Good morning! How are you feeling today? I invite you to put your hand flat on your belly. This is often the place where we can tell if we are anxious or stressed or calm and relaxed. You may wish to take a few deep, slow breaths as you prepare to join in worship with me, Nerys, celebrating the Eucharist in the church at 8.30 and 10.30 a.m.
In our Gospel today, when Jesus notices that the crowds he meets in the towns and villages of Galilee are harassed and helpless, he feels pity for them —literally ‘in his bowels’. As you read Matthew 9.35-10.23 or listen here to Ramanie and Elizabeth Talbot reading from a different translation, notice Jesus’ response to the plight of God’s people.
Jesus sees his fellow-Jews as sheep without a shepherd and like a field full of wheat with nobody to harvest it. He urges his followers to pray to God the Farmer to send workers to gather them up. As they pray, they realise that they themselves are God’s answer to their prayer—they are to be the workers. They are just ordinary, flawed people as the details in the list of their names suggest, and yet Jesus sends them out to be healers and restorers, to bring peace to troubled minds and hearts. All the detailed instructions they are given point to the same loving, selfless commitment to meet the needs of others that Jesus had. In order to share in his work, they need to have the same attitude as Jesus, the same balance of shrewdness and innocence, the same trust in God’s spirit to sustain them.
One of the things I’m learning in Lockdown is to pace myself so that I don’t become overly tired and stressed. I have realized that in order to hear Christ’s voice and do his work, we need to live day-by-day in such a way that we’re in step with Him. Christ’s call asks us as individuals and as a church not to rush ahead to seek out our own opportunities for healing and ministering to others but instead to follow where we are being led so that we can notice the need that presents itself to us and respond to it. A friend pointed out that ‘pace’ in Italian is the word for peace. It is only when we allow Christ to set the pace of our lives that we can know the joy of God’s peace and share it with others.
You are invited to use the words below as a framework for your time of prayer:
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of life and all the good things we enjoy …
Break down any barriers which prevent us from being at peace with you …
We ask your guidance and courage for those in positions of authority and influence.
We pray for all who long for your peace:
those who are sick …
those who are grieving …
those who are afraid …
those who are harassed and worried …
We bring before you those we love and worry about and those who love and worry about us …
We pray for your Church here in Dunblane and across the world, giving thanks for all who sense your calling and respond to it with joy.
O Lord, you always guide your people whom you build up on the foundation of your love: make us ever stand in awe of your Holy Name, and love you in equal measure; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen
Let the disciples’ prayer be yours this week
but don’t be surprised if you become part of God’s answer!
Lord of the harvest, send out workers into your harvest.
Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
