Prayers For the Week 11

Restore us, O Lord God almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.  (Psalms 81: 1)

Just as we are we come to You.

Sometimes tired, weary and worn,

Always in need of your strength that is never exhausted,

Always in need of Your love that is never extinguished,

Always in need of your purpose that never loses its momentum.

You have it in your being to restore us when we feel we have fallen away,

So remind us in this moment of the goodness that flows from you:  that strength, that love, that purpose.

Open up our lives to receive this goodness, 

To experience within us what is most needed to take us forward as a more loving, more faithful, more committed people.

O Lord, restore us, make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.  

Heal the long-standing hurts that sour our spirits.

Give us a sense of perspective in our suffering.

Grant us the faith that endures through loss, failure and disappointment.  

In all things may we know that Jesus stands among us in His risen power and desires only that we have peace.

We thank you that in Your Word voices of faith speak to us across the millennia,

Telling us of their struggles: their failure, their faithlessness, their doubt.

And yet sharing their conviction that they carried all of this in the presence of a loving and faithful God.  

We thank you that this was made plain in the resurrection of Jesus, who bore the wounds of His human experience, and stood with those who feared they were coming to the end of their resources.  

We thank you that this same Jesus seeks to draw near to us in this moment and desires that we have peace in Him, peace with one another, and that we live for peace in our nation and the world.

Bless your Church throughout the world that she would bear witness to the resurrection faith in the midst of war, tragedy and want.

Bless the leaders of the nations that they will see their accountability not only to their people but to the One who is the source of justice and peace.

Bless our own nation with a concern for the weak and vulnerable, with a desire to overcome division, with a renewed motivation to build.

Bless all those in the front-line of service in our national life, especially those in the medical world so often stretched to the limit.  

Bless those we know who are anxious; those who seem to be losing heart; those who are in constant pain; those undergoing challenging treatment; those bereaved.  

Prayers For The Week 10

 He will endure as long as the sun, as long as the   moon, through all generations.

He will be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth.

In his days the righteous will flourish; prosperity will abound until the moon is no more. (Psalm 72: 5-7)

In a world where the things we hear, touch and see have limited life, You speak to us of eternity.

In a world where so much talk is of lies, corruption and self-seeking, You speak to us of renewal.

In a world where the best influences seem to come to nothing, You speak to us of the ultimate triumph of love, goodness and justice.  

In the midst of everything that might discourage us and undermine our faith help us to keep focussed on Jesus who lived in this broken world, brought healing and wholeness and pointed forward to the coming Kingdom.  

Forgive us if we live as if Jesus didn’t not live, as if He did not die, as if He was not raised.  

Enable us to be strong in the faith that He endures as long as the sun, that his Spirit is refreshing the earth, that He is working through His people to show the Kingdom now.  

 

We find ourselves close to the disciples in that room in Jerusalem, restricted in our movements, in our contacts, in our work for the Kingdom.

But we are grateful that there is no lockdown that Jesus cannot penetrate:

No loss of liberty, no decline in health, no psychological disturbance that the Risen Lord cannot penetrate

To bring His peace, to assure us of His sympathy and triumph, to open up new opportunities for mission.  

We thank you for all those we have known who are now at rest but whose faith transcended limitations of age, sickness and disability.

May they continue to inspire us until we them anew in the fullness of the Kingdom.

May the presence of the Risen Lord be experienced by the Church throughout the world in her worship and her mission.  

May the presence of the Risen Lord be amongst the nations, the source of compassion, justice and peace.

May the presence of the Risen Lord guide our nation in its government, its care for the sick, its support for the poor and marginalised.  

May the presence of the Risen Lord be with our Queen and her family as they seek a way forward from the death of the Duke of Edinburgh.  

May the presence of the Risen Lord enfold those in the grip of pain, anxiety or loss and grant them the peace that can only flow from Him.  

Shuggie Bain

 Many critics have flagged this up as the story of a young man’s growing awareness of his sexuality in a hostile working-class environment.  But in many ways the central character in the novel is Agnes, Shuggie’s mother.  She is a chronic alcoholic and her disintegrating life has a corrosive effect on those around her. 

Despite the neglect and abuse suffered by Shuggie in his early years his love for his mother is never extinguished and his practical care never exhausted.  This gives rise to some profoundly moving passages in the novel.  

Through all of his experiences Shuggie’s ‘otherness’ emerges.  The way he talks, his style, his interests, the indications of his sexuality make him an oddity in the eyes of peers and adults alike including his teachers.  The general consensus is he is ‘no right’.  

The reader may not have shared his experiences but if we have ever felt ‘different’ for whatever reason we can connect with Shuggie.  And there is a reminder for those of us who are part of the Christian movement to be aware of those on the margins and to respond with sensitivity and understanding.  

If perseverance is a premier Christian quality then we are in awe of Shuggie’s refusal to give up on Agnes.  It reminds me that Christian love is a choice.  It has to be sustained.   Shuggie shows the way.  

In places this is not an easy read but it reflects the reality of lives that too many people choose to keep at a distance.   Their stories need to be told along with effective social policy.  

Prayers For The Week 9

Where morning dawns and evening fades you call forth songs of joy.  (Psalm 65: 8)

God our Father,

We close our eyes in sleep in the knowledge that Your Spirit fills the Universe; that your Spirit sustains the witness of Your Church; that Your Spirit is working in the lives of Your people to comfort, to strengthen, to establish  Your Word.

We move into a new day with the prospect of being drawn deeper into Your Love, of extending our understanding of Your ways, of responding to the call to serve.  

So draw us closer to Yourself and enable us to sing songs of joy, the praise of a grateful people who know God through Jesus Christ, who have been touched by His sacrifice, renewed by His resurrection and inspired by His promises.  

Forgive us that so often we cut off the sources of joy.

Neglecting the Word that keeps us close to You.

Ignoring the promptings of Your Spirit to forgive others.

Setting aside opportunities to support others in time of need.

Father, if You held on to our failure where would be our hope?

But You have assured us in Jesus that sin is not victorious over us, that calling to mind our failure is not a mark of despair but the beginning of renewed aspiration.

So help us to believe that You are on our side as we now go forward to face the challenges of the days ahead.

As we remember Mary Magdalene in her sorrow, confusion and anger, we thank you that in all the negative experiences of life we too can be touched by the Risen Lord.

He knows our names.

He knows our inner lives.

He knows our greatest needs

He knows why we have been called to serve.

His voice speaks out of eternity to secure us in His love, his strength and His peace.  

He has given us the assurance of His presence in this life and our completion in the next.

We remember before you now all those who have died in this faith.

We pray that they will be our inspiration in this life and our joy in the great reunion.  

God grant your Church to be open to the voice of the Risen Lord as she seeks to be faithful in telling His story and sharing His love.  

God grant to the nations a new understanding of life lived in the depths as compassion flows, as justice is established, as peace becomes the motivating force.

God grant the leaders of our nation the resources that are needed at this time: wise counsel, committed administration, co-operation for the good of us all.  

God grant the Queen and her family the strength that flows only from our Risen Lord, the guarantee that all those who sleep in death will also be raised.

God grant to our families and friends protection from the virus, renewal for those stricken by the virus, comfort and strength to those bereaved due to the virus.  

Prayers For The Week 8

 ‘The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.’   (John 1: 5).   

God our Father,

You oversee a world which is well-acquainted with darkness:

pandemic, isolation, separation, pain and bereavement.

You oversee a people whose lives experience weariness, frustration, anxiety.

There is need for the light of hope.

And You do not disappoint us.

You have come to us in a life that knew the darkness of human experience even to the point of spiritual despair.

And yet this life could not be diminished.

Not by rejection, denial, betrayal.

Not by death itself.

The light shone in the darkness and the darkness could never overcome it.

In Your promise of the Holy Spirit we see light shining  into lives where deep shadows have fallen.

So we ask today for forgiveness if we have increased the world’s darkness by our thoughts, our words, our deeds.

So we ask for Your light to go before us to guide our aspirations and establish our priorities.

So we ask that whatever darkness seeks to engulf us  that we may experience the light that flows from the promises of our Risen Lord.

We have no sooner offered thanksgiving for the light, the warmth, the colour and fragrance of Spring when the temperature drops, the light is dimmed, the trees and bushes drip with rain.

But while the environment is unsettled and changes; while people seem no longer what they used to be; while our personal circumstances can take a turn for the worst,

We can be sure that Your love is a constant, that not even the wildest force of nature can separate us from that love, that not even our disappointments in other people can separate us from that love, that not even the most heart-breaking of experiences can ever separate us from that love.

We know this in the resurrection of Jesus, the sign that You are not only with us in the darkest time but You are working in our darkest time to take us forward in Your good and loving purpose.  

Let this sign be celebrated in Your Church today to strengthen faith, increase commitment to love and empower mission.

Let this sign be acknowledged throughout the world bringing the hope of renewal where there is cruelty, poverty, homelessness and injustice.  

Let this sign inspire our nation to provide for the poor, to care for the sick, to open up opportunities for the young,   to enable the elderly to feel secure.

Let this sign be a comfort to those whose health is fragile, who experience the nagging emptiness of bereavement, who look to the future with diminishing hope.

Still Quarrying 194: Roots That Refresh.

 The pandemic has been compared to the war experience of a previous generation.   There are obvious differences but sometimes the comparison as been helpful.  For instance, the need to fight against fretting over what has been lost and deal with the circumstances before us.  And for Christians the need to acknowledge that while things might seem to be spiralling out of control we are always in the hands of the God revealed in Jesus Christ.

It is here that we can relate to Psalm 60. We are brought into a time of war when the land is shaken, torn, fractured and the people are in despair.  The enemy has overcome and it seems to God’s people that they have been rejected by Him, that in the words of the psalmist He no longer goes out with their armies.  It is a time when the judgement of God has burst upon the people to the extent that they are in need of rebuilding as a nation.  

Comparison with the lives of nations at this time are obvious.  But a strict application should be with the people of God in this generation, the Church.  We have been shaken, torn, fractured.  Some might say this was true before the pandemic.  We stand in need of renewal, refreshment, rebuilding.  The psalmist shows us the first step forward: to acknowledge our God and to realise our need of His strength.  The psalmist is praying, crying out, realising that there is no future apart from the aid that only God can supply.  

We have heard many calls to follow in this line through the years and still there is a sense of something lacking in the life and witness of the Church.  God is no longer going out with us.  This is when the roots of devotion need to be uncovered once more.  Follow the voice in Psalm 60.  This is angry, despairing, accusing prayer.   But it is prayer.   Then a promise is received from God which needs to be trusted.  In the end there is assurance in the  ultimate triumph of God.

Alister McGrath has a book called Roots That Refresh.  It is a call to return to the basic resources that refresh and renew the Church.  Reading it I had a sense that these are things I already know.  But then the nagging question, has it all really penetrated to the place where authentic renewal in my life can actually take hold?  

Do I pray in response to the God revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?  

Do I take seriously God’s spiritual fitness schedule, to mould my life according to that of Jesus?

Do I expect an encounter with the Living God when I open His Word?

Do I anticipate a gathering up in the life of the Holy Spirit when I join with other Christians in worship?  

These are the roots that refresh.  Without them, channels through which the Spirit pumps His life into the living organism that is the Church, we are moribund.  

Do you baulk when you read passages like Psalm 52: 8-9:

‘But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God:

 I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever.

 I will praise you for ever for what you have done;

 In your name I will hope, for your name is good.

 I will praise you in the presence of your saints.’  

Who me?  Flourishing like an olive tree?  But maybe it is time for us to take this more seriously.  To accept that this is God’s will for us, that we flourish spiritually, that we keep in step with the Spirit, that the life of Christ is seen and experienced in us all.   He has given us the means whereby this can be realised in our lives, incompletely in our human and conflicted state, but a foretaste of the completeness we will know in the Eternal Kingdom with ‘the former things’ behind us.  

You see where we have gone with this.  Starting out with what is lacking in the life and witness of the Church but coming to what we lack as individuals.   Paul wrote to Christian communities where there was division, jealousy, lack of compassion but he never lost the vision of each individual being a citizen of heaven, looking to the transforming power of Jesus to create a colony of heaven here on earth.   Whatever plans and aspirations we have coming out of the pandemic we must receive from the roots that refresh.  

Easter Shielding.

 Easter morning and it’s good to think that the doors of St Paul’s will be open for worship.  I won’t be there.  I’m still on the shielding list and therefore restricted in where I can go and who I can see.  I recorded a service on Thursday, however, and I hope that will be a blessing to everyone who watches and listens.  

I have to admit here is some frustration that I am not able to gather with my Church family on this day of all days.  But I am reminded of the nature of Jesus’ revealing on Easter morning.  Not a Spielbergian climax but quiet, unobtrusive visitations to people He loved.  The Easter experience was personal and would become a daily reality for Jesus’ followers no matter their circumstances.  An experience that has rippled down the millennia of Christian history.

So rather than feel sorry for myself I am challenged to realise the Presence, to rededicate my life to His ways and to affirm the faith that no matter what the future brings I am ‘shielded’ by His love and power.  

Saturday In Holy Week: Matthew 27: 62-66.

Saturday In Holy Week: Matthew 27: 62-66.

 Throughout the pandemic the thought has recurred, God has not pressed pause on His purpose for the Church and the world.  We see on Good Friday how that purpose unfolded in the midst of physical pain and spiritual anguish.  In the darkness of that day Good was still working.

That would not be clear to Jesus’ followers on Saturday in Holy Week.  The shadow of the Cross lay heavily on their hearts.  The worst had happened.  A world without Jesus.  The death of hope for each one and the nation.  

But God had not pressed pause on His purpose.  Beneath the quietness of a Jewish Sabbath, broken only by the machinations of the chief priests and the Pharisees, God was working to reveal the eternal sign of His good and loving purpose.   Jesus, risen from the dead, renewed in body, mind and spirit, would be the prototype of a new humanity.   What Jesus was in His risen state is what God longs for each man and woman.   He stands as the sign of what God is working towards even in the midst of our worst of times.  

Jesus recited psalms throughout His ordeal on the Cross.   Psalm 57 is not mentioned but it surely reflects His experience and His faith that the worst will give way to the unstoppable surge of God’s good and loving purpose:

‘Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge.

 I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.’  (v.1)

Friday In Holy Week: Mark 15: 33-37.

Friday In Holy Week: Mark 15: 33-37.

There is a Good Friday tradition in the Church which focuses on the Seven Words that Jesus spoke on the Cross.  To meditate upon them give  some insight into Jesus’ thoughts and feelings as he endured the final ordeal.  It is deeply moving to see that despite His pain at so many different levels He continues to care for others: that those who were persecuting Him should be forgiven; that one of the men being crucified with Him is assured of a place in the Eternal Kingdom; that His mother would in the days ahead be cared for by John.  

I have known people who even when going through their last days have been concerned about others and held them warmly in prayer.   They are following Jesus final example in not allowing personal circumstances, however dark, to stifle love for others.

What was the source of Jesus inner strength and commitment to others?  There might seem to be an obvious answer.  He was the Son of God!  What do we expect?  And yet on the Cross we find Him reciting verses from the Psalms which so often reflected His experience.  It is possible that in His suffering He recited whole Psalms as He was taught to do from His earliest days.   This emphasises to me something I already know but which needs to sink deeper into my being.  I am kept strong in myself and for others the closer I am to the living Word of God.  

Thursday In Holy Week: Mark 14: 12-26

 

Thursday In Holy Week: Mark 14: 12-26.

There are many paintings of the Last Supper.  Sieger Koder’s shows the table from the perspective of Jesus.  We are seeing the disciples as Jesus saw them.  There are pleading eyes, downcast heads, caring hands reaching out, a fearful glance towards the door where a shadowy figure exits.  

We know some of the baggage individual disciples carried.  One a former terrorist, another a Roman collaborator.  One will deny Him,  another betray Him, all of them potentially weak and self-serving as will be revealed just hours later.  But each of them is given the bread and wine.  ‘My body broken for you.  My blood shed for you.’   

 As they repeat Jesus’ actions in the years to come, whatever their circumstances,  they will receive anew the assurance that Jesus counted them worthy of His death.  The death that renews.   And in the remembrance the call to follow is heard once more, the commitment to serve is strengthened, the awareness of Jesus’ love is deepened.  

The Covid restrictions prevent us gathering at the Lord’s Table tonight.  But the love that flows from the sacrifice of Jesus knows no restrictions.  Jesus said: ‘I, when I am lifted up, will draw all men to myself.’  (John 12: 32).