Order of Service – Sunday 3 October 2021 – SENIORS SUNDAY

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CALL TO WORSHIP

God our Creator, our thoughts cannot contain You; our words fall short of Your vastness. Yet, You are our God. God of all ages, Your breath gives us life. Your hands shape our being. Your artistry in creation leaves us gasping in wonder, longing to experience that which is of You. In each person, there You are, if we could but discern You. Accept us again, O ancient yet ever new God, as we gather to worship and adore You. 

PRAYER OF APPROACH

Awesome God, Your creative power, Your glory and holiness are beyond our imagining, yet, You chose to reveal Yourself in the person of Jesus Christ, who graciously showed us the human face of Your love. He stretched our imaginations once more over the lengths He was prepared go to demonstrate the depth of Your love for us. And, as if that was not enough, You breathe new and everlasting life into our very beings, through the power of Your Spirit. Triune God, Source of our lives, we worship and adore You. Amen!

HYMN:       134       “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven”

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Gracious God, we know that there is a time to be born, a time to grow old and a time to die. We know that ageing is a part of life. Yet sometimes we forget. Sometimes we fail to embrace the life of our older people.We confess that we sometimes do not hear the voices of our older people, their needs and concerns.  In our busy daily life, sometimes we just don’t stop and listen.

Forgive us when we close our ears to our older people.

We confess that we sometimes become reluctant to share precious resources of life with our older people. In this competitive world, too often our priorities go to where we readily see new life, youth and the promise of worldly success.

Forgive us when we participate in the unjust allocation of resources.

We confess that many Indigenous Australians never know old age, or become old before their time, through the struggles in their lives.

Forgive us when we fail to notice and act.

Loving God, the Lord of Life, bring to us the awareness that our life depends on each other. We are called to uphold each other, especially those who are weak, frail and vulnerable. Fill us with Your compassion, love and grace, the grace that walks with us, embracing even our death.

ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS

God is love. Through Christ, God reaches out to us, embracing the young and the old, the strong and the weak, the living and the dying. In Christ we are one. Hear then Christ’s words of grace to us. “You are loved and Your sins are forgiven”.

Thanks be to God.

HYMN:       431       “Thanks to God Whose Word was Spoken”

BIBLE READINGS –                                                                                    

1 Timothy 5:1-5 (Page 1176)                                                  Mark 10:17-31 (Page 1002)

SERMON:          “What Does Aging Well Mean to You?”         Bob Minton

HYMN:       256       “From Heaven You Came Helpless Babe”

OFFERING  –          God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)

OFFERTORY PRAYER

Generous God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, You call us to make real the sharing of the gifts You have given us. Use the offerings of our hearts and our hands to Your glory and the service of Your realm. Amen!

HYMN:       502       “Soul of My Saviour”

INVITATION

Because there is only one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

In Christ, God breaks down the walls that make us strangers to ourselves and divide us from one another.

We are the body of Christ at this table, we bear witness to our faith.

At this table, God brings wholeness out of brokenness and healing to our world. Let us break bread together.

WORDS OF INSTITUTION

As we gather in praise and thanksgiving at this time, we remember how on the night before His passion, Jesus took bread and gave thanks, saying: “Take and eat; this is my body which is broken for you.” We recall as well how, in the same way, when the meal was over, He took the cup, and gave it to His disciples, saying: “This is my blood, which is shed for you. When you do this, you do it in memory of me”.

As our Saviour Christ has taught us, we are confident to say:

Our Father who art in heaven ………

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.

Now receive this holy sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, and feed on Him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving.

The body of Christ, given for you. Amen!

The blood of Christ, shed for you. Amen!

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

Holy God, we give You thanks that we have been fed and renewed by Christ’s life in us. We go now to share that life with others. Send us forth equipped with the power of your Spirit. To spread the message of Your love and mercy to all whom we meet. Amen!

HYMN:       209       “And Can it be that I Should Gain”

BLESSING

May the Lord of all generations, whose love spans our years, keep us ever mindful of the wonderful gift of life; childhood to fulfilment of age, that we so rejoice in each other, that we live our days with respect, compassion and mutual responsibility; to the glory of Christ.

The blessing of Almighty God – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – 

be among you and remain with you this day, this week and always.

In the name of Christ. Amen! 

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To contact Krikor call   0418 417 411

Church Website:  http://www.longueville.unitingchurch.org.au

Church email: standrewsunite@tpg.com.au

Church Office phone: 9427 4740