Morning Prayer
Autumn Ember Wednesday - Day of Solemn Prayer (Violet)
Psalms: Psalm 119, Pts 4, 5
King James Version
25 My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word. 26 I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes. 27 Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works. 28 My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word. 29 Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously. 30 I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me. 31 I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame. 32 I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart. 33 Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. 34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. 35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. 36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. 37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way. 38 Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear. 39 Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good. 40 Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.
First Lesson: Jeremiah 32:36-end
King James Version
36 And now therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; 37 Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: 38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: 39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: 40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. 41 Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. 42 For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. 43 And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof ye say, It is desolate without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. 44 Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the LORD.
Second Lesson: Philippians 1:1-11
King James Version
1 Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, 5 For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; 6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: 7 Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. 8 For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. 9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; 10 That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; 11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Reflection
“I will give them one heart, and one way.”
The promise in Jeremiah is spoken into a dark hour. Jerusalem is under judgment; the city is to be delivered to the king of Babylon, and the people are to be scattered. Yet the Lord does not leave his people in the last word of their sin. He promises to gather them, to bring them home, and to make an everlasting covenant with them. He will not merely improve their circumstances. He will change their hearts: “I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.”
That is a fitting word for this Ember Wednesday, a day of solemn prayer. We pray especially for the Church, and for those called to serve her—bishops, priests, deacons, and all whose ministry is given for the building up of Christ’s people. But the readings remind us what Christian ministry, and indeed Christian life, are for. They are not chiefly about activity, reputation, or efficiency. They are about hearts turned towards God, and a people gathered into “one heart, and one way.”
The prayer of Psalm 119 gives us the language of such a heart. “My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.” The psalmist does not pretend to be strong. He knows his heaviness, his weakness, and his need to be made alive again. Yet he also knows where life is found: in the word and commandment of God. “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies,” he prays, “and not to covetousness.” “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.”
This is not the prayer of a man trying to save himself by moral exertion. It is the prayer of one asking God to make him capable of faithful obedience. “I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.” First God enlarges the heart; then the servant runs. First grace, then obedience. The Christian life is not the purchase of God’s favour by our performance, but the grateful response of those whom God has quickened by his word.
That same confidence is heard in St Paul’s letter to the Philippians. He gives thanks for their “fellowship in the gospel,” and then declares: “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” God is not a careless craftsman who abandons what he has begun. His work in us is patient and purposeful. He gathers a people, teaches them his way, and continues to form them in holiness.
But this promise is not an excuse for passivity. Paul immediately prays that their love may “abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment,” so that they may approve excellent things and be sincere and without offence. The good work of God produces discernment, charity, and “the fruits of righteousness,” and all of these fruits are “by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”
So today we may pray for those who serve the Church: that they may be kept from vanity, ambition, and fear of man; that they may be faithful to the apostolic faith; that they may have knowledge joined to love, courage joined to gentleness, and a heart enlarged by grace. We may also pray for ourselves, because every Christian is called to offer a life of service. The Church is strongest not when her members seek their own importance, but when all are gathered under Christ’s rule and made willing to do his will.
The Lord who brought his people home from captivity still rejoices to do good to them. He has begun his work in us, and in Christ he will bring it to completion. Therefore let us ask for one heart and one way: a heart made alive by God’s word, and a way marked by faithful obedience, until the day of Jesus Christ.
Evening Prayer
Autumn Ember Wednesday - Day of Solemn Prayer (Violet)
Psalms: Psalm 119, Pts 6, 7, 8
King James Version
41 Let thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD, even thy salvation, according to thy word. 42 So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word. 43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy judgments. 44 So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever. 45 And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts. 46 I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. 47 And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. 48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes. 49 Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. 50 This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me. 51 The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law. 52 I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself. 53 Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law. 54 Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. 55 I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law. 56 This I had, because I kept thy precepts. 57 Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words. 58 I intreated thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to thy word. 59 I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. 60 I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments. 61 The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten thy law. 62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. 63 I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. 64 The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes.
First Lesson: Jeremiah 33:1-13
King James Version
1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, 2 Thus saith the LORD the maker thereof, the LORD that formed it, to establish it; the LORD is his name; 3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. 4 For thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts, and by the sword; 5 They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city. 6 Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. 7 And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. 8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. 9 And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it. 10 Thus saith the LORD; Again there shall be heard in this place, which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast, 11 The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD. 12 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. 13 In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that telleth them, saith the LORD.
Second Lesson: John 10:1-21
King James Version
1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. 5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. 6 This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. 7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. 17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. 19 There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. 20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him? 21 Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
Reflection
Jeremiah hears the word of the Lord while he is shut up in prison. Jerusalem is in ruins; the people are under judgment; the houses of kings have been thrown down. Yet into that dark and confined place comes this command and promise: “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
The Lord does not ask Jeremiah to pretend that the ruin is unreal. The sin of the people has had real consequences. God has “hid” his face from the city because of its wickedness. But judgment is not the last word. The same God who chastens is the God who says, “I will bring it health and cure”; “I will cleanse them”; “I will pardon all their iniquities.” The city that seemed destined for silence will again hear “the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness.”
This is a fitting word for a day of solemn prayer. Christian prayer is not an attempt to persuade a reluctant deity to become merciful. We pray because God has revealed himself as merciful, and because he has commanded us to call upon him. We bring before him the Church, the nation, our homes, and our own souls—not because we understand all that he is doing, but because he promises to answer, and to show us things that we do not yet know.
The psalmist gives us the proper posture of such prayer. “I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.” There is no true prayer without truthfulness. We cannot ask for healing while refusing to name the wound; we cannot ask for pardon while cherishing the sin from which we need pardon. The psalmist does not merely admire God’s commandments. He says, “I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.” Repentance is not a vague feeling of regret. It is the turning of our feet.
Yet this obedience is not a burden imposed by a harsh master. The psalmist says, “I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.” The world imagines liberty to be freedom from commandment. Scripture teaches us that true liberty is freedom to walk in the way for which we were made. The sheep are safest and most fruitful not when scattered wherever they please, but when they hear the shepherd’s voice and follow him.
That is precisely our Lord’s teaching in the Gospel. “I am the door of the sheep.” “I am the good shepherd.” These are not merely comforting images; they are exclusive claims. Christ is not one shepherd among many, nor one voice among the clamour of competing voices. He is the door through whom we enter salvation, and his voice is the voice his people must learn to recognise.
There are always strangers calling the sheep away. Some voices flatter us; others frighten us; others promise freedom while leading us into bondage. The Church’s task is not to invent a new message suited to every age, but to keep hearing the voice of her one Shepherd in Holy Scripture, and to proclaim what she has heard. This is why the Church of England, in her sober and well-ordered worship, bids us return again and again to the words of Scripture and the ancient faith. We are not sustained by novelty, but by the living voice of Christ.
On this Ember Day, we should pray especially for those called to serve Christ’s flock: for bishops, priests, deacons, and all who minister in the Church. We should pray that they may not be hirelings—seeking comfort, reputation, or safety—but true under-shepherds, who know that the flock belongs to Christ. And we should pray for grace to receive faithful ministry: to hear the Shepherd’s voice, to reject the voice of the stranger, and to follow where he leads.
For the Good Shepherd does more than guide the sheep. He lays down his life for them. “No man taketh it from me,” he says; “I lay it down of myself.” The promise of Jeremiah finds its fulfilment here: cleansing, pardon, healing, peace, and restored life come to us through the self-offering of the Son. He is both the Shepherd who seeks us and the Lamb who dies for us.
Therefore let us call upon him with confidence. Let us confess our wandering, receive his pardon, and listen for his voice. The Lord who restored desolate Jerusalem can restore his people still. In Christ, the Shepherd knows his sheep, gives his life for them, and leads them at last into the pasture of eternal life.
Electric See Chapel