PrayerJoin our Congregational Prayer Time on ZOOM
Monday evenings from 7.30pm to 8pm To take part you will need to have Zoom onyour pc, laptop, tablet or phone - or you can join by mobile phone or landline telephone.
Click here for the ZOOM link Click here for the one tap mobile link
Join by telephone: |
Regular prayer updates are posted here: 28 February 2020 There are times in the Gospels when it is clear that the disciples of Jesus have real difficulty in understanding his teaching. As we’ve seen today, sometimes it was because he was so controversial. But always at these times, advancing the claim regarding his unique identity. Or in the story we read last week, Jesus spoke openly about what lay before him and afterwards Peter ‘took him aside and began to rebuke him’. (Mark 8: 31-32) Peter is clear that death and resurrection are not part of that future and, as he speaks, it is equally clear that he has not yet understood the way that Jesus must take – what was to be won for us on the cross. There are times in the past months when all of us have had real difficulty in understanding the challenges faced within our society and across the globe. We have been unclear as to what the future holds and the path to be taken. In all of this, we have not been alone. As the Gospel account unfolds, Jesus gathers the crowd around him and invites them to ‘take up their cross and follow me’. (Mark 8: 34) As we journey into the future and follow the path taken by Jesus, we know that we are not alone. We journey in the way of the cross and – as we have seen today exemplified in the healing miracles – in the hope of the resurrection. We pray: God of hope, God of hope, God of hope, God of hope, God of hope, God of hope, 21 February 2020 The beginning of the public ministry of Jesus is recorded in direct and immediate terms in the Gospel of Mark. We begin in Nazareth in Galilee and are then transported to the River Jordan. We see Jesus baptised and then driven out into the wilderness for forty days. The ministry of Jesus then begins as he proclaims: ‘The time has come…The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.’ (Mark 1: 9-15) It is as if the account compresses time in order to capture and express the significance of the moment. Our experience of the passing of time over recent months is perhaps unlike anything we have ever collectively known. On the one hand, the experience of lockdown and restriction, and the absence of the rhythms of life, has almost dislocated us from the normal experience of the passing of time. On the other hand, the relocation of worship, work and social interaction to digital platforms has rapidly transformed the times in which we live. These two things, alongside many others, are happening at one and the same time and we cannot yet tell how they will finally shape future times. Although we cannot tell how the future will unfold, what we can do is recognise that the kingdom of God is at hand and, in the light of this, resolve to journey with Jesus towards the place of the Cross. The gift of time, in the light of God’s Kingdom, is an opportunity to live out our response to the Good News of Jesus. We pray: God whose kingdom is near God whose kingdom is near God whose kingdom is near God whose kingdom is near
14 February 2020 From the sermon on the mount we return to that other mountain on which the disciples of Jesus experienced something which they struggled to comprehend and express. This same Jesus with whom they had spent so much time listening to and learning from, was transfigured before their eyes, in the company of Elijah and Moses. Peter, as ever, makes an attempt to respond but truly he ‘did not know what to say, for they were terrified’. (Mark 9: 2-9) In the midst of all we face at this time, we are confronted by that for which nothing has truly prepared us as a society. As the experience of Lockdown continues, we are learning a great deal about the strengths and weaknesses of our society and the foundations on which lives are built. As we do so, we are coming to understand that the future will not simply be a reversion to the ‘normal’ of the past – not in society – not in the church. As the disciples struggle to comprehend what they see before their eyes, they are overshadowed by the presence of God and hear the words of affirmation: ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him!’ Then, in an instant, ‘when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus’. As we journey from Christmas to the Cross – and if God spares us, further into the future, we do so in the company of the One who transforms our present and who invites us to share in the promise of the coming Kingdom of God. We pray: Living God, Living God, Living God, Living God,
7 February 2020 At this time, we are those who wait. In common with every member of our community and our nation, we are those who wait for the renewal of life within the families and communities of which we are a part. The time of waiting has now exceeded anything we might have imagined as we began the first lockdown, and as we wait many have grown weary. The prophet Isaiah speaks to a people who have waited and whose time of waiting has exceeded anything they might have imagined. (Isaiah 40: 21-31) During the time of waiting, the people of Israel have grown weary. To those people, the word of the Lord comes through the prophet and they are given a vision of ‘the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth’ who ‘does not faint or grow weary’. Even in the longest times, the word of the Lord speaks to those who have come to the end of their strength with the assurance that: ‘those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint’. (Isaiah 40: 31) “We are those who wait and our waiting is not in vain.” We pray: Everlasting
God, Everlasting God, Everlasting God, Everlasting God, Everlasting God,
31 January 2020
|
Crieff Parish Church Strathearn Terrace, CRIEFF PH7 3AQ Scottish Registered Charity SC004304 |
A congregation of the
Church of Scotland within the Presbytery of Perth |