| 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 12
June 19-25
Luke 8: 26-39...
( Sermon 1: A Man Called Mob)
Galatians 3:23-29....
Psalm 42....
1 Kings 19:1-4 & 8-15a (Sermon 2: Down But Not Out)
PREPARATION
As the wild deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul
thirsts for God, for the living God
We have come
together to strengthen our love and our worship of the living God.
Our corporate worship is a sharing of faith and
expectation..
We also
bring our own unique and private joys, anxieties, memories and hopes.
Our worship includes secrets known to God alone.
We gather
with a common status as the children of one loving three-person’d
God.
Our worship unites a scattered family.
We offer our
varied gifts and resources to the one common Saviour.
Our worship is a fellowship in the one body of
Christ.
We gather in
the presence of the Holy Spirit, where each soul may better know itself,
understand its neighbour, and slake its thirst on God’s love.
Our worship is a searching and finding, a loving and
adoring.
OR -
Without God we are small boats on a wide sea without
compass or rudder,
tossed to and fro without purpose
or hope.
O send out
your light and your truth, let them lead me,
let them bring me to your holy
hill and to your dwelling place.
God alone can fulfil the deep desire of the human
heart.
In Christ,
you are all children of God, through faith.
Then we will
turn to the altar of God,
to God our exceeding joy.
Let us worship the living God.
PRAYER
Most
wonderful God, although the immense universe cannot contain your glory, you
come to us not as a stranger but as a friend.
Please speak
each of our names today, that we may be called away from the prattle of the
world which threatens to swamp our true identity.
Name each of
us, so that we may truly know ourselves and take responsibility for our own
lives and live boldly and lovingly. Through Christ our Lord.
Amen!
CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE
My friends, true confession is not often an easy or comfortable
thing. Sometimes God needs to discomfort or hurt us so that we might be healed.
Today I ask you to allow a verse ( if my memory serve
me right) from the 17th century poet John Donne call you to
repentance:
Batter my heart,
three-person’d God, for you
As yet but
knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend.
That I may rise
and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to
break, blow, burn and make me new.
Most faithful God, we admit to you and to each other that our deeds rarely match our good intentions, nor do our intentions measure up to our creeds
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow
me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn and make me new.
.
We have
named you as Abba, Father, yet we do not live like your gracious children.
We have named Christ as Saviour, but have not consistently lived like the redeemed.
We have named
you the everpresent Holy Spirit, but often we live as
though you were at the other end of the universe.
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow
me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn and make me new.
Please
continue to have mercy on us. Forgive us from our all dallying or rebelling.
Recall us to our true creeds, and let these creeds penetrate deep within the
factory of our goals and motives, so that from the depths of our being we may
be inspired to love and serve you.
For Christ’s sake.
Amen!
ASSURANCE OF
FORGIVENESS
God can be utterly trusted. No fret!
If God through Christ says that your sins are
forgiven, then they certainly are!
The saving
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with you all.
And also with you
PRAYER FOR CHILDREN
When I Feel Small
Loving God,
when I am in a big crowd
I
feel very small
and often shy.
Please remind me, will you,
that you are bigger than any crowd,
you are bigger than the world,
and yet you are my best Friend
and are never shy to say so.
Amen!
From
“Prayers for Aussie Kids”
Ó B D Prewer
& Open Book Publishers.
PSALM 42
See “More Australian Psalms” page 96
Ó Open
Book Publishers.
OR verses 1-5
-:
Like a feral donkey in the
Outback,
thirsting for a water hole in the dry
creek bed,
so my dry soul thirsts for
more of you,
O my loving yet elusive God!
My soul burns with thirst for God,
to know the living God on my
journey;
when shall I arrive at my destiny
and glimpse the face of God?
Day and night I cry out aloud
yet taste nothing but my own
salty tears;
and all the while the voices of
my doubts taunt,
“Where is this God of
yours?”
I try to remember those better days
when I went along eagerly to church;
I even led the procession into God’s house
singing hosannas with the massed
congregation.
So why am I so depressed right now?
Why is my soul so at odds with itself?
I will rest all my hopes in my living God;
for I will once more sing
praises to the One
who is the light on my face and
my God!
Ó B D Prewer 2003 and 2012
TO THE MANY FOLK
WHOSE NAME IS LEGION
He comes as
one unknown
upon our rocky shore
planting no imperious boot,
just asking: What is your name?
He comes as
one unsought
among our mobbing fears
not stamping any foot;
simply asking: What is your name?
He come as one unlikely
between the powerful voices
not pushing any code;
just asking: What is your name?
He comes as
one unfeared
through crowed judgments
offering no added burden;
assuring: What is your name?
He comes as
one unconfined
midst our imprisonments,
imposing no new fetters,
saying: What is your name?
He comes as
one unafraid
among our cold, grey tombs
where scant hopes remain;
treasuring each one’s name.
from
“Beyond Words”.
© B.B. Prewer &
JBCE
COLLECT
God our most holy Friend, in you we place our trust.
May the Spirit of our humble Teacher
garrison our faith against the mob
of temptations around us, and rescue us from the mob of doubts that rise up
from within us. We ask this through Christ Jesus our Saviour.
Amen!
SERMON 1: A MAN CALLED MOB
Luke 8:30
Jesus then asked him: “What is your name?”
“My name is Mob” [legion], he answered, for many
demons had entered him.
As always,
Jesus is remarkably sensitive to a individual and his
acute need. If you wish to treat a person with respect, you need to use their
name. If you don’t know it, you politely ask for it.
Examples: an
adult meeting a lost child
ambulance
officer bending over a collapsed woman
minister trying
to help a distressed stranger after a funeral
Our name and
identity are entwined; something of the essence of a person is awakened at the
sound of their name. We like it when people remember our name, but get annoyed
if they repeatedly forget it or mispronounce it. It’s even worse if they keep
calling us by the wrong name.
When they
get it right, using it for communication not exploitation, with respect not
with a patronising tone, then we purr like a tabby cat.
Jesus “knew
what was in the heart of people”. He understood our needs. In asking that deranged fellow who lived in a
cemetery “What
is your name” Jesus was expressing two things:
I/. You
matter. As a unique person . You are a precious person
not a just a client.
2/ Will you
trust me with your name? That is, give me a little power over you so I can help
you.
Human misery?
“My name is Mob”, (Legion) the fellow replied. Many demons. Many
voices all trying to tell him what to do. Pulled this way and
that. Not knowing his own mind. A soul in torment.
A vivid
picture of human misery: The poor fellow living naked, wild and uncontrollable,
living among the tombs. A cemetery was
the safest place for this man: He had nothing
to
fear from the dead--- it was the living whom he feared.
The dead did
not bully him, coax him, scorn him, or chain him.
It was the
living who did that stuff.
We are not
so different. Many voices pulling and
shoving, wheedling or shouting,
being eminently
reasonable or emotionally manipulative. A mob of voices.
As well as
relatives, friends, and the influential people at work, there are the mob
voices
projected by the mass media, all trying to get a piece of
us.
Many people
don’t know who they are any more. But
are too proud to admit their need
or seek help.
Until they seek help, they cannot be helped.
If, like the
man in this Gospel story, we are able to identify the problem: “My name is Mob” then we have taken the
first small step towards sanity.
Where do you go for help?
There are
insecure folk who rush from religion to religion, sect to sect, guru to guru.
They look for an authority to put down the mob within them and take charge.
Some of these, even some of exceptionally high intellect, opt for a religion which sees things
as either white or black (no greys) or put their hope in a dictatorial guru.
Other
people, in an angry attempt to salvage their identity, swap the name “Mob” for
the name “Anti-Mob”. They react by
trying to go against the voices. They
become the ubiquitous protesters- against everybody and
anything.
“Mrs
Anti-Mob” is no more free than is poor old Mr Mob.
They are still allowing the many voices to set the agenda- by
just being negative they are like shadow puppets. They still do not really know
what, or who, they are.
This man came good.
The man on
the far bank of Lake Galilee was most fortunate. He was visited by a Healer who treated him
with profound respect. A fellow did not try to impose some new agenda but only
sought the person’s well being.
Jesus, that
supreme reader tangled situations tormented souls, was able to set him free of
the multiple demons. The divine Healer did his thing again.
I would like
to know more. We don’t know the detailed story of that meeting between Mr Mob
and Jesus. How long did Jesus spend with
the poor fellow? We are not told. What secrets came tumbling out? We have no record.
We do know
the result: People went to see what had
happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons
had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.”
That is the
kind of thing that happens when Jesus is brought into the picture.
My personal story.
Each of our
personal stories have unique aspects, because Jesus deals with each of us as
precious, unique souls.. But in common we know that
this Jesus has asked our name, dealt wonderfully with us, banished the voices
and given us back to ourselves.
Many, many
short years ago (they become shorter the older I become!) when I was a young
man, I tried to take charge of my life and live as a kindly agnostic. But it
did not work. I was constantly subject to the pressures of others. Voices
pulled me this way and that. Sometimes I would assert myself. More often I
either lost the plot, either giving in or over reacting. The integrity I tried to establish at the
core of my being was in disarray. I became my own version of the man called
mob. Repeatedly I was discouraged and aghast at myself.
Thankfully I
had not become anywhere near as deranged as the poor fellow in the Gospel
story. But in a sense
I shared his name My head was crowded. I didn’t live in a
cemetery, but I had reached a stage were the dead bodies of my good intentions
rotted around me. And in spite of all my outward bravado and laugher with
mates, I was miserable at the core.
The Man of
Nazareth altered all that. And not for one hour, not one
minute, not one moment, have I regretted it. I took the biggest risk of
my life and gave myself unreservedly to Jesus Christ. It was as if my torn and
fractured being had been put together again. I lost myself to Christ yet found
myself. I took on a spiritual Master yet
found my freedom. The paradox of true liberty became mine:
Nothing has changed
Where Jesus
is concerned, nothing has changed. Still this same Jesus, the healer
extraordinaire, whose life transcends the centuries, arrives on our shore. He
asks all bewildered souls: : “What is your name?”
What word
would best describe the state of your life? What is your name?
Will you
trust him with your real identity?
SERMON 2: DOWN BUT NOT OUT
I Kings
19:4-5a
Elijah hiked a
day’s journey out into the desert. He sat down under a mulga tree and wished he
were dead. He said, “I’ve had enough,
God! Let me die! I have done no better than my predecessors.” Then he lay down
and slept under the tree.
There are various levels and forms and causes of
mental depression.
When in this sermon I talk about feeling down,
or depressed, I am not
speaking of severe, prolonged, clinical depression. Such depression has levels
of anxiety and angst, sheer anguish and monumental sadness of the soul. Other people, who may sometimes say ‘I feel very
down in the dumps; I’m depressed.’ can never understand the torture of such
clinical depression..
Today I am going to focus today on a lessor, yet still painful, form of depression.
A depression that is a part of the common life
experience. Especially so when we seem to have been
ineffective or defeated in our efforts to serve God and his Christ.
AN ANCIENT MALADY
This kind of depression is not new.
Maybe it has always been a part of human
experience. Certainly in Bible times is was present.
Look at that rugged servant of God named Elijah.
In spite of all his efforts, over many years,
wickedness still rode arrogantly through the land. He had suffered setback
after setback. In today’s Bible reading his own life was under threat from
Jezebel, the fiendish wife of king Ahab.
When he was younger he may not have thought things
could go so wrong.,
Like most of us when he was young, I reckon he hoped
to do better than those prophets who had preceded him. But as a middle aged
man, sitting under a tree out there in the desert, he felt he had been a
failure; at least as much as failure as those well meaning predecessors of his.
What was the use of it all?
He had given his best. But his best was not
enough. Evil still ruled. Elijah did not want to go on .
However he certainly did not want Jezebel to enjoy the satisfaction of killing
him. So he wished God would take him while he slept. Yes, that’s a good way to
die; while he slept. Millions pray for that bonus.
But God had not finished with him yet. No by a long chalk.
OUR EFFORTS SEEM WASTED.
It’s much the same for many contemporary believers.
Especially for those who have travelled the long
road and see how little (to the human eye) they have achieved. In the years of
middle age, and beyond, it is not uncommon to become despondent.
The younger Christian is usually optimistic.
They delight in the joy of faith in Christ, and are ready
to take on the whole world. The youthful are convinced that if we would only
shake evil hard enough (evangelism, social justice, and all that) much of evil will
inevitably collapse.
Rarely are things as simple as that.
Those of mature years have given it their best shot
and have failed to see the big results they hoped and prayed for.
We do have every reason to feel downhearted at times.
Agents of greed and corruption exist everywhere,
many flaunting themselves. Inequalities and injustice proliferate. No sooner is one evil given a cracking blow
and crushed, than a dozen more evils seem to sprout up out of the dust.
Our world can be a very nasty and unrepentant place.
Many have thrown their energies into effecting
creative changes, but with limited success. It is not that good and capable
people have not tried hard enough. They have. But the world seems determined to
self destruct.
WAYS OF DEALING WITH THE NEGATIVES
Some may try to avoid feeling depressed by shutting
their eyes to the evil.
These erect social or religious fences, protecting
their own little patch, while doing nothing about righting wrongs in the larger
sphere.
Or some may opt for religious effervescence with
little content.
Others retreat into a spirituality of pious
solitude, or huddle together in self righteous sects, keeping “pure” while
damning the rest of humanity.
A number of bruised souls scrap the whole notion of
God and love and purpose in life,
and choose a hard cynical
approach; wringing out of each situation and each person , as much of the juice
of fleeting pleasure as they can.
THE BIBLICAL WAY
Or we can be like Elijah and Jeremiah, orthe writer of Psalm 42, and Jesus of Nazareth. We can
give our very best to God’s service in this world and for this world. Holding nothing back. Of course we are likely to suffer
numerous defeats. We may at times find ourselves depressed by the scant
evidence of success, yet we keep pressing forward.
Even the greatest believers had to struggle. The
strong souls experienced dark times. Even the strongest of all- that man from Nazareth- had “downers.”
Like Elijah we may complain:
“I wish I were
dead. I’m no better than my predecessors.”
Or perhaps like Jeremiah we mutter: “Cursed be the day on which I was born.
Or like the Psalm writer we complain: “My tears have been my meat night and day,
while they continually say unto me: Where is your God?” ‘
Or like Jesus one evening beside lake
Galilee.
When the crowds had taken offence and drifted away,
he turned to his disciples and in a melancholy voice asked: “Will you also go away?”
However Jesus, and thousands of other less notable
yet sincere souls,
refused to surrender to apathy or
despair in spite of grave setbacks, or their personal disappointments and
sufferings.
A HEALTHY DEPRESSION
I would claim that thsi is
a healthy depression,
which many a true follower of
Jesus may feel from time to time. How can it be otherwise?
How can we live for Christ in this disjointed and
crazed world and sometimes not get discouraged.? It is
natural to feel down. Down, but not out.
From the down-and-almost-out position, we can
regroup.
Like Elijah we can continue to obey God in the face
of adversity. It is a matter of “trust
and obey.”
Please don’t give way to the ogre of despair or its
evil sister, indifference. Our God is a God of resurrection. Of
resurgent life.
We cannot follow Christ’s way of love without
experiencing setbacks. But we have no right to allow things to get on top of
us, crush us, or embitter us. If we attempt that, we will ourselves end up just
another one of life’s casualties, sorely dependent on others.
DON'T WASTE THE EXPERIENCE
We should not dodge or waste the hard experiences.
We of all people should understand that out of pain
God brings growth, and from defeat God brings victory. I have said I think
there is a sane, healthy type of depression: the sorrow of seeing things
through the eyes of Christ. It is okay to feel the pain of discouragement, to
feel some depression, but not to wallow in being down, not to sideline
ourselves out of the game because of our moods.
Elijah. still obeyed God,
even though he was feelings extremely low.
Obedience is the way forward. Not down-sizing our
faith, but trusting it more profoundly. Elijah was fed and encouraged by God
through the wilderness, and then up on the rugged mountain..
Up there he was shown the way forward by God. Crossing deserts and climbing mountains
are never easy. When God sets us one to cross or climb, have a go! Don’t sit under your equivalent of a tree in
the desert and wish you were dead. Get up and get going. It is the only way to
fulfilment.. It’s worth the effort.
STICK WITH JESUS
What about Jesus? He kept moving ahead.
No matter what his moods and feelings were he kept
faith. Moved on. Even towards the end, when that
awesome “downer” flooded over him in the Garden of Gethsemene,
Jesus trusted and faced the next step. On the cross he reached the absolute
bottom of the black pit and cried aloud “My God, my God, which have you
forsaken me!” Yet a little later he
finished his mission saying: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” His
faith, riven with grief right into the final darkness, led directly to God and
the light of resurrection.
Stick with Jesus and his Gospel,
We may enjoy some delightful ups, and endure some
painful downs, but we will never be out. Never out. Never! Never out!
I would wager my life on that, won’t you?
THANKSGIVING
Wonderful,
wonderful, ever wonderful!
Are you,
faithful Friend of the earth!
We give
thanks and celebrate you Presence
among all things
and in all things,
giving meaning
and hope at all times.
Yet even
more we give thanks and celebrate
that you are
above all,
beneath all,
and far beyond
all,
calling us to reach beyond
the things that
perish
to that
unspeakable glory
which is to
come.
Wonderful is
your purpose
and
wonderful is your true Agent,
Christ Jesus
our Saviour.
Amen!
Ó B D Prewer 2003 & 2012
INTERCESSIONS
For other
people, close to us or far off,
let us pray.
Wherever people spend their days like puppets with a legion of
string-pullers, losing their own sense of worth and purpose.
Let your life come in its fullness, loving
Liberator.
Wherever
some have lost contact with reality, and suffer mental torments through every
hour of each day.
Let your life come in its fullness, loving Healer.
Wherever
some are at last breaking free and taking the first steps towards independence
of mind and spirit.
Let your life come in its fullness, loving
Encourager.
Wherever
human beings are physically restrained but remain mentally tough and
spiritually and mentally free.
Let your life come in its fullness, loving Inspirer.
Wherever they seek a reliable friend, or healer, comforter, adviser,
teacher or a sure Redeemer.
Let your life come in its fullness, loving
Counsellor.
Wherever
people suffer the indignities of poverty, the loneliness of misunderstanding,
or the crushing brutality or war;
Let your life come in its fullness, loving Saviour
Wherever the
members of your church have traded liberty for legalism, or the living Truth
for dogma, or trust for religious fears;
Let your life come in its fullness, loving God.
God of
liberty, enable us to enter more completely in to the kingdom of love which has
been waiting for us from the beginning of time.
Through
Christ, in Christ, for Christ, we so pray.
Amen!
SENDING OUT
Those who
demand to be given complete faith before following it,
will remain in the shadows, wistful yet empty.
But those
who put their little faith into action, shall come to
know more than eye has seen, or the ear heard, or the mind conceived.
Go,
therefore my friends, go out into the world in faith. The more you use it the
more you will have, to the glory of the One who called and nurtured you.
Amen!
The peace of
God, the peace of human trust,
the
peace of the Word , the peace of the church,
the
peace of Mary, Andrew, and John,
the
peace of Christ the Prince of tenderness.
Yes, the
peace of Christ, Prince of tenderness,
Be with you on the road,
Yes, be with you on the road.
Amen!
(From a Celtic prayer)
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