Sunday Toolkit — 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, 30th August 2026

Rebuilt Wednesday 19th August 2026. This Sunday we’re using the Revised Common Lectionary rather than our usual Women’s Lectionary, and Adrian is preaching. Everything below is on the new readings.

1. Encouragement

Greg, this one’s for you before anything else — and for anyone helping shape the service alongside you. Thank you for saying yes.

This week’s readings are heavy, and it’s worth naming that up front rather than discovering it on Saturday night. A man is stopped in the middle of an ordinary day’s work and handed a job he doesn’t want. Paul tells a small, frightened church to bless the people who are making their lives difficult. And Jesus tells his friends that following him will cost them something real. There’s no way to make that light, and you shouldn’t try.

But here’s the thing worth holding onto: not one of these passages asks anybody to be impressive. Moses argues back and God doesn’t mind. Paul’s instructions are almost embarrassingly ordinary — be patient, share what you have, sit with people who are sad. And the disciples in the gospel get it wrong out loud, in front of everyone, and are still there in the next chapter. You don’t have to lead this perfectly. You just have to lead it honestly.

2. This Week’s Reading

A note on which lectionary: we normally follow Richard’s Women’s Lectionary, but this Sunday we’re on the standard Revised Common Lectionary, which most churches around the world are using the same day. It also means this Sunday carries straight on from last Sunday — the same two New Testament passages, just the next few verses.

Old Testament — Exodus 3:1-15 — the burning bush
Moses is out working his father-in-law’s sheep, a long way from anywhere, when he notices a bush that’s on fire but isn’t burning up. He goes over for a closer look, and God speaks to him from it — tells him to take off his sandals because the ground is holy, says he has seen how his people are suffering in Egypt and has come down to do something about it, and then tells Moses he’s the one who’s going to go and do it. Moses immediately starts arguing, and God lets him.
Read the full passage on Bible Gateway (NRSVUE)

“Then Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’” (Exodus 3:13-14, abridged)

Worth knowing: when Moses asks for God’s name, he doesn’t really get one. “I am who I am” can just as fairly be translated “I will be what I will be.” It’s less a name than a refusal to be pinned down — and yet the same God is completely specific about having seen, and heard, and come down.

New Testament — Romans 12:9-21 — let love be genuine
The second half of the passage we had last Sunday. Paul gives a rapid-fire list of instructions for how a community actually treats each other — and then turns to something much harder: bless the people who are persecuting you, don’t repay evil with evil, feed your enemy if he’s hungry.
Read the full passage on Bible Gateway (NRSVUE)

“Let love be genuine… Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them… Do not repay anyone evil for evil… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:9-21, abridged)

Worth knowing: verse 20 says feeding your enemy will “heap burning coals on their head,” which sounds vicious. Most scholars now think it’s the opposite. In the ancient world you carried live coals home from a neighbour’s fire to restart your own — so it’s an image of giving someone what they need to begin again, not of punishing them.

Gospel — Matthew 16:21-28 — the rebuke, and the cross
Straight after Peter’s big moment last Sunday, Jesus starts telling the disciples he’s going to suffer and be killed. Peter takes him aside and tells him to stop talking like that — and gets the sharpest words in the Gospel in return: get behind me, Satan. Then Jesus says that anyone who wants to follow him has to deny themselves and take up their cross.
Read the full passage on Bible Gateway (NRSVUE)

“And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me.’” (Matthew 16:22-23, abridged)

One important care note before you write any prayers

“Take up your cross” is one of the most misused sentences in the Bible. It has been said to people in violent marriages, to people being bullied at work, and to people being mistreated by churches, to persuade them that putting up with it was holy. Some of the people in the room on Sunday will have had it said to them.

So when you’re writing or choosing prayers this week, keep the difference clear: a cost someone chooses because they’ve decided something matters is not the same thing as harm someone else is doing to them. Jesus is talking about the first. He is not asking anybody to stay in danger. If a prayer or a reflection could be heard as “God wants you to endure this,” rewrite it. Theologians who have written about this at length — Delores Williams and Rita Nakashima Brock among them — are unambiguous that suffering itself was never the point.

3. What Richard’s Explored Before

These particular passages: no sermon in Richard’s records works from Exodus 3 or from Matthew 16:21-28. Romans 12:9-21 has been read aloud here — on 28 June this year — but the sermon that day was on Acts 16 instead. Two honest caveats: the records index sermons by Bible passage, so anything preached for a special occasion may not be filed where you’d expect; and there are two Sundays in the archive with no record at all that almost certainly covered this material.

Where he has been close:

February 2025 — a sermon on loving your enemies and what he called “the lie of redemptive violence.” This is the closest thing to this week’s Romans reading, and he was careful in it about how the idea gets misused against people who have been hurt.
September 2023 — Exodus 16, the manna in the wilderness. He insisted the Israelites’ complaints were justified, not childish, and landed on the idea of “enough for all, but only enough.”
September 2021 — Mark 9, which he called “the second call to discipleship”: the first call was to leave your job and your place, the second is to leave behind your assumptions. That’s the same territory as this week’s gospel.
January 2024 — the call of Samuel, where he told the congregation about going quiet as a child rather than singing “here I am, is it I, Lord?” in case God actually answered. If you want a way into Moses’ reluctance, that’s it.

Where our worship is sitting right now: last Sunday Susy preached the first halves of these same two New Testament passages — Peter’s confession and the opening of Romans 12. So if you were here last week, this Sunday is the second half of the same story, not a new subject. The obvious thread to pull is that Peter goes from being called the rock to being called a stumbling block in the space of five verses.

4. Resources

Good news: Words for Worship has three complete services built on these exact readings, and shortcuts to all three are already sitting in the 30.08.26 folder. Each one focuses on a different reading, so between them you have plenty to choose from:

wfw-Year A - 2023 - Pentecost 14 - Exodus 3.1-15; Psalm 105…; Romans 12.9-21; Matthew 16.21-28.pdf — built around Exodus 3, on the theme of taking your place in the adventure of faith, and God meeting us in our fear and doubt.
wfw-Year A - 2020 - Pentecost 13 - (same readings).doc — built around Matthew 16, “Taking up the cross.” This one is dated 30 August 2020, the exact same calendar date. Its prayer of confession uses almost all of Romans 12:9-21 as the congregation’s response, which is the readiest-made thing in the whole collection.
wfw-Year A - 2017 - Pentecost 13 - (same readings).doc — built around Romans 12, “The way of Christ.”

Please check the folder before you use the Spill the Beans link. There’s a document in 30.08.26 called LINK – Spill the Beans – Women’s Lectionary – Living Together, and it points at completely different readings — it’s from our old lectionary track. Spill the Beans doesn’t have anything for this Sunday’s readings at all, and neither does L3. Words for Worship is the one to use this week.

And a heads-up on the order of service: as of today the liturgy document for 30 August has the readings and the names filled in, and everything else is blank — all four song slots, the call to worship, the prayers, the benediction. That’s not a criticism, it’s an opportunity: there’s more than a week to go, and the Words for Worship files above will give you a running start on most of it.

5. Songs

Sung before? No. There’s no record of this congregation ever singing for these readings, because we’ve never used them. So everything below is a fresh suggestion rather than a known favourite — treat it as a starting point.

For the burning bush (Exodus 3):

How Shall I Call You — ATN 43, Robin and Dorothy Mann. The closest song we have to Moses asking God’s name, and it’s an Adelaide song. If you sing one thing on the Old Testament reading, this is it.
Here I Am, Lord — ATE 296 / TiS 658. A God who has seen and heard, and a person answering. Familiar, and it does exactly what the reading does.
God Has Chosen Me — ATOK 402, Bernadette Farrell. Being sent to bring good news to the poor — the liberation half of the story.
Freedom Is Coming — ATOK 355. South African, and it sings well without accompaniment if you want a change of texture.

For Romans 12:

Goodness Is Stronger Than Evil — ATW 463, words by Desmond Tutu. This is verse 21 set to music almost word for word, and it’s short enough to use as a sung response through the prayers rather than as a full hymn. Note: we hold the music but it isn’t on the main song list, so check with the musicians.
Help Us Accept Each Other — TiS 648. Words for Worship suggests this one too.

Worth considering: Leaning In: A Prayer of Intention (Christopher Grundy) was sung here for the first time on 28 June — the Sunday Romans 12:9-21 was read aloud. People may well know it now, and bringing it back on the Sunday the passage is actually preached would be a nice touch.

Two songs Words for Worship recommends — Take, take off your shoes (TiS 651) and ‘Take up your cross’, the Saviour said (TiS 583) — don’t appear to be in our collection. They’d both fit beautifully, but the music would need finding first.

6. Weblinks

A short list from Richard’s own “Websites I Use,” picked for this week. Two of them have commentary published specifically for 30 August 2026, which is unusual and handy.

Working Preacher — Exodus 3 (and their pieces on Romans 12 and Matthew 16) — short, readable, written for preachers rather than scholars. The Romans one is where the “burning coals” explanation above comes from.
Bill Loader on Matthew 16 — the gentlest and most careful thing available on “deny yourself.” He argues it means letting go of the front we put up, not thinking badly of ourselves. Read this one if you read only one.
Old Testament Lectionary (UCA) — a Uniting Church resource on Exodus 3, including the lovely observation that God lets Moses argue and “one doesn’t get zapped.” It even suggests inviting the congregation to take their shoes off.
Pilgrim Uniting Church — worship resources — the most immediately usable page on this list: two calls to worship, prayers, and three poems by Andrea Skevington (“Moses and the Burning Bush,” “Holy Ground, Barefoot,” “On Fire, but Not Burned”).
Laughing Bird — an Australian paraphrase of all the readings in plain, modern language, which can be a good alternative way to read them aloud.

7. Pop Culture

Two songs for the lead-up to Sunday. Both checked for language:

Fleet Foxes — “Helplessness Blues” — about someone who was raised to think he was special and now just wants to be given a job and a place to do it. Which is Moses’ problem exactly, only backwards: being handed a purpose is more frightening than not having one.
The Brilliance — “Brother” — quiet, piano and strings, about the work of letting someone stop being a category to you and start being a person. That’s Romans 12:14-21 in three minutes, and it never pretends it’s easy.

Only two this week rather than the usual five — I’d rather give you two I’ve actually checked than pad the list.

Book: No Future Without Forgiveness by Desmond Tutu (1999). His own account of chairing South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission — written for ordinary readers, full of specific stories rather than argument. It’s the most concrete thing available on what “overcome evil with good” actually costs, and importantly it refuses the cheap version: Tutu insists the truth has to be told before reconciliation can be claimed.

Film: Selma (2014, dir. Ava DuVernay). It touches all three readings at once — a leader who plainly doesn’t want the burden he’s been handed, a movement holding to non-retaliation as strict discipline while being beaten for it, and people counting the cost before they take the first step. No theological background needed. Content note: depicts severe racist violence, including the church bombing that kills four girls and the beatings on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and contains racial slurs. Rated M. Worth watching yourself rather than screening clips for a mixed-age group without warning.

8. Notable Dates

Things happening around this Sunday — useful for the notices, a prayer prompt, or just to know what’s in the air.

1 September — the Season of Creation begins. The big one. It runs 1 September to 4 October, and this year’s theme is “Living Water,” from Ezekiel 47. The Assembly has already released a resource guide, a prayer, a PowerPoint template and an editable order of service, all free at uniting.church. If we’re marking it, the two editable documents are the ones to download before Sunday.
31 August — Liyapidiny Marika O.A.M. is remembered on the church calendar: the first Yolngu woman ordained a Minister of the Word in the Uniting Church, born at Yirrkala in 1945, a health worker among her own people for sixteen years before training for ministry, ordained in 1991. The calendar records plainly that her ministry “was not always accepted,” and her own words: “God called me, even though I am a woman, to do His Ministry.” Which is this Sunday’s Old Testament reading in a single sentence. Her theme song was “Bind Us Together, Lord.”
31 August — John Bunyan is also remembered: gaoled for twelve years for preaching when it was illegal, and wrote most of his books, including The Pilgrim’s Progress, from inside prison.
4 September — Albert Schweitzer, and 5 September — Mother Teresa.

9. Final Word

One small, practical thing to try. When you get to the Exodus reading, slow right down at verses 7 and 8 — I have observed… I have heard… I know their sufferings, and I have come down. Four verbs, and they’re the whole point of the passage. Everything else in the story, including the bush and the mysterious name, hangs off the fact that God noticed. Read those two verses like they matter and the rest of the reading will land on its own.

And if the week feels weighty — it is, and you’re allowed to say so from the front. Moses got a burning bush and still spent the next chapter arguing that God had picked the wrong person. Whatever you bring on Sunday is enough. Go gently, and know you’re not carrying it alone.