Morning Prayer Wednesday, 11 November 2020

Good morning on Armistice or Remembrance Day.
Some familiar lines from wartime poets:

They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
we will remember them.

Laurence Binyon

When you go home tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow we gave our today.

John Maxwell Edmonds

Hear my teaching, O my people;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will pour forth mysteries from of old,
such as we have heard and known,
which our forebears have told us.
We will not hide from their children,
but recount to generations to come,
the praises of the Lord and his power
and the wonderful works he has done.
He has laid a solemn charge on Jacob
and made it law for Israel,
which he commanded them
to teach their children.
That the generations to come might know
and the children yet unborn,
that they may in turn tell it to their children.
So that they might put their trust in God
and not forget the deeds of God,
but keep his commandments,
And not be like their forbears,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Psalm 78: 1–8

O Lord, how glorious are your works
God our deliverer, as you led your people of old through the wilderness,
so lead us through the wilderness of this world, that we may be saved through Christ for ever.

Amen

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, ‘Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.’

So the first angel went and poured his bowl on the earth, and a foul and painful sore came on those who had the mark of the beast and who worshipped his image.

The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing in the sea died.

The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say,

‘You are just O Holy One,
who are and were,
for you have judged these things; because they shed the blood of saints and prophets,
you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!’

And I heard the altar respond,

‘Yes O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgements are true and just.’

Revelation 16: 1–7

I must admit, my heart sank a bit when I saw that we have a reading from Revelation
and not one of the Gospels this morning.
Revelation is a complicated parable and a difficult book to comment upon
but I am very much a layman with only rudimentary theology.
The rest of chapter 16 illustrates where the angels poured their bowls,
finishing with the seventh pouring it in the air.
The book does not end there, it has more chapters
which bring in the new heaven and the new earth.

So there we have our thought for today in the words of the psalmist:

I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will pour forth mysteries from of old,
such as we have heard and known,
which our forebears have told us.

I think we can take the second reading as a parable relevant to the pollution of our environment
over the last two centuries and question what we should now change.
My thoughts have gone to one of my favourite poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889).
He was a monk who no doubt wrote manuscripts using gold foil, similarly worked in crushing seeds for vegetable oil.

Its title is: God’s Grandeur.

The world is charged with the grandeur of God,
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness , like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade, bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights of the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs–
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World, broods with warm breast and with, Ah! Bright wings.

Let us pray for the church.
Two weeks ago Glynne reminded us to, ‘Wait upon the Lord.’
Later Pat and Robin related the story of God telling Joshua ‘Be of good courage.’
On the following Monday Ernesto posted the message from Fr Richard Rohr,
firstly to the people of the US at the time of elections for President and Congress,
but relevant to all Christians at all times,
on our ‘duty to be active and serve our communities’.

All that reminded me of a message from the Bishop of Oxford to the Diocese in 2017,
telling us to be churches that are ‘Contemplative, Compassionate and Courageous.’
We got these messages last week in a different order, but I think they are all still relevant.
Let us pray that we at Cornerstone and all churches sustain all three of these attributes.

God of gentleness and love, draw near to us as we draw near to you.
Dwell in every heart and conversation.
Fashion us in the likeness of your Son, Jesus Christ.
Help us to discern together all that you are calling us to be
and all that you are calling us to do.
Assist us by your Spirit, to become a more contemplative,
a more compassionate and a more courageous Church,
for the building of your kingdom and the glory of your Son.

Amen

Let us pray for our world.
People in many countries are affected by coronavirus
and few countries are economically more active than they were a year ago.
Poverty is growing in our country as in most other parts of the world.
Many more are without jobs to support themselves and their families.
Charities are doing their best to help,
but they too are dealing with falling incomes
and are able to pay for fewer staff than they had a year ago.
The Poppy Appeal cannot do street collections
and our Cornerstone Christmas Appeal cannot get funds
from present wrapping and carol singing in the shopping centres,
so will unable to help so many local causes this year.

This week it is rather chilling to note that a young man from Springfield,
one of our leafy grid squares, has been arrested for killing another young man in that area.
We need to pray for the families of all concerned in this tragedy.
Yet, there are things to celebrate and give thanks:
there are many people knuckling down to keep essential services running,
to tend the sick, to care for the infirm,
to provide our utilities and essential goods like food.
Let us add to that endeavour and in our lockdown think of others,
make an effort to say thank you to someone who delivers parcels to our door
or to make a telephone call to speak to someone we know and who we think might be lonely.
Little things can have such value at times like these.

I am mindful that last week we lost a person of great humanity and intellect,
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, a moral philosopher
who spoke and wrote about deep spiritual matters with accessible language.
He lived by the precept that it is more worthy and satisfying to give than to receive.
Let us pray that we too can be part of bringing goodwill and healing to our community.

A verse based upon thoughts of St Theresa of Avilla and then our final prayer.

Christ has no hands but your hands to do his work today:
no other feet but your feet to guide folk on their way:
no other lips but your lips to tell them why he died;
no other love but your love to win them to his side.

Loving God, we bring before you our troubled world,
we pray for all those who work to be part of the solution to the problems and the causes of the pain.
We ask for grace that we too may be part of this healing of the nations.
We pray for compassion to make our requests generously
in the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ
and for courage from your Holy Spirit
to discern where in our small way we can be part of the response.

Amen

Whatever we are doing today, going out or staying in,
may we be aware of God’s loving presence
– and ready to share it.

Don Head