16 January 2016

Collects

Prayers developed from the daily readings 

Saturday 16 January 2016

Morning Prayer

Psalm 38

The psalmist is dreadfully ill, so much so that friends stand a bit further away and people who seek harm spread rumours. The psalmist stays quiet, trusting God, praying and asking for God’s salvation.

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).

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

Old water wheel
Cape Leeuwin WA  L Osburn

 Faithful and trustworthy God, you sent your Son to be with us for just a little while. Look on us in our illness, brokenness, loneliness and incomprehension. Help us to be still in this space, to experience your salvation, and to review what Jesus did and what Jesus said. Help us stop all our hypocrisy so that we understand we cannot go to the cross, only He can. We cannot go through death and conquer only Jesus can and we cannot earn your love and eternal life only you can freely give that through Jesus Christ Your Son our Lord. Amen.

Saturday 16 January 2016

Evening Prayer

Psalm 39

The psalmist is mortally ill and perceives his illness to be punishment from God. He decides to be calm and quiet in the presence of people who would bring him more grief. He asks to know how much time he has left. Humans are like passing guests, aliens. The psalmist asks for a little relief so that he can smile before he dies.

Genesis 4: 17 – 5: 5 and 5: 21 – 24

Cain has a wife and a son Enoch who builds a city. From Enoch are offspring who specialise 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 lengthy lives recorded in the hundreds of years.

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

Two crabs in a rock pool
Cape Leeuwin WA  L Osburn

Holy Lord, all our substance, all we are belongs to you through Christ. You know that we as individuals and in community try to do the right thing. You understand that we get caught up in all sorts of rules and human generated constraints. Help us to pray and in our prayers to ask you to curb our self-indulgence and to give us relief so that we connect fully with Christ, smile and pass on our skills, knowledge and wisdom freely to the generations to come through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

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