Preparing for Worship

 

Welcome to our online worship service today with the People of Boronia Park Uniting Church! Now we are going through the Lenten season 2021 where we might find meaning of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We, as a community of Christ’s followers, continue exploring how much God loves us in giving His son to us and forgiving our all weaknesses and brokenness. In this worship, as part two of the sermon series “the Way of the Cross” we might have time to reflect on what it means to serve Christ and neighbours.

 

 

Acknowledgement for the First Peoples

 

We acknowledge this land that God has created and blessed. We pay our respects to the Wallumettagal people of the Eora Nation, the first inhabitants of this place. We honour their custodianship of the land on which we gather today and its surrounding waters, and offer our respect to their Elders, past, present, and emerging.

 

 

Call to Worship

 

The Lord is making a new covenant with the people of God.

Here in this place,

Christ writes the law of love on our hearts.

 

We are children of the living God.

Together, let us worship the Lord of Love!

 

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

let us worship God.

 

Amy Loving, The Worship Closet

 

 

Song of Praise     Christ, Be Our Light

 

Longing for light, we wait in darkness,

Longing for truth, we turn to you.

Make us your own, your holy people,

Light for the world to see.

 

Christ be our light!

Shine in our hearts, shine through the darkness.

Christ be our light!

Shine in your church gathered today.

 

Longing for peace, our world is troubled,

Longing for hope, many despair.

Your word alone has power to save us

Make us your living voice.

Christ be our light! …

 

Longing for food, many are hungry,

Longing for water, many still thirst.

Make us your bread, broken for others,

Shared until all are fed.

Christ be our light! …

 

Longing for shelter, people are homeless,

Longing for warmth, many are cold.

Make us your building, sheltering others,

Walls made of living stone.

Christ be our light! …

 

Many the gifts, many the people.

Many the hearts that yearn to belong.

Let us be servants to one another,

Making your kingdom come.

Christ be our light! …

 

Bernadette Farrell |CCLI #260394

 

 

Prayer of Confession: All is not right within us

 

Loving God,

we take this time today to come before you,

but as we do, we are aware that all is not right within us. 

We neglect your word, 

we fail to meditate on your law, 

we forget to speak with you, 

we make plans without turning to you, 

we do things that we know are wrong. 

We did not put you first in our lives. 

 

 

Forgive how we have failed to love you 

with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength. 

 

Loving God,

our relationships with each other

are not all that they can be or should be. 

There is hurt and injury between ourselves and others. 

There are walls of anger and hatred between us and our neighbours. 

Forgive us for how we deny our part in this 

and for how we blame others for the brokenness around us. 

Forgive how we have not loved our neighbours as ourselves. 

 

Gracious God,

we believe that you offer to us and our world a whole and good life. 

For all that we have done to deny this life

to each other and to ourselves,

we ask your forgiveness and your mercy. 

 

Silence for reflection & self-examination

 

Words of Assurance

(based on Psalm 103: 11-14)

 

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

as you choose again this day to love God and to love one another, 

know that God has forgiven you that which is past 

and offers to you a new and full life.

Praise be to the name of God, now forever.

Amen. 

 

Hear the good news concerning the love and forgiveness of God:

“As far as the east is from the west,

so far does God remove our transgressions from us. 

As a father has compassion on his children, 

so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 

for he knows how we are formed, 

he remembers that we are dust.”

 

Retrieved from re-worship.blogspot.com

 

 

The Peace

 

The Peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

And also with you.

 

 

Bible Reading     John 12:20-33

 

[Click to read Korean/Chinese translations]

Some Greeks Wish to See Jesus

²⁰ Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. ²¹ They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” ²² Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³ Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵ Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

 

 

Jesus Speaks about His Death

²⁷ “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. ²⁸ Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” ²⁹ The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” ³⁰ Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. ³¹ Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. ³² And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” ³³ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

 

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

 

 

Sermon         Seung Jae Yeon

 

Let us pray:

 

O gracious and hold God,

give us diligence to seek you,

wisdom to perceive you,

and patience to wait for you.

Grant us, O God,

a mind to meditate on you,

eyes to behold you,

ears to listen for your word,

a heart to love you,

and a life to proclaim you;

through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

 

This is part 2 of my sermon series during this Lenten season 2021, titled the Way of the Cross. Is the Way making you concern? Is the Cross making you discomfort you and your ordinary and good days in life? Or vice versa? As a believer and follower of Christ’s life, death and resurrection, I do carry these challenging words—the Way of the Cross. At all times it is my burden and glory because I do live between the historical event of Jesus’ life and ministry and the mysterious future of His coming to fulfilling God’s creation. This year 2021, in the season of Lent, we are getting closer and closer to the cross—the death and resurrection of Jesus. But we have hope because we have read the next page of these events, knowing how God concluded the story for us and for many. So, that is why we are still blessed ones in this Lenten journey. Shall we continue?

 

As I studied about the passages for the sermon series, many life’s events happened. For example, Josh began his university. It has huge impact on me psychologically. I congratulated him on the first of his university and since then I have kept reminding myself that he now owns his life as an adult, a citizen and a Christian. But the most important title of him is my son. First child. First love. I do not separate him from the bottom of my heart though I remind me saying, “Let him go his own way Seungjae.” I with Grace raised him well and now it is time to set him apart from my bloodline. Then let him go into a world where he may live life in Jesus Christ, his Lord and Saviour. It is so painful. The pain of letting go is real. I am not trying to disown my grown-up son but gain our fellowship – whatever it is called, a true relationship in Christ.

 

In my struggling of letting go, I might feel empathy for God the Father who sent his one and only Son to us. I wondered how God completely set his Son apart from Him though He himself worked thru his Son Jesus Christ on earth. I imagined that God the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit would have felt honoured when people obeyed, sad when people ran away, and had real life when people came back to the Life where all hopes begin to grow. Pain was real. The divine pain of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit takes us closer and closer to a deeper level of relationship with God. No pain no gain. But what we say about pain is not the earthly one. Again, this is divine pain that God bear for us and we might bear for each other and for the Lord Jesus Christ. And the death of Jesus Christ in John’s Gospel is the true climax of the divine pain where the beginning of universal mission and hope is placed. I am not telling that whatever pain you bear now is meaningful. Pain is real. What I would do is that I pay my respects to you and your life where you might walk through the path of truth though it is painful. In there, the divine pain, you are able to be confident with Jesus. And you are able to deny self, bear the cross and follow, and avoid a denial of your faith in Jesus Christ. This is not the sort of recipe which will excite you about success. This is however the path of truth, triumph, confidence and glory in your faith journey. You own life and fruitfulness through the divine pain that God own with you as He did with his Son Jesus Christ. God could feel empathy for you this moment. God be with you now as Father who loved his Son, his people, his followers, and generations emerging. He will never be changed.    

 

I also studied about the passages with my friends who live in a farming town called Henty down south in Riverina. They are a couple who owns farm called Avondale cropping wheat and canola, and growing sheep for lamb and wool. They are also members of Uniting Church congregation in Henty-Culcairn. Alison is a UCA lay preacher who leads services with the other lay preacher. In 2012, I went down there as ministry candidate learn and expose myself to a rural ministry context. Since then, we are in friendship visiting each other when it could be possible. Alison and Peter came join our service in December 2017 sharing her reflection on Advent season. A long story short, I had a request to them about sharing their knowledge as farmer and particularly their reading of verse 24, which says, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Peter explained that a grain never dies and keeps respiring because it has life in it. And a single grain of wheat could bear roughly 500 grains of wheat and collections of them could make farmer good harvest. It tells that tons of wheat have its beginning as a sing grain. Incredible grain! Then Alison points out, saying, “You don’t do anything with it nothing will happen. When something is added into it, then it changes.” She added in a theological sense that nothing will happen unless God’s grace and forgiveness is added unto our life. As a grain sits in silo unless something is added into it, in our life, we can live a life anew in Jesus Christ by God’s grace and forgiveness. In thinking theologically, in order to show or give the power of grace and forgiveness, God sent his Son Jesus. For the grace and forgiveness, Jesus bore the divine pain in his life on the way to the cross. On that cross, Jesus fully revealed God’s grace and forgiveness. He never sits right next to God the Father. He gave it up and became low and humble like us inviting us to the Life everlasting. God add value to you and I, and to many. It is now our turn. Adding value to our neighbours. This means we are intentional about serving and using God’s grace and forgiveness in a positive way. Unless they know we add value to them, they will not respect or value our discipleship of Jesus Christ or simply our membership of this church. 

 

On the third and fourth Sunday in February, one of our members tripped over on the same spot when the person was walking out of our venue. Margaret Treble and I fixed that part of corridor. You may see the red duct tape lines. And I heard that there were some people when the incidents happened. One of them who cared for the person was a young one, Ashely Han. When the person tripped second time, Ashley ran out of our worship space and then went to the person, offering to help the person. The person who tripped appreciated Ashley who was present and ready to assist. Simply Ashley added value to the person. I was so proud of her and what she did on that Sunday. She was a christ for the person supporting by adding value. We can do the same at our place of living, working, and studying. Make sure you are present and let those you help know you are there on behalf of Jesus Christ your Saviour to support them if needed, especially during times of demand. Ask them if you can help them make their day or a task. Simply say, “Do you need me to help out with anything or can I help?” These simple things really do add value to your family member, friends, co-workers, and neighbours. These simple things added into their life and who knows God’s grace and forgiveness hovers over them. Let God’s grace and forgiveness work in others as well as in you. Let the divine pain that Jesus bears on that cross lead your neighbours to the Life everlasting.

 

The Way to the Cross means for us to deny self, bear our own cross and follow. Then the Way we journey thru will take us closer and closer to the Cross that is a place of truth about love, about grace, about forgive, about humanity and about God. Were you there? I am a single grain and you are a single grain too. If it dies, it bears fruit. Like my friend Peter said, it multiplies by factor of 500. It may sound like disempowering however life in a single grain goes on when something is added onto it. Likewise, the Life in you continues both in you and in others by adding value to them. I hope this Lenten season we will find a moment of exaltation and divine glory when we see divine pain in Jesus and in our faith journey toward the end of story, which we know its conclusion.

 

Thanks be to God.

 

 

Prayers of the People       Jenny Warren

 

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for everything, because of you we are able to have a close relationship with our Father. Thank you for coming and teaching us right from wrong and showing us what real love is.

 

Thank you for all your blessings continually and for your unconditional love. You are truly amazing, and we cannot thank you enough for all you do for us and all the love you show us all the time.

 

Thank you for always providing everything we need, sometimes not what we want, however providing exactly what we need, because you know us best.

 

Thank you for the freedom we have here in this country of Australia to freely worship you and spread your word and to be given the resources to learn all about you and your word. Your word is our strengthand you provide it in abundance for us.

 

Thank you for providing all the resources that we need that we may take for granted at times, such as clean water, food, medical essentials and the ability to go out in fresh air without the fear of war.

 

Thank you, Lord, for all your faithful people and churches whom dedicate their lives to working for you.

 

Thank you, Lord, for Boronia Park Uniting Church, Seungjae, Grace and their family and all our Christian family here for all their work, I ask you Lord to please bless them and always be with those and their families who gather here to praise your name and do your will.

 

Thank you, Lord, for all the volunteers and staff in Uniting World who are spreading your word and helping those who are in need. We ask for your blessing of giving them strength, courage and wisdom to continue to do your will.

 

We pray for the indigenous communities for healing and reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous communities.

 

We ask for your blessings today for the Catholic church of St Charles Borromeo and Our Lady Queen of Peace parish, the priests, leaders and members, and their mission and ministry within our local area. May You guide them to do your will, Father.

 

Today we pray for Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden for their work in justice, peace, interfaith and advocating and implementing measures to redress climate change, please be with them and send the Holy Spirit to guide them to achieve success.

 

Although we may struggle, physically, emotionally or mentally at times and may be confused as to why, please bless us your children, Father with reassurance and comfort from the Holy Spirit that you Lord are in control, and you are our solid rock always and you will never leave us to struggle alone. Help us Lord to become in likeness to your image not physically but spiritually through our trials and suffering.

 

We pray for those here and everywhere who may be tormented or tricked by the enemy, I pray Lord that you will intercede for them the moment they call on your name. I pray that any testimonial and news of your greatness will be shared and spread far and wide so that those who worship you will grow in numbers to praise your name and the enemy will have no more power over them.

 

We pray for Myanmar whose country is currently in protest and war with military coups over their rights and many innocent lives are being affected. Please Heavenly Father, have mercy on the country and bring peace and justice to them. If it is your will father, please bring peace to the people there and your name be praised for it.

 

We pray for major manufacturing companies and the like to invent biodegradable packaging as the amount of rubbish not disposed of correctly and large landfills are destroying the earth, the beautiful earth you created. Please Lord, give people the knowledge to invent better ways then those currently in place that are destroying your earth, your animals and causing sickness.

 

Please forgive us Lord for all our wrong doings, please forgive us, and have patience with us, it is very true that the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

 

We love you Father, be with us always.

 

We ask this all in your name Jesus and may it be the will of our Father who has power and glory over everything.

 Amen.

 

 

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 from the time of trial

       and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power,

       and the glory are yours

       now and forever.

Amen.

 

 

Offering

 

The offering will be used for the congregation’s continuing mission and ministry in these challenging times. Please make your offering through a Bank Deposit or a personal cheque whichever is convenient to you.

 

Account Name: Boronia Park Uniting Church

BSB: 634-634

Account: 100023784

Reference: Offering

 

Please contact Robyn Harvey, Treasurer on 0418 783 290 or robyn.49@bigpond.net.au for more information about offering.

 

 

Song      By Gentle Power

 

Surrounded by such true and gentle powers.

So wondrously consoled and without fear,

Thus will I spend with you these final hours

And then together enter a new year

 

The worries of the old year still torment us,

We're troubled still by long and wicked days.

Oh Lord give our frightened souls the healing,

For which you've chastened us in many ways.

 

By gentle powers lovingly surrounded,

With patience we'll endure, let come what may.

God is with us at night and in the morning

And certainly on every future day.

 

And though you offer us the cup so heavy,

So painful, it's the most that we can stand.

Not faltering, with thanks we will accept it

And take it as a gift from your good hand

By gentle powers lovingly surrounded…

 

And should it be your will once more to grant us,

To see the world and to enjoy the sun.

Then we will all the past events remember

And finally our life with you is one.

By gentle powers lovingly surrounded …

 

Siegfried Fietz| CCLI #260394

 

 

Commission and Benediction

 

Go now, to serve Christ and follow him.

Let your old life fall like a grain of wheat into the earth

so that you may bear much fruit

as you allow God to reshape your heart

and live in obedience to the law written within you.

 

And may God centre you in truth and steady your spirit.

May Christ renew your joy and strengthen your will.

And may the Spirit teach you God’s hidden wisdom

    and fill you with songs of rejoicing.

 

We go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

In the name of Christ. Amen.

 

Copyright © 2003 Nathan Nettleton

 

 

Sung Blessing      Go in peace, go in love

 

Go in Peace, Go in Love

Let's find joy with each other.

Go in Peace, Go in Love,

We are sister and brother.

 

Fed by Spirit with strength each day

to find our way together

Go in Peace, Go in Love,

God be with us forever.

 

Music: Tune of Edelweiss

Words: Mary Louise Bringle