Morning Prayer Wednesday, 25 November 2020

Good morning on Wednesday 25 November, a month to go before Christmas.
It is, I guess, going to be a different one from any we have had before.
We are waiting to find out which tier we will be in after 2 December, and next Sunday we begin Advent.

Blessed be the Lord,
for he has heard the voice of my prayer.
For the Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart has trusted in him and I am helped;
Therefore my heart dances with joy
and in my song I will praise him.

The Lord is the strength of his people,
a safe refuge for his anointed.
Save your people and bless your inheritance;
shepherd them and lift them up for ever.

Psalm 28: 6–11

Hear us, Shepherd of your people, forgive us our sins
and, in a world of pretences, make us true in heart and mind,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

[Jesus has just arrived in Jerusalem for a special festival and healed a paralysed man on the Sabbath day. This came to the attention of the Temple priests and lawyers, who came to admonish Jesus, and this is his fulsome and direct reply to them:]

Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomsoever he wishes. The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son, so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Anyone who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him.

‘Very truly, I tell you anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life. Very truly I tell you the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgement, because he is the Son of Man.

‘Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out – those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgement is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

‘If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf and I know that his testimony to me is true.

‘You sent messengers to John [the Baptist], and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things that you may be saved. He was a burning shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

‘But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they who do testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

John 5: 19–40

Some of the words of the Psalm will be familiar to any of you
who have a background of Morning and Evening Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer.

‘O Lord save thy people and bless and bless thine inheritance;’

‘Gather them and lift them up forever’

and particularly,

‘The Lord is my strength and my shield’

and I am going to keep that thought with me today.

Reading the Gospel I am struck by how different John’s account is from the other Gospels.
Many of our Wednesday readings this year have come from St Matthew,
who concentrates upon discourses with the disciples, many with parables.
John concentrates more upon discourses with the Jewish religious leaders,
who keep Jesus at arms-length and then plot to kill him.
There are no parables here, but a cry to those who could have been
our Lord’s most able disciples if only they had listened humbly.
Some leaders did listen, like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea,
but the majority went on to kill our Lord after a few months.
In Matthew’s account his death caused graves to open and dead to come to life
so that those who heard these words we have read today saw them come true.
Our message from the gospel is surely:

‘Very truly, I tell you anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.’

Let us hold onto that one today as well.

Let us pray for the church:
It appears that from 6 December we well be able to gather
in our church buildings for worship with one another.
Many churches, like the congregations of Cornerstone,
are finding it hard to keep everyone in touch
and to maintain the diversity of activities they had before last Easter.
We have made use of communication applications on the internet,
at first, not so well as we do now,
but we still have some way to go before we are getting really proficient
and gaining all that we might from sharing Sunday worship, daily prayers, Bible study
and coffee get-together groups, not to mention essential business meetings.
However, we must not lose touch with those who do not use the internet
or with people who live alone and are not great at initiating any contacts
but who would be in touch normally by attending church
not every Sunday but on occasions.
At present we are even more cut off from the day to day bustle of Central Milton Keynes,
which is itself much subdued from what we have been accustomed to.
Let us pray that we will soon find life and activity from our building
and relevance from our faith to our place in the wider community.

Eternal Father, whose Son, Jesus Christ ascended the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King,
keep the church in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.
Bring the whole of created order to worship at his feet,
who is alive and reigns with you
in the unity of the Spirit, one God now and for ever.

Amen

We have at Cornerstone maintained our links where we can
and Citizens MK are supporting a campaign to raise awareness of domestic violence.
This campaign is aimed to get men to make a pledge
‘never to commit or remain silent about violence toward women’.
Today they are asked to wear a white ribbon
and the leader of MK Council is making a public declaration of his pledge.

We can be thankful that another vaccine has been proved to be
both effective and relatively cheap to produce in large quantities.
Let us pray for the world facing multiple challenges from Covid 19,
lower economic activity with loss of jobs, unrest and conflict in many parts of the world,
natural disasters and less co-operation between governments of different nations.
The church and other international agencies have asked the UK government
in its review of expenditure to continue to maintain its aid to needy populations
in other countries at 0.7% of domestic economic activity.
Let us pray that this modest level of aid continues.
In the UK we also have the uncertainty of our trading relationship with the EU nations
and a political climate posing a risk of the break-up of a single parliamentary government
for the whole of the UK as we know it.
And all this fails to mention the big problem of global warming,
which demands co-operation from all nations
and very fundamental changes to the way of life of every human being on the planet.
Let us pray that governments do not ignore the need to care for our planet.

We lift those we hold in our hearts, for health and wellbeing and a sense of hope.
We ask you, Heavenly Father, help us in our motivation for caring
and in our words and actions to communicate this to those in need
in ways which will bring glory to your name.

Amen

Remember the thought of the psalmist: ‘The Lord is my strength and my shield.’

Whatever you are doing, staying in or getting about,
keep that thought in mind and stay safe.

Don Head