Morning Prayer Wednesday, 7 July 2021

Good morning, Cornerstone friends, on what may well be another day of unseasonable weather.
That should not stop us from praising God together.

Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
for it is good for the just to sing praises.
Praise the Lord with the lyre;
on the ten stringed harp sing his praise.
Sing for him a new song;
play music skilfully with shouts of praise.
For the word of the Lord is true
and all his works are sure.
He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord.

Psalm 33: 1–5

Feed your people, O Lord with your holy word and free us from the emptiness of our wrongful desires,
that we may sing a new song of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

Then Jesus summoned his disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.

These are the names of the twelve Apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

These twelve were sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near at hand.’

Matthew 10: 1–7

‘Sing a new song to the Lord, play skilfully’ is the message of the psalm. Sing in your hearts even if you have a mask and are asked not to sing.

Q ‘Why did the choir cross the road?’
A ‘To get to a major sporting event so that they could all sing together in a group’

Let us pray that we shall soon have the freedom to sing our praise in church, loud and sincerely as just people and as the psalmist urges us to do.

We have the names of the Apostles (those who witnessed first-hand the resurrection of our Lord), but little more about several of them. Peter and James became bishops in Rome and Jerusalem, John and Matthew gave us gospels. Philip converted an emissary of the ruler of Ethiopia and thus the church was established in Africa, Thomas is considered to have taken the gospel to India via Syria, from where it also reached China by 635 CE, the time of St Augustine in England. Little is known of the others and we in the north and west owe our faith to St Paul who was not one of the twelve.

‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ What does that mean? Here is an extract from a book by Mary Cotes (Women without Walls):

The proclamation of the Kingdom of God is central to Jesus’ ministry. He announces it right from the very moment when, at the start of the gospel story, he comes into Galilee and calls his listeners, men and women alike, to seek a dramatic change in their lives: Repent! Be converted! Jesus speaks of a categorical change of orientation. Stop, turn around and go in the opposite direction. He is not recommending a superficial lifestyle change or the violent replacement of one military power by another. Nor is he advocating the practice of a private, self-absorbed spirituality.

Rather he is pointing to a profound transformation that will begin with each one of us and overflow into the whole society.

‘What an extraordinary invitation!’ is how Mary continues in the next paragraph.

Mary uses this saying of Jesus from Matthew 13: 33 as a theme for her book.

‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’ Aren’t we people the yeast and our society is the dough.

Now we have the good news, the lockdown is going to end. We have to ask very seriously, what instructions in our time are we in the church getting from Jesus? What is he telling us we should do? What is he telling us we should not do at this stage, so that we can concentrate on and achieve, what we should be doing?  Let us with that in mind pray for the church locally and world wide

Gracious Father, by the obedience of Jesus you brought salvation to our wayward world;
draw us into harmony with your will, that we may find all things restored in him, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Amen

Let us also with those thoughts of the Kingdom of Heaven pray for ‘our wayward world’.

Mary Cotes also writes,

We are called to look for signs of the Kingdom in every context; in our hospitals and schools, in our prisons, not to mention the worlds of politics and finance, in the arts and sciences. God will not be imprisoned by the walls built by our own fears, our rigid traditions or engrained comfort zones. Like the yeast, the Kingdom is already at work in the hearts and lives in every place, and in his great generosity, God invites us to collaborate with him.

We regularly pray for the big issues and in a world context. Can we today pray for the world on our doorstep, those who live in Central Milton Keynes and Campbell Park, which comprises mostly apartments in multi-storey blocks with little in the way of local provision of convenience stores, play areas and schools; very little opportunity to create cohesive communities. Last Sunday Ernesto talked about how this generation feels alienated by the attitude and language of the church. We have to think hard about how we can be relevant to these people living close to our building.

Loving God, open our hearts so that we may feel the breath and play of your Spirit.
Unclench our hands so that we may reach out to one another and touch and be healed.
Open our lips that we may drink in the delight and declare the wonder of life.
Open our eyes so that we may see Christ in friend and stranger.
Breathe your Spirit into us and touch our lives with the life of Christ so that we will share that life with those we meet.

Amen

Go safely and happily through your day.

(I have given an unashamed plug for Mary Cote’s book, Women without Walls, which was originally written in French and published about four year ago to encourage female leaders in protestant churches there. Last year she was approached by a publisher in Asia for an English version, which has just been released. It uses various parables of the Kingdom to link with the lives of women in the Bible and women throughout history who have witnessed their faith beyond the roles traditionally reserved for them of being mothers and homemakers. That does not mean it is only for women to read!

I will leave copies in the bookshop to inspect and will take orders from anyone interested. Unfortunately church publications do not have large print runs and tend to be expensive. These are £19 each, so club together with a chum and share. Leave your name and contact details with Mark Okor.)

Don Head