Morning Prayer - Friday 2 March 2018

Lent

Chad, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672

Psalm 40
I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He brought me out of the roaring pit, out of the mire and clay; he set my feet upon a rock and made my footing sure.

He has put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many shall see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not turn to the proud that follow a lie.

Great are the wonders you have done, O Lord my God.
How great your designs for us!
There is none that can be compared with you.
If I were to proclaim them and tell of them they would be more than I am able to express.

Sacrifice and offering you do not desire but my ears you have opened;
Burnt offering and sacrifice for sin you have not required; then said I:
‘Lo, I come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me that I should do your will, O my God; I delight to do it: your law is within my heart.’

I have declared your righteousness in the great congregation; behold, I did not restrain my lips, and that, O Lord, you know. Your righteousness I have not hidden in my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your loving-kindness and truth from the great congregation.

Do not withhold your compassion from me, O Lord; let your love and your faithfulness always preserve me, For innumerable troubles have come about me; my sins have overtaken me so that I cannot look up; they are more in number than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and altogether dismayed who seek after my life to destroy it; let them be driven back and put to shame
who wish me evil. Let those who heap insults upon me be desolate because of their shame. Let all who seek you rejoice in you and be glad; let those who love your salvation say always,
‘The Lord is great.’

Though I am poor and needy, the Lord cares for me. You are my helper and my deliverer; O my God, make no delay.

Psalm 41
Blessed are those who consider the poor and needy; the Lord will deliver them in the time of trouble.
The Lord preserves them and restores their life, that they may be happy in the land; he will not hand them over to the will of their enemies.

The Lord sustains them on their sickbed; their sickness, Lord, you will remove. And so I said, ‘Lord, be merciful to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you.’

My enemies speak evil about me, asking when I shall die and my name perish. If they come to see me, they utter empty words; their heart gathers mischief; when they go out, they tell it abroad. All my enemies whisper together against me, against me they devise evil, Saying that a deadly thing has laid hold on me, and that I will not rise again from where I lie. Even my bosom friend, whom I trusted,
who ate of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

But you, O Lord, be merciful to me and raise me up, that I may reward them. By this I know that you favour me, that my enemy does not triumph over me. Because of my integrity you uphold me and will set me before your face for ever.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.

Genesis 45.16-end
When the report was heard in Pharaoh’s house, ‘Joseph’s brothers have come’, Pharaoh and his servants were pleased. Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Say to your brothers, “Do this: load your animals and go back to the land of Canaan. Take your father and your households and come to me, so that I may give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you may enjoy the fat of the land.” You are further charged to say, “Do this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. Give no thought to your possessions, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.” ’

The sons of Israel did so. Joseph gave them wagons according to the instruction of Pharaoh, and he gave them provisions for the journey. To each one of them he gave a set of garments; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five sets of garments. To his father he sent the following: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey. Then he sent his brothers on their way, and as they were leaving he said to them, ‘Do not quarrel along the way.’

So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. And they told him, ‘Joseph is still alive! He is even ruler over all the land of Egypt.’ He was stunned; he could not believe them. But when they told him all the words of Joseph that he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. Israel said, ‘Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I must go and see him before I die.’

Hebrews 3.7-end
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, “They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.”  As in my anger I swore, “They will not enter my rest.” ’

Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. As it is said,
‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’

Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? But with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

The Collect
Almighty God, from the first fruits of the English nation who turned to Christ, you called your servant Chad to be an evangelist and bishop of his own people: give us grace so to follow his peaceable nature, humble spirit and prayerful life, that we may truly commend to others the faith which we ourselves profess; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Morning Prayer - Thursday 2 March 2017

Lent 
Chad, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672

Psalm 77
I cry aloud to God; I cry aloud to God and he will hear me.

In the day of my trouble I have sought the Lord; by night my hand is stretched out and does not tire; my soul refuses comfort. I think upon God and I groan; I ponder, and my spirit faints. You will not let my eyelids close; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old; I remember the years long past; I commune with my heart in the night; my spirit searches for understanding.

Will the Lord cast us off for ever?
Will he no more show us his favour?
Has his loving mercy clean gone for ever?
Has his promise come to an end for evermore?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he shut up his compassion in displeasure?

And I said, ‘My grief is this: that the right hand of the Most High has lost its strength.’ I will remember the works of the Lord and call to mind your wonders of old time. I will meditate on all your works and ponder your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy; who is so great a god as our God?

You are the God who worked wonders and declared your power among the peoples. With a mighty arm you redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph.

The waters saw you, O God; the waters saw you and were afraid; the depths also were troubled.
The clouds poured out water; the skies thundered; your arrows flashed on every side;
The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lit up the ground; the earth trembled and shook.

Your way was in the sea, and your paths in the great waters, but your footsteps were not known. You led your people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Jeremiah 2.14-32
Is Israel a slave? Is he a home-born servant? Why then has he become plunder?

The lions have roared against him, they have roared loudly.They have made his land a waste; his cities are in ruins, without inhabitant. Moreover, the people of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of your head. Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord your God, while he led you in the way?

What then do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile?
Or what do you gain by going to Assyria, to drink the waters of the Euphrates?

Your wickedness will punish you, and your apostasies will convict you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God; the fear of me is not in you,
says the Lord God of hosts.

For long ago you broke your yoke and burst your bonds, and you said, ‘I will not serve!’ On every high hill and under every green tree you sprawled and played the whore. Yet I planted you as a choice vine, from the purest stock.
How then did you turn degenerate and become a wild vine?

Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me,
says the Lord God.

How can you say, ‘I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals’?
Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done—a restive young camel interlacing her tracks, a wild ass at home in the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind!

Who can restrain her lust?
None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her. Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst.

But you said, ‘It is hopeless, for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.’

As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed—they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, who say to a tree, ‘You are my father’, and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their backs to me and not their faces. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Come and save us!’

But where are your gods that you made for yourself?
Let them come, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah.

Why do you complain against me? You have all rebelled against me, says the Lord.
In vain I have struck down your children; they accepted no correction. Your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion. And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord!

Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness Why then do my people say, ‘We are free, we will come to you no more’?

Can a girl forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?
Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number.

John 4.1-26
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, ‘Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John’— although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized—he left Judea and started back to Galilee. But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’

Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’

The Collect
Almighty God, from the first fruits of the English nation who turned to Christ, you called your servant Chad to be an evangelist and bishop of his own people: give us grace so to follow his peaceable nature, humble spirit and prayerful life, that we may truly commend to others the faith which we ourselves profess; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Daily Office - Mar 2

Chad, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672

Psalm 3
Lord, how many are my adversaries;
many are they who rise up against me.
Many are they who say to my soul, ‘There is no help for you in your God.’
But you, Lord, are a shield about me;
you are my glory, and the lifter up of my head.
When I cry aloud to the Lord, he will answer me from his holy hill;
I lie down and sleep and rise again, because the Lord sustains me.
I will not be afraid of hordes of the peoples that have set themselves against me all around.
Rise up, O Lord, and deliver me, O my God,
for you strike all my enemies on the cheek and break the teeth of the wicked.
Salvation belongs to the Lord: may your blessing be upon your people.

Psalm 25
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;
O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies triumph over me.
Let none who look to you be put to shame, but let the treacherous be shamed and frustrated.
Make me to know your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation;
for you have I hoped all the day long.
Remember, Lord, your compassion and love, for they are from everlasting.
Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions,
but think on me in your goodness, O Lord, according to your steadfast love.
Gracious and upright is the Lord;
therefore shall he teach sinners in the way.
He will guide the humble in doing right and teach his way to the lowly.
All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
For your name’s sake, O Lord, be merciful to my sin, for it is great.
Who are those who fear the Lord? Them will he teach in the way that they should choose.
Their soul shall dwell at ease and their offspring shall inherit the land.
The hidden purpose of the Lord is for those who fear him and he will show them his covenant.
My eyes are ever looking to the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.
Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am alone and brought very low.
The sorrows of my heart have increased;
O bring me out of my distress.
Look upon my adversity and misery and forgive me all my sin.
Look upon my enemies, for they are many and they bear a violent hatred against me.
O keep my soul and deliver me;
let me not be put to shame, for I have put my trust in you.
Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for my hope has been in you.
Deliver Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

Gather up your bundle from the ground, O you who live under siege!
For thus says the Lord:
I am going to fling away the inhabitants of the land at this time,
and I will bring distress on them, so that they shall feel it.

Woe is me because of my hurt! My wound is severe. But I said,
‘Truly this is my punishment, and I must bear it.’

My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken;
my children have gone from me, and they are no more;
there is no one to spread my tent again, and to set up my curtains.
For the shepherds are stupid, and do not inquire of the Lord;
therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered.

Hear, a noise! Listen, it is coming - a great commotion from the land of the north to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a lair of jackals.
I know, O Lord, that the way of human beings is not in their control, that mortals as they walk cannot direct their steps.

Correct me, O Lord, but in just measure; not in your anger, or you will bring me to nothing.

John 7.25-36
Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying,
‘Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah? Yet we know where this man is from; but when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.’

Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple,
‘You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.’

Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many in the crowd believed in him and were saying,
‘When the Messiah comes, will he do more signs than this man has done?’

The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering such things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent temple police to arrest him. Jesus then said,
‘I will be with you a little while longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will search for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.’

The Jews said to one another, ‘Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, “You will search for me and you will not find me” and, “Where I am, you cannot come”?’

The Collect
Almighty God,
from the first fruits of the English nation who turned to Christ,
you called your servant Chad to be an evangelist and bishop of his own people:
give us grace so to follow his peaceable nature,
      humble spirit and prayerful life,
that we may truly commend to others the faith which we ourselves profess;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

(Apologies for not having posted the office yesterday - this was due to technical problems!)