Devotion
Each week the Christian Church in Oklahoma Regional Church Staff meet for devotion and prayer. Staff share the responsibility for the devotion. Today I led the group and here is the text of our time together.
Opening Thought to Ponder
“Look on the heart by sorrow broken,
look on the tears by sinners shed,
and be they feast to us the token
that by thy grace our souls are fed.”(1)
Naming Joys and Concerns
These named in prayer: Betty & family, Myrna & Family, Jenny & her Aunt Jalyn, Devon & her father Nick, Loma, the volunteers helping at the Regional Church office, Tom at CRM.
John 6:56-67b without the author’s narration.
“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever. This teaching is difficult; who can accept it? Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe. For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father. Do you also wish to go away?”(2)
Moments of Silence to Remember the Named & Unnamed Joys & Concerns
Prayer (edited)
‘Lord, purge our eyes to see within the seed a tree,
Within the glowing egg a bird,
Within the shroud a butterfly,
Til, taught by such, we see beyond all creatures, thee.’
God, for daily bread and all who work to bring your harvest home we bring our thanks today.
(pause)
God, Forgive our ingratitude we who have so much yet waste what you have given.
(pause)
For those whose harvest is poor, whose crops have withered, water tainted, children starve, help those who bring relief and bestow on us an unaccustomed generosity, that all might share from your garden and all might sing your praise.
(pause)
God, provider of all we bring our thanks today. And we bless each other that the beauty of this world and the love that created it might be expressed though our lives and be a blessing to others now and always, amen.(3)
Notes
1. Reginald Heber, “Bread for the World, in Mercy Broken,” 1827, Chalice Hymnal, Chalice Press [St. Louis, Missouri], 1995, Number 387, verse 2.
2. John 6:56-58; 60; 61b-64a; 65; 67b, The New Interpreter’s Study Bible, Abingdon Press, 2003, p. 1921.
3. John Birch, “Harvest Thanksgiving – Traditional & Contemporary Liturgy,” Faith and Worship – Prayers and Resources.