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PRESENCE AND PEACE Psalm 27.17

Wait for the Lord;

be strong and he shall comfort your heart;

wait patiently for the Lord.

Still my heart, O Lord, still my heart that I may come into your presence in peace.

PRAISE

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and shall be for ever. Amen.

READING 1 Kings 19.11-12

[The word of the Lord came to Elijah:] ‘Go and stand on the mount before the Lord.’ The Lord was passing by: a great and strong wind came, rending mountains and shattering rocks before him, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a faint murmuring sound . . .

REFLECTION

This story represents one of the great turning points in the history of human thinking. God was not to be found in power but revealed himself very humbly, in a ‘faint murmuring sound’. Or, in the Authorized Version of the Bible, ‘a still, small voice . . .’ While there can be no doubt of God’s immense power, nevertheless it has been the Christian experience that God reveals himself in quietness and humility.

Do your ideas about God include his courteous humility as well as his power?

PRAYER

Think of the people you are going to be meeting later today: a colleague, a stranger or a friend. Bring them with you into the presence of God. Ask God to bless them and to look upon them with love.

Think of some experience you have already had today for which you would like to give thanks to God.

Our Father . . .

CONCLUSION

Father, this day is yours; may the peace you have granted me rest in my heart now and for ever. Amen.

PRESENCE AND PEACE Romans 11.33,36

How deep are the wealth and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!

From him and through him and for him all things exist.

READING Exodus 3.2,4-6,13-14

There an angel of the Lord appeared to him as a fire blazing out from a bush. Although the bush was on fire, it was not being burnt up . . . When the Lord saw that Moses had turned aside to look, he called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ He answered, ‘Here I am!’ God said, ‘Do not come near! Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ Then he said ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God . . .

Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and tell them that the God of their forefathers has sent me to them, and they ask me his name, what am I to say to them?’ God answered, ‘I AM that I am. Tell them that I AM has sent you to them.’

REFLECTION

This is another of those great turning points in the history of our human understanding of God. God is not small or locked into tribal boundaries; he is ‘I AM’, the One Who Is. The simplicity and the profundity of this insight are breathtaking. As you are at prayer so your very self (your own ‘I am’) is deeply related to the ‘I AM’ of God’s self. It’s as though your heart and the heart of God are pulsing together in harmony. God’s ‘I AM’ holds your ‘I am’ in being.

CONFESSION

Lord, have mercy upon us,

Christ, have mercy upon us,

Lord, have mercy upon us.

PRAYER

Thank God for the gift of prayer. Pray that God will help you to develop and enrich your relationship with him. Place into the hands of God all the things that have delighted you or troubled you this day and ask him to surround all those things with his healing love.

Our Father . . .

CONCLUSION

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen.

PRESENCE AND PEACE 1 Samuel 2.2

There is none but you,

none so holy as the Lord,

none so righteous as our God.

I come into your holy presence, O Lord;

look upon me with mercy and love.

PRAISE Luke 1.46-47

My soul tells out the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.

READING Luke 1.26-32,34-35,38

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, with a message for a girl betrothed to a man named Joseph; a descendant of David; the girl’s name was Mary. The angel went in and said to her, ‘Greetings, most favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was deeply troubled by what he said and wondered what this greeting could mean. Then the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for God has been gracious to you; you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called Son of the Most High.’ . . . ‘How can this be?’ said Mary, ‘I am still a virgin.’ The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you’ . . . ‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ said Mary; ‘may it be as you have said.’ Then the angel left her.

REFLECTION

Picture the scene: Mary in her room, the early morning sunlight streaming through the window. In that light, shimmering with promise and beauty, she sees an angel, a messenger from God. It is an encounter that will change the world.

PRAYER

Give thanks for Mary’s ‘Yes’ to the light of Christ. Look at the daylight and imagine that it has come streaming from the throne of God. As it enters your eyes, so let the joy of God enter your soul. Thank God for the daylight. Pray for those who live in a kind of inner, angry darkness and who are in turmoil.

Our Father . . .

CONCLUSION

Lord, as the light bathes the earth with its beauty, may your light shine upon all whom I shall meet this day.

PRESENCE AND PEACE Daniel 2.20-21

Blessed be God’s name from age to age,

for to him belong wisdom and power.

He changes seasons and times;

he deposes kings and sets up kings;

he gives wisdom to the wise

and knowledge to those who have discernment.

READING Hosea 6.1-3

Come, let us return to the Lord.

He has torn us, but he will heal us,

he has wounded us, but he will bind up our wounds;

after two days he will revive us,

on the third day he will raise us

to live in his presence.

Let us strive to know the Lord,

whose coming is as sure as the sunrise.

He will come to us like the rain,

like spring rains that water the earth.

REFLECTION

It was the experience of the Chosen People that, in spite of their faults and failings, God took the initiative to redeem them. His love would never let them go. New life always rebuilt the citadel of their lives.

What is there in your own life that needs to be reshaped or renewed by God?

CONFESSION

Holy God,

holy and strong,

holy and immortal,

have mercy upon us.

PRAYER

Thank God for the new things you have learned this day and for new opportunities that seem to beckon.

Pray for those writers, actors and musicians whose work has brought you new insights.

Our Father . . .

CONCLUSION

May the Lord bless us,

may he keep us from all evil

and lead us to the glory of life everlasting. Amen.

PRESENCE AND PEACE

Lord, let your light pour into my heart,

that I may praise you with my whole being,

for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

PRAISE Psalm 27.1

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

whom then shall I fear?

The Lord is the strength of my life;

of whom then shall I be afraid?

READING Luke 1.39-45

Soon afterwards Mary set out and hurried away to a town in the uplands of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby stirred in her womb. Then Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed in a loud voice, ‘God’s blessing is on you above all women, and his blessing is on the fruit of your womb. Who am I, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? I tell you, when your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby in my womb leapt for joy. Happy is she who has had faith that the Lord’s promise to her would be fulfilled!’

REFLECTION

Imagine that moment when Mary and Elizabeth met; two women from the same extended family, both expecting babies. You can see the joy in their eyes, the sheer wonder in the way they smile at each other and then embrace.

Just as Mary hastened to visit Elizabeth, so God hastens to us. And what is our response?

PRAYER

Pray for all who are expecting babies.

Pray for the fathers and mothers you know.

Our Father . . .

CONCLUSION

Creator God, we give you thanks for the unutterable joy and miracle of all new life.

. . . in the tender compassion of our God,

the dawn from heaven will break upon us,

to shine on those who live in darkness,

under the shadow of death,

and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Luke 1.78-79

PRESENCE AND PEACE Psalm 9.10

And those who know your name

will put their trust in you,

for you, Lord, have never failed those who seek you.

READING Genesis 21.1-3,6-7

The Lord showed favour to Sarah as he had promised, and made good what he had said about her. She conceived and at the time foretold by God she bore a son to Abraham in his old age. The son whom Sarah bore to him Abraham named Isaac . . . Sarah said, ‘God has given me good reason to laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me.’ She added, ‘Whoever would have told Abraham that Sarah would suckle children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’

REFLECTION

In this episode in the life of Abraham and Sarah we are given a glimpse of that delight that frequently accompanies the arrival of a baby. Everything seems so full of promise; everything seems to reflect the joyous light of eternity. The birth of a child is a glory, a miracle, a song that whispers its own alleluia.

Think back over your own life, and give thanks for any moments of joy that have been so wonderful, you cannot put them into words.

CONFESSION

Almighty God, when we fail to see you in moments of joy, forgive our blindness and arrogance of heart, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

PRAYER

Thank God for those things that have happened this day which have brought laughter to your eyes.

Pray for all those children in the world whose lives are marked and maimed by poverty and disease.

Pray for those who work in health care, especially your own doctor.

Our Father . . .

CONCLUSION

God be in my head and in my understanding;

God be in my eyes and in my looking;

God be in my mouth and in my speaking;

God be at my end and at my departing.

Richard Pynson (1448–1529)

PRESENCE AND PEACE Isaiah 49.13

Shout for joy, you heavens; earth, rejoice;

break into songs of triumph, you mountains,

for the Lord has comforted his people

and has had pity on them in their distress.

May the songs of heaven be within me and around me this day and always.

PRAISE Luke 1.68-69

Praise to the Lord, the God of Israel!

For he has turned to his people and set them free.

He has raised for us a strong deliverer

from the house of his servant David.

READING Luke 1.57,59-64

When the time came for Elizabeth’s child to be born, she gave birth to a son . . . On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father, but his mother spoke up: ‘No!’ she said. ‘He is to be called John.’ ‘But’, they said, ‘there is nobody in your family who has that name.’ They enquired of his father by signs what he would like him to be called. He asked for a writing tablet and to everybody’s astonishment wrote, ‘His name is John.’ Immediately his lips and tongue were freed and he began to speak, praising God.

REFLECTION

There is, in this story of Zechariah, a palpable sense of release. Zechariah is released from his inability to speak but ironically the people standing around are dumbfounded. Once they have recovered from the shock they ask what the future of the child will be. Liberation and release are great gifts. They open us up to new possibilities. What are those things that leave you in a kind of imprisoned speechlessness? What needs to happen to help you to face the future?

PRAYER

Pray for any people you know who are deeply unhappy, that they may rediscover a joy they once knew.

Pray for those who face this day in real distress of mind or body, that they may experience God’s strength upon them.

Our Father . . .

CONCLUSION

Father in heaven, I commend myself into your loving hands this day; may your Spirit be within me so that my life may be a song of praise for you, now and for ever.

PRESENCE AND PEACE Psalm 63.1

O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you;

my soul is athirst for you

READING Exodus 2.5-8,10