A Light on the Hill

Order of Service – 17th September 2023

The Order of Service follows below.

For improved text clarity and easier reading, e.g. change text size, you can use ePub on iPhones, iPads and other devices with an ePub application. For your Kindle use mobi. If you want to see it exactly as printed, or print your own there is a pdf.

Kardlayirdi Karnungga
The light on the hill

Season of Creation – Arid Lands Sunday
September 17th, 2023
Preacher: Rev Linda Driver
Liturgical colour: Aqua

We acknowledge the Kaurna people as the traditional carers of the land on which our church is built.

Prelude

Welcome and Acknowledgment of Country

Welcome! Niina marni!
Marni’ai!

Lighting of the Candles and Introit – Where Wide Sky Rolls Down

Elizabeth J Smith Together in Song 188

Call to Worship

In the name of the Creator, the fountain of life, the name of Christ, the pulse of life, and the name of the Spirit, the breath of life. Amen.
Holy! Holy! Holy!
Earth is filled with God’s presence.

We invite the Arid Lands of this nation we call Australia to worship with us:
Uluru and the red centre,
deep gorges and mountain ranges.

We invite the flora to sing in the sun:
ghost gums and spinifex,
mallee trees and Sturt’s desert pea.

We join with the fauna of the outback in praising God:
roaming dingos and wallabies, goannas and hovering hawks.

We invite the Dreaming to join us in praise:
songs of ancient custodians deep in the rock,
spirits of life deep in the sand and the hills.

We celebrate the song of the Arid Lands!
Sing, Arid Lands, sing!

We Sing: Come One, Come All

Let all the earth come join the song
and join the dance for all belong
creation beats with willing hearts
so come on saints, let’s play our part

Come one, come all
to life that’s whole
come one, come all
to love that’s full

The hills and rivers sound their praise
and we join in for our God reigns
come to the table eat your fill
come rest by living waters still

Come one, come all
to life that’s whole
come one, come all
to love that’s full

So take your place and know you’re loved
and spread the word, for there’s enough
to know our God and truly live
creation was made for this

Come one, come all
to life that’s whole
Come one, come all
to love that’s full (x2)

So take your place and know you’re loved
and spread the word for there’s enough
to know our God and truly live
creation was made for this

Music and lyrics by Malcolm Gordon, arr by Fiona Chus. All rights reserved. ONE LICENSE. License #A‑604444.

Remembering

We remember the arid lands that God created, the outback, the wilderness, the wild places on earth, the worlds of wonder and mystery, the distant dreamings of the Outback.

We remember the wild worlds and hiding places of our childhood, where we found the footprints of mysterious animals and creeping critters hiding under rocks.

We remember and rejoice.
Thank you, God, for the arid lands,
for the outback and wild places
that stir us with wonder.

Prayer of Confession

Humans take up more and more space every year. We claim what we think is our own and tame what is wild. We do not hear the groaning of Creation but only our own hopes and dreams.

We remember and confess that we have become alienated from Earth and have desecrated sites in the Outback regions of our garden planet.

We are sorry.
.. for polluted deserts with radioactive waste.
.. for holes in the ozone layer.
.. for desecrated sacred sites in the Outback.
.. for destroyed homes of wild creatures.
We are sorry.
We are sorry.

Assurance of Forgiveness / Affirmation

Christ hears our confession out in the Arid Lands and forgives our sins against the Outback.
Christ, teach us to love Earth
and reconcile with Earth as our home.

Passing of the Peace

The peace of our God be with you.
And also with you.

Community News and Notices

Current or previous BP E-news and to sign up to receive BP E-news

Song: Getting to Know You

Choir Only – Sing once through.

As we learn, about you today
As you learn, about us today
As we learn, together on the way
God is here with us to-day.

Getting to know…House Groups and Linda

We Sing – Congregation sings twice.

As we learn, about you today
As you learn, about us today
As we learn, together on the way
God is here with us to-day.

Tune from Love and Anger song 70. African American traditional. © . Wild Goose Resource Group. Words M Harris

Children’s Time

Children may go downstairs for Sunday School. Parents, you are welcome to join your child in Sunday School if you feel your child may need your assistance. Alternatively, you may wish for your child to remain with you for the duration of worship. Activity packs are available at the entrances.

Choral Anthem: – Southern Cross

Rosemary Nairn

Bible Readings: Romans 8:18–27 and Mark 1:9–13

Romans 8:18-27 New Revised Standard Version (updated edition)

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Mark 1:9–13 New Revised Standard Version (updated edition)

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tested by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels waited on him.

The Gospel of Christ, Light of the world.
Thanks be to God.

Message

We Sing: God the Great Imagination

  1. God the great Imagination
    lit a spark and there was light.
    In a far-flung constellation
    this small rock was set in flight.
    Redgums soar in bellbird forests,
    creatures roam in pastures green,
    circled by the loving promise
    of God’s covenantal dream.

  2. Yet our world is still encumbered
    by the heedless need for power.
    Vested interests take and plunder,
    human flourishing turns sour.
    Still enslaved and still enslaving
    can we yet uphold the dream?
    Can God change our bad behaving
    and our conflicts still redeem?

  3. Can we work in co-creation,
    work with hearts and hands to see
    hope and reconciliation,
    freedom in our world of need?
    Shall we yet live out Love’s image,
    suffer till the task is done?
    Love will labour till it’s finished
    and the transformation won.

  4. God with cosmic inspiration
    sets the possible to stir.
    Christ the cosmic incarnation,
    comes to change the way we were.
    God beyond us, Christ beside us,
    Spirit’s inward deep embrace.
    Covenant of richest beauty
    our Creator’s gift of grace.

Words: Sharonne Price. Tune: Nettleton (Come Thou Fount of Ev’ry Blessing) © Sharonne Price 2019. Used with permission.

Offering

To give electronically please go to bpuc.org/give

Alternatively, there is an offering bowl near the lectern on the left-hand side as you exit the church.

Offering Prayer:

God, our Creator, through your love you have given us these gifts to share. Accept our offerings – of cash, and of gifts n goodies to go towards the East Adelaide Domestic Violence Service (EADVS), – as an expression of our deep thanks and as signs of our concern for those in need, including our fellow creatures on planet Earth.

With all creation we praise our Creator.
Amen

Prayers of the People

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be Your name,

your Kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in Heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins,

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us in the time of trial

and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours

now and forever. Amen.

We Sing: May Our Lives

Chorus:
May our lives and our prayers be one
As our hopes shape the roads we walk on
And when our work and our dreaming’s done
May our lives and our prayers be one.

  1. Within the rhythm of our days
    We take the time to muse and pray
    The fears we face, the tears we taste
    We view in light of holy grace.

    May our lives and our prayers be one
    As our hopes shape the roads we walk on
    And when our work and our dreaming’s done
    May our lives and our prayers be one.

  2. We name our deepest hopes and dreams
    For those we love and all in need
    We picture how the world could be
    We live the change we want to see.

    May our lives and our prayers be one
    As our hopes shape the roads we walk on
    And when our work and our dreaming’s done
    May our lives and our prayers be one.

Paul Somerville © 2013. All rights reserved. ONE LICENSE. License #A‑604444.

Sending Forth and Benediction

Blessing

Go in peace, serving Christ and loving Earth!
We go in peace,
serving Christ
and tending Earth!

Choral Blessing: – For You, Deep Stillness

Robin Mann and Julie Perrin

Postlude

Come and share morning tea together, in the basement. There are stairs behind the organ and a ramp between the church and the car park leading to the basement.

Some of the liturgy in this service is adapted from Seasons of the Spirit, Wood Lake Publishing; and the Outback Sunday resource from the Season of Creation seasonofcreation.org

Season of Creation Discipleship Ideas

You are invited to try one or more of the following as Spiritual Disciplines during the Season of Creation: