top of page

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

What follows is a worship service which, I pray, you can participate in at a time(s) that are convenient to you. This 'service' will take about forty five (45) minutes.

I pray that you will feel called to ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE in this service.

The text that is in regular typeface (that is what you are reading at the moment) is to be read quietly, while the text that is in
bold face (like you are reading right now) is meant to be read aloud.

Opening Hymn:

Let us continue by watching, and please do feel free to sing or read aloud the lyrics, as we commence our praise and thanksgiving.

When you are ready - click the "play" button on the video window, below:

A Call To Worship:

We meet in the name of God,

Creator of the universe,

source of true humanity,

mother and father of all. Amen.

An Assurance of Forgiveness:

(click the 'play' button below to listen)

The Absolution
00:00 / 00:18

The Sentence For Today (let us say aloud):

Sing to the Lord, you servants of his; give thanks for the remembrance of his holiness.

The Special Prayer For Today (let us pray aloud):

O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbour: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Our first reading for today:

(click the 'play' button below to listen)

Isaiah 66:10-14
00:00 / 01:08

Our second reading for today:

(click the 'play' button below to listen)

Galatians 6:7-16
00:00 / 01:18

Gradual Hymn:

Let us continue by watching, and please do feel free to sing or read aloud the lyrics, as we raise out voices in praise and thanksgiving.

When you are ready - click the "play" button on the video window, below:

A reading from the holy gospel according to Saint Luke.

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
00:00 / 03:15

Listen to David speak to this gospel

A Peaceful Heart
00:00 / 13:18

or, if you prefer, you can read the sermon, below:

Sermon for Ordinary 14, 6th July 2025

Welcome friends and peace be with you. MAY the words on my lips and the meditations in our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. <Amen>

“Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’”

When we watch or listen to the news it is often tragedies that have captured recent headlines. There are others that don’t make the headlines though they are no less important, no less painful, and no less tragic. Some are global, some are national, and some are personal.

If events around the world can leave us heartbroken and weeping, imagine what God must be seeing and feeling; God, the Creator who entrusts us with ALL of His creation, and that includes one another’s lives - what must God be feeling?

I no longer see these tragedies as problems to be fixed or behaviours to be corrected because that approach hasn’t gotten us very far. Rather, I view them as symptoms pointing to a deeper issue. Until we are willing to deal with the deeper issue things aren’t likely to change, and the deeper issue is THE HUMAN HEART.

Whether by a terrorist attack, through prejudice and discrimination against a minority group, in our political campaigns, or in our personal relationships, the violence and mistreatment we perpetrate on each other arises first from an inner violence that poisons and fragments the human heart.

We need a change of heart. We need a heart at peace.

While we wrestle with the problems of our human world let’s not project our failings and human imperfections onto God, waiting for and expecting God to fill the void and fix the problems.

This is not about God’s failings or imperfections. It is ours, and the blood of the victims, the tears of the mourners, and the pain of the world are crying and begging for a different answer.

So, let’s join the seventy sent to every town and place where Christ himself goes. Let’s enter every house, first saying, “Peace to this house.”

Let’s become people with hearts at peace, not at war. <PAUSE>

However, I think we also struggle with what peace means, what it looks like, and how we get it and keep it. If the events of today’s world offer us anything it’s the opportunity to rethink what peace means and, as I said last week, resolve\change our hearts.

I think most of us have an understanding of peace that is too small and too narrow. We limit peace to a particular set of behaviours and usually they are the behaviours we expect or want from others.

We think of peace as an ideal to be attained and more often than not we define it as the absence or elimination of conflict. We’ve convinced ourselves that peace will come when this person or that group changes or stops doing something. Ultimately, we condition peace on the ability to change another. Therefore, that ‘other’ determines whether our hearts are at peace or at war. That’s craziness and it just doesn’t work.

The reality is that we don’t have the power to change another, and when we force that change, it is not peace we achieve but more violence! <PAUSE>

The only person over whom we have any power or ability to change is ourselves. You and I are each responsible for choosing whether we live with a heart at peace or a heart at war.

Jesus did not send the seventy out to change the towns and places they would go but to simply offer his peace.

How often does Jesus instruct us to go and change other people? He doesn’t. That may be our way but it’s not His way. Jesus does, however, spend a lot of time teaching us to change ourselves and our way of being toward one another. THAT is the change of heart that is at the core of peace.

The struggle for peace begins not between me and someone else but within myself, within my heart and I truly believe that Jesus is asking all of us ….

What if a heart at peace refuses to lump masses of unknown people into lifeless categories and make them objects to be dealt with or enemies to be defeated. What if a heart at peace encounters everyone as a person.

What if a heart at peace is about loving our enemies, doing good to those who hate us, doing to others as we would have them do to us.

What if a heart at peace means being merciful and not judging, refusing to throw the first stone (or for that matter the last stone or any in between).

What if a heart at peace offers forgiveness not seven times but seventy times seven.

What if a heart at peace means feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick and imprisoned. <PAUSE>

All these “what ifs” about peace are not so much prescribing behaviours for us as they are about describing ways of BEING.

Peace does not begin with our behaviours toward each other but with our way of BEING towards each other, our seeing each other as human beings created in the image and likeness of God.

It is a matter of the heart, your heart and my heart. If our hearts are at war it makes no difference how polite or nice we are to each other. Violence is present. Offering the peace of Christ is more than a friendly handshake, or a warm hug. It’s the recognition of another’s existence and his or her value as a human being, regardless of whether he or she is family, friend, stranger, or enemy.

When Jesus sent out the seventy He did not condition their offers of peace on who the recipients might be, their worthiness, what they had done, or what their response might be. Neither can we condition our offers of peace. Some will receive the peace and others will not. Either way, “the kingdom of God has come near” if our hearts are at peace.

The peace of Christ is not defined by the absence of tragedy or conflict and it is not an ideal to be attained. It is a practice to be lived every moment of every day.

That means practicing peace with our friends and family. It means practicing peace with our enemies. It means practicing peace with the stranger, with those who are different from us, with those who can make our blood run hot, and with those who scare us. <PAUSE>

“Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’” - - - and to God will be the glory.

I runga e te Ingoa o te Atua, te Matua, te Tama me te Wairua Tapu. AMINE.

Pause and Reflect

Just take a moment now to pause. Bow your head, close your eyes.
 

Allow these words of Holy Scripture and this interpretation of them today to speak to you.

An Affirmation of Our Faith

Let us affirm our faith by saying aloud, and together, "The Apostles Creed":

apostles_creed_pic02.jpg
Image by Allef Vinicius

... and now let us pray for the Church, the World, and Ourselves, giving thanks for God's goodness.

​Let us pray aloud, and together:

Everlasting God, we make our prayers now for all people, everywhere, both close to us and far away.

Thank You for giving us Your Son and help us so that we may we let His peace rule in our hearts.

<longer silence for personal reflection>
 
Holy God, whenever we start to get offended by Your generosity or open-mindedness, give us the grace to repent and join Your rejoicing. Guard Your people against self-righteousness and all rules and limits which You would not own, but always keep before us the rule of love in a peaceful heart.

<short silence> Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer

Creator God, we thank You for people who have risked and sacrificed much to provide us with all the benefits and comforts of our modern life.

Help us to encourage our young people to follow their examples and to build on their legacies so that future generations may enjoy continued progress but with constant thought for our responsible stewardship of your creation.

<short silence> Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer

We pray for peaceful hearts and reconciliation throughout the world and we especially raise before you the turmoil in The Holy Land, Ukraine, Russia, and Iran. Prince of Peace, bring healing to these troubled places, an end to war and violence and a respect for human dignity.

<short silence> Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer

Father God, we thank you for our families and friends and for the communities both of faith and secular that we belong to. We ask that you help us with our relationships, help us make our strong ones to be stronger, our broken ones to be healed and our new ones to continue growing.

<short silence> Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer
 
Gracious God, we pray for all who suffer in body, mind or spirit and for those who care for them. We pray for the sick; for those who mourn; for those without faith, hope or love.

Give the song of joy to all who are now on the road to recovery and recuperation and the song of thanks to all who helped them on that road.

We especially raise before You now all those who have asked for our prayers from around the world … those we know in New Zealand, in Singapore, in Argentina, in France, in Australia, in the US, in Canada, in Austria, in Ukraine, in China, in Germany, in the Czech Republic, and any others we now name aloud, or in the silence of our hearts, and those who are known only by You.

<short silence> Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer

Mighty God, Your love reaches beyond the grave. At the end of our days on earth be with us and with those we love and with those whom we love and have gone before us.  We pray now for those who have recently died and those bereaved by their passing

We especially raise before you at this time our recently departed sister and brothers : Alberto (Colombia), Maria (USA), Pat (New Zealand), Tomas (Austria).

May they, and all the faithful departed, now rest in eternal peace as they most surely have risen in glory.

<Short silence> Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer

In a moment of silence we pray for ourselves, our families, friends, for all whom we love and for our personal ministries.

Fill our hearts with the love and peace of Your Son.

(Short Silence) Lord, in Your mercy: hear our prayer

Almighty God, as we go from this worship today to start the week ahead, we ask that in all we do, we may walk more closely with You at our side safe in the knowledge that Your love and care know no bounds.

(Short Silence) Lord, in Your mercy: hear our prayer

Forth in the peace of Christ we go; Christ to the world with joy we bring; Christ in our minds, Christ on our lips, Christ in our hearts, the world’s true King.

Merciful father: accept these prayers for the sake of Your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

lord's_prayer_pic01_edited.jpg

Remembering that we are confident to pray this day, and every day, because Jesus Christ continues to teach us:
 

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,

your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever.   Amen.

Let us conclude our prayers by praying together and aloud:

 

God of mercy,
you have given us grace to pray with one heart and one voice,
and have promised to hear the prayers
of two or three who agree in your name,
fulfil now, we pray,
the prayers and longings of your people
as may be best for us and for your kingdom.
Grant us in this world to know your truth,
and in the world to come to see your glory. Amen.

The Blessing

May The Risen Lord Christ turn His face towards each and every one of you.

May He cause His light to shine upon you, and

may He grant you His peace, and

 

The blessing of Almighty God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

be with you and all of those whom you love,

on this day and forever more.

A Closing Hymn:

Let us conclude our worship today by watching, and please do feel free to sing or read aloud the lyrics, as we unite in another hymn our praise and thanksgiving.

When you are ready - click the "play" button on the video window, below:

The Dismissal

Go now, go out into the world

to love and serve The Lord.

 

Go in peace.

AMEN, we go in the name of Christ.

bottom of page