Morning Prayer Wednesday, 28 July 2021
Good morning, good people on this last Wednesday of July.
Yesterday we had the funeral of our sister in Christ, Joy Okwuadigbo, a strong, tenacious and loving lady, a good example to follow.
1 The Lord reigns,
let the nations tremble;
he sits enthroned between the cherubim,
let the earth shake.
2 Great is the Lord in Zion;
he is exalted over all the nations.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name –
he is holy.
4 The King is mighty, he loves justice –
you have established equity;
in Jacob you have done
what is just and right.
5 Exalt the Lord our God
and worship at his footstool;
he is holy.
Psalm 99: 1–5 NIV®
Lord God, mighty king, you love justice and establish equity;
may we love justice more than gain and mercy more than power;
through Jesus Christ out Lord.
Amen
‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
‘Have you understood all this?’
They answered, ‘Yes’.
And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’
When Jesus had finished these parable, he left that place.
Matthew 13: 47–53
The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble, is the message of the psalm
and the Kingdom of Heaven is the subject of our Lord’s teaching in Matthew’s gospel.
All of the readings in July have covered a period when Jesus was based in Capernaum, a substantial town on the lake of Galilee, and home town of Peter and Andrew, James and John.
Last week we had the parable of the sower and the readings for the days since then have been the ‘parables of the kingdom’: for example, the mustard seed, the yeast in dough, the pearl of great price and treasure buried in a field.
Today’s parable uses a picture familiar to the disciples, sorting a catch of fish into baskets. (No plastic containers with ice and refrigerators like our fishermen use.) Fish had to be sorted quickly by variety:
those that are only good fresh, those for drying in the sun and those for salting or curing. Finally the useless ones were thrown out for bait or to feed dogs or the gulls.
When Jesus and the disciples left Capernaum he went to Nazareth and he again found that many there were not ready to listen. He quickly moved from there on hearing that Herod had executed John the Baptist. It’s all in chapter 14 for you to read if you want to.
Last Sunday’s reading also had fish as part of the food which a young lad offered to share. This started the ball rolling and many thousands of people were able to satisfy their hunger. We had a reminder from Ernesto two weeks ago of the value of ‘companionship’, a word derived from sharing bread with one another. Last Sunday we had ‘compassion’, a word derived from being together caring for one another and then together caring for others.
Today’s parable is similar to the one about sheep and goats. If our faith does not lead us to practical steps to care for others, particularly the vulnerable and disadvantaged, we make ourselves remote from the love of God and open to his judgement.
Let us pray for the church world-wide, that it will not only hear the word of God but live it out in active witness.
To you, Lord God the source of all energy and life, we pray let us inherit a share of your Spirit as enjoyed by your saints of old.
Place the wonder of your presence at the core of our being, that we may be compassionate and bold, gentle and courageous, forbearing and daring.
We do not want to follow the paths that crowds seek out or hanker after our own popularity. We want to follow wherever you may take us, without opposing or rebuking, except for the sake of the excluded and marginalised.
Amen
We are now entering the holiday season. Some of us will be travelling for time away from home, perhaps to the seaside or to see family in distant places that we have not seen for a long while. Some of us will prefer to stay at home or travel only short distances and some are unable to travel for health or economic reasons.
It has been quiet on our Reception desk at Cornerstone during the lockdown. Our local council have used government emergency funds to house homeless people in hotel rooms, but now these arrangements have ceased and we have more requests for food and help. Our pastoral workers are meeting tomorrow to share their experiences and to think how we can respond to these new circumstances.
Let us remember all those who will find this ‘holiday’ period stressful.
Heavenly Father, we pray that in this holiday period we may not be so carried away that we forget your love for us. We remember this morning all those who face difficulties that we could never handle and they probably feel the same. We pray for those that they too may feel the warmth of your love through unexpected encounters that seem to be by chance.
We pray for all those who carry great responsibility for international relations, for global business and for ourselves as ordinary people, that we may all be aware that our actions have consequences for others and for the environment and climate of our world.
When we are left only being able to say ‘O God, why?’ make us impatient for that day when all creation will be renewed as you made it through the action of your love at work in everyone.
Amen. So be it.
May we all remain aware of God’s love for us in August.
We resume our daily postings on 1 September 2021.
Don Head
