Evening Prayer Friday, 19 March 2021
Good evening, everyone.
Welcome to our Friday evening prayers.
On Sunday we read the introduction to Psalm 107,
and those of you involved in the Lent study groups will know
that this was also referred to in this week’s study.
These verses refer to God’s unchanging love
and his grace in extending that to everyone, throughout the world.
I’m going to read these verses again now,
and follow them with the words of Mary’s thanksgiving
in the passage we call the Magnificat.
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures for ever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story –
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.
Psalm 107: 1–3 NIV®
And from St Luke’s Gospel:
‘My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me –
holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants for ever,
just as he promised our ancestors.’
Luke 1: 46b–55 NIV®
Let us pray:
Loving God, we thank you for the promises you have made
that you love us, you care for us and will provide us with all we need.
We thank you that we have been given so many gifts.
Help us to accept your generosity with gracious hearts.
May we see these times, when our normal activities are so curtailed,
as an opportunity to recognise that, however hard we try, we can never repay you.
So we pray that all our doing, all our activity for ‘good’
may be carried out in a spirit of thanksgiving to you for your generosity to us.
We pray for the poor in our community –
not just poor in monetary terms, but those who lack all they need to lead a fulfilling life:
- Those who live in overcrowded accommodation, where parents become stressed and children have no space to play,
- Those whose relationships are poor and who feel unsupported.
- Those who have practical needs, struggling to find enough money to feed their family with nutritious food.
- Those who are lonely, lacking contact with others in this pandemic world.
Help us to respond to your love by sharing our love with others.
Show us effective ways we can use our time to serve you in ways which bring you honour.
In this time of pandemic, we pray for all who work in the caring professions –
nurses, doctors, carers who have all continued to serve the needs of the sick and dying.
Give them strength and energy to persevere,
and the support which they need to cope with
both the physical and emotional burdens which they carry.
And now we pray for all those in our community of Christ the Cornerstone
who are cut off from us and missing the support and contact of regular church services.
May they feel you close to them and know that they are remembered in our prayers.
We ask all our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.
Let us join together by saying the Grace:
May the Grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with us all, evermore.
Amen
And we close with a hymn written by John Bell and Graham Maule,
which in this version, also shows some lovely views of Iona.
I have also written the words below, as you may want to read them again.
They are a powerful reminder of the need for us to demonstrate God’s love in the world.
Rosemary Kearsey
Heaven shall not wait – Bing video – the version with the pictures of Iona
An alternative, if you can’t get that one to work:
Heaven shall not wait
for the poor to lose their patience,
the scorned to smile,
the despised to find a friend:
Jesus is Lord;
he has championed the unwanted;
in him injustice confronts its timely end.
Heaven shall not wait
for the rich to share their fortunes,
the proud to fall,
the elite to tend the least:
Jesus is Lord;
he has shown the master’s privilege –
to kneel and wash servants’ feet before they feast.
Heaven shall not wait
for the dawn of great ideas,
thoughts of compassion
divorced from cries of pain:
Jesus is Lord;
he has married word and action;
his cross and company make his purpose plain.
Heaven shall not wait
for our legalised obedience,
defined by statute,
to strict conventions bound:
Jesus is Lord;
he has hallmarked true allegiance –
goodness appears where his grace is sought and found.
Heaven shall not wait
for triumphant hallelujahs,
when earth has passed and we reach another shore:
Jesus is Lord;
in our present imperfection:
his power and love are for now and then for evermore.
