December 20, 2020

WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE

GATHERING

 

It is in the darkness that light shines most brightly,

and it is in the darkness of life,

darkness of fear,

and superstition,

and oppression,

that God gives the gift of light.

 

We are called to become aware

at this Christmas Season,

of the dark places of our world

so that we might bring,

in our own lives,

the light of God’s love,

to those who dwell in darkness in our day.

 

Worship is our time of recognition,

both of the darkness that is present,

and of the gift of light we have to share.

Let us worship in the presence of the One we name God.

 

PROCESSIONAL HYMN WOV 224 ‘Joy to the World’
Words: Isaac Watts (alt) Music G F Handel
1. Joy to the world! A new age dawns.
It comes, shalom to bring
Let ev’ry heart prepare a room,
and heav’n and nature sing, and heav’n and nature sing,
and heav’n and heav’n and nature sing.

2. Graceful and true, the Saviour brings
compassion all may share
for poor and homeless, so may they find
their life becomes more fair, their life becomes more fair
their life, their life becomes more fair.
WELCOME
Kia ora tatou.
Kia ora.
OPENING RESPONSES

Among us the Spirit of God conceives new life
and we feel the life within us.
In our history the Christ makes gentle entry
and we see the light before us.
With our dreams the truth of our God is revealed
and we welcome the hope of the world.
PRAYER

God, who arrives as the vulnerable One,
we confess that the mystery of your presence
often eludes us.
If we have lost the sense of wonder,
if we have given Christmas away to the children
as though we have outgrown its stories,
if we have let the words and carols flow over us
with little excitement,
fill our emptiness with the fullness
of your surprising life.

If we have been overtaken
with our efforts to celebrate
and exhausted the reasons for celebration,
relieved that it is over and that a newer year is waiting in the wings,
fill our emptiness with the fullness
of your surprising life.

If we are overcome by losses and betrayals,
empty of innocent hope,
lacking in love and the surrounding care
which makes Christmas real,
fill our emptiness with the fullness
of your surprising life.

Listen! The Word is born among us!
Christ is come among us
and nothing can separate us
from the love of God.
Grace and Peace is the gift to us today.
JESUS’ PRAYER

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 all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth!
With the bread that 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 forever. Amen.
LIGHTING THE RAINBOW CANDLE
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.

A MOMENT OF SILENCE AS WE PREPARE TO LISTEN

THE WORD IN TEXTS Trish McBride

Hebrew Scripture Exodus 1: 8-22

Gospel Matthew 2: 13-18

Contemporary Reading Disturbing The Silence
On Child Abuse
In New Zealand
Opinion: Lynley Tulloch
SCOOP News 15 Feb 2020

The most recent child abuse case in New Zealand has affected many of us deeply. This particular child - just 4 years old - was bashed so badly that part of his brain has died. It happened on 29th January 2020. He received a continued beating over several days and will be severely brain damaged for life.

Nearly as hard to deal with is the silence from those who perpetrated this violence on a young child. Despite the fact that there were many people present while this child was battered, the family has closed shop.

Who, in the words of Simon and Garfunkel, is going to disturb the silence?
It is such a difficult topic to write on, and an even harder one to comprehend. We understand so little about child abuse, consign it to the box of “sick individuals”, and in doing so simplify a very complex issue.
Collectively, as a nation we grieve, and we feel anger at this senseless and violent act. Maybe anger is better than hopelessness. Our children need us to still hope for them.

Yet our sadness is amplified by the knowledge that this is going to happen again and again. New Zealand has one of the worst records of child abuse in the ‘developed world’, with one child killed every five weeks. There are 14,000 substantiated findings of child abuse every year in New Zealand. Police respond to a domestic call-out every seven minutes.

RESPONSE
For the Word in scripture,
For the Word among us,
For the Word within us,
We give thanks

HYMN ‘Herod waiting, Herod watching’
Words:© Andrew Pratt
Music: Blaenwern WOV 165ii
1. Herod waiting, Herod watching,
Herod grasping, holding power,
Herod fearful for the future,
Herod counting every hour.
Now the things that he was fearing:
love and justice, peace and health,
here embodied in a person,
God incarnate, heaven's wealth.

2. This was more than he could stomach,
human wine skins tear and rend.
Herod's dream had been confounded,
human power had met its end.
Many children now were crying,
temper triumphed, babies dead.
Mary, Joseph made an exit,
every step was filled with dread.

3. Into exile they were driven,
fear would ripple through each life:
Jesus challenged vested interests.
Gracious love fuelled hate and strife.
And the children still are crying,
forced to war and harmed by hate.
Still our world is deaf to hear them,
still our loving comes too late.
REFLECTION Jim Cunningham
They’re Only Children.........
MUSIC FOR MEDITATION Judy Dumbleton

HYMN (seated) ‘Dear Jesus, in whose life I see’
Words: John Hunter (1848-1917) RCH 640
Music: Winscott RCH 338
1. Dear Jesus, in whose life I see
all that I would but fail to be.
Let thy clear light for ever shine
to shame and guide this life of mine.

2. Though what I dream and what I do
in my weak days are sometimes two,
help me, oppressed by thing undone,
O Thou, whose deeds and dreams were one.

OFFERING AND DEDICATION

We dedicate our lives and all that we have
for hope, for peace, for joy, and for love.
Receive our gifts and lead us in wisdom and courage. Amen.

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 Lynne Dovey
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Colombia and the Presbyterian Church of Colombia. 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 Louisa Wall and Angie Warren-Clark, list MPs. Here in the Central Presbytery, we pray for the leaders and people of St James' Union Church, Masterton.
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,
the desire for beauty,
and the care for others 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 WOV 669 ‘I am the light of the world’
Words: Howard Thurman and Jim Strathdee Music © 1969 Jim Strathdee

I am the light of the world.
You people come and follow me!
If you follow and love
you’ll learn the mystery
of what you were meant to do and be.

1. When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and the shepherds
have found their way home,
the work of Christmas is begun:

2. To find the lonely and the lost,
to heal their broken souls with love,
to feed the hungry children
with warmth and good food,
to feel the earth below, the sky above;

3. To free the prisoners from their chains,
to make the powerful care,
to re-build the nations
with strength of good will,
to be at one with people everywhere;

4. To bring hope to every task you do,
to dance at a baby’s new birth,
to make music in
an old man’s heart,
and sing to the colours of the earth.
BLESSING
SUNG AMEN
POSTLUDE