Majestic and Playful God, you see in children the hearts of generosity and joy; and in adults who should be wise, you see the foolishness of believing we can control our lives through money and power. We bring gifts to you this morning, foolishly believing that what we have is ours to give or hold back. Give us eyes to see we are all your children enjoying breath, life, food, drink, and shelter only because of the unimaginable bounty of your love and caring. In the name of Jesus, who held nothing back, we pray.
Sermon Suggestion
Through the Wilderness
The watchword for the week: Give me understanding, O God, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Psalm Gracious God, we affirm that your way is perfect. The Biblical witness and the life of Jesus Christ give us the pattern by which we should live out our faith, but we have chosen to walk on our own path. We confess that we have found it all too easy to follow the way of our culture and have made keeping your statutes an option, rather than an expectation for our lives. So we humbly ask that you create in us a clean heart, O God, and place within us that understanding that will help us to see your way and to observe it with our whole heart. Lord, have mercy on us. The Lord says to us: I will forgive your wrong-doing and remember your sin no more.
Order of Service for the Liturgy of the Word
This page is set up to enable you to participate in the Liturgy of The Word, during which you will hear the sermon in its natural liturgical context; or you can scroll down the page to hear the stand-alone sermon webcast accompanied by the written text. You can also view our return to eucharistic worship by clicking here. Podcasts produced by Christian Tulungen.
What does Scripture say in the face of self-centred power politics and corruption? Of greed and increasing inequality on the planet? Of the domination of economic growth over human and planetary well-being? What does Scripture say about mounting mountains of plastic, entering our food chain and poisoning both the natural environment and people? With global warming bringing about climate disruption, change in weather patterns, increased weather extremes with droughts, floods, hurricanes and cyclones reaching new levels of intensity, what does Scripture say? With deforestation bringing about the destruction of the lungs of the planet, with marine stocks plummeting and the very future of life at stake, can we find the wisdom and guidance needed from our Scriptures? Some amazing natural and supernatural events failed to convince the Egyptians to let the Israelites go.
