11/09/2022
ST FRANCIS IN THE FOREST: 11.09.2022: Pentecost 14C
SEASON OF CREATION 2
This Service will be live streamed on the St Francis in the Forest page on Sunday morning
Lectionary Readings for this Sunday:
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14 or Psalm 51:1-10
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10
· Broken Vessels
CALL TO WORSHIP
Light candles
Psalm 14.14-17
My God, you are the one who saves me!
Let me sing about all the good things you do for me!
My Lord, I will open my mouth and sing your praises!
You don’t really want sacrifices, or I would give them to you.
The sacrifice that God wants is a humble spirit.
God, you will not turn away someone who comes with a humble heart and is willing to obey you.
Prayer:
You have brought us again to new life, O God, and gathered us in this community to be your people as we work and witness in this world. Feed us today with the presence of our risen Lord of Christ, and breathe into us your Spirit, that we may be enabled in all we say and do to glorify your name.
· Beneath the waters
· Our God is an awesome God
WELCOME, FAMILY NEWS, NOTICES
Birthdays:
Thornton Botes
11 September
Helen Ludlow
11 September
Benjamin Nsenga
11 September
Lena Mathalane
14 September
Lynn Morgan
15 September
Norma Cremer
16 September
Esme Spring
16 September
Announcements:
Wed 14September: Midweek Zoom prayers 17.30-18.00.
Thurs 15 September: meal preparation and distribution at the Church.
Please join us for a cup of refreshment in the Hall after the service.
THANKSGIVING
Offering taken
· All the earth
Prayer of thanksgiving (or pray part in home language)
You have given humans the responsibility to care for each other. Indigenous people have historical, spiritual, and personal ties to these lands on which we inhabit. But many of us have failed to recognise the presence of God in these traditions, and their voices have been silenced. We are thankful to Indigenous Nations for their continuing care and presence on the Earth. We all value the resilience and strength shown through the generations and today. We turn to the Spirit who dismantles borders and celebrates life giving community. Help us make a place where everyone is welcome and we acknowledge your grace at work in the ways of one another. Together, may we learn the spiritual richness of our relationships in the web of life. Amen.
Natalie
Children Address and Prayer
· Father Abraham
CONFESSION
Jeremiah 4:22-28 (The Message)
“What fools my people are! They have no idea who I am. A company of half-wits, dopes and donkeys all! Experts at evil but klutzes at good.” I looked at the earth—it was back to pre-Genesis chaos and emptiness.
I looked at the skies, and not a star to be seen. I looked at the mountains—they were trembling like aspen leaves, and all the hills rocking back and forth in the wind. I looked—what’s this! Not a man or woman in sight, and not a bird to be seen in the skies. I looked—this can’t be! Every garden and orchard shrivelled up.
All the towns were ghost towns and all this because of God, because of the blazing anger of God. Yes, this is God’s Word on the matter: “The whole country will be laid waste—still it won’t be the end of the world. The earth will mourn and the skies lament because I’ve given my word and won’t take it back. I’ve decided and won’t change my mind.”
Prayer
Creator of All, from your communion of love your Word went forth to create a symphony of life that sings your praise. By your Holy Wisdom you made the Earth to bring forth a diversity of creatures who praise you in their being. You called human beings to till and keep your garden. But we turn in on ourselves and away from our co-creatures. We fail to listen to the cries of the poor and the needs of the most vulnerable. We silence the voices of those who hold the traditions that teach us to care for the Earth. We close our ears to your creative, reconciling and sustaining Word that calls to us through the Scriptures. Creation cries out as forests crackle, and animals alike flee the fires of injustice that we have lit by our unwillingness to listen. In this Season of Creation, we pray that you would call to us, as from the burning bush, with the sustaining fire of your Spirit. Turn us from our inward gaze. Teach us to contemplate your creation, and listen for the voice of each creature declaring your glory. Give us hearts to listen, enlighten us with your grace, and fill us with the hope to quench the fires of injustice with the light of your healing love that sustains our common home. In the name of the one who came to proclaim good news to all creation, Jesus Christ.
Silent reflection and prayer
Paul states in his first letter to Timothy: I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength, because he judged me trustworthy and appointed me to his service, even though in the past I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man. However, I have been treated with mercy because I had acted out of ignorance and unbelief. As a result, the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and the love that are in Christ Jesus. This saying can be trusted and merits complete acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of these. But for that very reason I was treated mercifully, so that in me Jesus Christ might exhibit his inexhaustible patience, making me an example for those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:12-17 New Catholic Bible)
Absolution
We hear the good news. God hears the cry of our hearts and the groan of creation; we are forgiven, restored and confirmed as God’s beloved through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Turn us O God, from our ego centred desire, from our refusal to hear the voices of our co-creatures. Call us again, open our ears. Gather us in to relationships of mutual care and listening. Enlighten us by your Spirit that renews the face of your Earth. Amen.
Pass the peace
· Still
RECEIVING THE WORD
Luke 15:1-10 (New Catholic Bible)
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all crowding around to listen to Jesus, and the Pharisees and the scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Therefore, he told them this parable: “Which one of you, if you have a hundred sheep and lose one of them, will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he does find it, he lays it on his shoulders joyfully. Then, when he returns home, he calls together his friends and neighbours and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost.’ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance. “Or again, what woman who has ten silver coins and loses one will not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching thoroughly until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I lost.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Sermon: James Baker
INTERCESSION
Prayer:
Loving God, even the sparrow has found a home and the swallow a nest for herself, where she places her young near your altar. You are attentive to all you have made. God, who listens to every living thing, help us listen as you do. Loving God, help us provide refuge to every animal and plant with which we live. Help us be attentive to all you have made. God, in whom all creation subsists, help us listen as you do. Loving God, when Jesus cried out and gave up his Spirit, the earth shook and the rocks split. You are known by the whole of creation that listens to you. God, to whom all creation responds, help us respond to you. Loving God, help us hear and know you just as the earth and rocks do. Help us to learn from the way in which we see creation recognise your glorious beauty. God, to whom all creation responds, help us respond to you. Loving God, you are present in your creation and seek to heal her wounds. You can be found walking in the garden. Open our eyes to see you, the gardener. God, who is present with your creation, help us be present too. Loving God, we often abandon your creation and cause its wounds. Help us to follow in your footsteps and learn to walk in the garden like you. God, who is present with your creation, Help us be present too. Loving God, who hears every voice, knows each cry of injustice, and is attentive to the suffering of the earth: teach us to listen. Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may listen to the world you have created and not close ourselves off from it. Reveal to us the ways in which we have failed to hear your voice in how we treat the earth. God, who listens to every living thing, Help us listen as you do. Amen
Giving thanks for answered prayer:
The Bereaved and separated families: The Rutenberg family in remembrance of Harry, Cecile’s husband. The Ramushu family in remembrance of Gertrude Masarirambi, Pamela’s mother.
Healing and Strength: Ruth Leverton (kidneys), Tikvah Moselankwe, Ronnie, Debbie Earles cousin, Marina and Denis McDougall, Rodney Bastion, Ronnie (Debbie Earle’s cousin), Lorna Ackerman, Bongi Kunene, Miel Steel (friend of the Martins who has Renal carcinoma), George Baker and his Son-in-law Willem, Dot van Eeden, Marbel Moyo, Abiah Mahlatse’s Mom, Moira de Swardt, Den and Jen Adams, Helen and Marc Schutte, Edith Aspeling, Sallie Ramsbotham, Bea Barnet, Miems Human, Gay Schutte, Mike & Yvonne Reed, Louise Peters, Irene Wolmerans, Mary Moholane, Harold Moyo, Val Coomer, Chris Sibanda’s mother, Bryan Dlamini’s mother, Cecilia Baker, Eileen Zipp, The Reeds sister Glynis, Mothers who are pregnant. Rodney and Yvonne Bastion and Brian and Biff Roth families with their move.
Those receiving cancer treatment: Josh Roux (a friend of the Barnes’s), Gloria Bouchet, Brian Roth, Charlotte Tannous (Luke Tannous mom), Jasmine Gerrard, Desryn Ferguson
The horrors of war, drought, famine, disasters rampant in our world.
All those effected by the economic Crisis.
COMMUNION
Words of institution
Lord’s prayer (projected)
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 from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever. Amen.
Prayer of humble access (projected)
Lord, we come to your table trusting in your mercy and not in any goodness of our own we are not worthy even to gather up the crumbs under your table, but it is your nature always to have mercy, and on that we depend. So feed us with the body, and blood of Jesus Christ, Your Son, that we may forever live in him and he in us. Amen.
Receiving the Sacrament
Concluding prayer
SENDING OUT
· Lord of Lords
Benediction
· King of kings
