Worship Guide - 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Worship With One Click

You can choose to watch all of this Sunday's worship service in a series of linked videos, one after the other by clicking this link. Just press the button that says "PLAY ALL" and sit back and relax. You can also just click on the graphic to the left.​ Otherwise, proceed as normal through the sections.

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Thousands of years ago an artist is at work on a painting that shows a mountain rising out of a desert. The sky glints with gold leaf. A cut-out of the rock reveals seven men asleep in the shadows of the underland. They lie close together, encased by the rock: The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, known in Arabic as “the people of the cave,” for the story is found both in the Christian and Islamic traditions. Fleeing persecution, they wait in darkness, sheltered by the rock, until it is safe to emerge. They will sleep 300 years and emerge when danger is gone.

Consider this: church is not so much what we do as who we are together. “Church is the people I’m trying to follow Jesus with and the people who are following Jesus with me,” says Daniel Kirk. “It’s the intentional community of people who walk in self-giving love for each other while trusting themselves to the care of God.”
 
“Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will observe it to the end,” prays the psalmist (119:33).
 
We “mortals” long to discern between the ways of the “wicked” Ezekiel (33:7-11) so confidently distinguishes from the word of salvation that God’s servants who “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14) are compelled to speak. Otherwise, “lest we die” says Ezekiel, the servants are responsible for their demise. Whatever you bind or loose on earth will be bound or loosed in heaven, says Matthew (18:18). If we are indeed the servants, the “binders” and the “looseners” how can we be so obliged to “wake from sleep,” so responsible when we feel ourselves so tired, and offended and in need of shelter?
 
What do the simple ways of empathy and engagement and resistance that we encounter in parental care and prophetic dissent—in pandemic, no less!—teach the people together trying to follow Jesus? In these chaotic and unsettling days flooded with threats both real, imagined, and manufactured what paths of faith navigate us to the salvation so near? Enter into rest. Enter into hope. Enter into worship.

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Connections with Andrea

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Prelude

If you have prayers you would like to share, please do so here. These will be shared by email to our St Andrew prayer list so that we pray for what you hold by name. This information is not shared online in a searchable form.

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Gathering Song

Almighty God,
whose ways are far beyond our understanding,
whose time is all time,
help us to trust your judgments
so that we may do your will by loving you and one another.
In the name of Jesus we pray.
Amen.

Hymn of Praise

Reflection, Confession, Forgiveness

Send a text to a couple of people. Make a call. Who comes to mind for you? Wish them well. More than that, wish them the peace that comes with justice. Then click below.

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Listen, Look, Hear

Awaken our hearts and minds to your Word, O God.
Give us understanding so that,
by the power of your Holy Spirit,
we are able to do all that you command for love’s sake.
Gathered in Christ’s name,
gathered around the Word, we pray.
Amen.

Ezekiel 33:7-11 † Psalm 119:33-40 † Romans 13:8-14 † Matthew 18:15-20
*In the season after Pentecost (also known as Ordinary Time, or "Proper" Sundays, the first reading can follow one of two tracks—either a semi-continuous track that stays with a story over a number of Sundays or a paired track that companions more closely the gospel reading. This summer we are mostly using the paired readings.

Psalm Response

Reflection

A printed copy of this meditation can be found here.

Respond in Song

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Eucharist: Give Thanks

If you haven’t already, set the elements—some bread, some juice or wine—in the room where you worship in these days with our faith community. Add flowers—something beautiful, and add something that reminds you of stability.

​If a joy or a concern has come to mind, please share it with the assembly here so you do not carry it alone. These will be shared by email to our St Andrew prayer list so that we pray for what you hold by name. This information is emailed to a curated group, not shared or posted online in a searchable form.

As we respond to God's grace and new life, consider those ways you can express gratitude, thanksgiving and blessing. And remember that we continue to keep our financial commitments to our mission partners and staff. Thank you for remembering to send in your financial pledges and offerings.

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Sending Song

Blessing and Charge