.

May remembrance make us alert to the reality of evil and its deceptive allure.
Help us to recognise our own capacity for evil and allow your Spirit to
purge it from our beings.

Help us also to stand up against evil and oppression, even if that means we have to
suffer ourselves.

Enable us to defend those who are not strong enough to defend themselves,
and to be ready to bring the light of your truth into the dark areas of human
experience.

Deepen our respect for everything you have made, and help us to share in securing
the maximum good of every person who is alive in your world.

We ask this in the Name of your Son Jesus Christ,
who died for our sins, carries our sorrows, heals our wounds,
and is risen for our freedom.

(https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/a-holocaust-prayer-by-philip-hall/)

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

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil,

For the Kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours,

Now and forever.  Amen.

We sing the Hymn ‘One Day’  Alexander’s Hymns No. 3 No 205

Wilbur Chapman

Benediction    

God reassures us that we are not to be afraid of what the future may hold, because He will be there beside us.  Let us then go out into the World with faith, hope and love, trusting in God’s protection.  Let us go into the World, to be an example to all we meet of His love and mercy for all Humanity.  And may the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and remain with you always.  Amen.

Benediction Song

“By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered”  TiS617

[sung to the tune Finlandia – only the one verse to be sung – there is a short introduction]

Verse 1 of 1

By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered,

And confidently waiting come what may,

We know that God is with us night and morning

And never fails to greet us each new day.

We shall remember all the days we live through,

All of our life before our God we lay.

Dietrich Bonhoffer

Translated by Frederick Pratt Green