How To Do Worship

Order of Service

WELCOME

CALL TO WORSHIP

L:               God who was faithful to Esther, all of us have a calling for such a time as this. To speak when others are silent. To love when others hate. To live out the Gospel of Christ when it becomes unpopular.   

All:          We are born for such a time as this 

L:               We worship God because we were once like Esther. Unsure of our calling to help others. Unsure about whether we really are the hands and feet of Christ.   

All:          We are born for such a time as this 

L:               Today worship is our rallying cry. Calling us to to know who we are and who we are called to be.  

All:          We are born for such a time as this. Amen 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

L: The Cammeraygal people are the original custodians of the land on which our church stands. The Cammeraygals were spiritual leaders amongst the Indigenous clans of Sydney. 

All: We pay our respects to their Elders: past and present. 

We commit to walking respectfully in this country, and to journeying with them in their quest for justice and reconciliation.

SONG – COME AS YOU ARE   

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

God who builds our faith to face important moments, we confess. 

We confess to being unsure of who we are and who you have created us to be. 

We confess that Esther’s example of discovering her identity so that she could save her people, scares us. 

Risking everything to make a stand for the God given value of all human beings is a hard ask. 

Forgive us and help us to search our selves and society for the courage to be human and to show compassion just as Jesus did. 

Amen

ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS

One:         Hear the Good News: God raises up leaders for every generation to share God’s message of reconciliation and forgiveness. 

All:          Thanks be to God. Amen  

SONG – BE THOU MY VISION     

SCRIPTURE READING Esther 4:10-17 – Heymala 

MESSAGE/DISCUSSION – What can we learn from Esther’s example? Who has been a female leader who was born for the times?  

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

Join with me in the prayers of the people. When I say Lord in Your mercy, you are invited to respond hear our prayer. 

Let us pray 

Dear God who challenges us, we offer you our prayers for others today. In turning our minds to the needs of our fellow human beings we acknowledge our own short comings. Our timidity. Our confusion and fear over how to help those in need. 

Help us to change our thinking. To not shy away from our fears so that we can clear the blockages to doing your love shaped will. 

Lord in Your mercy

Hear our prayer 

We acknowledge that our world today seems to be getting less caring. Less loving. More quick to blame those who are different for the problems of society. 

We seem to be going to back to what Esther faced. We thought that hard won progress for equality was safe…but we then find the opposite to be true. 

We pray for the strength to fight for the defenceless. To hold to true to the Gospel Christ’s expansive love and to offer safe harbour for those in the firing line. 

Lord in Your mercy

Hear our prayer 

We pray for the church. For Neutral Bay Uniting Church. For the Uniting Church as a whole. For the global church that is under pressure in trying times. 

Work through our imperfections we pray to be a voice that preaches love into the broken places of the world. 

Lord in Your mercy

Hear our prayer 

We pray for women across the world like Esther. Women put in impossible situations, trying to protect their families and loved ones. 

We pray for unjust systems which still do not recognize the full worth of women either in the church or in society or in the workplace. 

Lord in Your mercy 

Hear our prayer

We ask these things as we pray the prayer that Jesus taught us in the language of our hearts. 

Our Father in heaven, 

   hallowed be your name, 

   your kingdom come, 

   your will be done, 

     on earth as in heaven. 

Give us today our daily bread. 

Forgive us our sins, 

   as we forgive those who sin against us. 

Save us from the time of trial 

   and deliver us from evil. 

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours 

   now and for ever. Amen.

OFFERING

BLESSING 

L:        Go like Esther, and understand the times we live in. Go like Esther and be born for such a time as this to do as the prophet Micah commanded. To do justice, love mercy and always walk humbly with God. 

All:       We go in peace to love and serve the Lord, 

           In the name of Christ. Amen.   

SONG – AMAZING GRACE