The Archbishop has requested that we ring the bell every day at noon and say this Angelus prayer together

Angelus

God Bless the world
Give it wisdom at this time
Grant us relief and release
Be with those who are ill
And bless the carers fighting this pandemic

For Jesus Christ sake.
Amen

Eucharist readings for the week:

Saturday 28th March

Jeremiah 11:18-20 John 7:40-52
Psalm 7:1-2,9-12

Sunday – Service

Monday 29th March

Susanna 36-62 or Hosea 3:1-5 John 7:53-8:11
Psalm 23

Tuesday 31 March

Numbers 21:4-9 John 8:21-30
Psalm 102:1-2,15-22

Wednesday 1 April

Daniel 3:13-28 John 8:31-47
Psalm 241-6

Thursday 2 April

Genesis 17:3-9 John 8:51-59
Psalm 105:1-9

Friday 3 April

Jeremiah 20:7-13 John 10:31-42
Psalm 18:1-7

Saturday 4 April

Ezekiel 37:21b-28 John 11:45-57
Psalm 121

Reflection Day Eight of National Lockdown Friday 03 April 2020

Jeremiah 20:7-13 Psalm 18:1-7 John 10:31-45

Good day dear friends,

Jeremiah saw the expansion of the Babylonian empire under Nebuchadnezzar threatening Israel’s existence and he warned Israel believing that he had received such warning words from God.

But the people denounced him and Jeremiah feels caught in the middle, squeezed between a God who has insisted that he preach this difficult word of warning and a people who refuse to believe him. He is stuck between an insistent God and a resistant people and in the midst of this crisis, he voices his laments. We often question prophets like Jeremiah’s way of addressing themselves to God. How can these biblical characters speak to God like that? Should they not model for us an openness to speak to God in polite ways? Are we even allowed to voice to God our deepest questions and complaints, no holds barred? The answer is yes and emphatic Yes, our God is bigger than our vilest offences and we cannot offend God. This is how we speak to God in difficult times, like what we are going through right now.

Our God is not an uninvolved overseer, nor an absolute monarch, micromanaging the world. Be reminded, God is almighty, ever-present and all-knowing and that in any situation, even like what we are going through right now, God’s heart is the first to break and God’s tears are the first to flow. God has established a relationship with us and a key factor in this relationship would be to speak openly and honestly. God understands that our voice counts, too, He is not the only one who has something important to say. And so God give us prayer, to speak our mind about whatever we may suffer. This lament of Jeremiah is a way to make his situation more open for God, to give God more room to work with and we will do well if we in the same vein would bring our current crisis before God in lament.

Psalm 18 is often described as a song to God for His deliverance of David as David does in the first three verses of the prescribed psalm. It is a triumphant declaration made by David unto his God who delivered him so wonderfully.

David for more than 20 years after being anointed as future king lived as a fugitive, and as a man who had lost everything. He lost his safety, his youth, his family, his career, his rights, his connection with the covenant people of God, his comforts and at times he even lost his close relationship with God. Despite all of this he remained steadfast to the Lord, and God in His time delivered David and fulfilled the long-ago promise of his anointing.

David said, “I will love You” to the God who delivered him, not only for liberating him from his trial, but for all God did in and through the trials to make him what he was. He wasn’t bitter against God; instead he was grateful that the years of trouble had done something good and necessary in his life.

David offered God nine titles to show who God was for him. He called God:

His strength; 2. His rock; 3. His fortress; 4. His deliverer; 5. His God; 6. His strength;
His shield; 8. His horn; 9. His stronghold.

David knew this to be true by faith but now sang from a perspective that knew this by experience in a greater way than ever before. God’s strength – was greater than his weakness. This reminds us that despite the fact that David was a true warrior, he was also a sensitive soul who was troubled by the deeds and words of the ungodly.

We are close to Holy Week, during which we commemorate the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus and since week four in Lent we deal exclusively with the gospel of John and the tension between Jesus and his Jewish hearers. We are not only presented with the conflict between Jesus and the religious authority as a past event but as a mirror which reflects what happens today. In the name of God people transform themselves into bombs and kill others. In the name of God, we, members of the three religions of the God of Abraham, Jews, Christians and Muslims, have fought among ourselves throughout history. In the name of God, many horrible things have been committed and as a world, we continue to commit them every day. Lent is an important period of time to stop and to ask ourselves: What is the image of God that we have within us?

There is no future for Jesus, His death has been decided, but as yet His hour has not arrived. Jesus goes out and crosses the Jordan toward the place where John had baptized as an indication of the continuity between His mission and that of John. He helped people to become aware of how God acts in history. The people recognize in Jesus the one whom John had announced.

Do we reveal the presence of Jesus within us by the works that we do?

God is open to taking new directions in view of new times and places, in view of the interaction within the relationship. Yet, never changing will be God’s steadfast love for us and God’s faithfulness to the promises God has made to us. We can trust God to keep promises.

A prayer for the world

God of love and hope,

you made the world and care for all creation,

but the world feels strange right now.

The news is full of stories about Coronavirus.

Some people are worried that they might get ill.

Others are anxious for their family and friends.

Be with them and help them to find peace.

We pray for the doctors and nurses and scientists,

and all who are working to discover the right medicines

to help those who are ill.

Thank you that even in these anxious times,

you are with us.

Help us to put our trust in you and keep us safe.

Amen.

Oordenking Dag Agt Nasionale Lockdown Vrydag 03 April 2020

Jeremia 20:7-13 Psalm 18:1-7 Johannes 10:31-45

Goeie dag liewe vriende,

Jeremia het die uitbreiding van die Babiloniese kongkryk gesien onder Nebukadnesser, besig om Israel se bestaan te bedreig en waarsku Israel in geloof dat hy die woorde van waarskuwing van God ontvang het. Maar die mense het hom misken en Jeremia het gevoel dat hy in die middel van God wie aandring dat hy die waarskuwing bring en ‘n volk wie weier om hom te glo vasgevang was. Hy was tussen ‘n aandringerige God en ‘n weerstandige volk en in die situasie bring hy die klaaglied. Ons bevraagteken baie keer mense soos Jeremia se manier waarop hulle met God praat. Hoe kan bybelse karakters so met God praat? Moet hulle nie aan ons ‘n model bied van hoe om met respek met God te praat nie? Is dit ooit toelaatbaar dat ons teenoor God ons diepste vrae en klaery bring sonder om enigiets terug te hou? Die antwoord is ja, ‘n defnitiewe ja, want ons God is groter as ons vuilste sondes en ons kan nie God aanstoot gee nie.Dit is hoe ons tot God praat in moeilike tye soos wat ons nou deurgaan,

Ons God is nie ‘n onbetrokke owersiener nie, ook nie ‘n absolute koning wie die wêreld van ‘n afstand met ysterklou regeer nie.. Ons word herinner dat God almagtig, alomteenwoordig en alsweted is en dat in situasies soos die waarin ons verkeer is dit altyd eerste God se hart wat breek, en God se trane wat vloei. God het met ons ‘n verhouding gevestig en ‘n sleutel faktor in daardie verhouding is om openlik en eerlik met mekaar te praat. God verstaan dat ons stemme ook belangrik is en dat Hy, God nie al een is wat iets belangriks het om te sê nie.

En so gee God ons gebed om ons gedagtes uit te druk oor wat ons ookal ly. Hierdie klaaglied is Jeremia se manier om sy situasie aan God oop te maak, sodat God beter daarmee kan werk en ons sal goed doen as ons ons huidige krisis op dieselfde manier voor God kan bring.

Psalm 18 word dikwels beskryf as ‘n lied tot God vir sy beskerming van Dawid, soos Dawid doen in die eerste drie verse. Dit is ‘n oorwinningsverklaring wat Dawid aan God maak wie hom so wonderlik gered het. Dawid was vir meer as twintig jaar na sy salwing as toekomstige koning ‘n vlugteling en ‘n man wie alles verloor het. Hy het sy jeug verloor; sy familie; sy loopbaan; sy regte; sy verbinding met die verbondsvolk van God; sy gemak en met tye selfs sy nabye verhouding met God verloor. Ten spyte van dit alles bly hy getrou tot sy Here en God verlos hom op God se tyd en vervul die belofte van sy salwing.

Dawid sê : “Ek het U baie lief Here” aan die God wie hom verlos het, nie net van sy stryd nie, maar ook vir wat God vir hom gedoen het gedurende sy stryd en vir wie hy nou hierna is. Hy was nie bitter teenoor God nie, inteendeel hy was dankbaar dat die jare van stryd iets goed en nodigs in sy lewe gedoen het.

Dawid offer aan God nege titels naamlik:

My sterkte; 2. My rots; 3. My skuilplek; 4. My redder; 5. My God; 6. My sterk verlosser;
My skild; 8. My horing; 9. My veilige vesting.

Dawid weet hierdie dinge is waar uit geloof, maar nou sing hy dit uit sy persoonlike ondervinding op ‘n groter manier as ooit tevore.. God se krag was groter as sy swakhede. Dit herinner ons dat ten spyte van die feit dat Dawid ‘n groot krygsheld was, was hy ook ‘n sensitiewe/gevoelige siel wie gelei het as gevolg van die dade en woorde van die godeloses.

Ons is baie na aan Heilige Week waartydens ons die Lyding, Dood en Opstanding van Jesus vier en vir die hele week sedert die vierdie sondag in Vastyd deel ons met die evangelie van Johannes en die spanning tussen Jesus en sy Joodse aanhoorders. Ons word nie net die konflik tussen Jesus en die geloofsgesag gebied as ‘n historiese feit nie, maar ook as spieël wat reflekteer wat nog vandag gebeur. In die naam van God verander mense hulself in bomme en maak ander dood. In die naam van God het ons die drie groot gelowe van Abraham, Jode, Christene en Muslims onder mekaar baklei deur die geskiedenis. In die naam van God het vreesaanjaende goed in die wêreld gebeur en ons gaan voort om dit te doen dag na dag.

Vastyd (Lent) is ‘n belangrike periode waarin ons moet stop en onsself moet afvra: Wat is die beeld van God wat ons binne ons dra?

Daar is geen toekoms vir Jesus nie, Sy dood is klaar besluit, maar Sy uur het nog nie gekom nie. Jesus gaan uit en kruis die Jordaan na die plek waar Johannes gedoop het as ‘n aanduiding van die deurlopenheid van Sy, Jesus se bediening en sending met die van Johannes. Hy het mense gehelp om bewus te word van hoe God in geskiedenis optree. Die mense herken in Jesus die een wie Johannes aangekondig het.

Openbaar ons die teenwoordigheid van Jesus in die werk wat ons doen?

God is oop om ‘n nuwe rigting in te slaan in die lig van veranderinge in tyd en plekke en Sy verhouding met ons. Tog is God onveranderlik en standvastig in Sy liefde vir ons en getrou aan Sy beloftes aan ons. Ons kan God vertrou om sy beloftes te hou.

‘n Gebed vir die wêreld

God van liefde en hoop,

U het die wêreld gemaak en sorg vir U skepping,

Maar die wêreld voel nou vreemd.

Die nuus is vol stories oor die Coronavirus.

Sommige mense is bekommerd dat hulle siek mag word.

Ander is angstig oor hul familie en vriende.

Wees met hulle en help hulle om vrede te vind.

Ons bid vir die dokters, verpleegsters en wetenskaplikes,

En almal wie werk om die regte medisyne te ontdek

Om die siekes te help.

Dank aan u dat selfs in hierdie vreesbevange tye,

U met ons is.