Morning Prayers Saturday, 16 May 2020
A reading from the book of Genesis:
13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 ‘Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you – the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground – so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.’
18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds – everything that moves on land – came out of the ark, one kind after another.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22 ‘As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.’
Genesis 5: 13–22
Dear Lord, at the moment we are all like Noah,
closed up in the ark, each in our own home.
At the moment the flood of the Covid-19 crisis is still all around us,
yet we know, that as long as we have faith in you, this crisis will pass,
the flood will recede and we, like Noah and his family,
will come out of the ark into the world that you have created and preserved for us.
Let us remember your promise to Noah, that
‘As long as earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night will never cease.’
Life will go on and we shall rejoice and be glad in it.
As we wait for the pandemic to subside, we give thanks to you
that we are still able to enjoy many aspects of our daily lives:
we can enjoy the burgeoning growth of Spring.
We have time to watch and observe the many small beauties of nature.
We know that we can look forward to better times to come,
and we can prepare to give thanks to you
and to celebrate all the gifts you shower on us.
We bring to you, in our prayers this morning,
all those families and individuals who are in complete isolation,
unable to leave their house,
just as Noah and his family were unable to leave the ark.
Let us do all we can for those in such isolation,
where we can by running errands for them,
or telephoning them or keeping in touch by the many means we have at our disposal thanks to modern technology.
We pray for your Church of Christ the Cornerstone,
we pray that we may continue to learn and understand more deeply
that the Church of Christ the Cornerstone is built of us, living stones,
who, when we work and pray together, build up your Church
and enable us to fulfil the Church’s mission to the wider world.
We end our prayers this morning by saying together the words that Jesus taught us:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen
