March 8, 2020
WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE
Time’s up! God’s kingdom (reign) is here.
Change your life and believe the Message.
OUR GATHERING WORDS
We gather today realising it is now March, autumn is upon us.
Time is passing, the days are shorter, even if drier and warmer.
There are different things to think about and do.
How do we take care of ourselves?
How do we nurture and enhance our relationships with others?
So, we come now to celebrate this life that we are given
To reflect, remember, and plan for what we might do
So, supporting each other let us set out together.
PROCESSIONAL HYMN ‘Celebrate the life we’re given’
Words © by Susan Jones
Tune WOV 577 Austria, 2 verses
WELCOME
Kia ora tatou.
Kia ora.
PRAYER
JESUS PRAYER Jim Cotter paraphrase on card
LIGHTING THE RAINBOW ROOM CANDLE
TIME WITH CHILDREN Cameron Smart
BLESSING THE CHILDREN (All stand)
We send you to the Rainbow Room to hear stories, ask questions
and have fun together. We bless you. Amen.
PASSING THE PEACE
Feel free to pass the peace with those nearby or move to greet others further away. Passing the peace consists of shaking hands and saying, “Peace be with you.” The response is “Peace be with you” or just “And with you.” Or, simply saying “Hello” is a good idea. Also feel free to simply observe if you wish!
HYMN FFS 32 ‘God who sets us on a journey’
Words: Joy Dine (1937 – 2001) © Revd Mervyn Dine. Reproduced with permission.
Music: WOV 165 (ii) Blaenwern 4 verses
THE WORD IN TEXTS Patty Compeau
Hebrew Bible Genesis 12:1-4a
Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So, Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.
Gospel Mark 1:14-20
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
Contemporary reading from “New World New God”
by Ian Harris
“To the Jews of Jesus day, a huge gulf lay between God and humanity. “I am God and not man” the prophet Hosea has God say.
But the band of Jews who lived close to Jesus became convinced, against all their natural inclinations, that they had somehow experienced God through him. This led in turn to the astonishing conclusion that he must be the one chosen by God to restore the fortunes of his people, in a word, the Messiah.
Obviously, they believed they were coming to know God through this flesh-and-blood man, something was beginning to happen to the established notion of a remote theistic God.
To be true to their experience they would have to make room for the human Jesus in the godhead itself. So, they gathered Jesus up into their understanding of God.
It was never two gods they were describing (nor, with the addition of the Holy Spirit, three gods), but different aspects of the one God. but nor was it the old theistic God anymore, because now it included Jesus as an integral component. Jesus followers had broken new ground to discover God beyond the theism they had grown up with.
Instead of building on that, however, the leaders of the church of that day found it more congenial to reassert theism. So, they squeezed Jesus back into a mould that did not threaten the traditional theistic understanding. The emphasis switched from God becoming human, to Jesus being God. And the more this became the focus the easier it was for the church to maintain and even extend the gulf between the holy God and sinful humankind.
Today, however, as theism loses its hold on Western societies, the potential of that dramatic development in the first 400 years of the Christian era is starting to be realised in a new way.”
RESPONSE
For the Word in scripture,
for the Word among us,
for the Word within us,
we give thanks.
DIALOGUE Jim Symons and Barrie Keenan
HYMN FFS 67 ‘We are many we are one’
Words & Music © 1998 Colin Gibson, Hamilton 3 verses
OFFERING PRAYER (said together)
To compassion and justice we commit ourselves.
To the care and nurture of the earth we commit ourselves.
To work out your love and purpose we commit ourselves.
Amen
We recognise and bless the gifts brought to the table, and those which wing
their way electronically from our banks to the church’s account.
LIFE IN THE COMMUNITY OF ST ANDREW’S
People share notices and visitors are welcomed. If you have a notice not already in the order of service, please move to the front row, ready to speak briefly from the lectern.
For the benefit of newcomers, please introduce yourself before you begin.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE Ellen Murray
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and all those working to defend human rights in the region. We remember the detainees of Manus and Nauru Islands, yearning that their cases be resolved. In New Zealand, we remember those in Parliament, and today we name Anahila Kanongata’a-Suisuiki and Tutehounuku Korako (Nuk) list MPs. Here in the Central Presbytery, we pray for the Central Presbytery Staff.
PRAYER FOR ST ANDREW’S on card
HYMN ‘We shall go out with hope into tomorrow’
Words by June Boyce Tillman © 1993 Stainer & Bell Ltd
Tune: Londonderry Air CH 4 729 2 verses
BLESSING (said together)
Go safely into this day and this week
trusting that love is moving towards you,
because the God of love will go with you
and be with you in your encounters
with people and situations.
SUNG AMEN
THANK YOU
THANK YOU Bruce Corkill
Our musician today