St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh

Midweek Devotion 2nd February 2023

Led by Rev Calum I MacLeod

Create in me a clean heart, O God.

and put a new and right spirit within me.

Psalm 51: 10

Let us worship God

The lesson is Matthew 28: 16-20

16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Reflection

How sweet are the words which close Matthew’s telling of the gospel story: Jesus’ promise to the disciples, “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The last sentence of the gospel takes us back to the first chapter where the birth of Jesus is seen as the fulfillment of the promise of Emmanuel, “which means God is with us” as Matthew explains (1: 23)

What might it mean that we believe in a ‘with-us God?’

 I love the prayer by Guatemalan writer Julia Esquivel which begins:

The Word, for our sake, became poverty clothed as the poor

who live off the refuse heap.

The Word, for our sake, became a sob a thousand times stifled

in the immovable mouth of the child who died from hunger.

The Word, for our sake, became danger in the anguish of the

mother who worries about her son growing into manhood.

That Jesus says, “I will be with you” holds the promise for us that God is not a distant, uninterested deity but the power of love in our world which finds us even in the darkest experiences of the human condition and accompanies us to the hope of redemption from the darkness that is the experience of God’s grace.

Go with us, Lord and guide the way

through this and every coming day.

from the hymn by Mary Jackson Cathey

Prayer

O Christ the Master Carpenter, who at the last, through wood and nails, purchased our whole salvation; wield well your tools in the workshop of your world, so that we, who come rough hewn to your bench, may here be fashioned to a truer beauty of your hand.

Amen

Jesus, remember us when you come into your kingdom.

For your church around the world, we ask new life.

For all who carry out ministries in your church, we ask grace and wisdom.

For Christians in every land, we ask unity in your name.

For those who cannot believe, we ask your faithful love.

For people who suffer and sorrow, we ask your healing peace.

O Lord hear our prayers for ourselves and others as we join together in the Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father,

which art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come,

thy will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

and forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive those who trespass against us;

and lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil;

for thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory

for ever and ever, Amen.

The Benediction

Be of good courage, render no-one evil for evil,

but hold fast to the good; honour all of God’s people,

and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the love of God,

and the Communion of the Holy Spirit

be with you

and all whom you love

this day and for ever.

Organ Music

J.L.Krebs Jesu, der du meine Seele