Daily Office - Oct 28

Simon and Jude, Apostles

Psalm 116
I love the Lord,
for he has heard the voice of my supplication;
because he inclined his ear to me on the day I called to him.
The snares of death encompassed me;
the pains of hell took hold of me;
by grief and sorrow was I held.
Then I called upon the name of the Lord:
‘O Lord, I beg you, deliver my soul.’
Gracious is the Lord and righteous;
our God is full of compassion.
The Lord watches over the simple;
I was brought very low and he saved me.
Turn again to your rest, O my soul,
for the Lord has been gracious to you.
For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears and my feet from falling.
I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
I believed that I should perish for I was sorely troubled;
and I said in my alarm, ‘Everyone is a liar.’
How shall I repay the Lord for all the benefits he has given to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
I will fulfil my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants.
O Lord, I am your servant, your servant, the child of your handmaid;
you have freed me from my bonds.
I will offer to you a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of the Lord.
I will fulfil my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the Lord, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
Alleluia.

Psalm 117
O praise the Lord, all you nations; praise him, all you peoples.
For great is his steadfast love towards us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures for ever.
Alleluia.

Isaiah 45.18-26
For thus says the Lord,
who created the heavens
(he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it
(he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!):
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in chaos.’
I the Lord speak the truth,
I declare what is right.

Assemble yourselves and come together,
draw near, you survivors of the nations!
They have no knowledge—those who carry about their wooden idols,
and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.
Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together!
Who told this long ago?
Who declared it of old?
Was it not I, the Lord?
There is no other god besides me,
a righteous God and a Saviour;
there is no one besides me.

Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
By myself I have sworn,
from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness
a word that shall not return:
‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.’

Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me,
are righteousness and strength;
all who were incensed against him
shall come to him and be ashamed.
In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall triumph and glory.

Luke 6.12-16
Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

The Collect
Almighty God,
who built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
with Jesus Christ himself as the chief cornerstone:
so join us together in unity of spirit by their doctrine,
that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you;
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.

Church - Bothered?

You'd better believe it!

Found myself in amongst the poo this morning and as the shovel was pulled out of the 'This Is Church' toolkit I find myself confronted with the reason for the owner of the poo being in such dire straits: 'They didn't want to bother anyone!'

God looked at the earth and the way people turned each other over, unfairly making money from others, lying, cheating, stealing, getting into wrong relationships and generally damaging one another and He said to Himself: 'Now that's a bothersome sight, I think I need to get involved - better get down and dirty!'

The result of this, as few appear to know, is that He decides that something has to be done and that someone needs to stand in the gap and get their hands dirty! Jesus never stood in a pulpit and, looking over his glasses, preached about the ways that were open to us to get us out of the poo - not at all; Jesus jumped into the poo and started swimming to the exit calling on those also inturd to 'follow Him'. 

If there's something wrong in the neighbourhood, who you gonna call?

The Church

The Holy Ghost Busters!

What causes me to feel most saddened by the number of people caught in their own, or worse still, the sin of others is that they don't realise just how near they are to finding love, support and relief from their situations.

What hurts me more is that we don't appear to be telling them - for we are great at stating positions, drawing lines and looking holy; excellent at flower shows with their clever, twee and pretty arrangements; seasonally valid with our Christmas trees and entertaining with our choral events, fetes (worse than death) and the like but we don't tell them the stark truth about Church, and that is:

WE ARE HERE TO BE BOTHERED

And of course that means we are out there doing something about it .

We are out there bringing the reality of God's love to those in need.

No mere words - only strong, firm and convicted actions.

We carry our cross - denying ourselves and being willing, like Simon of Cyrene, to help carry other's too!

Lent - more than giving up chocolate

Christian  - more than mere words alone

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2