| New Book now Available Here is an anthology of over 1100 brief prayers and thought-starters, for each day of the year, with almost 400 original prayers by Bruce Prewer. Included is both a subject index and an index of authors-- an ecumenical collection of about 300 different sources. |
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| Title: Brief Prayers for Busy People. Author: Bruce D Prewer ISBN 978-1-62880-090-6 Available from Australian Church Resources, web site www.acresources.com.au email service@acresources.com.au or by order from your local book shop or online on amazon. |
YEAR C,
EPIPHANY January 6th.
Matthew 2:2-12.
(Sermon:
“Epiphany: Are We Arrogant?”)
Ephesians 3:1-12.
Psalm 72: 1-7, 10-14.
Isaiah 60: 1-6
PREPARATION
The wise men came asking: “Where is he who is born
king of the Jews?
For we have
seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.”
The wise folk still come asking, receiving the good
news and worshipping the Christ;
The king of love, light of the world, the epiphany of God.
The light of Christ Jesus be
with you all.
And also with you!
OR—
Entering the house, the wise men saw the Child with
Mary his mother,
and they fell down and
worshipped him.
Arise and shine, for you light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has
risen upon you.
All nations
shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of
your rising.
The light of God in Messiah Jesus be
with you all!
And also with
you!
PRAYER OF APPROACH
Most wonderful God, as wise men followed the star of
their most sacred hopes, you led them to where your
Son was revealed. Guide us we pray, beyond all that is trendy or cheap, and
even beyond those things that are virtues, to your unique disclosure in Christ.
Humbled there in awe and delight, may we recommit
ourselves to that holy worship which recognises no boundary between sacred and
secular, west and east, or male and female. Through Christ
our Messiah.
Amen!
CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS
Let us ask God to deliver us from our sins. Let us
pray.
From being taken in by glitz and glamour while
neglecting the truths that come in common places and through humble people;
save us, loving God.
Deliver us
good Lord, and forgive our sins which are many.
From following those false prophets who pander to
our prejudices and who sell us short with a religion
of cheap rewards; save us, loving God.
Deliver us
good Lord, and forgive our sins which are many.
From bowing down to gods
that are made in our own likeness, and from only accepting responsibilities
that suit our personal comfort zone; save us, loving God.
Deliver us
good Lord, and forgive our sins which are many.
From following the Wise Men to the infant Christ,
and bowing down with outward ostentation while inwardly making provisos; save
us, loving God.
Deliver us
good Lord, and forgive our sins which are many.
Merciful God, holy Friend, you have promised to all
who turn to you with honest repentance, certain forgiveness of sins and the
life everlasting. Fulfil your promise in us today, we humbly pray. Through
Christ Jesus our Redeemer,
Amen!
ABSOLUTION
Whatever God promises, God delivers. Lift up your
hearts and minds above failure and shame, and let the light of Christ sweep
away all gloom and anxiety. Delight in your Saviour! You are a forgiven
community!
Thanks be to God!
PRAYER FOR CHILDREN
People Who Look Different
Dear God, Jesus has shown me for sure
that you love everybody.
just as much as you love me.
When kids who look different
or speak with funny accents
are called hurtful names
or get bullied,
help me to stick up for them.
For your love’s sake.
Amen!
THE MAGI
A COUNTRY
COP’S VIEW
I watched them arrive,
raising their surprised eyebrows
at this small hill town,
looking this way and that
at its obscure renown.
They seemed eager yet afraid;
eager to complete their mission,
yet afraid that the end
might ask much more of them
than they till now intend.
I watched them leave,
just a few days later,
heading from the camel yards
with servants and baggage
and fresh-hired body guards.
What was it they have found
within Bethlehem’s obscurity
that made them seek protection
like couriers carrying gold
or a priceless pearl
collection?
There’s more to this event
than meets the eye
that’s not ours to command;
something mysterious is afoot
that reason can’t understand.
Ó B D Prewer 2003
COLLECT
Most holy Friend, you led people from afar to find
the Mystery Child. May we, who have come from even further away, never take
your Christ for granted. Please keep alive in our
hearts wonder and praise, and make us eager to share that light with all
comers, without exception. In the name of this same Jesus, who with you and the
Holy Spirit deserve all honour and praise from every land and race, world
without end.
Amen!
SERMON: EPIPHANY: ARE WE ARROGANT?
Matthew 2: 1
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in the days of
Herod the king, behold wise men came from the East saying, “Where is he who is
born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to
worship him.”
Are we being arrogant to suggest that the Epiphany
is for all nations?
Are we being patronising to claim that Christ the
whole world?
Historically speaking, without doubt church has been
arrogant. Without doubt there are still some Christian zealots who today treat
other races and religions as lesser breeds, to be cajoled or bullied into submission.
Arrogance has not entirely faded away.
But does a belief in Christ as the light of the world have to be
bound up with arrogance? Is it inevitable? I think not. In truth I would
strongly argue that whenever it is linked to arrogance it is no longer the
truth of the humble, inclusive Messiah.
FOR ALL PEOPLE
It is true that we cannot resile from preaching
“Christ for the world.” Not if we want to remain true to the Gospel that
excited those first Christian witnesses.
We believe that what God did in Messiah Jesus has
relevance for all people. It was for the world that he was born, lived, taught,
suffered, died and rose again.
However, he and his message are not for an
exclusive, privileged few. Not for a smug elite who are then entitled to patronise
or mock the rest as outsiders. Christ’s arms are stretched wide to embrace all;
male and female, young and old, Asian and Australian, Arab and Jew, Hindu and
atheist, sinner and saint. As the remarkable hymn writer Charles Wesley put it:
Love, like death, has all destroyed,
Rendered all distinctions void.
Names and sects and parties fall,
You, O Christ, are all in all.”
WANTING TO SHARE THE GOOD NEWS
The Good News is for sharing. One cannot experience
the liberating grace of God in Messiah Jesus and not want others to share it.
It is good news. Always good news. It is not our task to ram Christianity down
the throat of others; but we cannot but help to want them to have the chance to
delight in it.
No one has expressed this better than Charles
Wesley:
O that the world might taste and see
The wonders of his
grace.
The arms of love that compass me
would all
mankind embrace.
We are called to be the evangelists, the good news
couriers, of Christ.
HUMBLE EVANGELISTS
However, the sharing of the good news is best
accomplished in genuine, warm-hearted humility. Arrogance is a…a…. an
obscenity! We should respect the religious heritage and sensibilities of other
people.
We should respect the sincere agnostic and dedicated
humanist; ready to listen them. Indeed, God may give
them a word to speak to us which we need to hear. Exuberance, coupled with
humility and respect, should characterise those who want the world “to taste
and see the wonders of his grace.”
On this Epiphany I call to mind a brief but powerful
saying of a wonderful Christian who has for many years now, been a member of
the larger church in heaven. D.T Niles of Sri Lanka once commented:
“A Christian is just one beggar
showing other beggars where to find bread.”
This saying came from a person living in a community
where Christianity was a minor religion; about 6% if I recall correctly. Niles
had a profound respect for the other major religions around him. Yet there was
no limit to his passion for Christ Jesus, he was a tireless evangelist. But he
fulfilled his passionate ministry with a humble awareness of his status as
“just another one of those for whom Christ Jesus died.”
Such humility is, I believe, the life style that
should emerge from our Epiphany celebrations.
THE LEGEND AND OUR PRIVILEGE
The more elaborate legend that grew around the Magi
was essentially valid. It was an ‘folk theology.’ They
took Matthew’s scant description of three magi and turned them into Caspar,
Melchior and Balthazar, representing the known world of that time: East, Europe
and Africa, They were smart. Jesus the Christ does belong to the world, and people from every part of the world, and from
every race and class, have found in him the revelation of God.
That is the thrust of epiphany. It is the revealed
glory of our Messiah Jesus which we celebrate and to which we bear witness in
the world. No room for arrogance. Let
our witness always be done in genuine humility; a humility based on the fact
that we have this good news not by virtuous works, effort, superior wisdom,
purer religion, but simply by the free grace of God.
We are just remarkably fortunate beggars, “showing
other beggars where to find bread.”
THIS WE
BELIEVE
We believe God is light in whom there is no shadow
or darkness at all. The light has always shone in the darkness and the darkness
can never overcome it.
We believe that the light of God has been openly
displayed in Jesus, who though being human as we are, is the very radiance of
the invisible God.
We believe that this revelation belongs to the
world, for Jew and Palestinian, American and Iraqi, English and Argentinian,
Ethiopian and Swedish, Indonesian and Australian.
We believe that those who come seeking him, even
though they bear no gift except their spiritual emptiness, will never be
mislead and never turned away.
We believe that by the Spirit this light of God in
Christ is revealed to us, and that by grace we are
among the luckiest people in the world.
This we believe, may God help us to express it
without reticence or distortion.
Amen!
PRAYERS FOR COMMUNITY, NATION AND WORLD
This
prayer is designed for 2 voices, but may
be used solo, or with Leader and People.
Most glorious Friend, we pray that the revelation of
Christ will be made available in all places, and that the Gospel will bring joy and peace to all people.
We pray for our international neighbours: Our New
Zealand cousins, the people of Papua & New Guinea, those in Timor,
Indonesia, the
Philippines, and the island nations of the Pacific.
Please bless everything that is good in our
cultures and beliefs, eradicate that which is evil, and bring us all into the
harmony for which Christ came.
We pray for our domestic neighbours: Those in our
street, office, workshop, on train, tram or bus, or highway; those on
neighbouring farms, working fishing boats, toiling in mines, or living in
nearby towns. Please bless these
neighbours; help us to honour one another with that respect which you have
given us in Jesus.
We pray for enemies within our community and nation : Individuals and groups who oppose our ideas and
beliefs, sneer at our goals and values, or who simply dislike us and try to
make our lives as miserable as possible. Please
bless all these people who hate us and have mercy on those who spitefully treat
us, just as Christ has mercy on us.
We pray for our international enemies: Countries who
despise our culture or hate our politics; or those who believe we have treated
them unjustly and whose grievances have festered; some who set out to denigrate
our nation in international forums, and any who plan terrorism or war against
us. Please bless our enemies and help us
to forgive them, even as Jesus forgave his enemies..
Most wise and merciful Friend, you send your
life-giving sunshine or both good and evil people, and give refreshing rain to
both the just and the unjust, make us more like you in our attitudes and
actions. Let our faith in a Christ who
belongs to the whole world be expressed, not just in songs and creeds, but in
our attitudes and deeds, that the world may taste and see, the wonders of your
grace. Through Christ Jesus, our humble, loving Lord.
Amen!
WORD OF
MISSION AND BLESSING
Epiphany isan unveiling,
manifestation, revelation, eye-opener, a glorious self expose¢ by God in Christ Jesus.
In Jesus we
are blessed with the most remarkable epiphany.
Let us go our separate ways, carrying the light of
that revelation
into every shady situation and
every dark corner.
The God of all grace be the strength in your hands,
The Christ of all light be the guide for your feet,
The Spirit of all truth be
the integrity in our deeds.
Amen!
The incomparable blessing of the three person’d God
will be with you this day and
ever more.
Amen!
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