| 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 3.
Sunday
3, Jan 21-27
Luke 4:14-21 (Sermon
1: “ The Spirit is Upon Me”)
(Sermon
2: “The Jesus Thing TODAY”)
1 Cor 12: 12-31a
Nehemiah 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 19
GREETING AND FOCUS
The Spirit of the Lord Jesus be
with you all.
And also with you.
It’s time for the news. Here are the headlines:
Good
news for the poor.
Release for captives.
New sight for the blind.
Liberty for the
oppressed.
The
declaration of God’s accepting love.
And happy are
they who receive it!
OR—
The heavens declare the glory of God,
the midnight skies proclaim
God’s handiwork.
Creation utters not a single word
yet its voice is heard to the
ends of the earth.
The
love of the loving Creator,
the grace of the loving Redeemer,
and the fellowship of the loving Counsellor.
be with you all?
And also with you!
Awe in God’s presence is a clean thing, lasting
forever.
The love of God is complete, reviving the fainting
soul.
Let
the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O
Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
PRAYER OF APPROACH
God our Holy Friend, you are the giver of good news
and high expectations. Please bless us as we come before you. Our thoughts need
to be freed from self obsession and our crowded feelings need to make room for
wonder and love. Give our spirits a glimpse of your glory, that we may be
lifted from the mundane to the beauty of holiness. Through
Messiah Jesus our brother and Saviour.
Amen!
CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE
“Who are able to discern all their own errors?
Clear me, loving God, from hidden faults.”
Let us make our confession. Let us pray in sincerity
and truth.
Spirit of Christ Jesus, into the poverty of our
minds and the coldness of our hearts, come with your wisdom and penetrating
mercy.
Create in us
clean hearts, loving God, and renew the true spirit within us.
Spirit of Christ Jesus, cut through those tight
cords that have bound us to recurring sins and disabling anxieties.
Create is us
clean hearts, loving God. and renew the true spirit
within us.
Spirit of Christ Jesus, open our eyes to the painful
truths from which we have been hiding, and enable us to recognise your costly
grace.
Create in us
clean hearts, loving God, and renew the true spirit within us.
Forgiveness
Lord Jesus, you are the true joy waiting to assuage
human restlessness and desire, we thank you that we
are forgiven to a depth we cannot see, and renewed for a future which as yet we
only dimly comprehend. You are indeed our Saviour and Lord.
Thanks be to God. Hallelujah!
Amen!
PRAYER FOR
CHILDREN: THANKS
You
Made Everything
Dear God, you played
and lovingly made:
monkeys, moose and magpies,
wombats, bears and butterflies,
kookaburras and kangaroos,
penguins, ponies and potoroos.
But best of all the things I see,
you made people,
just like me.
Thank you, God!
We love you, God!
Amen!
PSALM 19
The Southern Cross signals God’s glory;
the Milky Way gleams with holy handiwork.
Each new day tells a divine story;
at night-time God’s skills are displayed.
All nations and tongues can understand this
language;
a message which saturates our planet.
Look at the merry old sun in his robes of light;
he smiles like a bridegroom on his wedding day.
Keen as an athlete at the Olympics,
he strides from Sydney to Perth
Then he sprints the other half of the circuit,
missing no nation with his warmth.
How complete are the ways of God,
constantly renewing our humanity.
*
An excerpt from “Australian Psalms pages”
26-27
Ó B D Prewer & Open Book Publishers.
JESUS IN THE SPIRIT
The Wind is on my face;
the blind and those
who do not see
find light and space.
The Wind inspires my soul;
captives and those
who are not free
get out of gaol.
The Wind sings in my prayer;
the deaf and those
who do not hear
now hear and dare.
The Wind my hope renews;
the poor and those
of ragged soul
receive good news.
from
“Beyond Words” © B Prewer & Joint Board of Christian Education
COLLECT
Most wonderful God, you have sent Jesus, a brother
who is one of us yet also at one with you. With him your Spirit was truly at
home, inspiring him to preach good news to the poor and help for the needy.
Please let his Spirit and words enthuse the church, draw us close into one
body, and propel us to be agents of liberation, healing, peace, and undying
goodwill and joy. In his name we confidently pray.
Amen!
SERMON 1: THE SPIRIT IS UPON ME
Luke 4:18
The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, for he has ordained me to preach good news to the poor. He
has sent me to announce release for prisoners, sight for the blind, liberty for
the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of God’s acceptance... Luke 4: 18
What behaviour is appropriate for those on whom the
Holy Spirit comes?
How would you expect a person to behave who is
filled with the Spirit of God?
For some reason, many people have looked for
extravagant, very odd, behaviour. That applies both in the ancient world and
today in Australia.
Examples:
As you may be aware, in some unsophisticated
cultures an epileptic fit was seen as a visitation by God.
There are still some sects
within the religion of Islam, where men whirl and dance in a frenzy or hours
(sometimes all day and night) believing that the Spirit of God has come upon
them.
In some Hindu sects there is
much repetitive singing and ecstatic dancing hour upon hour, to invoke and
express the presence of the gods.
Also, recurring on and off
in the story of the church (and in other religions) people have believed that
ecstatically “speaking in tongues” is a wonderful gift of the Spirit.
In the revival that swept
England in the 18th century, led by John Wesley, among the crowds who gathered
to hear Wesley preach, there were some folk who toppled over, flat on their
backs in a swoon; this was regarded as a sign of the Spirit.
The Society of Friends, gained their “Quaker” name because in their
meetings some used go into fits of shaking. It was viewed as the work of the
Holy Spirit.
Another group were known as
the “Holy Rollers” because when the Spirit was thought to come, many fell down
and rolled about in the aisles.
Are these happenings the kind of evidence we should
look for when the Spirit of God moves in power in our lives?
Maybe some of the extravagant behaviour is a side
effect of an authentic spiritual experience, but I do not accept that it is
a key sign of the Spirit of God. Extravagances are not the important
characteristics of a Spirit filled person.
JESUS: OUR AUTHORITY RE THE HOLY SPIRIT
I would much prefer to go to the best authority on
the subject: Jesus of Nazareth. I want you to again watch him in action after he
returned from baptism and the temptations; remember how the “Holy Spirit alighted upon him like a dove”?
And how “he was lead by the Spirit into
the wilderness”?. After which he went in ”the power of the
Spirit” into Galilee, arriving back home in Nazareth. In Jesus we have the most Spirit-filled
person of all time.
It was at Nazareth, on a Sabbath day, the drama of
the today’s Gospel reading took place.
First, a brief background: the setting of synagogue
worship:
The synagogue served as
church, school and meeting place for discussion on community matters. As Jesus
was growing up he would have spent many hours here.
In the synagogue the worship
moved through the “shema”(Hear O Israel, the Lord your
God is the only God.) and the prayers. This was followed by a set reading of
the law, called the “parashah”. Then came the “ haphtarah”,
a free reading from the prophets which was usually chosen by the reader
Any man might be asked by
the synagogue ‘president’, the “hazzan”, to read the “haphtarah”, and give the
sermon.
The sermon was delivered while
seated in the special speaker’s chair.( Seated? Now t hat’s a good idea!)
In such synagogue worship,,
Jesus was asked by the person in charge
(the hazzan) that day at Nazareth to read the haphtarah.
Jesus chose Isaiah 61: 1-2.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has ordained me to preach
good news to the poor. He has sent me to announce release for prisoners, sight
for the blind, liberty for the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of God’s
acceptance. Luke 4: 18
Then he sat down and startled them all by saying: “Here today the word of the prophet is
fulfilled.”
Pause for a moment, and focus again on the fact
that I am here following up the question of what it means to be filled with the
Spirit.
“The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me” There is no
mistaking his claim. And when the Spirit comes, what is the result? He declares
¾
good news to the poor
release for prisoners
sight for the blind
liberty for the oppressed,
and a message that the year of God’s favour has dawned.
[Note: Some
Bible scholars think this last reference implies a Jewish Jubilee: the year
when all debts were cancelled and all slaves freed. Maybe.
It is arguably so.]
It is such a practical message. It is a spiritual,
social and political message and programme. There is no separation of religion
and politics in the mind of the most Spirit-full man that ever trod this earth.
So this must be what it really means to have the
Spirit: Down to earth faith and actions; an outflowing of love to the
disadvantaged people in the community.
SOME IMPLICATIONS
Because I regard Jesus as the expert, when people
talk about being filled with the Spirit I first want to look for behaviour that
squares up with Jesus. The characteristic activity of the Spirit is to shape
deeds of mercy, justice and healing.
“Full of the
Spirit” does not mean the weird and the way-out. It’s not God in the odd! But the Spirit overflowing from a person who is impelled into a
mission of love.
It is worth noting that Jesus is never recorded as
having joined in a frenzied, religious, mesmerising dance, nor did he roll with
excitement in the aisles or shake like the early Quakers. For that matter,
there is no shred of evidence that he ever spoke in ecstatic tongues.
This Jesus, the most perfectly Spirit-filled human
ever, had—
good news to the poor
release for prisoners
sight for the blind
liberty for the oppressed,
and a message that the year of God’s favour has dawned.
AUSTRALIA DAY
This Sunday brings us near to Australia Day, on Jan
26. It is appropriate to ponder the difference that some
people have made, and can still make, in this nation, when they do the Jesus
thing. Are we active in that programme which Jesus launched?
The opportunities are many.
The poor? Plenty of these both in and
outside Australia; and many other agencies of compassion
that could do with our vigorous support..
The prisoners? Maybe voluntary
organisations like Amnesty International and OARS are on the right track.
The blind? This leads us into the
whole field of healing: physical, both mental and physical and spiritual.
The oppressed? There is no shortage of
oppressed people in our land, including some native Australians, and those (mainly migrant) groups toiling in
the “sweat labour” workshops of
the rag trade.
Preaching the year of God’s favour? Grace ! Evangelism by deed a word. Making God’s love much more than a ‘three letter word.’ From Karumba to Kalgoorlie, Maroochydore to Mandurah, and from
Whyalla to Wollongong. Good news!
The Spirit of God is upon us, to be what Jesus would
have us be.
The Spirit is
not given so that we may entertain each other with odd behaviour;
it is not given so that we may wallow in, or idolise, our
own feelings;
it isn’t given that we might indulge in a religious ego
trip;
it is not given that our particular church might have the
cosiest fellowship,
or the prettiest
liturgy, or the liveliest worship..
It is given that we might love the
world as Jesus loved:
to reach out to the fringe dwellers,
to affirm and build up the timid,
to stand with the poor and oppressed,
to care for awkward or unattractive characters,
to be aware of and compassionate towards weak and addicted
ones,
to forgive those who hurt us and so liberate them (and
ourselves) from the bondage
of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
“The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me to announce good news to the poor”
Please God, may it be so!
SERMON 2: THE
JESUS THING TODAY
Luke 4: 16-21
The first recorded word in a sermon by Jesus is the word “Today.”
It was in his home synagogue at Nazareth that he
gave his message for the first time.
Jesus closed
the sacred Scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down, and all the
eyes in the synagogue were fixed upon him. He began to speak to them: “ Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your
hearing”
There would be many more words to follow in the
months ahead: fecund words that would both unsettle and enthral people for two
millennia. But Jesus’ first word was simply “Today”
Luke presents these words as Christ’s mission
statement. He believed that they were being fulfilled in his lifetime. These
words define what Jesus was on about. This was “his thing” because it was
“God’s thing.”
The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, for he has ordained me to preach good news to the poor. He
has sent me to announce release for prisoners, sight for the blind, liberty for
the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of God’s acceptance. Luke 4: 18
Today this
Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”
TODAY
Never confuse Jesus with those over zealous
iconoclasts: those who are so filled with their own self importance that they
scorn the past. Jesus was not an angry young man on an ego trip. Never! That
was not his thing.
Jesus treasured the past. He honoured the teaching
that has been passed down by Jews through many generations. He fed his soul
from the sacred scrolls of Scripture. During his temptations in the harsh
Judean wilderness, he rebutted Satan with quotations from the Scriptures. On
his return from the desert to Nazareth, he quotes from the prophet Isaiah in
his first sermon. It forms his manifesto. He cherished his Biblical heritage.
But he was called to be neither an historian nor a
museum curator. He looked to the present and the future. What the prophets had
hoped for, Jesus believed was available today. The new age of the Kingdom of
God was already breaking in upon them. The opportunity was now.
The challenge of
Jesus was (and is) for today.
Now is the hour of grace. Now is the moment of
opportunity. Now we chose between darkness and light. And that moment of
opportunity was inextricably tied to how we treat one another. Our attitudes, relationships, deeds. Especially
how we treat the poor, the captive, the blind, the oppressed; those whom this proud
world regards as unimportant or even disposable. Caring for people today
is “his thing.”
In his “Today” sermon he rams home his intent by
insisting that God’s mission included
despised foreigners. He reminds them that when Elijah was in need, God
met that need through
the hands of a Phoenician widow of Sidon. And the Syrian soldier, General
Naaman, found healing from Elisha ahead of many Jewish lepers. “Today” includes
those who are either ignored, despised, abused or hated. God’s grace recognised
no barrier of race or social class or religion. Inclusive love is his thing.
Significantly, it is this attitude to “Gentiles”,
those despised outsiders, that appears to have changed the mood of the Nazareth
congregation from admiration for the gracious words that Jesus poke, to one of
open hostility and violence.
DOING HIS THING?
What about us today?
Today are we with Jesus or against him? Are we for his manifesto or against it? Do we
live as if all races and classes are equally important to God, or as if some
are some are of lesser value? Do we carry on this “Jesus thing” which is also
“God’s thing”?
Don’t wait for the kingdom of God to come in the
future. With Jesus it is here today. Right now. Among us, for us, and excluding none. All the vulnerable, or
marginalised, or the rejected or neglected people of our community, and in
overseas countries, are those for whom Jesus came to include.
In our attitudes each one of us may reveal the
truth: whether, or not, we have embraced the real Jesus or created some sugary
substitute that can live easily with our prejudices, both social and
party-political. Dare we look honestly at ourselves? How often are we willing
to suffer the discomfort of giving our personal attitudes an honest and
thorough audit?
Let’s try a brief audit¾
-Are Moslem men, women and
children of Arabian lands or SE Asia, of lesser value than Australians, New Zealanders, Europeans or
Americans?
-Should aborigines be treated
as a less worthy group who deserve the bad health and the sad poverty-trap in which many languish.?
-Do asylum seekers,
especially the ‘boat people’, including their little children, warrant being
shut away behind barbed wire in remote places of Australia while their claim to
legitimacy is being processed?
-Are prostitutes, the drug
addicts and street kids, best left to ‘stew in their own juice’ rather
than the State spending money on their rehabilitation?
-Should those who are
infected with Aids be disdained as self-destructive fools who are
earning the wages of their own sins?
-Are nice, well educated,
middle class people more acceptable to our church than would be
the rough-edged, hoi
polloi?
-In summary: are we, in our attitudes,
values, and activities, being ruled by pride, fear and
selfishness rather than the love of Jesus? Are we genuine
practitioners of the Jesus thing?
THE ONLY LIFE IS TODAY
The only time in which we can live is right now. Today. Yesterday cannot be regained. Tomorrow cannot be
visited. This day is what matters to Christ Jesus. Now is the hour when the
“Jesus thing” stands before us as unlimited opportunity.
The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, for he has ordained me to preach good news to the poor. He
has sent me to announce release for prisoners, sight for the blind, liberty for
the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of God’s acceptance. Luke 4: 18
Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”
THANKS FOR SPECIAL CHRISTIANS
We say thanks, generous God,
for those special Christians who seem to have a large measure of the Spirit of
Christ.
Who keep their balance in
the midst of changes that cause us to waver this way and that.
Whose love of justice, truth
and mercy inspires them to deeds beyond what is expected.
Who never draw back from the
misery and cries of their fellow human beings.
Whose faith looks for no
escape from sticky situations of friction and misunderstanding.
Who embrace awkward and
hard-to-love people without stiffness or reservation.
Who forgive their enemies
and go the second mile with no hint of self-congratulation.
Whose sense of humour leads
them to laugh while we whinge and lick our wounds.
Whose everyday love and hope
counterbalances the avarice and cynicism of society.
God of all courageous and
debonair souls, we thank you for these spiritual guides. Even though we may not
be able to fully emulate their character and deeds, let us at least have the
grace to support them and pray for them. Through Christ Jesus
, the strongest and most grace-full of them all. Amen!
From Jesus Our Future. Page © B D Prewer &
Open Book Publishers
INTERCESSIONS
With our
prayers, we contract into the business of loving our neighbour. Let us pray.
For our nation; its
politics, commerce, culture, education, mass media and recreational pursuits. That self-interest, injustice,
arrogance, and deceit may not have dominion over our people and leaders.
Spirit of Jesus, make us your agents of
integrity and divine sanity.
For our international neighbours; Malaysia and
Indonesia, Papua and New Guinea, the
Philippines, New Zealand and the island nations of the Pacific: That they may
be governed wisely and compassionately.
Spirit of Jesus,
help our country to be a humble influence for the good of all
For the indigenous people of our land; the urban dwellers
and outback communities. That they may have courageous and wise leadership from
within, and profound understanding and respect from
without.
Spirit of Jesus, with our help or without
it, lead them into a better future.
For our young people in this century of abrupt
changes and pervasive insecurities: That younger and older folk may be willing
to learn from each other, and that the fullness of
life be found by both the eager and the afraid.
Spirit of Jesus, bless young people
with the fullness of your liberating love.
For any member of this congregation, and for those
among family or friends, who are in dire straits today: That according to their
bewilderment, pain, or heartbreak, they may find your grace sufficient for
their needs.
Spirit of Jesus, when it is fitting, please use us as your angels of mercy.
SENDING OUT
Go out into the world with rekindled confidence and
peace: Sometimes it is tough out there, other times it seems ‘a breeze.’ Give
thanks to God in the hard times as well as in the easy days. There is nothing
that can happen which falls outside the realm of the Spirit of Christ Jesus.
Amen!
We offer the best we know of ourselves to the
best we know of Christ Jesus.
The blessing of the creating, liberating and
indwelling God be always with you.
And also with you.
Amen!
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