OPENING?PRAYER

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all you have done for us. We thank you for the splendour of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side. We thank you for setting us tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us. We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone. Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame death; for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom. Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know Christ and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

SCRIPTURE

?Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into the barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they???Matthew 6:26-27?

CLOSING?PRAYER

We thank you Father, for all our joy and all our longing. You have given us in this world of beauty and love; you have also given us the ordinary, of provision of the necessary things of daily life. We thank you Father, not only for these things but for the gift of hope, and for all that reminds us of your promise of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Rev Marie's thoughts:(with apologies for the delay as I write?enroute??home from Provincial Synod)

"Don't worry - be happy!"
Remember when that saying was popular?? Somehow we were just to decide not to worry and suddenly all would be well.

As Dr. Phil would say "how's that?workin' for you?". ?My?guess would be that it doesn't work any better for you than it does?for me. In the cold loneliness of a 2am morning,?the house is quiet and there is nothing to distract from our foreboding about a future we cannot know or a past we regret.?Saying "don't worry!" seems like a sick joke. And yet worry is so destructive. ?It has no power to change our circumstances except to lurk around in the corners of our consciousness, stealing our peace and siphoning off any moments of joy. Like a familiar but cranky relative, it hangs around grumping and predicting ruin at every possible opportunity, yet we cannot seem to just tell it to "leave already."

And yet in our reading today, Jesus tells us to do just that. He says clearly that we are not to worry. There must be a way towards the peace for which we long. ?And there must be a reason Jesus gives us this very explicit?directive.

I think the key is in examining our perspective. Without?realizing it, we?internalize the idea that we are to be self-sufficient, strong and always able to cope. ?We lay heavy?burdens on ourselves and one another in ?this way. ?I remember sitting with a dear friend who was in last stages of cancer. "Marie," she said sadly "Everyone tells me how brave and strong and courageous I am. But I am not. I am sick and in pain and I am dying and I'm ?scared. ?But no-one wants to hear THAT. ?They?want to believe I am strong because it makes them feel better".

Admitting that we are indeed not self-sufficient and that we are truly in need is the beginning of the journey to peace. ?Underneath we fear this weakness and we are ashamed. So the denial of our weakness becomes?strong ?and our need to appear capable?wars with the cold fear that our resources will not be enough for what we?face. But when we admit our need, we can begin to look outside ourselves. We can begin to look to the One whose resources and strength are unlimited.

Look around you, Jesus says. ?"Your Father cares"! ?See how he speaks of God. ?God is the strong and tender?Father. ?He is not remote or disinterested but intimately involved in the lives of all of his creation - even caring for the little birds.

I remember when my children were tiny. ?We would be in a crowd and they would feel like they were lost. ?They?couldn't see?anything?except all the knees around them. ?In reality, they were not out of my sight or care, but they could not see me and they worried. ?When I saw their panicked faces, I would reach down and touch a shaking shoulder, or tear stained cheek and say "It's OK honey - I'm here". ?Jesus is reminding us that God is the parent who never lets us out of his care. ?Sometimes all the things crowding in around us block our view, but God reaches down, touches us gently and says "I am here".

Sometimes this touch comes at the hand of a friend, or a voice on the phone, or a remembered scripture or apt morning reading?or an email. We do well to ask our friends to remind us often of God's care and to help us to believe when our faith is weak.

But in the cold and solitary 2 am, where are we to find it? May I suggest that it is no further than our practice of gratitude. It may begin?as a white-knuckled, gritted-teeth gratitude born of a determination to find SOMETHING for which we can say thanks. Yet,?as we begin to recall God's goodness to us, we are reminded of his care and love. ?We are reminded of the Father who is intimately concerned for our welfare. We remember his presence in the past and that builds our trust in his future with us. We feel that gentle touch.

We look up - up into the face of the One who has loved us into life. ?We look up into the face of the One who knows our pain in his own body. ?We look up into the face of Jesus. ?And in those eyes, we see love - the perfect love that casts out fear. and we bow in thankfulness.