Weekly Bible Study Notes and Worship Resources for Ordinary 17
Year C, Colour = Green
Introduction
Our prayers will be answered, if they are supported by commitment on our part to action.
- If we sit around watching telly we will have poor grades
- If we are worried about our marriage, it is no good praying if we are unprepared to go and ask for help
- People complain about being lonely, but do nothing to join clubs and societies to make friends
- Some people say that they feel worthless, but they do nothing to give themselves a sense of worth by investing their time and energy in helping others.
Are you asking, seeking, knocking? If we wish to be used by
God to bring about his purposes are we prepared to pay the price, in terms
of our energy, chasing opportunities, bearing the disappointments ? Do we
set big goals? Or are we content to always sail in sheltered waters, away
from the dangerous waves?
Never allow yourself to be a victim, pray and then do what you need to take
care of things. Surrendering to God does not mean abdicating your
responsibilities. Somebody once said God helps those who help themselves. It
sounds dreadful, yet it partly true. God does work to share in helping those
who are willing to acknowledge a need and then be a part of the solution. So
often our prayers are carefully worded to avoid the possibility that this
might be the case. 'God bring about peace in Iraq.' Well that is a fine
prayer, but it is too easy to pray for world peace and then fail to show
love to a person we find difficult in church.
We have to be prepared to be a part of the answer to our prayers
- If you have a need — seek help
- If you recognise a need in the community — you be prepared to get stuck in
- If you are sick - go and see the doctor
- If you are troubled with guilt go and see a minister and ask them to pray for you /li>
- If your job is driving you mad — apply for a new one.
- If you need love or human companionship - ask for it from those you care about.
- If you feel miserable in life—go and offer help and support to others in need, for it is in giving that we receive.
Opening Verse of Scripture Colossians 2:6
Continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness
Collect Prayerfor the Day — Before we read we pray
Merciful God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as pass our understanding: pour into our hearts such love toward you that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. CW
Creator God, you made us all in your image: may we discern you in all that we see, and serve you in all that we do; through Jesus Christ our Lord. CW
First Bible Reading Genesis 18:20-32
The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre and said, ‘How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know.’
So the men turned from there, and went towards Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the LORD. Then Abraham came near and said, ‘Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?’ And the LORD said, ‘If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.’ Abraham answered, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?’ And he said, ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.’ Again Abraham spoke to the Lord, ‘Suppose forty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of forty I will not do it.’ Then Abraham said, ‘Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.’ The Lord answered, ‘I will not do it, if I find thirty there.’ Abraham said, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.’ The Lord answered, ‘For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.’ Then he said, ‘Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.’ The Lord answered, ‘For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.’ NRSV
Second Reading Colossians Chapter 2:6-19
Brothers and sisters, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.
Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God. NRSV
Gospel Reading Luke 11:1-13
He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.’
And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’ NRSV
Post Communion Prayer
God of our pilgrimage, you have led us to the living water: refresh and sustain us as we go forward on our journey, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. CW
Commentary
Audacious Prayer
The theme of being confident before God as we pray is seen in the story of the Friend at Midnight. We read that because of the requestor’s boldness and persistence the man eventually gets up and meets the request for bread. Jesus has just told the disciples that they should ask for their daily bread. The word which is translated ‘boldness’ can have different meanings, as reflected in the various translations of the bible, many of which render it differently. One understanding of the word could be ‘shameless audacity’. This would seem to fit more closely with the understanding that Jesus has just communicated to the disciples. Just as a child can make audacious requests of their parents, seemingly without concern, perhaps Jesus is encouraging the disciples (and us) to be equally bold in our prayers and requests. In a way, all prayer is audacious. We are asking God to intervene in our world as if He might be unaware of what’s happening. The way that Jesus describes the audacious persistence of prayer is also seen in the exchange between Abraham and the Lord in our Old Testament reading. Abraham time and time again goes back to God as if testing His resolve. Would God spare the city of Sodom if fifty righteous people were found there? What about forty five, what about forty, thirty, twenty and then just ten? This bargaining posture may have seemed normal to those used to the bargaining ways between groups of wandering nomads but seems rather strange and audacious, even rude to our modern day western ways. But it does help to shake us from seeing prayer as a rather mundane and one way exchange where we lay out a constant stream of needs to God, as if reminding Him of some of the topics that require His attention. This is not the model that Jesus teaches either.
The disciples have seen Jesus pray many times before and have come to realise it is a central part of who He is and what He is doing. It’s not surprisingly then that they ask, ‘How do you do that?’, ‘Lord, teach us how to pray’. What He teaches is about bringing the mundane and the comic together as we ask for our daily bread, and for the coming of His Kingdom. He doesn’t talk about clearing our minds and having stillness of thought, or of adopting a particular posture. He talks about communicating with God from the middle of our lives, wherever we are. For the Jewish hearers Jesus’ words would have a familiar ring to them. One of the prayers used in synagogue liturgy is called the ‘Kaddish’. The Lord’s Prayer which Jesus teaches us has echoes of its words. ‘Exalted and sanctified (or Magnified and hallowed) is God’s great name in the world which He has created according to His will. And may He establish His Kingdom in your lifetime and in your days, and in the lifetime of the House of Israel, speedily and soon, and say, Amen’. As with many of the words Jesus spoke, the words of the Lord’s Prayer would have a familiar ring to it, but shaped in a way to give them an entirely new meaning. In the teaching on prayer in Luke, Jesus’ example is both broad and deep. His disciples had already noticed that prayer is a fundamental part of who Jesus is and what He does. It’s not something which has to occur at specific times and occasions but seems to be more like an on-going conversation Jesus has with His Father.
Our prayer too should be part and parcel of our everyday lives, part of who we are and what we are, not just something that happens on a Sunday in the words of the liturgy, as good as they are. As a model, Jesus sometimes took Himself off to pray, and other times prayed where He was, in and for the circumstances in which He found Himself. He didn’t use any special language. He wanted to be understood and to be able to express what He really meant and wanted. God does not look for special language or special posture from us. He wants us to be intimate with Him as our Father, whilst understanding that He is an awesome and creator God who is all powerful, all knowing and present in all things, which is why we pray to Him in the first place!
He expects the mundane, the audacious and the cosmic to be mixed together in our prayer. At one and the same time asking for the things that seem trivial and also the things which seem so huge we almost dare not to ask. Our Father in Heaven, Holy be your name, give us our bread, your Kingdom come… It’s a prayer of Holy acknowledgement of who God is and what He has done. It’s a prayer which asks for forgiveness for the times we have fallen short, together with a commitment to forgive those who may have done us wrong. It’s a prayer where we ask for God to protect us from getting into situation where we may be tempted, and to keep us safe when we do. In so doing it expresses our deep hope and confidence in God who cares for us and His world. God wants us to be faithful and audacious in our prayers to Him. We have a God who yearns to be in communication with His people. All we have to do is ask. As Jesus demonstrated, God speaks our language. Sam Cappleman
Meditation
I cannot say OUR, if my religion has no room for others and their needs.
I cannot say FATHER, if I do not demonstrate this relationship in my daily living.
I cannot say WHO ARE IN HEAVEN, if all my interest and pursuits are in earthly things.
I cannot say HALLOWED BE THY NAME, if I, who am called by His name, am not holy.
I cannot say, THY KINGDOM COME, if I am unwilling to give up my own sovereignty and accept the
righteous reign of God.
I cannot say THY WILL BE DONE, if I am unwilling or resentful of having it in my life.
I cannot say ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN, unless I am truly ready to give myself to His service here
and now.
I cannot say GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD, without expending honest effort for it or by ignoring
the genuine needs of my fellow man.
I cannot say FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST
US, if I continue to harbour a grudge against anyone.
I cannot say LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, if I deliberately choose to remain in a situation where I
am likely to be tempted.
I cannot say DELIVER US FROM EVIL, if I am not prepared to fight in the spiritual realm with the weapon
of Word and prayer.
I cannot say THINE IS THE KINGDOM, if I do not give the King the disciplined obedience of a loyal
subject.
I cannot say THINE IS THE POWER, if I fear what my neighbours or friends may say or do.
I cannot say THINE IS THE GLORY, if I am seeking my own glory and recognition first.
I cannot say FOREVER, if I am too anxious about each day's affairs.
I cannot say AMEN, unless I honestly say, "Cost what it may, this is my prayer
Meditation
The Gospel reading tells us that the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. At one level this is a very simple request. At another it is probably one of the most profound requests the disciples could make. And they could hardly have been expecting the first word with which Jesus then starts His instruction. In Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer Jesus simply starts with the word ‘Father’ translated from the Aramaic word ‘Abba’. This is a new and completely different way to pray. Up until now no one had called God ‘Father’. It implied an intimacy and relationship with God which had simply not been expressed before. Indeed, Hebrew was the normal language used for Jewish prayer. The German theologian Joachim Jeremias wrote, ‘Abba expresses the heart of Jesus’ relationship with to God. He spoke as a child to its father: confidently and securely, and yet at the same time reverently and obediently. That is the relationship Jesus invites us all to have with His Father, one of confidence and security as we come before Him in our prayers and all we do in obedience and reverence for the God who made us in His image.
Hymns
- O Lord my God
- Seek ye first
- What a friend we have in Jesus
- Christ be our light
- I heard the voice of Jesus say
Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead
"Prayer is a plant, the seed of which is sown in the heart of every Christian.
If it is well cultivated and nourished it will produce fruit, but if it is neglected, it will wither and die."
Grant us, O Lord,
to seek first your Kingdom and your righteousness.
Out of the abundance of your grace,
grant us sufficient light and strength
for our journey.
Forgive what we have been,
sanctify what we are
and order what we shall be,
in you and for you, now and for ever. Amen
Mary Tileston, 1820 -1895
Watch, Lord,
with those who wake or watch
or weep tonight,
and give your angels charge
over those who sleep.
Tend your sick ones,
O Lord Jesus Christ;
rest your weary ones;
bless your dying ones;
soothe your suffering ones;
pity your afflicted ones;
shield your joyous ones.
And all for your love’s sake. Amen
Compline collect
O Holy Spirit, come as the wind to forward our goings. Come as the dove
to launch us heavenward. Come as the water to purify our spirits. Come as
the cloud to abate our temptations. Come as the dew to revive our languor.
Come as fire to purge our souls; for your truth and your name’s sake. Amen
Christina Rossetti, 1830-1894
God, you have poured the Spirit of your Son into our hearts so that we may
call you Father. Give us grace to devote our freedom to your service that we
and all creation may be brought into the glorious liberty of the children of
God. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and for ever.
Amen.
Lord Jesus, we give you our hands to do your work. We give you our feet to walk in your way. We give you our tongues to speak your word. We give you our hearts to love you, now and for ever. Amen. Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626)
Additional Resources
Commentary
After the sacrament of baptism, the Lord's Prayer is the best-known bond of unity among Christians of every tradition. The name Lord's Prayer was given because it was a prayer which Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him 'Teach us how to pray." Clearly there was something about the prayer of Jesus which made the disciples feel they were missing the mark, their prayers lacked the power and meaning Jesus' had.
In Matthew Jesus gives the prayer as a type of prayer which complies with the instructions which he has given about prayer in general. In Luke however the prayer is not only an example which complies with his teaching, it is also a specific prayer which must be prayed by his followers.
Our We have all heard the phrase 'I am a Christian but I don't go to church.' The word 'Our' is very poignant, it makes the Christian faith a shared experience, not an isolated one. You cannot pray the Lord's Prayer and mean it and then be a private Christian. The following is a simple poem but it does have a strong message about the shared nature of Christianity
You cannot say the Lord's prayer, and even once say "I".
You cannot pray the Lord's prayer, and even once say "my".
Nor can you pray the Lord's prayer and not pray for another.
For to ask for "our" daily bread, you include your sister and brother!
All God's children are included in each and every plea.
From the beginning to the end of it, it does not once say "me".
Father Jesus must have amazed those around by addressing God as "Father". The Pharisees never
used such a title to address God. We can be sure that not until Jesus does it become characteristic to
speak to God as Father. God was close to Jesus and this is shown clearly by his choice of this word.
Moreover Jesus wants this level of intimacy to be shared by us all. A relationship so personal that we
can call the Creator of the universe 'Father'. God is somebody we can approach as we go to a human
parent and share the good times and the bad, the success as well as the failure, the joys and sorrows.
As 'Father', God is concerned for the needs of his children.
Hallowed be your name Hallowed means to treat as holy, to reverence, to be pure, sacred. There is
an acknowledgement of the fact that God is 'worthy.' This is about the essential quality of God which is
beyond our imagination. In calling God 'Holy' we acknowledge that God is 'other worldly' and that there
is much about God which is above and beyond us: We cannot expect to place an infinite God into the
container of our human finite minds. This is also a prayer for the mission of the church, we are seeking
that all people would reverence God.
Your kingdom come Jesus expresses our longing to have the kingdom fully now, not just a taste of it. Our deepest longing is to see the day when the triumphant, sovereign lordship of our loving God will no longer be a mere hope clung to desperately by faith, but a manifest reality in all human affairs. We all long to see the end of death and pain and suffering, this prayer seeks the time when all these things will come to an end.
Give us each day our daily bread. We are half-way through the prayer before Jesus allows us to ask
for anything for ourselves! This phrase reminds us of where our priorities must be. It reminds us of our
daily dependence upon God and calls us to simplicity of life. As we pray these simple words we pray
that we will live just one day at a time and we also acknowledge that all things come from God. (Deut
8:18, 1 Cor 4:7, James 1:17). True prayers are born of present trials and present needs. Bread, for
today, is bread enough. As every day demands its bread, so every day demands its prayer. No amount
of praying, done today, will suffice for tomorrow's praying. This part of the prayer is also about NEEDS
not GREEDS. Jesus acknowledges that our physical needs must be met but it is not a prayer for
luxuries.
To pray for 'our daily bread' is to remind ourselves that in a wealthy society we should not be asking for
more than that, anything else is a bonus! Indeed for many people daily bread itself would be a real
luxury.
Forgive us our sins In this prayer we admit that we are sinners! By sinning we have incurred a moral and a spiritual debt to God who has authority over our lives. So we ask for forgiveness as a gift, for we can never earn or merit God's forgiveness. Some would say that we should be praying forgive me 'my' sins. There has been a tendency to become over excited about our individual sins: Of course the ones that we get really excited about are sexual sins and sins of morality. Jesus is not so focused on individual but rather corporate sin. It is actually harder to say forgive us our sins, since when we take shared responsibility for corporate sins it challenges us in a new way.
As we forgive those who sin against us Think about the things God has forgiven you for. Now with all that forgiven how can you not forgive someone who has sinned against you? Jesus does not suppose that God's forgiveness is contingent on our forgiving. Rather, he simply assumes that as we pray we will understand the need to forgive. Once our eyes are opened to the enormity of our offence against God, the injuries done to us appear by comparison to be trifling. If we exaggerate the offences of others then the chances are that we have a minimized our understanding of our own ! Forgiving others shows that we are living out the kingdom standards in our own lives now.
And lead us not into temptation Does God lead us into temptation? We can all be sure from personal experience that he does allow us to be tempted, to go through difficult circumstances. We are told in scripture that God will not allow us to be tested beyond what we can endure and that he will help us through it (1 Cor 10:13). Perhaps we could say that this prayer asks God to help us avoid sin, and that our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into sin of any kind. If we continue to say this prayer each day, then we will find it hard to live knowingly with sin each day. It is interesting that when people do things which they know to be wrong they frequently find a reason to avoid confronting their sin. They will perhaps leave their church which challenges such behaviour, sometimes finding fault in the church itself as an excuse. Our prayers will challenge us not to live a double life. Charles Royden
Meditation
Schools should be allowed to do away with daily collective worship in favour
of weekly or monthly assemblies, says the Chief Inspector of Schools, David
Bell. "I struggle, as do my inspectors and most secondary schools, with the
requirement that every school day shall include an act of collective
worship," Figures from Mr Bell’s department show that 76 per cent of
secondary schools fail to comply with the regulations for collective
worship; many say they lack the physical space to hold an assembly, or they
cannot squeeze worship into their timetable.
Mr Bell says he tried to crack down on schools’ failure to comply — but "ran
into a firestorm of protest", because school inspectors found themselves
having to declare schools that met every other standard "unsatisfactory",
simply because they were failing to implement the daily act of worship.
This Sunday we think about prayer and the need to create space in our busy
lives. If schools stopped having PE, games or sports lessons, I wonder if
then they would be allowed to drop sport from the curriculum in schools? I
would suggest that such an idea would be utterly rejected. The fact that Mr
Bell has made this statement shows that spiritual activity is regarded as of
less importance than physical activity. ! If we remove from our children an
awareness of things which are spiritual, what kind of people will they
become? Is it merely coincidence that in a society where we are removing the
spiritual focus, that we are seeing less and less respect for others and a
degeneration in the behaviour of children and young people.
If schools feel able to break the law so wilfully, is it any surprise that
children in those same schools are morally confused? Charles Royden
Meditation
Pray, and let God worry. Martin Luther, 16th century
Jesus said
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
Jesus was a carpenter and in the days before health and safety and protective glasses I am sure that there were many times when he suffered from having sawdust in his eye. So we can understand what he meant when he told his followers not to go worrying about specks of dirt in somebody else's eye when you had a plank of wood in your own.
We can all judge others and criticise them, never seeing anything positive in them. We can even measure people by a high standard which we are unable to live up to ourselves. Jesus is right, we all need to learn to cut other people a bit more slack and remember the words of Mother Teresa said: “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
Post Communion Prayer
Lord God, whose Son is the vine and the source of life, ever giving himself that the world may live: may we so receive within ourselves the power of his death and passion that, in his saving cup, we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love; for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever. Amen.
Prayer
God our Father, you made each of us unique and unrepeatable. Inspire me to live in such a way that I respect others and am ready to learn from all who are part of my life this day. Amen.
Lord we remember before you all our brothers and sisters who are weighed down with suffering. Bless and guide us that your love may be reflected in our concern for the hungry, the oppressed and the unloved. Help us to acknowledge and grow in appreciation that all people are made in your image and likeness. Amen.
Make us worthy, Lord, to serve our brothers ands sisters throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them by our hands this day their daily bread, and by our understanding love give peace and joy Amen.
Hymns
- From all that dwell below the skies
- Go tell is on the mountain
- May the mind of Christ my Saviour
- Jesus, we thus obey
- It is God who holds the nations in the hollow of his hand