Daily Worship

28 words

December 23, 2017 0 0

James 2: 14-17

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

We take a moment with Christian Aid Scotland in the third of a weekly series through December.

In these days of great uncertainty, of political restlessness and global inequality, it is so tempting to bury our heads in distraction and denial. But the promise of Christmas is one of peace and hope: of God with us. 

That peace is not made easily, nor is hope quickly fulfilled. But with the leading of the Holy Spirit, and with faith inspired action, we can start to be the difference we want to see for our neighbours across the street and around the world.

Emeritus Bishop Paride Taban from South Sudan repeats 28 words of peace as a daily ritual. When you repeat them each day, he says, it is a challenge to examine yourself: 'Am I keeping these? Are they really in me or am I just saying them?'

 

God of the impossible 

God of the impossible,
we pray for justice, peace and reconciliation.
And when the challenges seem too many,
remind us of your resurrection power,
and the miracles of your love that happen
whenever injustice is dismantled and rebuilt with peace.
Help us to hope that the impossible can happen
and live as if it might do so today.
Amen.