Croydon Uniting Church in Croydon, Victoria, Australia | Church of God

Croydon Uniting Church

Locality: Croydon, Victoria, Australia

Phone: 9723 5103 (Church Office - leave message if unattended)

Address: Cnr Croydon Rd & Tallent St 3136 Croydon, VIC, Australia

Website: http://www.croydon.unitingchurch.org.au/

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25.01.2022 We’re currently in the middle of a storm the pandemic caused by Covid19, which is affecting people’s health, their sense of connection with others, their work routines and, for many, their financial security. Where is God during such a storm? What is God up to in the midst of this pandemic? In the Gospel story this week, Jesus is not with the disciples as they battle wind and waves. Some see this as a metaphor for the church (the boat), battling opposition and alone on the ...ocean of the world. In these days it may feel that we are indeed struggling alone. But that is only half the story. Jesus comes to the disciples in the midst of their struggles and even encourages brave/foolish Peter to get out of the boat and come to him on the water. Peter is soon distracted by the storm around him and starts to sink, before Jesus reaches out and grabs him by the hand, hauling him to safety. The good news in this story is that if we’re able to trust that Jesus really is Emmanuel God with us then we can live with courage and with hope, knowing that we will get through this storm together. Further, we can continue to seek the good of others in our community knowing that God is always there for us in Jesus. We will be holding a Zoom worship meeting this Sunday morning from 9.45 am. I will host the meeting from my home but it will be an opportunity to hold a larger (virtual) gathering and to see each others’ faces. We will be basing our worship on the attached worship@home resource for this week, so it would be handy to have a copy present. We can send you a link to the meeting or a phone number and meeting details if you sign up by emailing the Croydon UC church office on [email protected] or using the form in the sidebar. Click here for worship@home resources Getting through the storms of life - 9 Aug 2020

23.01.2022 It’s not too often that biblical words and phrases take on a whole new life in the English language. But some images and phrases do stick. Think of the images of a Good Samaritan or a Prodigal Son (or Daughter) that have entered common parlance. There is a word from this week’s parable that has enjoyed similar treatment, namely the concept of a talent. English has picked up this word from the Greek talanton, which was a measure of weight used for gold, silver or coins. In the... parable a wealthy Master gives varying numbers of talents (representing large amounts of money) to three of his servants, to each according to their ability. In English it is this latter association that has stuck, so that a talent is seen as a skill or ability that a person possesses to be used to enrich the lives of those around them. So the common interpretation of this parable is that we have all received talents from God that we are to grow and use to benefit others. The warning is to not be like the third servant who buries his talent in the ground (i.e. doesn’t use or develop it). Of course, the talents may not be individual traits but rather a measure of God’s abundant love and grace freely given to all and to be shared widely. There are some problems with this interpretation. These relate to Jesus’ teaching elsewhere about money and wealth (key aspects of the parable) as well as the character of the Master (seen as greedy, vindictive). An alternative interpretation (also not without its share of difficulty) is that the Master represents the Emperor (or King Herod) who encourages people (or Israel) to make money at the expense of the poor and thus to play along with an oppressive system. The most faithful response is that of the third servant who refuses to play the game but who pays for his lack of engagement when the Master returns. So we are invited to reflect on this parable and see what its message may be for each of us. Perhaps a call to use what we have at hand to build up God’s kingdom in our midst. Perhaps a reminder of the great value of God’s love that is not to be hoarded but rather shared. Or perhaps a warning not to participate in systems that are geared towards wealth creation over caring for people. May God give us ears to listen. This Sunday we will not be meeting by Zoom for worship. Instead we encourage people to watch and participate in the collaborative service prepared by Heathmont, Ringwood, Ringwood North and our two Croydon congregations. You will see and hear from several familiar faces from Croydon and Croydon North, including Rev Peter. To log in to the service go to the following website https://nruc.online.church/ before 10 am. If you are unable to join us to participate online, click here for worship@home resources Talents and how to use them - 17 Nov 2020

23.01.2022 After the year of 2020 that we’ve all experienced, who would like some good news, divine favour, comfort and joy? These are some of the blessings promised in the reading from Isaiah 61. However bleak the situation is facing God’s people on their return from exile in Babylon, God promises great blessing and hope for the future. Similar claims are made in Mary’s song the Magnificat (so-called because this is the opening word of the song in its Latin translation) God has done ...great things for those who fear him (like Mary), the lowly have been lifted up, the hungry fed. Blessings abound! There’s just one small problem. Nobody seems to have told the leaders and rulers of the nations about these new arrangements. They still rule through military might and oppression, they still hoard most of the wealth, and they’re not about to give up these privileges, whether we’re speaking of the Romans in the time of Mary, the Persians in the time of Isaiah, or the wealthy elite in many countries of the world today. The vision we are offered in Isaiah and in Mary’s song doesn’t seem to match our world’s lived reality. So are these just idle promises? Or is our call to seek justice to turn the world right side up? When Jesus preached on the Isaiah passage (as recounted in Luke 4), his audience were quite happy to accept God’s blessings but far less keen to share them with others. They were also angry that Jesus didn’t stress God’s judgment on their enemies. It seems that our sense of and commitment to justice may not match that of Jesus. Will we accept both God’s blessing and God’s call to seek justice? This week we again have face-to-face worship at Croydon North this Sunday. For Croydon North people who want to attend, the service will start at 10 am in the worship space as per the old pattern. For Croydon people, the service will be broadcast via Zoom at 10 am in the worship space. For everyone else, this worship service will be streamed via Zoom in the usual way (fingers crossed that the technology all works as planned). So please come along to either venue or login to Zoom from 9.45 am. We will be basing our worship on the attached worship@home resource for this week, so it would be handy for those on Zoom to have a copy present. Click here for worship@home resources Blessing and justice - 13 Dec 2020 The post Blessing and justice first appeared on Croydon Uniting Church.

22.01.2022 Christmas is nearly here and this week we light the fourth Advent candle, the candle representing love. Not the mushy sentimental love that features in Christmas movies and most nativity scenes but the practical and costly love that is at the heart of the biblical Christmas story. Mary is both a recipient and a giver of this love. Gabriel greets her as someone who has found favour with God and who is given a unique role as the mother of God’s Son. Nothing in her life to this ...point would have indicated her readiness or worthiness for such a role. Hence Mary is perplexed but thankful that she has been chosen. Like many others in the gospel story she is a relative nobody just trying to live a faithful life and by God’s grace she becomes a conduit for God’s love to be revealed to the world. She will of course give birth to Jesus and nurture him in faith as he grows up. She will watch as he begins his ministry of healing and teaching, and she will watch in anguish as he is later crucified. She will be part of the emerging Christian community of faith that gathers after the resurrection. She will love Jesus as only a mother can and will bear the cost of watching her son die. Like others in the gospel narrative, she is not the central character but one of many characters that point to Jesus and the love of God revealed through him. I wonder how your life and your choices shine the love of God to those around you as you in turn point others towards Jesus. This week we again have a combined collaborative service prepared by Heathmont, Ringwood, Ringwood North and our two Croydon congregations. You will see and hear from several familiar faces from Croydon and Croydon North. Join together at 10 am in your respective worship spaces or login at the following website https://nruc.online.church/ from 9.45 am. Click here for worship@home resources The great inspiration of Mary - 20 Dec 2020 The post The great inspiration of Mary first appeared on Croydon Uniting Church.

21.01.2022 Mullum Mullum Creek in Mitcham Water is essential for life. Hence rivers and creeks are important parts of the natural landscape and are our focus in this final week exploring the season of creation. Rivers are like the arteries of the land, carrying life-giving water to where it’s needed. But when there is too much rainfall, rivers can flood causing considerable devastation and when there is too little rainfall, creeks and rivers can dry up. Living in an arid land, God’s peo...ple Israel knew plenty about drought and the famines that followed. Prophets such as Amos drew on this imagery and compared the unjust actions of a people ignoring the word of God to the land lacking water. In both cases there is no life. Amos called instead for justice to roll on like a river. Likewise in Genesis 6-9, God sees the unjust ways of humanity and floods the earth before providing the sign of the rainbow and the promise to never flood the whole earth again. In this country, rivers have always been important. They provided food and life to indigenous people for millennia. For we second peoples, rivers have provided water for stock, irrigation to grow crops and for hydroelectricity. Yet we have done much damage to our rivers through building dams, through extracting too much water for irrigation and by allowing excess fertiliser to pollute the water. The massive fish deaths in the Darling River system in 2019 illustrated the effects of our greed and shortsightedness. The rivers are groaning and crying out for justice. Will we change our ways and value the life that rivers support or will we continue to see rivers mostly as a resource to be exploited for profit? We will be holding a Zoom worship meeting this Sunday morning from 9.45 am. I will host the meeting from my home but it will be an opportunity to hold a larger (virtual) gathering and to see each others’ faces. We will be basing our worship on the attached worship@home resource for this week, so it would be handy to have a copy present. We can send you a link to the meeting or a phone number and meeting details if you sign up by emailing the Croydon UC church office on [email protected] or using the form in the sidebar. If you are unable to join us to participate online, click here for worship@home resources Rivers that provide life - 27 Sep 2020

20.01.2022 We’ve barely finished singing Christmas carols and eating Christmas leftovers and hot cross buns are already on sale in our supermarkets. Consumerism, it seems, waits for no one. It’s a little the same with Mark’s Gospel. Within the opening few verses he’s introduced John the Baptist and his message about repentance. Then Jesus arrives on the scene, unannounced and incognito. He’s one among many people being baptised by John in the muddy waters of the Jordan River. What marks... Jesus out is what happens after he’s baptised as God’s Spirit descends on him like a dove and a voice from heaven proclaims him to be ‘My Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased’. Jesus is named and affirmed and empowered, ready to begin his ministry (after a period of testing in the wilderness). What is true for Jesus is also true for Jesus’ followers, including ourselves. We too are named and affirmed and empowered for ministry by God’s Spirit. What a blessing and what a challenge! How ready are you to follow in Jesus’ footsteps as we begin the new year? Worship this week is at Croydon North UC building abut will be streamed on Zoom using the regular link. Folk at Croydon can also gather at Croydon church to watch the service together or you can watch from home as during lockdown. So please come along to either venue or login to Zoom from 9.45 am. The post Jesus is baptised first appeared on Croydon Uniting Church.

20.01.2022 As part of our ongoing sharing with the UC congregations of Heathmont, Ringwood and Ringwood North, we have produced a series of shared advent Bible studies, suitable for either individuals or groups. Each week there will be a study prepared by one of the ministers, which will focus on one of the readings for advent from the Sunday lectionary. The first study has been produced by Rev. Andy Tiver from Ringwood North Uniting Church and can be downloaded below (PDF). 2020 Maroon...dah UC Advent 1 study The post 2020 Advent 1 Bible study first appeared on Croydon Uniting Church.

18.01.2022 This year the Lectionary focuses on the Gospel of Mark, which is the shortest and first written of the Gospels. To help get you acquainted with some of the background, style and features of Mark please download this introduction (PDF). Introducing the Gospel of Mark Leading up to and including Easter this year we will be preaching through the whole book of Mark in narrative order. The dates and themes of the passages to be explored are as follows:... Date Reading Theme 10 Jan Mk 1:4-13 The baptism of Jesus 17 Jan Mk 1:14-20 The good news and the shape of Jesus’ ministry 31 Jan Mk 1:21-45 A day in the life of Jesus 7 Feb Mk 2:1-3:6 First signs of conflict and opposition 14 Feb Mk 3:7-35 The renewed people of God 21 Feb Mk 4:1-6:6 Jesus and the kingdom of God 28 Feb Mk 6:7-56 Jesus’ ministry expands 7 Mar Mk 7:1-8:21 Jesus in Gentile territory 14 Mar Mk 8:22-9:29 Jesus the Messiah who must suffer and die 21 Mar Mk 9:30-10:52 The cost of discipleship 28 Mar Mk 11:1-33 Jesus enters Jerusalem 2 Apr Mk 14:53-15:47 The passion and death of Jesus 4 Apr Mk 16:1-8 The empty tomb what now? The post Introducing the Gospel of Mark first appeared on Croydon Uniting Church.

16.01.2022 Whether we’ve happily complied with or loathed the Covid19 restrictions of the last several months, most people in Melbourne have been co-operative in following the law. Most of us see the benefit to the wider community of getting the disease under control and the best way to do this is to follow the health laws about wearing masks and so forth. The Jewish Law contained in the Bible covers a multitude of topics that impinge on community life including disease control, food ha...ndling, settling of legal disputes and of course matters of worship. One day Jesus is asked what is the single most important or greatest commandment in this vast array of laws. His answer is succinct and memorable love God with all your heart, soul and strength and also love your neighbour as yourself. As Christians we are so familiar with this teaching that it’s difficult to imagine it being anything other than central to our faith. Yet the question asked of Jesus is set as a test or a trap. Perhaps this is because Jesus has had numerous earlier skirmishes with the Pharisees over interpretation of the Jewish Law, especially regarding Sabbath regulations and purity laws. For the Pharisees, Jesus plays fast and loose with the Law. For Jesus, the Pharisees focus on minor matters of the Law and ignore the weightier matters of mercy and justice. So a simple sounding question masks underlying tensions. While Jesus’ response is memorable, it’s also hard to live out in practice. How do we get the balance right between our call to love God and our call to love our neighbour? And besides, who is my neighbour that I’m called to love? Is it just those of my tribe or those who live nearby? And what might it mean to love them? It’s all very open ended which is why Jesus’ response is so brilliant. He didn’t provide black and white answers that we could haggle over, but rather asks us to consider in each and every situation how might I best love my neighbour, both during the Covid 19 pandemic and when life has settled back to a more predictable routine? We will be holding a Zoom worship meeting this Sunday morning from 9.45 am. I will host the meeting from my home but it will be an opportunity to hold a larger (virtual) gathering and to see each others’ faces. We will be basing our worship on the attached worship@home resource for this week, so it would be handy to have a copy present. We can send you a link to the meeting or a phone number and meeting details if you sign up by emailing the Croydon UC church office on [email protected] or using the form in the sidebar. Click here for worship@home resources A wise answer to another tricky question - 25 Oct 2020

15.01.2022 There has been an outpouring of joy and thanksgiving across Melbourne this week as many aspects of our life that have been closed for months reopen, including most shops, cafes and outdoor sports. This is our reward for months of restrictions. Numbers at indoor gatherings will remain cautiously low for a while yet, which limits the possibilities for face-to-face worship, but we are already planning for what we might be able to do at Christmas. This week in the church calendar... is also a time for thanksgiving as we celebrate All Saints Day, a tradition that dates back to at least the sixth century. In the Bible, a saint is anyone whose life is devoted to God, which included all the members of the churches Paul wrote to (e.g. Rom 1:7, 1 Cor 1:2). In the Protestant tradition, we remember saints both living and dead, whether famous or obscure, who have brought us to faith, nurtured us in faith or who continue to inspire and stretch our faith today. As you reflect on the people who have influenced your life, what can you learn from their priorities and approach to life? We will be holding a Zoom worship meeting this Sunday morning from 9.45 am. I will host the meeting from my home but it will be an opportunity to hold a larger (virtual) gathering and to see each others’ faces. We will be basing our worship on the attached worship@home resource for this week, so it would be handy to have a copy present. We can send you a link to the meeting or a phone number and meeting details if you sign up by emailing the Croydon UC church office on [email protected] or using the form in the sidebar. Click here for worship@home resources Remembering all the saints 1 Nov 2020

15.01.2022 This week the season of creation encourages us to focus on wilderness. This term may evoke images of Tasmania’s rugged landscapes or the arid landscape of central Australia or even the remote areas of the Kimberley. What these places share is a lack of people and an intrinsic beauty. They can also be deeply spiritual places where we feel close to God. In the Scriptures, the wilderness or desert was an uninhabited and dangerous place. It was generally a place to be avoided due... to its lack of food and water. Some notable characters fled into the wilderness to avoid persecution (e.g. Moses, David, Elijah) while others were driven into the wilderness against their will (e.g. the Israelites escaping from Egypt during the Exodus, Jesus after his baptism). One common element of these stories is that the people encountered God in the wilderness, who provided their basic needs and also shaped their faith. So spending time in the wilderness can be transformative. Sometimes the wilderness is not a geographical place but rather a psychological or mental space that we find ourselves in. So for many people the extended Covid19 lockdown in Melbourne has felt like a wilderness experience, cut off from other people and with a focus on just getting through each day. What might we learn from such an experience? Perhaps that we can’t rely on our own limited resources. Perhaps that God provides what we really need. Perhaps that we can discern what really matters in life. However difficult these days may feel, may they be a season of growth and transformation for ourselves as individuals and also for our communities. This Sunday we will not be meeting by Zoom for worship. Instead we encourage people to watch and participate in the collaborative service prepared by Heathmont, Ringwood, Ringwood North and our two Croydon congregations. You will see and hear from several familiar faces from Croydon and Croydon North, including Rev Peter. To log in to the service go to the following website https://nruc.online.church/ before 10 am. If you are unable to join us to participate online, click here for worship@home resources Learning from a wilderness experience - 20 Sep 2020

14.01.2022 In these days of coronavirus and the extensive changes we are living through, it’s easy to get despondent and impatient with progress. As individuals and as a community we face an uncertain future over the next few weeks and months that is likely to continue into next year. Psychologists tell us that this continuing stress can cause serious harm to our mental health. Someone who knew plenty about stress and some ways of overcoming it was the apostle Paul. Paul is nothing if n...ot a polarising figure. He seemed to stir up controversy wherever he went and in the book of Acts is accused of turning the world upside down (Acts 17:6). In a rare autobiographical passage in Philippians, Paul describes the stress of seeking perfection as a Jew. This changed when he encountered Christ. Paul no longer had to rely on his own effort to please God, but now enjoyed a close personal relationship with God through Christ. This led to other problems, however, as Paul was seen by some as selling out his Jewish heritage and so was persecuted by Jews, by some rival Christians and also by Greeks who saw their commercial interests being threatened by Paul’s new religion. And we think we have it tough! In the midst of the storms and controversies that seemed to follow Paul, his solution was to remain focused on Jesus not being distracted by his past or rocked by present difficulties but always pressing ahead. Paul was like a runner in a marathon race never giving up and always striving to keep putting one foot after the other in pursuit of his calling. Despite his reputation for being uncompromising, Paul suggests that we need to accept differences between us while agreeing on what is central, which for Paul is all about following and knowing Jesus. In our days, how might this focus help us overcome the stress and uncertainty that we face? There will be no Zoom worship meeting this Sunday morning. Instead please take the opportunity to explore other offerings by local churches or on the internet or TV. Click here for worship@home resources Pressing on with Jesus - 04 Oct 2020

11.01.2022 I’m not always very patient when it comes to waiting. I can get irritated by having to wait too long at red traffic lights and sometimes get impatient with what can feel like glacial change in the church. But Jesus’ warning to us in this week’s parable is not to get complacent or impatient but to be prepared to wait for what may come. The parable tells of a wedding and the seemingly endless wait for the bridegroom to arrive. He is not a polite few minutes late but hours overd...ue. When the bridegroom is finally sighted in the distance, all the waiting bridesmaids light their lamps. But some forgot to bring extra oil. No bother surely there’s enough to go round? The sensible bridesmaids hold onto their oil and send away the stupid bridesmaids on a fool’s errand to try and buy more oil in the middle of the night. While they are gone, the wedding feast begins and the doors are locked. The silly bridesmaids are left outside as the bridegroom refuses them entry, claiming not to know them. Are these bridesmaids foolish because they forgot to bring extra oil (and what might this represent in our lives)? Or are they foolish to go off on a wild goose chase searching for oil (and what might this represent in our lives)? Or is their most foolish choice not to be personally known to the bridegroom who could let them into the feast? If we read the whole of Matthew’s Gospel, it is not enough to hear the words Jesus speaks. The sensible person will take Jesus’ message to heart and live by it, day in and day out. Then there will be no anxiety about gaining entry into the wedding feast (a metaphor for the coming kingdom of God) however long it is delayed in coming. We will be holding a Zoom worship meeting this Sunday morning from 9.45 am. I will host the meeting from my home but it will be an opportunity to hold a larger (virtual) gathering and to see each others’ faces. We will be basing our worship on the attached worship@home resource for this week, so it would be handy to have a copy present. We can send you a link to the meeting or a phone number and meeting details if you sign up by emailing the Croydon UC church office on [email protected] or using the form in the sidebar. Click here for worship@home resources Sensible or stupid? It’s your call - 8 Nov 2020

10.01.2022 There has been a long theological debate lasting millennia about the relative importance of faith and works. As Protestants, we may recall that this was one of the key turning points of the Reformation with Luther and others arguing that we are saved by faith alone. I think it would have been fun and informative to host a debate between the apostle Paul and the writers of the Gospel of Matthew and the letters of James and John. Paul and John insist that we are saved b...y faith alone yet encourage their communities to act with compassion towards the poor and needy. Matthew and James insist that it is our works of mercy and compassion that demonstrate our faith and that without them our faith is useless. Yet each of these writers assumes we have faith in God. In this week’s parable about the sheep and the goats it is interesting that faith is never mentioned as a criterion for obtaining eternal life whether faith in God or faith in Jesus. Instead it is whether people have shown practical love to the hungry, the homeless and the stranger. This is consistent with the teaching and ministry of Jesus presented throughout Matthew’s Gospel. What is at stake is how our faith is lived out in practice. Our challenge is finding the right balance between our beliefs and how we live, which are like two sides of a coin. One way forward is by taking to heart verses like Micah 6:8: God has shown you, O human, what is good: and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. We will be holding a Zoom worship meeting this Sunday morning from 9.45 am. I will host the meeting from my home but it will be an opportunity to hold a larger (virtual) gathering and to see each others’ faces. We will be basing our worship on the attached worship@home resource for this week, so it would be handy to have a copy present. We can send you a link to the meeting or a phone number and meeting details if you sign up by emailing the Croydon UC church office on [email protected] or using the form in the sidebar. Click here for worship@home resources Practical faith - 22 Nov 2020 The post Practical faith first appeared on Croydon Uniting Church.

09.01.2022 This week’s focus in the season of creation is the land. Many of us may be fondly attached to our small suburban block where we live and may have a favourite location to visit on holidays, but our relationship with the land is very different to that of indigenous people. For them the connection to land is visceral and spiritual. In our reading from Genesis 3 this week, we learn that the land was implicated in the fallout from the earlier incident involving Adam and Eve and th...e serpent. It will grow weeds and thorns and not readily yield crops. It is not clear why the land is implicated except that the rift between God and humanity involves the whole of creation, including the land. In Paul’s commentary on this Genesis passage in Romans 8:18-25 he notes that creation is groaning and frustrated and longs for freedom. These deep emotions are not something that we white people readily associate with the land, but indigenous people do feel the connection. Why is the land groaning? Because we have mistreated it through over cropping and over grazing it, through prolonged droughts worsened by climate change and through overuse of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. It is time to repent and change our thinking and our ways. Our greed and appetite for ever more things is slowing killing the planet. Yet the Romans reading suggests there is hope for creation, tied in with the broader Christian hope of redemption. We humans are clearly part of the problem but we are also a key part of the solution. We will be holding a Zoom worship meeting this Sunday morning from 9.45 am. I will host the meeting from my home but it will be an opportunity to hold a larger (virtual) gathering and to see each others’ faces. We will be basing our worship on the attached worship@home resource for this week, so it would be handy to have a copy present. We can send you a link to the meeting or a phone number and meeting details if you sign up by emailing the Croydon UC church office on [email protected] or using the form in the sidebar. Click here for worship@home resources The groaning of the land - 13 Sep 2020

09.01.2022 Last week the Federal Government handed down its Budget and there was the usual commentary on ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. While people with higher taxable incomes and business seemed to do well, other groups including university students and staff, overseas workers, the unemployed, refugees and people working in hospitality, the arts, retail or tourism seemed to be largely forgotten. In this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus is asked whether it’s necessary and okay to pay taxes. Jesus... dodges the question as either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer will probably land him in trouble. He requests instead that the coin for paying the Roman tax be brought, which carried the inscription Tiberius Caesar, divine son of Augustus, thus making rival claims to Jesus about his identity. Jesus’ wise and challenging response to the question of paying taxes is to give the Emperor his dues and so pay the taxes he imposes but also to give due honour to God’s demands, which are rather more all-encompassing as God is the Creator and Sustainer of every aspect of life. Coming back to our government’s Budget, the cuts to personal and business taxes are no doubt welcome, but I wonder about neglecting those people struggling the most. As I look at the lists compiled of winners and losers from the Budget, it’s hard not to think that our government’s priorities do not line up with Jesus’ priorities for the outcast, the poor and the least. Hence the great challenge of Jesus’ response to give to God what rightly belongs to God including our worship, our love for neighbour and our commitment to care for the last and the least. This Sunday we will not be meeting by Zoom for worship. Instead we encourage people to watch and participate in the collaborative service prepared by Heathmont, Ringwood, Ringwood North and our two Croydon congregations. You will see and hear from several familiar faces from Croydon and Croydon North, including Rev Peter. To log in to the service go to the following website https://nruc.online.church/ before 10 am. If you are unable to join us to participate online, click here for worship@home resources Paying taxes and honouring God - 18 Oct 2020

07.01.2022 The question ‘Who is Jesus?’ lies at the heart of the whole of the New Testament. It is a question that each of the Gospel stories tries to answer in its own way, while the later books and letters deal with further implications of this question (e.g. why did Jesus have to die? who then is God? how are we to live?). It’s the question that Jesus poses to his disciples roughly mid way through the story. Based on all that you have seen and heard, friends, who do you think I am? P...eter’s response is regarded as the bedrock of Christian faith, namely that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. It’s why followers of Jesus are known as Christians, followers of the Christ, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah. In our day, the question is still relevant, although the answers we might get to it cover a spectrum of views ranging from Jesus was just an ordinary and misunderstood Jewish man to Jesus was a great moral teacher to Jesus was a mighty prophet to Jesus was God in human form. How we answer this question for ourselves will not only illuminate our faith but also influence how we live and what we give priority to. How will you answer this question? We will be holding a Zoom worship meeting this Sunday morning from 9.45 am. I will host the meeting from my home but it will be an opportunity to hold a larger (virtual) gathering and to see each others’ faces. We will be basing our worship on the attached worship@home resource for this week, so it would be handy to have a copy present. We can send you a link to the meeting or a phone number and meeting details if you sign up by emailing the Croydon UC church office on [email protected] or using the form in the sidebar. Click here for worship@home resources The question that won’t go away

04.01.2022 Change rarely comes from the centre of a group or an organization. Usually lasting change comes from the margins. This week’s text illustrates this truth. Jesus and the disciples have travelled to the region of Tyre and Sidon, coastal cities in modern day Lebanon. They’ve gone there for some rest and peace, but are soon confronted by a loud and insistent woman seeking help for her daughter. Matthew calls her a Canaanite woman, a derogatory term from the days of Moses used to ...describe the original inhabitants of the land of Israel. Jesus ignores her cries and later insults her, calling her a dog. Where is Jesus’ famed compassion? Where is his welcome of the outcast? Both have seemingly gone missing on this occasion. The woman persists, however, and reframes the discussion by suggesting that even dogs belong to the wider family and are therefore worthy to receive the crumbs that fall from the master’s table. The penny finally drops for Jesus as he recognises that his mission and indeed God’s love and grace are for everyone. This startling insight overcame centuries of history and prejudice and set the future direction for the emerging Christian community as a place of inclusion. The Black Lives Matter movement in Australia shows how far we still have to change our attitudes in this country. This Sunday we will not be meeting by Zoom for worship. Instead we encourage people to watch and participate in the collaborative service prepared by Heathmont, Ringwood, Ringwood North and our two Croydon congregations. You will see and hear from several familiar faces from Croydon and Croydon North, including Rev Peter. To log in to the service go to the following website https://nruc.online.church/ before 10 am. If you are unable to join us to participate online, click here for worship@home resources A lesson from the margins

02.01.2022 Our prayers often involve asking God to bless us and those we love with good health, with strength and with peace. In praying these prayers we take our cue from the Psalms, where people and communities cry out to God for help, reminding ourselves and God about God’s character of love and faithfulness. Sometimes, though, the situation is reversed and God asks things of us. And these requests and invitations are not always easy or comfortable. In two of our readings this we...ek, people are called upon to make momentous decisions that have far-reaching implications for their lives. In one instance, God calls Moses to return to Egypt to rescue God’s people from slavery under Pharaoh. This is more than inconvenient for Moses it’s extremely dangerous and difficult. God promises to go with Moses, but it’s a big call. In the Gospel reading, Jesus invites the disciples and anyone else who wants to follow him to embrace suffering, just as he will walk a path of suffering all the way to the cross. According to Jesus this is the way to find true life. Again this is most inconvenient, especially in our culture that seeks comfort and pleasure at every opportunity and avoids suffering if at all possible. The challenge for us, then, is to have the faith to hear and the courage to respond to God’s call, wherever it may take us. As the proverb suggest, a boat in the harbour is safe, but that is not what boats are built for. What inconvenient but life-giving invitation may God be calling you to and how will you respond? We will be holding a Zoom worship meeting this Sunday morning from 9.45 am. I will host the meeting from my home but it will be an opportunity to hold a larger (virtual) gathering and to see each others’ faces. We will be basing our worship on the attached worship@home resource for this week, so it would be handy to have a copy present. We can send you a link to the meeting or a phone number and meeting details if you sign up by emailing the Croydon UC church office on [email protected] or using the form in the sidebar. Click here for worship@home resources Jesus’ inconvenient invitation - 30 Aug 2020

01.01.2022 With spring in the air it seems most appropriate to focus on the season of creation during the next month. This first week the focus is on forests and the creation story from Genesis 2 highlights that the original home of humanity was in a garden surrounded by trees. These trees were beautiful to look at and their fruit and seeds were useful for food. There was an easy interdependence as humanity for its part was called to care for the garden and the trees. During this season... of creation we are also being encouraged to reflect on what it might mean to enact a Jubilee for the earth, a year where crops were not planted or harvested and the earth had a rest. In some ways, the Covid19 pandemic has provided this unexpected rest for the earth as plane travel has all but stopped and car travel is greatly reduced. It’s provided an opportunity for many of us to slow down, to hear the calls of birds singing, to go for more walks and appreciate the natural beauty in our neighbourhood. But we must also recognise that the greatest threats to our forests are human based land clearing and climate change and these carry on apace, unaffected by the pandemic. Unless all of us start to take these threats seriously and choose to make some changes in our own daily habits, then our beautiful and spirit restoring forests will continue to dry out, burn or be bulldozed. To learn more about what we can do, make an effort to watch or rewatch the recent series on ABC TV Fight for Planet A. We can also write an email or letter to our politicians asking them to take meaningful action on climate change. We will be holding a Zoom worship meeting this Sunday morning from 9.45 am. I will host the meeting from my home but it will be an opportunity to hold a larger (virtual) gathering and to see each others’ faces. We will be basing our worship on the attached worship@home resource for this week, so it would be handy to have a copy present. We can send you a link to the meeting or a phone number and meeting details if you sign up by emailing the Croydon UC church office on [email protected] or using the form in the sidebar. Click here for worship@home resources The beauty and importance of forests - 6 Sep 2020