The Heart of God has been revealed
To bring love not hate, pour out not dominate
To forgive not blame, to make whole not shame
The Heart of God has been revealed
Welcome to the gathering of St. Mark’s Church (Sunday worship under one roof) Sunday, October 31st 2021.
Micah 6:5-8
“My people, what have I done to you?
How have I burdened you? Answer me.
Did I not free you from the injustice of slavery?
Did I not care for you sending you Moses, Aaron and Miriam to lead you?
My people, remember
rulers and exploiters mercilessly seek to undermine you.
Remember your journey,
that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”
So then, with what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God?
With piety?
With a zeal of religious fervour?
Will the Lord be pleased? Will the Lord approve?
The Lord has revealed to you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.
We begin today’s worship with these words, a declaration of what is godliness – do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God. These words are powerful by themselves but particulary more insightful when we consider what comes before this manifesto.
At the beginning of this pasage, God is lamenting. Who can understand the ways of God’s peoples? Their hearts have turned away from God. They have forgotten how God has been at work in them and with them leading them from captivity to freedom. God urges them to remember – bring to mind the journey they are on.
When we look at the journey, the story, we will understand what is important and what is not, the journey will determine what we need and what holds us back and weighs us down, the story will give meaning and purpose to what we do.
Shed away the unnecessary layers that only distracts us from the core business of God’s people, that only gives us excuses from actually attending to the very things that makes us who we are, God’s people.
I invite you now to a time of prayerful reflection to orientate ourselves in this journey of worship – having our hearts transformed, our whole being transformed into the image of the one who is Love, Peace, Faith and Hope for the world hurting, decaying, corrupted, Jesus the Christ, our God, our brother.
Reflection:
The Heart of God by Alana Levandoski
The Heart of God has been revealed
To bring love not hate, pour out not dominate
To forgive not blame, to make whole not shame
The Heart of God has been revealed
Singing: ‘Our Life Has Its Seasons’
Welcome and Notices
Praying the Psalm
This morning we will pray Psalm 8 together. I have chosen the Message translation as it brings alive the words and movement of the psalm particularly well. This Psalm expresses wonder and mystery and curiosity in encountering God who has created all that is immense. In front of this immense God, we as mortals feel small. Yet we are invited to wonder, wonder at the fact that this immense God of all creation considers us significant.
God lifts us up as God’s partners for life, God’s partners for giving and sustaining life for the natural world and the human society. It challenges us to see the world differently – an upside down world, where things that are small and considered insignificant becomes, by God’s grace, the channel of God. Such is the way of God, lifting up that which is small and humble to be called for higher and deeper calling, to be partners of salvation.
People of God, do you know who you are? Let us stand before the immensity of creation and encounter the immensity of God, who has created all that brings to us wonder, mystery and curiosity. In standing before this God, in our smallness and humility, let God lift us up to know who we are, partners of God for giving and sustaining life to the world.
Who needs to hear this good news? Where do we need to live this out? Who do you see living this life giving and life sustaining life? Let us together pray this psalm of wonder, mystery and curiosity for ourselves, for those who do not know it, for those who are living this life, against the powers of destruction to silence their violent and proud babble with the song in the lips of the children of God.
Psalm 8 (The Message) adapted for worship
God, brilliant Lord,
yours is a household name.
Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence the babble of the proud.
I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewellery,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods,
bright with Eden’s dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Made us stewards of sheep and cattle,
even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
whales singing in the ocean deeps.
God, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.
Prayer for Others:
Praying the Lord’s Prayer
(Offering will be brought up at the conclusion of the prayer)
Offering Prayer:
Singing: ‘How Great Thou Art’
Scripture Reading: Luke 19:11-26
11 As they were listening to this, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. 12 So he said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. 13 He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’ 14 But the citizens of his country hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’
15 When he returned, having received royal power, he ordered these slaves, to whom he had given the money, to be summoned so that he might find out what they had gained by trading. 16 The first came forward and said, ‘Lord, your pound has made ten more pounds.’ 17 He said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small thing, take charge of ten cities.’ 18 Then the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your pound has made five pounds.’ 19 He said to him, ‘And you, rule over five cities.’ 20 Then the other came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your pound. I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth, 21 for I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’
22 He said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! You knew, did you, that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Why then did you not put my money into the bank? Then when I returned, I could have collected it with interest.’ 24 He said to the bystanders, ‘Take the pound from him and give it to the one who has ten pounds.’ 25 (And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten pounds!’) 26 ‘I tell you, to all those who have, more will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.
Sermon
Reflection song:
Singing: ‘Breathe On Me Breath Of God’
Benediction:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all,
now and for evermore. Amen.
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