Friday 16 January 2015

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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