This week we joined together with Belmont Uniting Church and Western Heights Uniting Church in this reflective service, to start exploring a recent book by N. T. Wright.
Following the insights of Tom Wright’s book “God and the Pandemic: A Christian reflection on the Coronavirus and its aftermath”, today we reflect on the question of God and suffering. As we are confronted with evil and suffering in the world, we should not be asking why suffering happens but how do we respond? The readings from Deuteronomy and Matthew’s gospel (the beatitudes) provide guidance in how the Christians should respond, with care and generosity.
And keep an eye out for Karen and the Western Heights puppets, and I think our first virtual choir!
Recently we have been dipping into the epic story of the God’s liberation of the people of Israel as recorded in the book of Exodus.
This week we will be looking at perhaps the central event of this grand narrative … indeed perhaps of the whole of the Old Testament … the crossing of the Red Sea.
Did you notice in the text that Moses was dealing not just with the rampaging army of Egypt but those who were moaning and groaning in his own camp who thought whips and slavery did not seem to bad compared with the situation they were in? (Humans are humans … nothing changes in 3,500 years.)
Secondly, let’s be clear that the members of Pharaoh’s army are victims … real people with families … caught up in Pharaoh’s nefarious doings … sacrificed like so many before and since in a pointless battle.
Yet let me say it again core to this passage is an understanding that God overcomes the forces of chaos … represented both by Pharaoh and his army, and the deep scary Sea.
God is a God of new creation and liberation who confronts and deals with the dark forces.
This sisters and brothers is not a purely theoretical affirmation … to know that God will not allow evil to prevail is a statement of profound hope.
For an inspirational listening song, you might enjoy “Baba Yetu” – the Lord’s Prayer, in Swahili:
In our congregation we have people who have come to Australia via the UNHCR refugee program. We have others who came seeking asylum however they could, using all their resources to escape persecution. Happily, many of our people seeking asylum have had protection visas granted to them.
But there are still asylum seekers in our community who are being left behind. Here is Fatma’s story, produced by the Refugee Council of Australia, encouraging us to do what we can to urge the government not to exclude these people from the basic supports that others have taken for granted.
Perhaps this week if you are stuck at home alone with too much time on your hands, you can make contact with the Refugee Council and find out what you can do to help advocate for people in need.
Some of the music from our worship video today was composed and performed by a group called The String Contingent. If you liked their music, which they freely gave permission for us to use, I encourage you to visit their webpage and find out more about them here.
A report released recently by McCrindle Research[1] shows that during these days of COVID-19 there is an increase in the numbers of people in Australia giving time to prayer and thinking about God.
This all makes sense.
The reality of the pandemic means we are faced with core questions about what it means to be alive and to be mortal: questions like, “Why am I here?” and “If there is a God what is God like?”
In this weeks video we will have some space to pray, but also some time to think about the nature of God as we explore another famous passage from the book of Exodus: the story of Moses and the burning bush.
Solomon, Simeon, 1840-1905. Mother of Moses, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57539 [retrieved August 22, 2020]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Simeon_Solomon_-_The_Mother_of_Moses.jpg.Hello friends,
Over the next two or three weeks, we will be hearing readings from the book of Exodus … the grand sweeping story in the Hebrew Scriptures about the liberation of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
You might well ask, “Well what has that got to do with our situation now?”
“How does a story about events some 3,000 years ago help us today in the time of the Pandemic?”
I think it has loads to say to us.
At one level this is an epic story … absolute grist for the mill for Hollywood movie producers. Ever heard of films with the titles “The Ten Commandments” or “The Prince of Egypt?”
But on another level, there is much in the story of the Exodus that intersects with everyday life … the key protagonists confront us with the way we humans respond to difficult situations.
You can watch this morning’s worship service here:
John Bell has released a new song, for this time of separation from one another:
We have gone out to the ‘boundaries’ of Geelong today for our theme “Bridging the Boundaries”. It is filmed at the Narana Aboriginal Cultural Centre and our thanks to the community there for their welcome.
Our passage from Matthew 15:21-28 doesn’t sound like the Jesus we know and love – his words initially are harsh and even cruel. Yet there is more to this story – with real parallels for us today in our busy lives. In fact, as we juggle working from home, home-schooling and all our daily chores during these Covid-19 times in Victoria, the lessons from this story are particularly relevant.
As you prepare for St Luke’s worship, enjoy a ‘Flashmob Gospel Choir’ , Filmed at Five Points South Fountain in Birmingham, Alabama in 2013 (50 years after the civil rights protests that ended segregation in the USA commenced there).
Join in worship…
Reflect on how much God loves you with this song from the Hillsong team
Many thanks to Hadeel Al Badran again who helped me with the filming and edited today’s service. Hadeel is continuing work on new videos for Humans in Geelong like the post about Mental Health.
Thanks also to Nilu Bizhani (Gospel reading) and Deb Walker (Creed) for your contributions, and to the young people from Uniting Faith & Families who helped open my eyes to some ‘home truthes’ from this passage last week! And to Graeme Gardiner for providing ‘We will love’ in the middle.
Don’t forget to join us on Zoom for sharing time at 10am – link in a separate email.
Today our theme is “Trust in Jesus who calls you”. In this challenging time for all in Victoria, and particularly our friends and family in Melbourne, we can be tempted to feel like we are caught in a storm. We may even feel like we will go under at any moment! But our Gospel story today from Matthew 14:22-33is full of reassurance.
Many thanks to Hadeel Al Badran who helped Lloyd with the filming and edited today’s service. You can see more of Hadeel’s work at Humans in Geelong – in this post about Mental Health.
And thanks also to our trusty fishermen, Ken Anderson, Noel McMillan and Ian Peterson!
A great song to watch before the service is Ocean’s by Hillsong United and performed here by Will Gittens.
(Songwriters were Joel Houston, Matt Crocker, Salomon Lighthelm and it was released in 2013).
We’ve put two songs for reflection and courage after the recorded worship.
Worship Youtube
Lauren Daigle has a lovely acoustic version of her son Trust in You (3:43min)
And one written and performed very recently by Stephen Abraham called “Come to me when you are weary”
Don’t forget to join us on Zoom for sharing time at 10am – link in a separate email.
Photo by Youssef Naddam https://unsplash.com/photos/iJ2IG8ckCpA
Greeting friends!
Our hearts go out to you especially if you are watching this from a nursing home, or a situation where you are totally isolated perhaps because of your own vulnerabilities or perhaps because you are awaiting the outcome of testing for COVID-19 or perhaps because you are not at all well.
Today we are going to explore the significance for us of an event in the ministry of Jesus that is reported by all the Gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), so clearly it was important to the early church,: Jesus feeding a huge gathering of people. (By the way, the importance of Jesus feeding many is further underlined by Matthew and Mark who both describe Jesus feeding crowds on two occasions.)
You can find today’s worship service here:
For listening, Paul especially wanted to highlight the recording we mentioned last week, “Shelter Me” by Michael Joncas, Recorded by Spiritu during the time of COVID-19:
And for singing along with, a lovely version of “Goodness is Stronger than Evil”:
Take care in these difficult days. And remember that God is the God of compassion. As Jesus had compassion on the crowd, he has compassion of us!
Here the words of Desmond Tutu as words of real hope:
Go in peace, and remember:
goodness is stronger than evil;
love is stronger than hate;
light is stronger than darkness;
life is stronger than death;
victory is ours
through Christ who loved us.
Amen.
And the ancient words attributed to Aaron, brother of Moses:
Photo by Joshua Lanzarini on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@jlanzarini
Friends greetings!
Grace and peace be with you.
A particular greeting to you this week if you are watching at home but not at all well or watching from a nursing home … perhaps with tight restrictions limiting who can visit you in person.
In this week’s worship we will explore a key aspect of Jesus’ teaching about the way God works in the world; and hear the radically hopeful words of Paul that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Big thanks to Beth for recording the reading for us this week!
As we look for God in these days COVID-19 let us remember the simple and powerful teaching of Jesus’ parable of the yeast … and so look for God in in the apparently small things. The small things that change the whole …
Expressions of love, care and respect …
Moments of grace, undeserved favour …
The wonder and beauty of a flower …
A smile or a prayer …
A song that stills anxieties …
People who put their own wants and needs aside for the sake of others …
Where is God? Right there in the everyday things of life that reflect the love of God poured out in Jesus … those things which while apparently small can change the world …
[Jesus] told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”
Having listened to Paul’s sermon, you might be inspired as I was, to remember our favourite Messy Church Song “I see God in You” by Heather Price. You can pop over to her website and have a listen to track 5 in the music player:
We are truly known by God from the top of our heads to the tip of our toes … there is not a thought we have ever had that is not known to God …
And rather than this being something to fear … this is so liberating!
God knows us, loves us, accepts us … as we really are! There is an old word for this, Grace! Grace… Undeserved favour.
Thanks to Nilu and Sahar for helping out with readings and prayers this week!
You can watch the service here:
If you are after some more listening music, you might enjoy this offering “Shelter me” from “Spiritu”:
Those of us in the areas of Victoria that are not at level 3 restrictions want to assure those of you who are that you are very much in our thoughts and prayers.
Go forth into the world in peace;
be of good courage;
hold fast that which is good;
render to no one evil for evil;
strengthen the faint-hearted;
support the weak;
help the afflicted;
honour all people;
love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
