Morning Prayer Friday, 2 October 2020
Good Morning on this first Friday in October when we welcome a time of change and movement, a time of completion and soft morning light. Let us greet the Lord as we begin the day.
Great Creator and Preserver of Life,
we thank you for the restful night and the opportunity brought by this morning’s light.
As the season turns our world into the red and gold of autumn
open our eyes to new beauty around us,
open our hearts to the search for renewal
and our hands to meeting the needs of those we encounter today.
Amen
This week it is 50 years since I first came to Britain from small town Indiana – half a century in an adopted culture still very different to my own. Seven hours in an aircraft and I became an infrequent visitor to the lives of my family, the relationship maintained through monthly letters to my Mom and an annual, pre-booked, very costly telephone call on Christmas Day. Trips home averaged once every five years – ten trips in half a hundred years – to hold on to relationships, to culture, to shared values. I know there are many in our fellowship who have had similar experiences.
Of necessity we have embraced technology, from the advent of e-mal to video conferencing. Our whole family celebrated our granddaughter’s sixteenth birthday in May via a Zoom party and on Wednesday I joined my sister for breakfast on her birthday via FaceTime. We have all adapted, we have all changed and we have all become close again. Despite loss and hardship over the years, despite the distance in space and time we keep holding on to the invisible ties that make us a family.
Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, he gave us new birth into a living hope: the hope of an inheritance, reserved in heaven for you, which nothing can destroy or spoil or fade away. Because you put your faith in God, you are under the protection of his power until the salvation, now in readiness, is revealed at the end of time.
This is cause for great joy, even though for a little while you may have to suffer trials of many kinds. Even gold passes through the refiner’s fire and much more precious than perishable gold is faith which stands the test. These trials come so that your refined faith may result in all praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
1 Peter 1:3–7
There was never an option to go back, to return to the comfort of a home made for me by others, to go into a safe place created by them in their way. Once I had been dissolved into a new culture in a different place I became a different person, so no turning back! I truly became a fish in fresh water whose only option was to keep swimming ahead into tomorrow.
Great Lord of Life, be with everyone who needs you today:
- People suffering in spirit, body and soul – give them comfort.
- People suffering paralysing anxiety, threats to employment, the crumbling of a life well-lived – give them a calm space to breathe.
- People suffering poverty and the grinding depression of never having enough to plan forward – touch our hands and our wallets to support their immediate needs. Weld our voices into a great clamour for justice the for the poor.
Be with us all today as we step out into our community and our culture. Enable us to make a difference for them all.
Amen
I have contributed to the prayer rota for a long time, drafting prayers in pencil in old-fashioned exercise books. I began this new book on 9 February and today I have come to the last page. There really is no way back. No longer just read out in worship for a brief moment, this exercise book has been recorded and broadcast. It has shared the progress of garden, allotment and family and followed my random wanderings through the Bible. Next week I will have the pleasure of opening a new book onto a blank page – a page of opportunity.
O Lord our Protector,
we look forward to the opportunity that this morning will bring
to discover new ways of being part of your Cornerstone Family here in Milton Keynes.
Keep our eyes looking forward because there can be no turning back.
Support us in faith, fire up our imagination and bring a smile behind the mask to everyone we meet.
Great God, give us joy in the washing up!
Amen
Cheryl Montgomery
