Friday 5th August 2022
My eyes grow dim with weeping. Each day I beg your help; O Lord, I reach my pleading hands to you for mercy. Soon it will be too late! Psalm 89:9, 10a
You Lord, are the source of all good things:
We praise you.
You call us to tend and care for your creation:
May we strive to do your will.
You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives:
May we live together in peace.
A reading from Luke 18: 9-14 (The Message) He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’ “Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’” Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”
Suffering God,
Full of grief, I pour out my sorrows;
Full of mourning, I bewail my loss:
Bluebells that cannot keep pace with climate change,
Ash, elm and chestnut trees felled by disease,
Frogspawn that succumbs to unseasonal cold,
Butterflies deceived by unseasonal warmth.
Suffering God,
Full of grief, I pour out my sorrows;
Full of mourning, I bewail my loss:
Wetlands that are no longer wet,
Curlews that have nowhere to feed,
Streams overwhelmed by fertilisers,
Rivers polluted by sewage.
Suffering God,
Full of grief, I pour out my sorrows;
Full of mourning, I bewail my loss:
Glaciers receding up mountains,
Alpine plants pushed over the edge,
Mountain hares with nowhere to go,
Moorlands and tundra burnt to a cinder.
Suffering God,
Full of grief, I pour out my sorrows;
Full of mourning, I bewail my loss:
Oceans with no whales,
Savannahs with no elephants
Coral reefs with no coral,
Icecaps with no ice.
Merciful God,
Forgive us our greed and our complacency,
Our folly and selfishness.
Forgive us when we have failed to see our errors,
have chosen to overlook our faults.
Forgive us when we have not listened to the facts,
preferring to believe our own stories.
Forgive us when we have ignored the plight of others,
caring only for number one.
Restore in us a right mind and a right spirit.
Strengthen our hands and our hearts to care for your world.
Embolden our will to love our neighbours as ourselves.
Free up our grasp on wealth and resources
that all may benefit from your bounty.
Release us from our pride and self assurance
that we can truly worship you,
our creator, redeemer and sustainer.
Amen.
The grace
The Green Tau 