Jesus, in the synagogue, read
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
(Luke 4:18-19)
Forgive us when we are so languid in our Christian life we fail to understand that each one is called to do what we can within this mandate. Like some sort of katabatic air, we seek to cool down the Christian fire for fighting unthinking, immoral and unethical behaviour.
We pray for the members of the Episcopal Church, and all branches of the Anglican Communion, following the mix of compassion and disagreement at the meeting of Anglican primates. We remember the letter to the Corinthians, “For in the one Spirit we were all baptised into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
We give praise for the serendipity which led doctors in Sheffield, England to discover that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) are showing “remarkable” improvements after receiving a treatment usually used for cancer.
We are flabbergasted that at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 80 or more pharmaceutical companies called on governments to develop new ways of paying them to develop antibiotics. The world faces more and more diseases which are resistant to standard antibiotics, yet disgruntled companies say the value of antibiotics “does not reflect the benefits they bring to society.”
A report by the UN aid mission in Iraq, obtained by the United States government, states that the so-called Islamic state/Daesh is holding over 3,500 girls and women, predominantly Yazidi, as sex slaves. We give pray for those strong enough to face death rather than pander to concupiscence.
This week, NASA scientists reported that 2015, partly due to the El Nino event, was the hottest year on record – already raising world average temperature by one of the two degrees the recent Paris agreement projected. We wonder whence this came and how it can end.
Creator God, may we proclaim your good news to the world, in the ways we are each able to and in ways which can be heard by those around us. May the fire of your spirit live within us declaring your glory, the year of your favour. Amen.
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