A short service of Morning Prayer
This service is adapted from one used at Sheldon Retreat Centre, Doddiscombesleigh, Devon.
In the name of the Father,
And of the Son,
And of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Opening Prayer
We come to the presence of the one who is making us,
We come to the presence of the one who is healing us,
We come to the presence of the one who is guiding us
We come with love and trust.
The Song of the Church – Te Deum
We praise you O God
we acclaim you as Lord.
All creation worships you
the Father everlasting.
To you all angels, all powers of heaven
cherubim and seraphim, sing in endless praise.
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
The glorious company of apostles praise you,
the noble fellowship of prophets praise you,
the white robed army of martyrs praise you.
Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you,
Father of majesty unbounded.
your true and only Son, worthy of all worship,
and the Holy Spirit our advocate and guide.
When you became incarnate to set us free,
you humbly chose the Virgin’s womb.
You overcame the sting of death
and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
You are seated at God’s right hand in glory,
we believe that you will come and be our judge.
Come then Lord and help your people
bought with the price of your own blood,
and bring us with your saints to glory everlasting.
Save your people Lord, and bless your inheritance,
govern and uphold them now and always.
Day by day we bless you,
we praise your name for ever.
Keep us today Lord, from all sin
have mercy on us Lord, have mercy.
Lord show us your love and mercy
for we put our trust in you.
In you Lord, is our hope,
let us not be confounded at the last.
Bible Readings
Wisdom 1:13-15, 2:23-24
13 God did not make death,
and he does not delight in the death of the living.
14 For he created all things so that they might exist;
the generative forces[a] of the world are wholesome,
and there is no destructive poison in them,
and the dominion of Hades is not on earth.
15 For righteousness is immortal.
Lamentations 3:22-33
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for one to bear
the yoke in youth,
28 to sit alone in silence
when the Lord has imposed it,
29 to put one’s mouth to the dust
(there may yet be hope),
30 to give one’s cheek to the smiter,
and be filled with insults.
31 For the Lord will not
reject forever.
32 Although he causes grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33 for he does not willingly afflict
or grieve anyone.
Mark 5:21-43
21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. 22 Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23 and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” 24 So he went with him.
And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. 25 Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. 26 She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” 29 Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 He looked all around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
35 While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” 36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37 He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38 When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 When he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40 And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!” 42 And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43 He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Thoughts on the Readings
Perhaps it was because I started this sermon on the day I was to take a friend’s funeral that the words of Wisdom and Lamentations spoke so powerfully. Both were ‘alternative’ readings but seemed to sing out on a day of hugely mixed emotions. In fact, the first two verses of the canticle from Lamentations are familiar simply because of their regular use at funeral services.
Both of the Old Testament passages have a message we might find it hard to believe, living as we do in a world where pain and death can sometimes seem to blot out the joy and life, but they are clear and I make no apology for borrowing heavily from the commentary written by Professor Gordon McConville on Lamentations (his lectures on Isaiah during my training left a permanent legacy).
Our God is a God of steadfast love and compassion. In Lamentations, which is really an extended poem, the poet has just finished a section cataloguing his own not inconsiderable afflictions and suffering when he turns suddenly, and perhaps unexpectedly, to expressions of faith.
Rather like Job in an earlier book in the Bible and in a way often seen in the Psalms, his mind has begun to turn from present horrors to things of God, to things that he knows, despite everything, ‘are always true about God.’
Love, steadfast love, is his most typical quality. It never fails, he tells us, judgement cannot be God’s last word for his compassion triumphs over it. Suffering, indeed agony, there may well be, the poem continues but what we know is that it has its most profound expression in Jesus’ own suffering on the cross – God’s greatest judgement on sin, visited upon himself, his final self-giving love a gift for humanity.
Because love and compassion are the chief attributes of God, says the author, they are always fresh, ready to be proved and known again. For this reason those who have been afflicted may always put their trust in him again for their acceptance and restoration. God is both faithful and unchanging in this love therefore the poet can be content that God should be his lot, his ‘portion’ as it says in some translations, whatever the circumstances.
This writer is not unrealistic I’m glad to say, since God is like this he knows it is good to seek him. To do so however may be at a cost. For some it may be that the goodness of God will be known during affliction, but for some only after suffering patiently endured.
I find the very last verse of this passage helpful. The poet obviously finds the paradox of a loving and compassionate God who yet allows, possibly even causes grief difficult to deal with. Most of us do too. My personal feeling is that the God I know does not send cancer or earthquakes, death or destruction but is a God who takes these situations, symptoms of a broken world, and in his love and compassion uses them, brings good from them.
That too has a paradoxical side but it seems to me to fit with what I see around me. The final days of the person I was burying and his funeral being a good example. There was huge thankfulness, not just for his life but for the timeliness of his death, for his release from pain. And the outpouring of loving support from the village and wider community was a healing and positive outcome of what was of course a sad occasion.
In the miracle stories we heard in our Gospel a little girl is restored to parents alive and well and hungry and a woman, ostracised and made unclean by her particular affliction, is healed not only of her illness but also of her twelve year isolation from family and friends.
One of the problems people have with healing miracles is that Jesus in his time on earth, though he healed and restored countless numbers cannot have made even a dint in the vast numbers of sick and distressed in his country or in the world – so what was the point?
The point, I think was that these healings arose not from a desire to show off his power (Jesus had already dealt with that particular temptation in the wilderness before his ministry began) but from genuine, overwhelming empathy and sympathy.
Jesus, God made man, showed through this exactly what the poet in Lamentations claims for him, that he is motivated more than anything else by steadfast love and compassion and in raising Jairus’ daughter he demonstrates God’s power over death, the ultimate enemy.
This little girl of course would, we hope, have then lived to a ripe old age but at some point she would have died. It was only with the death and resurrection of Jesus that God demonstrated just what his plan for us after earthly death was. When Jesus rose his body was changed and so, we are told, we too will be changed into immortal beings living in joy for ever.
‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
His mercies never come to an end,
They are new every morning
Great is his faithfulness.’
Canticle
Behold God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
and had become my salvation.
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation
and in that day you will say,
give thanks and call upon the name of the Lord.
Make known among the nations what the Lord has done,
proclaim that the name of the Lord is exalted.
Sing praises for the Lord has triumphed gloriously,
let this be known in all the earth.
Shout and sing for joy you people of God,
for great in your midst is the Holy One.
Glory to God, source of all being,
Eternal Word and Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now
and shall be for ever. Amen
Prayers
That this day may be holy, good and joyful . . . we pray to you, O Lord.
That we may offer to you our worship and our work . . . we pray to you, O Lord.
. . . pray for the day ahead, its tasks and possible difficulties
That we may strive for the well-being of all creation . . . we pray to you, O Lord.
. . . pray for the world and its leaders and your own part in its needs
That in the pleasures and pains of life, we may know the love of Christ and be thankful . . . we pray to you, O Lord.
. . . pray for those you know who are unwell or in any kind of trouble
That we may be bound together by your Holy Spirit, in communion with all your saints, entrusting one another and all our life to Christ . . . we pray to you, O Lord.
. . . pray for the bereaved, those you have loved and lost and all who care for the dying
Let us commend ourselves, and all for whom we pray, to the mercy and protection of God.
Amen
Life giver, Pain bearer, Love maker
Source of all that is and shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven;
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe,
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world,
Our heavenly will be done by all created beings,
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we sustain from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and for ever,
Amen
Closing Prayers and Blessings
Almighty and everlasting Father
we thank you that you have brought us safely
to the beginning of this day.
Keep us from falling into sin or running into danger.
Order all our doings and guide us to do always
what is right in your eyes,
through Jesus Christ our Lord
Amen
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
Silence
Let us go in peace to love and serve our Lord
In the name of Christ
Amen