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Intercessions for Last Sunday after Trinity Year A – 26 October 2014

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The Collect

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: help us so to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, 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: Deuteronomy 34.1-12

Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and the Plain – that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees – as far as Zoar. The Lord said to him, ‘This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, “I will give it to your descendants”; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.’ Then Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord’s command. He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day. Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigour had not abated. The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the period of mourning for Moses was ended. Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands on him; and the Israelites obeyed him, doing as the Lord had commanded Moses. Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. He was unequalled for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land, and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

Psalm 90.1-6,13-17

Lord, you have been our refuge *from one generation to another.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or the earth and the world were formed, * from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
You turn us back to dust and say: * ‘Turn back, O children of earth.’
For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday, * which passes like a watch in the night.
You sweep them away like a dream; * they fade away suddenly like the grass.
In the morning it is green and flourishes; * in the evening it is dried up and withered.
Turn again, O Lord; how long will you delay? * Have compassion on your servants.
Satisfy us with your loving-kindness in the morning; * that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Give us gladness for the days you have afflicted us * and for the years in which we have seen adversity.
Show your servants your works * and let your glory be over their children.
May the gracious favour of the Lord our God be upon us; * prosper our handiwork; O prosper the work of our hands.

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2.1-8

You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 22.34-46

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: ‘What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’ He said to them, ‘How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’”? If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?’ No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

The RSCM is in lyrical form:

If I have never been loved, I will find loving others a burden, tempted to loathe my neighbour as I loathe myself. Jesus’s teaching springs from the depth of his experience: he knows what it is like to be loved. And because he is loved by the Father, he knows he is loveable. He is able to love himself without arrogance or anxiety. And he is able to love his neighbour as himself. There can be no love of neighbour without love of self, and all human love is founded on the love of God, given and received.

Prayers of Intercession

¶The Church of Christ

Lord, thank-you for today’s reminder that being a Christian is the simplest thing in the world – even if it is not easy. Help us to return to the basic truth that all you require of us is love: to the depth and breadth and height our souls can reach, to infinity itself. And so, through your grace, may we grow in love for you and one another and thus fulfil our role as the Body of Christ to work for the coming of the kingdom in this world.

Lord, fill our hearts with such love for you that it overflows on to all our fellow human beings: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

 

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

Lord, the glory of the earth is your glory. The splendour of the heavens is your splendour. And the wonder of the galaxies and nebulae is yours, O wonderful creator.  Yet you know to the deepest degree of detail how every atom and molecule were made, each with its own spinning galaxy within. Maker of mountains and microbes, we praise you for the glories of your creation.

Lord, fill our hearts with such love for you that it overflows on to all our fellow human beings: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

 

¶The local community

Lord, you ask us to love our neighbours as ourselves, but the trouble is we do. And since we find it so difficult always to love ourselves, we find the same difficulty in loving our neighbour. Strange feelings come from depths we cannot control, causing us to react and fail to respond. Help us, we pray, to embrace our dark unknown, to accept and forgive what lies within. For you have promised that it is already done, that  we are profoundly loved, in outpourings without cease, and that your love includes and embraces both us and our neighbour.*

Lord, fill our hearts with such love for you that it overflows on to all our fellow human beings: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

 

¶Those who suffer

Lord, where the ground is so dry that there is no sign of life, only aridity, we ask you to send new springs to bubble up, slaking the earth’s thirst and refreshing it into new growth. Where the walls that form the fabric and structure of our lives are broken down through anger and violence, we ask you to help us rebuild our shelters from the storms of life. And where our lives seem to be ruined, on a darkling plain without light or hope for the future, we ask you to restore them as you may see fitting.

Lord, fill our hearts with such love for you that it overflows on to all our fellow human beings: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

 

¶The communion of saints

Lord of eternity, Lord beyond time, may your grace be upon us all. For in the evening of our days when we come to be judged, we shall be known only by love, delivered only by love. Amidst the confusion of time, may we hear the heartbeat of eternity.

Lord, fill our hearts with such love for you that it overflows on to all our fellow human beings: in your mercy, hear our prayer.

 


 

*Based on the poem ‘Second Commandment’ by Ann Lewin

Copyright acknowledgement: Post Communion (Last after Trinity) © 1985 Anglican Church of Canada: The Book of Alternative Services;Some material included in this service is copyright: © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ, USA; Some material included in this service is copyright: © The Archbishops’ Council 2000;Collect (Last after Trinity) © The Crown/Cambridge University Press: The Book of Common Prayer (1662)

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