July 31, 2022
WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE
PRELUDE CALL TO WORSHIP In every corner of the world: the songs of the Creator will break forth in joy. In the place where we have always been: the Christ will speak new things before us. Stay, stay here until it is time to go as companions on the way. In heart and mind and soul and strength, let us stay, for here we may discover the truth in our midst. Dorothy McRae-McMahon. SILENCE PROCESSIONAL HYMN Christ is our peace AA 16 Words: ©Shirley Murray 1992. Music SUANTRAI Irish Traditional 3 vs Christ is our peace, Christ is our health, he the true Word, his the true wealth — gifts to be shared by the simple and poor: peace in your land, peace at your door. Peace in your mouth, peace in the hands open to truth, to love’s demands: those who would go with Christ also must bleed — bright is the flower, burst is the seed. Who work for peace find the true wealth, who heal the hurt find their own health — peace will flow on through the hearts that believe: this may we know, thus may we live. WELCOME Kia ora tātou. Kia ora. Talofa lava. Talofa PRAYER Forgive us, Jesus, when we cling to the familiar: block the possibilities: insist on the old ways. Forgive the fears that bind us to the past. Teach us instead to trust the Spirit’s leading: risk new expressions: offer THIS day in worship. Knowing your love is there on every path. Chris Polhill.
JESUS’ PRAYER Jim Cotter paraphrase
Eternal Spirit
Life-Giver, Pain-Bearer, Love-Maker,
source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
loving God, in whom is heaven:
the hallowing of your name
echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed
by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done
by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test,
strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory
of the power that is love, now and for ever.
Amen.
LIGHTING THE RAINBOW CANDLE
The rainbow candle represents the inclusive nature of our church where all are welcome, and also celebrates our children.
TIME WITH CHILDREN Cam 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
Traditionally we shake hands to pass the peace and say “peace be with you.” Now that COVID-19 is here we ask that you pass the peace without shaking hands.
THE WORD IN TEXTS John Harper
Hebrew Bible Psalm 48:1-12 NLT
Gospel Luke 12:13-21 NLT
Contemporary reading From " Sharing possessions: what faith demands
By Luke Timothy Johnson
“To think seriously about possessions, one needs to recognise that our language about and perceptions of possessions are located within a societal and symbolic context. We stand within a given society’s appreciation of what it means to have and own, and we can compare these valuations with those of other societies. But these valuations are themselves located within overarching and pervasive understandings about what being human means for a given culture. Thinking and talking about possessions assumes not only a sociology but an anthropology and a theology as well. To use less rarified terms, the ways people regard owning things, and the values they attach to possessions involve the ways they think about human nature (or human freedom in the world), about the place of humans in the world and about the relationship of human beings and the world to God."
RESPONSE
For the Word in scripture,
for the Word among us,
for the Word within us,
we give thanks.