Morning Prayer Wednesday, 1 September 2021
Good morning Cornerstone friends. Welcome back to regular daily prayer bulletins.
When we took a break it was still high summer, now on my daily walks in the park I am picking blackberries from the brambles in the hedgerow, the days now feel that much shorter and families are preparing for children returning to school.
Let us spend a short while together to reflect on the changing seasons and how we should enjoy them.
Come my children and listen to me;
I will teach you to fear the Lord.
Who is there who delights in life
and longs for days to enjoy things?
Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from lying words.
Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears hear their cry.
The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
he will root out the remembrance of them from the earth.
The righteous cry and the Lord hears them
and delivers them out of their troubles.
The Lord is near to the broken hearted
and will save those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34: 11–18
O taste and see that the Lord is gracious.
Watch over us, O God, that on our lips will be found your truth and in our hearts your love;
so that we may ever taste your goodness in the land of the living;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
After leaving the synagogue he [Jesus] entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever and they asked him about her. Then he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them.
As the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various kinds of diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on each of them and cured them. Demons came out of many, shouting ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Messiah.
At daybreak he departed and went to a deserted place. And the crowds were looking for him; and when they reached him, they wanted to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, ‘I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.’ So he continued proclaiming the message in the synagogues of Judea.
Luke 4: 38–44
The psalmist asks the question ‘who wants to enjoy life?’ and answers the question that we will only do so if we avoid doing those things that cause hurt and division and seek those things that bring peace and happiness to others. That echoes the message of last Sunday.
The gospel has echoes if this too. Our Lord spent time in prayer first thing and then got straight on the move giving the message of the kingdom of God, healing the sick and calling his chosen disciples. Let us do the same, pray together and following our Lord’s example.
We pray for the church, for the visit of the Bishop of Oxford to Milton Keynes and for our return to a fuller programme of activity to tell Milton Keynes about the love of God and our need to work for concord and the good of all people. We pray for our programme to make Christ the Cornerstone an Oasis of Hope for our city in these uncertain times.
God our redeemer, may we be set ablaze by your Spirit to proclaim the gospel in our daily living and never rest content until your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
Adapted from a post communion prayer to commemorate the lives of nineteenth-century anti-slave campaigners, Olaudah Equiano, Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce)
We pray for our world. We have daily reminders of why the gathering of world leaders for COP26 in Glasgow later this year is so important.
In the most advanced country in the world, the USA, there is a city of over a million inhabitants – New Orleans – with no electricity following a bout of heavy rain and high winds from a tropical storm. Other less-developed areas of the world are suffering from starvation as a result of lack of seasonal rain for crops.
All of these problems are so often made worse by failure in politics, and yet only good governance can get us cooperating to restore a stable environment where there is more security of food and the other factors which are able to provide adequately to meet all our reasonable needs in the future.
Heavenly Father you have created a world rich in resources which in our greed we have stretched too far. Move in the hearts and minds of all of us and particularly in those who exercise leadership and governance in your world.
Open the eyes and ears of our leaders to see the plight of the poor and hear the cries of the hungry and deprived.
Open our hearts to welcome strangers into our city and make us ready to take less from your world and to give more to those in need so that we can all say that our life is good and then give you thanks. We ask this in the name of your Son our Saviour who gave up all so that we might have abundant life.
Amen
Go safely as we resume the normal daily activities after the holiday break and I hope that by this evening you will have cause to thank God for an enjoyable day.
Don Head
