Order of Service – Sunday 30 January 2022
Longueville Uniting Church
Kenneth Street, Longueville
Order of Service
WELCOME to LONGUEVILLE
UNITING CHURCH
WELCOME TO WORSHIP
INTRODUCTION OF THEME
As Christ-followers, it is all too easy to seek to bring Jesus and His Gospel into service of our own desires and agendas. It is easy to accept grace for ourselves, but deny it to others – even in Jesus’ name. It is easy to remain silent when Jesus is used as justification for abuse, oppression, greed, hatred or arrogance. But grace does not call us to silence, or to compliance with that which hurts and destroys. The strength of grace is to resist what keeps others from grace – defending the powerless, speaking for the voiceless and lifting up the downtrodden – all while still seeking to love those against whom we stand. Inevitably, this just (justice-focused) grace, will bring us into situations of confrontation and conflict, but they can be navigated with both strength and compassion, if we will learn from Jesus. Who, in your community, needs just grace to defend and heal them (the “yes”)? Who needs just grace to confront and disturb them (the “no”)? And where, in our own hearts, do we need grace to confront and disturb us?
CALL TO WORSHIP Based on Psalm 71:1-6
In You, O God, we find a place of refuge – a strong and secure place of shelter and safety – giving us confidence to believe that You hear us and protect us. You are the foundation of our hope, the source of our trust; a rock to lean on and a safe place to rest in from the time of our birth. Amen!
PRAYER OF APPROACH –
Living God, we praise You for filling us with the knowledge that in You we do find safety and security. In Jesus Christ, You have given us the confidence to believe that although the worst can happen, Your love and Your care for us remains as strong and as constant forever. Jesus demonstrated that rejection, ridicule and even the risk of death did not stop Him from proclaiming Your love, Your mercy and Your everlasting life and power. We approach You, O God, confident in Your constant love and protection. We praise You, we trust You and we adore You. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen!
HYMN – TIS 161 “Tell Out My Soul, the Greatness of the Lord!”
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Lord Jesus Christ, You were able to command us to love one another because You lived and breathed love in all You said and did. When we substitute ideas and words about love for its practice in our daily lives.
Forgive us.
Lord Jesus Christ, You call us to be prophetic witnesses of Your love. When we justify our lack of action by saying we would not know what words to say to people.
Forgive us.
Lord Jesus Christ, You have shown us that love can be patient and kind; that genuine love is not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude. Above all, You demonstrated that love can bear all things, hope all things and endure all things. When we become so influenced by the ‘noisy gongs’ and ‘clanging cymbals’ of our age that we fail to discern Your call to love others as You love us.
Forgive us.
Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us all in the knowledge that when our love has its source in You, it is indestructible by outward circumstances and influences. Realign our lives and our hearts to Your love so that faith, hope and love dwell within us and our lives testify that the greatest of Your gifts to us is truly the gift of love.
Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
God’s righteousness which rescues and saves us has been revealed in Jesus. For God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Those who believe in Him are not condemned (John 3: 17,18a), therefore I declare to you: in Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
Thanks be to God.
HYMN TIS 154 “Great is Your Faithfulness”
OLD TESTAMENT READING – Jeremiah 1:4-10
EPISPLE READING – 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
GOSPEL READING – Luke 4:21-30
MESSAGE – “Tough Love”
HYMN TIS 693 “Come as You Are”
OFFERING
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!
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE – (Inspired by 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13)
Your love is patient;
we give You thanks for all those who have been patient with us and have taught and cared for us; and we pray for the patience to love others as You have loved us.
Your love is kind;
give us the courage to be kind to others and to serve those with patience who are so often unkind, rude, difficult to love, or our enemies. They are your children and our sisters and brothers and they were made in your image.
Your love is not pompous;
give us insight to speak the truth in love and for the sake of your kingdom and not out of a need to appear clever or right and in all our relationships give us the wisdom to listen far more than we speak.
Your love does not seek its own interests;
we thank You and pray for those who serve the poor and those in need, who give tirelessly of themselves and who have much to do and little time for themselves.
Your love is not quick-tempered;
we pray for those who are angry and for the violent and their victims; for children who fear, elders who are abused, and people trapped in relationships that injure and harm.
Your love bears all things;
we remember before You those with heavy burdens, many cares, much stress, and too little comfort and help. Open our eyes to those around us and their needs and give us the wisdom to offer help without any prying or sense of superiority.
Your love never fails;
even death does not trespass on the breadth and depth of Your love. We thank You for those we have loved in this life and who now dwell in the peace and joy of Your presence and let Your comfort settle on those who are bereaved or who are lonely this day.
In the name of Jesus we pray.
Who taught us to pray saying….
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours.
Now and for ever.
Amen!
Hymn TIS 699 – “A New Commandment I Give Unto You”
BLESSING
Because God loves Gentiles as much as Jews, and sinners as much as the saints, you and I will never walk alone.
There is no fault in our lives that is beyond God’s power to remedy, nor any gift that is too small for God to celebrate and use.
God is in the business transforming plain or warped things into a beauty exceeding our holiest expectations.
Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory, through Jesus Christ.
May God, Jesus and the Spirit bless your ways;
God bless the ground beneath your feet,
God bless the road or which you travel,
God bless the friends with whom you stay,
Each day and night, each night and day.
Amen!
(From an old Celtic prayer)
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
In the name of Christ.
Amen!