Gather

Acknowledgement of Country

“We pay our respects to the elders past, present and future of the Gweagal people who have cared for this land in time beyond our dreaming. We acknowledge that this land on which we live and move was and always will be Aboriginal Land.”

(We light the candle as a sign of God’s presence with us in our worship)

Call to worship ONE: Come, let us gather in praise of the one who shows us the way: ALL: The way of Christ is love. ONE: Let us gather in thanksgiving for the one who teaches the truth: ALL: That we were all made in God’s image and called good. ONE: Let us worship the one who gives us life. ALL: Blessed be our God, source of all creation.

Sing: Christ is alive, let Christians sing (Brian Wren) TiS 387 (Words in

video)

SING: https://youtu.be/fD8pxDgTZZU

Christ is alive! Let Christians sing. The cross stands empty to the sky. Let streets and homes with praises ring; Love, drowned in death, shall never die. Christ is alive! No longer bound to distant years in Palestine, but saving, healing, here and now, and touching every place and time. In every insult, rift and war, where colour, scorn or wealth divide, Christ suffers still, yet loves the more, and lives, where even hope has died. Women and men, in age and youth can feel the Spirit, hear the call, and find the way, the life, the truth, revealed in Jesus, freed for all. Christ is alive, and comes to bring good news to this and every age, til earth and sky and ocean ring with joy, with justice, love and praise. © 1999 Hope Publishing Words: Brian Arthur Wren Reproduced under Copyright Licences: LicenSing #604712; CCLI #45150

Opening prayer

ONE: This vase of flowers is not God. ALL: Our God is within and beyond.

ONE: We are not God.

ONE: This stone cross is not God.

ALL: Our God is within and beyond.

ONE: This silver jug is not God.

ALL: Our God is within and beyond.

ONE: We are not God. ALL: Our God is within and beyond. God of all Creation, out of your being all things were made, yet in all things your being is uncontained. Help us to see you within all things, within all people. Help us to know that you are beyond our understanding, beyond our imagining, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen.

Prayer of confession God of all, whom we have learned to see in the person of Jesus the

Christ, open our eyes to your presence around us. Open our hearts, that we might see your incarnation continuing in the living and growing of your Creation. For we confess that we see you more easily in those who look like us, think like us, act like us. We confess that we can struggle to see you in those who are different – in the diversity of Creation; we confess that we do not always see that you are more significant than we are, more diverse than we are, more inclusive than we are. Those experiencing homelessness- Addictions- Those from overseas- those who have a different sexual orientation – refugees – the unemployed. {You may add others} We confess that in refusing to see you in ALL our neighbours, we have refused to love you as you have loved us. Forgive us, we pray. Help us to see beyond ourselves. Help us to keep your commandments. Help us to feel confident enough in your love for us that we can acknowledge your love for others without fear. Amen.

ONE: This bridge and opera house

are not God.

ALL: Our God is within and beyond

Words of affirmation ONE: God of grace, you invite us to love one another as you have loved us.

And so we remember your abiding love. We remember that you did not wait until we were ready but sent Jesus the Christ to guide us in your way. For your grace is poured out upon us before we even ask, calling us always back to you.

By your mercy, we are beloved. By your grace, we are forgiven. ALL: Thanks be to God! Alleluia! Amen. Sing: Healer of our every ill (Marty Haugen) (Words included in video) SING: https://youtu.be/NzWBXsVaejY Refrain

Healer of our every ill,

Light of each tomorrow,

Give us peace beyond our fear

And hope beyond tomorrow.

You who know our fears and sadness

Grace us with your peace and gladness,

Spirit of all comfort fill our hearts.

Refrain

In the pain and joy beholding

How you grace is still unfolding,

Give us all your vision, God of love.

Refrain

Give us strength to love each other,

Every sister, every brother,

Spirit of all kindness, be our guide.

Refrain

You who know all thought and feeling,

Teach us all your way of healing

Spirit of compassion, fill each heart.

Refrain

(Marty Haugen)

The peace

Engage When we speak of the Spirit, what do we think of? Ghosts,

something we drink, something we speak of in church and yet

don’t fully comprehend or even see the need to? Take a couple of minutes to think about how the Spirit is present and

expressed in your life and the life of our community.

Opening the word

A reading from the Gospels

John 14:15-21

”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot

receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know

him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

”I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me;

because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my

commandments and keep them are those who love me; and

those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love

them and reveal myself to them.”

AND WE IN YOU (John 14: 15-21) As the tree is in the earth and the earth in the tree, as the sea is in the fish and the fish in the sea,

as the bird is in the air and the air in the bird, as word is in the breath and breath in the word,

as rhyme is in the music and music in rhyme,

as time is in the season and the season in time,

as grief is in the loving and loving in grief, as belief is in the hope and hope in the belief,

as desire is in the will and the will in desire, as fire is in the flame and the flame in the fire,

as you, Christ, are in God and God is in you, so are you in us, and we in you.

So are you in us and we in you.

Andrew King 2014

The Areopagus in Athens with the Acropolis in the background

Figure 1 The Areopagus in Athens

A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles

Acts 17:22-31

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went

through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I

proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines

made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as

though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all

nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope

for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his

offspring.’ Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by

the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the

times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he

has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising

him from the dead.”

A reading from the Epistles

1 Peter 3:13-22

Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your

hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your

defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the

hope that is in you;

yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for

your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better

to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to

suffer for doing evil.

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the

unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in

the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times

did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this

prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at

the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made

subject to him.

Offering

Prayer of dedication or offering prayer Holy One, bless all of the gifts that we bring before you, that they may be a pure offering of love to your Creation. Bless the offerings in these baskets, bless our hands, bless our feet, that in all our giving and moving through this world, we might show forth your compassion and grace. Bless our seeing, our hearing, our understanding, that in all times and places we may know that you are present with us. God of love, bless us, we pray. Amen. Sing: Bring many names (Brian Wren) (TiS 182) SING: https://youtu.be/YTP85GwoE88 Bring many names, beautiful and good,

celebrate, in parable and story,

holiness in glory,

living, loving God.

Hail and hosanna!

bring many names!

Strong mother God, working night and day,

planning all the wonders of creation,

setting each equation,

genius at play:

Hail and hosanna,

strong mother God!

Warm father God, hugging every child,

feeling all the strains of human living,

caring and forgiving

till we’re reconciled:

Hail and hosanna,

warm father God!

Old, aching God, grey with endless care,

calmly piercing evil’s new disguises,

glad of good surprises,

wiser than despair:

Hail and hosanna,

old, aching God!

Young, growing God, eager, on the move,

saying no to falsehood and unkindness,

crying out for justice,

giving all you have:

Hail and hosanna,

young, growing God!

Great, living God, never fully known,

joyful darkness far beyond our seeing,

closer yet than breathing,

everlasting home:

Hail and hosanna,

great, living God! © 1996 Hope Publishing Words: Brian Arthur Wren

Reproduced under Copyright Licences:

LicenSing #604712; CCLI #45150

Reflection

Reflection for the 6th Sunday of Easter. The passage from the Gospel of John resumes where last week's reading finished. Jesus continues to deliver his Farewell Discourse (chs. 14-17), preparing his disciples for his departure. It’s in this section of the narrative that that Jesus introduces a discussion of the Holy Spirit. While the Spirit has been mentioned previously, Jesus here begins to explain t the function and purpose of the Holy Spirit in the lives of his followers. We mainline Christians don’t tend to speak a lot about the Spirit except at Pentecost. Our understanding of the nature and the function of the Spirit is often eclipsed by the centrality of Jesus in our liturgy and preaching. But for Jesus, understanding the Spirit is essential to faith. So, what does Jesus say about the Spirit in John’s gospel? 1. The Spirit is God’s Spirit and therefore shares the nature of God as creator, redeemer life-giver. Jesus told his disciples that they had seen

the Father if they had seen him and that the Spirit also reflects the nature and essence of God. The Spirit is ‘God with us.’ 2. The Spirit comes as ‘another Advocate’, continuing the work of the first Advocate, Jesus. And what is an advocate? The Oxford Dictionary tells us that an advocate is a person who argues a case on behalf of another. Jesus stood with his followers before God in all the frailties and strengths of human life, and now Jesus tells us that the Spirit will do the same for us. The Spirit continues to bring our needs and desires, our petitions and praise before God’s presence. 3. The Spirit is the truth and brings the truth. Jesus has just revealed himself as the way, the truth, and the life (14:6). The truth is synonymous with Jesus. Jesus is the truth and this truth is revealed in and through the presence of the Spirit. 4. Jesus tells the disciples that they will ‘know’ the Spirit. To “know” in the Gospel of John is to be in an intimate relationship. The Spirit lives in and through us and we live in and through the Spirit. The Spirit is as much a part of us as our breath and knows us better than we know ourselves. 5. The Spirit comes as our comforter, sister, parent, guide. The Gospel of John contains a strong parental theme across its entirety, between Jesus and the Father, but also between the Father and Jesus’ followers. The Prologue asserted that “all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God” (1:12) It’s the Spirit’s presence with us that brings this to fruition. 6. The Spirit’s nature, like that of Jesus and the Father, is one of love. In his farewell discourse, Jesus uses love verbs (agapao, phileo) over fifty times. It’s important for is followers to hear. It’s important for them to live. It’s the indwelling Spirit of God’s love that enables us to love as God loves. So, what appeared to be bad news for the disciples in Jesus' departure from them, opened new possibilities in and through the Spirit for both them and for us. While Jesus walked the earth, his ministry was limited to one locale and one person, himself. With the coming of the Spirit, the possibilities for God’s transforming love to be revealed becomes as vast as the hearts that are open to the Spirit’s presence and work. Amen.

Respond – “Spirit Friend “ Tom Colvin TiS 412

SING: https://youtu.be/3-cwL6z0BjA

God sends us the Spirit

to befriend and help us,

re-create and guide us, Spirit-friend:

Spirit who enlivens,

sanctifies, enlightens,

sets us free is now our Spirit-friend.

Spirit of our Maker, Spirit-friend,

Spirit of our Jesus, Spirit-friend,

Spirit of God’s people, Spirit-friend.

Darkened roads are clearer,

heavy burdens lighter

when we’re walking with our Spirit-friend:

now we need not fear the

powers of the darkness:

none can overcome our Spirit-friend.

(Refrain)

Now we are God’s people,

bonded by his presence,

agents of his purpose, Spirit-friend:

lead us forward ever,

slipping backward never,

to your re-made world, our Spirit-friend.

(Refrain)

© 1969 Hope Publishing, Tom Colvin and the people of Ghana

Reproduced under Copyright Licences:

LicenSing #604712; CCLI #45150

Prayers of the people

God of all, we have gathered here to praise and worship you because we have known your power and movement in our lives. We have felt your love surrounding and upholding us. Your Holy Spirit, the Advocate, has walked beside us through celebration and grief; a gentle, constant reminder of your presence.

God of mercy, we commit ourselves to be your church together because we know that you will not abandon us or leave us orphaned, but will be our sustainer forever. We commit ourselves to be a community that shows forth your abiding love to those who have felt abandoned by this world. And so we pray this day:

for those who are grieving, and seeking a new way forward; for those who are experiencing housing insecurity, hunger, or food

insecurity; for those with health concerns, mental or physical, that keep them

isolated or unable to live into the fullness of who they could be; for those who have been rejected by their families or communities; for those who have been blamed or shamed by those who were

supposed to give support or accountability; for those who are living with violence and trauma as part of their daily lives.

Holy God, we know that the hurts of this world are not what you want for us. We know that you are with us, our comfort and consolation, even in hard times. Help us to come alongside each other, as well. Help us to be the tangible presence of your Holy Spirit, the hands and feet of your love in this world.

Help us, O God of grace, to love each other as you have loved us. Amen. Meditation: https://youtu.be/Ye6x_VHJ29A

Bless

Let us go out from this place with our eyes or ears, our hearts wide open to the movement of the Holy Spirit swirling around us. Let us go out from here prepared to see our God, even in the most unexpected times and places. Let us remember that God will not leave us, even though we might leave this space. May the love of God, the peace of Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit abide with you now, and in all your days. Amen.

Sung Blessing For you, deep stillness Robin Mann SING: https://youtu.be/TuzlEGM17UM For you, deep stillness of the silent inland; for you, deep blue of the desert skies; for you, flame red of the rocks and stones; for you, sweet water from hidden springs From the edges, seek the heartlands, and when you’re burnt by the journey may the cool winds of the hovering Spirit soothe and replenish you. In the name of Christ, In the name of Christ. © 1996 Words: Julie Perrin, Music: Robin Mann Reproduced under Copyright Licences: LicenSing #604712; CCLI #45150