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Intercessions: 8th Sunday after Trinity Year C (Proper11) : 21 July 2013

Pengilley

The Collect

Almighty Lord and everlasting God, we beseech you to direct, sanctify and govern both our hearts and bodies in the ways of your laws and the works of your commandments; that through your most  mighty protection, both here and ever, we may be preserved in body and soul; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

¶ The Liturgy of the Word

First Reading: Amos 8.1-12

This is what the Lord God showed me – a basket of summer fruit. He said, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A basket of summer fruit.’ Then the Lord said to me: ‘The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by. The songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day,’ says the Lord God; ‘the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!’ Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, ‘When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practise deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.’ The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt? On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day. The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.  They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.

Psalm 52

Refrain: I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.

Why do you glory in evil, you tyrant, * while the goodness of God endures continually?
You plot destruction, you deceiver; * your tongue is like a sharpened razor.
You love evil rather than good, * falsehood rather than the word of truth.
You love all words that hurt, * O you deceitful tongue.
Therefore God shall utterly bring you down; * he shall take you and pluck you out of your tent and root you out of the land of the living.
The righteous shall see this and tremble, * they shall laugh you to scorn, and say:
‘This is the one who did not take God for a refuge, * but trusted in great riches and relied upon wickedness.’
But I am like a spreading olive tree in the house of God; * I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.
I will always give thanks to you for what you have done; * I will hope in your name, for your faithful ones delight in it.

 

Second Reading: Colossians 1.15-28

Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers – all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him – provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

Gospel Reading:Luke 10.38-42

Now as Jesus and his disciples went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’


Today the RSCM said in 2007: ‘Jesus wants to be able to reach everyone, both with his words and with his very presence, but he cannot do that if we preoccupy ourselves with other things, even things that seem important at the time. Can Martha really justify herself and make herself deserving of Jesus by being busily duteous? And would Jesus not be happier if she, like her sister, could be content for the moment simply to receive him?’ The message would seem to be: ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God: the washing-up can wait’. And Amos is telling us we need to start straight away, or it will be too late.

Prayers of Intercession

Lord, open our eyes to your presence and our minds to your grace; open our lips to your praises and our hearts to your love; open our lives to your healing and be found among us, we pray.*

¶The Church of Christ

Lord, you have told us that we would not be seeking for you if we had not already found you. Look down on your Church and grant us your people the grace to desire you with our whole hearts; so that desiring you, we might seek and find you; and so finding you, might love you; and so loving you might turn away from all that separates us from your love. Keep us mindful that we cannot do everything with our own power, and help us to rest trustingly in your everlasting arms, so that we may renew our strength for the journey.

Lord, help us to seek that we may find: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶Creation, human society, the Sovereign and those in authority

Lord, you have made us creatures of this earth, hungry, thirsty and needy, and you stand ready to satisfy our longings with your abundant love. Ready to satisfy the hunger of our bodies for food and shelter, health and human touch. Ready to satisfy the hunger of our spirits for fulfilment in loving and giving. Ready to satisfy the hunger of our minds to understand our world, the reasons for its pain and the ways we are connected to each other. Ready to satisfy the hunger of our hearts that all who share this loving earth with us might share our satisfaction. And ready to satisfy the hunger of our hands to help you make it so. **

Lord, help us to seek that we may find: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶The local community

Lord, we pray for both the Marthas and the Marys, whether male or female, in our community. We know you will find room for all of us in this cosmic patchwork you are quilting. Give us grace to play our allotted roles, knowing that each member has value. Lord, find a place for us in your giant jigsaw and weave your wondrous tapestry until  the warp and weft of  our twisted, tangled threads form an image which is beautiful in your sight.  ***

Lord, help us to seek that we may find: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶Those who suffer

Lord, we remember before you those who need to forget the God they do not believe in, and meet instead the God who believes in them. We remember those who are waiting and hoping for a word which someone else must say. We remember all those who are in pain or distress, and ask you to comfort those who feel they can go no further. Lord, be with them all in your infinite love and pour into their hearts the gentle balm of your Spirit.

Lord, help us to seek that we may find: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶The communion of saints

Lord, we commend into your hands those whom we have loved. You gave them breath, and loved them through their lives. Receive them now in your infinite tenderness, and give them peace.

Lord, help us to seek that we may find: in your mercy, hear our prayer

*The invocation is based on a prayer by David Adam.

** Based on a prayer by Janet Morley

*** Based on ‘Fit me in somewhere’ by Gerard Kelly, published by Zondervan.

The illlustration is Sword of the Spirit by Oliver Pengilley The verse on the back of the card reads, ” Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Ephesians 6 : 17 “I always want to try and tell some sort of story in my paintings, and most show the relationship that God has with us. This painting is about someone being given the sword of the Spirit to help with their journey.” Oliver Pengilley. With grateful thanks to Veritasse for their kind permission to use this image.

1 comment on this post:

Heather Arbin said...
avatar

Very helpful in helping me to form prayers of intercession

08 August 2014 08:15

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