August 12, 2018
WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE
Write your welcome here
GATHERING
As followers of Jesus we seek to live
As he might have lived were he here
What truths would he speak into our society?
What talk might he encourage?
What anger might he express?
How might we do all of those here and now in this place and time?
We seek wisdom and guidance
Wisdom and guidance greater than our own
PROCESSIONAL HYMN ‘Celebrate the life’
Words: © 2015 Susan Jones
Music: Austria WOV 577
Celebrate the Life we’re given
Grace on grace, where love abounds
Celebrate the world around us
Blue and green, where birdsong sounds
Celebrate sun’s rise and setting
‘cross the harbour, over hills
Everything reflects its making
Beauty, love, joy; each heart fills.
We choose to live lives of meaning
even when the sky turns grey.
We choose to continue journeying
Cis and trans, bi, straight and gay.
We choose wrestling doubt or danger,
Trials may shadow, haunt our way.
But we know that we’re companioned,
Love walks with us, every day.
WELCOME
Kia ora tatou.
Kia ora.
PRAYER
JESUS PRAYER Jim Cotter paraphrase on card
LIGHTING THE RAINBOW ROOM CANDLE
TIME WITH CHILDREN Rosemary Lawrence
BLESSING THE CHILDREN (All stand)
We send you to the Rainbow Room programme to hear stories, ask questions
and have fun together. We bless you. Amen.
PASSING THE PEACE
Feel free to pass the peace with those nearby or move to greet others further away. Passing the peace consists of shaking hands and saying “Peace be with you.” The response is “Peace be with you” or just “And with you.” Or, simply saying “Hello” is a good idea. Also feel free to simply observe if you wish!
THE WORD IN TEXTS Barrie Keenan
Epistle Ephesians 4: 25-5:2
Gospel Mark 11: 15-19
Contemporary reading “Understanding and befriending anger”
By Karla McLaren
https://karlamclaren.com/2013/03/29/understanding-and-befriending-anger/
Anger’s job is to help you set and maintain effective interpersonal boundaries. At its most subtle level, anger helps you uphold mutual respect and keep open the lines of communication in your relationships. Sadly, most of us weren’t taught about the subtleties of emotional nuance (understanding nuance helps you identify emotions at many different levels of activation), and as a result, we tend to identify anger only after it gets to the level of a mood. Since most of us were never taught how to take effective actions with our anger, this mood-state can often be acted out in very painful ways.
We’ve all been on the wrong end of someone’s badly managed anger, and we’ve all used anger as a bludgeon (or sarcasm as a stiletto). In fact, when most of us think of anger, we see a red-faced bull or something like it. Anger has a pretty terrible reputation.
However, people can also experience a great deal of pain and trouble in their lives if they don’t have enough anger…
…Anger is also connected with justice; not only for yourself, but for others as well. Your anger can be evoked when you see someone being stripped of their sense of self, their rights, or their position. Anger is a very social emotion; if you can understand its nuances and subtleties, it can help you become an effective voice for social justice.
Anger contains a great deal of focused, protective energy, and when you don’t have enough of it, you may struggle to set boundaries and protect yourself in relationships (or to protect the rights and dignity of others). Without your healthy anger, you can lose your vitality and your capacity to react and respond in resilient ways.
RESPONSE
For the Word in scripture,
for the Word among us,
for the Word within us,
we give thanks
REFLECTION ‘Truth, talk and anger’ Susan Jones
HYMN ‘Let us reach down deep inside us’
Words © 2016 Susan Jones
Music: FFS 10(i) Gaelic Trad Melody arr John Bell
Let us reach down deep inside us to the place where quiet reigns;
Find the Self who lives inside us knows our joy and knows our pains:
Let our ego stand aside there, shadow sharing space with light.
Let our inner selves rejoice at how Love shines in darkest night. (Silence)
Sacred calm means minds can settle, hearts grow quiet, souls grow still;
Busy thinking slows its rhythm, gives compassion chance to fill.
Even long-forgotten scars heal as new balm brings a new way;
Every space and every crevice warms as Love arrives to stay. (Silence)
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH Dorothy McRae McMahon
Liturgies for the Jouney of Life
Even as we seem to be dying
in weakness,
in fear,
overwhelmed by all the forces against us,
there are moments when we know
that we will never be determined
by any of that.
There is a God
who says to us
weep strongly,
be strongly afraid,
care strongly,
choose life strongly in faith
in all of that.
There is a God
who moves from hill to mountain top
who stands high in the depths of the pit,
who gasps free of the waters of drowning
and plants the cross-shaped tree
in the very shaking ground on which we stand
as though our trembling earth is like a rock.
There is a God
who steps free
of the binding chains around our souls
and calls us in a voice
which always knows our name,
who always feels our pain,
who lifts our feet
as though our life
stands cupped in a saving hand
and cherished forever in a life-filled place.
OFFERING PRAYER (said together)
So may it be
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 Bronwyn White
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Honduras and the work of development organisations in Honduras. In New Zealand, we remember those in Parliament, and today we name Jian Yang and Kiritapu Allan, list MPs. Here in the Central Presbytery, we pray for the leaders and people of St Margaret's Presbyterian Church in Silverstream.
PRAYER FOR ST ANDREW’S on card
HYMN FFS 48 ‘May the anger of Christ be mine’
Words: © Colin Gibson
Music: © 1992 Colin Gibson, Hope Publishing Company
1. May the anger of Christ be mine,
when the world grows hard and greedy,
when the rich have no care for the poor,
when the powerful take from the needy.
Refrain
In a world of restless change,
Standing for love and faith and justice,
In a dark confusing time,
Bearing the light, the shining light of Christ.
2. May the pity of Christ be mine,
when the outstretched hand’s not taken,
when the jobless stand in line,
when the lonely live forsaken. Refrain
3. May the love of Christ be mine
for the anguished, for the ailing,
for the frail disabled life,
for the fallen, for the failing. Refrain
4. May the actions of Christ be mine,
bringing hope, bringing new direction,
making peace in a warring time,
offering welcome and not rejection. Refrain
BLESSING
SUNG AMEN
THANK YOU Bruce Corkill
Our musician today
Unless otherwise specified all our music is used by permission CCLI Licence 341550
Words/music to new hymns and gathering statement, prayers and affirmation are original unless acknowledged. If Susan Jones is the worship leader any liturgy will have been written by her. These words can be used in other worship and small group situations without seeking permission. Please acknowledge the source.