Busy
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: Our true needs
Lord, we know not what to ask of you.
You alone know what our true needs are.
You love us more than we ourselves know how to love.
Help us to know our true needs
which may be hidden from us.
We dare not ask for either a cross or a consolation.
We can only wait upon you;
our hearts are open to you.
We offer ourselves to you as a living sacrifice.
We put all our trust in you.
We have no other desire than to fulfil your will.
Teach us to pray;
pray yourself in us. Amen.
Excerpt from a prayer,
Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, 19th century
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Exodus 18:7-27 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
7 So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and then went into the tent. 8 Moses told his father-in-law about everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the Lord had saved them.
9 Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. 10 He said, “Praise be to the Lord, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.” 12 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God.
13 The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. 14 When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?”
15 Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. 16 Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.”
17 Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. 19 Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. 20 Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. 21 But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. 22 Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. 23 If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”
24 Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. 25 He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. 26 They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.
27 Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.
(Exodus 18:7-27 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
I am frequently asked how I am and whether I am busy. It is assumed that being busy is a good thing, and maybe a virtue. Moses was busy but he was not fruitful. His business was misplaced either because he had no business management training (highly likely) or he liked to be the centre of attention even if it was at the expense of others (highly unlikely given his response to advice).
So I am challenged from a spiritual viewpoint to interrogate my busy-ness and to ask whether it is fruitful, sustainable, and important from Jesus’ viewpoint.
The House of God
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: God be in my head
God be in my head,
and in my understanding;
God be in mine eyes,
and in my looking;
God be in my mouth,
and in my speaking;
God be in my heart,
and in my thinking;
God be at my end,
and in my departing. Amen.
Book of Hours, 1514
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Psalm 84:1-4 Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
Lord Almighty!
2 My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.
3 Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you. (Psalm 84 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
This Psalm was sung by people who had left their hometowns to come and worship at the Temple in Jerusalem. Their high spirits and deep emotion are driven by the belief that God dwells in his Temple (as well as in heaven). Even the word for temple literally means ‘house’. They really believed that God was more present in the Temple than he is in their hometown. We may feel ourselves a little superior to these people from long ago because we know that Jesus’ death and resurrection means that God can live in our hearts (which is much closer and more convenient).
However… in this time of being at home have you ever considered that your own home might be the “house of the Lord”? How does it shift your idea of confinement if God lives in your home with you during lockdown?
What shifts in your head when you think, ‘my house is the house of the Lord’?
A Big Prayer?
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: Word with Infinite Names
O Jesus, Word with infinite names,
show me what and how
I should ask from you in my requests.
O Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me.
Excerpt from a prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ,
St Nicodemos of Mount Athos, 18th century
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Ephesians 314-21, Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
(Ephesians 3 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
I was asked recently, “What is the biggest prayer you can pray right now?” Immediately my mind drifted to contestants at a beauty pageant vaguely responding with ‘world peace’. But what would happen if I took the question seriously and applied what I knew of Jesus’ teachings? And what would happen if I focussed the prayer on the people I know and live alongside of? What then would be the biggest prayer I could pray?
Paul’s doxology of praise arises from his lived experience “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…” It’s almost like God is throwing down a challenge to us in our prayer life. “What is the biggest prayer you can pray right now?”
Discovery?
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
A Prayer for A rolling brown land
Lord God,
your Spirit has moved over the face of Australia
and formed from its dust a rolling brown land.
Your Spirit has moved over its warm tropical waters
and created a rich variety of life.
Your Spirit has moved in the lives
of men, women, and children
and given them, from the dream time,
an affinity with their lands and waters.
Your Spirit has moved in pilgrim people
and brought them to a place of freedom and plenty.
Your Spirit moves still today
in sprawling, high-rise cities,
in the vast distances of the outback,
and in the ethnic diversity of the Australian people.
Lord God,
in the midst of this varied huddle of humanity
you have set your church.
Give us, the people you have so richly blessed,
a commitment to justice and peace for all nations;
and a vision of righteousness
and equality for all people in our own country.
Help us look beyond our far horizons
to see our neighbours in their many guises,
so that we may be mutually enriched by our differences.
And may our love and compassion for all people on earth
be as wide and varied as our land
and as constant as the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Revd Douglas McKenzie
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Psalm 8. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
Psalm 8
For the director of music. According to gittith. A psalm of David.
1 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
5 You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honour.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
(Psalm 8 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Today is the anniversary of Captain Cook’s landing at Botany Bay 250 years ago. He claimed the land for King George III and the rest is a history of enormous achievement and spectacular injustice. Our nation is both. Of those who identify with either or both of the two nations present in 1770 at the landing this day will be celebrated or mourned (or both). The beautiful imagery of the nobility of human beings shown in Psalm 8 seems out of place here. What can we learn from placing the Psalm beside the Landing?
I see a Psalm that sees a single humanity but when I look at the landing I see the dividing walls of national interest where the other is less human than ‘us’. National interest must never ‘trump’ the interests of our heavenly Father “from whom every family in heaven and earth derives its name” (Eph 3:15)
How does God speak to you when you place the Psalm beside the Landing?
Original Blessing
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
A Prayer for the Inland
(A Prayer written for different circumstances that mirror our own)
Lift our eyes, O Father,
that we may see our fellow citizens
even to the furthermost shores of our continent.
Quicken our imagination
until their lives become clear to us.
Call to our remembrance
our own struggles and difficulties when isolated,
our own sighings when in loneliness.
Open our hearts,
that our love may flow out in warm streams of blessing,
expressed in things both seen and unseen.
Keep and enable all whom we have sent forth in your name.
Follow our pioneers through all their days:
in the midst of drought or flood, keep them from harm;
in the days of loss, give them patience;
in time of temptation, strength;
in the season of pain, joy.
Especially we ask you to bless the children
in isolated homes:
enrich their lives, and make them great;
let your protecting wings cover them;
may the Holy Spirit –
who knows no distance, no time, no barrier –
comfort, inspire and perfect them.
Let the love of your Son flow about us all
and bring us to the rest of your eternal kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A prayer written in 1915 by the Revd John Flynn, 1880-1951, the founder of the Australian Inland Mission and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Genesis 1:26-31. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
(Genesis 1:26-31NIV)
Thought for the Day:
The view of many outside the church is that we have an unhealthy interest in sin. Original Sin, a theory around the sinfulness of every human being, seems to be one of our best known ideas but is that a true reflection of what Genesis is trying to tell us?
Surely, Genesis begins with a focus on ‘original blessing’. In other words, human being were made to be blessed by God and we still are. Is that how you see yourself; blessed? There is a lot of conflicting things happening in life for all of us but Genesis at this point in the story wants you to know just one thing, you are under God’s blessing.
Push everything else from your mind right now and whisper your prayer to God, “I am blessed by you, thank you.”
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and forever. Amen.
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Exodus 16:1-5. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
(Exodus 16:1-5NIV)
Thought for the Day:
What makes “the good old days” so attractive? Surely, it is selective memory. Here the Israelites in the foodless wilderness selectively remember the food supplies that they took for granted during their despairing life as slaves in Egypt.
What makes “the good old days” so damaging to living in the present? Grumbling. The point of this type of nostalgia is to compare the present with the past in an unfavourable light. This creates grumbling and blaming. It doesn’t matter what it is that we are comparing whether it is Church life, the economy, or society as a whole. The result is the same grumbling and blame.
Our passage points out the origin of “daily bread” that God provides. The follower of Christ is to see God’s gracious kindness all around including in something as simple as bread. Then, instead of blaming, there is crediting; crediting God with the good things of life. So begins a life filled with daily thanksgiving. That is a life worth living.
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
A Prayer for Remembrance
O Lord,
remember not only men and women of good will,
but also those of ill will.
But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us;
instead, remember the fruits we have borne
because of this suffering –
our fellowship, our loyalty to one another,
our humility, our courage, our generosity,
the greatness of heart that has grown from this trouble.
When our persecutors come to be judged by you,
let all these fruits we have borne be their forgiveness. Amen.
(Found on the clothing of a dead child
at Ravensbruck concentration camp)
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Isaiah 9:2-6. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
2 The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
when dividing the plunder.
4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
(Isaiah 9:2-6 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
The famous theologian Karl Barth once described human history without God as immensely boring because we kept repeating the same cycles of war and peace, greed and injustice over and over again. It is Christ who interrupts these endless cycles with the way of the Kingdom of God. Here the Prince of Peace calls us to something new that is rarely seen but we hope becomes the norm in God’s timing. Yes, let us honour on this Anzac Day the immense sacrifices made in good faith but let us look work toward a day when such sacrifices will not be needed; a day when Jesus’ new life holds sway over all his people. The new thing has already begun. Read again the child’s prayer above and be amazed at the new thing God is doing among us!
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
Saviour in storm
Jesus,
Saviour in storm,
when the waters of the deep are broken up,
when the landmarks are washed away or drowned,
come to us across the water;
hear us, for your love’s sake. Amen.
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Isaiah 40:27-31. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
(Isaiah 40:27-31 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
The Jewish people in Exile in Babylon struggled with a shortage of one of the most valuable resources on earth; hope. Even though their life in the rich farmlands of Babylon was not difficult, they still yearned to go home. After three generations only the very oldest could remember the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem (still in ruins). Even if you are well off lack of hope and can make life miserable. As despair brought on a weariness with life, God sent Isaiah to surprise them. They would soon be able to return to the land. God himself would declare their sins forgiven and make a straight path through the desert back to Jerusalem for them (Is 40:1-8).
They could renew their strength by having their hope restored. They had their hope restored because God had not lost his strength.
Like me, you might occasionally find yourself weary with your current lockdown situation even if you are well off and fortunate. Do not despair, re-read God’s promise above and renew your hope and strength. May you and I “soar on wings like eagles” today.
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
For strength through the day
Great Bunji God,
you sent your Son Jesus
to be our Saviour, our Guide and our Friend.
At the dawn of this new day
we pray for strength to follow in his steps,
and to be true witnesses for him
among our people who love the great earth mother,
your gift to them from the dreamtime.
We pray for all people of all countries,
that they may become one great family
with Jesus as Saviour.
As we come to the evening of this day,
may we go to our rest in the quiet hours of the night
knowing that, in spite of our human weaknesses,
we have truly walked with Jesus.
This prayer we offer in the name of Jesus,
our Good Friend. Aralba.
(Bunji is an Aboriginal word for Father.
Aralba means: I have spoken from my heart.)
Revd Lazarus Lamilami, 1910-1977,
the first ordained Aboriginal minister
of the Uniting Church
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Exodus 2:1-10. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
The Birth of Moses
1Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
(Exodus 2:1-10 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Privileged people are quite unconscious of their part in wickedness and often confuse it for kindness. Moses was born of the Hebrew race who were being persecuted by the privileged and powerful Egyptians because they feared the growing population of the powerless Hebrew minority group. The Pharoah ordered the death of all male infants. The baby Moses was put in a basket in the pathetic hope he would be overlooked. Instead, Pharoah’s daughter found him. In an act of “kindness” for the endangered baby she “adopted” him and asked his birth mother to nurse him till he was old enough to be taken away. Moses was a “stolen child” and he always knew it.
Is your mind now drifting to our aboriginal brothers and sisters and the “kindness” they had to endure in this very nation in our lifetime? Privilege can never see its own use of power is obscene. No wonder Jesus said of his privileged persecutors, “Forgive them Father, they know not what they do.”
Yet the story of God’s people is not defined by oppression but by how God sees them. They are precious and full of life and faith. The same applies to the First Peoples of this land. Through Jesus eyes they are not charity cases for “kindness” but precious peoples deserving of justice and respect. It is time we stopped looking through the eyes of the privileged and started looking through the eyes of Christ. Do not lose sight of these Australians as we bunker down with our many resources and wait for the virus to pass over.