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PRAY NOW: TODAY'S PRAYER
Relationships of Power - Elijah and Jezebel
Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, 'So may the gods do to me
and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time
tomorrow.'
Prayer
You were too easy to see in the whoosh of flame;
On that mountain of vindication and power ...
Elijah had to unfind you, after that, in order to find you again.
Yet Jezebel trumped Carmel with just a death-threat.
Naked, corrupt, unbounded power. And totally credible.
Broken by power, Elijah fled. To a different
mountain.
'What are you doing here, Elijah?' On Horeb . . .
Out it all pours. 'I was faithful, I made a stand, it was all going so well!
And now they seek my life,
to take it away.'
And what's unsaid. 'I need power to countervail power. I need God.'
Earthquake, lightning, storm-wind; minatory, dazzling, power
aplenty.
But God isn't there. Power just isn't where God is. So where is God?
And then - the
sound of nothing at all ...
Same question - 'What are you doing here, Elijah?'
The answer - completely different. Yet
word for word the same.
Yet everything really is different.
Jezebel, and her power, and her pomps, are still there,
But Elijah goes back. Suddenly,
he can face it.
Now he knows where God will be.
There ... Just ... there.
I open my eyes from prayer - did I miss something, Lord?
How, when nothing has changed, has everything changed?
How, when I turn from the assurances of power,
Having failed to find you there,
Do I find you in the stillness of my own acknowledged powerlessness?
Readings
1 Kings 18:17-40
1 Kings 19:1-18
Psalm 46
Luke 9:28-36
Luke 22:39-44
John 14:27-9
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Prayer activity
Listen to the silence - and acknowledge that it isn't actually silent. Acknowledge,
one by one, the sounds it contains. Think about the difference between silence
and peace. Offer the silence - such as it is - of real life in the real world to God.
Ask him for peace such as the world cannot give.
Prayer for the Church
For those who ensure that the fabric of church buildings is maintained and that theChurch's heritage in buildings is conserved for the good of the Church and nation
especially the General Trustees
and the Committee on Church Art and Architecture.
Blessing
You have brought us here,
And here we are, for you,
And here you are, for us.
Let us return to the pattern of daily life
Knowing that everything will be the same,
Yet understanding that all things are different and new.
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