August 16, 2020

WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE

Today’s service is led by Rev. Dr Jim Cunningham

Welcome to St Andrew’s on The Terrace

Wherever you are on your faith journey,

wherever you have come from and wherever you are going to,

whatever you believe, whatever you do not believe, you are welcome here.

Please join in the congregational responses printed in bold italics.

Please stand if you are able, for the hymns and the offering prayer.

We usually sing the hymns without announcement.

 

GATHERING
We are called as a community of faith,
a supportive community,
in which we love into being
new possibilities for one another,
calling out of each other the best we have to offer.
In doing so we follow the pattern of our God,
who accepts us as we are,
while drawing us on to realise what we can be.
In our worship we build the community
where the fostering of new possibilities
can take birth and grow. Amen.

PROCESSIONAL HYMN ‘Stand tall in Christ’
Words: Margaret Ranby. Tune: WOV 109 Woodlands

Stand tall in Christ, all people of our God,
no other idol will suffice this hour.
In Jesus Christ all captives are set free,
all hurts are healed and hope is born anew.

Stand tall in Love, all people who would dare
be reconcilers where divisions lie.
In love will pain and loneliness be eased
and rainbows hung in all our hearts again.

Stand tall in Peace, all people who love life,
whose lives are candles in earth’s darkest place.
Who plead for justice and support the weak
that all might live in hope and harmony.

Stand tall in Faith, all people who would share
as trusting partners in God’s enterprise,
Whose lives would speak in deeds, not just in words,
of grace, forgiveness and a generous heart.
WELCOME
Kia ora tatou.
Kia ora.
PRAYER
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 ROOM CANDLE
TIME WITH CHILDREN Sonia Groes-Petrie

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 is here
we ask that you pass the peace without shaking hands.
THE WORD IN TEXTS Trish McBride
Hebrew Bible Isaiah 56: 1, 6-8
Gospel Matthew 15: 21-28

Contemporary reading From "More Than Words" by Chuck Lathrop
Crossroad, 1992. New York. pg. 142-43)
"A Gentle Presence"

For the church to call itself to work as Jesus did,
in poverty and under oppression,
is to seek an unaccustomed stance.
It is to be, stand, and operate from the point of view
of the world’s victims and losers.
It is to live and preach the gospel from the bottom up.
It is a falling down, a downward mobility, if you will,
into the commonality of human existence.
It is neither nice nor comfortable.
In addition, it is confrontational and conflictual.
Because of such a stance, the church, while it is committed
to and in the world,
will also be at odds with the world ‘as it is’.
Such obedience to God will necessarily mean it will be
a minority phenomenon, a threat to any
political or cultural status quo.
The ramifications are many, the cost is high.
RESPONSE
For the Word in scripture,
for the Word among us,
for the Word within us,
we give thanks.

REFLECTION ‘A Hard Passage” Rev. Dr Jim Cunningham
HYMN Startle us, God
Words: © Shirley Erena Murray;
Music: WOV 28 Lobe den Herren

Startle us, God, by the signs of your Spirit around us!
Shake us awake for the thrust of Your Word to astound us!
Rattle our doors, give our discomfort no pause,
rouse us for work you have found us.

Wake us to see where the winds of the city are blowing,
facing the brokers of power where the currents are flowing,
finding the lost, learning what justice may cost,
feeling the pain of our growing.

Shock us by showing us Jesus, his style of direction,
welcoming, never conventional in his selection,
open our minds, teach us how prejudice blinds,
colours our culture’s reflection.

Startle us, God, into confident high expectation,
knowing the hope and the promise of new revelation,
taking your part, praising with mind and with heart,
honouring all your creation.
OFFERING PRAYER (said together)
God of love and compassion, by our smallest actions,
we become part of a bigger world.
The smallest giving can be an expression
of the good spirit of generosity and caring.
Help us to carry through the doorway of each new day
this good spirit of generosity and caring. Amen

We recognise and bless the gifts brought to the table, and those which wing
their way electronically from our banks to the church’s account.
LIFE IN THE COMMUNITY OF ST ANDREW’S
People share notices and visitors are welcomed. If you have a notice not already in the order of service, please move to the front row, ready to speak briefly from the lectern.
For the benefit of newcomers, please introduce yourself before you begin.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE Sue McRae
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Bhutan and the Buddhist people in Bhutan and throughout the world. We remember the detainees of Manus and Nauru Islands, yearning that their cases be resolved. In New Zealand, we remember those in Parliament, and today we name Simon O'Connor (Tāmaki electorate) and Chris Penk (Helensville electorate). Here in the Central Presbytery, we pray for the leaders and people of St Mark's Presbyterian Church, Hastings and from the worldwide church for the the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Oberlausitz.
PRAYER FOR ST ANDREW’S

Renew your people, God,
and renew our life in this place.
Give us a new spirit of unity
with all who follow the Way of Jesus
and new bonds of love
with people of other faiths.

Bless the city in which we live
that it may be a place
where honest dealing,
good government,
and the desire for beauty flourish.

Bless this church
that what we know of your will
may become what we do,
and what we believe
the strong impulse
of our worship and work.

Amen
HYMN ‘Draw the Circle Wide’
Music & Words by Gordon Light ©2008 Abingdon Press
(Admin by CopyCare Pacific Pty Ltd)
Draw the circle wide.
Draw it wider still.
Let this be our song,
no-one stands alone,
standing side by side,
draw the circle wide.

God the still-point of the circle,
‘Round whom all creation turns;
Nothing lost, but held forever,
in God’s gracious arms.
chorus

Let our hearts touch far horizons,
So encompass great and small;
Let our loving know no borders,
Faithful to God’s call.
chorus

Let the dreams we dream be larger,
Than we’ve ever dreamed before;
Let the dream of Christ be in us,
Open every door…
chorus twice

BLESSING
Go now with peace, ready to live it.
Go now with joy, ready to share it.
Go now with love, for the spirit of love goes with you always.
SUNG AMEN
POSTLUDE “Allegro” by Thomas Arne (1710-1778)