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Season of Creation (SoC) 2008:
Land Sunday
Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that you may live and occupy the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
For Land we sought to learn from Aboriginal Australians for whom the schism between land(earth) adn faith has never existed.
Original SoC website: www.seasonofcreation.com
This liturgy from http://ecofaith.org/mnc/soc
A powerpoint is available, for powerpoint 2007, but it might work with other versions.
A powerpoint for earlier versions, with few images, is here.
Call to worship/Centring moment
(mostly from Norman Habel)
Now Let us Be still. Be at peace. God is ready to give to us.
Here in this place in our needs.
the gift of healing for those in pain,
the gift of forgiveness for those in sin,
the gift of assurance for those in doubt,
the gift of hope for those in tears.
The gift of laughter for those full of joy-
For an opening song/call to worship we used Ngadhangahli (our God), from Requiem for a Beast
Welcome
Welcome: we come to worship our God, creator and owner of the Land
And to celebrate the land and our connection with it, to be reconciled with the land so we can help renew it.
Land as inseparable from our faith. Biblical, Christian, but often forgotten, especially by Europeans after the agricultural and industrial revolutions. Heavenism. Never forgotten by Australia’s first humans.
Acknowledge that the Gumbaynggirr and their ancestors have lived out their spirituality in and with this land for thousands of years before Jesus, or even Abraham was born. Acknowledge that this land has cried out with their blood more loudly since Europeans arrived than at any other time in ages past. Acknowledge the God who was with them, and whom many of them recognised, in the stories about Jesus, to be the God they had always known.
Acknowledge the 300 or so Aboriginal people who still live in this area, and have inherited the longest continuous culture in the world... welcome continues with our speakers, two Aboriginal elders from the Gumbaynggirr nation. ...
Two readings:
Uniting Church 1
(showing that the Aboriginal church was leading the way in terms of relating to the Land)
The land is part of our being, it is within our bones. 1977 Northern Synod’s Aboriginal delegates
“We are concerned with the basic human rights of future generations and will urge the wise use of energy, the protection of the environment and the replenishment of the earth‘s resources for [human] use and enjoyment” 1977 Statement to the Nation
Uniting Church 2
God in Christ has given to all people in the Church the Holy Spirit as a pledge and foretaste of that coming reconciliation and renewal which is the end in view for the whole creation.
the church’s calling is to serve that end…
to be a fellowship of reconciliation, a body within which the diverse gifts of its members are used for the building up of the whole, an instrument through which Christ may work and bear witness to himself.
Opening Prayer
God you are way out there amongst the stars and stardust
Yet you became one with us. One of us. Walked your land. Drew your teachings from it.
We feel your presence amongst us, nurturing us.
We know your spirit within us, loving us and inviting us to love back. You, ourselves, our neighbours.
Thankyou for your presence here, may we have a strong sense of it this morning.
Song: Lord (God) of Earth and all creation: Together in Song 672
Mereki: Native animal song (cd)
Kids talk
We used the book, "Whitefellas are like traffic lights" by Harry Reade.
Confession
Though all of us are different
We are also all the same.
Easy to say. Humans have found it hard to live out.
In 1994 the Uniting Church assembly confessed that difficulty to the Aboriginal and Islander Christian congress.
This year the government confessed that difficulty, and called our nation to be reconciled to its past so that we can repent, turn around, and do things differently. Having finally said sorry, the government committed to righting the wrongs of the past.
The seeds of reconciliation are being sown. Some falling on rocky paths, some on hard soil, some in weedy patches, but some in good, rich soil.
If its hard amongst humans, its even harder for some humans to reconcile with the Land and the other creatures of the land. Hard, but with God, not impossible.
Its even hard within each human. None of us is a finished product. Though all of us contain signs and seeds of hope.
Let’s take a moment to silently confess our feelings about our struggles with reconciliation to God. The state of our lives, our hopes and dreams and fears.
(Wait)
Song: Ashes to Ashes (Dutney)
Assurance
Here are the visions of hope for the Earth!
Here are the visions of hope for the Earth!
The church: bearers of the Spirit to bring reconciliation and renewal to of all creation!
Nothing in creation, nothing done to creation, can separate us from the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus.
Share with the person/people next to you a vision of hope which you have seen for the Earth.
Offering
“our land is now also sustaining your people by God's grace.” (UAICC response to the Assembly Convenanting Statement in 1994)
God’s gift to us is the birth of the universe, which makes the planet, this land possible.
All living things contribute their gifts and skills to make this planet habitable: bacteria make soil, plants make oxygen and food, animals eat the food and eventually return to the soil to feed the plants.
In the light of God’s great gift of life, and the gifts of all living things, we offer ourselves: our time, passions, talents and money for the reconciliation and renewal of all creation.
Reading:
Reflection
We had Aunties Jessica Williams and Emily Walker share with us.
Intercession
The reconciliation and renewal of all creation remains incomplete…Between species, amongst humans, even within each one of us.
But God is here. Here to listen to our concerns, and to share her concerns with us.
Blessing
God is beyond us and our imagination (like ...)
Jesus was one of us, a dusty messiah walking far and wide over the land, scattering the seeds of the kingdom, and hoping to find good soil.
God is amongst us (calling us beyond ourselves, to reconciliation with each other and all creation.)
God is within us (...)
So in our week, in our lives, may God’s will be done, on earth as in heaven. And may we find our creator in creation, serve and protect the garden, and be agents of reconciliation and renewal.
Song: praise God from whom all blessings flow TiS 768 new words
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow
Who was a creature here below
Praise God who dwells out way beyond
Yet lives within and dwells among!
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