Morning Prayer Wednesday, 7 October 2020

Good morning Cornerstone friends. It looks like being a dry day after all that wind and rain over the weekend. A number of my favourite dog walks are now under several inches of water so my morning choices are limited. I hope that all of you are not feeling too limited in your life and activities.

Let us spend some time together.

Remember your word to your servant,
on which I have built my hope.
This is my comfort in my trouble,
that your promise gives me life.
The proud have derided me cruelly,
but I have not turned aside from your law.
I have remembered your everlasting judgements, O Lord,
and have been comforted.
I am seized with indignation at the wicked,
for they have broken your law.
Your statutes have been like songs to me
in the house of my pilgrimage.
I have thought on your name in the night, O Lord,
and so I have kept your law.
These blessings have been mine,
for I have kept your commandments.
My delight is in your commandments.

Psalm 119: 49–56

God of loving mercy, in this place of pilgrimage
turn your laws into our songs that we may find your promises
fulfilled in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

St John’s Gospel Chapter 11 verses 45–57 (This occurs after Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead):

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said ‘What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation,’ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.’ He did not say this on his own, but being high priest for that year he had prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to put him to death.
Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews, but went to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness and he remained there with his disciples.
Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking for Jesus and were asking one another as they stood in the Temple, ‘What do you think? Surely he will not comer to the festival will he?’ Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone that knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

John 11: 45–57

John’s Gospel is different from the other three.
It has twenty-one chapters and here we are half-way through in chapter eleven and we are already in the last few weeks before the crucifixion.
There are records of healing, much teaching and records of our Lord meeting different individual people, but few parables.
The whole Gospel is written as a struggle between our Lord’s mission and the opposition to it
by religious leaders and the Pharisees at that time.
Remember it has in its first few verses these words:

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.

and

He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.

Many of the Psalms are attributed to King David, written while he was being pursued by his enemies living in a form of lockdown,
and the Gospel tells of how our Lord had to go into hiding for a period before his entry into Jerusalem.
There should be something in both of them for us to ponder since we are being held back from moving around as freely as we would wish.
Let us pray for guidance that we may not misunderstand God’s mission to our time and place,
and be ready to come out of hiding at the appropriate time able to show the world the good news of the kingdom of God for our times.

Let us pray for the church.
Yesterday we were asked to remember the work and sacrifice of William Tyndale,
who was killed in 1536 because he wished to translate and publish a Bible in English.
The ‘powers that be’ in his time, got it wrong too.
I have in my possession the remains of a Bible published in 1597,
which is very much the work of Tyndale and Miles Coverdale who took up the task when William was killed,
but I prefer a more modern language for my Bible reading.
Nonetheless we owe a great deal to William Tyndale
and in our everyday conversation we still use many phrases that he created to tell the good news.

Heavenly Father, we rejoice that we can have the good news of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ
in our own language and in writing that we can understand.
We pray for all those working to spread the Gospel by increasing the knowledge of reading
and in translating the good news into more languages.
We wonder at the marvels of electronic communication in our own time
and in the use of information technology to share your word,
sing your praise and bring our requests to you.
May we use these gifts to support all of those who you have called
and to show to all the wonder of your love.

Amen

Let us pray for the world.
The President of the United States is back in the White House, receiving the very best of medical help in supporting him in his illness.
Millions of others suffering from Covid-19 do not get anything like this.
I read recently an article about Peru, which has the highest rate of infection than any other country.
Many people cannot afford to see a doctor or get to hospital.
They rely on herbal treatments and cheap non-prescription medicines,
which they do not always take in the right doses as they cannot read the labels.
Many deaths occur through overdoses and misuse of the treatments people take, not through the virus itself.
We must all be careful not to spread infection
but, in our own city, two sons were prevented from sitting next to their mother at her husband’s funeral.
We need to be caring as well as careful.

We give thanks, O healing God, for the advantages we have in the precautions against infection
and in the availability of best treatments for any illness we suffer.
We ask that you support those who work to provide the health services
and all of the requirements we have for a life free of disease.
We pray for all those working to provide accessible and affordable treatment
in countries with insufficient provision and all who care for the sick, the suffering, the hungry and homeless.
Show us today how we should act to be the most caring that we can be
and the most thankful for all that we have
and by your grace may we spend our time and abilities in actions that give glory to your name.

Amen

Christ’s is the world in which we move,
Christ’s are the folk we’re summoned to love,
Christ’s is the voice which calls us to care,
and Christ is the one who meets us here.

To the lost Christ shows his face,
to the unloved he gives his embrace,
to those who cry in pain or disgrace
Christ makes with his friends a touching place.

Avoid unnecessary physical contact, good friends, but touch the hearts of all you meet today.

Don Head