23 April 2014

Collects

Prayers developed from the daily readings 

Wednesday 23 April 2014 

Morning Prayer   

Psalm 114

God chooses people, establishes a nation – he is with them from the start. The seas retreat, the Jordan River gives way, mountains and hills shake – the earth recognises God’s hand. God is with them every step; even rock turns into a spring of fresh water.

Isaiah 61

This is a proclamation of good news to the oppressed and broken-hearted, liberty to captives and release to prisoners. Restoration and renewal is at hand through the Lord’s favour. God is just and will faithfully restore and adjust the leger. Rejoicing, like going to a wedding is in order. This will happen as surely as the earth brings forth shoots and gardens grow.

John 21: 1 – 14

This section recounts a sighting of Jesus after the resurrection. Disciples by the Sea of Tiberius are fishing and catching nothing. At daybreak Jesus is on the shore and tells them to cast their net on the other side of the boat – the net fills. Jesus cooks for them and serves.

Collect for Morning Prayer

Early Morning Mandurah Estuary WA
2014 L Osburn

Compassionate God, you care for nations, people who are oppressed and small groups of individuals. Always and everywhere you are there for us. You provide for us, restore us and even serve us.  Help us today to be experience your majesty and greatness and your personal care for us so that we may follow your lead and humbly serve others to the glory of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord and the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Evening Prayer

Psalm 115

The psalm begins by praising God’s faithful and constant expression of love. The psalmist ridicules the idol-makers who like their idols may have the physical senses (eyes, ears, noses… ) but make no use of them. God is contrasted as a sensing and active presence worthy to be trusted. The psalmist blesses the hearer of the psalm.

Exodus 12: 37 – 51

This tells of the beginning of the journey. It was a great mass of people including household servants and other non-Egyptians and their flocks. They ate unleavened bread as they went.

There is a passage that qualifies what happened at Passover. Only those men who were circumcised and their families were permitted to join the Passover meal even if they were slaves of the household.

1 Peter 1: 18 – 2: 3

We are ransomed from the futile ways of the past through the blood of Christ. He is the sacrificial lamb. Through Christ we come to trust God who made the resurrection possible. Our faith and hope are with God.

Now that we have been renewed we are charged to love one another. We are to rid ourselves of “malice, guile, insincerity, envy and all slander” (v.2: 1). We are to long for spiritual food through Christ.

Collect for Evening Prayer

Evening at Esperance WA
2014 L Osburn

Holy God you have ransomed us to love you and to serve and honour each other. Your love and your laws are there to sustain and build community and deep relationships between us and with you. Give us peace and rest this night so that tomorrow we wake and start anew, fed and refreshed. Be with us as we demonstrate your eternal love through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord and the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.