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PRAY NOW: TODAY'S PRAYER
Wilderness - Mary and Elizabeth
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill
country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
Prayer
Perhaps, Father, when first we set out on our journey of faith,
We thought we were saying 'Yes!' to something
That would make life different. Exciting. Constantly alive
...
And perhaps - God forgive us - exempt
From what ordinary life so often is.
Was ever a 'Yes!' greater than Mary's,
When she answered the angel, 'Let it be to me according to your word ...'?
And with her 'Yes!' she embraced -
A mother's life. The whole deal.
Pride, perplexity, vulnerability, anxiety, pain - yes, all that;
And so much that is just humdrum.
No exemption from the sheer messiness of incarnation,
And all that that big word might mean, for God's
mum.
Where we cling to our illusions, Father, she dispelled hers.
Where we romanticise, Lord, she demythologized.
She went to talk to Elizabeth about being a mother.
The reality ...
Help us, like Mary, to find the reality of Christ,
Where life is what life usually
is:
Doing what needs to be done, meeting needs that aren't ours;
Little things, not exciting, not even very elevating,
But scary in their sheer volume; more, we fear than we can cope with.
We thank you for a commitment to us so total, an incarnation so complete
That 'Immanuel', 'God-among-us', meant this for Mary;
Hours, days, weeks, years, of humdrum motherhood.
Where, Mary might well have wondered, would God be, in all of this?
Then, unborn John danced his recognition in Elizabeth's womb.
Then, she knew.
Amen
Readings
Genesis 12:1-3a
Psalm 131
Isaiah 7:10-14
Jeremiah 1:4-20
Luke 2:1-7
Luke 2:22-40
Philippians 2:1-11
Prayer activity
Faced with something shatteringly new - in her case, motherhood - Mary went
straight to someone who would know and understand this new reality. Who shares
your reality with you? Who, just now, is asking you to share their reality with
them?
Prayer for the Church
Those who speak on behalf of the Church and who attempt
to demonstrate the relevance of the Gospel for our life
in society and relationships
especially
the Church
and Society Council and the Scottish Churches'
Parliamentary Office.
Blessing
May we be kept from looking for God
Where we expect him to be
So that he can find us
Where we actually are.
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