GalaXies

 

4 July 2004

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

 

Out of nothingness we came through birth into life

With the Spirit of God within us.

From the life of God the universe unfolded into being:

With the Spirit of God within it.

From the heart of God creation goes on until the end of time:

With the Spirit of God within it and with our Spirit within it.

Let us embrace the God who enfolds us.

We delight in God.

 

HYMN                                                                                          AA 114 Out of such sun and air

 

Prayer

 

Creator God, you have showered us with gifts of great delicacy and delight:
spider’s web and butterfly’s wings,
roaring seas and majestic forests.

Let us remember in reverence your presence in all creation.

silence

O God, your creation fills us with awe and delight, yet we often fail to care for it.

Forgive us, gracious God, and create in us a new way of caring.

We witness the destruction of many species through pollution and carelessness.

We are often the careless ones, slow to work for change.

Forgive us, gracious God, and spur us to act for change.

In the land of tangata whenua wisdom, we have often been slow to listen,
preferring the way of progress, exploitation and greed.

Forgive us, gracious God, and give us the wisdom to listen and learn.

Open all our senses, O God, to the miracles around us.

 

ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS

 

God is just and forgiving.
Our God warns us and calls us to change before it is too late.

Our God receives us as we are;
lifts us up and appoints us to care for the earth and all its creatures.

Receive the grace of God
in all its strength and delicate beauty.

The old order has passed away,
and the new creation is before us.

Thanks be to God!

 

THE TRADITION IN TEXTS

 

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, 15

 

HYMN                                                                                                       AA 26 Come to our land

 

REFLECTION                                                                                                      Helen Beaumont

 

 “Care of Creation”

 

HYMN                                                                                         AA 143  Touch the earth lightly

 

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH

 

We believe in God, who is found in darkness,

who parted the waters with a dream, fragrant as the ancient damask rose;

who made from nothing - light, stars, moons, planets and loveliest earth;

who set free volcanoes and groaning tectonic plates,

who ran wild with joy, creating mountains, waves and snowflakes.

All different...

 

Who spun a web of shimmering life
where creatures grew and changed, flowered and put down roots,
swam, chirped and flew, ran, played and roared,
talked - in many different languages - wondered and dreamed:

beings of astonishing variety,
each needing all the others, held in a delicate kinship.

 

God saw that it was very good and laughed and made some more.

 

We believe in God who is found in stillness,

who walks in the world, awake and vulnerable,

delighting and loving, bright as kowhai in the sunshine,

who grieves in the quiet beyond tears

for scorched wilderness, stifled air, wounded forests,
silenced voices, broken threads -

who names the truth and shoulders the weight of hoping.

 

We believe in God who is found in loneliness,

who speaks in the dawn birdsong, the call of whales, the music of stars.

 

We believe God calls us as the church to love the earth, to live humbly in the web of relationship, and to announce in our lives, the new creation.

 

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

 

OFFERINGAND DEDICATION

In response to the immeasurable wonder and
diversity of God’s creation, we bring these gifts.

And dedicate them to sustaining the fragile web of all life on earth. Amen.

 

HYMN                                                                                          AA 113  Our life has its seasons

 

BLESSING AND SUNG AMEN

Go out to care for God’s earth
in all its varied and fragile beauty.

We go out with trust and courage to care for the earth,

our home and the home of generations to come.

May the sun warm your soul

and the moon be gentle above you.

May the Creator hold you by the hand

and the Christ walk in your footsteps.

May the Spirit dance in your loving

and grace be found in your way.

Amen.

 

 

Prayers based on a liturgy by Dorothy McRae-McMahon in Echoes of our Journey.

Creator God, who spoke, brought for the earth and it was good,

who holds this now distorted world still in your hands,
we remember that Christ has come to make all things new.

As we see the damage our urban life has done

we pray for active consciences and renewed cities.

 

As we hear of raped forests and stripped mountains,
we pray for understanding of the delicacy of nature.

Put a new spirit in us that we may restore and recover.

 

As we experience oil spills and pollution
and mourn marine life lost and birds maimed,
we pray for enlightenment in our policies.

Break down our thoughtless destruction
that our beaches and rivers and lakes
may again speak of your wonders.

 

As we touch the deprived lives of many people
who long for a little relief in the battle for survival,
we pray for compassion and generous giving of time.
Open our ears that we may hear the cries of anguish.

 

Mother-father God, whose beauty has not changed,
we also give thanks for the things in creation that delight us.
 To you God of creation, we sing a new song of praise.

A song of trees planted by streams of living water,
a song of mountains clapping their hands for joy,
a song of cities delighting in heavenly harmony,
a song of people that were lost and have been found.

For the earth is God’s and we shall be glad in it.