Liturgies Online

LECTIONARY GENERATED LITURGY
Twenty Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Year B
    1 Samuel 1:4-20; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; Heb. 10: 11-14, (15-18), 19-25; Mark 13:1-8 Rec. text -NRSV.
             Hymns are from the Australian Hymn Book (AHB) or Together in Song (TIS)
unless otherwise indicated.
          Worship Leader - normal type. Congregational responses - bold type
          Permission is granted to churches to use this material in services of worship.
    This liturgy remains the property of Moira B Laidlaw

Additional resources for Pentecost 24B: Holiday snapshots; Celebration, Peter Kearney, Crossover Music, Mittagong, NSW, Australia, 1989; Where is your song my Lord?, Peter Kearney, J.Albert & Son P/L, Sydney Australia, 1978; Walk the Edges, Helen Kearins, Sisters of Mercy, Goulburn, NSW, Australia ,1991; A Singing Faith, Jane Parker Huber, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,USA, 1987; Uniting in Worship - People’s Book. Joint Board of Christian Education, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1988; Be our Freedom, Lord, Terry C. Falla , Ed., Openbook Publishers, Adelaide, South Australia, 1994.

CALL TO WORSHIP: Based on Hannah’s prayer: 1 Samuel 2:1-10 NRSV
There is no holy One, or no rock like our God who causes my heart to rejoice and my strength to increase,
For the Lord is a God of knowledge, who judges our actions.
Who breaks the power of the mighty, and clothes the feeble with strength,
The Lord makes rich and makes poor, brings low and lifts up.
Raising up the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap;
Giving them seats of honour and guarding the feet of those who are faithful.
While the wicked and those who rebel against the Lord will be shattered.
We worship and praise God - judge of all the earth.

TIS 161/AHB 109: “Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord”
TIS 596/AHB 515: “Fill my whole life, O Lord my God”
TIS 172: “My soul gives glory to my God”

PRAYER OF PRAISE AND ADORATION
God of all knowledge, Hannah’s prayer resonates not only across the ages but in our hearts, as, like her, we praise you as our rock and our redeemer. We worship you with awe, knowing that there is no holy One like you. And yet you took on our humanity to reveal your love and your mercy in person. In Jesus who, taking the form of a servant, taught us about your power. The power dreamed of by Hannah - power at the service of others, raising up the powerless, strengthening the weak, healing the sick, replacing despair with hope, bringing life where there was death. We praise and adore you, O God, for these wonderful signs of your love. May this time of worship and the service of our lives be a worthy response to these gifts.
This we pray in Jesus’ name and for his sake. Amen

SUGGESTION FOR CHILDREN’S TALK : If you have anyone in the congregation who has memorable photos of special holiday - perhaps someone has made a scrapbook which contains photos and stories - invite them to bring them along and speak briefly about their significance.
Ask the children/young people if they have ever gone on a long journey - if so - did they take any photographs. Again - if they did, ask why they did - was it so that they could remember the experiences and what places looked like etc? Usually, when we take photographs, it is to make a pictorial record of that particular experience. Point out how we have all been on a long journey together - instead of kilometres - it has been a ‘time’ journey. We’ve been on a ‘Pentecost’ journey. One that began on June 4 and finishes next Sunday. On that journey, we have learned about different experiences that Jesus and his disciples had and how they affect us and our lives. Cameras weren’t invented then so we haven’t got pictorial records of the different things that Jesus did, that’s why each year, we go on this long journey and hear again about God and about Jesus and about the Holy Spirit. Many of the stories we’ve heard before, but its just like getting out our photograph albums- the photographs help us to remember the things we did and where we went, and what and who we saw . So each year, in church, in Sundayschool, we become ‘time-travellers’ as we go on a journey, and the stories we hear about Jesus help us to remember all that God has done and is doing in the world.

TIS 146/AHB 82: “God who made the earth” ; TIS 420: “Holy Spirit, go before us”
TIS 656: “Jesus, my Lord, let me be near you”
CELEBRATION Page 29: “One more step along the world I go” by Sydney Carter

PRAYER OF CONFESSION - spoken by two voices
1. God of beginnings and endings - we give thanks for your presence with us on our Pentecost journey of twenty-six weeks - half a year - when our visible landscapes have been transformed from the grey-green of winter to the wattle-gold of spring. What about our personal landscapes - have we allowed them to be transformed? What have we seen and what have we heard? What has been sown in our hearts?
2. We’ve seen life restored - by Jesus’ compassion, and Jairus’ faith, a frail woman’s touch and a blind man’s persistence. We’ve seen crowds being fed, children blessed, and people taught about love, service and death.
1. Heard Paul’s words of faith about strength in our weakness and receiving God’s grace and the words of James resound in our ears: “Faith without works is dead”.
2. And Jesus, high priest and servant of all, gave us only two commandments - love God and love neighbour. He repeated the cost of discipleship where the first becomes last and the last becomes first.
1. We confess that all too often, our eyes get distracted and our ears tune out, our hearts become set in familiar ways - our journeys of faith become routine and all too predictable.
2. We don’t expect to be transformed.
1. God of endings and new beginnings, remind us that as we worship you together, we are transformed. As we lift up our hearts to you, we are lifted beyond ourselves to see life from your perspective. So, as we near the end of this part of our journey, fill us anew with a sense of expectancy and joy, as we recall that we are accepted and loved, forgiven and renewed, united and reconciled in the name of Jesus, our risen Lord and Saviour in whose name we pray. Amen

ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS:
We read in Hebrews that “when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and ....by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” The good news is this, that in and through Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven.
Thanks be to God!

SONG: “The Song of God’s Travellers” by Peter Kearney in Where is your song my Lord? or
“Who are my people?” by Helen Kearins in Walk the Edges or
“God, give us eyes and hearts to see” by Jane Parker Huber in A Singing Faith 24

OLD TESTAMENT: 1 Samuel 1: 4-20; EPISTLE: Hebrews 10:11-25
GOSPEL: Mark 13:1-8

SERMON

TIS 616/AHB 547: “O day of God, draw nigh”
TIS 738: “My Jesus, my Saviour, Lord there is none like you”
TIS 220: “This, this is the God we adore”
TIS 437/AHB 352: “Blessed Jesus at your word”

SUGGESTIONS FOR PRAYERS FOR OTHERS “A Litany for the Church” page 176 Uniting in Worship - People’s Book or “We do not take an untravelled way” page 83 Be our Freedom, Lord

THE LORD’S PRAYER

OFFERING

OFFERTORY PRAYER
O God, as we recount the story of your willingness to journey with us through life, we become freshly aware of the many blessings we receive from you in Jesus and through the power of your Spirit. We respond with these offerings and the service of our lives, and we pray that you will transform them in ways that bless others and glorify you. This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen

TIS 687: “God gives us a future” ; TIS 623: “Lord Christ, true peace of all above”
TIS 456/AHB 389: “Your hand, O God, has guided...” In verse 1 invite people to replace ‘our fathers’ with ‘your people’; in v.3 - to replace’man’ with ‘earth’ and in v.4 to replace ‘men and angels’ with ‘all creation’.
TIS 601/AHB 522: “O Master, let me walk with thee”

BENEDICTION:
Go,
blessed by God’s presence with you,
assured by Jesus’ love for you,
transformed by the Holy Spirit’s power within you.

THREEFOLD AMEN