SOUL SURMISE

PRAYERS FOR OUR CARE FOR CREATION - Rhea Marshall (Fitzroy 15.11.2020)

These are the prayers from the Fitzroy Sunday Service (on-line) on November 15, 2020, by Rhea Marshall.

 

Our prayers today our focused on the environment.

Please join me in prayers of thanksgiving, repentance and intercession for climate justice.

We start with a moment of thankfulness

In these challenging months,  for the comfort, beauty and joy, so many of us experience in your creation. We thank you God. 

For our favourite outdoor places, for the beauty of Autumn and fun exploring outdoors. We thank you God.

For how the earth sustains us, providing all that we need: warmth, food and shelter. We thank you God.

Lord you have taught us that repentance is about changing, turning and acting in new ways.  

We can feel overwhelmed when faced with Climate Crisis: [grief at what has been lost, sorrow for the harm we cause, and fear for the future]1.  When we have chosen to run from our feelings: Forgive us Lord.

When we have failed to respond to global warming, species decline, plastic and pollution, climate inequality and poverty, Forgive us Lord.

When we have consumed more than we have put back; when we have been caught up in economic systems and lifestyles which cause destruction; when we have been blind to [privileges gained through the exploitation of others]2 and the Earth: Forgive us Lord

When we have forgotten that we are just a tiny part of creation, and that caring for creation is the same as caring for each other, and caring for ourselves, Forgive us Lord.

We pray for climate justice.

We ask for the courage to change: to be people who strive for [peace over profit, activity over complacency and a greater good over today’s convenience.]3  Lord help us.

We ask for guidance in how we, individually and as a faith community, can bring about climate justice.  In considering our time and resources, our prayers and interactions, and the impact of all our actions. Lord help us. 

We pray for the many conservationists, environmental groups and individuals who work to protect our world.  May we learn from their dedication and experience.  May we come alongside them and support their work where we can.  Lord help us.

We pray for Stormont, where the climate change bill is currently being considered. We pray for the Northern Ireland executive and civil servants.   Give them courage and stamina, to lead us through the monumental cultural and behavioural changes required.  We pray for wisdom in supporting and challenging our governments in tackling the climate emergency.  Lord help us.  

We ask that you unite us all, individuals, our church community, our wider community and our government, in fighting to reduce carbon emissions, consumption levels and inequality. Lord help us.

Lord, remind us of [our love for this beautiful planet that feeds nourishes and sustains us.  Strengthen our love for the whole of humanity in all corners of the world.

Strengthen our desire to protect all of this, for ourselves, for all living beings and for generations to come.]4 In Jesus’s name we pray.  Amen.

 

1. Ref Melanie Nazareth, p 254 “Time to Act” A resource book by the Christians in Extinction Rebellion spck 2020
2. Ref Melanie Nazareth, p 256 “Time to Act” 
3. Ref Fran Pratt, p272 “Time to Act” 
4. Ref Solemn Intention Statement, Extinction Rebellion.

CONTENTED OF DEEP SOUL - STOCKI'S BEATITUDES

photo: Philip McCrea

 

I was preaching on Jesus Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). Much as I thinking that the greek word makarios is best translated blessed, blessed has lost a little bit of its pointed meaning. I am very unhappy with translations of the Beatitudes that translate it as happy. As I was preaching and seeking to unpack the text I started seeking my own translation and came up with "contented of deep soul". After I preached I jotted down my own Beatitudes based on many Biblical idea that I have preached on this past year. 

 

Contented of deep soul are those who know their place in God’s order of things

Contented of deep soul are those who look in the mirror and know that they are loved just as they are

Contented of deep soul are those who do not compare themselves with anybody else

Contented of deep soul are those who do not need to reach for the advertisers temptations to find satisfaction in the buying of things

Contented of deep soul are those who go to sleep knowing that they are forgiven for all their quirks, foibles and bad decisions

Contented of deep soul are those who forgive those who have hurt them because then they can no longer be hurt by the hurt

Contented of deep soul are who have discovered the gifts God has given them and have gifted them to the world

Contented of deep soul are those who love their neighbour with the the same grace that God loves them

Contented of deep soul who love their enemies and know the holiness of peacemaking

Contented of deep soul are those who are content with their place in God’s order of things

GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY - A SHORT REFLECTION

 

I was preaching on Psalm 46… The Friday before, my friend Jim Deeds led us in prayer at a 4 Corners Festival planning meeting… Jim used a Richard Rohr quote about getting out of the way… Ah, thought I… that’s maybe where Bono get’s the line Get Out Of Your Own Way… Bono is a big reader of Rohr… my sermon took a meditative shift…  

 

Be still and know that I am God

- Psalm 46: 10 (NIV)

 

Stop striving and know that I am God;

- Psalm 46: 10 (NASB)

 

Healthy religion is always about love. All we can do is get out of the way. 

- Richard Rohr

 

The slaves are lookin' for someone to lead them

The master's lookin' for someone to need him

The promised land is there for those who need it most

And Lincoln's ghost said:

Get out of your own way

- U2

 

 

Get out of your own way

Moses had to do it when he made feeble excuses at the burning bush

 

Get out of your own way

His brothers had to do it when little David arrived to fight Goliath with only a sling 

 

Get out of your own way

Jonah had to do it when sectarianism prevented him fulfilling his calling 

 

Get out of your own way

David had to do it when he acknowledged his transgressions

 

Get out of your own way

Isaiah had to do it when he came face to face with a holy God

 

Get out of your own way

Peter had to do it when Mary told him tall tales about an empty tomb

 

Get out of your own way

Thomas had to do it when he doubted

 

Get out of your own way

Paul had to do it, all wrapped up in his legalism, on the Damascus Road

 

Get out of your own way

Where do I have to do it?

 

Get out of your own way

 

Stop striving

 

Be still… and know that I am God

THE JACOB AT BETHEL PRAYER - My Prayers in Fitzroy Service 19.7.2020

(This is the prayer that I used in the Fitzroy Service on July 19, 2020... It comes out of a sermon on Jacob and God meeting him in that dream at Bethel... you can watch the short service HERE)

 

God, we thank you for your grace

For your reaching down from heaven

To touch our ordinary lives

In unexpected places

When we might feel anxious

Vulnerable

Disorientated

Wondering what is next

God we thank you for your presence

As Paul prayed for the Ephesians

May the eyes of ours hearts be enlightened 

In order that we may know the hope to which he has called us

The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 

And his incomparably great power for us who believe. 

May we know the power that is the same as the mighty strength 

He exerted when he raised Christ from the dead 

And seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms

God open the eyes of our hearts

To see you beside us

Wherever we are

Your grace seeing us

Loving us

Your encouragement energising us

To commitment 

To a partnership

That will see your promises of a new Kingdom come

And your will being done on earth as it is in heaven

God we take hold of your promise

To stick with us until you’ve done everything you promised

May we sense that presence, grace and promise 

We offer ourselves to it

In Jesus name

AMEN

OFFERING THE SOIL OF OUR SOULS TO GOD - FITZROY PRAYER 12.7.2020

This is my prayer in Fitzroy on July 12th 2020. I had just preached on Jesus story of the sower and the seed and attempted to sow "where you treasure is your heart will be also" into the soil of our souls (watch the service HERE).

 

GOD

We live in vulnerable times

Fragile times

We have been broken by the Coronavirus Pandemic

We have grieved

We have been anxious about family

We have worried about our jobs

We have been found confinement harrowing

We have been under pressure mentally

Lord, the opening back up is testing us too

We are anxious about second spikes

We are wary of mixing in public

And we are almost angry at those who are not wary

We are fearful that a return of the virus will have more devastating economic effect than the first

We are concerned at the speed of the opening.

 

Lord we are in vulnerable times

We are thankful Lord that the vulnerability

Has made us more open to you

We have prayed more Lord

We have sought to trust more

We have read your Bible more in keeping with its context

Lord you have made us ponder our world

You have forced us to rethink our lives

You have given us an unexpected space

To reflect on how we are living

You have scattered the word of your wisdom across our souls to teach us, rebuke us, correct us and training us in righteousness.

 

Lord we offer the soil of our souls

May it not be hard

May it not be shallow

May it not choke the light with worry and wealth

May we work its fertility.

 

Lord we offer ourselves

By your spirit search us in these opening up days

That we might ask with total honesty

In what we rush and clammer for immediately

Where our treasure is

Because there you tell us 

Is our heart.

 

So Lord, we ask that you would collide and caress

Your word and these pandemic days

That the seed of your word

Would overcome the thorns of our world

To germinate

And grow

And harvest

In our lives 

And therefore in the lives of those around us

In Jesus name we pray

Amen

THE MYSTERY OF BADNESS & THE MYSTERY OF GOODNESS (for Fiona Donohoe)

Our entire city have been drawn into the sadness of the tragic death of Noah Donohoe.

As a community we prayed and hoped as a vast number searched for Noah after he went missing.

As a city our hearts broke at the news that his body had been found. Today, as he is buried, we all want to reach out to his mother Fiona with love and comfort and prayers.

As a pastor I find these situations very difficult. We want to find answers but as the singer David Gray once sang, "we are trying to spell what the wind can't explain". There is a mystery of badness. It is beyond us. 

What we can bring is the mystery of goodness. God never promises that there will be no mysteries. He promises, though, to be a rock and refuge in the mystery. I so pray that for Noah's mother and family today. 

 

Mysteries

Intrigue in the novel and film

But in reality

Their crashing in on our lives

Smashes our hearts to pieces

The shards blow out across communities

Cutting deep.

 

Today you grieve in the mystery

The mystery of badness

The mystery of randomness

The mystery of why you

The mystery of never being explained

Yet having to learn to live in it.

 

I believe in another mystery

The mystery of goodness

The mystery of love

The mystery of comfort

Jesus called the Holy Spirit a comforter

So, I pray for you

That in the mystery of why

In the mystery of what

You will know the mystery of how

Comfort can

Against the odds 

Reach into the depths of your broken heart

And mysteriously give you resilience

As you walk into the grief

Of the days and years to come.

 

THE PNEUMATOLOGY BENEDICTION

 

My benediction in yesterday's Fitzroy On-Line Sunday Service (17.5.2020) after a sermon on the workings of the Holy Spirit during and after lock down...

 

Janice and I send it out as a blessing for the week ahead...

 

 

May God the Father bless us and keep us

 

May Jesus words be a lamp for our feet

 

May the Holy Spirit accompany us, abide in us, comfort us and guide us as individuals and a community of faith.

 

AMEN

JANICE AND MY WEEKLY BLESSING - CORONAVIRUS BENEDICTION #5

(my weekly benediction from our Fitzroy service on May 10.2020. It is created from the key words of the sermon but you don't need to have heard it to understand it. Janice and I send it out as a prayer for another Coronavirus week of lockdown)

 

May God the Father be our refuge and strength,

May Jesus be our way, truth and life,

May the Holy Spirit lead us out of a refuge on a curve to change the world.

 

FOR THOSE GRIEVING DURING CORONAVIRUS TIMES

(as a pastor, these are difficult days to minister to those who have lost loved ones. I wrote this as a way to reach across the distance and prayerfully bring comfort to those grieving in strange ways at these strange times...)

 

These are tough days

To go through difficult times

As if there is an extra bitter twist

In the already hard to swallow taste

These are even more deadly days for dying

An extra separation.

 

This social distancing, for safety

Is dangerous to the heart

The heart needs proximity

To touch brows

And hold hands

To whisper 

“I love you,” 

"Thank you,” 

“Goodbye.”

 

Jesus invaded every distance

Ripped the veil of holy detachment

To reach in close

To enter deathly places

To feel the isolation

To experience unfair separation.

 

So now, Jesus sympathises, empathises

And understands our loneliness

Our grief and pain

And weeps with us

Nothing can separate us from him

Or his love.

 

Today, I pray

That your loved one

And you 

Will know the tender eternal arms

Wrapped around tight

And hear the gentlest whisper of God.

 

In this hellish distance

May you know heaven near

Nearer than the closest we could ever be

In these strange times

Or in any other times. 

COVID 19 BENEDICTION #2 - LORRAINE'S EASTER BENEDICTION

( I wrote this for Easter Sunday Service 2020. While I wrote it I was on with friend Lorraine who was not too well with a mild form of the virus. I sent it out to hear and to us all as a blessing...)

 

May God the Father never forsake you

May Jesus the Son be with you, in all of your suffering

May the Holy Spirit burst resurrection through your heart and soul.

Amen