(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.
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
O Lord and Master Jesus Christ,
Word of the everlasting Father,
you have borne our griefs
and carried the burdens of our human frailty;
by the power of the Holy Spirit,
renew in your Church the gifts of healing,
and send out your disciples again
to preach the gospel of your kingdom,
to heal the sick,
and to relieve the sufferings of your children;
to the praise and glory of your holy name. Amen.
Liturgy of St Mark, 5th century
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Exodus 4:10-17. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
10 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
14 Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”
(Exodus 4:10-17 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
What is the purpose of this bit of dialogue between God and Moses at the burning bush. All it seems to do is show that Moses wasn’t a great speaker nor was he a hero material. ‘Reluctant hero’ more like it. Perhaps that is the point. Just as we are encouraged to see ourselves in the flawed character of Peter in the New Testament, maybe we are encouraged to see ourselves in the flawed character of Moses in the Old Testament. Maybe God prefers to use flawed characters …
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
"The Jesus Prayer"
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,
have mercy upon me, a sinner.
The Jesus Prayer or the Prayer of the Heart, or the Perpetual Prayer
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 . Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Most of us really dislike being weak and powerless. We yearn for the power to make things better but we can’t. Paul had discovered that nothing offered to God is wasted; even our weakness. He had learnt that only when he fully understood his powerlessness to change anybody or anything could he see that it was God who was acting through him. His weakness was the opportunity for God’s strength. Weakness should not lead us to inaction but to faith based action.
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: Speak, Lord
Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.
Grant us ears to hear, eyes to see,
minds to obey, hearts to love.
Then declare what you will,
reveal what you will,
command what you will,
demand what you will. Amen.
Christina Rosetti, 1830-1894
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
John 20:11-18. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
(John 20:11-18 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Have you noticed how gardens keep reappearing in Scripture at key moments? Adam and Eve lived in relationship with God in the Garden of Eden. This garden was expressly made for human being to live a rich life in harmony with both nature and God. This same garden became the scene of Adam and Eve defying God’s will and consequently being expelled.
The Garden of Gethsemane was like this but in reverse. The representative of humanity, Jesus our king/Christ, wrestled against temptation and decided to follow God’s will.
Next we have the garden where the tombs were found. In this garden, Mary finds God (risen Jesus) and finds her harmony with God. She is like Eve in reverse. Like Eve, Mary is at the start of a very big change for humanity. Her cry of love and yearning for Jesus shows us what it means to find God. Faith is not dry concepts, or good morals, or religious traditions but is fundamentally a cry of the heart for God when you have made the astonishing discovery that because of Easter God (through Jesus) is standing right in front of you the whole time with love upon God’s face.
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: Grant us that which pleases you
Grant us, O God,
to know that which is worth knowing,
to love that which is worth loving,
to praise that which can bear praising,
to hate what in your sight is unworthy,
to prize what to you is precious,
and, above all, to search out and to do
that which pleases you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thomas à Kempis, 1380-1471
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Luke 24:36-42. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.
(Lk 24:36-42 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Christians have had a love/hate relationship with our own bodies over the last 1500 years. It is because a lot of human sin begins with not restraining our bodily appetites. Lust, greed, gluttony, hedonism all begin with bodily urges. Thes sins are often called ‘sins of the flesh’ which gives the impression that it is our body itself that is the problem. But the Scriptural witness is clear that our bodies and our appetites are all part of God’s good design. When operating within the “designer’s” instructions our bodies bring us rich and wonderful blessings from God. The smell of fresh baked bread, the feel of satin, the taste of chocolate, the sight of a glorious sunrise and the sound of the magpie song. When sin is put in its place, bodily existence can be glorious and wonderful.
For some, they find it difficult to think that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. It violates a sense of scientific normality about the world. For others they find it difficult because they think that our bodies are the enemy that battle against our spirit. How could the heavenly Jesus have one of these weak fleshly bodies? But it is vital that Jesus did rise in his body. By this God is saying to us that bodies are good; good enough for the very presence of God to dwell in.
Jesus conveys this to them in one simple act; he ate some fish. I hope Jesus found it delicious.
Your body is precious to God. Don’t hate it, don’t abuse it, value it and thank God for every good thing you have experienced through it.
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: God who becomes small
Whom have we, Lord, like you –
the Great One who became small, the Wakeful who slept,
the Pure One who was baptised, the Living One who died,
the King who abased himself to ensure honour for all.
Blessed is your honour!
It is right that we should acknowledge your divinity,
it is right for heavenly beings to worship your humanity.
The heavenly beings were amazed to see how small you became,
and earthly ones to see how exalted. Amen.
St Ephrem the Syrian, c. 306-373
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Luke 24:13-32. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
On the Road to Emmaus
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
(Lk 24:13-32 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
“What would you ask God when you get to heaven?” This is a well-known question by people (including me) who are confused by things that happen in this world. The question becomes less adversarial when we imagine ourselves going for a walk with God and asking an honest question as we go. There is a sense of warmth surrounding going for a walk together. What question you would ask God in these circumstances?
The Luke passage appears to be just like this except for one detail; it is the newly risen Jesus who asks the question of his two companions on the road to Emmaus not the other way around. So let us re-imagine our earlier walk with God. What do you think God might ask of you in your friendly walk along the path?
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: The Shield of God
May the strength of God pilot us.
May the power of God preserve us.
May the wisdom of God instruct us.
May the hand of God protect us.
May the way of God direct us.
May the shield of God defend us.
May the host of God
guard us against the snares of evil
and the temptations of the world.
May Christ be with us,
Christ before us,
Christ in us,
Christ over us.
May your salvation, O Lord, be always ours,
this day and for evermore. Amen.
Part of the ‘Breastplate’ of St Patrick, 389-461
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Matthew 28:1-10, 15-20. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:1-10, 15-20 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Galilee? In all the excitement it may have been overlooked that the disciples kept receiving directions to go to Galilee. Is there some significance to Galilee? Why not Jerusalem? Isn’t that where all the big events happen in God’s plan?
Galilee is important in a symbolic way. Galilee was where Jesus did nearly all his ministry of bringing in the new Kingdom of God. When they are told to Galilee, Jesus is really telling them that he is going back to work. Easter means that the work continues because the King of the Kingdom of God is not dead but is alive. The disciples were unemployed for 3 days but it is back to work with the risen Jesus in the lead.
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: The workshop of the Carpenter
O Christ, the Master Carpenter,
who at the last through wood and nails
purchased our whole salvation;
wield well your tools in the workshop of your world,
so that we, who come rough-hewn to your bench,
may here be fashioned to a truer beauty by your hand.
We ask this in your name and for your sake. Amen.
A prayer of the Iona Community, Scotland
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Matthew 27:55-61. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. …
55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.
(Matthew 27:55-61 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Jesus’ male followers had fled in the face of overwhelming force. But the women disciples of Jesus were overlooked by the men of power and influence among the Jews and the Romans. Women were considered to be no threat at all to their power. Yet it is these women’s testimony of their personal witness to Jesus’ death and his resurrection that eventually overthrew the Roman Empire and outlasted the Jewish nation of the time.
Easter is a time that turns all social expectations upside down. Do you have any assumptions about yourself or others that may need to be turned upside down in light of God’s ways of doing things?
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: Jesus, Redeemer and Brother
Praise be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits
you have won for me,
for all the pains and insults
you have borne for me.
O most merciful Redeemer,
friend and brother,
may I know you more clearly,
love you more dearly,
and follow you more nearly,
day by day. Amen.
St Richard of Chichester 1197-1253
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Matthew 23:37-39. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
37 “O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’
(Matthew 23:37-39NIV)
Thought for the Day:
This thought concludes a long angry speech by Jesus directed at the religious leaders of his day. Jesus understands that his life will be ended by these same people the very next day. He is angry but he is not filled with hate. Even now he offers them a way to be reconciled with God. He quotes the very Psalm that people were singing at his entry into Jerusalem a few days earlier; Psalm 119 “Hosanna … blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” . If they change their hearts and acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, they will “see me again”. No-one is ever beyond the love of God.