Morning Prayer Friday, 4 December 2020
Welcome to this first Friday of a tier-2 Advent.
We’re preparing for Christmas one small, tentative step at a time,
in the beginning of winter, amid the rain and the sleet and the cold.
Yet still, we can greet the day in hopeful prayer.
O Lord we welcome the light of this new day,
bringing its promise of new encounters and fresh experience.
Open our hearts to the warmth of your spirit
that we may light up the world with your grace.
Help us to practise the hospitality of hope with everyone we see and meet today
as we set out into your waiting world.
Amen
Every now and again it’s useful to dust off your job description –
to check on what it is you are about.
Not just the tasks on the list, but more about how to be, how to live up to the title.
Long before the arrival of Jesus, Isaiah prepared a job description headed ‘For the Messiah when he comes.’ Here’s what he said:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
because He has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind;
to set at liberty those who are oppressed;
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
He has sent me to comfort all who mourn,
to give them garlands instead of mourners’ tears,
a gament of splendour for the heavy heart.
They will be called trees of righteousness,
planted by the Lord for his delight.
Buildings long in ruins will be rebuilt
and sites long devastated restored;
they will repair the ruined cities which for generations have lain desolate.
Isaiah 61: 1–4
O Lord sometimes we feel desolate,
the life we have known cast in disarray,
a fruitful future too far ahead to plan for.
Inspire us to grasp the great hope you have given us in the gift of Jesus.
In his selfless love he freed us from a life of guilt, lifting the weight off a heavy heart.
May we become builders and rebuilders of community,
replacing sadness with garments of hope.
We give thanks for the vaccines in development and distribution,
for the scientists, laboratories and medicine makers who are part of this chain of hope.
With the confidence of people who don’t fear hope we pray.
Amen
So, the arrival of Jesus raised everyone’s expectation for the life to come.
All that sight-restoring and captive-releasing and liberty from oppression was a role like no other, ever.
A teacher, preacher, healer and friend all bundled into one human form.
From this gift of grace to a small, occupied country
the hope of Christ has spread to touch every corner of the earth.
Isaiah goes on to describe his response to the hope we cling to:
Let me rejoice in the Lord with all my heart, let me exalt in my God;
for he has robed me in deliverance and arrayed me in victory,
like a bridegroom with his garland or a bride decked in her jewels.
As the earth puts forth her blossom or plants in the garden burst into flower,
so will the Lord God make his victory and renown blossom before all nations.
Isaiah 61: 10–11
O Lord, we are ready to begin the day, sure in the Advent hope of our redemption.
May we observe the Covid rules with patience,
may we support the people who look after our needs with gratitude
and may we all at last be dressed in the robes of deliverance.
In the name of Christ, we pray.
Amen
Cheryl Montgomery
