St John's Hampton Wick

¹ The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
² for he founded it on the seas
and established it on the waters.

³ Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
⁴ The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not trust in an idol
or swear by a false god.^[a]

This morning we had another great prayer meeting!    We were joined by two new prayer warriors which was especially wonderful, and I know that there were among us some fasting for prayer today also.    What a blessed time together!    We began with the song of the Angels, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ and prayed into this Sunday’s special service of Holy Communion with Jerry preaching on that same subject.    We remembered those  instructions from 1 Corinthians 11:

“So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.”

(After the meeting I was Googling on this subject and found a cool article by a Russian Orthodox Priest – who was also a physicist – writing about how lightly we take this issue of peace before communion!   Check it out here.)

So what about all this physics stuff and what on earth is the image above? The bulk of our prayer was inspired by the pre-released news from the CERN Hadron Collider in Switzerland, where scientists have spent more than £10 billion trying to discover the ‘Higgs Boson‘ particle, believed to be the smallest known particle.    We prayed for protection and blessing over the scientists, that they would remember that whatever they discover, it is God who has created it!   Whatever they discover, there can always be something smaller.    Whatever they discover, they must ask:  a) How did it get there?  b) Why is it there?  c) Where is it going?    We prayed that acts of discovery would be turned into acts of worship and we gave thanks particularly for leading Christian scientists like Sir John Polkinghorne.    We prayed for the world to be inspired to know God better, through the discoveries made at CERN.      We prayed for our school science teachers, and for the young scientists in our midst even among our SJC young people.

We moved on to praying for the Alpha Course and gave thanks for the awesome Holy Spirit weekend just gone.   We prayed for us all to take on the joy of praying through the Pastorates, for our Alpha Course in the autumn.  There were so many new people whose stories we long to tell!     We prayed for tonight’s meeting of Alpha when they ask ‘What about Evil?’

We finished by praying for our young people at St John’s.  For Sophie and the Youth Team who have met nearly a dozen times now this term for youth groups and socials, with lots of new folk including one young person who has come to nearly every meeting, whose parents are not regulars at the church but came for a visit once and it’s their daughter who is now the ‘regular churchgoer!’  What fun.    We prayed for Sophie’s plans for next term.  We prayed for Luke and Lorna and their group of young adults which has grown from zero to nearly 30 over the past 6 months.   We prayed for a number of healings asked for from within that group.

We ended by praying the Lord’s Prayer.  If you’re joining us, why not join in that prayer now too?   AMEN?