| 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, SUNDAY
10
June 5-11
Luke 7:11-17
(Sermon:
“The Man who Wakes the Dead “)
Galations 1:11-24
1 Kings 17: 8-24
Psalm 146
CALL TO WORSHIP
Greeting: The joy of the Lord Jesus
Christ be with you all.
And also with you.
Sentences: Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I
will praise God as long as I live;
I will sing
praises to God as long as I have being.
OR
Never
put your trust in princes or politicians.,
nor in any child of earth’s dust, for they cannot help you.
No
matter how important, they stop breathing like the rest of us,
on that day their schemes perish and return to the earth
Happy are those
whose help comes from the God of Jacob,
whose hope rests in the God of Christ Jesus.
This is the One who
makes and sustains
heaven and earth,
who
keeps faith with us forever.
PRAYER OF APPROACH
Let us approach God in prayer.
Most loving God,
today as we pray together, sing
together, and meditate together,
give to each of us your inner
light,
that we may see things more clearly
and know that you cherish us
more than a mother loves her baby,
more than a father cares for his child.
Then by your enabling Spirit,
show us how to cherish one
another
both in this house of prayer
and through all the commonness
of this new week.
Through Jesus Christ our
Lord.
Amen!
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Minister: Dear friends, our Lord Jesus has asked us
to love God with a single mind,
and to love those
around us with the same kind of love which he displayed.
In this we have surely failed.
Let us pray.
M: Whenever
our compassion dries up, and our hearts are like a dried up billabong,
Lord have mercy.
P: Lord have mercy.
M: Whenever
our minds foster resentment, and our thoughts become
like spiky spinifex,
Christ
have mercy.
P: Christ have mercy.
M: Whenever
our souls sink into apathy, and our prayers seem like clouds of bull dust,
Lord
have mercy.
P: Lord have mercy.
M: Merciful Lord, God of Jesus Christ and our God,
please forgive your delinquent children their folly and sin.
Wipe
away the grime and shame of our failures.
Recondition
our attitudes and our activities.
May
faith begin to truly fashion our goals,
may love radically shape our actions,
and hope uplift our prayers.
Through
Jesus whose love is our inspiration.
P: Amen!
ABSOLUTION
Friends, hear again this day the wonderful gospel:
“Here are words that are worth accepting:
Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
In him our sins are forgiven and our restoration and
peace are assured.
Thanks be to God.
As God has forgiven you, you are to forgive one
another.
The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all’
And also with you.
PRAYER FOR CHILDREN
I reckon you could do anything,
God?
If you can raise the dead
and give them life,
nothing is too much for you.
But you are too wise
and too loving to do everything
that we ask you.
When it seems to us
you don’t answer our prayers
don’t let us get in the sulks.
Help us to go on trusting
your mega wisdom and love,
especially we feel most puzzled
or disappointed.
Through Jesus our big Brother
and our Saviour.
Amen
PSALM 146
Hallelujah!
Praise the living God, O my soul!
As long as I
live, I will give praise to God.
As long as I
have breath, I will sing praises.
Let nobody put their trust in earthly rulers;
no human being can give the
help you need.
All will cease
to breathe and return to dust.
All their big
ideas will perish.
If you want to be happy, trust the God of Jacob,
put your hope in the one living
God;
The One who
called heaven and earth into being,
who shaped the sea and
everything in it.
Who forever keeps faith with us
who gives justice to the
oppressed people;
Who provides
enough food for all the hungry.
and sets the prisoners free
Our God opens the eyes of the blind.
those who are weighed down are
lifted up.
Sincere folk find they are Divinely
loved,
and our Lord watches over the
refugees.
God upholds
the rights of widow and orphan,
but the paths of the wicked
lead to ruin.
This is the only faithful God
who will be there for us,
forever;
Through all
generations,
God of the
redeemed!
Hallelujah!
COLLECT
God of widows and orphans, the consolation of the
sad,
you have visited and redeemed your people.
Grant that by the charisma of your true Son,
closed eyes and ears may be opened,
handicaps may be overcome,
disease may yield to health,
and those who are dead may be
raised up
to love, worship and serve you forever.
Amen!
SERMON: THE MAN WHO WAKES THE DEAD
Luke 7: 11-17
During last week, I saw some dying or dead people
walking around.
No kidding, I really did!
Some were pushing shopping trolleys around K Mart.
Some were eating “Whoppers” from Hungry Jacks
Some were driving BMW’s or reclining in stretched limos.
I saw some dying or dead men in smooth Italian suits
going into an expensive restaurant.
A dead, curvaceous model, briefly animated by a few
sniffs of cocaine, was parading her attributes for the cameras.
Another dead man, a politician, was avidly reading the
latest opinion polls as he bustled towards his office.
There you have it. I really have seen dying and dead
people walking. It’s not that rare. It is, indeed, so common that thousands of
men and women think of is as normal. In our culture, to be a well washed, well
connected, well manicured, well dressed, well off corpse is regarded as the
epitome of success..
THE BIBLE AND DEATH
I am of course, speaking the way the Bible speaks. I
am using the biblical perspective rather than that used by doctors in ER, or grave diggers
and undertakers. So let’s clarify this.
The Bible uses the words “death” and dead in two
ways. Sometimes these two meanings are separate, sometimes they overlap.
First, the Bible certainly does at times use the word
death in the same way as do grave diggers and doctors. Physical
death. The heart stops beating, the breath is stilled, rigour mortis and
decay are on the way.
Second, the Bible uses the word death to describe
spiritual rigour mortis. The essential nature of spiritual death is that we
become hardened and cut off from God. Human beings can become insensitive and
finally unresponsive
to the fundamental spiritual dimension of existence; cut off from
LIFE written with capital letters. Alienated from God and
from our own precious destiny; rebels against all that is truly loving and
lovely. Petty mutineers who become completely self-centred rather than
God centred. To be a godless person is to be already dead. In a profound sense
godless = dead. “Dead
in your trespasses and sins.”
For the Bible perspective, death is separation from
the Source of our being. It is the result allowing the “image of God” to decay.
It can be an infection from others, but often it is self inflicted. This death
comes from spiritual malnutrition or even spiritual self strangulation.
This death, not the physical one, is the ultimate
disaster. Compared with this, physical death is major, but not crucial, event.
Therefore, it is true for me to say that I see
hundreds of dying or dead people walking. In my youth there were horror films
about zombies. These were far fetched. But there is nothing far fetched about
spiritual zombies. Tragically these are not just a film gimmick to put the
shivers into adolescent film goers.
In the New Testament, physical death is certainly
real. But it is not the worst thing that can happen. It is spiritual death that
is to be really feared.
THE PRODIGAL SON
One of the two most famous of all the parables told
by Jesus is that story we usually call “the prodigal son.”
This foolish young man cut himself off from his true
family and destiny. He severed ties with his authentic life, cashed in his
inheritance, and
went to live an alien life among pagans.
Far away from home, in a foreign city he went on one big, extended party.
At the first he was surrounded by dozens of fair weather friends. “This is the
life,” he said as he shouted another round of drinks. Increasingly the basic
dignity of his true soul was eroded. Finally, destitute physically and
spiritually, he got a job looking after pigs. To a Jew, to be a swine herd was
a disgraceful occupation. He was as good
as dead.
Yet it seems that though he was near death, this son
was not yet totally dead. Beside the pig troughs, he came to his senses and
took the long and painful journey back home, hoping his father might employ him
as a servant.
The father had other ideas. The separation was over,
the dying was reversed. He ran and welcomed his child back to the life to which
he was born. He exclaimed for all to hear: “This
was son was dead, but now he is come alive again.”
To be back where we truly belong, is to be alive. To
be back in fellowship with God, is to be alive. Now that is a remarkable thing!
Many of us tend to take our place in the fellowship
of God’s family for granted. Only those who have cut themselves off, and found
themselves spiritually dying, realise the wonder of coming back where they
belong. It is like the joy of shaking off the coils of death and coming very
much alive again.
One young fellow who came
to me from counselling, thought he was not religious and evaded what he called
“church speak”. But one
day, as he experienced an infusion of the Spirit of God he
exclaimed: :”Bruce, it’s awesome. It’s like...like....its
like being born again.” Hearing his own words he grinned broadly,
recognising that he was actually quoting a Bible phrase.
JESUS AND THE DEAD YOUTH
In the Gospel reading set for this day, we heard
again the story of the corpse of a young man, the only son of a widow, that was being carried off for burial. The compassionate soul of Jesus was deeply
moved. He told the widow to stop weeping. Then he stepped up to the bier,
touched it and said: “Young man, I say to you, rise up.” The youth sat up, and began to speak.
Luke intended us to see Jesus literally waking a man
who was physically dead. At the word of Jesus, the dead would live again. Jesus
is the Word that wakes the dead.
But let us also remember the deeper level of Bible
thought. The death to be most feared is that of the spirit. The Gospel of John especially dwells on this
theme. To believe in Jesus, is to already pass from death to eternal life.
Jesus meets us on our way to the cemetery, has pity on us and says: “Young
man/old man, young woman/old woman, I say to you: Rise up!”
SUMMARY
DOH Laurence, that rebellious spirit, once wrote:
“It is a fearful thing to fall into
the hands of the living God.
But it is a much more fearful thing to fall
out of them.”
To be out of the hands of God, to choose a way of
life which is separation, is to choose spiritual decay and death.
“It is a fearful thing to fall into
the hands of the living God.
But it is a much more fearful thing to fall
out of them.”
Jesus of Nazareth, that living Word of God, still
comes to us wherever we are, touches the bier on which we find ourselves being
carried along by our culture and speaks to directly us: “Young man, young woman, I say to you rise up.”
While we are (to quote Paul) dead in our trespasses and sins Christ Jesus comes our way to
resuscitate the dying and to wake the dead.
In
our weakness and weariness he comes to wake the dead.
If
we become puffed up, confusing self importance with life, he comes.
He
comes to us when we sink into resentments, bitterness, or apathy.
In
our pride, our twenty first century technological inspired hubris, he comes to
us.
In
our post-modern flirting with a life devoid of firm ethical values, he comes to
us.
He hates to see death claim us..
He comes to all those biers and coffins which we foolishly may have decorated,
and pretended to be “the good life,” and says to us:
“Young man,
old man, young woman, old woman, rise up.”
The story of the widow’s only son is a universal
story. Jesus strides over long centuries and across continents and
islands. All souls matter. No dying or
dead person is dispensable. All people matter to this Lord of grace,
mercy and peace.
“Young man,
old man, young woman, old woman, rise up.”
A CREED
I trust in whom I believe,
I love whom I trust,
I trust whom I worship,
I worship the Holy One
who is Most Beautiful
in the eyes of my soul.
I believe in Jesus of Nazareth,
I love his word and his way,
I trust in the reconciling cross,
I worship the exquisite
Beauty reflected in him.
I believe I am never alone,
I love the Holy Friend,
I trust in the Spirit of Truth,
I worship the Beauty of the
Inner Light.
I believe I am a child of God,
I love the family of God,
I trust the way of service,
I worship the beautiful God
who serves beside us.
I trust in whom I believe,
I love whom trust,
I trust whom I worship,
I worship the Holy One
who is most beautiful in the eyes of my soul.
Amen!
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
Like a child asking a loving parent for good things,
let us come to God in our
prayers of intercession.
Let us pray.
Lord
of abundant life, Friend of sinners, Word that wakes the dead,
we come to you, praying both for ourselves and for other
people.
Deliver
us and all people from those malignant attitudes and actions
which lead to spiritual dissolution and death.
Please save your people from a trust in money and
possessions, from gaining a whole world and losing our souls.
Save our community from the disease of resentment
and revenge. Heal us by your divine touch, teach us to
forgive as we are forgiven by you.
Save us from permitting physical ailments or
handicaps to dominate or embitter our souls, or from the lie that a run of good
health is a just reward for our righteousness.
Save the sorrow of wanting to keep grief alive
rather than moving on; from looking for pity instead of healing and the comfort
of your Spirit.`
Save our nation from panic and fear, from worrying
about a multitude of secondary things while neglecting the one core thing that
is needful.
Save strong nations from lording it over others, and
weaker nations from waiting for some magical political messiah to solve their
problems.
Save the mass media from idolising the self-centred
people and spurning the meek, from applauding retribution and scoffing at those
who are merciful.
Save us from the death that stalks those who harshly
judge others, from presuming to “take speck of dust our of a
neighbour’s eye while having a plank in our own.”
Save us from not finishing well, for that static discipleship which keeps
looking backwards, like a ploughman looking
over his shoulder..
Save us from pretty religion
which avoids the way of the cross, and from refusing to “rejoice and be glad”
on that day when we are persecuted for our faith.
Save your church from becoming like whitewashed
tombs; from that fake holiness which draws in upon itself and cuts off the
world and its needs.
Most
loving God, to believe in you in to
start living, to trust you is to have peace to share,
to serve you is to know fulfilment, to suffer for you is to experience a unique
happiness, to die with you is to rise
into unlimited life.
By
your grace, keep safe and healthy all that we have committed to you, from here
to eternity. Through
Christ Jesus our Saviour.
Amen!
WORD OF MISSION AND BLESSING
My friends, this life is not
a rehearsal.
Every day and each week is precious.
Here and now is blessed reality;
each day can be claimed
as either life to be loved or
lost to death.
Praise the
Lord, O my soul!
I will praise
God as long as I live;
Step out in faith and hope,
and pray that God will enhance
your successes,
annual your blunders and mistakes,
and replace your weakness with
a humble strength.
I will praise
God as long as I live;
I will sing
praises to God as long as I have being.
The blessing of the Holy One,
whom the Church through the ages has cherished
as Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
be with you this day and always.
Amen!
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