An Invitation to Hope

It seems to have been a week full of mis-communication:
assorted politicians have spent much time and effort shouting across great chasms at each other
without shedding much light on how we are to increase our chances of helping communities back into health.

If I were to try and describe real communication I would say that it’s about getting a thought from one person’s mind into another person’s mind,
then continuing on to the development of conversation.
In prayer, we converse with God, using words to describe life and all its richness.

Dear God, on this morning of grey skies, fill our expectations with a riot of colour.
Help us hear you in the words of everyone we meet today.
Help us to speak with your voice, your wisdom, in all we may say.
Most of all, give us space to listen for you as we make our way through all the tasks on our Friday list.
On a rather dismal day, Lord, let us go out with the words of your hope.

Amen

Tomorrow we turn the clocks back in the middle of the night: we get to live the same hour twice!
This will mark our move from the time of long light to the time of long dark.
A time when going into community, into conversation, is not nearly as inviting as staying inside, away from the effort of being ‘out there’.
Our personal comfort zone includes more tea and a warmer duvet.
How can we open conversation, how can we issue an invitation to hope to a world increasingly in lockdown?

Sing, Zion’s daughter, raise the shout of triumph. Israel be glad, rejoice with all your heart!
The Lord has swept away your foes. The Lord God is in your midst, a warrior who will keep you safe.

He will show you his love once more, he will exult over you with singing.

The Lord says, ‘I will remove your sorrow over the loss of your appointed festivals, ….
I shall deal with all who oppress you: I shall rescue the lost and gather the dispersed. When that time comes, I shall gather you and bring you home.”

Excerpts from Zephaniah 3: 14–20

Dear God, help us be bringers of hope through contact in prayer, contact in conversation,
through thought and in action with people grasping for light, people reaching for hope.
We pray for the shielding and the shielders, the threatened and despairing,
the people in regions heading ever deeper into a life of restriction.
Bless them all with your hope, soften the hardening hearts fleeing from community and show us the way of your light.
Most of all give us courage to begin these conversations.

Amen

We know that darkness will not overcome light –
that the sun lies behind these clouds,
that night won’t last beyond sleep
and the day ahead will be ready for exploration and communication.
We begin every conversation in hope that the transfer of thought from one mind to another
will continue into knowledge, understanding and friendship.

Dear God, bless our nation with a spirit of hope and a thirst for communication.
Subdue the urge to bark and bray.
Bless all our people with a calm patience and persistent resolve to begin every conversation
on the basis that no one exchanges words as weapons and everyone is seeking common ground.
OK, Lord, we’re ready to get started. The quality of conversation is over to you.

Amen

Cheryl Montgomery