Ansai leads both Morning and Evening Prayer this week. Today’s Advent Tide Morning Prayer – Ansai considers a passage from Matthew’s gospel, chapter 12, verses 1 to 21. This scripture describes how Pharisees from the Synagogue tried to ensnare Jesus by posing controversial questions around keeping the sabbath: “‘Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?’ so that they might accuse him. He said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.’ Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.”