29 March 2014

Collects

Prayers developed from the daily readings 

Saturday 29 March 2014

Morning Prayer

Psalm 69: 1 - 16

This psalmist is a lowly servant of the Lord and through zeal has done something that causes him to be the butt of jokes and ridicule. The psalmist is fasting and in sackcloth. He pleads for deliverance and praises God.

Jeremiah 35

Jeremiah is instructed to invite the Rechabites to the temple and offer them wine. The Rechabites come to the temple but refuse the wine, saying their ancestor Jonadab, forbade them to drink wine, or farm but to live in tents. They have obeyed.

God then instructs Jeremiah to use the Rechabites as an example of a people who listen. The Rechabites are promised a future. The people of Judah are not listening nor answering when called.

Luke 17: 21 – 37

Jesus talks about the Kingdom. First it is here and we can read the signs of Jesus’s time – the miracles, the healing. We can also act to bring the Kingdom by doing things about poverty, suffering and wars now, since the Kingdom is with us through Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection. And the final Kingdom of God’s glory is still to come, in God’s time and God’s place.

Collect for Morning Prayer

Looking out from Esperance Pier
WA 2014 L Osburn

Almighty God, you give us clear words of instruction and guidance and you sent your Son to live with us and give us many signs. Help us to open our ears to you, to respond to your call and to do your will now to bring the experience of your Kingdom here. Help us too, to be diligent in prayer and praise as we wait for the coming of your Kingdom in its glory through Jesus Christ our Lord and the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Saturday 29 March 2014

Evening Prayer

Psalm 69: 17 – 23 (24 – 30) 31 - 38

The psalmist praises the Lord and is suffering from insults and dishonour. When he goes for counsel and support the response is bitter, and heart-breaking – no real compassion. The psalmist is very angry, he wants God’s wrath to destroy and punish, but he leaves that anger with and for God. The psalmist praises God, who unlike a God in the form of a bull, will listen. The psalmist ends in praise and a plea to God to come quickly.

Genesis 50: 7 – 26

Joseph his brothers and a great company of Egyptians Take Jacob’s body back to Canaan. They mourn 7 days and then bury him as requested. On return to Egypt the brothers come to Joseph and confess and ask forgiveness. He weeps, and then responds that he is not God and that all they did was part of God’s plan. He promises to care of them and their families. Before he dies he asks that when God comes to call them back to the land of their father, that they are to carry his bones back with them.

Hebrews 11: 29 – 40

The writer here talks of more recent people who were righteous, journeyed and/ or suffered for their faith. This is the culmination of the great list of faithful beginning at Abel. But, the writer pauses and says, “Yet all these... did not receive what was promised...” What was promised was salvation. The ancients are not perfect, we are not perfect but we all need each other as part of the great cord of salvation made possible by Christ. We are part of that chain of salvation that links us, through all the faithful, back to Abel.

Into the Past.
The Ruins of the Old Telegraph Station
Eucla WA 2014  L Osburn

Collect for Evening Prayer

God of our salvation, you have stood with your people from our beginnings and led those who were willing through paths of righteousness, long journeys and suffering through for your sake. Help us at this moment to feel that connection we have by your gift of salvation to all your faithful of every age. Strengthen us in our faith and light that spark of joy and gratitude in our hearts through Jesus Christ our saviour and redeemer and your Holy Spirit. Amen.