A Bible Reading
Jesus taught the people saying, "Scripture says, 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations,' but you have turned it into a gathering place for thieves." (Mark 11:17)
As you come to him, the living Stone, rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5)
A Thought
Today the house of God is the people of God. The reality of this is made even more apparent with services no longer being held in our church buildings, but the Church of Jesus Christ continuing to worship, to pray and to serve our communities. As Christians, we are being built together as living stones to offer spiritual sacrifices. And as the ‘house of God’ we are called to be ‘a house of prayer for all nations’.
We could interpret being ‘a house of prayer for all nations’ either as being a house where all the nations pray or as a house where we pray for all the nations. Let us do both! Let us pray together, with our Christian brothers and sisters around the world and let us together bring before God the nations of the world at this time of international crisis.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have encouraged us to make tomorrow a National Day of Prayer and Action for the nation and to place a symbolic lighted candle in a window at 7.00 pm as a visible symbol of Jesus Christ, the Light of Life. Let us join together in the prayer and symbolic action.
A Prayer
Lord Jesus, Saviour and Healer, we join together with our brothers and sisters around the world to pray for an end to the Coronavirus disease plaguing our world at this time. We pray for a scientific breakthrough in treatments and vaccinations, grace for the medical profession, healing for the sick, comfort for the isolated and peace for the fearful.
Amen.
David