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Intercessions for Trinity + 21 (Proper 24) Year C 20 October 2013

Jacob wrestling with the angel, by Rembrandt

Jacob wrestling with the angel, by Rembrandt

The Collect

Grant, we beseech you, merciful Lord, to your faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins and serve you with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

¶ The Liturgy of the Word

First Reading: Jeremiah 31.27-34

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. In those days they shall no longer say: ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge. The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt – a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Psalm 119.97-104

Lord, how I love your law! *All the day long it is my study.
Your commandments have made me wiser than my enemies, *for they are ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers, *for your testimonies are my meditation.
I am wiser than the aged, *because I keep your commandments.R
I restrain my feet from every evil way, *that I may keep your word.
I have not turned aside from your judgements, *for you have been my teacher.
How sweet are your words on my tongue! *They are sweeter than honey to my mouth.
Through your commandments I get understanding; *therefore I hate all lying ways.
Refrain: Give me life, O Lord, according to your word.

 

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 3.14-4.5

Continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Gospel Reading: Luke 18.1-8

Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”’ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’


Jane Williams comments: ‘This odd little parable in Luke gives us the key to all of today’s readings, they are about faithful endurance.’

The thought on today’s lectionary is from Kenneth Randolph Taylor, an Episcopalian from North Georgia, who blogs as neatnik2009. He offers the following:

The Efficacy of Prayer

A judge was supposed to issue impartial rulings, but the woman in the parable from Luke 18:1-8 had to resort to threats of physical violence (slapping the judge in the face or giving him a black eye), to get justice. Extraordinary circumstances required extraordinary methods. But God, as Jesus tells us, is impartial. Deuteronomy 10:17-19 agrees and imposes a set of obligations on the people…There is a profound link between how we regard God and how we act toward one another, not that Atheists cannot be moral people and agents of what the Lutheran confessions of faith call civic righteousness. Yet, if we love God, we will love one another actively.

Another theme in the readings for this Sunday is persistence in prayer. But what is prayer? The Book of Common Prayer (1979) defines it as…responding to God, by thought and deeds, with or without words. (page 856)  Christian prayer, according to the same page of the same volume, is…response to God the Father, through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is a state of being. It is how we think and therefore act. Prayer is far more than the definition I heard in children’s Sunday School:talking to God. No, prayer is really about the covenant God has written on our hearts.

So, according to that definition, how is your prayer life? You might struggle with God, O reader, but that is fine. In Islam people submit to Allah, but in Judaism they struggle and argue with God. I, being a strong-minded person, enjoy that part of my religious heritage. At least there is a relationship with God through all that struggling. And a transformed state awaits each of us at the end…And one gains much valuable understanding through the struggles.

May we persist in our struggles with God and in our efforts to behave justly, for the glory of God and the benefit of others. The process will transform us, making us better. That is one valid way to understand the efficacy of prayer.

 

 

Prayers of Intercession

Father of light, in whom is no change or shadow of turning, you give us every good and perfect gift and have brought us to birth by your word of truth: may we be a living sign of that kingdom where your whole creation will be made perfect in Jesus Christ our Lord.

¶The Church of Christ

Lord, write your law in the hearts of the members of your Church. Show us where our customs have become shibboleths in need of breaking down, and where they still reflect the truth that you sent your son into the world to show us. Strengthen us to hold fast to that which is good, and to have the courage to leave behind that which no longer serves the purpose for which it was intended. Help us to adapt to a fast-changing world so that we may bring your word to others, ever widening the circle of the people of God.

Lord, help us to do justly,  love mercy, and walk humbly with you: in your mercy, hear our prayer

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

Lord, give us the will to mould this world ever closer to your heart’s desire, and the patience to work with what we have, where we are.  You know we have tried, and failed, to create societies in which there are no poor or under-privileged. In the flawed human society that we live in, help us, we pray, to do what we ourselves can to feed the hungry, clothe the poor and succour the sick and the dying. We ask you also to breathe your loving spirit into all those who are in a position either to help or to ignore large groups of people on behalf of us all: strengthen their will to use the power and influence that they wield in this world for good.

Lord, help us to do justly,  love mercy, and walk humbly with you: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶The local community

Lord, as we continue our efforts to build a shining city on a hill here on earth, be with us, we pray, in our endeavours through our successes and our setbacks. Strengthen our conviction that, though our hopes may not yet have come to fruition, our fears may also not be realised. Where we are truly working for the benefit of others, and your greater glory, be with us in our struggles. Help us to build links to our friends and neighbours so that a chain of support, encouragement and love for one another may in the end encircle the globe.

Lord, help us to do justly,  love mercy, and walk humbly with you: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶Those who suffer

Lord, you did not promise us a life of ease, nor did you promise us a life free of pain. But you did promise that we would not be overcome, and that even when we pass through fire, we shall not be burnt. Be with us, we pray, and all that suffer, through the deep waters, and through the fire, and finally through the valley of the shadow of death to your kingdom, where  there is no pain anymore.

Lord, help us to do justly,  love mercy, and walk humbly with you: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶The communion of saints

Lord, we remember with deep gratitude those who have left their mark on our lives by giving us love and laughter, but who have now gone before us to be with Christ. We hold them in our hearts, knowing that you, Lord, hold them in yours.

 Lord, help us to do justly,  love mercy, and walk humbly with you: in your mercy, hear our prayer

 

1 comment on this post:

minidvr said...
avatar

Thanks Laura.

17 October 2013 05:10

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