16 December 2015

Collects

Prayers developed from the daily readings 

Wednesday 16 December 2015 

Morning Prayer

Psalm 105: 1 – 22

The psalm praises God’s faithfulness. It praises creation and God’s love. This portion recalls the early story of Abraham through to Joseph being placed in charge of Pharaoh’s household.

Isaiah 14: 3 – 23

When the Lord gives the returned people rest they will take up the call and recognise that those rulers who struck them down and oppressed them are now gone. The oppressors' gods too are nothing. Their offspring gone and their great cities home to the hedgehog. The Lord of hosts will do this.

Mark 10: 1 – 16

Jesus is in Judea beyond the Jordan. Pharisees come and ask Jesus whether it is right for a man to divorce his wife. He asks what did Moses say? They tell him and Jesus responds that Moses wrote the law permitting divorce because people’s hearts are hard. God made man and woman and that they become one flesh. He goes on to say that divorce effectively makes people commit adultery so the Mosaic Law is contradictory. His point is that no one should cause a couple to divorce.

The disciples ask Jesus about this later. He makes it clear that both the man and the woman become adulterers after a divorce.

Jesus then indignantly insists that children be allowed to come to him to be blessed by him. He instructs that we all need to come like little children to receive the kingdom.

Collect for Morning Prayer

Tiny desert flower
Head of the Bight SA  L Osburn

Holy and loving God your heart and your intentions for us are generous, compassionate and fully of blessings. Help us this day to have soft hearts and gentle demeanours with all those we meet especially those who have troubled relationships so that we respond to their needs and pain, be a blessing to them and not cause more grief or loss or separation through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, and the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Wednesday 16 December 2015

Evening Prayer

Psalm 105: 23 – 45

The psalm continues to praise God’s faithfulness to the covenant and tells the story of the famine, Israel going to Egypt, the Exodus and the arrival in the Promised Land. Praise the Lord.

Isaiah 14: 24 – 32

The prophecy continues that the Assyrians will be gone and their rule and their oppression will end.

In the year of the death of King Ahaz the warning is given to the Philistines not to rejoice for there is worse to come from what has been cut off and there something else coming from the north. The needy will find refuge in Zion.

Revelation 17

One of the seven angels comes to show the judgement of one whose attentions are for other gods. The vision is a woman sitting on a scarlet beast in the wilderness. The beast is many headed. The woman is clothed as royalty and on her forehead is the name “Babylon” indicating the mother of all the unfaithful and source of all abominations. The woman appears to be drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses to Jesus. John is amazed. The angel tells him the mystery of this vision – an explanation that requires wisdom to understand.

The angel says that a war will be made on the Lamb and the Lamb will conquer for he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. The waters around the woman are all the peoples and nations and languages. The woman is the great city that rules over all the kings of the earth.

Collect for Evening Prayer

The old pier
Eucla WA   L Osburn

Holy and wonderful Lord you have always been faithful to us. In this current era where there is terror and strife, wars and oppression help us to remember that you are King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that all judgement and the ultimate victory is yours so that we may find refuge in your kingdom and solace in your eternal love through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, and the power of your Holy Spirit in our hearts. Amen.

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