Proper 28B Ordinary 33B Pentecost 25B

Great insights here from Rev Andrew Prior (Adelaide, South Australia) on the Gospel reading from Mark 13.

Collect
God who tumbles all stones, stones we use for walls that bar,
help us to see
in the rubble around our lives
the opportunity for new birth.
See us through the birth pangs
that are never terminal
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.  Amen (Bob Eldan)

“WITHIN” (Hannah’s Song)
A paraphrase of Hannah’s song for a single person to read (from memory if possible) sitting in a solitary place not surrounded by lecterns and tables and candles, but simply on her own.

At last,

heaven has collided with this world,

and in the moving of grace,

coiled itself round all brokenness.

This moment is pregnant with life.

Hope is newly conceived,

growing as only a promise of God can grow,

within.

My throat sings with the song of our salvation:

our god-life;

our grace-moment;

for justice is at last,

ours.

It is erupting as a fresh beauty,

and is all of God,

within.

And so I laugh, laugh at those who want to use weapons!

No more are their blades sharp and their arrows serrated.

They are worthless, dulled by the hope of God.

What we believe in, cannot be destroyed by weapons!

The weak who are filled with the strength of heaven’s promise, and that has tenacity!

No weapon can destroy that!

And as for the hungry, and the starving? No more! A banquet for all!

A feast of justice to fill our bellies,

while the well-fed will feed on crusts in the streets.

And you mothers who have never given birth, go and prepare the nurseries,

for a household of children will be yours.

There will be new laughter to fill your emptiness from within.

O Israel, the world is finding itself anew.

God has cupped love’s hand to hold it, to rebalance it, with dignity and respect.

That burned out, cinder of hope will be rekindled:

God is doing a new thing.

The very foundations of our world are being rebuilt, from within.

Death and pain, hunger and greed, all the enemies of God,

will be, shall be, are now, being destroyed,

for God is choosing the time, the woman, the womb, and the child ,

that will set all things aright, for all time.

My lips cannot hold back from shouting about our saving God,

for all that God is becoming in our world,

and the child who is becoming, in me.

(by Revd Roddy G Hamilton, Church of Scotland, ‘Starters for Sunday’, 2009.)

Two of Roddy’s reflections on the Gospel: Roddy Hamilton – Gospel reflections

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Rev Sandy Boyce is a Uniting Church in Australia Minister (Deacon). This blog may be a help to people planning worship services.
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