LaughingBird

Monday of Holy Week
2030-04-15 00:00 - 23:59 (Australia/Melbourne)
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Isaiah 42:1-9

The Lord says:
Let me introduce to you the one who serves me,
the one I am backing all the way.
I have chosen him,
and I am bursting with pride over him.
I have given him my spirit in full measure,
and he will bring about justice everywhere on earth.
He won’t go thrusting himself into the public eye,
or grandstanding in the street with pompous speeches.
He won’t exploit the vulnerability of damaged people,
or squeeze the last drops out of those who are running on empty.
He will be completely fair dinkum
about making justice a reality.
He will not run out of steam or throw in the towel
until his mission is accomplished;
until justice holds sway everywhere on earth
and the world’s peoples are eager to learn from him.
I am the one who created the universe
and stretched out the skies;
the one who constructed the earth
and produced everything that grows from it;
the one who breathes life into the world’s people
and kindles the spark of life within them;
I am the LORD your God;
so listen to what I have to say:
I, the LORD, have called you to stand for what is right.
I have put my arm around you and kept you safe.
I have made you a shining light for all the earth to see,
to draw all people everywhere
into a permanent alliance with me.
I have given you a privileged role
as the one who enables the blind to see the light;
the one who opens the gates of the stifling detention centres
and welcomes the prisoners into the fresh air of freedom.
I am the LORD, that is my name;
I don’t allow pretenders to cash in on my glory
or rip off my image to promote their frauds.
Take note: everything I warned you about has happened on cue.
Now I am announcing my new projects;
I’m letting you in on them even before they get started.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 36: 5-11

You unwavering love fills the universe, LORD;
your loyalty is as timeless as the milky way.
Your passion for doing right
is as solid as the mountain ranges;
your understanding of us
is as deep as the oceans.
You set out to save the lives of every creature, LORD,
and no one – not man nor woman,
not bird nor beast – is left out of your care.
Your love, O God, is our greatest treasure!
You keep a place for everyone
under the shelter of your wings.
You invite all who come to feast at your table;
the wine of your love flows like a river
and no one’s glass is allowed to run dry.
Life bursts forth from you like a fountain;
light shines from you and lights up our world.
Don’t ever give up on us, LORD;
keep loving all who trust you,
keep rescuing all whose hearts are in the right place.
Protect us from those who would trample us underfoot.
Stand in the way of those who would drive us from the land.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Hebrews 9: 11-15

The priests of old served in a great tent which people had made as the place to approach God here on earth, but when Christ came he bypassed the old tent. He came as the new high priest, bringing a new improved way of approaching God. Once and for all he went in to the real Holy Place of God’s presence, in the middle of the ultimate tent — heaven itself. He also bypassed the old sacrifices of goat and calf blood. Instead, he shed his own blood in the process of winning permanent freedom for everyone.
Under the old arrangements, people were not permitted to come and worship God if they had done something that made them officially unclean. They had to be purified first in a ritual that required them to be sprinkled with blood from goats and bulls and with the ashes of a sacrificed calf. Now if such a ritual was enough to clear up these problems, imagine how much more thoroughly our lives can be cleaned up — inside and out — by the blood of Christ! Christ’s self-sacrifice — which because of his spotless record was the greatest possible sacrifice — was made in the power of God’s Spirit to wipe the slate clean for us. No longer are we weighed down by the emotional debris left over from previous futile efforts to sort things out with God. Now we are free to join the joyous dance of life that honours God!
This is why we say that Jesus is the mediator. He brought the two sides together — us and God — to establish a new alliance. It took his own death to bring the job to completion, but he succeeded in having written off the debts we had accumulated by breaking the rules of the old agreement, and having us written back into the list of those who God has called — those who will inherit for all time all that God has promised to give.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

John 12: 1-11

Six days before the celebration of Passover, Jesus arrived in Bethany. He stayed overnight in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus; the man he had previously raised from the dead. Martha prepared a dinner party in honour of Jesus, and everyone was there, including Lazarus. During the evening, Mary broke open a very expensive bottle of blended fragrant oils. She poured out the oil and used it to massage Jesus’ feet. She then wiped them dry with her own hair. The intoxicating fragrance of the oils filled the whole house.
Judas Iscariot, however, took exception to her behaviour. Although he was one of Jesus’ closest followers, the seeds of betrayal were taking root in his mind. When he saw what Mary was doing, he growled, “What do you think you’re doing? That stuff is worth a fortune. Why was it not sold and the money put to work to do something for the poor?”
He wasn’t really the least bit concerned about the plight of the poor, but he was their treasurer and liked to keep their shared account topped up so he could help himself to it without anyone noticing.
Jesus said, “Get off her case, Judas! She brought that oil and kept it to use in preparing me for a decent burial. There will never be any shortage of opportunities to do something worthwhile for the poor, but you won’t always have the opportunity to do anything worthwhile for me.”
The news that Jesus was back in Bethany spread quickly and the crowds gathered to see him. Many were also keen to see Lazarus, because they had heard about Jesus raising him from the dead. When news of this reached the senior religious authorities, they began plotting to have Lazarus killed as well. They wanted to get rid of him because he had inspired so many of their followers to give up on them and switch their allegiance to Jesus.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

6th Sunday in Lent (Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday) - Year B
2030-04-14 00:00 - 23:59
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Mark 11: 1-11 (Gospel for the Liturgy of the Palms)

Jesus and his followers were getting close Jerusalem, and their last stop was just outside the twin townships of Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of his followers into the township, saying, “As soon as you get into the main street you will see a young donkey tied up to a fence. It is an awkward looking thing and has not yet even been ridden. Collect it and bring it to me, and if anyone asks you what you are doing, just tell them the boss needs it and will return it in no time.”
So they headed into the township, and found the donkey tied up outside a gate in the main street. As they untied it, some of the locals challenged them, saying, “What do you think you’re doing untying that donkey?”
They told them what Jesus had said and the locals let them go.
They brought it to Jesus and made an improvised saddle from items of spare clothing. When Jesus got on and began riding slowly up the road to Jerusalem, people began giving him the red-carpet treatment. Some were spreading their coats on the road before him while others were cutting down branches of leaves and flowers and spreading them along the road. Both in front of him and behind him, the cheering crowd began to chant:
Hooray!
God’s blessing is on the one
who comes in the name of the Lord!
God’s blessing is on the coming kingdom
of our ancestor, King David!
Hooray for God, the greatest of all!
Once he was inside Jerusalem, Jesus went on into the temple and had a good look around. However, it was already late in the day, so he and the twelve went back out to Bethany and stayed overnight there.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

John 12: 12-16 (Alternative Gospel for the Liturgy of the Palms)

Jesus set out to complete his journey to Jerusalem on the Sunday before the religious festival known as Passover. Huge crowds had gathered in the city for the festival and, when they got word that Jesus was due to arrive, they lined the streets, waving palm branches, to give him a hero’s welcome. As he approached, a loud chant went up:
Hooray!
God’s blessing is on the one
who comes in the name of the Lord,
the King of Israel!
Jesus found a young donkey, and rode in on it. It was just as the scriptures had said:
“Do not be afraid, people of Jerusalem.
Look, here comes your king
riding a simple little donkey!”
At the time, his followers couldn’t get their heads around the meaning of all this. Only later, when Jesus was known in all his glory, did it dawn on them that the things which had been written about him had, in fact, happened to him.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29 (Psalm for the Liturgy of the Palms)

Thank you, LORD, thank you!
Thank you for your goodness!
Thank you for your love —
rock solid and timeless!
May all your people recognise
that your love and loyalty last forever.
The minute they open the city gates
— the gates of justice —
we’ll be the first through, LORD;
eager to tell you how thankful we are.
These gates belong to you, LORD,
those you have put right can come on through.
Thank you for answering our prayers, LORD;
for coming to our rescue and putting us right.
From a rejected stone found in a rubbish pile
you cut and polished a priceless jewel.
This is obviously your work, LORD,
and we can hardly believe our eyes!
Today is your day, LORD, a day to honour you;
we will celebrate with joy and laughter.
Get us through safely, LORD!
In the tasks ahead, give us success!
The one who comes in your name, LORD,
is the one who is truly blessed.
Gathered here in your house,
we praise you for sending him.
You, LORD, are our only God,
and you light up our lives.
In a great procession,
we march to the sacred place,
waving branches and banners;
tossing flowers in the air.
You are our God
and we give you thanks.
You are our God
and we give you our highest acclaim.
Thank you, LORD, thank you!
Thank you for your goodness!
Thank you for your love —
rock solid and timeless!
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Isaiah 50: 4-9a

The LORD God has given me the gift of the gab
so that my words can teach others
and put a spring in the step of the weary.
As I wake up each new day,
God makes me hungry for learning.
The LORD cleaned out my ears
so that I could hear every word.
I learned eagerly;
I never rebelled or quit.
I was opposed by others,
but I gritted my teeth and stood my ground.
I looked them in the eye
when they insulted me and spat in my face.
I took it on the chin and did not fight back,
when they gave me a belting and tore out my hair.
The Lord GOD is always there for me,
so no disgrace ever gets to me.
I have steeled my jaw and dug in my heels,
and I’m sure I’ll never be ashamed of my stand
because I can trust God to back me up.
So, who thinks they can take me on?
Let them stand up and face me!
Who are my opponents?
Let’s see what they’re made of!
The Lord GOD is backing me;
so who is going to accuse me of doing wrong?
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 31: 9-16

Be kind to me, LORD,
I’m a mess.
My eyes are bloodshot from crying;
My heart is breaking
and my whole body aches.
Grief gnaws away at my life,
sorrows piles up, year after year.
Misery is draining my strength
and destroying my health.
I get no respect from my opponents;
nothing but ridicule.
Those who know me can’t bear to look at me;
even strangers cross the street to avoid me.
Everyone wants to purge me from their thoughts;
they’ve given me up for dead;
abandoned me like a burned out car.
Everyone is out to get me;
they’re whispering behind my back.
They’ve portrayed me as a monster
and put a price on my head.
But I still put my trust in you, LORD;
you are my God and you’re all I’ve got left.
My future is in your hands;
snatch me from the grasp
of those who are hunting me down.
I’m working for you; look on me with love.
Stand by me and save me.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton Laughingbird.net

Philippians 2: 5-11

Model your attitude on the attitude of the Messiah, Jesus.
Although Jesus was the same as God in every way,
he did not think of his God-like privileges
as something to be milked for all they were worth.
Instead, he laid it all aside
and, with no more privileges than a slave,
was born as a human being.
Having become a human being,
he was the model of humility.
He didn’t demand his own way
but let God set the agenda;
even when it included his own death,
and a gruesome public death at that.
Because of all this,
God has raised him to the status of number one
and honoured him more highly
than anyone else in the universe.
So now, just the mention of the name ‘Jesus’
should bring everyone to their knees;
everyone who has ever lived or ever will.
Everyone, everywhere will honour God
by openly acknowledging
that Jesus the Messiah is Lord of all!
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Mark 14:1 - 15:47

There were only two days to go until the religious festival known as Passover, and the chief priests and the religious lawyers were getting anxious to find a way to get Jesus arrested and killed on the quiet. They wanted it done without delay, because they were afraid that if it was done during the festival it might provoke a riot among the people.
At this time, Jesus was a dinner guest in the home of Simon the Leper, in the town of Bethany, just outside Jerusalem. During the dinner, a woman approached him with a very expensive bottle of blended fragrant oils. She broke open the bottle and tenderly poured out the oils on his head. But some of the other guests got their noses out of joint over this and began growling, “What do you think you’re doing? That stuff is worth a fortune. Why was it not sold and the money put to work to do something for the poor?”
They were giving her a hard time over it, but Jesus came to her defence, saying, “Give it a break. Why are you picking on her? She has done a beautiful thing for me. You will always have the poor with you, so you can go and do something worthwhile for them any time you like, but you won’t always have the opportunity to do anything worthwhile for me. She has done what she could, using these oils to prepare my body for a decent burial. I can tell you now, without a word of a lie, that wherever the great news is broadcast, anywhere in the world, she will be remembered for what she has done today.”
That was the last straw for Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve – the inner circle of Jesus’s closest followers. He arranged a secret meeting with the chief priests, and offered to rat on Jesus and give them the information they needed to arrest him. They were over the moon about his offer and promised to pay him for his trouble. So Judas began looking for the right moment to double-cross Jesus.
On the first day of the Festival – the day during which the Passover lamb is sacrificed – the disciples asked Jesus where they should go to book a room for their celebration of the Passover Meal. He sent two of them off to take care of it, saying, “Go into the city and you will be met by a man carrying a bucket of water. Follow him, and when you see him arrive at a house, speak to the owner of the house and say, ‘The Teacher wants to book your guest room to celebrate the Passover with his followers.’ He will show you a large room upstairs which is already set up for such an occasion. You two go and prepare the meal for us there.”
So the two disciples set off for the city. They found everything just as Jesus had described it, and they made all the necessary preparations for the Passover Meal.
When the evening came, Jesus arrived with the rest of the twelve to share the meal. When they were all seated and eating, Jesus said, “I kid you not; one of you will double-cross me; one of you who is sharing the meal with me.”
They were all quite shaken by this, and began asking him in turn, “Surely it is not me, is it?”
He answered, “I will be betrayed by one of the twelve, one of the very ones who pass me the sauce and top up my glass as we share the meal. And while the fate of the New Human is well known to scripture, the writing is on the wall for the one who stabs him in the back. That one is going to wish he had never been born.”
During the meal, Jesus took a loaf of bread in his hands and praised God. He broke the loaf, and gave it to them, saying: “Take some. This is my body.”
Then he picked up a glass of wine, gave thanks to God, and gave it to them, and they all took a drink from it. He said to them, “This is my blood, which is spilled for countless people in sealing God’s new alliance. I tell you without a word of a lie, that not another drop will pass my lips until the day when we drink in celebration of the culture of God.”
Then, after singing the hymn that concludes the meal, they went out to the Mount Of Olives. As they went, Jesus said to them, “You lot will all chuck in the towel. It will be just like the old saying in Scripture,
‘Knock off the shepherd,
and the sheep will run in all directions.’
But when I have been raised, I will go on up to Galilee ahead of you.”
Peter protested, saying, “Everyone else might lose their nerve and shoot through, but not me. I will hang in there no matter what.”
Jesus said to him, “Don’t bet on it. This very day, this very night, before the rooster crows a second time, you will have sworn three times that you don’t even know me.”
“Over my dead body!” thundered Peter. “I’d die before I would deny you.”
And all the others swore the same.
Soon they arrived at the Gethsemene Gardens. He asked most of them to wait for him while he went to pray, and took only Peter, James and John with him. As they went, he became increasingly disturbed and distraught. He said to the three, “I feel totally gutted. It feels like it’s killing me. Wait here and hang in there while I pray.”
He went ahead a little and threw himself down on the ground and prayed for the possibility of a way out of what was about to happen to him. He said, “Abba, Father, you can do anything. Get me out of this without having to drink this bitter cup! But still, the bottom line is whatever you want.”
When he got up, he found that his followers had fallen asleep. He woke Peter, saying, “Simon, have you nodded off? Couldn’t you hang in there with me for even one hour? Stay on the watch, and pray that you will not have to face anything that’s too tough for you to handle. Your spirit is raring to go, but your body can’t hack the pace.”
Then he moved off again and prayed in the same words as before. When he came back, he found them all asleep again, simply unable to keep their eyes open, and they didn’t know how to explain themselves. When he came back the third time, he said, “Are you lot planning to sleep right through? Enough! The time is up. A traitor has dealt the New Human into the hands of the corrupt. On your feet, and get moving! Look, here comes the one who has done the dirty on me!”
Immediately, even before he finished getting the words out, Judas, who was one of the twelve, arrived on the scene with a heavily armed mob. They had been dispatched by the coalition of chief priests, religious lawyers, and political authorities. The traitor had given them their cue: “The one I greet with a kiss is the target. Bust him and drag him off under guard.”
So when he arrived, he walked straight up to Jesus saying, “Rabbi!” and gave him a kiss.
Immediately the mob surrounded Jesus, grabbed him roughly and began to drag him off. In the confusion, someone pulled a knife and began lashing out, slashing a personal attendant of the High Priest and cutting off his ear. Jesus said to the mob, “Do you think I am some kind of dangerous thug, that you need your weapons drawn and your batons ready when you come out here to take me in? I have been sitting in the temple with you nearly every day, teaching the people, and you could have easily busted me if you had wanted to. But you are proving the scriptures right by doing it this way!”
By this time, everyone had run for their lives and abandoned him to his fate. There was one particular young bloke who had been following him, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. The mob tried to grab him too, but he broke free, losing the towel in the process, and ran off into the night, stark naked.
They dragged Jesus off to the High Priest, where all the chief priests and the political heavy-weights and the religious lawyers were waiting for him. Peter followed at a safe distance, and made it all the way into the High Priest’s central courtyard. He sat down there with the security guards and kept himself warm by their fire.
The chief priests and the ruling council were doing their best to put together a case against Jesus that would lead to a summary execution, but they couldn’t get the evidence to stick. A procession of witnesses brought false allegations against him, but they kept contradicting each other. Eventually though, some shonky witnesses testified that they had heard Jesus claim to be able to demolish the Temple, which the people had built in Jerusalem, and to build a replacement in just three days without any human help. They still couldn’t get their stories to line up properly, but the High Priest got to his feet, put Jesus back on the stand, and said, “You have heard the allegations that you claimed to have powers which only God could possess. What do you have to say in your own defence?”
But Jesus remained silent and offered no reply. So the High Priest put a different question to him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”
Jesus replied, “I am. And you will see the New Human seated as God’s right hand man and riding in with the clouds of heaven.”
At that, the High Priest feigned utter dismay and turned to the council saying, “Why should we bother with further witnesses? You have all heard his blasphemous claim to be on a par with God. What is your verdict?”
Their unanimous verdict was that he deserved to be condemned to death.
There was a near riot as they all began to stick the boots in, spitting in his face and roughing him up. They blindfolded him and bashed him repeatedly, saying, “Come on, prophesy for us!”
He was handed over to the security guards and they assaulted him further.
Peter was still keeping a low profile downstairs in the courtyard, but a girl from the High Priest’s domestic staff saw him there keeping warm by the fire. She recognised him and said, “You were with that Nazarene bloke, Jesus, weren’t you?”
But he denied it, saying, “I don’t know what you mean. I’ve got no idea what you are talking about.”
He walked out into the entrance courtyard, but the girl saw him again and began saying to everyone there, “Look, this bloke is one of them.”
But again Peter denied it. A little while later, some of the bystanders became more insistent, saying to Peter, “You’ve got to be one of them. You are a Galilean – it’s a dead give away.”
Peter began foul-mouthing them and yelling, “I’ve never even set eyes on the bloke you are talking about. I swear it on a stack of bibles!”
But the moment the denial was out of his mouth, a rooster began to crow for the second time. The words of Jesus came flooding back – “Before the rooster crows twice, you will have sworn three times that you don’t even know me” – and Peter fell apart, bawling his eyes out; a broken man.
At the crack of dawn the next morning, the chief priests, the politicians, the religious lawyers, and the whole ruling council held a meeting to plan their next move. They handcuffed Jesus, marched him off, and transferred him into the custody of Pilate, the Roman governor.
Pilate began his interrogation by asking Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
“They are your words,” answered Jesus.
The chief priests raised a string of allegations against him, and Pilate turned to him and said, “Aren’t you going to defend yourself? These are serious crimes they are accusing you of.”
But, much to the governor’s amazement, Jesus offered no further reply to any of it.
Now it had been Pilate’s practice to release a political prisoner – any prisoner nominated by the people – during the annual celebration of the Passover festival. At the time, there was a group of prisoners being held on murder charges after a terrorist attack, and among them was a man named Barabbas. A crowd had gathered and were beginning to call on Pilate to make his customary release for them. He answered, “Would you like me to release the king of the Jews for you this year?”
Pilate said this because he realised that Jesus had only been charged to get him out of the way of his religious rivals, and so he saw the annual custom as an opportunity to solve two problems at once. But the chief priests were busy stirring up the crowd to call for the release of Barabbas instead. Pilate asked the crowd, “Then what am I supposed to do with the man you call the king of the Jews?”
The shout came back, “Execute him!”
“Why? What evil has he done to deserve death?” Pilate asked them.
But the crowd just kept chanting, “String him up! String him up!”
So Pilate, wishing to keep the crowd happy, gave orders for the release of Barabbas. After having Jesus flogged for good measure, he handed him over to the executioners.
The governor’s security guards kept Jesus detained for a while in the Roman headquarters while the whole battalion gathered round and entertained themselves at his expense. They clothed him in a purple dress-coat, and twisted some barbed wire into a crown and jammed it on his head. They began saluting him and saying, “Heil, King of the Jews!” and then bashing him over the head with their batons. They spat on him and knelt down in mock worship of him. When they’d finished their brutal sport, they stripped the purple dress-coat off him, put him back in his own clothes, and marched him off to be executed. They pulled a man out of the crowd, and forced him to carry the large wooden cross on which Jesus was to be strung up. The man was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, and he had come down to the city from the bush.
The place where the executions were carried out was called Skull Hill, or in Hebrew, Golgotha. When they got there, they offered Jesus a strong drink – wine spiked with a common drug – but he turned it down. At nine o’clock in the morning, they strung Jesus up on the cross by driving nails through his flesh. Then they divided up his clothes among themselves, tossing a coin to see who should get what. The sign informing onlookers of the offence for which he was being executed, read, “The King of the Jews.”
A couple of convicted thugs were executed at the same time. The three crosses were erected in a row with Jesus on the middle one. People passing by hurled insults and ridicule at him. They shook their heads and said, “What happened to the big man who reckoned he could demolish the Temple and rebuild it in three days? Show us what you’re made of! Get yourself off the cross and save yourself now!”
The chief priests and the religious lawyers were there too, making jokes about it to one another with the best of them. “He reckoned he could save everyone else, but he can’t even save himself!” they said. “Let’s see the Messiah, the King of Israel, get himself down off the cross. If we see him do that, we’ll be ready to believe in him!”
Even those being executed alongside him hurled abuse at him.
When midday came, the sky went black for three hours and it was dark everywhere. At about three o’clock Jesus screamed out in agony, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you turned your back on me?”
When the people standing around heard this, some of them thought he was calling for help from Elijah. Someone soaked a sponge in wine that had turned to vinegar and held it up on a stick for him to drink, saying, “Let’s hang around and see whether Elijah will turn up to rescue him.”
Then Jesus let out a loud cry, and breathed his last. At that very moment, the curtain that closed off the most holy place in the Temple tore open, all the way from the top to the bottom. The commanding officer was standing at his post facing Jesus, and when he saw how Jesus died, he said, “Fair dinkum, this bloke must have been the Son of God!”
There were a number of women there too, watching it all from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Salome, and another Mary who was the mother of Joses and James junior. They had been among Jesus’s followers since the days in Galilee and had provided most of the resources needed by his group. There were also numerous other women who had come to Jerusalem with him.
It was the day of Preparation which comes immediately before the sacred Sabbath day, and so Joseph of Arimethea plucked up the courage to go to Pilate and ask permission to take the body of Jesus for burial. Joseph was a respected member of the ruling council, and was himself someone who was genuinely looking forward to the culture of God. Pilate was doubtful whether they could already be certain that Jesus was dead, so he sent for the commanding officer and asked him how long Jesus had been dead. Having heard from the commanding officer that Jesus was well and truly dead, Pilate gave orders for the body to be released to Joseph. Joseph took the body down from the cross and wrapped it in a linen shroud which he had purchased. He buried Jesus in a tomb which had been cut into a rock wall, and rolled a boulder over the entrance to seal it. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses witnessed the burial.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Mark 15: 1-39, (40-47) (Alternative shorter gospel reading)

At the crack of dawn, the chief priests, the politicians, the religious lawyers, and the whole ruling council held a meeting to plan their next move. They handcuffed Jesus, marched him off, and transferred him into the custody of Pilate, the Roman governor.
Pilate began his interrogation by asking Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
“They are your words,” answered Jesus.
The chief priests raised a string of allegations against him, and Pilate turned to him and said, “Aren’t you going to defend yourself? These are serious crimes they are accusing you of.”
But, much to the governor’s amazement, Jesus offered no further reply to any of it.
Now it had been Pilate’s practice to release a political prisoner – any prisoner nominated by the people – during the annual celebration of the Passover festival. At the time, there was a group of prisoners being held on murder charges after a violent uprising, and among them was a man named Barabbas. A crowd had gathered and were beginning to call on Pilate to make his customary release for them. He answered, “Would you like me to release the king of the Jews for you this year?”
Pilate said this because he realised that Jesus had only been charged to get him out of the way of his religious rivals, and so he saw the annual custom as an opportunity to solve two problems at once. But the chief priests were busy stirring up the crowd to call for the release of Barabbas instead. Pilate asked the crowd, “Then what am I supposed to do with the man you call the king of the Jews?”
The shout came back, “Execute him!”
“Why? What evil has he done to deserve death?” Pilate asked them.
But the crowd just kept chanting, “String him up! String him up!”
So Pilate, wishing to keep the crowd happy, gave orders for the release of Barabbas. After having Jesus flogged for good measure, he handed him over to the executioners.
The governor’s security guards kept Jesus detained for a while in the Roman headquarters while the whole battalion gathered round and entertained themselves at his expense. They clothed him in a purple dress-coat, and twisted some barbed wire into a crown and jammed it on his head. They began saluting him and saying, “Heil, King of the Jews!” and then bashing him over the head with their batons. They spat on him and knelt down in mock worship of him. When they’d finished their brutal sport, they stripped the purple dress-coat off him, put him back in his own clothes, and marched him off to be executed. They pulled a man out of the crowd, and forced him to carry the large wooden cross on which Jesus was to be strung up. The man was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, and he had come down to the city from the bush.
The place where the executions were carried out was called Skull Hill, or in Hebrew, Golgotha. When they got there, they offered Jesus a strong drink – wine spiked with a common drug – but he turned it down. At nine o’clock in the morning, they strung Jesus up on the cross by driving nails through his flesh. Then they divided up his clothes among themselves, tossing a coin to see who should get what. The sign informing onlookers of the offence for which he was being executed, read, “The King of the Jews.”
A couple of convicted thugs were executed at the same time. The three crosses were erected in a row with Jesus on the middle one. People passing by hurled insults and ridicule at him. They shook their heads and said, “What happened to the big man who reckoned he could demolish the Temple and rebuild it in three days? Show us what you’re made of! Get yourself off the cross and save yourself now!”
The chief priests and the religious lawyers were there too, making jokes about it to one another with the best of them. “He reckoned he could save everyone else, but he can’t even save himself!” they said. “Let’s see the Messiah, the King of Israel, get himself down off the cross. If we see him do that, we’ll be ready to believe in him!”
Even those being executed alongside him hurled abuse at him.
When midday came, the sky went black for three hours and it was dark everywhere. At about three o’clock Jesus screamed out in agony, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you turned your back on me?”
When the people standing around heard this, some of them thought he was calling for help from Elijah. Someone soaked a sponge in wine that had turned to vinegar and held it up on a stick for him to drink, saying, “Let’s hang around and see whether Elijah will turn up to rescue him.”
Then Jesus let out a loud cry, and breathed his last. At that very moment, the curtain that closed off the most holy place in the Temple tore open, all the way from the top to the bottom. The commanding officer was standing at his post facing Jesus, and when he saw how Jesus died, he said, “Fair dinkum, this bloke must have been the Son of God!”
There were a number of women there too, watching it all from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Salome, and another Mary who was the mother of Joses and James junior. They had been among Jesus’s followers since the days in Galilee and had provided most of the resources needed by his group. There were also numerous other women who had come to Jerusalem with him.
It was the day of Preparation which comes immediately before the sacred Sabbath day, and so Joseph of Arimethea plucked up the courage to go to Pilate and ask permission to take the body of Jesus for burial. Joseph was a respected member of the ruling council, and was himself someone who was genuinely looking forward to the culture of God. Pilate was doubtful whether they could already be certain that Jesus was dead, so he sent for the commanding officer and asked him how long Jesus had been dead. Having heard from the commanding officer that Jesus was well and truly dead, Pilate gave orders for the body to be released to Joseph. Joseph took the body down from the cross and wrapped it in a linen shroud which he had purchased. He buried Jesus in a tomb which had been cut into a rock wall, and rolled a boulder over the entrance to seal it. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses witnessed the burial.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for you alone are good and your steadfast love is forever.
The creation of the world was your doing
and is a marvel to our eyes.
Your prophets told of the coming one
who would teach your ways
and sustain us with your word.
Your son, Jesus, though one with you
gave up all he had,
taking on human flesh,
and walking the path of obedience
all the way to insult, betrayal and death,
trusting only in your vindication.
Though he was rejected by those who had cheered him,
you made him the cornerstone of new life
and raised him to the highest place of honour.
He has opened the gates of justice
and become our salvation,
so with shouts of joy we greet his appearing,
and proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord
to your glory forever.
Therefore with .....
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give thanks for your son, Jesus Christ,
who, giving up all he had
and walking the path of obedience
all the way to insult, betrayal and death,
opened the gates of justice
and become our salvation.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for you alone are good and your steadfast love is forever.
The creation of the world was your doing
and is a marvel to our eyes.
Your prophets told of the coming one
who would teach your ways
and sustain us with your word.
Your son, Jesus, though one with you
gave up all he had,
taking on human flesh,
and walking the path of obedience
all the way to insult, betrayal and death,
trusting only in your vindication.
Though he was rejected by those who had cheered him,
you made him the cornerstone of new life
and raised him to the highest place of honour.
He has opened the gates of justice
and become our salvation,
so with shouts of joy we greet his appearing,
and proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord
to your glory forever.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

The God who vindicates us is near.
We shall not be put to shame.
With the Lord God as our help
no one can declare us guilty.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now and follow Christ in obedience.
Have the same mind as was in Christ Jesus;
Keep your ears open to God’s teaching;
Be humble, even in the face of hostility
and do not turn back.
And may God help you and keep you from disgrace;
May Christ Jesus lead you through the gates of justice;
And may the Holy Spirit keep you in God’s steadfast love
and fill your mouths with praise to the glory of God.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.There are not many sermons available because our church no longer includes a sermon in the worship for this occasion.

Benefit of HindsightA sermon on John 12:12-16 by Nathan Nettleton

Jesus and the Opinion PollsA sermon for Palm Sunday by Nathan Nettleton

5th Sunday in Lent - Year B
2030-04-07 00:00 - 23:59
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Jeremiah 31: 31-34

You can count on this, says the LORD. The time is coming when I will once again take Israel and Judah as my marriage partner. Our marriage will not be like the marriage I entered with their ancestors. Back then I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of slavery and carried them across the threshold into a home of their own. But even though I was loving and faithful, says the LORD, they broke our marriage vows.
But listen to the new marriage vows I will soon make with the people of Israel, says the LORD:
“I will write my values into your hearts and minds.
I will be your God, and you will be my people.”
No longer will they need lessons to learn how I want them to live. They won’t need to spur each other on, saying, “Get to know the LORD,” because all of them, from all walks of life, will know me well, says the LORD. I will erase all record of their past wrongs and let them start over with a clean slate.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 51: 1-12 (alternative)

O God, your love never gives up.
Have mercy on me now!
I’m relying on your record of generous mercy:
please wipe my slate clean!
Scrub away the filth I’ve been living in;
Scour away the stain of my sin.
I know only too well what I’ve done;
my sins stare me in the face.
It is you I’ve double-crossed, you I’ve betrayed;
I’ve done things which I knew you despised.
You have all the facts and you know what I deserve;
what ever you decide is fair enough.
I’ve been on the wrong side of you forever.
I turned my back on you before I was born.
You want honesty that comes from deep within,
so teach me your wisdom,
let it take root in my heart.
Get the bleach out and give me the treatment!
Soak me and wash me
until I’m as white as snow.
Open my ears to laughter and music.
Though you ground me into the dirt,
let me now rise to the sounds of joy.
Turn a blind eye to my record;
disregard my prior convictions.
Renovate me from the inside, O God;
rebuild my heart and rewire my brain;
install in me a new fault-free operating system.
Don’t cut me off from you now,
or withdraw your Holy Spirit from me.
Rekindle in me the joy of being safe in your care,
and fill me with an insatiable desire to follow you.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 119: 9-16 (alternative)

If anyone wants to avoid polluting their life, LORD,
they should use your word as protection.
I am giving my all to getting close to you;
don’t let me stumble off the track you have set for us.
Everything you have said, I treasure in my heart,
to keep myself from doing the wrong thing by you.
You are the best, LORD,
teach me all you require of your people.
My mouth is ready, willing and able
to repeat whatever you have to say.
The path you have set for us is my greatest delight;
it is worth more to me than all the money in the world.
I will keep my mind fixed on your teachings,
and my eyes fixed on the track you have set for us.
I will cherish the rules you have given us,
and never forget the things you have to say.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Hebrews 5: 5-10

Christ did not push himself forward and campaign for the position of high priest. It was God who tapped him on the shoulder and said, in the words of scripture:
“You’re it — my Son;
today I have named you.”
In the same way, in another place, God says:
“You are a priest forever;
your task is the priestly work begun by Melchizedek.”
When Jesus was among us and the threat of death was closing in on him, it was with agonized cries and tears that he did his priestly work of offering up prayers and appeals to the God who has the power to save us from death. His pleas were heard because of his prayerful acceptance of God’s will. He was given no special privileges as a Son — he got his lessons in obedience in the same school of suffering as the rest of us. Once he had made the grade, perfecting all that he had to learn, God marked him out as a high priest — the last of the line that began with Melchizedek. Thus, Jesus became the one who sets free all who trust and follow him. For them he is the source of life without limit.
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

John 12: 20-33

Many people were arriving in Jerusalem for the celebration of the Jewish religious festival known as Passover. However, not all of the people were Jewish, and one group of foreigners made contact with Philip, and said, “Sir, we would like to meet Jesus.”
Philip, who was from the Galilean town of Bethsaida, told Andrew, and together they went and told Jesus about the request from the foreign visitors. On hearing about it, Jesus said, “If the foreigners are asking after us, we’ve reached the point of no return. The time has come for the New Human to be lifted up in all his glory.”
He went on to say:
“I kid you not, a grain of wheat is nothing unless it hits the dirt and loses its life. But if it gives up its life as a single grain, then it will begin to produce a bumper crop of life. Anyone who prizes their own life above everything else will end up losing the lot. But those who treat their individual survival in this world as a matter of no consequence will find life opening up before them without limit. If any of these people want to apprentice themselves to me, they will need to come and stick with me. Those who work for me will be going wherever I go. Whoever works for me will get the thumbs-up from the God who conceived me. But at the moment, I’m all churned up inside. Should I call on the Father to bail me out of what is about to happen? No, I can’t do that because what is about to happen is the pinnacle of everything I came to achieve. So then, I call out to God and say, ‘Father, put your name up in lights!’ ”
And a voice answered from heaven, saying, “I have already brought glory to my name, and I will do so again.”
The crowd who were gathered there heard the voice. Some of them said it sounded like thunder, and others said, “A messenger from God has spoken to him.”
Jesus addressed them, saying, “This voice has spoken for your benefit, not mine. The world is being weighed in the balance right now; and the one who has been calling the shots in this world will now be driven out. As for me, I will be lifted up off the ground, and when that happens, I will draw all people to myself.”
With these words, he gave an indication of the kind of death he was going to die.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton Laughingbird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for you have taken us by the hand,
and offered yourself to us in a sacred covenant.
You are the creator of all things;
you knew the earth and its inhabitants before their birth.
You led a suffering people from slavery to freedom,
and offered to be their God
if they would be your people.
Though we broke our vows to you and pursued evil,
in gracious love you offered us a new covenant
embodied in your Son, Jesus,
who was made perfect on the path of obedience,
even in the face of suffering.
Lifted up on a cross to die,
he has drawn all people to himself;
and raised from the dead,
he has become the source of eternal salvation
for all who live in obedience
to the new law you have written on our hearts.
Therefore with .....
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give thanks for your Son, Jesus,
who was made perfect on the path of obedience
and, as he was lifted up on a cross to die,
drew all people to himself
and became the source of eternal salvation
for all who follow the new law you have written on our hearts.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for you have taken us by the hand,
and offered yourself to us in a sacred covenant.
You are the creator of all things;
you knew the earth and its inhabitants before their birth.
You led a suffering people from slavery to freedom,
and offered to be their God
if they would be your people.
Though we broke our vows to you and pursued evil,
in gracious love you offered us a new covenant
embodied in your Son, Jesus,
who was made perfect on the path of obedience,
even in the face of suffering.
Lifted up on a cross to die,
he has drawn all people to himself;
and raised from the dead,
he has become the source of eternal salvation
for all who live in obedience
to the new law you have written on our hearts.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

God sees us for what we are,
but in mercy does not cast us aside.
Through Jesus Christ, the source of eternal salvation,
God washes away our guilt
and remembers our sin no more.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now, to serve Christ and follow him.
Let your old life fall like a grain of wheat into the earth
so that you may bear much fruit
as you allow God to reshape your heart
and live in obedience to the law written within you.
And may God centre you in truth and steady your spirit.
May Christ renew your joy and strengthen your will.
And may the Spirit teach you God’s hidden wisdom
and fill you with songs of rejoicing.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

Give up and GrowA sermon on John 12:20-33 by Nathan Nettleton

The Dark Light of CrucifixionA sermon on John 12:20-33 by Garry Deverell

Jesus our PriestA sermon on Hebrews 5:5-10 by Nathan Nettleton

Death, Life, and Jimmy StynesA sermon on John 12:20-33 by Nathan Nettleton

Facing the Firing SquadA sermon on John 12:20-33 & Jeremiah 31:31-34 by Nathan Nettleton

A Bitter Cup and Other BlessingsA sermon on John 12:20-33; Hebrews 5:5-10; & Jeremiah 31:31-34 by Nathan Nettleton

HopeA sermon on John 12:20-33; Hebrews 5:5-10; Psalm 51 & Jeremiah 31:31-34 by Andrea Klimt

When God tries againA sermon on Jeremiah 31:31-34 by Nathan Nettleton

4th Sunday in Lent - Year B
2030-03-31 00:00 - 23:59
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Numbers 21: 4-9

The people of Israel wanted to skirt around the land of Edom, so when they set out from Mount Hor they took the Red Sea track. As they travelled, the people began losing the plot and mouthing off against God and Moses. They were whinging, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt if we are just going to die out here in the desert? There is no food. There is no water. And we can’t stand this lousy stuff we’ve got to eat.”
At that, the LORD let loose some dangerous snakes among the people. The snakes had a fiery venom and many people were bitten and died. The people came to Moses and pleaded with him, saying, “We were wrong to mouth off against the LORD and against you. Please ask the LORD to get rid of the poisonous snakes that are plaguing us.”
So Moses prayed for the the people, and the LORD spoke to him, saying, “Make a statue of a poisonous snake, and set it up on a pole where the people can see it. Whenever anyone is bitten, they are to look at the statue of the snake, and they will survive.”
So Moses made a snake out of bronze, and set it up on a pole. Whenever anyone was bitten by one of the snakes with the fiery venom, they would fix their gaze on the bronze snake, and they would live.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 107: 1-3, 17-22

Thank you, LORD! Thank you for being so good.
Your rock-solid love will never end.
LORD, we freely and openly acknowledge
that it was you who got us out of trouble;
you who put us back on the right track.
You gathered us from the four corners of the globe,
from wherever we had been lost or exiled.
Some of us had wrecked our health in destructive living;
involvement in evil left us sick and injured.
We were off our food, weak and broken;
a painful death was knocking at the door.
In sheer despair, we cried out to you, LORD,
and in a flash, you came to our rescue.
Your words healed us; got us back on our feet;
pulled us free of the jaws of death.
So let us tell you how grateful we are, LORD.
Thank you for your rock-solid love
and for the great things you do for everyone;
Let us bring gifts to say thank you,
and sing and dance to celebrate what you’ve done.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Ephesians 2: 1-10

You were as good as dead as a result of the corrupt and loveless ways you were living. You were following the script written for these dark days we live in, and taking your cues from the spirit who rules over the murky and polluted atmosphere that surrounds us; the one who is busy pulling the strings of those who have refused to do things God’s way. There was a time when all of us were numbered among that lot, and we were living as slaves to our basic bodily appetites. The desire for selfish pleasures and sensual stimulation dictated everything we did, and we were like screwed up kids who seem destined for trouble; just as bad as everyone else. But because God is so rich in mercy, that was not the end of the story. God’s love for us was undiminished even when our twisted behaviour had completely destroyed our lives, and so God gave us another shot at life, a new life, united to Christ. This was motivated by God’s overwhelming love for us, and it was clearly an act of sheer generosity that saw us rescued into the life of God. Indeed, God did not merely snatch us from the grave, but raised us up with Jesus the Messiah and united us to him so fully that, in him, we are now seated with God in the heavenly places. This act of kindness, shown to us in and through Jesus the Messiah, will stand forever as proof that God’s extravagant love and generosity are far richer than we could ever fathom. In fact it is only because God’s generous mercy is so over-the-top that God responded to your trust and saved you. You did nothing to deserve it or bring it about. It is a gift, given by God. It is not something you earned by doing the right thing, so there is absolutely nothing for anyone to go patting themselves on the back for. You see, we are simply what God has made us. We have been created in union with Jesus the Messiah to work for good — a task that provides the focus for the way of life which God prepared for us from the word ‘go’.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

John 3: 14-21

Jesus said:
“You know the old story from the desert: the one about Moses lifting up the hand-made snake so that the people could look at something that would help them to focus their trust in God. Well, the New Human is going to be lifted up for much the same reason. Everyone who looks up to him in trust and hope will receive life without limit.
“God’s love for the world is so overwhelming that even giving up his own son was not too great a cost to ensure that no one need succumb to death. All those who put their trust in him can have boundless life instead.
“God didn’t put his son’s life on the line merely to bring down the hammer and pass sentence on us. Rather, God saw the world in desperate trouble and sent the Son on a cosmic rescue mission. Those who put their trust in him are no longer facing sentence; but those who turn their backs on him are already condemned, because they have rejected the only Son of God and all he stands for. This is, in fact, the way the judgment is happening: the light has come into the world, and the truth about everyone is being found out by the way they react to it. Many people beat a fast retreat back into the shadows, because the things they are doing are so corrupt that they need the cover of darkness. People can’t stand the light if they are doing the wrong thing. They avoid it like the plague because they don’t want the things they do exposed. But those who live by the truth and act with integrity have nothing to hide. They are more than happy to step into the light where it will be plain for all to see that they have been acting in close cooperation with God.”
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for in lasting love you gave your only Son,
so that all who trust in him may have eternal life.
In the beginning you spoke the word of life
and brought the world into being.
You rescued a people from oppression,
and even when they rebelled against you
you heard their cries and snatched them from danger.
In great love and mercy,
you sent your Son, Jesus, into the world,
and though he was lifted up on the cross to die,
you gave the gift of life to all who turned to him in faith.
Raising him from the dead,
you have given us life in him,
not because of any works of our own,
but as a gift from the immeasurable riches of your grace
given us in Christ,
now and for the ages to come.
Therefore with .....
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give thanks for the immeasurable riches of your grace
through which you sent your Son, Jesus, into the world,
and allowed him to be lifted up on the cross,
so that all who turn to him in faith may have eternal life.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for in lasting love you gave your only Son,
so that all who trust in him may have eternal life.
In the beginning you spoke the word of life
and brought the world into being.
You rescued a people from oppression,
and even when they rebelled against you
you heard their cries and snatched them from danger.
In great love and mercy,
you sent your Son, Jesus, into the world,
and though he was lifted up on the cross to die,
you gave the gift of life to all who turned to him in faith.
Raising him from the dead,
you have given us life in him,
not because of any works of our own,
but as a gift from the immeasurable riches of your grace
given us in Christ,
now and for the ages to come.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that through him the world might be saved.
Though we were dead through our sins,
in great mercy, God has spoken a word of healing
and made us alive together with Christ.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now, and live as people made by God for good works.
Live your life in God openly in the light so all may see.
Celebrate God’s love with a sacrifice of praise,
and tell your story of salvation with joy.
And may God show you the immeasurable riches of his grace.
May Christ lead you into the life prepared for you.
And may the Spirit gift you with faith for salvation.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

The Day of Judgment is TodayA sermon on John 3: 14-21 & Ephesians 2: 1-10 by Nathan Nettleton

Looking to the Suffering OneA sermon on John 3: 14-21 & Ephesians 2: 1-10 by Nathan Nettleton

Enemies of God?A sermon on John 3: 14-21 & Ephesians 2: 1-10 by Nathan Nettleton

God So LovesA sermon on John 3: 14-21 & Ephesians 2: 1-10 by Nathan Nettleton

For God So Loved The WorldA sermon on John 3: 14-21 by Simon Holt

2nd Sunday in Lent - Year B
2030-03-17 00:00 - 23:59
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16

One day, when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD turned up and spoke to him, saying, “I am God Almighty. You are to live your life openly before me, with absolute integrity. I will put in place an alliance between me and you, and under its terms, I will make sure you have a huge number of descendants.”
Abram dropped in his tracks with his face to the ground as God continued to speak to him, saying:
“I, myself, am forging this alliance with you: I am promising that you will be the ancestor of a whole bunch of nations. You are not to be known by the name Abram anymore. From now on, your name will be Abraham, because it means ‘the father of many’, and that is what you will be. I will make everything go well for you, and your family will multiply rapidly. From among your offspring, whole nations and kings will emerge. I will put this alliance in place between me and you and all who are to come in your family line through all generations. This alliance will last forever, committing me to being God to you and to your descendants after you for all time.
Your wife Sarai is in on this alliance too. However her name is to change too. From now on her name will be Sarah. I will see to it that things go well for her, and what’s more, she and you will conceive a child together and she will give birth to a son. I will make things go well for Sarah, and in time, nations and great rulers will trace their family line back to her.”
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 22: 23-31

LORD, I’ll call on all who honour you to stand up and say so!
All who trace their roots to Jacob will give you the glory!
All who share the heritage of Israel will stand in awe of you!
LORD, you did not rubbish anyone
or blame the victims for their suffering.
You did not turn away or slip off quietly;
when I cried for help, you responded.
Whenever people gather to worship,
my heart overflows and I sing your praises.
Out in the open for all to see
I’ll do all that I promised.
At your table, God, the needy will feast;
those who hunger for you will be fed till they burst with praise!
They will be able to live it up, now and forever!
In every corner of the earth people will wake up to themselves
and turn back to you, LORD.
Every race, nation, tribe and family
will offer themselves to you in worship,
for you have the last word on everything;
what you say goes.
Even the dead will bow down to you, LORD;
those who are trampled in the dust will look to you in hope,
and I will live for you and you alone.
Our kids and their kids will serve you, LORD;
as we pass the message down from one generation to the next.
People not even born yet will hear the story;
they will be told of what you have done to set us free.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Romans 4: 13-25

When God promised Abraham that he and his descendants would inherit the earth, it was not because Abraham had earned it by following God’s instructions to the letter. Instead it was a gift given when God put things right for Abraham in response to the trust he had shown. If it were possible to earn the rights to the earth by rigid compliance with the law, then basic values like trust and promise would be irrelevant. It would all become just another legal contract to be negotiated. Tie it all up in fine print and it will only end up serving as evidence against you; but where the relationship is conducted on the basis of trust, no one goes on the lookout for very possible breach.
So instead of being a legal matter, the fulfilment of the promise is conditional only on people’s willingness to put their trust in God. It is simply an expression of God’s generosity, and that’s why it is guaranteed to always be available to everyone. Whether you were raised in a culture where observing the religious law was the norm, or whether you have simply stepped out and put your trust in God like Abraham did, the promise is open to you. After all, both groups can rightly trace their line back to Abraham, and the scriptures say that God promised to make him the father of many nations.
When it looked like Abraham wouldn’t ever become the father of anyone, he trusted his future into the hands of God, believing that the God who can bring life out of death could create something out of nothing. He hung onto his hope even when it seemed utterly hopeless. He kept on believing that he would have many descendants because he was sure that God had promised him that. Even the cold hard biological facts didn’t cause him to throw in the towel. He knew that his hundred year old body was past it, and that Sarah was an old woman who hadn’t even been fertile when she was young. Yet he didn’t allow even such obvious obstacles to break down his trust and make him cynical about God’s promise. Instead his faith actually grew stronger as he went right on crowing about the greatness of God. He remained dead-set certain that God was more than capable of making good on the promise. That is why God counted his trust as the equivalent of a perfect life. Now when the scriptures say “it was counted as the equivalent of a perfect life”, it is not speaking of a special arrangement for Abraham alone. No, it refers to all of us. We will all be accepted on that same basis if we too put our trust in the One who raised Jesus our Lord to new life from the dead. Jesus was put to death even though it was us who had done the wrong thing; but he was raised to new life so that we could be put right with God.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Mark 8: 31-38

Once his followers had identified him as the Messiah, Jesus began to fill them in on what was going to happen to him. “The New Human is going to be put through the wringer. He’ll be done over by the politicians, the priests and the religious lawyers. They’ll have him executed, but after three days he’ll rise to life.”
He didn’t beat about the bush on this – he spelt it out as clear as you like. But Peter would have none of it. He pulled Jesus aside and gave him a piece of his mind. Recognising that his followers were losing the plot, Jesus made an example of Peter, saying, “Get out of my face, you satan! You’ve got no idea what God is on about. You’re just pursuing the same things as everyone else.”
Then he called everyone to gather round – his followers and the whole crowd – and he said to them, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to hand over the keys, sign their own death warrant, and then do as I do. If you try to hold on to control of your life you’ll end up losing the lot. But if you let go, even if you pay the ultimate price for your commitment to me and to our message, you’ll gain real life. What’s the point of getting control of the whole world if getting it kills you. There’s no trade-in on a burned out soul. There are some who find it embarrassing to be associated with me and with what I’m on about, when they’re hanging around with their deceitful and easily distracted peers. If they don’t sort themselves out, they’ll find that when the New Human arrives, full of the glory of God and surrounded by the angels, he’ll be too embarrassed to associate with them.”
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Mark 9: 2-9 (alternative gospel if the last Sunday before Lent was not observed as Transfiguration)

Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them up a high mountain away from everyone else. Before their very eyes, the way Jesus looked was suddenly changed from the inside out. His clothing became so white that it was dazzling – an effect beyond anything soap powder could ever achieve. Suddenly they saw Moses and Elijah there too, in deep conversation with Jesus.
Peter said, “Boss, this is fantastic! What a moment! How about we knock up three huts, so that you, Moses and Elijah can all stay here longer.” He was just shooting his mouth off without thinking because they were quaking in their boots.
An awesome cloud engulfed them, and from deep within the cloud, a voice boomed forth: “This is my Son, the love of my life. Listen to him!”
Peter, James and John looked around and suddenly everything looked normal again and they saw no one there but Jesus.
As they were coming back down the mountain, Jesus gave them strict instructions not to breathe a word to anyone about about what they had seen, until after the New Human had risen from the dead.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for, in an everlasting covenant, you have promised
to be our God through all generations.
You called into existence things that did not exist:
the universe and all that inhabits it.
From Abraham and Sarah you brought forth nations,
calling them to walk before you in the righteousness
that comes from faith.
In your Son, Jesus,
you showed your compassion for the afflicted
and taught us that real life is found by those
who lose their life for your sake and for your gospel.
He was rejected by the religious leaders, and killed,
but three days later,
you raised him from the dead as Lord.
Now you justify all
who put their faith in you, through him,
counting it to us as righteousness,
and promising us the full riches of your grace
when Christ comes in glory.
Therefore with .....
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give thanks for your everlasting covenant,
through which you justify us when we put our faith in you,
counting it to us as righteousness,
and calling us to take up our cross and follow Christ
in the way that leads to life.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for, in an everlasting covenant, you have promised
to be our God through all generations.
You called into existence things that did not exist:
the universe and all that inhabits it.
From Abraham and Sarah you brought forth nations,
calling them to walk before you in the righteousness
that comes from faith.
In your Son, Jesus,
you showed your compassion for the afflicted
and taught us that real life is found by those
who lose their life for your sake and for your gospel.
He was rejected by the religious leaders, and killed,
but three days later,
you raised him from the dead as Lord.
Now you justify all
who put their faith in you, through him,
counting it to us as righteousness,
and promising us the full riches of your grace
when Christ comes in glory.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

Jesus Christ was handed over to death for us
and raised to life for our justification.
Therefore, in an everlasting covenant,
God has promised that all who put their trust in Christ
will, by grace, be considered righteous.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now, and live before God in openness and integrity.
Set your minds on the ways of God,
not clinging to your own life,
but taking up your cross and following Jesus.
And may God give you a share in the eternal covenant;
May Christ Jesus be proud of you when he comes in glory;
And may the Holy Spirit make you grow strong in faith
and lead you in the ways of righteousness.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

Trusting God, and other impossibilitiesA sermon on Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 & Romans 4:13-25 by Nathan Nettleton

Abraham hung onto his hopeA sermon on Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 & Romans 4:13-25 by Sylvia Sandeman

Offspring of the CovenantA sermon on Genesis 17:7 by Nathan Nettleton

The Game-ChangerA sermon on Romans 4:13-25 & Mark 8:31-38 by Nathan Nettleton

A Promised Holy Land?A sermon on Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 & Romans 4:13-25 by Nathan Nettleton

Not Hiding Your Face From InjusticeA sermon on Psalm 22 & Mark 8:31-38 by Brooke Prentis

Not Feeling Rejected Enough?A sermon on Mark 8:31-38 by Nathan Nettleton

1st Sunday in Lent - Year B
2030-03-10 00:00 - 23:59
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Genesis 9: 8-17

God said to Noah and his family:
“I, myself, am forging an alliance with you, and with all your descendants to come, and with every living creature; all the birds, domestic animals, and wild animals of the earth who came out of the lifeboat with you. In the terms of this alliance which I am forging with you, I am giving you my word that never again will all life be wiped out by a flood. There will never be another flood that will totally destroy the earth. I am making this alliance between me and you and all the living creatures that are with you, and I am signing it in the clouds. The rainbow that I have put in the clouds for you all to see is my signature on the alliance between me and the earth. Whenever I make the clouds gather and my rainbow signature becomes visible there, I will remember the alliance that governs my relationship with you and with every living creature on earth. I will remember, and the waters will never again become a flood that wipes out all life on earth. I will see the rainbow which I have signed in the clouds and remember that I am party to a permanent binding alliance with every living creature of every kind on the earth. I assure you, Noah, that with this signature that you see in the clouds, I have sealed the alliance between me, God, and the entire community of living creatures on the earth.”
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 25: 1-10

I gladly offer you everything I am, LORD .
I have put my trust in you, God;
please don’t let me down;
don’t give my enemies grounds to gloat.
Be there for those who hang in there for you, no matter what:
don’t leave them with egg on their faces.
Save that for the two-faced scabs who deserve it.
Let me in on your way of doing things, LORD;
teach me how to follow your tracks.
Steer me along your ways of truth, and teach me all about them.
Only you can save me from disaster, God,
so I’ll wait for you before setting out.
Your love and mercy have been as timeless and dependable as the rock;
please don’t change your mind about them now!
Don’t keep a record of everything I’ve done wrong in the past.
Let your unshakable love colour your view of me,
and keep your reputation for generosity intact!
You always do what is good and right, LORD,
and so you patiently retrain those who do wrong.
You pilot a safe course for those who are not too full of themselves;
you give lessons on your ways to the humble folk.
Every path you tread, LORD, is marked by solid love and loyalty
for the benefit of all who keep our end of the bargain with you.
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

1 Peter 3: 18-22

The Messiah copped the consequences of human corruption
and suffered them all in one hit.
He who had done only what is right
suffered for those who had done wrong
in order to bring you home to God.
He was killed by human hands
but made alive by the Spirit.
In the spirit, he went and preached freedom to those who refused God’s way in past generations and whose spirits have remained in prison ever since. In their own day, God had given them every chance. While Noah was building his boat, for example, there was plenty of time for people to realise why and change their ways, but in the end a mere eight people were saved from the waters by getting into that lifeboat. Their experience was a bit of a preview of the way baptism saves you. It is not just a bath to clean up your appearance. Rather, you are pulled from the water to a new life so that you can stand before God with a clear conscience. You are raised from death to life with Jesus the Messiah, who has since taken his place in heaven as God’s right hand man, and he has the last word on everything and everyone. There is no authority or power, human or angel, that can overrule him.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Mark 1: 9-15

During those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. The moment he came up from the water, he saw the sky open up and the Spirit coming down like a diving kookaburra and taking hold of him. And a voice filled the air, saying, “You are my Son; the love of my life. You fill me with pride.”
Straight after that, the Spirit drove him out into a remote wilderness area. He had to prove himself for forty days in the bush, while the devil tried every trick in the book to lure him off-track. Jesus was in tough country, surrounded by wild animals, and God’s angels took care of everything he needed.
After John the baptiser was arrested, Jesus headed up to Galilee and began spreading the good news of God. This was the guts of his message:
“The time has come!
The culture of God is close at hand.
Turn your lives around and accept the good news.”
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for in tenderness and faithful love
you forgive our sins and guide us when we stray.
When the ancient flood destroyed the world you had created,
you saved Noah and his family from the waters,
and established a covenant with them
and with every living creature for all time.
In later times your Son, Jesus,
came forth from the waters of baptism,
and after proving himself in the wilderness
where waves of temptation threatened to engulf him,
he began proclaiming the good news of your kingdom,
calling people to repent and believe in the gospel.
He was cast down to the land of the dead
where he preached even to those lost in the flood,
but you raised him to new life
and seated him at your side
to reign over every authority and power for ever.
Therefore with .....
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give thanks for your Son, Jesus,
who proved himself stronger than the devil’s temptations,
and who in death preached even to those lost in the flood,
and in resurrection reigns over every authority and power for ever.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for in tenderness and faithful love
you forgive our sins and guide us when we stray.
When the ancient flood destroyed the world you had created,
you saved Noah and his family from the waters,
and established a covenant with them
and with every living creature for all time.
In later times your Son, Jesus,
came forth from the waters of baptism,
and after proving himself in the wilderness
where waves of temptation threatened to engulf him,
he began proclaiming the good news of your kingdom,
calling people to repent and believe in the gospel.
He was cast down to the land of the dead
where he preached even to those lost in the flood,
but you raised him to new life
and seated him at your side
to reign over every authority and power for ever.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

Christ suffered for sins, once for all,
the righteous for the unrighteous,
in order to bring you to God.
Through the mercy of Christ, God remembers you
but not your faults or your sins.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now, and live in the spirit of your baptism,
even when you are led into wild and hard places.
With repentance and trust, give yourselves to God,
and with fasting and prayer,
strengthen yourselves against the ways of the tempter.
And may God enfold you in tender and lasting love.
May Christ be beside you in times of struggle.
And may the Spirit guide you back to the path
whenever you stray, that you may keep the covenant.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

Ministering AngelsA sermon on Mark 1:9-15 by Garry Deverell

What God has given up for LentA sermon on Genesis 9:8-17, 1 Peter 3:1-18 & Mark 1:9-15 by Nathan Nettleton

Into the wildernessA sermon on Mark 1:9-15 by Alison Sampson

Put to the TestA sermon on Mark 1:9-15 by Nathan Nettleton

A God of WeaknessA sermon on Genesis 9:8-17, 1 Peter 3:1-18 & Mark 1:9-15 by Nathan Nettleton

Reading the RainbowA sermon on Genesis 9:8-17 by Nathan Nettleton

Ash Wednesday
2030-03-06 00:00 - 23:59
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17

Ring the alarm bells on the holy mountain.
Sound the sirens for the whole city to hear!
Put the fear of God into everybody,
for the day when the LORD will step in is near –
a dark and menacing day,
a day of fierce heat and dark choking clouds!
Like a raging bushfire sweeping down the mountain,
a terrifying army comes.
Wave upon wave,
it leaves nothing but scorched earth in its path.
It is more terrifying than anything ever seen before,
or anything ever likely to be seen again.
But even now, at the eleventh hour,
the LORD calls to us saying:
“It is not too late!
Get back on track with me.
Show me you mean it with your whole hearts.
Go off your food and get on your knees.
Weep and mourn from the depths of your hearts,
and don’t try to con me
with crocodile tears and cheap black arm bands.
“Come back to me, the LORD your God,
for I am compassionate and generous,
as eager to forgive as any mother.
My love and loyalty always hold back my anger.
Given half a reason I’ll withhold sentence
and give everybody a second chance.
“What have you got to lose by trying?
Perhaps you can convince me to change my mind.
Perhaps I’ll even send good times instead of disaster
and you’ll be eating and drinking in my honour.
“Ring the alarm bells on my holy mountain.
Declare a day of national repentance.
Rally the people, every one of them.
Get them together to pray and fast.
Make sure everyone has prepared themselves properly,
and make sure no one is missing.
Bring the aged and infirm,
the toddlers and the newborn.
Call back the newlyweds from honeymoons
and cancel all leave.
“In the heart of the place of worship
let those who lead you in prayer do so with tears.
Let them cry out to me, the LORD your God,
and beg me to have mercy on you.
Let them plead with me not to make you a laughingstock,
a classic example of a failed nation.
“For why should the rest of the world scoff
and conclude that your downfall is my failure?”
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Isaiah 58: 1-12 (alternative 1st reading)

God has told me to shout until you people hear;
to hammer home the message until it gets through.
You are God’s people, but God feels betrayed by you.
Listen to what God has to say about your sins:
“Day after day, you look good:
you turn up to worship and pay attention to my teachings.
You act like a people who want to do what is right;
like a people who want to obey to the letter.
You ask me for directions before you do anything,
and you seem enthusiastic about getting closer to me.
“Do you want to know why your religious behaviour turns me off?
Do you want to know why I ignore your fasting and bowing?
I’ll tell you why. You put on a great performance of it all,
but then you go straight back to feathering your own nest
and ripping off your workers in the process.
“When you fast, it just makes you irritable and violent;
and when you behave like that, I’ll just hang up on you.
“Do you really think this is what I like to see:
a day of pious misery?
black clothes, long faces and crocodile tears?
giving up chocolate and ice-cream?
Do you think that’s worship?
Do you think that pleases me?
Give me a break!
“Do you want to know what I’d really like to see?
Dismantle the structures of injustice;
take your feet off the throats of the poor;
stop jailing the victims of unfair laws;
and quit plundering nature’s resources.
“Do you want to know what else I’d like to see?
Open your tables to the hungry;
open your hearts and your homes to the refugees;
open your wardrobes to those without clothes;
and don’t go hiding every time you see someone in need.
“Do that, and I’ll put your name up in lights!
Do that and our relationship will be healed in an instant!
I’ll put you under my personal protection;
anyone who attacks you will have to deal with me, the LORD!
I’ll be on hand to respond whenever you need me;
just say the word, and I’ll be there for you.
“If you abandon all forms of exploitation,
and avoid bad-mouthing others to gain an edge;
if you share what you have with those in need,
and respond to the real needs of suffering communities;
then you’ll find that the world will light up for you
and life will be one beautiful day after another.
“I, the LORD, will always be there to guide you;
even in the grip of drought,
I’ll keep you healthy and well fed.
You’ll be like an irrigated vineyard with its own deep bore,
green and lush and full of life!
“Your ruined houses will be renovated and new;
you’ll be able to restore the homes
that have been in your families for generations.
You’ll get a reputation for making dreams possible,
for enabling everyone to find a good place to live.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 51: 1-17

O God, your love never gives up.
Have mercy on me now!
I’m relying on your record of generous mercy:
please wipe my slate clean!
Scrub away the filth I’ve been living in;
Scour away the stain of my sin.
I know only too well what I’ve done;
my sins stare me in the face.
It is you I’ve double-crossed, you I’ve betrayed;
I’ve done things which I knew you despised.
You have all the facts and you know what I deserve;
what ever you decide is fair enough.
I’ve been on the wrong side of you forever.
I turned my back on you before I was born.
You want honesty that comes from deep within,
so teach me your wisdom,
let it take root in my heart.
Get the bleach out and give me the treatment!
Soak me and wash me
until I’m as white as snow.
Open my ears to laughter and music.
Though you ground me into the dirt,
let me now rise to the sounds of joy.
Turn a blind eye to my record;
disregard my prior convictions.
Renovate me from the inside, O God;
rebuild my heart and rewire my brain;
install in me a new fault-free operating system.
Don’t cut me off from you now,
or withdraw your Holy Spirit from me.
Rekindle in me the joy of being safe in your care,
and fill me with an insatiable desire to follow you.
Then I’ll show others how to get back on track;
they’ll quit their corrupt ways and come back to you.
Get me out of this mess before I get blood on my hands, God.
Only you can get me out alive,
and I’ll tell everyone that you did.
Lord, as soon as you’ve got me out
and it’s safe to open my mouth,
I’ll be singing your praises with all my might.
I know I can’t fool you with hollow religion, God.
I could perform all the rituals perfectly, by the book,
but it wouldn’t mean a cracker to you.
What you want to see is a genuine heart-felt apology
and a commitment to a total life-change.
You will never turn away anyone who comes to you heartbroken
and promising to turn over a new leaf.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

2 Corinthians 5:20b - 6:10

On Christ’s behalf we beg you to accept the generous peace deal that God is offering. The way of reconciliation is on the table before you: you’d be mad to turn your backs on it! Even though Christ had never been sucked into sin like us, God lumped him in with us, so as to make it possible to lump us in with him. United with him, we can become examples of all that God considers to be right and true.
We are working together, shoulder to shoulder with God, and we urge you not to take God’s extravagant generosity for granted.
In the scriptures God says,
“At exactly the right moment,
I heard your call.
The day you needed help,
I was there to bail you out.”
Well, this is it — the exact right moment. This is the day to throw off the shackles and walk free! It won’t be our fault if you don’t take this chance — we’re doing everything in our power not to get in anyone’s way. There’s no point in nit-picking over the details of our work. We have endeavoured to be faithful servants of God and we’re confident that we’ve got the runs on the board. It’s not as though we’ve had it easy either. We have hung in there through hard times, tough times and horrendous disasters. We’ve been bashed, lynched and locked up. We’ve worked ourselves into the ground when things needed to be done, sometimes even going without sleep and food. And through all this we have maintained our integrity — our intentions have been pure and our heads have been clear. We have managed to hold on to our patience, generosity, and holiness of spirit. Our love has been genuine, our speech truthful, and God has continued to work powerfully through us. We have armed ourselves with nothing but an iron commitment to doing what’s right, and we’ve grasped the work of justice with both hands. Sometimes we’ve been honoured and sometimes slandered. We have been true to our word and yet denounced as charlatans. We’ve been treated as nobodies even though everyone knows who we are. We’ve been written of as dead, but here we are, brimming with life. We’ve been flogged to within an inch of our lives but never quite killed. We’ve almost drowned in tears and yet we are still bubbling with joy. They say we are poor, and yet many are enriched by us. They say we have nothing to offer, and yet everything is ours to share.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21

While Jesus was teaching his followers on the mountain, he said:
“It is good to put the disciplines of godly living into practice, but be on your guard against the temptation to start doing it for show. The God who conceived you knows what’s going on, and if the good things you do are done only to impress people, you’ll get no credit for them in heaven.
“Don’t go blowing your own trumpet every time you do something charitable. If you give money for the relief of poverty, don’t go asking for public acknowledgement. The world is full of sponsorship schemes and naming rights deals, but it is all hypocrisy. It’s got more to do with image management than with concern for the poor. Of course it works as a business strategy, but I can assure you that there will be no rewards beyond that. God brought you to birth and understands everything you do, even what you do in secret. So if you want credit from God for giving money to charity, give it anonymously. Go out of your way to keep it quiet – don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. It is that sort of unpretentious generosity that God will reward.
“The same principle holds true when it comes to the inward disciplines such as prayer and fasting. When you pray, don’t turn it into a exhibition. In the media and even in worship services you’ll see people leading so-called ‘prayers’ that look and sound more like campaign speeches, carefully crafted for public consumption. It’s nothing more than hot air; sheer hypocrisy! No doubt they’ll succeed in impressing lots of people, but I can assure you: that’s the only reward they’ll ever get. Take my advice: do your praying behind closed doors so that you won’t be tempted to start grandstanding. Find a place where you can take off your masks and just open yourselves to God in quietness. By getting yourself out of the spotlight, you’ll have a chance of becoming aware of God’s presence – a reward in itself!
“When you are fasting, don’t go drawing attention to the fact. Some hypocrites make a big display of sitting at the table with long faces while everyone else eats. They might gain a reputation for being very religious and self-controlled, but they won’t get anything else out of it. It’s a waste of time training yourself to control one appetite while simultaneously indulging your appetite for adulation. Instead, when you are fasting, maintain your usual outward appearance and demeanour as best you can, so that no one will twig. God always has a loving eye on you and will see to it that your secret fasting reaps rich benefits.
“Don’t go piling up investments here on earth, where they can be wiped out in an instant by fire or flood, or a market crash. There is only one investment strategy that can never fail or be eroded. Invest everything you are and everything you have in the ways of heaven. It is a simple fact that whatever you invest yourself in will monopolise your concerns and therefore shape the person you will become.”
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Great Prayer Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
All glory and honour are yours
everywhere and always, O God,
for in your kindness and mercy,
your patience and faithfulness,
you are always ready to forgive and not punish.
We give you thanks and praise for your Son,
our saviour and brother, Jesus Christ,
by whose example and strength
we resist all evil,
and turn our backs on its lures
of comfort and honour, of power and success,
seeking instead to store up treasure in heaven,
knowing that though we may seem to have nothing,
in purity, knowledge, patience and kindness,
we really possess everything.
Therefore with .....
©1999 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into prayers with fixed prefaces)

We thank you for the example our saviour and brother, Jesus Christ,
by whose strength we resist all evil,
seeking instead to store up treasure in heaven,
knowing that though we may seem to have nothing,
in purity, knowledge, patience and kindness,
we really possess everything.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted)

We give you thanks and praise, O God,
for in your kindness and mercy,
your patience and faithfulness,
you are always ready to forgive and not punish.
We thank you for your Son,
our saviour and brother, Jesus Christ,
by whose example and strength
we resist all evil,
and turn our backs on its lures
of comfort and honour, of power and success,
seeking instead to store up treasure in heaven,
knowing that though we may seem to have nothing,
in purity, knowledge, patience and kindness,
we really possess everything.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

The Lord your God is kind and full of mercy,
always ready to forgive and not punish.
Christ, by uniting with us and sharing in our sin,
has enabled us to share in the righteousness of God.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

Doing the right thing: a modest entry to the kingdomA sermon on Matthew 6:1-6 by Paul Sheppy

Riches in Heaven and Light in the BodyA sermon on Matthew 6: 19-23 by Peter Mugabi

Transfiguration Sunday (Last Sunday before Lent) - Year B
2030-03-03 00:00 - 23:59
Churches that do not observe the last Sunday before Lent as Transfiguration Sunday may prefer to use the resources for the 5th Sunday between Epiphany and Lent.

Below you will find the Bible readings set for Transfiguration Sunday in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Kings 2: 1-12

Shortly before the LORD sent a whirlwind to take Elijah into heaven, Elijah and Elisha headed off on a journey from Gilgal. Elijah had tried to talk Elisha out of coming, saying, “The LORD wants me to go to Bethel, but there is no need for you to come. You can stay here.”
But Elisha said, “I’m sticking with you, come hell or high water!”
So they travelled together down to Bethel. There was a community of prophets in Bethel, and they came out and asked Elisha, “Do you realise that today the LORD is going to take your boss away from you?”
“I know,” Elisha replied, “but shut up! I don’t want to talk about it.”
Elijah said, “Elisha, you stay put. The LORD wants me to go on to Jericho, but there is no need for you to come.”
But Elisha said, “I’m sticking with you, come hell or high water!”
So they were still together when they arrived in Jericho. There was a community of prophets in Jericho, and they came out and asked Elisha, “Do you realise that today the LORD is going to take your boss away from you?”
“I know,” Elisha replied, “but shut up! I don’t want to talk about it.”
Elijah said, “Elisha, you stay put. The LORD wants me to go across the Jordan River, but there is no need for you to come.”
But Elisha said, “I’m sticking with you, come hell or high water!”
So the two of them continued on together. A group of fifty prophets followed them, keeping their distance but not letting them out of their sight. When they arrived at the Jordan River, Elijah took off his coat, rolled it up, and slapped the water with it. The water immediately parted to form a dry path through the middle of the river and the two of them crossed over. When they reached the other side, Elijah said, “Elisha, our time together is almost up. What would you most like me to do for you before I am taken away?”
Elisha replied, “Please make me your successor by leaving to me the largest share of the spirit that empowers you.”
Elijah responded, “That’s a tough ask! But if you actually see me being taken away from you, then you’ll get your wish. If you don’t, you’ll miss out.”
The two of them continued to walk along, deep in conversation, when suddenly a chariot of fire drawn by two blazing horses charged between them and Elijah was sucked up in a whirlwind and taken into heaven. Elisha saw the whole thing and kept crying out, “Father! Father! You are gone with the defenders of Israel, God’s mounted warriors!”
When Elijah disappeared from sight, Elisha was torn apart with grief.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 50: 1-6

You, LORD, are the mighty God.
Wherever the sun shines, from horizon to horizon,
you call the earth to attention.
From the spectacular beauty of your holy mountain,
you approach us in a blaze of glory.
You come with the full fanfare;
flashes of fire in front of you;
thunder storming all around you.
You call the earth and sky to sit as a jury,
and set out the charges against your people.
You call the accused:
those who swore their faithfulness to you,
and signed themselves to a binding alliance.
The whole universe honours you as the judge,
and affirms the honesty of your court.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

2 Corinthians 4: 3-6

Are people saying that the message we preach is hidden behind some kind of mask? Well, I can assure you that the only people who can’t see it clearly are those who will never escape the grip of death. Unable to believe and trust, they were easy prey for the ruling spirit of this present age who messed with their heads and left them blind to the truth. As a result they can’t see the glorious light of the message of Christ, and it is when we see Christ in all his glory, that we see the spitting image of God. We are not preaching about ourselves. The message we preach is that Jesus the Christ is Lord of all. We ourselves are slaves at your service, for Jesus’ sake. The very God who kicked off creation by calling for light to shine from darkness has now filled our hearts with the light that comes from seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus the Christ and knowing it for what it is.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Mark 9: 2-9

Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them up a high mountain away from everyone else. Before their very eyes, the way Jesus looked was suddenly changed from the inside out. His clothing became so white that it was dazzling – an effect beyond anything soap powder could ever achieve. Suddenly they saw Moses and Elijah there too, in deep conversation with Jesus.
Peter said, “Boss, this is fantastic! What a moment! How about we knock up three huts, so that you, Moses and Elijah can all stay here longer.” He was just shooting his mouth off without thinking because they were quaking in their boots.
An awesome cloud engulfed them, and from deep within the cloud, a voice boomed forth: “This is my Son, the love of my life. Listen to him!”
Peter, James and John looked around and suddenly everything looked normal again and they saw no one there but Jesus.
As they were coming back down the mountain, Jesus gave them strict instructions not to breathe a word to anyone about about what they had seen, until after the New Human had risen from the dead.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for your transfiguring light has overcome us
and is restoring within us the image of your glory.
When you created the universe you said,
“Let light shine out of darkness,”
and the heavens lit up in testimony to your justice.
Through the law and prophets your light has shone forth,
and your Word has never fallen silent.
On a high mountain you pulled back the veil of heaven
and, as Moses and Elijah passed on their mantles
to the one in whom your saving Word is fulfilled,
you allowed the incomparable glory of your Son
to be seen by his terrified disciples.
He was killed by those who would not listen to you,
but after you raised him from the dead,
you sent the winds of heaven upon us
with an extravagant outpouring of your Holy Spirit.
Therefore with .....
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give thanks for the incomparable glory of your Son
which shines upon us as transfiguring light,
restoring within us the image of your glory
and gathering us up in the wild wind of your Holy Spirit.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for your transfiguring light has overcome us
and is restoring within us the image of your glory.
When you created the universe you said,
“Let light shine out of darkness,”
and the heavens lit up in testimony to your justice.
Through the law and prophets your light has shone forth,
and your Word has never fallen silent.
On a high mountain you pulled back the veil of heaven
and, as Moses and Elijah passed on their mantles
to the one in whom your saving Word is fulfilled,
you allowed the incomparable glory of your Son
to be seen by his terrified disciples.
He was killed by those who would not listen to you,
but after you raised him from the dead,
you sent the winds of heaven upon us
with an extravagant outpouring of your Holy Spirit.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

Though we were blinded by sin,
God’s saving light has been beamed into our hearts
that we might see the radiant mercy of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now, and speak of what you have seen of God’s glory.
Do not cling to the holy moments
when heaven overshadows you,
but as the Lord lives, listen to Christ and follow him
from the places of revelation
to the places of mission.
And may God shine the light of glory into your hearts.
May Christ be with you and never leave you.
And may the Spirit renew the image of God within you.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

Transfiguration PeopleA sermon on Mark 9:2-9 by Nathan Nettleton

More Than Meets the EyeA sermon on Mark 9:2-9 by Nathan Nettleton

The View from the MountaintopA sermon on Mark 9:2-9 by Nathan Nettleton

This is my Son, Listen to himA sermon on Mark 9:2-9 by Nathan Nettleton

The Surprising Light Behind the VeilA sermon on 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 & Mark 9:2-9 by Nathan Nettleton

Up and Down the MountainA sermon on Mark 9:2-9 by Karen Quah

8th Sunday between Epiphany and Lent - Year B
2030-03-03
This occasion only occurs in 2030 for churches that do not observe the last Sunday before Lent as Transfiguration Sunday.

Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Hosea 2: 14-20

Beloved Israel, I, the LORD, will win you back.
I will take you out to that wilderness place
where our love was first awakened,
and whisper tender words in your ear.
I will give you back your wedding presents,
and transform the Valley of Heartbreak
into the Pathway of Hope.
There you will again respond to me
with the delight you had as a young bride
when you first came to me from the land of Egypt.
From that day on, you will call me, “My loving husband.”
Never again will you call me, “Owner” and “Master.”
I will wash you clean of the memories of those would-be gods.
You will never again have cause to utter their names.
I will make a deal with the wild animals,
with the birds of prey and dangerous creepy-crawlies,
to ensure that they never threaten you again.
I will eliminate war and get rid of all the weapons,
so that you can sleep soundly, with nothing to fear.
Then you will be mine and I will be yours;
partners in marriage forever.
Our marriage will be good and right,
rock-solid in love and rich in mercy.
We will give ourselves to one another
and be faithful to one another.
You will know me, the LORD, intimately and fully.
©2013 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 103: 1-13, 22

With all our hearts, we praise you, LORD,
from the depths of our being
we name you as our one and only.
With all that we are we sings your praises, LORD;
how could we ever forget all you have done for us?
When we do wrong, you forgive us;
when we are sick, you make us well;
when our lives fall apart, you put us back together.
With love and mercy, you treat us like royalty;
you shower us with good things all our lives;
you makes us feel as young and free as an eagle.
You are there for those who are victimised, LORD;
you clear their names and bring them justice.
Through Moses, you let us know what you are on about;
through Israel, you let us see what you can do.
Your mercy and generosity are extravagant, LORD;
your patience and love are as solid as rock.
When we do things that anger you,
you don’t keep dredging them up forever.
You never deal with us as harshly as we deserve;
despite the wrong we have done, you let us off lightly.
We could no more climb to the moon on a step ladder
than measure the limits of the love and loyalty
you show to those who respect you.
We could no more swim the ocean from pole to pole
than cover the distance you put between us and our sins.
Your care and concern for those who honour you
is as tender as that of parents for their children.
We honour you, LORD,
joining our voices with all you have made
and all you rule over.
With all our hearts, we praise you, LORD.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

2 Corinthians 3: 1-6

So you think we are starting to blow our own trumpet and write our own references, do you? Of course, some people need official references before anyone will trust them, but not us. We don’t need to present references to you, or to ask you for references to show anyone else. Why not? Because your life is all the recommendation we need. We carry your story in our hearts where anybody can read it and know the truth. It is clear at a glance that you are the real thing, a genuine letter from the Messiah, prepared by us and signed by him. No need for pen and ink or legal parchment! Your life has been written straight onto our beating hearts by the Spirit of the living God.
So we have every reason for our confidence. Because of the Messiah, we can hold our heads high before God. We are not claiming that we had the qualifications or abilities to do anything on our own. Everything we have managed is God’s doing. The only reason we have what it takes to begin putting in place God’s new alliance with humanity is that God has given it to us. Neither the alliance itself, nor our qualifications to introduce it, are written legal documents. They are much more real than that – things of spirit! The letter of the law crushes people to death, but the Spirit fills them with life.
©2013 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Mark 2: 13-22

Jesus went down to the beach. A huge crowd of people gathered around him, and he taught them there. As he was walking along, he saw a man named Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting in his office where he worked collecting taxes for the Roman occupation forces. Jesus said to him, “Come and join me,” and Levi got up and began following him.
That evening at Levi’s house, Jesus and his followers had dinner with a group that included many disreputable characters whose lifestyles were considered offensive by the more respectable members of society. There were many such people among his followers. Some religious experts from the Pharisee party saw that he was eating in such bad company and confronted his closest followers over it, saying, “What does he think he’s doing, sharing meals with people whose behaviour is beyond the pale?”
When Jesus heard this, he replied, “Who needs the help of a doctor: the fit and healthy, or the sick? I didn’t come to spend my time preaching to the converted, but to call back those who are off the track.”
During a time when John’s followers and the members of the Pharisee party were going without food for religious reasons, some people came and asked Jesus, “How come the followers of John and the followers of the Pharisees give up food at this time, but your followers are still eating?”
Jesus replied, “If you are the guests at a wedding feast, you don’t refuse to eat and drink while the bridal couple are still with you, do you? As long as the reason for the celebration is still in your midst, you celebrate! All good things come to an end, and when the reason to celebrate is taken away, then they will go without.”
“The thing is, sometimes the old ways don’t fit the new situation. If you patch an old coat with a brand new piece of fabric, the patch will shrink and tear an even bigger hole. If you try to recycle some brittle old bottles for a fresh batch of sparkling wine, you’ll end up with nothing but smashed glass and an expensive puddle. Fresh content gets fresh packaging.”
©2013 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for you have spoken, not in carved letters on cold stone,
but in songs of love, warm with desire,
sung into our hearts.
When time began you created the world
and filled it with a rich abundance of birds and animals.
You gave yourself to your people in a holy covenant of love,
and through Moses and the prophets you led them
in ways of justice and tenderness, of faithfulness and mercy.
You sent your Son to us as the divine bridegroom.
His love was betrayed, and yet remained undiminished,
and when he was killed you raised him to life.
Alive forever, he is among us again,
mercifully seeking out all who have strayed,
and calling us to follow him to the wedding feast,
there to celebrate a new covenant
with the new wine of your passion.
Therefore with .....
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give thanks for the divine bridegroom, Jesus,
who comes among us
mercifully seeking out all who have strayed,
and calling us to follow him to the wedding feast,
there to celebrate a new covenant
with the new wine of your passion.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for you have spoken, not in carved letters on cold stone,
but in songs of love, warm with desire,
sung into our hearts.
When time began you created the world
and filled it with a rich abundance of birds and animals.
You gave yourself to your people in a holy covenant of love,
and through Moses and the prophets you led them
in ways of justice and tenderness, of faithfulness and mercy.
You sent your Son to us as the divine bridegroom.
His love was betrayed, and yet remained undiminished,
and when he was killed you raised him to life.
Alive forever, he is among us again,
mercifully seeking out all who have strayed,
and calling us to follow him to the wedding feast,
there to celebrate a new covenant
with the new wine of your passion.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

Blessed be God who is tender and caring,
slow to anger and rich in love.
The Lord does not treat us as our sins deserve,
but forgives us, and as far as east is from west,
so God removes our sins.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now, and follow the Christ wherever he calls.
Bless the Lord and hold dear all God’s gifts.
Find your competence in God
that you might be ministers of a new covenant.
And may God embrace you in tenderness and lay you down in safety.
May Christ write his words of love on your heart.
And may the Spirit fill your life with richness
and give you the strength of an eagle.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

Religion v’s LifeA sermon on Mark 2:1- 3:6 by Nathan Nettleton

7th Sunday between Epiphany and Lent - Year B
2030-02-24
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Isaiah 43: 18-25

This is what the LORD has to say:
Don’t dwell on the things of the past;
don’t get bogged down in nostalgia.
I am about to do something completely new;
can’t you see it taking shape before your eyes?
I will make a safe path through the hostile wilderness.
I will make the desert rivers flow again.
Untamed animals will applaud what I do
– dingoes, emus, goannas –
because the desert bursts into life
as I send rains, filling the inland lakes.
Now the people I have chosen can drink their fill;
I created them to be my people,
to enjoy and celebrate the things I do.
Despite all this, my people,
you have not spent any time with me in worship,
and yet you claim to be sick and tired of me!
You have not given me anything of value;
you have not honoured me at any cost to yourselves.
I have not made any demands of you,
or hassled you for gifts or fragrant incense.
You have not spent a cent on sweet spices for me,
nor offered me the prime cuts
from the animals roasted on my own altar.
All you have ever brought me is grief;
you have made me sick with your offences.
But I am the One who wipes your record clean;
because of who I am,
I will keep no record of what you’ve done wrong.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 41

Those who are ready to help the poor have got it made;
in hard times, you step in to get them through, LORD.
You stand guard over them
and keep them in one piece.
You don’t let their enemies get their claws into them, LORD,
and they are the happiest people in the country.
When they are sick, you get them safely through,
and when they are injured, you put them back on their feet.
In dire straits, I’m praying to you, LORD;
I know I have done the wrong thing by you,
but please show mercy and heal me.
My enemies are gloating over how crook I am;
keen to see me dead and forgotten.
They visit, pretending to wish me well,
but are soon out on the streets,
crowing to one another about how near to death I am.
In their hatred of me, they whisper and sneer about me,
and wish on me the worst death they can imagine.
They reckon some deadly virus has got me by the throat,
and that I’ll never make it out of the hospital alive.
Even my best mate, who I trusted through thick and thin,
who shared many a meal and many a drink with me,
has turned against me now.
Give me a break, LORD, in your generous mercy.
Put me back on my feet so I can wipe the smirk off their faces.
When my enemy’s campaign against me falls apart
I will know that you have sided with me, LORD.
Recognising my integrity, you have gone in to bat for me
and given me a permanent place at your side.
May everything work out right for you, LORD, our God,
now and ever, to the end of time and beyond!
And so say all of us! Too right!
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

2 Corinthians 1: 18-22

What God says, God follows through on; and by the same token, we have not been having a bet each way in anything we have said to you. The Son of God — Jesus the Christ — was made known among you by Silas, Timothy and me. He was certainly not an each way bet on God’s part. On the contrary, God backed him all the way, and for good reason. Every promise God had ever made has ridden home a winner on the back of Jesus. That is why, when we link up with him we are saying “Count us in!” and betting our lives on the glory all belonging to God. But we — that’s you and us — have only got in on what Christ is doing because God has made us partners in him. God signed the transfer papers, marking us out and setting us apart as those whose fortunes were now bound up in Christ. God’s Spirit was put in our hearts, given to us as the first instalment of the winnings that we are to share in Christ.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Mark 2: 1-12

When Jesus arrived home in Capernaum after a few days away, the word quickly got around that he was back. A large crowd flocked to the house to hear what he had to say. As he spelt out his message, so many people crammed in that it was standing room only, right through the house and out the front door into the street. While he was still speaking, some people arrived carrying a paralysed man on a stretcher. They wanted to bring him to Jesus, but they soon saw that there was no way of getting through the crowd. Not willing to give up, they climbed up on top of the house and ripped open a section of the roof above Jesus’s head. Then they used ropes to lower their friend on his stretcher right down in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw how firmly they believed that all this effort would pay off, he spoke to the paralysed man and said, “Mate, all you have done wrong is forgiven. You’re in the clear!”
Now some of the local religious experts were there in the crowd, and they immediately began thinking, “Who does this bloke think he is? This is a gross insult to God, because no one but God can put people in the clear.”
Being tuned in to what was going on around him, Jesus could tell that these questions were bubbling up among them, so he turned to them and said, “Why does this set your heads spinning? Which do you think would be the bigger challenge for me, to tell him he was forgiven, or to tell him to get up, fold up his stretcher and walk out of here? So, if you want to know whether the New Human has the authority here on earth to put people in the clear, watch this!” And he turned to the paralysed man and said, “I’m telling you, get up on your feet, fold up your stretcher and get off home.”
And sure enough, the man got to his feet in front of everybody, and promptly folded up his stretcher and headed out the door. The people could hardly believe their eyes. They all began giving God the credit for it, saying, “This is like nothing we have ever seen before!”
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for you blot out the memory of our failures,
and bring new and life-giving things springing forth.
You created the earth and its inhabitants
and formed a people for yourself to declare your praise.
When they piled up sins instead of offerings,
you sent your prophets to call them to repentance
and offer forgiveness and restoration.
To us you sent your Son, Jesus the Christ,
with the authority to forgive sins
and to set free those paralysed by illness or fear.
When he was betrayed by a friend
and killed by those who would not recognise
the new things you were doing,
you raised him to life again,
and in him, you establish us
and anoint us as your own,
pouring your Spirit into our hearts
as a guarantee of all you have in store for us.
Therefore with .....
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give thanks for the new and life-giving things
you are doing through your Son, Jesus the Christ,
who forgives our sins,
sets us free from the paralysis of illness and fear,
and pours your Spirit into our hearts.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for you blot out the memory of our failures,
and bring new and life-giving things springing forth.
You created the earth and its inhabitants
and formed a people for yourself to declare your praise.
When they piled up sins instead of offerings,
you sent your prophets to call them to repentance
and offer forgiveness and restoration.
To us you sent your Son, Jesus the Christ,
with the authority to forgive sins
and to set free those paralysed by illness or fear.
When he was betrayed by a friend
and killed by those who would not recognise
the new things you were doing,
you raised him to life again,
and in him, you establish us
and anoint us as your own,
pouring your Spirit into our hearts
as a guarantee of all you have in store for us.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

God’s own glory is confirmed
in saying “Yes!” to our cry for mercy and healing.
In Jesus Christ, God forgives our sins
and chooses not to remember our wrong doing.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now in confidence, as forgiven people.
Stand with the Lord forever,
look for the new things God is doing
and always be ready to help the poor.
And may God watch and protect you;
May Christ Jesus who forgives you, raise you to wholeness;
And may the Spirit pour rivers into your deserts
and lead you into all God’s promises.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

Religion v’s LifeA sermon on Mark 2:1- 3:6 by Nathan NettletonForgiveness & Pulling TeethA sermon on Isaiah 43:18-25, Psalm 41 & Mark 2:1-12 by Nathan NettletonRiding them Home as OneA sermon on 2 Corinthians 1: 18-22 by Nathan NettletonHaving Faith for One AnotherA sermon on Isaiah 43:18-25, Psalm 41 & Mark 2:1-12 by Nathan Nettleton

6th Sunday between Epiphany and Lent - Year B
2030-02-17 00:00 - 23:59
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

2 Kings 5: 1-14

The commander of the Syrian army was a man named Naaman. Naaman was very popular with his king, because under his command, the LORD had given Syria a string of military victories. Although he was a great soldier and a highly decorated commander, Naaman suffered from leprosy. Naaman’s wife had a young Israelite girl among her servants who had come to Syria as a prisoner of war after a military raid. One day the girl said to her mistress, “If only your husband could meet the prophet who lives in Samaria. I’m sure he would cure him of his leprosy.”
Naaman spoke to the king about what the girl had said, and the king gladly gave him leave to go. He also provided him with a letter of referral, addressed to the king of Israel.
Naaman headed off, loaded up with money and expensive gifts of jewellery and fine clothing. Arriving in Israel, he delivered the letter to the king. It read, “The bearer of this letter is my trusted servant, Naaman. I have sent him to you to have his leprosy cured.”
When the king of Israel read the letter, he was beside himself with fear; tearing his hair out over what to do. “What does the king of Syria think he’s doing?” he shouted. “Does he think I’m God or something, that I can cure lepers at his request? It looks like he’s trying to pick a fight with me.”
News of this got to Elisha, the prophet of God in Samaria. He sent a message to the king saying, “Why are you tearing your hair out? Get a grip on yourself and send the man to me so that he can find out for himself that there is a real prophet in Israel.”
So Naaman and his whole entourage pulled up in the street outside Elisha’s house. Elisha sent an errand boy out to Naaman with a message, saying, “Go down to the Jordan River and wash yourself in it seven times. That will cure you and your skin will be as clean and clear as a child’s.”
Naaman felt deeply insulted and drove off in a huff, saying, “You’d think that for a man of my standing he could have come out and talked to me himself. I thought that he would at least stand and call on the LORD his God, and wave his hand over my skin to bring about the cure! What’s so special about their scummy Israelite river? Aren’t the two great rivers of Damascus much bigger and better? Couldn’t I wash in them and be clean?”
So he stormed off, seething with rage. But his servants spoke up and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something really difficult, you would have done it, wouldn’t you? So surely you have got nothing to lose but your disease if you do what he said and wash yourself in the river.”
So Naaman relented and, wading out into the Jordan River, he immersed himself seven times in the water, just as the prophet of God had instructed him. Sure enough, he was cured instantly, and his skin became as clear and healthy as a child’s.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 30

I’ll be singing your praises, every chance I get, LORD,
because you got me out of deep trouble
and spared me the gloating of my enemies.
I pleaded for help, LORD God,
and you stepped in and healed me.
They were nearly ready to pronounce me dead
but your brought me back, LORD;
you put me back on my feet
when I was about to be carried to the morgue.
So I’m singing your praises,
and I’m encouraging everyone to do the same;
to name you with joyful thanks.
We manage to get you angry at times,
but it blows over in a moment
because your mercy keeps on keeping on.
We may have an evening of bitter tears,
but by morning your mercy has us smiling again.
I was guilty of taking your goodness for granted;
I thought I had it made.
You had put me on top of the world
but I got all too full of myself.
You stepped aside – made me stand alone —
and I turned to jelly!
I realised how much I needed you, LORD,
and in my panic I begged you for mercy.
“What good is my blood to you?” I cried.
“How will it help if I’m in the grave?
Can a corpse sing your praises?
Will a gravestone publicise your goodness?
Give me another chance, LORD.
Please, LORD, bail me out one more time.”
And sure enough, you did, LORD.
You turned my tears to laughter;
you set my dragging feet dancing;
you dusted me off and dressed me up for a party.
So now I’m singing your praises
from the bottom of my heart,
and no one can shut me up!
You are my God, LORD,
and I’m eternally grateful.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

1 Corinthians 9: 24-27

You do understand, don’t you, that no matter how many runners there are in a race, there will only be one winner at the end. So if you are aiming to become the best, you are going to have to train long and hard. Elite athletes discipline themselves strictly in every area of their lives, and they do so in pursuit of nothing more than a medal hung around their necks or a record that could fall the next week. The prize we are working towards will be in place forever, so such single-minded discipline is even more essential for us. I can’t afford to be like a runner who doesn’t know where the finish line is, or a footballer who doesn’t know where the goals are. Instead I subject my body to a punishing regime of training and work it like a slave, so that I don’t end up, after coaching everyone else in the right way, being disqualified myself.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Mark 1: 40-45

Jesus was approached by a man who was suffering from a hideous skin disease that made him a social outcast. The man got down on his knees and pleaded for help, saying, “You could make me clean if you wanted to.”
Jesus was deeply moved by the man’s sorry state. He reached out his hand and touched the man, saying, “I do want to. Be made clean!”
At that moment, the symptoms vanished and he was made healthy and clean. Then Jesus gave him his marching orders and a tough talking-to, saying, “Keep your mouth shut about this. Go straight to the priest and have yourself examined so that you can be certified fit to return to normal social contact. As a sign that you are well, give the offering that Moses said was to be given in thanks for your cleansing.”
But despite his instructions, the man went straight out and began to tell everyone what Jesus had done for him. The word spread like wildfire, and before long Jesus couldn’t even show his face in the towns without being mobbed. He had to stick to the outback tracks, and people from everywhere came out to find him.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for your anger passes quickly,
but your mercy lasts a lifetime.
From the depths of chaos you raised up the newborn earth,
and sent your prophets among your people.
Your servant Elisha spoke your word to Naaman,
and he emerged from the healing waters singing your glory.
To us you have sent your Son, Jesus the Christ,
and in compassion he has reached out and touched us,
cleansing us from all that defiled us.
Though he was killed by gloating enemies,
you changed our anguish into a joyful dance,
raising him up
and crowning him with a glory that will never fade.
Now he washes us in your everlasting mercy
and pulls us from the depths, cleansed and healed,
that we might run the race
and receive the victor’s wreath;
our lives forever singing your praise.
Therefore with .....
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give thanks for the compassion of your Son, Jesus,
who reaches out to us
and pulls us from the depths, cleansed and healed,
that we might run the race
and receive the victor’s wreath;
our lives forever singing your praise.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for your anger passes quickly,
but your mercy lasts a lifetime.
From the depths of chaos you raised up the newborn earth,
and sent your prophets among your people.
Your servant Elisha spoke your word to Naaman,
and he emerged from the healing waters singing your glory.
To us you have sent your Son, Jesus the Christ,
and in compassion he has reached out and touched us,
cleansing us from all that defiled us.
Though he was killed by gloating enemies,
you changed our anguish into a joyful dance,
raising him up
and crowning him with a glory that will never fade.
Now he washes us in your everlasting mercy
and pulls us from the depths, cleansed and healed,
that we might run the race
and receive the victor’s wreath;
our lives forever singing your praise.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

God, whose anger passes quickly,
but whose mercy lasts a lifetime,
has compassion on all who cry for forgiveness and healing.
Through Jesus Christ, God reaches out to us,
raises us up and says, “Be Clean!”
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now, and live out our song of praise to God.
Discipline yourself in all things, however small,
so that you may attain the prize of salvation
that is yours in Christ Jesus.
And may God’s powerful blessing uphold you like a mountain.
May Christ Jesus touch you and make you whole.
And may the Holy Spirit dance with you in the joy of life.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

Too Simple to BotherA sermon on 2 Kings 5:1-14 by Nathan Nettleton

Keep it simple, StupidA sermon on 2 Kings 5:1-14 by Nathan Nettleton

Touched by the hand of GodA sermon on Mark 1: 40 -45 by Ron Ham

Back from SheolA sermon on Psalm 30 by Nathan Nettleton

Athletic SpiritualityA sermon on 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27 by Nathan Nettleton

Healing CultureA sermon on Mark 1:40-45 by Nathan Nettleton

5th Sunday between Epiphany and Lent - Year B
2030-02-10 00:00 - 23:59
This occasion only occurs in 2027 for churches that do not observe the last Sunday before Lent as Transfiguration Sunday.

Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Isaiah 40: 21-31

Don’t you understand?
Have you somehow missed hearing about this?
Wasn’t this explained to you from day one?
Isn’t it obvious to you who was responsible
for the creation of the earth?
It is God who is in charge:
God who sees the planet like a ball;
its population like tiny insects.
It is God who spread out the sky like a tarp,
who set up the galaxy like a tent to live in.
It is God who makes governments look powerless;
who reduces kings and presidents to nothing.
They rise up on the earth as confident as mighty trees,
but to God they are like newly sprouted weeds.
No sooner have they popped their heads up
than God turns on them with a puff of breath
and they wither and blow away like dry leaves.
The Holy One puts the challenge to you, saying,
“Who are you going to replace me with?
Who can you find who can hold a candle to me?”
Look up and see the night sky.
Who do you think created all that?
It is God who spreads out the milky way,
numbering the stars and calling them each by name.
So great are God’s strength and power
that not one star goes missing.
So what are you talking about, people of God,
when you raise your voices and say,
“The LORD’s got no idea what is happening to us;
God is paying no attention to our basic rights.”
Don’t you understand?
Have you somehow missed hearing about this?
The LORD is the God who outlasts everyone and everything,
the Creator of the whole earth, from one end to the other.
The LORD never runs out of puff,
and never feels like giving up.
The LORD knows the fine detail
of things we can only guess at.
When your energies are drained,
and you are too weak to stand,
the LORD gives new strength and energy.
Even the youngest and fittest have their limits;
they too eventually drop in their tracks.
But nothing can stop those who hang in there for the LORD.
Their strength will be constantly renewed;
they will soar with the effortless grace of an eagle.
They will run and never grow weary;
they will walk ever onward
and never grow faint.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 147: 1-11, 20c

LORD, we sing your praises!
We love to sing your praises,
for you are incredibly generous
and you deserve all the credit we can give.
You, LORD, are the one who rebuilds the ruined city
and brings home those who have been kicked out.
You bandage the wounds of the brokenhearted,
and nurse them back to health.
It was you who counted out the stars,
and called them all by name.
You are the greatest, LORD,
your strength is off the scale,
and your grasp of what’s going on is mind boggling.
You put those who have been ground into the dirt back on their feet,
and you knock those who are callous and corrupt off their perches.
Our songs are full of thanks to you, LORD,
as we strike up the band in your honour.
It is you who spread the clouds across the sky,
ready to rain on the earth,
ready to bring the grass springing up green.
It is you who feeds the animals;
you who responds to the hungry cry of a currawong chick.
You are not impressed by massive horsepower;
you don’t get your kicks watching tests of speed.
You would much rather that people were awestruck by your love, LORD,
and that they built their future on the solid rock of your faithfulness.
LORD, we sing your praises!
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

1 Corinthians 9: 16-23

Preaching God’s message is not some great accomplishment for which I can expect to be applauded and rewarded. I am just doing what I was created to do, so I’d be up the creek without a paddle if I failed to preach God’s message! If it was just a job I had applied for, then I could expect to be paid an award wage. But since I am not doing this because I want to, but because it is what I was made for, I am simply being true to the call that God has wired into my brain. So is there anything in it for me? Sure! The privilege of being the mouth-piece that brings people into contact with the good news of God’s love is worth more than wages to me. And even better if it doesn’t cost them a cent, so I refrain from calling in the favours I could, by right, claim for my role in bringing that message to you.
Certainly I am free. No one has the right to tell me what I can and can’t do. But despite that, I have voluntarily made myself a slave to everyone else’s customs in order to win over more people. Among Jewish people, I stuck religiously to the Jewish customs in order to avoid offending them, and to maximise the odds of winning them over. Among those who carefully observe the religious law, I too lived as one governed by the law. I did this even though I am free from the law, in order to maximise the odds of winning over those who are bound by the law. Among those who have never lived under the religious law, I didn’t make a display of law-keeping, but lived according to the local customs. I did this in order to maximise the odds of winning them over, even though I am by no means lawless, because Christ calls the shots in my life. Among those who are timid and uncertain, I played it safe, just as they do, in order to win over as many timid and uncertain people as possible. I have become anything and everything to others — whatever it takes to find common ground with people and win their trust — so that by whatever means I can employ I might help people take hold of the lifeline God is throwing them. I do everything I can to promote the message of God’s love, and I look for nothing more in return than to share in the benefits that it brings.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Mark 1: 29-39

Jesus finished teaching in the Capernaum Synagogue and left with his followers. Taking James and John with him, he went to the family home of Simon and Andrew. On arrival he was told that Simon’s mother-in-law was crook in bed, burning up with fever. He went to her bedside, took her by the hand and lifted her to her feet. The fever cleared, then and there, and she set about making them welcome in her home.
By sunset that day, the word was out and a crowd was gathering at the door. It seemed that the whole city was there, bringing everyone who was sick or tormented by demons. Jesus cured many people from various kinds of disease, and freed many from the grip of demons. He would not allow the demons to say a word, because they had him figured out.
Before sunrise the next morning, Jesus got up and left the house on the quiet. He went bush in a remote area and spent the time alone in prayer. When he was missed, Simon and his mates began the search. They tracked him down, and said to him, “Come on, you’ve got everyone looking for you.”
Jesus answered, “Let’s hit the road, so that I can broadcast the message in the other towns in this neck of the woods. That’s what I came to do.”
And so he hiked the length and breadth of Galilee. In every town he preached the message in the places where the people gathered, and drove out the demonic powers.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for you strengthen the powerless
and renew those who wait for you in trust.
You are the Creator of the earth
who stretched out the sky like a curtain
and sent down rain, clothing the mountains in green.
You gathered your people from exile,
healing the broken hearted and binding their wounds.
You came among us, as one of us,
in your child Jesus the Christ,
sharing our weakness in order to save us.
Healing the sick and casting out demonic powers,
he proclaimed your mercy and peace.
Turning his back on the acclaim of the crowds,
he faithfully followed your call
all the way to death on a cross.
You raised him up
and promised that all who trust in him
will rise up with wings like eagles
and run the race without ever growing weary.
Therefore with .....
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give you thanks for gathering us from exile,
healing our broken hearts and binding our wounds,
and raising us up on wings like eagles
that we might go where you send us
and be what you need us to be
without ever growing weary or faint.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for you strengthen the powerless
and renew those who wait for you in trust.
You are the Creator of the earth
who stretched out the sky like a curtain
and sent down rain, clothing the mountains in green.
You gathered your people from exile,
healing the broken hearted and binding their wounds.
You came among us, as one of us,
in your child Jesus the Christ,
sharing our weakness in order to save us.
Healing the sick and casting out demonic powers,
he proclaimed your mercy and peace.
Turning his back on the acclaim of the crowds,
he faithfully followed your call
all the way to death on a cross.
You raised him up
and promised that all who trust in him
will rise up with wings like eagles
and run the race without ever growing weary.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

God hears the cries of the brokenhearted
and renews the strength of those who trust in his mercy.
In Jesus Christ, God has taken us by the hand,
forgiving our sins and lifting us up to new life.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now, and trust in God’s mercy for your strength.
Proclaim the good news wherever God calls you,
and do not set yourselves apart from others,
but be all things to all people for the sake of the gospel.
And may God give you the strength and freedom of an eagle.
May Christ be the bread that nourishes and renews you.
And may the Holy Spirit be the rising wind beneath your wings.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

Jesus the ExorcistA sermon on Mark 1:29-39 by Garry Worete Deverell

When is a Call not a Call?A sermon on Mark 1:29-39, 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 & Isaiah 40:21-31 by Nathan Nettleton

A Word from the FireA sermon on Isaiah 40:21-31 by Nathan Nettleton

What is Freedom?A sermon on Mark 1:29-39 & 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 by Nathan Nettleton

The healing that leads to ministryA sermon on Mark 1: 29-39 by Alison Sampson

The Strength to Walk Away from SuccessA sermon on Mark 1:29-39, 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 & Isaiah 40:21-31 by Nathan Nettleton

Looking for good news during a pandemicA sermon on Isaiah 40:21-31; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 & Mark 1:29-39 by Francesca Nuzzolese

4th Sunday between Epiphany and Lent - Year B
2030-02-03 00:00 - 23:59
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Deuteronomy 18: 15-20

Moses said to the people, “The LORD your God will raise up someone from among you to be a prophet for you. This prophet will be from the same mould as me, and you are to carefully follow what such a prophet says. You yourselves asked the LORD your God to do this for you. Back on the day when we gathered at Mount Sinai, you all said that you would die if you were ever again directly exposed to the sound of the LORD’s voice or the glare of the LORD’s fiery presence. The LORD told me you were right, and said this to me:
I, the LORD, will raise up someone from among their own people to be a prophet for them. This prophet will be from the same mould as you, Moses. I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, and the prophet will tell the people everything I say they are to be told. Anyone who does not take any notice of what the prophet says on my behalf, will have to answer to me. But by the same token, if any prophet claims to represent some other source of truth, or makes out that they are speaking on my behalf when I have not told them to say anything, such a prophet must die.”
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 111

Wow! More power to you, LORD!
We can’t thank you enough.
With all who stand for justice
our hearts burst with gratitude.
The things you do are fantastic, LORD,
and those who see and understand
never tire of exploring them.
Your works are magnificent, majestic,
and their integrity will never be eroded.
You have a reputation for doing amazing things,
and all of them generous and merciful.
You nourish those who honour you
and you are always true to your word.
You have left your people in no doubt
about your power;
you have given them the whole world on a plate.
Everything you put your hands to
is faithful, fair and trustworthy,
as is everything you say.
What you say goes, now and forever,
and no one can afford to ignore it.
You rescue your people and bring them home safe,
for you have committed yourself to them
for all time.
The mere mention of your holy name
makes us go weak all over!
Wisdom is born when your awesome presence
knocks us to our knees
and those who never lose sight of that
have got their heads on straight.
Awestruck, we give you honour and respect for ever.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

1 Corinthians 8: 1-13

Let us now look at your question about food that has been sacrificed to idols in the pagan temples. You ask whether it is okay for Christians to eat at meals where such food is served. What you have said is true:
“superior knowledge dispels superstition.”
But it is also true that superior knowledge can swell your head; while love will clear your head and underpin sound moral judgment. Anyone who claims that their superior knowledge enables them to make their own moral decisions without worrying about anyone else is just proving how little they really know. By contrast, those who love God and seek to express that love in all they do, are truly in-the-know with God.
So, what does knowledge have to say about whether or not it is okay to eat food that has been offered to idols? Plenty! We enlightened people know that “idols are actually nothing,” and we know that “there is only one true God.” No matter how many so-called gods and lords there may be in the world — and there are certainly any number of things to which people devote themselves — we know better. We know that the one and only God is the Father, who brought all things into being and for whom we exist. And we know that the one and only Lord is Jesus the Messiah, through whom all things were brought into being, and through whom we exist.
However, not everyone is up to speed on all this. Some people who, until recently, have been involved in the worship of idols, are not so easily able to make the separation in their heads between the food and the worship of the idols. Their moral warning lights go off more easily, and so if they go ahead and eat the food, they feel defiled by it and wracked with guilt. You can depend on this saying:
“We won’t get into God’s good books for what we eat.”
No one loses anything by abstaining from such food, and no one gains any special benefits from eating it. But — and this is a big but for those of you who feel free to eat it — unless you are very careful, this precious freedom of yours could turn into a minefield for those who are more morally timid. Because of your superior knowledge, you feel free to accept invitations to banquets held at pagan temples, and that’s all very well. But what if some less certain and secure Christians see you go? Perhaps, because they look up to you, they might feel that they should disregard their moral warning lights and join you in eating food that has been offered to idols. And once they start distrusting their own warning lights, they are in trouble because they no longer know which way to turn. Your superior knowledge would then be responsible for crashing the moral integrity of a timid believer for whom Christ laid down his life. You’ve wounded them, causing their fragile conscience to short-circuit. And if you dish out a kick in the guts to one who, under God, is a member of your own family, then you are kicking Christ in the guts. So, for myself, if such food could risk derailing someone, then I’d happily give up eating meat altogether in order to make sure that no one ever goes crashing off the rails because of something I did.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Mark 1: 21-28

Jesus and his new followers travelled to the city of Capernaum. On the Sabbath day, he taught in the synagogue there and the locals were stunned by his teaching. It was like nothing they had ever heard before. His words carried great weight and it was clear that he stood behind everything he said, which was quite a contrast to the religious teachers they were used to!
While he was in their synagogue, a man who was defiled by a corrupt spirit came in and began screaming, “What business have you got with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to wipe us out? I’ve got you figured out: you are God’s Special Agent.”
But Jesus cut him down to size, saying, “Shut up, and get out of him, now!”
And the corrupt spirit screamed loudly, threw the man into a fit, and then cleared off. Everyone was gob-smacked, and couldn’t stop talking about it. “What’s going on?” they kept asking one another. “Is this some kind of new teaching? It’s certainly got some weight behind it. He even pulls rank on the corrupt spirits and sends them packing.”
His reputation began to spread like wildfire all over the Galilean countryside.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for your justice stands in splendour and majesty,
and you nourish the faithful
with mercy and kindness.
You are the one God who created all things
and for whom we exist.
From the beginning you have revealed your mighty deeds
and upheld a covenant with your chosen ones.
You raised up among your people
a prophet greater even than Moses,
your Son and our teacher, Jesus of Nazareth.
With words and deeds of authority he has taught us,
not the knowledge that puffs up,
but the love that builds up.
You put your holy words in his mouth,
and at his word even the demons fall silent.
When he was killed, you raised him to life,
and now it is through him that we exist,
and in him, that the crippling grip of death is broken forever.
Therefore with .....
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give thanks for your Son and our teacher, Jesus of Nazareth,
who you raised up and gave words of authority,
to teach us the love that builds up,
to silence the demons
and to break the crippling grip of death forever.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for your justice stands in splendour and majesty,
and you nourish the faithful
with mercy and kindness.
You are the one God who created all things
and for whom we exist.
From the beginning you have revealed your mighty deeds
and upheld a covenant with your chosen ones.
You raised up among your people
a prophet greater even than Moses,
your Son and our teacher, Jesus of Nazareth.
With words and deeds of authority he has taught us,
not the knowledge that puffs up,
but the love that builds up.
You put your holy words in his mouth,
and at his word even the demons fall silent.
When he was killed, you raised him to life,
and now it is through him that we exist,
and in him, that the crippling grip of death is broken forever.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

God, who is merciful and kind,
has come to us in Jesus Christ,
to establish a lasting covenant with us,
forgiving our sins
and releasing us from the grip of evil.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now, and heed God’s message.
Never forget God’s wonderful mercy and kindness.
Welcome the freedom that is won in truth,
but never use your freedom to undermine others.
See that your words and actions are worthy of praise.
And may God uphold you in a lasting covenant.
May Christ Jesus free you from all that would harm you.
And may the Holy Spirit nourish you in wisdom and faithfulness.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

Truth can destroy and truth can liberateA sermon on Mark 1: 21-28 & 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 by Nathan Nettleton

Raising ProphetsA sermon on Mark 1: 21-28 & Deuteronomy 18: 15-20 by Nathan Nettleton

The Calling of NamesA sermon on Mark 1: 21-28 & 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 by Nathan Nettleton

With AuthorityA sermon on Mark 1: 21-28 & Deuteronomy 18: 15-20 by Nathan Nettleton

Confronting Religious DemonsA sermon on Mark 1: 21-28 by Nathan Nettleton

A Back-To-School Exorcism!A sermon on Mark 1: 21-28 & 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 by Nathan Nettleton

Biblical Ethics in the Age of COVIDA sermon on 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 by Nathan Nettleton

The Feast of the Presentation of our Lord
2030-02-02 00:00 - 23:59
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Malachi 3: 1-4

The LORD who rules over everything has this to say:
“Look, I am sending my own messenger to get things ready for my arrival. Then, all of a sudden, the Lord you have been looking for will turn up in the temple. You have been longing to see the messenger who will come to put my promises on the table. Well, he’s coming alright. But will anyone be able to cope with him when he does? Will anyone be able to stand firm in his presence?
You see, he’ll be like a bush fire that clears all the debris from the forest floor, or like paint stripper that takes a surface back to bare metal. He will tear through the whole family of priests and burn away the rubbish once and for all, until they shine like pure polished gold. Then they’ll do what they are supposed to do and bring the right kind of offerings to the LORD. That way the offerings of the people of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to God again, just like they were in the past.”
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 84 (alternative canticle)

The place where you live is just exquisite,
O LORD, ruler of all!
With everything inside me, I long to be there;
I go all weak at the very thought of it.
I want to be there, body and soul,
singing my heart out for you, O God of life.
Even the birds find a home in your house;
there are nests in every nook and cranny
where pigeons and sparrows raise their young.
Bird song and incense rise together
to honour you, Sovereign God, ruler of all.
How privileged are those who live in your house;
joyous songs of praise are forever on their lips.
Those who have tapped into your strength
have got it made.
The highway to heaven begins within them;
a direct route to your holy presence.
They are like people who can find water in the desert;
they drink from life giving springs
that no drought can ever dry up.
They go from strength to strength,
and will see you face to face on your holy mountain.
O LORD, ruler of everything, hear my cry.
Tune in to my prayer, O God of our ancestors.
Your presence is our protection, O God;
smile upon us, your chosen ones.
A day spent in your presence
beats a thousand nights in a five star resort.
I’d rather scrub floors in your house, O God,
than rub shoulders with the rich and famous
beneath the flashing lights of greed and corruption.
O LORD our God, you are the sun that shines on us
and the shield that keeps us safe.
You shower us with generosity and honour,
and deny nothing to people of integrity.
O LORD, ruler of all,
everyone who trusts in you has got it made!
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 24: 7-10 (alternative canticle)

We hear the call:
“Wake up! On your feet!
Open the gates and form a guard of honour!
Roll out the red carpet
before the glorious sovereign.”
Who is this majestic ruler?
It is you, LORD, supreme and dynamic,
the conqueror of conflict.
We hear it again:
“Wake up! On your feet!
Open the gates and form a guard of honour!
Roll out the red carpet
before the glorious sovereign.”
Who is this majestic ruler?
It is you, the LORD who rules over everything.
This majestic ruler is you, our God.
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Hebrews 2: 14-18

For Jesus to share so fully in the life experience of the children, he had to be of the same flesh and blood as them. It was only in the same flesh and blood that he could go through the same death; and it was in going through death that he destroyed the devil who wields death as his ultimate weapon. That is how he broke open an escape route for those whose fear of death robbed them of their freedom to live. Now it is quite clear that he wasn’t doing this for the benefit of the angels. Rather it was for us human beings, who follow in the footsteps of Abraham, and so he had to become one of us in every respect. Only by being totally identified with us could he have the necessary compassion and loyalty to be the high priest who offers the costly gift to God to cancel out all we have done wrong. Because he himself has survived the worst that life can dish out without giving up, he is now ideally placed to help out those whose limits are being being put to the test.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Luke 2: 22-40

Forty days after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary went up to the Jerusalem temple to undergo the purification ritual required by the religious law. They took Jesus with them, and offered the sacrifice which the religious law required of new parents. In their case, because they could not afford much, the required sacrifice was “a pair of young pigeons or doves.” While they were at the Temple, they took the opportunity to make the ritual presentation of the baby to the Lord. This too was in line with God’s law, for it specified that “every firstborn son will be marked out as being dedicated to the Lord.”
A man named Simeon came into the temple that day at the prompting of the Spirit. Simeon was a man of deep integrity and prayer; a man clearly under the influence of the Holy Spirit. He was living in eager anticipation of the day when the sorrows of God’s people would be brought to an end, and the Holy Spirit had let him know that he would see the Lord’s chosen Messiah in person before he died. So when Joseph and Mary brought the child into the temple to do all the customary things that the law required, Simeon was there. He took Jesus in his arms, and began to praise God in prayer, saying:
“At last you are letting your servant go in peace, Lord,
just as you promised you would.
For now, with my own eyes,
I have seen your rescue operation underway.
I have seen the launch of the life you have been preparing
in the midst of the world and its peoples.
I have seen the light which will make you known to the nations,
the light which will have your people basking in glory.”
The parents couldn’t believe their ears when they heard what was being said about their child. Simeon gave them both a blessing, and spoke to the child’s mother, Mary, saying, “This child is destined to be the making or breaking of many people in Israel. He will be a sign of what God is now up to, and many people will turn against him, and thus expose what they are really made of. And as for you, his mother, it will tear your heart out.”
There was also an elderly prophet in the temple that day. Her name was Anna, and she was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher. She was eighty four years old, and had lived as a widow ever since her husband had died after only seven years of marriage. She spent all her time in the temple, worshipping God there, day and night, with prayer and great discipline. As Mary and Joseph presented the child in the temple, Anna came up and began to speak of how wonderful God is. She spoke about the child to all those who were looking forward to the day when everything would be put right again for Jerusalem.
When the family had completed everything that the law of the Lord required of them, they headed back north to Galilee, to their home town of Nazareth. The child grew up strong and healthy, with a wise head on his shoulders, and showing every indication that God was pleased with him.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for have allowed us to see the salvation
you have prepared for all peoples.
You are the Lord of heaven’s might
who conquered the chaos
and brought forth the newborn earth.
You taught your people through your law and prophets
to present themselves and their offspring to you
to be purified and made holy for your service.
In your child, Jesus, you shared our flesh and blood
and became like us in every way.
As a newborn, he was presented in the temple
and designated as holy to you.
He was recognised by faithful prophets
as the one who would,
through his own suffering and death,
destroy the power of death,
and rise to be a merciful and faithful high priest
who atones for the sins of the people
and frees us from the fear of death.
Therefore with .....
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give thanks for your child, Jesus,
who was presented to you in your temple
and designated as the holy one
who would serve as a merciful and faithful high priest
and, through his own suffering and death,
destroy the power of death forever.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for have allowed us to see the salvation
you have prepared for all peoples.
You are the Lord of heaven’s might
who conquered the chaos
and brought forth the newborn earth.
You taught your people through your law and prophets
to present themselves and their offspring to you
to be purified and made holy for your service.
In your child, Jesus, you shared our flesh and blood
and became like us in every way.
As a newborn, he was presented in the temple
and designated as holy to you.
He was recognised by faithful prophets
as the one who would,
through his own suffering and death,
destroy the power of death,
and rise to be a merciful and faithful high priest
who atones for the sins of the people
and frees us from the fear of death.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

Jesus became like us in every way,
so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest
making a sacrifice of atonement
for the sins of the people.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now, for the Lord is dismissing you in peace.
Present yourselves to God
to be purified and made holy to the Lord.
Rejoice in the presence of God
who never fails to bless those who walk with integrity.
And may God be pleased with all you offer;
May Christ Jesus help you whenever you are tested;
And may the Holy Spirit purify you with refining fire
and give you honour and grace.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

What Now?A sermon on Luke 2: 22-40 by Nathan Nettleton

The Gift of BelongingA sermon on Luke 2: 22-40 by Alison Sampson

3rd Sunday between Epiphany and Lent - Year B
2030-01-27 00:00 - 23:59
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Jonah 3: 1-5, 10

For a second time, the LORD gave orders to Jonah, saying, “Get up, go to the great city of Nineveh, and sound the call there with the words I give you.”
So this time Jonah did as the LORD had told him to, and got up and went to Nineveh. Now the city of Nineveh was so big that even God was amazed, and it would have taken Jonah three days to walk through it. He made a start, walking through the city for a day, and as he went he sounded a call, “In just a few days, Nineveh will be in ruins!”
And the people of Nineveh believed that this call came from the great God, so they took immediate action. They called a day of repentance, and everybody, no matter what their rank in society, dressed in funeral clothes and went without food to show that they were serious about changing their ways.
Seeing what they did, and how they really were turning away from evil and getting their lives back on track, God had a change of heart, and cancelled the disaster that had been planned for the people of Nineveh.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 62: 5-12

A hush comes over every fibre of my being;
for you alone I wait, God;
my future is in your hands.
You alone are the rock I cling to;
my protection, my salvation;
nothing can rattle me.
My freedom and honour depend on you, God,
for you are a solid rock and a safe refuge to me.
Everyone should put their trust in you, God,
and pour their hearts out to you always,
for you are our safety and security.
Ordinary battlers are but a puff of smoke;
toffs and silvertails are nothing but a mirage.
In the overall scheme of things,
no one is of any great consequence.
Those who try stand-over tactics to get ahead,
or think they can make their fortune from crime,
will find that their hopes are in vain;
the money they make
will come at the expense of their peace of mind.
You have given your word, God;
I have heard you say this more than once:
that power is your middle name
and rock-solid love and loyalty are your nature.
Lord, you treat everyone as they deserve
for what they have done.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

1 Corinthians 7: 29-31

Sisters and brothers,
the present circumstances of our lives
are not the be all and end all,
because time is almost up.
From now on, don’t get too bound up in anything,
but live in light of what is to come:
those who are married
as though they are still waiting for love;
those who are grieving
as though comfort is within reach;
those who are celebrating
as though real joy is yet to come;
those who are shopping
as though there is nothing worth owning;
those who are involved in business and politics
as though they are of no consequence.
Why?
Because the world as we know it
is on the way out.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Mark 1: 14-20

After John the baptiser was arrested, Jesus headed up to Galilee and began spreading the good news of God. This was the guts of his message:
“The time has come!
The culture of God is close at hand.
Turn your lives around and accept the good news.”
One day, as he was walking along the beach at Lake Galilee, Jesus came across Simon and his brother Andrew setting their nets in the water, because they made their living from fishing. Jesus called to them and said, “Come with me, and I’ll have you bringing in people rather than fish.”
Right then and there, they gave the fishing away and followed Jesus.
A bit further up the beach, he came across James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee. They were on board their boat, repairing their fishing tackle. Straight away Jesus called them, and they left their old man in the boat with the hired crew, and set off with Jesus.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for you are our rock of safety,
our stronghold, our refuge, our glory.
You created the earth and its inhabitants,
and called them to put their trust in you.
Through your prophets you revealed your willingness
to show mercy to those who turn from evil,
humbling themselves and following your ways.
When the time was fulfilled,
your kingdom drew near to us
in your child, Jesus of Nazareth.
He came among us proclaiming the good news
and calling everyone to repent and follow you.
He was killed by those who trust in wealth and power,
but you raised him to life
and turned our mourning into joy.
Even now as this world passes away,
you call us to cast your nets wide
so that all might be drawn in to the haven
of your strength and love.
Therefore with .....
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give you thanks that,
even as this world passes away,
you cast your nets wide
so that you might draw everyone into the haven
of your strength and love
and show mercy to all who repent and follow you.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for you are our rock of safety,
our stronghold, our refuge, our glory.
You created the earth and its inhabitants,
and called them to put their trust in you.
Through your prophets you revealed your willingness
to show mercy to those who turn from evil,
humbling themselves and following your ways.
When the time was fulfilled,
your kingdom drew near to us
in your child, Jesus of Nazareth.
He came among us proclaiming the good news
and calling everyone to repent and follow you.
He was killed by those who trust in wealth and power,
but you raised him to life
and turned our mourning into joy.
Even now as this world passes away,
you call us to cast your nets wide
so that all might be drawn in to the haven
of your strength and love.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

Whenever a people humble themselves,
turn from their evil ways,
and put their hope and trust in divine mercy,
God sees and forgives their sin,
and enfolds them in the strength and love of Christ our Lord.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now, follow where Christ calls you
and proclaim the message God gives you.
Wait in hope for God.
Avoid become bound up in the business of the world,
but live in readiness for the inbreaking of the Kingdom.
And may God be your haven and your glory;
May Christ Jesus give you courage for his mission;
And may the Spirit embrace your soul in God’s silence.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

Repent? Is that a choiceA sermon on Jonah 3: 1 – 5, 10; Psalm 62: 5 – 12; 1 Corinthians 7: 29 – 31 & Mark 1: 14 – 20 by Nathan Nettleton

Doing a JonahA sermon on Jonah 3: 1 – 5, 10; Psalm 62: 5 – 12; 1 Corinthians 7: 29 – 31 & Mark 1: 14 – 20 by Sr Meryl Webb

Desire in a Contracting WorldA sermon on 1 Corinthians 7: 29 – 31 by Michael Hardin

Culture ClashA sermon on Mark 1: 14 – 20 & 1 Corinthians 7: 29 – 31 by Nathan Nettleton

Could it be a Conspiracy Theory?A sermon on Jonah 3: 1 – 5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7: 29 – 31 & Mark 1: 14 – 20 by Nathan Nettleton

Jonah Swallows a SharkA sermon on the book of Jonah by Nathan Nettleton

2nd Sunday between Epiphany and Lent - Year B
2030-01-20 00:00 - 23:59
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20)

Samuel grew up in the Temple at Shiloh, working as an apprentice to Eli the priest, in the service of the LORD. In those days, the people had completely lost touch with God, and messages or visions from the LORD were rare. The light of God had not gone out, but Eli’s failing eyesight had left him unable to see.
One night, Eli had gone to bed in his room, and Samuel was lying down in the Temple of the LORD near the sacred Ark of God. The LORD called out, “Samuel! Samuel!”
“At your service,” said Samuel, jumping up and running into Eli’s room. “You called me and here I am, at your service.”
But Eli said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.”
So Samuel went and lay down again, and the LORD called out again, “Samuel!”
Samuel got up and went to Eli, saying “You called me and here I am, at your service.”
But Eli said, “I didn’t call you, my son. Go back to bed.”
Now it was no surprise that Samuel didn’t understand what was going on, because he did not yet know the LORD, and his mind had not yet been opened to what the LORD had to say. The LORD called Samuel a third time, and again he got up and went to Eli, saying “You called me and here I am, at your service.”
Finally the lights went on for Eli and he realised that it was the LORD who was calling the boy, so he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if you hear the call again, say, ‘Speak to me, LORD. I’m at your service, and I’m all ears.’ ”
So Samuel went and lay down again in the same place. The LORD came and stood alongside him, calling out as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”
And Samuel replied, “Speak to me. I’m at your service, and I’m all ears.”
The LORD said to Samuel, “Look, I am about to do something that will make the hair stand up on the back of everyone’s necks when they hear about it. On that day I will follow through on everything I have ever said I would do to Eli and his offspring. I have told him that I am about to bring down a permanent punishment on his family, because his sons have been dragging my name through the mud and even though he knew about their corruption, he didn’t crack down on them. So now I swear to Eli’s family that the charge of corruption will stand against them forever, no matter how many apologies, sacrifices or gifts they offer.”
Samuel had a restless night after that! When he got up in the morning to open the doors of the house of the LORD, he was afraid to say anything about the vision to Eli. But Eli wanted to know, and called him, saying, “Samuel, my son.”
“At your service,” Samuel answered.
“What did the LORD have to say to you?” Eli asked. “Don’t keep me in the dark. May God punish you big time, if you don’t tell me every detail of what was said to you.”
So Samuel told him the whole lot, every last detail, and when he had finished, Eli said, “The LORD has spoken. I will have to cop whatever the LORD sees fit to do.”
As Samuel grew to be a man, the LORD kept a guiding hand on his shoulder, and saw to it that when he spoke, not a word was wasted. Before long, the whole land, from one end to the other, knew that Samuel was the real deal – a messenger of the LORD who could be trusted.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18

You have taken a good hard look at me, LORD,
and you know exactly what makes me tick.
You know when I’ve got my feet up and when I’m on the job;
you can read my mind like an open book.
You see where I am going and where I stop,
and you know all about what I do and why.
You know exactly what I am going to say, LORD,
even before I open my mouth.
You are in front of me, behind me, beside me;
your hand on my shoulder at every turn.
All this is more than I can get my head around;
I pinch myself, and struggle to take it in.
It was you who put me together, every part of me;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I sing your praises, LORD,
for the the way you have made me fills me with awe.
Your creative works blow my mind;
too wonderful for words.
You could see me clearly before I was born;
you watched me taking shape in the secret depths
and laid out the intricacies of nerve and muscle.
You kept your eye on me
from conception to birth.
My life lay before you like an open book
before I had even lived a day.
Your thoughts are way beyond my grasp, God,
and they add up to more than I can count.
Deeper than the oceans,
outnumbering the grains of sand;
I give up trying
but you are with me just the same.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

1 Corinthians 6: 12-20

You people say:
“There is nothing I am not allowed to do.”
Sure, but the fact that you are allowed to do something doesn’t mean it is a good idea to do it.
“There is nothing I am not allowed to do.”
Sure, but I am not about to let such things start taking over my life.
You also hear people say:
“Food belongs in the stomach,
and stomachs were made for food.”
Sure, but that’s not exactly the meaning of life! God could abolish both food and stomachs and leave untouched the things that really matter. Here’s a saying worth getting your teeth into:
“The human body deserves better than sleaze.
The body belongs to the Lord,
and the Lord belongs to the body.”
Indeed, God cares about bodies. God raised the Lord, body and all, and will raise us, body and all, just as powerfully. You do know, don’t you, that your bodies are now integral parts of Christ’s body? So how could I take a part of Christ’s body and make it part of a sleazy and degraded body? No way! For you do know, don’t you, that when bodies are joined in sexual intimacy — no matter how cheap and sleazy — they are united to one another forever. As scripture says, “The two become one flesh.” But because you are united to the Lord, you are one with the Lord. Steer well clear of sleaze!
Some say:
“The sins people commit are ‘out there’
and have no consequences in the body;”
while others say:
“If you get involved in sleazy sin
you are only hurting yourself.”
You do know, don’t you, that your body is a sacred dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, and your life is therefore not your own to trash as you please? You have the Holy Spirit within you, given to you by God. Your whole being, body and soul, belongs to God, and it didn’t come cheap. So, see to it that your bodily life always reflects well on God as its owner and occupier.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

John 1: 43-51

Jesus went up to Galilee and there he came across a man named Philip who, like Andrew and Peter, came from the city of Bethsaida. “Stick with me,” said Jesus, and Philip did.
Philip later came across his mate Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one everyone has been waiting for; the one who was written about in the law of Moses and in the prophets. It is Jesus, the son of Joseph. He comes from Nazareth.”
Nathanael replied, “Nazareth! You’ve got to be kidding. How could anything good come out of Nazareth?!”
But Philip just said, “Come and see for yourself.”
Jesus took one look at Nathanael and said, “Here we have a fair dinkum Israelite. There’s no bullshit in this bloke!”
Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get your information on me?”
Jesus replied, “I spotted you back there under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
Nathanael said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the one who will rule God’s people!”
Jesus answered, “Are you ready to put your trust in me just because I told you that I knew what you were made of the minute I spotted you under the fig tree. You will see things that make that pale into insignificance!”
And turning to them all he continued, “I kid you not, you lot will see the New Human become the bridge between heaven and earth, and the messengers of God going back and forth between the two.”
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for what we know of you is overwhelming,
more wonderful than we can ever understand.
In the hidden depths of time
you formed the newborn earth according to your design,
and knit us together in our mothers’ wombs.
You led your people through Moses,
and corrected them through prophets like Samuel,
whose every word went forth with your power.
In these last days you have sent us your Son
— Jesus, son of Mary, from Nazareth.
In word and deed he brought the truth to light
and called us to follow
in the ways of integrity and discipleship.
When the enemies of life put him to death,
you raised him up by your power,
and likewise you raise us up
and unite us with Christ
that we too may be an honoured dwelling place
for your Holy Spirit.
Therefore with .....
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give you thanks for raising us up
and uniting us with Christ,
so that we can follow him
in the ways of integrity and discipleship,
and become an honoured dwelling place
for your Holy Spirit.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for what we know of you is overwhelming,
more wonderful than we can ever understand.
In the hidden depths of time
you formed the newborn earth according to your design,
and knit us together in our mothers’ wombs.
You led your people through Moses,
and corrected them through prophets like Samuel,
whose every word went forth with your power.
In these last days you have sent us your Son
— Jesus, son of Mary, from Nazareth.
In word and deed he brought the truth to light
and called us to follow
in the ways of integrity and discipleship.
When the enemies of life put him to death,
you raised him up by your power,
and likewise you raise us up
and unite us with Christ
that we too may be an honoured dwelling place
for your Holy Spirit.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

The God who searches us and knows our inmost thoughts
has bought us at great price.
In Jesus Christ we have been freed from sin
and heaven has been opened to us.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now. Listen for the voice of the Lord
and follow wherever it leads.
Do not be dominated by anything.
Allow no room within yourselves for deceit,
but offer yourselves as a temple for the Holy Spirit.
And may God be with you and speak through you;
May Christ Jesus be one with you and raise you to life;
And may the Holy Spirit dwell within you and make you holy.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

Come and SeeA sermon on John 1:43-51; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; 1 Samuel 3:2-10 & Psalm 139 by Nathan Nettleton

Unthinkable: God Right HereA sermon on 1 Corinthians 6: 12-20 & John 1: 43-51 by Michael Hardin

Food, Sex, Body Image and JesusA sermon on 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 by Nathan Nettleton

No Laws?A sermon on 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 by Nathan Nettleton

Faith-bookA sermon on John 1:43-51; Psalm 139 & 1 Samuel 3:2-10 by Craig Bartlett

The Feast of the Baptism of our Lord - Year B
2030-01-13 00:00 - 23:59
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Genesis 1: 1-5

At the outset, when God created the universe,
the earth was lifeless and shapeless;
a deep ocean of chaos, shrouded in darkness;
brooded over by the Spirit of God.
Then God called for light,
and light appeared.
God saw that light was a good thing,
and separated it from the darkness.
God named the light Day,
and the darkness Night.
Evening passed and morning came;
the first day was done.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 29

LORD God, like your angels in heaven
we speak of you in glowing terms,
for your glory and strength deserve rave reviews.
We give you a huge wrap, LORD;
we put up you name in lights
and hold a huge ticker tape parade
but it still falls short of the worship you deserve.
Your voice, LORD, rings out like thunder;
resounding over the waters,
drowning out even the waves of the sea.
Your voice echoes with power;
it would bring anyone to their knees.
Your voice, LORD, shatters the Ironbark tree,
and splinters the Mountain Ash like match sticks.
Your presence makes Mount Bogong jump like a calf;
Uluru like a rock wallaby.
Your voice, LORD, strikes fire from stone.
The sound of your voice convulses the wilderness;
the Simpson Desert shudders in labour.
Your voice, LORD, is like a cyclone,
howling through a rainforest,
stripping the leaves from the trees.
We all gather to worship and cheer with all our might;
for you rule forever, LORD,
and neither surging flood
nor tidal wave can undermine you.
Give strength to your people, LORD!
Bless your people with peace!
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Acts 19: 1-7

Paul travelled through Turkey by the inland road, and arrived in Ephesus. He found some students of the faith there who assured him that they had been baptised, but while speaking with them he asked whether they had received the Holy Spirit when they had become believers. They replied, “No, we’re not even sure what you are talking about. We’ve never heard of a Holy Spirit.”
So Paul asked them what sort of baptism they had received, and they answered, “The baptism of John the baptiser.”
“It’s a different thing,” Paul told them. “John baptised people as a sign of their commitment to turning their lives around, but he told them that they should put their trust in the one who would take over where he left off. The one he was pointing to was Jesus.”
When they had got this straight, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul laid his hands on them in prayer, the Holy Spirit took charge of them, and they began to speak in strange languages and to preach inspired messages from God. There were about twelve of them in the group.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Mark 1: 4-11

John the baptiser showed up in the desert preaching to the people. He called them to be baptised, to completely turn their lives around and receive God’s forgiveness for their toxic ways. Everyone came flocking to John from Jerusalem and from all the rural districts of Judea. They owned up to their wrongdoing and were baptised by John in the Jordan River, promising to mend their ways.
John was dressed in rough clothes made of camel hair and animal skins. He lived on bush tucker – grasshoppers and wild honey. This was the guts of his message: “After me comes the One who is way out of my league – I wouldn’t even qualify to get down on my knees and lick his boots. I’m only baptising you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.”
During those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. The moment he came up from the water, he saw the sky open up and the Spirit coming down like a diving kookaburra and taking hold of him. And a voice filled the air, saying, “You are my Son; the love of my life. You fill me with pride.”
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for you rule over the mighty waters
and baptise us into your life.
When your voice first thundered over the seas
your brooding Spirit brought forth the earth from the void
and breathed life into all your creatures.
You called your people to follow your ways,
and sent your servant, John the Baptiser,
to proclaiming a baptism of repentance
for the forgiveness of sins.
He pointed to the one who was to come
— your beloved child, Jesus the Christ —
who came among us,
strengthening us and blessing us with your peace.
When he was baptised in the fearful waters of death,
you raised him to life
and tore open the heavens
so that all might be baptised with your Holy Spirit
and enter into your presence
confident of being declared
to be the children who please you.
Therefore with .....
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We give thanks for your beloved Son, Jesus,
who was baptised in the fearful waters of death,
and rose to tear open the heavens
so that all might be baptised with your Holy Spirit
and hear you declare them to be pleasing to you.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for you rule over the mighty waters
and baptise us into your life.
When your voice first thundered over the seas
your brooding Spirit brought forth the earth from the void
and breathed life into all your creatures.
You called your people to follow your ways,
and sent your servant, John the Baptiser,
to proclaiming a baptism of repentance
for the forgiveness of sins.
He pointed to the one who was to come
— your beloved child, Jesus the Christ —
who came among us,
strengthening us and blessing us with your peace.
When he was baptised in the fearful waters of death,
you raised him to life
and tore open the heavens
so that all might be baptised with your Holy Spirit
and enter into your presence
confident of being declared
to be the children who please you.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

Jesus Christ was baptised in the deep waters of death
so that we might be buried and raised with him
and have our sins washed away
in the depths of God’s mercy.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now, with the divine word in your ears
assuring you that you are God’s beloved children.
Live out the depth truths of your baptism
and tell others of the abundant life beyond the waters.
And may God, our beloved, give you strength;
May Christ Jesus fill you with his Holy Spirit;
And may the Holy Spirit strengthen you and bless you with peace.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

The Voice Over the WaterA sermon on Mark 1: 4-11 by Nathan Nettleton

Baptised to What?A sermon on Mark 1: 4-11 by Nathan Nettleton

An Extraordinary Ordinary BaptismA sermon on Mark 1:4-11; Genesis 1:1-5; & Acts 19:1-7 by Nathan Nettleton

Into what were you baptised?A sermon on Acts 19:1-7 & Mark 1:4-11 by Nathan Nettleton

Anointed to ReignA sermon on Mark 1:4-11, Genesis 1:1-5 & Acts 19:1-7 by Nathan Nettleton

Ordained in BaptismA sermon on Mark 1:4-11; Genesis 1:1-5; & Psalm 29 by Nathan Nettleton

The Feast of the Holy Name
2030-01-01 00:00 - 23:59
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Numbers 6: 22-27

The LORD told to Moses to pass on the following instructions to Aaron and his sons for their work as priests:
“These are the words of blessing you are to use when you bless the Israelite people:
May the LORD set you up for life and look after you;
May the LORD smile upon you and be generous to you;
May the LORD keep an eye on you
and give you a life in which all is well.
With these words you will remind my people who they belong to, and I will bless them.”
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 8

Our LORD and ruler,
all over the world
the mere mention of your name sets hearts pounding!
Your glory fills the universe!
The gurgling of babies makes more sense
than the clever arguments of your enemies.
The innocent chatter of children
silences the venomous talk of your opponents.
When I gaze at your handiwork in the night skies
— the moon, the stars, the milky way —
the whole cosmos under your control;
I can’t help but wonder why you bother with us.
Why do you care so much for mere human beings
when we count for so little in the scheme of things?
And yet, for reasons known to you alone,
you created us almost on a par with yourself
and decorated us with the highest honours and glory.
You have even entrusted us with power over your precious creation;
you placed the future of all life in our hands:
sheep and cattle;
emu and kangaroo
insects, reptiles, birds, and sea creatures;
air, land and water and the planet itself.
Our LORD and ruler,
all over the world
the mere mention of your name sets hearts pounding!
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Galatians 4:4-7 (alternative)

When the clock had run down and the time was right,
God sent a rescuer,
God’s own Son;
born to a woman in the usual way,
growing up under the thumb of the law,
just like the rest of God’s people.
God sent him into such circumstances
so that he could get everyone else out of them;
paying the price of our freedom
and giving us the opportunity
to be adopted into God’s family.
Because you are now God’s children,
the Spirit of God’s child, Jesus,
has been sent into your hearts;
the Spirit who makes us as eager for God
as children running into their parents’ arms
crying, “Daddy! Mummy!”
So you are no longer at the beck and call
of those things which once dictated your every move;
now you are God’s own children,
and as God’s children, you will receive from God
all that has been kept in trust for God’s children.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Philippians 2: 5-11 (alternative)

Model your attitude on the attitude of the Messiah, Jesus.
Although Jesus was the same as God in every way,
he did not think of his God-like privileges
as something to be milked for all they were worth.
Instead, he laid it all aside
and, with no more privileges than a slave,
was born as a human being.
Having become a human being,
he was the model of humility.
He didn’t demand his own way
but let God set the agenda;
even when it included his own death,
and a gruesome public death at that.
Because of all this,
God has raised him to the status of number one
and honoured him more highly
than anyone else in the universe.
So now, just the mention of the name ‘Jesus’
should bring everyone to their knees;
everyone who has ever lived or ever will.
Everyone, everywhere will honour God
by openly acknowledging
that Jesus the Messiah is Lord of all!
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Luke 2: 15-21

When the angels went back to heaven, the shearers were left sitting there looking at one another, gob-smacked. “We’d better go and check this out,” they said. “Let’s go into town and see if we can see what’s happened, what the Lord has let us in on.”
So without messing around they headed straight into Bethlehem, and sure enough, they tracked down Mary and Joseph and saw the baby lying in the feed trough. When they saw all this, they began telling everyone what they had heard about this child. People could hardly believe their ears when they heard what the shearers were saying. But their words were precious to Mary and she repeated them over and over in her mind, wondering what would become of it all. The shearers headed off towards their camp again – a rowdy mob, singing and shouting in the streets about how fabulous God was because of everything they had seen and heard. Everything had been just the way they had been told it would be.
Mary and Joseph followed the law and custom of their people and held a ceremony for the baby boy when he was eight days old to circumcise him and name him. They named him Jesus – the name which God’s messenger had given him before he was conceived in the womb.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
joining with the whole world
in telling of the greatness of your name.
From the moment you created and named every living thing
your handiwork has been a source of awe and wonder.
Like the moon and stars you set in place,
your face has shone upon us and blessed us with peace.
In the fullness of time you sent your Son,
born of woman and named by angels,
so that we too might be adopted by you,
and through your Spirit, the treasure of our hearts,
live worthily of the name you have given us.
Therefore with .....
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We thank you for sending your Son,
born of woman and named by angels,
so that we too might be adopted by you,
and live worthily of the name you have given us.
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We join with the whole world to give you thanks and praise, O God,
and telling of the greatness of your name.
From the moment you created and named every living thing
your handiwork has been a source of awe and wonder.
Like the moon and stars you set in place,
your face has shone upon us and blessed us with peace.
In the fullness of time you sent your Son,
born of woman and named by angels,
so that we too might be adopted by you,
and through your Spirit, the treasure of our hearts,
live worthily of the name you have given us.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

When the fullness of time had come,
God sent his Son, born of a woman,
born under the law,
in order to redeem those who were under the law,
so that we might receive adoption as God’s children.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now, glorifying and praising God
for all you have heard and seen.
You have been named as God’s adopted children:
Live worthily of the glory with which God has dressed you.
And may God bless you and keep you.
May Christ Jesus make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious to you.
And may the Spirit smile upon you and give you peace.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

Exchanging GiftsA sermon on Galatians 4: 4-7 by Nathan Nettleton

New Years Day
2030-01-01 00:00 - 23:59
Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-13

Things happen in their due season; there is a right time for everything that happens on earth:
a time to be born,
and a time to die;
a time to sow the seed,
and a time to harvest the crop;
a time to end a life,
and a time to rehabilitate;
a time to demolish,
and a time to create;
a time to cry,
and a time to laugh;
a time to grieve,
and a time to party;
a time to throw caution to the wind,
and a time to play it safe;
a time to make love,
and a time to keep your pants on;
a time to keep searching,
and a time to write off the loss;
a time to hold on to what you’ve got,
and a time to let it go;
a time to share another’s pain,
and a time to urge them to move on;
a time to keep your mouth shut,
and a time to speak your mind;
a time to love,
and a time to hate;
a time to fight;
and a time to make peace.
But in the end, what difference does it make what we do? I have observed everyone working hard at the jobs that God has given them. God sets things up so that there is a proper time and place for everything, but we forget too quickly and fail to learn the lessons of history. We see what has happened and what is happening, but we can’t make sense of the connections or see what God is doing in it all. So I figure that there is no point in losing too much sleep over it. The most important thing is for people to be happy and to enjoy their lives for as long as they live. What’s more, there is nothing wrong with eating and drinking and finding satisfaction in our work. They are God’s gifts to us.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Psalm 8

Our LORD and ruler,
all over the world
the mere mention of your name sets hearts pounding!
Your glory fills the universe!
The gurgling of babies makes more sense
than the clever arguments of your enemies.
The innocent chatter of children
silences the venomous talk of your opponents.
When I gaze at your handiwork in the night skies
— the moon, the stars, the milky way —
the whole cosmos under your control;
I can’t help but wonder why you bother with us.
Why do you care so much for mere human beings
when we count for so little in the scheme of things?
And yet, for reasons known to you alone,
you created us almost on a par with yourself
and decorated us with the highest honours and glory.
You have even entrusted us with power over your precious creation;
you placed the future of all life in our hands:
sheep and cattle;
emu and kangaroo
insects, reptiles, birds, and sea creatures;
air, land and water and the planet itself.
Our LORD and ruler,
all over the world
the mere mention of your name sets hearts pounding!
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Revelaton 21: 1-6a

I, John, had another extraordinary vision. I saw a completely revamped heaven and a radically reconstructed earth. The first heaven, the first earth and the sea were all but a memory. Then I saw Jerusalem, the city dedicated to God, now made completely new. She was coming down the aisle from heaven itself, from God, and she looked sensational, like a bride on her wedding day. I heard a loud voice coming from heaven’s throne. It said:
“See, God has moved in and set up home among ordinary people.
God will live with them and be their God,
and the people will gladly belong
to the God who lives right in their midst.
God will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be abolished forever;
pain and grief and tears will be things of the past.
All these things have been made obsolete.”
Then the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new – absolutely everything!”
“Write all this down,” he said, “because these words can be depended on. They are the truth.”
This is what he said: “The job is done! I am the whole story, from A to Z. I am the beginning and I am the end.”
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Matthew 25: 31-46

While speaking to his followers, Jesus said, “The day is coming when the New Human will turn up in all his glory, accompanied by all his angels, and he will be crowned as king. He will sit down on the judgment seat, and all the nations of the world will be summoned to appear before him. Like a quality controller sorting out the good fruit from the rejects, he will carefully sort the nations into two groups, one on his right side and one on his left. Then the King will say to the group on his right side:
‘Welcome, you who have been given the thumbs up by my Father. Ever since the foundation of the world, there has been a kingdom ready with your name on it. Come now, and inherit it; because
I was hungry and you lot fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I came seeking asylum and you made me welcome,
I didn’t have a stitch to wear
and you lot gave me clothes,
I was diseased and you took care of me,
I was in detention and you visited me.’
Then those compassionate nations will ask him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When were you a refugee and we welcomed you, or in detention and we visited you? When did we find you without clothes or sick and do something about it?’
And the King will reply, ‘The fact is, you did these things for people who were regarded as the dregs of society, but who I love as my nearest and dearest; and each time you helped one of them, you were helping me.’
Then he will say to the nations on the other side:
‘You lot have been written off. Get out of my sight! A time of fire has been ignited by the devil and his agents, and you will be swallowed up in it with them; because
I was hungry and you lot didn’t give me a bite,
I was thirsty and you gave me nothing,
I came seeking asylum and you wouldn’t let me in,
I didn’t have a stitch to wear
and you lot left me to freeze,
I was diseased and in detention
and you turned your backs and wouldn’t come near me.’
They too will ask, ‘Lord, when was it that we failed to take care of you? We don’t recall seeing you hungry or thirsty or seeking asylum or naked or sick or in detention.’
But he will answer, ‘The fact is, you failed to do these things for those who were regarded as the dregs of society, and each time you turned your backs on them, you were turning your backs on me.’
And with that, those nations will be gone, swallowed up in the time of punishment. But the nations who did the right thing by others will enjoy life without limit.”
©2023 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Eucharistic Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
and with the whole earth we tell of the greatness of your name,
for you are the God who makes all things new.
The moon and the stars are your handiwork,
and the earth and its inhabitants reflect your glory.
You have created us, dressing us in glory undeserved,
and entrusted the charge of the earth to our hands.
You have created a time for everything under heaven:
a time for remembering,
and a time to set plans for the future;
a time for prayer
and a time to act with courage and compassion;
a time for sacrifice
and a time to enjoy the fruits of our toil.
In Jesus Christ, you have made your home among us,
and gathered our times into your time,
so that we might live the life of the kingdom
which you prepared for us from the foundation of the world.
Therefore with .....
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Short Preface (for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)

We thank you for gathering all our times into your time,
so that we might live the life of the kingdom
which you prepared for us from the foundation of the world.
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

General Prayer of Thanksgiving

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
and with the whole earth tell of the greatness of your name,
for you are the God who makes all things new.
The moon and the stars are your handiwork,
and the earth and its inhabitants reflect your glory.
You have created us, dressing us in glory undeserved,
and entrusted the charge of the earth to our hands.
You have created a time for everything under heaven:
a time for remembering,
and a time to set plans for the future;
a time for prayer
and a time to act with courage and compassion;
a time for sacrifice
and a time to enjoy the fruits of our toil.
In Jesus Christ, you have made your home among us,
and gathered our times into your time,
so that we might live the life of the kingdom
which you prepared for us from the foundation of the world.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Declaration of Grace / Absolution

In Jesus Christ, God makes all things new.
The former things have disappeared.
God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Commission & Benediction

Go now, and embrace the new time which God has given us.
Recognize Christ in friend and stranger,
and as Christ has been gracious to you,
so be gracious to those in need.
And may God dwell with you as your God.
May Christ be your food and drink
and give you pleasure in your work.
And may the Spirit be your beginning and end
and hold all your times in her loving embrace.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

When I was hungry, what did you do?A sermon on Matthew 25: 31-46 by Nathan Nettleton

When I joined your church, you burned me out!A sermon on Matthew 25: 31-46 by Nathan Nettleton

Icons on Street CornersA sermon on Matthew 25: 31-46 by Nathan Nettleton

Will the Sheep Plead for the Goats?A sermon on Matthew 25: 31-46 by Nathan Nettleton

Judging NationsA sermon on Matthew 25: 31-46 by Nathan Nettleton
