Adapted from a Liturgy Prepared For

Season of Creation 4 (River Sunday)

September 28th 2014

Adapted from a liturgy prepared for

Project Reconnect

by Miriam Pepper and Jason John-

Uniting Earth Ministry NSW/ACT

copy and adapt freely, with acknowledgment

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Indicated prayers are taken or adapted from the official Season of Creation liturgical resources, Other options provided by Jason John.

SCRIPTURE READINGS:

Genesis 8:20-22; 9:12-17

Psalm 104:27-33

Matthew 22:34-40

Revelation 22:1-5

See also Appendix to this liturgy, whichcontains a medley of some of the many readings in the gospels which feature water and rivers, concluding with the Revelation of John.

SELECTED READING AND THEME:

Revelation 22:1-5

The river of the water of life flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Beside the river is the tree of life, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

OPTIONAL BEFORE SERVICE:

Play God is a River ( by Peter Mayer. It is also used later in the service.

CHURCH STORY

The Uniting Church has a vision to be a transforming presence in the Murray-Darling Basin, including pastoral care for the people and a prophetic voice for the reconciliation and renewal of the whole creation. People from across the church are involved in this journey together – you can be too.

Music by kind permission "God is a River," Peter Mayer.

CALL TO WORSHIP:

Option 1: (

We invite the rivers to worship with us - the Murray, the Darling

and all the streams that flow to the sea.

We invite the country creeks to sing - perch, eel and platypus,

trout streams and gleaming fountains.

We invite the fauna to praise God with us - ibis, heron and mountain duck, dragonflies and sleepy tortoises.

We join with the waters in praising God - waterfalls singing upstream and waves dancing at the river mouth.

We celebrate the song of the river – Sing, river, sing!

…(All together – boldly and loudly!)

Sing, river, sing!

Option 2:

Jesus’ ministry started with his baptism in the river. Then shortly before his death, he cried out, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.” As the scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.'

So come, believers (and inquirers)open your hearts to the streams of living water as we worship today.

Option 3:

God's Spirit brooded over the formless waters

Jesus rose up from the waters to begin his ministry, turned it into wine, taught beside it, walked on it, washed feet with it, and had it pour from his side.

In John's vision the Spirit offers it to all who thirst:

Let everyone who is thirsty come.

Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

Holy Spirit, living water, flow through our lives today, quench our thirst, offer us again this gift of life and grant us the humility to receive it.

Amen

PRAYER OF INVOCATION:

Option 2:

God beyond our imagining- here before the rivers were ever formed.

God who offers streams of living water.

God who flows through our lives today.

You are welcome here.

We pray for a sense of your presence here amongst us, and an openness to what you have to say to us this morning.

Optional responsive part:

Give us ears to hear and the courage to respond as we join with choirs of angels and the whole creation in the eternal hymn…

…(All together – boldly and loudly!)

Holy holy holy Lord,

God of power and might.

Heaven and Earth are full of your glory

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed the one who comes in the name of the Lord

Hosanna in the highest!

PRAYER OF CONFESSION:

Option1: Based on

We claim to be children of God.

And yet we have become alienated from Earth

and have polluted the rivers of God’s garden planet..

In the silence we listen for your Spirit, helping us to pray, to confess those things which shroud our revelation as the children of God, living the way you have called us to be in creation.

Option 2: (read expressively)

Waters: living, fresh, deep, glistening, burbling, quenching, delightful. Stagnant, tepid, polluted, dried up.

No doubt each of these images has probably summed up our faith or feelings at some point.

In the silence, let’s confess the state of our faith, our lives, our hopes and dreams and fears to God.

Silence.

WORDS OF ASSURANCE:

Option 1: (

Christ hears our confession from the river Jordan

and forgives our sins against the river.

Christ invites us to come home to Earth

by rejoicing in our rivers.

…(All together – boldly and loudly!)

Shalom! Shalom!

We are coming home!

Option 2: (to go with option 2 in confession)

Whatever kind of water symbolises our lives, we find God, the Spirit brooding over the waters, brooding over us.

We declare that nothing in all creation, including ourselves, is stagnant, tepid, polluted, or dried up enough to separate us from the love of God revealed in Jesus, who rose out of the river to be declared beloved.

So we confess the peace of Christ which surpasses all understanding.

May the peace of Christ, deep as the meandering river, powerful as a mighty waterfall, playful as a trickling brook, be with you)

And also with you.

Passing the peace

Option 3:

Unless we forgive our brothers and sisters from our heart, neither will our father in heaven forgive us.

And yet.

Our merciful God is kind to the ungrateful and wicked and so surely to us.

Jesus afflicted the comfortable, and comforted the afflicted.

May the Spirit reveal which is the word for us today.

Time of reflection on the Peter Mayer song

Water, water everywhere. In Jesus’ life.

Jesus’ ministry begins when he rises up out of it.He turns it into wine, walks on it (freaking out the disciples).He washes their feet with it (freaking them out even more).He offers living water to those who thirst, and it pours from his side at the crucifixion.

Water, water, everywhere.In our lives.

The Spirit brooded over it.Life emerged from it.Every cell in our body is full of it.

We spent the first nine months of life completely immersed in it.All life formed in the waters, and so did we.We bathe in it, drink it, eat the crops which get rained on by it.A few days without water and we are dead.

Little wonder that such a powerful part of our physical lives should be used as a metaphor for the spiritual life.

We invite you to reflect on God as a river as we listen to this song by Peter Mayer.

SONG: Peter Mayer- God is a River (

Optional sharing about responses to the song

Appendix: Gospel water readings medley

We hear a medley of some of the many readings in the gospels which feature water and rivers, concluding with the Revelation of John.

When Jesus had been baptised, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the skies were torn apart and the Spirit descended like a dove and landed on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." And immediately the Spirit drove him into the outback.

When he had finished speaking to the crowds, Jesus said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."

Early in his ministry, at his mother’s request, Jesus said to some servants as a wedding, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it, and realised it had become wine.

Once at a meal in Simon the Pharisees house, Jesus said to his host, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.”

Another time Jesus met a woman at a well. After they spoke for a time, Jesus said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

On another occasion, the disciples were rowing across the inland sea. Jesus came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid."

Then on the last day of the festival in Jerusalem, shortly before his death, Jesus cried out, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.” As the scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.'

At the last supper, Jesus poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him, saying, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me,” and asking, “Do you understand what I have done for you?”

Then after his arrest the next day Jesus was taken before Pilate. Pilate took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves."

Finally, what else but water would suffice as a vision of the final reconciliation and renewal of all things? So we read in Revelation:

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.

The Spirit and the bride say, "Come."

And let everyone who hears say, "Come."

And let everyone who is thirsty come.

Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

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