16 October 2016

Collects

Prayers developed from the daily readings 

Sunday 16 October 2016

Morning Prayer

Psalm 69: 1 – 18

The psalmist is in deep trouble. The psalm suggests he has been fiercely promoting a particular policy or procedure and the outcomes are negative and unexpected so that his reputation is destroyed. He admits he was wrong. He is doing penance and now is suffering ridicule and community humiliation. The psalmist asks for rescue and redemption and will sit faithfully and wait for God’s response.

2 Timothy 1: 15 – 2: 7

This passage is all about the challenges of ministry – that like Onesiphorus we seek and find the imprisoned evangelist, feed and support them – not just with meals. Like a soldier we are to show disciplined endurance and not split our allegiance between ministry and other activities. Like an athlete we need to abide by the rules and train. Like a farmer we need to be industrious, constant and patient. Ministry is demanding work.

Collect for Morning Prayer

Breaking the chains of sin
Round Window St Saviour's
Gladstone Old  L Osburn

God of steadfast love, goodness, redemption and freedom, you know the demands and challenges of ministry. Keep us from being overzealous and trying too hard. Remind us when are the butt of jokes and ridicule and when we find ourselves mourning and deeply repentant over what has occurred, that we minister in a hostile and critical world; our job is to find and feed the imprisoned evangelist, to endure and do not split allegiance, to abide by your laws and to keep ourselves trained, be industrious, constant and patient so that we may know this is ministry and see in it as no burden but your exquisite freedom, goodness and love through the power of your Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Sunday 16 October 2016

Evening Prayer

Jeremiah 38: 1 – 13

Jeremiah keeps prophesying that the city will fall and those in it will die and those who go out to the Babylonians, will live. His actions are assessed as undermining the defences of the city. He is taken and thrown into a cistern where there is only mud, and left to die. An Ethiopian court official goes to the king and says – this isn’t the way to treat a prophet. Jeremiah is lifted from the cistern and taken back to the court of the guard.

Psalm 121

Our help comes from the Lord. God never sleeps. God protects, shades and keeps us from evil. The Lord protects our going out and our coming in.

Luke 17: 20 – 37

Jesus talks about the Kingdom. First it is here and we can read the signs of Jesus’s time – the miracles, the healing. We can also act to bring the Kingdom by doing things about poverty, suffering and wars now, since the Kingdom is with us through Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection. And the final Kingdom of God’s glory is still to come, in God’s time and God’s place.

Collect for Evening Prayer

Bogged on a rural track
Mulwala NSW L Osburn

Loving God you protect our every movement, you never rest, you keep us from evil and have made us holy through the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ or Lord and saviour. When we feel besieged and defensive, when we are thrown into a dark place and our forward movement is constrained and thick as mud, keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge that our help comes only from you. Open our eyes and ears to hear the voice of your prophets – get out, take the risk –so that we act knowing that with Jesus we have the kingdom, using our objective analysis we do something about the suffering around us, and keep the faith that in your time you will bring your glorious kingdom to the awareness of all through the power of your Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen