Weaver, Word and Wisdom reflective prayers

Reflective Prayer

Creation Echoes

 

CREATION AFFIRMATION[1]

We believe in God,

Who created all things.

We believe in Jesus,

Through whom all things were created.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,

Who works continually to restore creation.

Amen.

PRAYER OF PREPARATION[2]

God of peace, keep our minds
on what is true and commands respect,

what is just, pure and kind,

whatever is excellent and commendable.

Let these fill our hearts

and guide our actions in Jesus’ name.

KYRIE

            Kyrie eleison,

            Christe eleison.

            Kyrie eleison.

ABSOLUTION AND CONFESSION[3]

God says, ‘Behold I am making all things new.’

Know in your hearts that your sins are forgiven.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

In response to such grace let us confess our sins:

Creator God, your world is full of beauty and diversity,

Through actions of violence and attitudes of ignorance 

we have made it ugly and demanded conformity:

Forgive us for not treading gently on sacred ground.

Creator God, all we have is born of love,

Through actions of hate and attitudes of prejudice

we have learned to see our neighbours as dangerous and evil:

Forgive us for not treading gently on sacred ground.

Creator God, you have given us more than we can ever need,

Through actions of greed and attitudes of carelessness

we have deprived our neighbours of your good gifts:

Forgive us for not treading gently on sacred ground. 

Amen

PRAYER OF ADORATION[4]

Creator God, 

Maker of all that is, we offer you our praise:Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

You brought light out of darkness, 

Day for our fulfilment and night for our rest:

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

You raised the mountains, laid low the plains,
Filled the seas with life and sprinkled the sky with stars:

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

You formed people; children, women and men,

Diverse, complex, creative and beautiful:

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

You did not abandon us to chaos,

but remain intimately involved in our story:

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

You revealed your love in the life of your Son,

Your Word made flesh, living among us:

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

You move within our lives as Holy Spirit,

Opening our eyes to your grace and truth.

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Accept our praise in Christ’s name. Amen

CREATION ECHOES        Genesis 1.1-5 & John 1.1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.

Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good;

What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

SILENCE

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION[5]

Giver of life and light,

We pray for places in creation where your light struggles to break through.

For places of poverty, degradation and despair:

For children who go hungry,

For women trafficked into sexual slavery,

For men taking their own lives because life seems hopeless.

Help us to remember that the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness will not overcome it.

Giver of life and light,

We pray for places in creation where your light struggles to break through.

For places of suffering, sadness and fear:

For those who face ill health,

For those who live with deep grief,

For those whose future seems bleak and uncertain.

Help us to remember that the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness will not overcome it.

Giver of life and light,

We pray for places in creation where your light struggles to break through.

For places of power, corruption and oppression:

That the leaders of nations will have wisdom and mercy,

That massive money making companies will be fair to their workers,

That those who are not free to live, love or believe in their own way will know peace.

Help us to remember that the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness will not overcome it.

Giver of life and light,

We pray for places in creation where your light struggles to break through.

We remember those places and people known to us who need your light and love.

Silence

Help us to remember that the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness will not overcome it.

            

In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, we pray. 

Amen.

LORD’S PRAYER

Abba, hallowed be your name;

Your kingdom come.

The bread of tomorrow, give us today.

Forgive us our debts, as we, here and now, forgive our debtors.

Do not let us succumb to temptation.

Amen.

FOR REFLECTION                       

THE WEAVER, THE WORD AND WISDOM[6]

In the beginning, the Weaver, The Word and Wisdom 

moving in relationship together,

caught a vision of potential,

a glimpse of possibility, and, 

with tentative steps, creation’s dance began.

Creation was shot through with the generosity of the Weaver’s grace.
The rhythm of life’s passion played loudly 

as a constant beat at the heart of myriad universes.

Against this universal backdrop, The Word moved 

and became free, small and intimate.

In the cry of a child, the song of a woman 

and the shout of a dying man

the Word’s voice added melody to the Weaver’s song.

In the midst of confusion, absence and loss,
Wisdom found her way.
She had danced with the Weaver’s threads, throughout all time,
weaving a maypole dance of energetic passion.
She added harmony to the beat and the melody

and composed a symphony of colour.

If creation for a single moment fails to hear the Weaver’s rhythm, 

or misses the Word’s intimate melody, 

then Wisdom will dance through the silence
until all that is joins in love’s rejoicing.

BLESSING

May the light of the Creator shine upon you

May the Word of Christ call to you

May the Spirit of God inspire you.

Amen

Image:      Melting Ice Caps - detail, From the series ‘Acts of Uncreation’. 

In fused glass Artist Michaela Youngson.

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[1] Michaela Youngson, The Weaver, The Word and Wisdom, Epworth Press

[2] Church in Wales, An Order for Holy Eucharist, Canterbury Press 2004. pg 23

[3] Michaela Youngson, The Weaver, The Word and Wisdom, Epworth Press.

[4] Ibid

[5] ibid

[6] ibid

At The Foot of the Cross: Here is grace

Orlando: Good Friday.
Fused glass panel by Michaela Youngson

At Foot of the Cross

Here is Grace.

Here is grace, in all its humbling power – that love, so free and so creative, is willing to stoop so low, to ask so little, to give so much. And we look upon love’s face and find ourselves rooted to the spot. It would be so much more comfortable to deny, to hide, to run away – yet with the mothers and lovers and disciples and friends, we stay here. We look upon grace and we search our hearts, asking ourselves again ‘how can this be, that the creator of all, hangs, choosing helplessness, that I and all humanity might be loved this much?’

Here is grace, in our world where power warps the human heart, where the power-grabbers and status-hoarders will sacrifice anyone but themselves to cling on to wealth, false dignity and empty status. Here is one who lets go, who does not grab or cling or lord divinity above all others – here is one who empties himself of all power and pours love into the world. We live in a time where truth seems to be a fluid commodity and facts are cut, like cloth, to fit the desires of the story-teller. And before us hangs a person who offered truth, not fake news but good news – not for the comfortable but the poor, not for the complacent but for the passionate, not for the perfect but for those who know they need help, not for the holy but for those who long to be whole.

Here is grace, in the place where heaven reaches down and touches earth in blood-stained hands, where creation is embraced by arms outstretched, and the monarch wears a crown of thorns. All the accepted wisdom of the noblest and grandest, the student and the teacher is turned upside down, as all that to the world seems foolish, humiliating, hopeless is in fact the way to true wisdom. To be emptied of all ambition, is to be filled with all possibility; to let go of certainty is to ask new questions, to die to one’s self is to be made alive with the glory of God.

Here is grace, that love works to break down the barriers between the holy and the mundane. Love is active in freeing us from the fear of death, from the fear of hardly living at all. Love pays the price of releasing us from our limited perspectives and opening our minds and hearts to the fullness of God’s love.

Here is grace, Jesus Christ is love’s endeavour – the work of God. Jesus Christ is love’s expense – paying the personal price of loving without limit, that we might grasp a tiny insight into the enormity of God’s love for us and for all creation. So, we remain, watching the drama unfold. We remain, wondering at such grace, such love. We remain, here at the foot of the cross, because where else would love have us be?

Michaela Youngson, Good Friday 2017

Service of Reflection at Methodist Central Hall Westminster