Faith Daily | 26 August 2021

PRAYER of the DAY - PENTECOST APBA p572

Creator God,

you have made us for yourself,

and our hearts are restless

until they find their rest in you:

teach us to offer ourselves to your service,

that here we may have your peace,

and in the world to come may see you face to face;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

GOSPEL for the Day: Matthew 24: 42-51

42Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. 45“Who then is the faithful and wise slave, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves their allowance of food at the proper time? 46Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. 47Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. 48But if that wicked slave says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ 49and he begins to beat his fellow slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know. 51He will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

GOSPEL Reflection: Contributed by:Anne MacRonald

I wonder if the disciples when listening to the parable in Mathew thought that Jesus would come in their lifetime.

More than 2000 years later we are still waiting for him to return.

It is so easy to become distracted in this changing world of ours. Our times are sensitive to all kinds of abuse of power but we are unable to eliminate it.

Jesus speaks of being ‘awake’ and paying attention. But we can become preoccupied with the business and concerns when we need to watch and pray.

Jesus didn’t want us to be afraid but to be ready for his coming and to welcome him into our lives.

It is the ‘faithful and wise servant ‘who lives his life as if the Lord could return any day. The faithless ones assume, because of the long delay that he will never return.

I daily seek to deepen my relationship with God and to go forward and not backwards.

To resolve any issues I may have in all parts of my life and to support those around me

FINAL PRAYER: – For Pilgrimage Iona Prayer Book

From God’s house peace reaches all people and places and makes neighbours friends.(cf. Hebrew 13.20-21 and cf.Mark 9.50)

Thanks be to you, O Christ our Lord,

For the many gifts you have given us:

Each day and night, each sea and land

Each weather fair, each calm, each wild.

We remember your mercy

given so gently and generously:

each thing we have received, from you it came;

each thing for which we hope, from your love

it will come;

each thing we enjoy, it is of your bounty;

each thing we ask, comes of your disposing.

O Lord, from whom each thing that is freely flows,

grant that no tie over-strict, no tie over-dear,

may separate us from your constant love

or from the needs of our neighbours

in whom your face shines

each day and each night. Amen.