| 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 29
16-22 Oct
Luke 18:1-8
(Sermon
1: “Speedy Vindication”)
2 Timothy 3:
14 to 4:5
Jeremiah 31:
27-34 (Sermon 2: “Divine
Graffiti”)
Psalm 119: 97-104
PREPARATION
The lavish grace of Christ Jesus,
the steadfast love of God,
and the liberty of the Holy
Spirit,
be with you all.
And also with you.
Whenever you come to worship God, give it your very
best!
You will never be able to overdo your praise,
or exhaust the grounds for
thanksgiving.
OR–
The time is coming, says the Eternal God,
when I will write my law on your
hearts.
How sweet are
your words to me, loving God,
much sweeter than honey in my
mouth.
I will be your God
and you will be my people.
How sweet are
your words to me, loving God,
much sweeter than honey in my
mouth.
You shall know me from the least to the greatest,
I will forgive your evil and remember your sin no
more.
How sweet are
your words to me, loving God,
much sweeter than honey in my
mouth.
Let us worship this wonderful God.
PRAYER OF APPROACH
Loving God, you are the truth far beyond all
knowledge, the word excelling all human ideas and wisdom, the joy higher than
all delight and happiness, the glory brighter than the light of a billion
stars. Yet you are nearer than our thoughts, and dearer than our deepest love.
We trust you, we worship you, we adore you! In wonder
and love we lift up our hearts in praise.
Amen!
CONFESSION AND
ASSURANCE
Let us examine heart and mind before God,
acknowledge where we have lost our direction, or where we have sold ourselves
short.
Let us pray.
Maybe we have been too busy to notice deeds that are
beautiful and good; or too preoccupied to say ‘thank you’ or ‘I love you’. Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
Maybe we have been too stubborn to apologise for our
mistakes; too proud to do inconspicuous tasks, or too independent to let others
help us. Christ have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Maybe we have been too self-demanding to enjoy a
task well done though not perfectly; or too proudly humble to gracefully accept
thanks from a colleague. Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
Merciful God, Saviour and Friend, forgive us for our
obsessive busyness, for our pride, and for our overdone humility. Forgive us for hurts we have inflicted on
others, and for the love we have denied them and ourselves. By the grace of Christ Jesus, restore us to
the joy of salvation. In
his name.
Amen!
ABSOLUTION
My friends, God is neither too busy, nor too proud,
nor too humble, to say “I love you.” In Jesus he has declared himself forever.
His love and mercy are over all his works.
“You shall know me from the least to the greatest,
I will forgive your evil and remember your sin no
more.
How sweet are
your words to me, loving God,
much sweeter than honey in my
mouth.”
Amen!
PRAYER FOR CHILDREN
Things
We Really Need.
Dear God,
you love us much more than a
mum or dad,
and know much better what we
really need.
Please bless us all,
not with the things we think we
want
or think would be cool,
but with whatever
you know is best for us.
Through Jesus our Brother
and Saviour.
Amen!
PSALM 119: 97-104
(Note:
For the Christian, the primacy of the Torah, or law,
has been replaced by the living Word, Jesus Christ.)
Lord Jesus, how I love your gospel,
it stays with me
all day long.
You make me wiser than my enemies
for your parables
never wear out.
I am better off than those who lecture me,
because you live in
my thoughts.
Because I follow you all the way,
I have understanding beyond my years.
I stop from rushing down evil paths
as I concentrate
on your word.
I am not side-tracked from your teaching
because you are my constant
tutor.
Your words are sweet on my tongue,
sweeter than
yellow-box honey.
In your parables I see the light,
and spurn every
dark alternative.
© B.D. Prewer 2000
WAITING FOR GOD?
Luke 18:7-8
God is near
God will act,
but is hope here
to meet him?
God will hear,
God at hand,
but is faith here
to greet him?
God is dear,
God with wounds,
but is love here
to treat him?
© B.D. Prewer 2000 & 2012
SERMON 1:
SPEEDY VINDICATION
Luke 18: 4b-8
Hear what the
unjust judge says: ‘’Though I fear neither God nor
man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, before she wears
me out with her continual pestering.”
And will not
God vindicate his called people, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay over
them? I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily.
Is God really like an unjust judge?
Only the whimsical mind of the unique Jesus could
come up with this parable. What do we
make of it?
Three things I would like you to look at in order of
importance:
1/ The sting of this parable, as Luke presents it, is in the
tail: The speedy vindication of God’s
people who cry out day and night.
2/ The similarity, yet
enormous contrast, between the judge and God.
3/
The details of the language Luke uses.
I will deal with these three areas in reverse order;
the lesser to the greater.
THE LANGUAGE LUKE USES.
If you are not interested in words, you should be.
Words are a wonderful, yet risky, way of trying to transfer feelings and ideas,
hopes and fears, between people. Misunderstanding is common. The emphasis on a word can
make a difference. The context in which it is used,
makes a big difference.
Take the phrase the ‘unjust judge’. Do you remember a few weeks ago when we
encountered the ‘unjust steward?’ I commented then that the Greek says ‘steward
of unrighteousness’;
awkward to translate into every day
English. In today’s parable we have a
similar phrase; “the judge of unrighteousness”; again a clumsy expression in
English. I prefer calling him the ‘unjust judge’. Maybe it would be better to call him ‘the
scumbag judge’.
He is practically a psychopath! He cares only for
himself. Goodness is defined by what pleases him. “Though I fear neither God nor have regard for people.” In other words, ‘Though I don’t give a damn
about anyone else, not even God.” A
nasty bit of work! That’s why I say I should describe him as the ‘scumbag
judge’.
Leaving that, there is another interesting bit. What
we read as; because this widow bothers
me, is literally: ‘because of continual
blows under the eye’. Don’t you just
love that turn of phrase? I reckon we have here an old Aramaic expression very
similar to ones that we use today. For example, if we are being pestered we
sometimes say: “Get out of my face!” They said “ continually
whacks me in the eye.”
So, perhaps we could translate things this way:
Hear what the
scumbag of a judge says: “Though I don’t give a ‘rat’s ass’ for God or man, because this woman keeps getting in my
face, I will rule in her favour. Otherwise she will give me ulcers with her
continual nagging.”
Colourful language? Yes, for sure. But the
language of Jesus was the colourful language of the common people.
THE CONTRAST
In this account, Jesus makes a sharp contrast
between the judge and God. Get this right! God is not being likened to
an unjust judge but contrasted with one. If a scumbag like this judge will come
to the help of a persistent woman, how much more will God speedily come to the
help of his people.
It is another “how much more” metaphor. It is like
an extreme version of what (on another occasion) Jesus said about parents
responding to a child’s request for an fish or an egg
to eat. Remember how he said that if parents know how to give good things to
their kids, how much more will God answer our prayers.
Jesus is not telling us to keep nagging like the
unfortunate woman. She was a widow, and
widows in that culture were in an extremely precarious position. The Bible consistently ranks women among
those who need special assistance; what today we call positive discrimination.
Her only chance; was to keep at the judge and give him no peace.
In our dire need we cry aloud to God; not because
the louder we cry the more likely we are to be heard, but simply because we are
in distress. In our misery it is the most natural
thing to cry out for God’s help. Longer prayers, louder
prayers, repetitious prayers, does not make them more efficacious.
Quantity or volume are not some kind of bargaining
chip with God.
I say then: relentlessly nagging God does not make
prayer more effective. That is definitely not the point of the parable. The thing Jesus wants us to get is the contrast
between God and the unjust judge. The “how much more”
component.
GOD ANSWERS SPEEDILY
There is a key thrust of this parable in Jesus’
concluding words.
And will not
God vindicate his called people, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay over
them? I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily.
Will he delay
over them? I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily.
God does hear the cry of the people, God answers that
cry speedily. We are not like the widow who must wait for hours or days, weeks
or months, until
her nagging wears the scumbag judge down. God quickly responds to our cry for
help. Speedily.
Does that fit with actual experience? It does not appear to be as obvious as we
would like.
The cry of the people of God is pitiful and
unceasing. It pours out of millions of people. At this moment while we sit
comfortably here, there are the most fervent prayers, the most agonising
prayers, rising from the face of this planet. Yet for many, their prayers do
not seem to be answered.
Parents cry out to God for the healing of their
diseased children.
Children pray to God for the healing of their
parents.
Many beg for the restoring of broken relationships.
Prisoners of conscience, and their loved ones, pray for release.
Victims of torture are begging for a speedy death.
Thousands are praying for the overthrow of tyrants.
Millions are begging for the end of all warfare.
The dispossessed and the persecuted are crying out
for justice.
Starving people are pleading for food for their
little ones.
The mentally ill are begging for peace of mind.
(And that is just for starters! The list could go on
for hours.)
Yet in the majority of these situations God does not
appear to speedily come to the rescue of those who cry out in prayer. It does
not seem so.
Does that mean that Jesus got it wrong?
Or does it mean that God does answer speedily but we
do not comprehend the working of God’s ways?
Speaking for myself, I have cried out to God many
times and the answer has not appeared to come. Yet I stake my life on Jesus. We
are never forsaken.The heavens may seem deaf to our
cries but God is in truth hears us, even before the cry for help leaves our
mouth. God is present, experiencing our pain and distress, and with aching
fingers God is weaving something good and beautiful out of the loose and
tangled strands of existence.
Jesus is the guarantee of this. At the last, Jesus
himself seemed to be left in the lurch.
There is no time in the whole of history that appears more
God-forsaken than the hill of Golgotha. There the most lovely
human being of all, the one who alone deserves to be called the Child of God,
seems deserted by God. Yet, in
hindsight, we know it is the moment when God is most present; when God speedily
and profoundly was vindicating his people. That lonely cross overflows with God.
God was in Jesus, bearing our sins and carrying our
sorrows. God is not an absentee deity, watching from afar. God is with us,
savouring the joy of our laughter and feeling the agony of pain and grief.
Speedily he is always there for us.
NO EASY ANSWERS, BUT THERE IS FAITH.
This kind of faith that I espouse does not clear up
the darker mystery of why so many suffer in this world. No easy answers.
The answer which the Cross gives is not a pretty,
“neat and nice” one. But it does connect with the fundamental reality of God’s
love with us now, deeply with us, redeemably with us, vindicatingly
with us. Jesus does not give us neat
answers; he gives us the assurance of Immanuel: God-with-us.
Remember how Jesus said not one sparrow falls to the
ground without God knowing its fall? It not a promise that sparrows won’t fall,
but that they cannot fall without God being intimately concerned. In the same
way, there is no promise that marriages will not break, that car accidents will
not happen, or that cancer will not ravage a lovely person. Yet somehow, by the
breath, depth and height of God’s resilient, indomitable love, these tough and
tragic experiences will be worked into an ultimate vindication.
And will not
God vindicate his called people, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay over
them? I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily.
But that is not all to the teaching of the parable.
There is a final, discomforting word to be heard from Jesus, the true son of
God.
Nevertheless,
when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
O dear! O My!
That’s rather disconcerting question, isn’t it?
SERMON 2: DIVINE GRAFFITI
From Jeremiah
31: 33-34
This is the
new covenant which I will make....... says the Lord. I will put my law within
them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my
people.
No longer
shall each man teach his neighbour, and each person
his brother, saying: “You must know the Lord. For they shall all know me, from
the least of them to the greatest.
God says: I
will put my law within them and inscribe it on their hearts.
This is the high point. The
summit.
This is the apex of Jeremiah’s hope for a brighter
future age, a hope which rose up (like a resurrection) out of the nadir of the
crushing of his nation, and his own torment and persecution. When everything collapsed and the future
looked hope-less, Jeremiah is given this promise from God: A new covenant will
be established.
Faith in the one, loving,
ethical God would one day again flourish in the land.
It would not be an external faith of obligation and
religious obedience. It would be an entirely new covenant, beginning in the
very soul of humanity. the ways of God will be written
in the hearts of people, religion will be internalised. Divine graffiti will do
the trick. Duty will become delight.
Jeremiah had seen that external religion has failed.
He now understood that only an internal happening
could make the new age possible.
THE WAY OF THE LAW
Jeremiah was himself a devoted Jew. He knew that in
the old era of Moses, there was the hope that the law of God would migrate into
the human heart. But the heart was resistant. So the emphasis fell on making
the law externally visible around the Jewish home and community. It was this external religion that had been
taken up, while the religion of the heart had been undervalued.
Moses had said:
These words which I command this day shall be upon your heart. You
shall teach them diligently to your children. and
shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the road,
and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind these words as a sign
upon your hands, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall
write them on the door pots of your houses and upon your gates. Deuteronomy 6: 6-9
Many of those early Jews tried to obey. Not all of
them I fear, not even a majority of them, but a few of them. Others resorted to a
religious repetition of the law. Telling it to their
children, and writing it on the doors of their houses and upon their gates.
Some made little leather boxes in which they inserted a copy of the law, and
tied them on their foreheads, between and above they eyes. Others wore copies
of the law placed in leather bands around their wrists.
I am sure there were many sincere practitioners. If
effort and external observance could have made people truly good, and changed
the soul of humanity, surely among the extremely devout Jews there would have
been some major success. From the time of Moses through to the age of Jeremiah
and down to the time of Jesus, there were earnest souls who tried valiantly to
make God’s ways their ways.
You would have found some among the Pharisees. Pharisees receive bad
report card in early Christian writings. Yet there were some wonderful
Pharisees whose brave effort at keeping the spirit of the law who must have
pleased God exceedingly. We should not wipe them all off as hypocrites. If an
examining angel were to mark such souls (out of a possible 10) for their
practice of religion, there were a few choice souls whose report card may have
read:
COMPREHENSION
6
EFFORT:
10
ACHIEVEMENT:
4
The fact is, external
religion fails. No matter how sincere, or how extreme
the practice, it fails. For at the heart, the human being is corrupt. There is
an infection. Given time, and the admiration of those who praise the devotee,
even the most sincere practice of such religion can become perverted.
Something has to be changed within. A change not
engineered by our wisdom, or by our dedication to the rules, but by Christ’s
liberating grace and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit..
At the crunch we do not need a law giver or teacher as much as we need a
redeemer. We can write God’s rules upon
our gates and doors, we can bind them to our wrists or our foreheads, but we cannot
inscribe them on own hearts.
Only a Divine physician can do that.
BEING CHANGED FROM WITHIN
Jeremiah came to understand this. He did not despise
the few truly good Jews of his day. However, he recognised that they, like
Jeremiah himself, were inadequate, not up to the task. God must redeem the
human condition. Replace the old legal covenant with a new one.
This is the
new covenant which I will make....... says the Lord. I will put my law within
them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my
people.
This Divine graffiti changes everything.
When God changes the heart, a new creation happens.
As the Holy
Spirit moves within the human psyche,
working in those depths of the soul where we only dimly see and poorly
understand ourselves, then that which
once seemed impossible begins to happen.
Christians believe this life-changing event is tied
to the coming of Jesus Christ.
In the most profound way, Jesus is the Divine
graffiti; the Word become flesh. His birth, his life, his
reconciling death and his resurrection. We believe we are the people of
the new covenant that Jeremiah anticipated and promised. By the grace of God we
are being transformed from the inside.
It in not in the external religious performance, but
from within the deep heart and soul of a person, that the power to become
children of God really begins. It is not a human achievement but a gift of God.
The Divine graffiti. And that is inextricably bound up
with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of
the Holy Spirit.
THE WORD OF JEREMIAH IS FULFILLED
Jeremiah got it absolutely right. What Jeremiah
prophesied, we know has been fulfilled and “filfulled”
through Jesus Christ, the bringer of the “New Covenant” sealed with his own
precious blood.
Transformation comes from within. If external
faithfulness could have achieved it, Moses would be our son of God. Jesus would
not have needed to come and live and suffer and die, and be raised again on the
third day. We don’t need the law giver as much as we need the Saviour.
This is one thing I am sure of.
Unless the ways of God, made plain in the love of
Jesus, become
inscribed and fostered in our inner being by God’s own grace, we shall never be
worth a cracker!
Yet in fact we have become worth much more than a
cracker.
By God’s inner working, a remarkable miracle of
grace, our results exceed both our ability and effort. An angel examining us, and marking out of 10,
might place surprising marks on our report card:
UNDERSTANDING
5
EFFORT:
6
ACHIEVEMENT:
8
God writing within. God’s saving grace. The power of God’s Spirit. New creation.
That is what matters. Anything that is worthwhile and genuinely lovely in us
has one source alone: God writing in our hearts. The holiest
graffiti.
All else is window dressing.
A CREED
Because of the redeeming grace of Christ Jesus,
I believe in God who is here for us.
I believe that hope is stronger than despair,
truth will outlive deceit,
kindness is more powerful than
apathy,
forgiveness is stronger than hatred,
peace will swallow up suspicion
and war,
joy will triumph over misery,
and love will transcend decay
and death.
I believe in the grace of Christ Jesus,
I believe in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
I believe in the vindication of God.
THANKSGIVING
The miserly soul is never satisfied. The generous
spirit is thankful for many things.
Let us pray.
All thanks belongs to you,
Holy Friend.
Glory be to you for the deep mystery of our being,
and for all that sustains us hour by hour.
Glory be to you for our measure of health and
strength
and the things that make each morning a delight.
Glory be to you for the
people who are around us and for us;
for their friendship and support in good times and bad.
Glory be to you for the
special gifts we enjoy as Christians;
for church, Scriptures, sacraments and fellowship.
Glory be to you for the One
who has made faith possible;
for Jesus your true Son and our Brother and Saviour.
Glory be to you for his suffering love, and for his
blood shed
for the healing of the world.
Glory be to you for the Holy Spirit, who takes the
Word of Christ
and makes it sweeter than honey in our mouths.
All thanks belongs to you,
Creator Friend.
All thanks belongs to you,
Saviour Friend.
All thanks belongs to you,
Counsellor Friend.
AMEN!
INTERCESSIONS
God is the earth’s best Friend. Each creature has a place, each person has had a divine fortune invested in
them.
Let us pray.
Loving Friend of the poor, the neglected, the
abused, and the distressed,
we pray for any who on the top
of such other sufferings
are now feeling forsaken and
without hope for tomorrow.
In your mercy, God of many mercies, forget not the
needs of -
the migrant, the child, the elderly,
the deserted wife, or husband or children,
the teenage loner or the spurned parent,
the new arrival in a strange city or country,
the shy person alone in a small flat,
the political prisoner without recourse to justice,
the hospital patient without any visitors,
the dying soul with no one to sit with them,
the grief stricken with no one to comfort them.
Merciful God, send some human angels of mercy to all
such people.
But most of all, by your Holy Spirit with them, draw
the ache from their hearts
and grant them quietness and
peace. Through Jesus Christ our Redeemer.
Amen!
Adapted from “Brief Prayers” Vol 2
©
B. D. Prewer and Open Book Publishers
SENDING OUT
In days of strong faith may we serve God joyfully.
In days of weak faith may we serve
God courageously.
In times of happiness may we sense God’s smile.
In times of grief may we feel God’s tears.
In the midst of failure may we trust God’s mercy.
In the midst of success may we give
God praise.
The liberating grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the undergirding, unimpeded
love of God,
and the ennobling fellowship of
the Holy Spirit
will be with you always.
Amen!
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