July 10, 2022

WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE

PRELUDE                                                                                     ‘Diapason Movement’

John Keeble 1711-1786

CALL TO WORSHIP

God of miracles and gifts,

God of humanness and divine life,

God of unexpected connections with us

and mysteries of creativity far beyond our seeing.

God of the little and the least

and of those who think they are powerful:

You have chosen to be our God.

We have chosen to be your people

and we come to worship you.

SILENCE

 

PROCESSIONAL HYMN                                AA 85 ‘Let justice roll down like a river’

                                                   Words and Music © 1994 Colin Gibson Hope Publishing Company (3 verses)

Refrain:

Let justice roll down like a river,

let justice roll down like a sea,

let justice roll down like a river,

let justice begin through me.

 

1. Justice for all who go hungry,

crying to God to be fed,

left in a world of abundance

to beg for a morsel of bread.   Refrain

 

 

 

2. Justice for those who are homeless,

victims of warfare or need,

trapped on the borders of no-where,

lost in the canyons of greed.   Refrain

 

3. Justice for all who are powerless,

yearning for freedom in vain,

plundered, and robbed of their birth-right,

silently bearing their pain.    Refrain

 

GATHERING

We begin our week together,

   honouring this life, with all its potentials and possibilities.

We begin our week with trust

   knowing we are created for loving encounter.

We begin our week with hope,

   knowing that it can hold

   love, kindness,

   forgiveness and justice.

We recall the week that has gone,

a pause…..

 

We ask

   may we learn, may we love,

   may we live on.

We make room for the unexpected,

   May we find wisdom and life

   in the unexpected.

Help us to embrace possibility,

respond graciously to disappointment

and hold tenderly those we encounter.

   Help us be fully present to the week to come.

 (Padraig O Tuama adapted)

 

WELCOME 

E te whānau a Te Karaiti

ngā mihi aroha ki a tātou katoa.

Kia ora tātou.

 

Talofa lava,

       Talofa

 

PRAYER By Bronwyn Angela White
We gather together the strands of our hectic lives
And offer each other, this day, a breathing space.
We come in faith
We venture out of our isolation
our safe solitariness
to share this morning in each other’s lives
We come in faith
We come for many reasons – some we don’t understand.
We come from habit, from instinct, from choice, curiosity.
We come to celebrate, give thanks
to share community
We come in faith
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 Rosemary Lawrence
BLESSING THE CHILDREN (All stand)
Children you may return to sit with your family or find some do activities to do from the cupboard at the back of the church.
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 Valerie Rhodes
Hebrew Bible Amos 7:7-17
Gospel/New Testament Luke 10:25-37
Contemporary reading ‘Love your Enemy’
By Joy Cowley
I heard him say, Love your enemy.
And I thought, well, I did.
Sort of. At a distance.
As long as I didn’t have to talk to her
or share the same room for any time.
It wasn’t just a matter of principle.
I had to let her know
that I didn’t approve.

But he kept saying, Love your enemy.
Over and over. Love your enemy.
And I thought, well, maybe
a bit closer wouldn’t hurt.
A telephone call. Good morning.
Some questions of polite interest.
No need to compromise principles.
I could let her know
that I held no grudge.

He still kept saying it.
Love your enemy. Love your enemy.
So in the end, I had to go the whole hog.
Suddenly, there we were, talking about feelings,
Laughing and crying and hugging each other.
And I was healed of the wound I’d given myself
with my judgemental attitudes.

So the next time he said, Love your enemy,
I knew clearly what he meant.
My real enemy
is self.
And I need all the love and forgiveness
I can get.
RESPONSE
For the Word in scripture,
for the Word among us,
for the Word within us,
we give thanks.

HYMN CH172 ‘Sing for God’s glory’
Words: © 2003 Kathryn Galloway
Tune: Lobe den herren (Praise to the Lord the Almighty) 4 verses
Reprinted with permission under One License A-623996. All rights reserved

1. Sing for God's glory that colours the dawn of creation,
racing across the sky, trailing bright clouds of elation;
sun of delight
succeeds the velvet of night,
warming the earth's exultation.

2. Sing for God's power that shatters the chains that would bind us,
searing the darkness of fear and despair that could blind us,
touching our shame
with love that will not lay blame,
reaching out gently to find us.

3. Sing for God's justice disturbing each easy illusion,
tearing down tyrants and putting our pride to confusion;
lifeblood of right,
resisting evil and slight,
offering freedom's transfusion.

4. Sing for God's saints who have travelled faith's journey before us,
who in our weariness give us their hope to restore us;
in them we see
the new creation to be,
spirit of love made flesh for us.

---

REFLECTION “Who are the Samaritans in our lives?”
Rev. Dr Fei Taule’ale’ausumai
HYMN: WOV 561 ‘Kneels at the feet of his friends’
Words: Tom Colvin (c. 1965) and people of Ghana; Music: Ghana Folk Melody

1. Kneels at the feet of his friends,
silently washes their feet:
master who acts as a slave to them.
Refrain: Yesu, Yesu,
fill us with your love,
show us how to serve
the neighbours we have from you.

2. Neighbours are rich folk and poor,
neighbours are black folk and white,

neighours are nearby and far away.
Refrain

3. These are the ones we should serve,
these are the ones we should love
all men are neighbours to us and you.
Refrain

4. Loving puts us on our knees,
serving as though we were slaves:
this is the way we should live with you
Refrain

---

OFFERTORY MUSIC “Neander” Hymn Tune
(J. Neander 1640-1680)
OFFERING HYMN ‘Give thanks for life’
Words © Shirley Murray (AA 45)
Music: SINE NOMINE, Ralph Vaughan Williams (CH4 736&WOV 384)
Give thanks for life,
the measure of our days,
mortal, we pass
through beauty that decays,
yet sing to God
our hope, our love, our praise,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
OFFERING AND PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Faithful God, you ask us to be faithful people.
In this community, you ask us to be people of justice.
In this community, you ask us to be people of mercy.
In this community, you ask us to be people of peace.
Be with us as we try to be faithful
in large ways and in small ways
so your eternal community may come in every way.
Amen.
OFFERING PRAYER

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, 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 Fiona McDougal
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Saudi Arabia and all those working to protect and promote human rights in Saudi Arabia. We hold all refugees in our hearts. We pray in particular for those detained for many years in Papua New Guinea & Nauru. We give thanks for progress that has been made and pray that their calls for justice might yet find a compassionate response. In New Zealand, we remember those in Parliament, and today we name Hon Willie Jackson and Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki list MPs. Here in the Central Presbytery, we pray for the leaders and people of St Paul's Presbyterian Church, Napier.
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 CH4 533 ‘Will you come and follow me?’
Words: Graham Maule, Music: Kelvingrove John L. Bell
Words and Music © 1987 WGRG Iona Community
Reprinted with permission under One License A-623996. All rights reserved

1. Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don't know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known?
Will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

2. Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?

 
3. Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?

4. Will you love the "you" you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you've found to reshape the world around,
through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?

5. Lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In Your company I'll go where Your love and footsteps show.
Thus I'll move and live and grow in you and you in me.

---

BLESSING
Go into the world as those who choose and are chosen to bring justice, peace and freedom to a longing people. And may God be in our every action, Christ Jesus be in the every pausing to listen and the Holy Spirit be in every moment of choosing.
Amen (Dorothy McRae-McMahon)
SUNG AMEN
POSTLUDE March from “A Bridge Too Far”
by J Addison (1920-1998)