Morning Prayer: Psalm 137:4; Genesis 18:16-33; 2 Peter 3:9-17 ~ the righteous one

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentence

One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

You will find the Lord your God, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Morning readings

Psalm 137:4 NLT:

But how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a pagan land?

Genesis 18:16-33 NLT:

Then the men got up from their meal and looked out toward Sodom. As they left, Abraham went with them to send them on their way.

“Should I hide my plan from Abraham?” the Lord asked. “For Abraham will certainly become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. I have singled him out so that he will direct his sons and their families to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. Then I will do for Abraham all that I have promised.”

So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.”

The other men turned and headed toward Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham. Abraham approached him and said, “Will you sweep away both the righteous and the wicked? Suppose you find fifty righteous people living there in the city—will you still sweep it away and not spare it for their sakes? Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why, you would be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn’t do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”

And the Lord replied, “If I find fifty righteous people in Sodom, I will spare the entire city for their sake.”

Then Abraham spoke again. “Since I have begun, let me speak further to my Lord, even though I am but dust and ashes. Suppose there are only forty-five righteous people rather than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?”

And the Lord said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five righteous people there.”

Then Abraham pressed his request further. “Suppose there are only forty?”

And the Lord replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the forty.”

“Please don’t be angry, my Lord,” Abraham pleaded. “Let me speak—suppose only thirty righteous people are found?”

And the Lord replied, “I will not destroy it if I find thirty.”

Then Abraham said, “Since I have dared to speak to the Lord, let me continue—suppose there are only twenty?”

And the Lord replied, “Then I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”

Finally, Abraham said, “Lord, please don’t be angry with me if I speak one more time. Suppose only ten are found there?”

And the Lord replied, “Then I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”

When the Lord had finished his conversation with Abraham, he went on his way, and Abraham returned to his tent.

2 Peter 3:9-17 NLT:

The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.

Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.

And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.

And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him — speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.

I am warning you ahead of time, dear friends. Be on guard so that you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing.

Reflection/Prayer:

Let me tell you an old Hebrew legend:

It is written that as long as GOD can find 36 just men, He’ll keep this world going.

They are called ‘Lamed Vornicks’ meaning 36.

It is also rumoured that GOD sends out a prophet in every generation to find these 36 just men. So far there are only 35 names on that list. Now I’m not claiming to be a prophet. But somewhere, reading these words at this very moment is the 36th just man!

***

Now the world is saved

***
(Dave Berg)

Elie Wiesel writes:

One of the Just Men came to Sodom, determined to save its inhabitants from sin and punishment. Night and day he walked the streets and markets protesting against greed and theft, falsehood and indifference. In the beginning, people listened and smiled ironically. Then they stopped listening: he no longer amused them. The killers went on killing, the wise men kept silent, as if there were no Just Man in their midst.

One day a child, moved by compassion for the unfortunate teacher, approached him with these words: ‘Poor stranger, you shout, you scream, don’t you see that it is hopeless?’

‘Yes, I see,’ answered the Just Man.

‘The why do you go on?’

‘I’ll tell you why. In the beginning, I thought I would change man. Today, I know I cannot. If I still shout today, if I still scream, it is to prevent man from changing me.’

Canticle

Christ, as a light… illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield… overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.

Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
_____________________________________

Peanut Gallery: The Morning Prayer readings are from the Daily Office of the Northumbrian Community as available online here… and in the book form, Celtic Daily Prayer available on Amazon.com.

The website and prayer book are rich in prayer resources and I commend them to you. For our purpose here, I will limit my selections to the Morning Prayer resources.

Morning Prayer: Psalm 78:3-8; Isaiah 62:1; Romans 11:26-29 ~ legacy of promise

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentence

One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

You will find the Lord your God, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Morning readings

Psalm 78:3-8 NLT:

Jewish Children with their Teacher in Samarkand. Early color photograph from Russia, created by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii as part of his work to document the Russian Empire from 1909 to 1915.

… stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.

For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children, so the next generation might know them — even the children not yet born — and they in turn will teach their own children.

So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands. Then they will not be like their ancestors — stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.

Isaiah 62:1 NLT:

Because I love Zion, I will not keep still. Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem, I cannot remain silent. I will not stop praying for her until her righteousness shines like the dawn, and her salvation blazes like a burning torch.

Romans 11:26-29 NLT:

And so all Israel will be saved. As the Scriptures say,

“The one who rescues will come from Jerusalem, and he will turn Israel away from ungodliness. And this is my covenant with them, that I will take away their sins.”

Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the Good News, and this benefits you Gentiles. Yet they are still the people he loves because he chose their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn.

Reflection/Prayer:

The atmosphere of the New Testament carried on the spirit of the Hebrew Scriptures pervasively and profoundly – but Rabbinic Judaism replaces revelation with human reason, and this development was well underway even before the coming of Jesus, and culminated in the rejection of Him and the witness of His Jewish apostles by the first-century Pharisees who added the prayer of condemnation against Jewish believers and Jesus to synagogue liturgy. This all took place long before the Church had become infiltrated by paganism and begun to reject its Jewish roots.

Sometimes in John’s Gospel and other places we are confused by the phrase ‘the Jews’ being used to condemn the religious establishment, Pharisees, Sadducees and religious leaders: were not John and the other writers also Jews? Americans abroad are called ‘Yanks’, but in the Southern United States ‘Yankee’ is used as a sectional term to refer to the North. Galilean Jews referred to Judeans as ‘the Jews’ since ‘Judean’ and ‘Jew’ in Greek are the same word.

Such condemnations were after all in-house criticisms and not intended as ammunition for generations of Anti-Semites.

Anti-Semites never quote any of the following:

John 4:22 ‘Salvation is of the Jews’,
that Jesus was, is and forever will be a Jew descended from Jacob!
that ‘the common people (Jews) heard Him gladly,’
that many wept openly at His death and
that the priestly establishment feared all of Jerusalem following Him (Luke 20:19; 22:2)
that myriads of Jews did follow Him (Acts 21:20)
that Jewish apostles spread the good news of Yeshua throughout the world.

The proper scriptural response is gratitude and love. Paul says, “It is not you who support the root, but the root supports you.’ (Romans 11:18)

Canticle

Christ, as a light… illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield… overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
_____________________________________

The website and prayer book are rich in prayer resources and I commend them to you. For our purpose here, I will limit my selections to the Morning Prayer resources.

Morning Prayer: Psalm 39:2; Isaiah 61:1-3; John 20:1-6 ~ beauty for ashes

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentence

One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

You will find the Lord your God, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Morning readings

Psalm 39:2 NLT:

But as I stood there in silence — not even speaking of good things — the turmoil within me grew worse.

Johanna Ruth Dobschiner Holocaust Survivor — Johanna Ruth Dobschiner
Holocaust Survivor
click on photo for YouTube interview

Isaiah 61:1-3 NLT:

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies.

To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.

John 20:1-6 NLT:

Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there…

Reflection/Prayer:

As a young Dutch-Jewish refugee Johanna-Ruth Dobschiner found an illustrated children’s Bible in the home she was evacuated to, and re-read the familiar stories of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and Pharoah, Joshua, Saul, David, Solomon, Haman, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Malachi…

Almost unconsciouly I entered a part of history previously unknown to me, yet strangely familiar. It still delt with the people of Israel but new characters had entered the scene, names I had never been taught, names which had never been mentioned at home or in school lessons. Scenes which took place in Synagogue and Temple, according to this Bible, registered a blank when searching my memory. Yet all the stories were so obviously Jewish… One person outshone all others in these stories – a prophet born in Israel. As the weeks and months passed by, His life became part of mine. The readings about Him and the incidents concerning Him became more important to me than anything else in my own environment. I found I could tolerate my isolation without frustration, always longing for the next opportunity to learn more about Him for He had become my hero.

Then the cross:

While still reading of His agonies, in myself I wished for Him to show the power that was His, and free Himself from that cross. I knew He would do it, and as I read on I waited eagerly for the moment when this would be described… Instead, ‘It is finished.’ I had lost the one I loved dearly, although I had never met Him, except within the pages of this book. Now all was lost to me.

According to the custom of my people I mourned for Him seven days. My thoughts were wholly centered on my loss and a deep sense of depression settled upon me. I was weepy, edgy, moody and unhappy. True, I had suffered disappointment, but why not act as an adult and read the remaining pages of the book?

The first day of the week, and Mary finds His grave empty, the body stolen. What next! Having fought back her tears for so long, Mary now gave way to her grief. She felt as I had done during these past ten days, and again I joined her in her sorrow.

… and then continued reading…

J.R Dobschiner, Selected to Live

Beauty for ashes
A garment of praise for my heaviness
Beauty for ashes
Take this heart of stone and make it Yours, Yours

I delight myself in the Richest of Fare
Trading all that I’ve had for all that is better
A garment of praise for my heaviness
You are the greatest taste
You’re the richest of fare

(Psalm 63, Isaiah 61)

Canticle

Christ, as a light… illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield… overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
_____________________________________

The website and prayer book are rich in prayer resources and I commend them to you. For our purpose here, I will limit my selections to the Morning Prayer resources.

Morning Prayer: Psalm 107:43; Deuteronomy 33:3; John15:15b-16 ~ best friends forever

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentence

One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

You will find the Lord your God, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Morning readings

Psalm 107:43 NLT:

Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 33:3 NLT:

Indeed, he loves his people; all his holy ones are in his hands. They follow in his steps and accept his teaching.

John15:15b-16 NLT:

Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.

Reflection/Prayer:

Rabbinic disciples were people who were attached to a particular person and who then themselves decided to follow and accept the teachings of that person. To become a disciple was entirely up to the individual: they chose to follow a rabbi and accept his teachings until they felt able to leave and establish independent status as teachers themselves. Jesus was different. He chose his disciples.
Keith Whitehead, Emmaus Community

When Jesus disputed with other teachers he often argued from the rabbinical principle. ‘From the minor case to the major’, or as Arthur Burt would say, ‘the greater includes the lesser’. So if circumcision could be performed on the Sabbath to make a minor member of the body whole before God, then miraculous power could be used on the Sabbath to make a whole body whole. Or if the commandment said to not commit adultery, the greater which included this would say ‘not even in your heart’. The greater includes the lesser, but the small things mattered, too.

I have a friend you can go to with
your small problems.
My friend’s name is
GOD.
Dave Berg

Canticle

Christ, as a light… illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield… overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
_____________________________________

The website and prayer book are rich in prayer resources and I commend them to you. For our purpose here, I will limit my selections to the Morning Prayer resources.

Morning Prayer: Psalm 68:1, 3; Esther 3:1-6; Luke 1:51-55 ~ let God arise

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentence

One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

You will find the Lord your God, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Morning readings

Psalm 68:1, 3 NLT:

Rise up, O God, and scatter your enemies. Let those who hate God run for their lives.

But let the godly rejoice. Let them be glad in God’s presence. Let them be filled with joy.

Esther 3:1-6 NLT:

Some time later King Xerxes promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite over all the other nobles, making him the most powerful official in the empire. All the king’s officials would bow down before Haman to show him respect whenever he passed by, for so the king had commanded. But Mordecai refused to bow down or show him respect.

Then the palace officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why are you disobeying the king’s command?” They spoke to him day after day, but still he refused to comply with the order. So they spoke to Haman about this to see if he would tolerate Mordecai’s conduct, since Mordecai had told them he was a Jew.

When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or show him respect, he was filled with rage. He had learned of Mordecai’s nationality, so he decided it was not enough to lay hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he looked for a way to destroy all the Jews throughout the entire empire of Xerxes.

Luke 1:51-55 NLT:

“His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands. He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”

Reflection/Prayer:

Purim, which commemorates the deliverance of the Jews from the hands of Haman through Esther the queen and her uncle Mordecai, is a feast of reversals. It reminds us that eventually the Evil One’s machinations will be tolerated no longer and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.

Purim is the nearest thing Judaism has to a carnival. The Talmud gives leave to a worshipper to drink on this day until he cannot tell the difference between ‘Blessed be Modecai’ and ‘Cursed be Haman’. To the credit of many otherwise non-observant Jews, they often do their best to comply. In Israel a public street festival not unlike Mardi Gras has sprung up, with the name As’lo Yoda, the Talmud word for ‘until he cannot tell the difference’.

The day before Purim is the Fast of Esther, a sunrise-to-sundown abstention. At sundown the synagogues fill up. The marked difference between this and all other occasions of the Jewish year is the number of children on hand. Purim is the children’s night in the house of the Lord. It always has been, and the children sense their rights and exercise them.

They carry flags and nosiemakers, the traditional whirling rattles called ‘groggers’, which can make a staggering racket. After the evening prayers the reading of the Book of Esther begins, solemnly enough, with the customary blessing over a scroll and the chanting of the opening verses in a special musical mode heard only on this holiday. The Reader chants through the first and second chapters and comes at last to the long awaited sentence.

‘After these things, the king raised to power Haman the Agagite’ – but nobody hears the last two words. The name ‘Haman’ triggers off stamping, pounding, and a hurricane of groggers. The Reader waits patiently. The din dies. He chants on, and soon strikes another ‘Haman’. Bedlam breaks loose again. This continues, and since Haman is now a chief figure in the story, the noisy outbursts come pretty frequently. The children, far from getting tired or bored, warm up to the work. They do it with sure mob instinct; poised silence during the reading, with explosions on each ‘Haman’. Passages occur where Haman’s name crops up in very short space. The children’s assaults come like pistol shots. The Reader’s patience wears thin and finally breaks. It is impossible to read with so many interuptions.

He gestures angrily at the children through the grogger storm and shoots a glance of appeal to the rabbi. This, of course, is what the children have been waiting for…. Thereafter to the end it is a merciless battle between the Reader and the children. He tries to slur over the thick falling ‘Haman’s, they rip him every time with raucous salvos. He stumbles on to the final verse, exhausted, beaten, furious, and all is disordered hilarity in the synagogue. It is perhaps not fair to make the Reader stand in for Haman on this evening, but that is approximately what happens.

Herman Wouk, This is my God

Canticle

Christ, as a light… illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield… overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
_____________________________________

The website and prayer book are rich in prayer resources and I commend them to you. For our purpose here, I will limit my selections to the Morning Prayer resources.

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