| 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 28
9-15 October
Luke 17: 11-19
(Sermon
1: “What Does it Mean to be Healed?)
2 Timothy 2:
8-15
Jeremiah 29:
1, 4-7 (Sermon 2: Make the
Most of It”)
Psalm 66: 1-12
PREPARATION
Here we have opportune time to re-ground
ourselves in God.
The love of Christ so leads us.
The joy of the Lord be with
you all.
And also with you.
It is time for pausing and praising, for thinking
and thanking,
for listening and learning, for
confessing and forgiving.
This is time for allowing ourselves to be loved and cherished
by a Lover who
will never leave us or forsake us.
OR—
Give praise to our God, you people everywhere,
Let the songs of our praise be widely heard!
Say to God: “How awesome are your actions,
Before your sheer love, all evil cringes away.”
All around the
earth we worship you;
we sing praises to your name,
we sing praises to your name!
Doxology: sung
PRAYER OF APPROACH
Holy Friend, please release in us that spirit of
joyful thanks which is too often cramped down by our work and worries, or
ignored by our trivial pleasures and entertainments.
Release the real joy of Christ in us, that with
adoring gratitude we may link our little spirits with your majestic Spirit, and
find that inflow of health which rejuvenates our whole being. Through your true Son, our Saviour.
Amen!
CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE
God is always ready to hear our confession. Are we
are reeady to front us and to ‘fess up”
Let us pray.
When others expose our obvious faults and sins, when
we ourselves get angry with our less obvious and secret sins, thank goodness,
loving God, for Christ Jesus our Redeemer!
Other people may project shame on us and shun us, we may find ourselves hard to live with,
but you come to us with a
relentless grace and therapeutic mercy that forgives and heals.
You are the light that exposes all shabbiness,
the physician who diagnoses
with total accuracy,
the surgeon who cuts away
disease and corruption,
the pharmacist who prescribes
the right salve,
and the nurse who encourages
our sore spirits back to health.
You, Jesus Christ, are our loving judge and our
enduring Saviour.
Please deal with us not exactly as we ask, and not
as we deserve,
but with that wise compassion
which knows what is best for us,
now and always.
Amen!
FORGIVENESS
My sisters and brothers in Christ: God knows from personal
experience how difficult it isto be a truly good
person, when living under the pressures of a busy life in a world where evil
seems to prosper and goodness appears to languish.
Your God knows and provides mercy and renewal. You
are a forgiven, trusted and empowered people.
The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
And also with
you!
PRAYER FOR CHILDREN
Christ the Healer
You, Lord Jesus, are like a doctor
who can see what’s wrong with us
and help make us better.
Only you are much smarter
than any other doctor.
You look right through us
into our thoughts and feelings
so that you can put things
right.
Thank you, Dr Jesus,
for being our Saviour.
Amen!
PSALM 66: 1-12
Circle the earth with a ‘Mexican wave’ for God!
Surround
the globe with rapturous songs!
Shout together about God’s awesome deeds,
of the power that makes devils cringe!
Let all the earth combine in worship,
sing psalms and joyful songs to God’s name.
Just take a look at what our God has done,
such sensational things for humanity.
The sea becomes a path like the dry land,
deep rivers are easily crossed.
When it’s all happening we celebrate our God,
whose strength goes on forever.
God keeps an eye on the nations,
lest politicians become full of themselves.
It’s our privilege to praise in city and country,
to make sure joy is everywhere heard.
God gives us a place among the living,
and does not allow our feet to fatally slip.
We know that you have tested us, God,
we are like silver purified by fire.
You make us fight our own way out trouble,
our backs have bent under the strain.
Others may have walked all over us,
yet from flood and fire we breath again.
© B.D. Prewer 2000
POEM: Beyond Words
This
‘Searching One’
of which the word “grace”
but faintly whispers
(inadequate as a thimble
to cup the sea)
comes looking for lost coins
in the dust and darkness
where the lost lie.
This Shepherd One
of which the word ‘love’
only touches the fringes
(inadequate a candle
at the high noon)
takes
the rugged path
through the wilderness
where the lost soon die.
This Parent One
of which the word ‘joy’
but tamely hints
(inadequate
as one note
to describe a symphony)
runs
to meet the lost
with open arms
and a father’s cry!
© B D
Prewer, 1993
& 2012
POEM: GIVING THANKS
He fell on his
face at Jesus’ feet
and gave thanks. Luke 1716
To bow down when all things seem well,
to give thanks for the
smallest blessing,
then are we healed.
To bow down when health is recovered,
and to know it a bonus not a
right,
then are we healed.
To bow down when others rush off to party,
to love the Healer more than
self,
then are we healed.
To bow down when disease runs wild,
and believe that nothing is
God-less,
then are we healed.
To bow down in the hour of dying,
to have peace as the light
fails,
then are we healed.
© B.D. Prewer 2003
COLLECT
God our Creator and Redeemer, open our eyes to a
larger awareness of your goodness, and our souls to deeper gratitude. Then,
uplifted with thanksgiving, may we give ourselves to unpleasant tasks with good
grace, and show irk-some
people a good will such as we offer our best friends. Through
Christ Jesus our ever-present Lord.
Amen!
SERMON 1: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HEALED?
Luke 16:19
Jesus said to him[ the Samaritan leper]: ‘Stand up and get going; you
faith has healed you.’’
This is one of those weeks when I have not been able
to get the sermon together in my head. Too many ideas; too
many loose ends. It just would not jell..
I can tell you what my aim is. to
start with Jesus’ words to the healed leper-- ‘your faith has saved you.’ I want to try and rehabilitate the words
“salvation’ and “saved” from misuse, and to affirm the availability of the
salvation of Christ for us all.
Be patient with me, please, as I attempt and work my way through
it.
Starting point: Ten lepers,
all cured of their sickness by Jesus. Nine raced off to get a health
certificate from the priests. One, who
was a despised Samaritan, remained to first thank Jesus.
Question: Were the nine healed or merely cured of a
physical disease? Was the Samaritan who gave thanks the only one who was fully
healed?
SALVATION: SOTERIA
This is a word I want to reclaim from an oppressive
religious use by high adrenalin zealots.
Quote: Albert Outler:
“Abrasive
zealots fling their Bibles around like missiles — eyes ablaze, bodies coiled
for pouncing on the hapless sinner”
“The flaming rhetoric of.....
“Do you want to be saved? Do you want to go to heaven? Do you want to be
ready when Jesus comes again? Are you eager to flee from the wrath to come
while others perish in their sins?”
In New Testament times: Soteria
was also a much used secular word.
It had two basic meanings; rescue and good health.
The most common usage among ordinary people, the hoi
poloi (as in the low-brow language of the
Greek N.T.) was for good health. If you met an old friend you might ask: “How
is your soteria?”
Or you might comment; “You are lucky, you have such
good soteria.”
On the other hand, in the older classics of Greek
literature, as widely read by the elite in later Roman times, the most regular
use of soteria is rescue. “I thank the gods for your soteria from the shipwreck.”
I reckon we would do the church a service if for a
period of time we used the “health” meaning rather than the ‘rescue’. (The rescue meaning as in “are you saved” has
far too often been confined to being saved from punishment in the future life.)
Salvation is the opposite of disease: Disease is dis-ease;
loss of well being. Soteria heals dis-ease;
makes us whole.
FOUR ASPECTS OF SALVATION
Healing/salvation
= bodily health (liberation from physical dis-ease)
= emotional health (a whole person;
peace; liberation from inner dis-ease)
= spiritual health (at-one-ment; liberation from dis-ease
with God)
= social health (relationships; liberation from
interpersonal dis-ease)
All of these overlap and interrelate-:
Bodily dis-ease: can effect how we treat
those around us and how we feel about God
Relationship dis-ease. a
person in pain might verbally or physically hit out at their loved ones,
Personal dis-ease: mental disharmony, can work itself out in bad
attitudes and actions;
and even cause bodily bad health. A heart attack, for
example..
Spiritual
disease:
how one relates to God can have a bearing on our relationships
with others, our feelings about ourselves, and physical
ailments.
Remember
the man on a stretcher whom Jesus forgave and healed:
“Your
sins are forgiven.......take up your bed and walk.’
Social
disease:
how people treat us and how we treat them can affect
faith, our bodies,
and our self
image. Unforgiveness can bring on ulcers and in some
cases cancer.
An anomaly:
Some people with grievous physical affliction
nevertheless seem to attain a wholeness of personality, maintain beautiful
relationships, and have a buoyant faith in God. This makes me think that out of
the four areas of disease, the physical may finally be the least important. (In
saying this I do not treat lightly the agony of that
some have to endure.)
Some people in wheelchairs make many of us seem like
the really unhealthy ones.
Some whose bodies are being ravaged by disease are
an inspiration to those around them.
I’ve had the privilege of sitting beside dying
patients who have been in very good spirits.
Salvation, healing, must be about the whole
person.
Our cultural obsession with physical health, with
little emphasis on the spiritual, personal and social, is a long way from the
healing that the New Testament celebrates. There are many “beautiful bodies”
walking around without any corresponding beauty of mind or soul. Such people are on no way healthy; they do
not have soteria.
THE CHURCH; A THERAPEUTIC
COMMUNITY?
If the church is on about salvation, it should be a
therapeutic community. As the body of Christ, healing should be present and
flow out to others.
In church we turn from the dis-ease
of being ego-centred towards the perfection and beauty and unconditional love
of God.
In church we stop listening to the negativity and
futility of the world around us and affirm our place in the Divine purpose.
In church we turn from the debilitating sense of
failure and sin , to the healing forgiveness of Christ
Jesus.
When we are feeling insignificant or useless, in
church we are affirm again that we are children of God and joint heirs with
Christ.
In times of joy we celebrate each others success, in
times of sorrow as a church we share each others grief, and help put lives
together again.
When we are physically ill, we support each other in
prayer, ask for healing, and give whatever
practical assistance we can. We seek the health of the whole person.
Should we become filled with resentment towards
another, it is in church that we are asked to discharge the pain through being
merciful, by praying even for our enemies.
From church we go out to serve others who are not of
the faith. Barriers of race, sex, class, culture, skin colour, age do not exist for us.
SOTERIA
SALVATION
RESCUE
AND HEALING
The salvation of Jesus certainly includes what
happens to us when we die, but its main focus is on the quality of life we live
now. If we attain soteria health here and now, the
future will hold no anxiety for us.
Jesus speaks to us today:
Stand up and get going;
your faith
has made you whole.
healed you
delivered
you
saved you.
SERMON 2: MAKE THE MOST OF IT
Jeremiah 29:4-8
It’s not fair!
It is easy to grumble when life deals us a mean hand.
It takes no skill at all,
and certainly no courage, to whinge and belly-ache to whoever will listen.
Feeling aggrieved, we can readily join the herd of those who become sour
characters, head over heals in self pity.
On the other hand, we can be like Jeremiah .In spite
of his times of frustration and persecution (and he did have a big belly-ache!)
when the chips were down struck a positive chord in the darkest hours.
From his own exile in Egypt, where he was dagged there against his
will, he sent a letter to the other Jewish exiles in the distant pagan city of
Babylon. It went this way –
Thus says the
Lord of hosts...... to all the exiles sent from Jerusalem into Babylon. ‘Build
houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and
have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your d daughters in
marriage, that they may bear sons
and daughters. Multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city
where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in
its welfare you will find your welfare.
Jeremiah 29: 4-8
Make the most of it, said Jeremiah. Don’t expect a
quick fix. There will be no sudden rescue and quick return home. For the time
being, transform your misfortune into a blessing for you and those who live in
the city beside you.
Take no notice of the religious types who will offer
you saccharine hope. Jeremiah had to counter false prophets; those who preached
fake comfort. He did not trust them. Nor should you or I.
They will tell you what you want to hear. Have none of their sentimental
religion.
You and I are there for the long haul. Make the most
of it, says Jeremiah. Get on with it. Marry and have kids, and encourage them
to marry and have children. For your God says : Seek the welfare of the city where I have
sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you
will find your welfare.
To make the most of it you must seek the welfare of
those around you. Their happiness and yours are tied together..
Don’t become negative whingers, expecting others to have pity you. Seek the welfare of the city where I have
sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you
will find your welfare. Your God says, make the most of it.
WHAT IS GOD SAYING TO US?
Maybe that is exactly what our God is saying to us
this Sunday: “There is no stress-free, painless discipleship waiting to fall
into your lap. Make the most of what you have and are.”
Too many whingers are look for a change in external
circumstances. Changed conditions will, they think, enable them to find the
happiness they hanker for.
They are wrong. Except for those in situations of
severe deprivation or abuse, that is not the answer. For most of us, a change
will not necessarily improve your lot.
A shift into a new house, like the ones shown in
“Home Beautiful,” will not guarantee your better welfare. Changing jobs is no
sure remedy. Changing wife or husband may not do anything except confirm you in
a self-pitying view that “nobody understands me.”
Don’t believe those who exploit our desire to dodge
reality. In spite of what the lotto industry tells you in those alluring TV adds, there is no magic fix through wealth. While no person
should be made to exist in grinding poverty, a fortune of money is no
prescription for salvation. I have in mind that man who, a couple of years ago, was being
interviewed on a current affairs programme. While reflecting on his life after
winning the lotto, the miserable looking fellow commented with deep feeling, “I
wish to God my numbers had never come up."
We must make the most of where we are, and what we
have. And do our best for those who around us. For without their happiness,
ours will always fall short of the mark. Of course we must look after
ourselves, but that cannot be at the expense of others. In their well being is
our well being.
“No man is an island.” (Thank you, John Donne, great
poet that you were!) There can be no happiness for the “God fearing person” if
they do not take to heart that second commandment of Christ Jesus, “Love your neighbour
as yourself: Also his “new”
commandment: “Love one another, even as
I have loved you.”
Like the Jews exiled in Babylon, we are in this
faith thing for the long haul. Full redemption will take time. Make the most of
it, love one another, and we will find joys we did not
realise existed within our present circumstances.
As I think through this simple, yet profound matter,
the faces of certain people keep flashing on the screen of my mind.
(To protect their privacy, I will give them an
alias)
I see Lorraine,
who as a young wife and mother
during World War 2, had to flee Papua
New Guinea as the Japanese invaded. She never saw her missionary husband again,
for he was executed by the invaders. She grieved deeply but did not get bogged
down in self pity. Lorraine brought up her family and gave herself with
unstinted devotion to her God and service to the community throughout a very
long and fruitful life.
Make the most of it? Seek the welfare of those
around you? In their welfare will you find your welfare.
I see Rod,
who “drew the short straw” by
being a poorly educated orphan, shy and timid, who grew up to do menial labour
all his life. Rod never married. Never owned a car, nor
his own home. Yet he never complained.
He quietly went about doing good wherever he could in
community and church. Rod in his relative poverty, gave more to those whom he
saw in need than any other human being I have known.
I see Bev,
an outgoing, self giving
person in her eighties. Recently she fell on some stairs, badly bruised face
and lacerated parts of her body, and fractured her pelvis. Yet lying there in
hospital, looking as if some villain had savagely bashed her, she was all
smiles and thanksgiving. Thankful that within 20 minutes of
the fall she was able to crawl to a telephone. Thankful
for the kindness of the ambulance officers who rescued her. Thankful for the hospital and care of the nurses. Thankful for the physiotherapist who was making her do painful but
needed exercise. Thankful she could still read, and would
now have time to complete a cross-stitch cushion cover. Thankful that she was
being served lovely meals (Yes really. Many people complain about hospital
food. Not Bev!) Thankful that her family and friends were
showing her so much love.
Make the most of it?
NOT PASSIVE TOLERATION OF WRONGS
I am not advocating that we should be passive,
tolerating without protest the injustices inflicted on ourselves or on others.
We are not in the business of being either passive
or negatively reactive. With God’s help we try to be pro-active. Like Jeremiah
and the prophets of Israel, we should seek changes wherever possible. Christian
love for our neighbours is more than mere justice, and can never less than
justice.
Let me tell you about a man who has been an effective
“mover and shaker.” He has had various spheres of service to the
community. He is 5 talent friend whom I will call
Paul. A man of considerable ability and resolute personal
integrity. Paul has lived a busy and most fruitful life. What is more he
has lived it well in spite of adverse circumstances.
He and his family were very excited when he took up
a position as the head of a new university in another state. Within a few months his youngest son was
killed in a road accident. Though grieving deeply, he completed the job he had
started in that young university.
A few years later on, back in this state, his
beloved wife died of cancer. Grief again. But Paul got
on with living and serving. After a time of loneliness he found and married a
very capable and lovely woman. Some years of deep happiness followed, then she
contracted cancer and after a noble fight against it she died. Paul is again
alone.
He came to see my wife and I
recently. Speaking of his sorrow, yet of his profound gratitude for the
enabling love they had shared, he reflected along these lines: “Maybe the good
Lord said; ‘Now here is a lovely woman who will die relatively young. I will
give her a husband who has been through the cancer trauma before, and he will
be able to give her the support she will need.’ I am thankful I was able to be
that husband.”
Paul has sorrowed much, but there is exists scant
self-pity in Paul. He continues to lead a productive life, still able to move
in what are called “high circles” and using his many abilities for the benefit
of the community..
Make the most of it.
Seek the
welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on
its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare
I conclude with a prayer which has found its present
popularity via AA meetings. You may know it as the ‘Serenity Prayer.
’
God grant me the courage to change
the things I can change,
the
serenity to accept those I cannot change,
and the
wisdom to know the difference.
THANKSGIVING
Gratitude is a healthy reaction to grace.
Let us pray.
Holy Friend, words about you are
no substitute for the real thing. We thank you for the special times of the
spirit; for those brief moments of Divine light, when nothing separates us from
you and we can experience a fragment of pure wonder and love.
We thank you for the simple triggers you choose for
these moments of light:
A piece of music, a walk by the sea, a phrase in a prayer.
The song of a thrush, the eyes of a friend, a line in a hymn.
A ripple on still waters, a word of Scripture, the soft cheek of a
baby.
A tiny bush orchid, a loved one’s hug, a parable from Jesus.
The
midnight stars, an awakened memory, the sharing of bread and wine.
Recovering from an illness, a thought in a sermon, the scent of a
flower.
A child’s baptism, the striking of a clock, the glimpse of a
mountain peak.
We thank you that we cannot manufacture these times
of awe; or predict them; that they are your serendipity gifts, free as grace,
more precious than gold. Help us to treasure them, to measure them by what
Christ taught us, and to use them as inspiration for the common love and
service of ordinary days. To your endless praise and glory.
Amen!
INTERCESSIONS
Only those who truly believe in faith, hope and love,
will keep on praying for a world that lurches from one crisis to another.
Let us pray.
God of hope, give us more of the Spirit of Jesus and
co-opt us into the ongoing work of your salvation.
Let us by word, deed and prayer, assist in some way,
be it small or large,
for the rescue and healing of your people on this planet.
Wherever there is spiritual confusion or despair;
may the salvation of
Christ come with its light and joy.
Wherever there is emotional sickness or mental
disarray, may the salvation of Jesus still exert its ancient power.
Wherever people suffer from accident or disease,
carry a handicap, or bear a tearing grief, may the
salvation of Christ be intimately present.
Wherever there are injustices which crush body, mind
and spirit, may the salvation of the Lord bring liberty to victims, and repentance to the oppressors.
Wherever there is bad blood between family members,
neighbours, or old friends,
may the salvation of Jesus deliver us and heal our sins and
follies.
Wherever the church has failed to be a healing
community, may your saving hands draw us away from dis-ease
and recall us to that wholesome loving that bears all things, hopes all things
and endures all things.
Holy God, you are our light and salvation. Hear our
prayers, toughen our faith, and widen our compassion. Through
Christ Jesus our Saviour.
Amen!
SENDING OUT
As you go on your way,
may you have the wisdom and
will to help others
and the humility to allow
others to help you.
Take courage to forgive and be forgiven,
to heal and be healed, to
serve and be served.
With you always there will be
the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ,
the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit.
Amen!
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