Prepare to Worship
Gentle God,
we gather as those who know our need of your strength and pray that you would make us gentle;
as those who know our need of your mercy and pray that you would make us merciful;
as those who know our need of your peace in our hearts and pray that you would make us peacemakers.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
A prayer of confession
Forgive us, Lord, when we are too busy to draw close to you on the mountaintop;
too proud to acknowledge our need of your leading;
too stuck in our ways to consider new ways of being church;
too self-sufficient to grow together as a community;
too stubborn to let go of our resentments;
too blind to see that it is our attitudes that separate us from one another, and from you.
Forgive us, change us, use us and accept this our prayer.
Amen.
Please read Matthew 5
The Sermon on the Mount covers Matthew 5–7. It’s the longest block of teaching in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), and contains some of Jesus’ most challenging teaching – and his most comforting. It begins with the ‘Beatitudes’, a name derived from the Latin for ‘Blessed are’ which begins each verse. They’ve sometimes been called the ‘Beautiful Attitudes’: like meekness, mercy and purity.
None of what Jesus praises in these verses is the kind of thing the world thinks is valuable – and that’s after 2,000 years of Christian teaching. In the Roman world of which Palestine was a part, these qualities were even less respected. Power, often exercised brutally, was everything. Jesus turns all that on its head: it’s the people who mourn and are persecuted, who don’t seek to dominate others but are peacemakers, who are blessed.
We quite often hear rich people today described as being ‘worth’ however many millions are in their bank accounts. Christianity challenges the world’s way of measuring worth. Jesus says God measures by a different standard. The Kingdom of Heaven keeps different accounts, and offers different rewards.
Intercessory prayer
Let us pray with our eyes closed and our hearts open ready to bless others and to be blessed by God’s transforming Spirit.
We pray for those peacemakers whose lives are threatened;
for those whose gentleness is abused;
for those whose hunger goes unsatisfied;
for those who thirst where waters have run dry;
for those who are persecuted for their faith
and for those who persecute for theirs.
And we pray for ourselves, for another,
and for all who long
for the coming of your kingdom.
We pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Suggested Listening Our God – www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJpt1hSYf2o Peace to you – www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suw9XBBzvDQ The Servant Song – www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVnwEXVQO7c
