| 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 19
Aug 7-13
Luke 12: 32-40
(Sermon
1: “A Surprise Party”)
Hebrews 11: 1-3 & 8-16 (Sermon
2: “The Faith of the Hopeful”)
Isaiah 1: 1 & 10-20
Psalm 50: 1-8
ENTRY INTO WORSHIP
The unconditional grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
And also with
you!
Worship is a coming to our senses in the presence of
the Holy Lover.
Worship is
catching our breath in the presence of Pure Beauty.
Worship is an awareness that our frailty does not
matter.
Worship is
realising that we are infinitely cherished.
Worship is our whole being alive with love and
gratitude.
Worship is a
pooling of our human love in a chorus of wonder and praise.
OR -
Where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Hly Spirit, be with you all.
And also with you.
We are here to put first things first,
to acknowledge there is only
one God in heaven and earth.
The mighty
One, the God who is the Lord of all things,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to
its setting.
PRAYER: OF PRAISE AND TRUST
Wonderful are you, God of creation, without whom
nothing draws breath.
Wonderful are you, Christ Jesus, without whom our
world stays in the dark.
Wonderful are you, Spirit-Friend, without whom our
worship remains formal.
We trust you, we love you, we yearn for more of you;
we praise you for your holiness,
beauty and inexhaustible love.
Amen!
PRAYER: CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE
Most of us know we fail in doing that is the best.
Our share in evil grieves us. Let us make a clean break by confessing our sin
and welcoming the forgiving, healing mercy of God.
Let us pray.
Holy and beautiful God, something in my heart says I
was made for you, but my doubts chatter and tell me to stop believing such
nonsense. Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
Something in my heart says we were all made for
peace and joy, but my inner conflicts react with the world’s hostilities, and
leave me a clumsy peacemaker. Christ have mercy.
Christ have mercy
Something within my heart says that we were made for
love, but my ego rebels and keeps me miserly in compassion and self- sacrifice.
Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
Holy God, somewhere outside of me there is a holy
Word which says: “Child, your sins are forgiven you. Get up from your fear and
guilt and walk boldly towards your destiny.”
Blessed are
you, living Word!
Blessed are
you, Saviour of the lost!
Blessed are
you, Maker of all things new!
PRAYER FOR CHILDREN
Like
Wattle Blossom
Dear loving God,
your lovely Son Jesus
is like Australian wattle blossom
splashing the bushland with gold
in days of late winter.
When our hearts feel cold,
Jesus
tells us that spring
and is never far away
and your Warmth is closer
than we think.
Thank you God.
Amen!
adapted from “Prayers for Aussie Kids” Ó B D Prewer & Open Book Publishers
PSALM 50: 1-8
The Voice which speaks and
confronts the whole world.
is that of the Holy One, the
God of gods.
From the time the sun rises until after it sets,
the dazzling beauty of God
shines out.
When God comes, it is not always in silence;
it may be like a consuming
fire or fierce storm.
God’s call is heard among the distant stars,
and on earth we are summoned to
give account.
God gathers together the true believers,
those who keep faith at much
cost.
The whole universe shall announce justice,
for God who has the final word
says:
“I will speak
against you, my people.
I your God will be a prosecution witness.
It is not what
you do at church that’s wrong,
your worship is a
good attempt.
It is what you
do outside that upsets me,
how you exploit
the land and its creatures.
For every
animal in the bush is mine,
and the cattle on
a thousand hills.
I know every
bird in the mountains
and everything
that moves on the plains.
Get this, you
who would limit me to pious thoughts:
I could put you through the shredder!
Let all you do
each day be a thanksgiving;
get things right
and you will see my salvation!”
© B.D. Prewer 2000 & 2012
A SERVANT SURPRISE
The palace hall is ready,
the servants wait inside,
the tables are a picture
fit for a smiling bride.
A voice orders the servants seated
and music fills the room,
and the One who now waits on
tables
is the divine Bridegroom.
© B.D. Prewer 1994 & 2012
SERMON 1: A SURPRISE PARTY
Luke 12: 37
Happy are the
servants who are ready when the master arrives. I tell you t
he truth: he will put on an apron and make them sit down at the table,
and he will serve them himself. Luke 12:37.
All is ready for the surprise party. The house is
decorated, sumptuous food is prepared, the best of wine purchased, the
musicians are at the ready, and the servants are standing by waiting.
All they need is the guest of honour, who is the
young Master of this house. There is a quirky difference about this surprise
party to one in which you may have been involved. The custom in this particular
culture is not for those who prepare the feast to surprise the guest of honour,
but for the guest of honour to surprise the preparers. . You may think that is
odd, but of course they would think our way is odd.
A WAITING GAME
I have neglected to tell you the reason for the
party. The banquet is to welcome home the newly married Master.
However, according to the customs of this part of
the world, his trick is to arrive at a time they do not expect. That is the
first surprise. If possible, he wants to catch them unprepared, or dozing, or
even maybe sneaking a bit of the food and wine before he arrives.
As observers, we may think this may be an acceptable
game for the waiting guests. But not so for the servants; it is a game where
they are most at risk. Having worked extra hard to prepare the banquet, they
must stay alert and ready. To be caught dozing would mean at the best scorn and
shame, and at the worst, dismissal.
Their task is to be ready, to give him an honourable
welcome, and then rush around for hours and hours waiting on the tables. What
is more they are supposed to perform their duties with dignified
cordiality. No doubt they are even
expected to apologise (as if it were their fault) should a clumsy guest spill
some wine. There is not much pleasure lying in store for servants.
THE SECOND SURPRISE
Some of the guests sneak some wine and doze off. The
laugh will be on them.
Suddenly it all begins to happen. With much singing
and shouting the Master arrives at the front steps. The servants, very much
awake and sober, begin rushing in all directions. The porter flings wide the
doors, the head
butler bows low, the musicians sound the trumpets, and the Master makes his
grand entrance. He is delighted that he
has surprised some drowsy guests, but that his servants are loyally and eagerly
ready.
But the biggest surprise is yet to come. You see,
this particular young Master has his own way of doing things. He knows the best
traditions of the past, but he refuses to be bound by them. Since when he
arrived to take over this estate, the unexpected has often happened; to the
delight of some but the annoyance of the more proper among his neighbours.
The Master calls his servants to stand before him. They
do so, with appropriate bowing. He tells them to remove their aprons. Then he
beckons them to the tables and asks them to be seated. Taking an apron, and putting a napkins over his arm, he assumes the form of a waiter and
commences to wait on them.
Such is the Master’s happiness, and such is his
affection for his servants, that he can think of no better way of celebrating
than to make them the guests of honour and himself the servant.
Maybe a few of the guests enter in the spirit, don
an apron and start moving back and forth from the kitchen with the sumptuous
food. However, most of the guests are
scandalised. Most take the huff and leave. Some gather outside and discuss how might they get rid of the new young Master who is a danger
to their established local traditions and certainly a threat to their
privileged positions.
On the other hand, the servants are at first
stunned, then a bit anxious, then pleased, then overjoyed. They realise how
much they are loved by their young Master.
IN THE NEW AGE THINGS ARE RADICALLY CHANGED
Jesus said:
“Happy are those servants who the Master finds awake when he comes. I tell you
the truth: he will gird himself and have them sit at
table, and he will come and serve them.”
That is how it is, Jesus is saying. In the new world
that God is bringing in, the idea of servant and master, important and
unimportant, are turned upside down. Be alert, be ready, be loyal, and you will
be amazed at the blessings God has in store for you.
That amazement is ours, my friends. Yesterday, today and tomorrow. You are in the kingdom of
grace, of abundant life, not one of rigid custom and law.
There is and will be grace upon grace. Bonus upon bonus. Forgiveness again and
again. Love heaped upon love. Surprising coincidences become common.
Such is the lavish hospitality of the kingdom of God.
In this story we are again in the territory of the
Father who welcomes home his wastrel son by throwing a party. And the grape grower who pays labourers who are not employed until
5 0.0. pm the same wages those who were the
first to be employed in the morning. Or the woman doing her shopping at the
grain merchant, who receives far more corn than she is entitled to, as it is
pressed down, shaken together and running over. This is definitely Jesus
territory.
You and I are numbered among the most
happy servants. By rights we
should be just employed workers.
Instead, life is a continual surprise party, where the guest of honour
makes us the honoured guests; where the Master waits on us, washing our feet,
tending our wounds, easing our worries, serving royal bread and wine to us.
Grace upon grace. Love upon love. Our cup is full and running over.
“Happy are
those servants who the Master finds awake
SERMON 2: THE FAITH OF THE HOPEFUL
Hebrews 11.
Especially verse 1: “Faith gives substance to our hopes,
and makes us sure of those realities we cannot see.”
The 11th Chapter of the “Letter to the Hebrews” is a
roll call of many of the memorable Old Testament people of faith.
Yet it is somewhat lopsided roll call of people of
faith.
Like the impressive “Stockmen’s Hall of Fame” in the
legendry Aussie outback town of Longreach, it is dominated by the names of men.
In this “Letter to the Hebrews,” the only two women to make the roll call are
Sarah the wife of Abraham, and Rahab of Jericho. The
latter is a surprise because she had been a prostitute of the ancient, pagan
city.
However, in spite of the emphasis on men, this roll
call is an impressive one. For any Jew, this chapter should make the adrenalins
flow. Even for a Gentile
momgrel, like me, it is soul stirring
stuff!
But then comes an
unexpected phrase.
“All these persons died in faith.” What a way to
ruin a good story! In spite of their mighty faith they perished like the rest
of us. Death, that indiscriminate leveller, got all of them in the end.
But wait. In the N. T. we are dealing with a
different way of seeing life and death.
A different view of time and
eternity.
From the Christian perspective faith is not shattered by death. In truth, death
is shattered by hope and faith. To live by hope and faith and to die in hope
and faith, is a grand thing!
THE DARING NATURE OF HOPE
What is this hope?
What is this hope which when taken up by faith
reshapes remarkable persons and also shatters the gloom of death?
According to the letter to the Hebrews, faith is
closely allied to hope.
“Faith gives substance to our hopes, and makes
us sure of those realities that we cannot see.”
Christian hope is not a wistful longing.
No a pathetic wish-list for the improbable or the
impossible. Hope is not building imaginary castles in the air. It is not trite,
sentimental optimism. It is sharing God’s vision and plan. Hope is
affirming the glorious future which God has for humanity. Hope is turning to
the promises of God and saying “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
Hope for that childless couple, Abraham and Sarah
was daring to envision the Divine promise
that through their descendants “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Hope for Moses was daring to picture and commit to,
the liberty of the promised land, “flowing with milk and honey,” at the time
when his people were in miserable slavery in Egypt.
Hope for Isaiah was a commitment to the vision,
It was daring to see and preach the new world that
would one day surely come to be.
Then shall blind eyes be opened, and
the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap like a
deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing.
Men shall beat their swords into
ploughshares, and their spears into pruning blades.
Nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, nor ever again be trained for war.
For the earth
shall be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea beds.
For the Christian person, hope takes on a special
shape.
It
dares to look at a new world order shaped in the likeness of Jesus of Nazareth.
He
is the first born of the future race, the shape of the new humanity.
He
is the new creation, the future surging into the present moment.
By
hope we commit ourselves to doing things his way.
Hope is daring to look at this future, seeing it not
as a mirage but as a certainty.
By hope an irrepressible longing, and a joyful
commitment, enters in to the human soul, and becomes incarnate in our brains,
our hands our feet.
Warning: Unless we dare to hope,
we are most likely to become
mesmerised by the greed and violence and chaos of humanity, slowly surrender
our ideals, slide into a pernicious pessimism, and join the “rat race.”
THE DYNAMIC OF FAITH
What about faith? The faith that
the writer to Hebrews extols?
A clarification. The word faith in the
Letter to the Hebrews is not “saving faith “ as in
Paul’s letters to Romans and Galatians. It is more the results of having been
“saved by faith”. It’s faith in gear, not just starting the motor. A launching
out, implementing what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.
Such faith is always activity, not passivity.
Faith is (in spite of our critics) not a barbiturate
to calm people down and makes them docile. It is a trust in God which thrusts
people into the ruck of life. Faith places us in a
position of holy tension; puts us at odds with the folly and sin around us.
Faith is not an escape but a new, profound, re-creative involvement.
Abraham and Sarah are worthy models of faith.
Faith meant leaving the comfortable existence of
home, kindred and country, and setting out on a journey where the destination
was somewhat cloudy. “He went out not
knowing where he was to end up.” It
meant a long, and at times risky, adventure. There were to be joys and
hardships, nasty twists in events, frustration and danger, on their journey of
faith.
Faith is actively implementing as much of the hope
as possible
in our time and circumstance.
It is giving substance to our hope. It is an active way of life.
ALWAYS A SOJOURNER?
Our status is that of pilgrims.
We should also notice that living by faith in the
God of hope, makes us people who don’t totally belong in any town, city, or
rural region. The faith heroes and
heroines lived in many places, among many nations, settled amid many cultures,
but they did not belong. They were not at home.
Abraham is called (in Hebrews 11) a “sojourner.”
I like that old English word. It is the translation of the Greek word
PAROIKOS. This word meant a non-citizen; a resident alien. Then he and other
faith heroes are called XENOI. That means a stranger, one who does not belong.
Then again they are called PAREPIDOMOI, meaning temporary residents or passing
travellers.
We have no final home here.
Home is the vision we have of the better future.
Home is the promise from God. Here we are only sojourners. It cannot be
otherwise for people who have been given the gift of hope.
Look around us at the culture in which we are set.
Is this really our home? I love my world and I dearly
love my country. In fact the older I grow the more I love this ancient
Australian continent and its people. But as long as I live I will also be
profoundly discontented with it all.
Look at this myopic, selfish and often desperate
world.
Look at our self indulgent and anxious society. Look
at all the foppery of fashion and the silly pomposity of our politics? Look at
the Narcissistic vainglory of our entertainment culture. Look at the injustices
and grave abuses which occur from Darwin to Devonport and Broome to Burleigh
Heads. Are any of us content to call this our real home? Our
true soul place?
This is not the world as it should be! This is not
our true home!
This is not the completed world which God promises.
This is not our true home! No wonder that we who believe in God, and live by
faith hope and love, find ourselves like aliens. Those who follow Christ Jesus
cannot ever be anything else but alien PAROIKOI, outsider XENOI, and the temporary
PAREPIDOMOI.
DYING DOES NOT MATTER, HOW WE DIE DOES.
We will all live and die in the faith with many of
our God-given hopes not fully realised.
But it is far, far better to die with the
restlessness of hope still upon us, than to die as those who are content with
this world as it now is.
The fact of dying does not matter much.
In Christ, death is no calamity. It is how we live
while we are alive in this world that matters, moment by moment. The important
thing is whether we reach for the hope with all our faith and apply it with all
the love we can muster. For this task, we have the Spirit of God with us,
aiding and abetting every step we take towards the promised
land, every act of love we show our neighbour, every tilt we make
against injustice, every prayer we offer with thankful and compassionate hearts.
By our active faith we give solid content to our
hopes.
The unseen world of the God who is around us, takes
firm outlines in our midst.
“Faith gives substance to our hopes, and makes
us sure
of those realities we cannot
see.”
PRAYERS: THANKSGIVING and INTERCESSION
#
for 2 voices.
Let us pray.
God of surprises, Saviour and Friend, we bless you
for this world which is like a banquet of good things.
For the abundance of nature:
The minerals and trees, the
vineyards and orchards, the cornfields and market gardens. For the birds of the air,
the fish of the sea, and the animals of plains, hills, rainforest and desert.
We pray that we may look after this abundance more carefully, and share
earth’s prosperity more fairly among the communities of this world
.
We thank you for the abundance of people:
Asian and South American,
Indian and British, Chinese and Australian Aborigine, Arab and Scandinavian,
African and Polynesian, European and Latin American, Greek and Melanesian.
We pray that we may set free from all prejudice, fear, exploitation or
hatred of one another. That each may be respected, treasured, given equal
opportunities, and cared for in their hour of need.
We thank you for the unique abundance of the grace
of Jesus:
For his compassion and mental toughness, his vision
and teachings, his healing and his forgiving, his laughter and his tears, his
dying and his rising.
We pray for all who love Christ, all
who preach him, teach him, write about him, celebrate him,
and all who this day are suffering in his cause.
We thank you for the abundance of the church; active
in many lands and set in many cultures; with varying customs and rituals;
serving in different ways, but cleaving to the one Lord
and Saviour.
We pray for the many arms of your church,
in its strength and weakness, its glory and its shame: let us follow the Christ
who called us and gave us the Good News..
God of surprises, we pray that our thanksgiving may
lead us into a better stewardship of all these your
gifts to humanity. .
Please enlarge our faith, toughen
our courage, enlighten our ambitions, forgive our errors, enliven our worship and every day deepen our love
for your world.
Through Christ Jesus our
Saviour.
Amen!
THE WORD OF MISSION AND BLESSING
Be light-footed as you leave this house of prayer.
For you don’t go as fearful servants of a stern
Master
but like favourites whom the
King has humbly served.
Amen!
We are no longer called servants, but friends.
The blessing of courage, compassion and common
sense,
take you through this week
without looking over your shoulder.
In the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen!
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