17 January 2015
Collects
Prayers
developed from the daily readings
Saturday 17
January 2015
Morning
Prayer
Psalm 40
The psalmist tells the whole congregation of how God
delivered him from desolation and being stuck. He sings a new song of praise
telling of God’s innumerable deeds.
God listens even when no sacrifice is offered. God
wants us to fulfil the Law and do God’s will.
Now the psalmist asks for more aid: past sins assail
him and people want to take his life, to hurt and ridicule him. He prays for
those who do God’s will and repeats the request for deliverance.
Genesis 4: 17 – 5: 5 and 5: 21 – 24
Cain had a wife and a son Enoch who built a city. From
Enoch were offspring who specialised in living in tents and keeping livestock,
those who play the lyre and pipes, and those who work with bronze and iron
tools.
Adam and Eve have another son, Seth. Seth has a son,
Enosh. About this time people start praying to God.
Enoch is the father of Methuselah. All the ancestors
have lives recorded in the hundreds of years.
John 7:
25 – 36
In the middle of the festival of the Booths Jesus goes
to the temple to teach. The people debate whether Jesus is the Messiah or not.
They try to arrest him but this is not the right time and he avoids capture.
Some in the crowd ask, will the Messiah, when he comes, do more signs than
Jesus is doing?
Jesus foretells his future. He will go into a place
where no one can follow. The hearers again are quite concrete in their
thinking.
Collect for
Morning Prayer
Looking to the hills Harrietville Vic 2015 L Osburn |
Compassionate God you give us lives that are fruitful, and
opportunities to know you even when we experience the consequences of our
failures, Help us to stay calm when those around us debate and dispute. Help us to be secure in our knowledge of you
especially when discussion turns to ridicule so that our lives are examples of
hope and deliverance through Jesus
Christ Your Son our Lord. Amen.
Saturday 17
January 2015
Evening
Prayer
Psalms 42 and 43
The psalmist longs for God. In deep distress his soul
thirsts for God. He recalls the times in the past he has been part of the
celebrations. He is in the depths of despair, oppressed by an enemy. The
psalmist tells his soul to hope in God for a time of praise will come – God is
our help.
Again ungodly people oppress the psalmist. God’s light
and truth are requested. They will lead us back to worship, to joy and praise.
The psalmist tells his soul to hope in God. A time of praise will come – God is
our help.
Jeremiah 4: 19 – 31
Jeremiah laments the destruction of the whole land. It
is like an army going through tents. The towns are as forsaken as a rejected
prostitute. Jerusalem cries like a woman in childbirth but her cry instead is,
“Woe is me I am fainting before killers!” (v.31).
Colossians 2: 16 – 23
Paul counsels
the people to focus on the core of our belief and not to get caught up in rules
about what to eat, drink, festivals, new moons or anything but to see that
these are human generated rules that will pass, and none of them are successful
in treating self-indulgence. The most important thing is that the substance,
our substance belongs to Christ.
Collect for
Evening Prayer
Pink frangipani Mandurah WA 2014 L Osburn |
Great Lord
of the tough times, you have been with us through personal strife, community
troubles and destruction of whole cities and nations. Be with us now as human
made rules and restrictions meant for piety, seek to deflect our attention. Help
us hold fast to Christ our head to whom the whole body of the church is
connected and through whom your nurturing spirit is received so that we too may
be led back to worship in joy and praise through Jesus Christ our Lord and
Saviour. Amen.
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