Morning Prayer for Wednesday, 22 July 2020

Good morning, Cornerstone friends. Are you ready for the day?
Let us gather before we all get involved with all the things we have to do today.

Today is the feast of St Mary Magdalene and Ernesto has shared us some thoughts about her,
written by Fr Richard Rohr, so I need not dwell on it.
Just to say, I recall that the former Archbishop of Cape Town, Rt Revd Desmond Tutu, in discussion about the ordination of women, talked about the emphasis on apostolic succession made by those opposing it. He said, ‘You say that the apostolic succession derives, unbroken, from those who witnessed the resurrection of Our Lord and shared the good news; and who was the first person to do this? Mary of Magdala.’
I thought that was game set and match!

O Lord you have searched me out and known me;
you know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.

For you yourself created my inmost parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you that I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
marvellous are your works, my soul knows well.
My frame is not hidden from you,
when I was woven in secret and woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my form as yet unfinished;
already in your book were all my members written,
As day by day they were fashioned
when as yet there were none of them.
How deep are your counsels to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
It I count them, they are more in number than the sand
and at the end, I am still in your presence.

Search me out, O God and know my heart.

Psalm 139: 1–2 ,13–18 & 23a

Creator God, may every breath we take be for your glory,
may every footstep show you as our way that,
trusting in your presence in this world,
we may, beyond this life, still be with you
where you are alive and reign for ever and ever.

Amen

But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

When Jesus became aware of this, he departed. Many crowds followed him, and he cured all of them and he ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

Here is my servant, whom I have chosen,
my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my spirit upon him
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not wrangle or cry aloud,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
He will not break a bruised reed
or quench a smouldering wick
until he brings justice to victory.
And at his name the Gentiles will hope.

Matthew 12: 14– 21

The Psalm shows us that God is all-knowing about each and every one of us.
The Gospel extract comes after the record of Jesus healing a man of his disabled hand on the Sabbath,
causing this particular group of religious leaders, the Pharisees,
to fear what he was doing would expose the shallowness of their faith.
God is all-knowing for sure.

Let us pray for the Church:
The Bishop of Oxford in his blog has been using the epistle to the Philippians
as a guide to help us through the process of opening up our churches.
He says that there will be some eager to get back to worship in our buildings
and others who will be reluctant, for a while, to join gatherings beyond their homes.
Paul writes that Our Lord

emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave
and being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death.

Paul also tells the good people of Philippi not to be fixated with little differences of opinion among them:

Let each of you look, not to your own interests, but to the interest of others. Let the same mind be in you as was in Christ Jesus.

(Philippians2: 1–11, if you want to check it out.)

I was very encouraged, being one eager to get back meeting you all again in our church building,
to receive the letter from Revd Ernesto and Ade Adeyemi.
It seemed to me that the group who have been considering the procedures for opening our building
had thought caringly about it and have ‘sought the same mind as was in Christ Jesus’.
Let us then be thankful that we have the guidance of all those mentioned in the letter who have participated in that decision.
Let us especially remember Revd George, that he will soon be restored to health and wholeness
and for other reasons, our friend Peter Cope, who celebrates a birthday at about this time.

Let us remember that our experience is being shared with churches throughout the world.~
In the church where my daughter worships in Australia and leads the music,
they are able to sing and play instruments once more,
but now stream the services on the internet for those staying at home
and where they are followed by people who live miles away ‘out on the range’
who, at normal times, often are only able to come to church, say, once a month.

In South Africa, Central and South America the virus is spreading wildly,
in many areas beyond the resources of their health provisions.
The daily toll of deaths from Covid-19 is now at its greatest level yet.
Let us remember the Christians in those areas as we pray.

O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers
of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also that we may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

Let us pray for the world and for our city

The news from different parts of the world is not encouraging.
The ‘same mind as was in Christ Jesus’ is not apparent in our politics and international relations.
International co-operation on research for an effective vaccine is enabling rapid progress to be made
reducing the time from years to months,
but it is coupled with some rich countries buying up the immediate supply when it is first available
and at the same time reducing financial support for international agencies
that could assist the supply to the most needy of developing countries.

This same selfish ‘me first’ approach is leading to reduced international trade and economic activity generally.
Tariffs may appear attractive to politicians, but they lead to higher prices and fewer jobs.

Let us remember all those who are finding themselves unemployed,
for young people just leaving school, college or university to start their working career,
and those in mid-life who have been in work for some time and have family responsibilities.

Let us pray for all who are ill and those who care for them.
For all who are lonely, including those who feel lonely or lost even when they are in company.
For all who feel unfulfilled or who feel they are failing in life
and cannot enjoy the simple things that delight those of us who are well and content.

We pray for all those who carry responsibility for the many matters that affect all of our lives, both big and small.
Let us give thanks for all whose work has contributed to our well-being on this summer mid-week day.

Heavenly Father, we bring before you our broken world;
we thank you for all whose labour will sustain us today,
for all those whose decisions will shape our future.
We give thanks for the beauties of nature and the faculties to enjoy them;
be with those who are blinded to such beauty by selfishness or by disability.
We pray for grace to all people today, that none may be guided by greed of goods or power,
but will seek only those things which meet the needs of all your people.
We ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ
who emptied himself and became obedient, to become Our Saviour.

Amen

The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with us all, evermore.

Amen

May you all have a day fully aware of the beauty that surrounds us all in this city.