Liz Morris – May 15, 2022

Readings
Acts 11:1-18
Psalm 148
Revelation 21:1-6
John 13:31-35

Good morning and welcome to worship. My name is Liz and before we dive into today’s message, let me pray.

Lord God, help us to feel connection to You, to land, to each other. Help us to build each other up and to be reminded of the beauty of this world. I ask that the words I speak come from You and that we are able to apply lessons to our lives this week. Amen.

Starting the term, I walked into my Year 7 English class and was busily setting up the lesson. The desks were somewhat in disarray from a colleague’s previous lesson, but the students were piling in. One of my students was chatting away to me and then said ‘Miss, we’re in an archipelago’. As a reminder, an archipelago is “an island group or island chain, a cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands”. When he made this comment, I had my back to him as I was opening up the lesson resources on the front screen, and I mumbled a response along the lines of ‘oh, that’s interesting’, thinking they’d learned about what an archipelago is in Geography, but as I turned around, he pointed to the desks and said, ‘see, Miss, we’re in an archipelago’ and I saw he was at a desk by itself and there were clusters of desks elsewhere. He was commenting on the way the desks were scattered and it brought me such joy. All I could do at that point was to laugh and enjoy the beauty of the moment.

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Liz Morris – February 20, 2022

Genesis 45:3-11,15
Psalm 37:1-11,39-40
1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50
Luke 6:27-38

Good morning and welcome to our worship together today, whether in person or online. I shall start with a prayer before beginning today’s reflection.

Heavenly Father, thank you for placing us exactly where we need to be. Thank you for the divine wisdom you have over each of our lives right here as we gather in various locations. Let the words I speak be God-breathed as we walk with you today and always. Amen.

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to do a tour on a property in Gundaroo with a farmer, Murray, whose philosophy is in biodynamic regenerative farming principles. It was a fascinating rediscovery of what our land has always know and always been – completely and beautifully made with the synergy of hands from our ancient past. Although the tour looked at many of the farm’s practices, something stood out to me more than the rest. Murray works closely with local Indigenous members and explained much of the traditional farming techniques and exhibited some of the native grasses and plants. There is one plant that he pulled out that is an unassuming native grass. This incredible grass is self-sowing, but not in the way you’d think. Many plants drop seeds and berries to end up germinating, but this particular grass’s seed flies off the grass, to the ground and it walks. Yes, it walks itself to a new spot and spirals itself into the earth. It sows itself in this most intricately spectacular way that my only reaction when Murray explained this was to think “this is exactly why I believe in God”. How else can I possibly explain this seed’s spiral walking?

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Liz Morris – July 18, 2021

Good morning. My name is Liz and I am delighted to be speaking this morning and grappling with the lessons of God’s word with you. Before we begin, let us pray. Almighty God, we come before you to ask that your presence fall on us, heal us and grow our knowledge of You. I ask that my words be from your mouth and be planted in the hearts of your people as we walk into a new week by your side. Amen.

As I stand here this morning, I am faced with the beginning of a new term. I am high school English teacher and have the pleasure of working alongside teenagers every day. I often have conversations with students that are more about their pastoral needs than their academic needs and a common phrase I say is “high school is hard”. There will be a number of you who are current teachers, retired teachers or the loved ones of teachers, and you know the realities of what the profession entails. Those feelings of apprehension and the knowledge that with the beginning of the term comes bone-aching tiredness and that sustained adrenaline rushing through me to get me through another ten weeks are all too prominent. How do I give more than the minimum to God?

This morning, I see people walking different seasons of life. For some of you, the exhaustion of parenthood is overwhelming the joy of it. Some of you are finding your hands are not as swift as they once were. There are children who have returned to school or are about to start again this week; and with that come mixed emotions and reactions. There are those of you who are in a position you did not think they would find yourself and it’s hurting. In all of this, where is God and how do we give more than a little?

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Liz  Morris -January 17, 2021

1 Samuel 3:1-­10
John 1:43­?51

Let  us  pray:  Lord,  open  our  hearts  to  hear  your  Word.  May  your  teaching  permeate  through  us so  that   we  will  strive  to  bring  it  to  our  lives  in  tangible  ways  and  for  Your  glory.  Amen

“Speak,  Lord,  for  your  servant  is  listening.”  In  the  Old  Testament  reading,  we  hear  Samuel  being  called   by  the  Lord,  but  mistaking  God’s  voice  for  Eli’s.  At  this  point  in  the  Bible,  man  has  fallen,  prophets  have   professed  the  need  for  reconciliation  with  God,  Judges  have  failed  and  God  has  agreed  to  put  into   place  another  form  of  politics;  a  monarchy.  For  the  first  time,  God  agrees  to  and  establishes  a  political   system  in  Israel  headed  by  a  human  king.  Why  does  God  do  this?  Because  man  believes  we  are  able   to  govern  ourselves.  Although  the  Judges  were,  in  whole,  unsuccessful,  humanity  decides  a  king  will   be.  To  be  fair  to  humanity,  we  weren’t  completely  wrong;  although  we  were wrong  about  a  human king.  Samuel  is  not  king  – he  is  a  forerunner  to  the  kings  we  do  meet  in  this  section  of  the  Bible:  kings   Saul  and  David.  Importantly,  Samuel  is  also  a  prophet.  He  reminds  us  that  people  are  flawed  kings  and   leaders  – something  we  are  sure  to  be  keenly  feeling  in  current  politics.

As  we  begin  a  new  year,  many  of  us  might  be  feeling  renewed,  excited  and  hopeful,  whilst many of  us   might  be  feeling  discouraged,  disempowered  and  lonely.  However  you  are  feeling, I believe there  is  a   key  message  that  links  our  Old  Testament  and  New  Testament  readings  this  week. Although  I  began   by  reiterating  verse  10  (“Speak,  Lord,  for  your  servant  is  listening”),  Samuel does  not  immediately   know  he  is  being  approached  by  God.  At  first,  Samuel  runs  to  Eli’s  aid  – knowing  Eli  is  old  and  poor  in   sight.  He  is  obedient  to  his  master,  but  it  is  not  Eli  who  is calling  him.  God  is  faithful  in  calling  Samuel   again.

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