SERMON 29 - SUNDAY 28 JULY 2013

Sermon at Holy Trinity Church, East Grimstead - Ninth Sunday after Trinity – All Age Morning Worship – Sunday 28 July 2013

Genesis 18:20-32; Colossians 2:6-19; Luke 11:1-13

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,  Amen

Let me let you into a terrible secret – I often find it really hard to pray! In those times of formal prayer in a church, often in those times of silence, I start off okay but then run out of things to say or worse still my mind starts to wander – thinking about tasks still to do – perhaps how long the roast beef needs to be in the oven, will it be ready in time for when the family arrive? or did I really lock my car before I came into church?  At those times of formal worship everyone else seems so much holier than me – intent of eloquent prayer, having long intimate chats with the Almighty whilst I seem to struggle to string a few words together.

There are times of course, when I can spout out a long shopping list of things to pray for – but it got me to thinking – what is prayer? Why do we pray – God knows everything anyway.  Is there a correct way to pray?

For me, prayer is all about communication – it is not simply reminding God that we exist – he already knows it – but acknowledging him in our life and the importance of keeping that vital relationship going.

At times when I find it hard to find words of prayer, today’s gospel reading is a wonderful reminder that greater people than me have struggled.  Jesus prayed a lot during his ministry – spoke to his Father – it’s logical and understandable that he would do so and it seems clear from this morning’s gospel passage that the disciples yearned to have that same sort of intimacy and didn’t know how to go about praying either. Jesus’s response is to give them a template which they could use over and over again – the Lord’s Prayer – so familiar to us today – so even when we find it difficult to put together our own words of prayer – we can always pray this.  It is formed of four separate sections – Adoration – “Hallowed be Thy Name”; Confession – “Forgive us this day our trespasses”; Thanksgiving – “as you have forgiven those who trespass against us”; and Supplication – “Give us this day our daily bread” – ACTS – A – Adoration; C – Confession; T – Thanksgiving and S – Supplication.  Jesus is telling us that all of our prayers should have these important ingredients.

Our first reading from Genesis is probably the very first clear prayer of supplication in the bible when Abraham pleads (a prayer of supplication) for God not to destroy Sodom.  It was simply a conversation between the man, Abraham, and God.

Nowhere in the gospels does Jesus say we have to go down on bended knee – the closest we get to any instruction how to pray is here in Luke when he gives the disciples some words to use and in Matthew when in the Sermon on the Mount he instructs his followers that they should not stand up in front of everyone and pray out loud but quietly in their own rooms behind locked doors.  Again he gives those followers the prayer we know so well today as a template.

Prayer can take many forms and theologian Dom John Chapman has said “pray the way you can not the way you cannot”.  No one would ask you to sign a cheque with your left hand if you are right-handed – nor is there a right or wrong way to pray – it must be comfortable and natural for you. 

There are hundreds of books on how to pray but the two which have appealed to me the most have rather negative titles - “Too Busy not to Pray” by Bill Hybels and “How not to Pray” by Jeff Lucas.  Bill’s book gives some really good tips on how to build some prayer time into your everyday life and Jeff explodes some commonly held myths about prayer – for example:

·       That the only good prayers are long prayers

·       That when we pray to God he is a long way away

·       That you should only pray for others and not yourself

·       That God doesn’t want to be bothered by your little prayers he has bigger things on his mind

And above all –

·       That I simply can’t pray

Steve Chalke tells of an experience he had.  Steve holds the Guinness Book of Records world record for the individual who has raised the most money for charity through running the London Marathon. 

Before embarking on one of his runs he had been asked to pray for a woman who had a severe life-threatening illness.  He promised that during the whole of the 26 miles of the course he would constantly pray for her. He ran the first mile – and prayed and prayed, he ran the second and third mile and prayed, he ran the fourth mile and his prayers started to get a bit intermittent and by the fifth mile he found it difficult to keep up the prayer at all.  In a liberating moment he spoke to God finally and said “I can’t pray to you anymore for this woman as promised but I shall now dedicate this whole run as a prayer in itself for her”.

Similarly that famous athlete, Eric Liddell, the hero of the 1924 Paris Olympics and “Chariots of Fire” famously said “God made me fast and when I run I feel his pleasure”.

For my part, I often chat to God when mowing the lawn or driving or walking on my own.

Prayer, therefore, can take many forms but it should always be in a form with which you are comfortable. For some, it is on bended knee in a church, for others it is focusing on an object or icon, for others it might be holding a pebble or a rock, for others perhaps a finger labyrinth.  In a moment I want to carry out and experiment with you - a form of prayer which might, or might not work for you.  It’s called visual prayer. If it doesn’t work, that’s absolutely fine – it’s probably not something for you, but for others who like images and using their imagination, it might just work and it is something you can try at home in a few moments of quiet time.

I want you to close your eyes and imagine you are seated somewhere familiar and feel comfortable – where you feel safe and secure – it might be in your armchair at home; in your garden, at your favourite holiday location; watching your favourite sport.

Now imagine a person approaching you – it’s Jesus – but he can take any form you choose to give him – not necessarily the iconic pictures we have seen of him or statue figures.

He introduces himself and asks you to ask him any question – to talk to him – anything at all – what is on your mind – what would you like to ask God and in the next couple of minutes, in your imagination ask him any burning question you might have – but more importantly – allow a bit of time for him to respond and for you to listen to that response …….[2 Minutes Silence] …….

Okay it might have worked for some of you or none of you – maybe there was a hazy answer or no answer at all – but if there was something – then I invite you to reflect upon it over the next day or so.  Try it again at home if you like.

There are no right or wrong techniques to prayer but you must be prepared for God to answer prayer in his own way and time – not necessarily how and when you want or expect him to do.

I did this same exercise of visual prayer a few years ago.  I asked Jesus how and where I should better serve him. The answer I received from my chat with Jesus was “Wait and see – just walk with me for the time being”.  The time wasn’t right but the waiting and walking resulted in my later clear calling to this ministry – when circumstances in my life were more convenient. Likewise I know of others who have found visual prayer helpful in making an important decision.

Jesus constantly took himself off somewhere quiet to pray – to commune with his Father.  The importance of prayer was always emphasised to the disciples of those days and is no less important to us, his disciples of today.

We as Christians must always remember that to lead a full Christian life we must pray – be in communication with God through his son, Jesus, who gave his life so that we might have that wonderful privilege of being able to talk to the Father direct.  A privilege which we must forever hold near and dear and exercise daily.

 

Amen

 

 

SERMON 28 - SUNDAY 14 JULY 2013

Sermon at St. Mary’s Church, West Dean and All Saints Church, Farley - Seventh Sunday after Trinity – Morning Worship – Sunday 14 July 2013

Deuteronomy 30:9-14; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-27

May I speak in the name of the Father, son and Holy Spirit,  Amen

“Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.^* ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’” ²⁶

For me, as a solicitor, it is interesting that Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan, so well-known and loved by all of us, is prompted by a question put by a lawyer. Now, I am sure that the lawyer in Luke’s gospel was not a court lawyer; but almost certainly he was somebody whose role it was to upkeep the sacred Jewish laws of observance, as described in our first reading from Deuteronomy, laws designed alone to please God, and he was probably given the task to try and trap Jesus into giving an answer which would implicate him as either a non-observant Jew or a traitor to the Roman occupiers.   If he had been a court lawyer he would almost certainly have known the golden rule of advocacy - that you never ask a question to which you don’t, with any certainty, know or suspect the answer.

Let me illustrate this with an event which occurred in my own professional life when I was a newly qualified solicitor.

I had been given the task of cross-examining an employee of a company accused of stealing equipment from a factory in Yorkshire – a roll of bin liners, a ball of string and a hammer as I recall – it’s strange how you remember these little things – and in the course of my investigations discovered that there was an enormous sign in red letters just by the exit to the factory site which read something along the lines of:-

“Have you any company property on you?  Any employees taking materials off site without permission will be deemed thieves and thieves will be dismissed and prosecuted”.

A fairly straightforward and explicit message I thought.  I also ascertained that “matey” as we can affectionately call him, had a job of driving the company van out of the factory in the course of his duties up to ten time a day and in cross-examining him he readily admitted that he passed the big red sign every time.

In for the kill, I looked at the judge, paused and then launched in with my coup de grace (as I thought):- 

“Would you please tell his Honour, what the sign says”? I smiled with satisfaction at my own handiwork so far.

“No” was his stern reply

After a further nudge from the Judge to answer the question he repeated …“No”.

“And why not?” I continued ready with the hammer blow

“Because I can’t read”!

Completely taken off my guard, I flustered, looked at my clients who shrugged their shoulders as if to say “We didn’t know” and came out with a quick supplementary question:

“You’ve told the court how you drive around the county delivering and collecting products.  If you can’t read how do you find your way around (this was of course before the days of sat. navs)?

His unblinked response to the Judge was simply - “With difficulty!”

I tell this story, not simply because it is one of my favourite after-dinner reminiscences from my previous professional life, but also because I suspect that the lawyer in our bible reading felt very much like I did in that courtroom  – he got back from Jesus far more than he bargained for when he asked that first question about inheriting eternal life, and the supplemental one that followed – “Who, then is my neighbour?”   Jesus, as so often the case, then proceeded to give an answer by posing a question of his own through the illustration of a parable ending with “Which one of these do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?  The lawyer  straight away answers with “the one who showed mercy – the Samaritan”.   Jesus follows this up with a direction to the lawyer

“Then go and do likewise”.

The response probably left the lawyer with more questions left unanswered than he had anticipated.   How easy is it to do likewise? We can read that parable again and again and it will often speak to us in different ways posing questions which we have to ask ourselves – the most important of which is probably “What would I have done in that situation?  Would I have done likewise?”

A contemporary situation might be like that which faced Philip Lawrence who paid for his good neighbourliness with his life after being stabbed by the assailants of a 13-year old youth whose aid he went to. 

Over the past few weeks the readings which we have studied and discussed in church have centred on the call to follow Jesus and the putting into practice of that call.  Jesus repeatedly plays a straight bat – a nice analogy to use at this time with the Ashes Series on.   He sets conditions for those who want to follow him – leave what you are currently doing immediately, do not dilly-dally, leave the comfort of your family and home and come with me on the road; likewise, in sending out the seventy he makes it clear to those he has commissioned that to go out on the mission will be tough and rejection and danger will be with them. In today’s reading, Jesus tells the lawyer the answer to his question – he must obey the commandant to love his neighbour as himself – something the lawyer would have understood, but Jesus illustrates what that actually looks like by indicating that two of the lawyer’s own kind, a priest and a Levite (a member of that priestly clan) - people who would be expected to help, found it too difficult and took the easy route – crossing over to the other side of the road.  People in whom there would be an expectation of grace and mercy but which they found too hard to put into practice.

During my years in a large commercial organisation we were often told to “walk the talk” – in other words to put into practice those things we had learned and which we had promised or were contracted to do.  This is Jesus’s message although he knew that in many instances this simply did not happen and we find him again and again admonishing the Pharisees and Sadducees  - on the face of it holy men who had been trained to walk the talk but so frequently didn’t.

Being a Christian, following Christ’s example and teachings, as we are told to do in this and other passages of the bible, demands sacrifices.  In this morning’s Epistle, Paul reminds the leaders in Colossae that hearing God’s word is not enough but only by constant prayer and actions can Christians bear fruit in every good work they do.  In other words, we have each been given the fruits of the Holy Spirit and these will ripen by their use in actions for God. The sacrifices which we have to make and difficulties which we encounter will become easier to bear.

In the parable, the Samaritan not only did not pass on the other side but stopped, gave what roadside assistance he could and then took the injured man to an inn where he ensured that he would be looked after – providing money for that care until he returned.

Clearly, like the mugged traveller, the Samaritan was on an important journey – no doubt with appointments to keep and tasks to fulfil – just as the priest and the Levite would have had.

Let’s ask ourselves, how many times do we fail to give compassionate care to others because we think we are too busy?  That our own affairs are more important than stopping to give somebody else a bit of our precious time.  Perhaps we simply don’t want the unexpected to interfere with our planned day?

Jesus was himself frequently side-tracked away from his current mission.  We see examples dotted throughout the bible.  A well-known example would be when, on his way to attend to Jarius’s sick daughter, he was touched by the bleeding woman.  He also spent probably a considerable amount of time with the woman at the well when he simply wanted to stop briefly for a drink of water.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus is also giving an example of excellent pastoral care.  Christian pastoral care is not simply for those who are ordained, licensed or commissioned/authorised by the church – it is the role and duty, the ministry of every believer. 

When we are put in the situation of being able to give pastoral care, of helping our neighbour - who can be anyone in the world irrespective of gender, race, creed or colour, - God will always provide us with the time and capacity to exercise it.  There are many biblical examples from the Gospels and Acts and in my own experience, God will never ask or expect us to do something for which we are not ready or capable.

The writer James talks about showing faith through our deeds.  It is a strapline on my emails – put deliberately there to remind me of the importance of this.

When the occasion arises, let’s not pass by on the other side – let’s follow the example of the good Samaritan and “go and do likewise”.

 

Amen

 

 

SERMON 27 - SUNDAY 7 JULY 2013

 

Sermon at St Peter’s Church, Pitton - Sixth Sunday after Trinity – Morning Worship – Sunday 7 July 2013

Galatians 6: (1-6); 10-14; Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

May the words of my mouth and the mediation of all our hearts be always acceptable to you, O Lord.  Amen

I am just about old enough to remember seeing on the television those immortal lines spoken by a young newly elected President of the United States – words which have gone down in history as marking the beginning of what was hoped to be a glorious new era in American politics and, which sadly, ended 1,000 days later in such enormous tragedy – “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”?  Words spoken on a cold January day in 1961 by John F. Kennedy.

In recent years there has been much controversy about where those words came from and accusations about presidential plagiarism – it being suggested that they came from one of his previous headmasters in Connecticut, Mr. George St. John.  They were certainly powerful words with a powerful sentiment.

If they did come from Mr. St. John, then I would equally accuse him of plagiarism for I think the sentiment is expressed well in both of our New Testament readings this morning and I would interpret those passages as saying:

“Ask not what God can do for you, but what you can do for God?”

In last week’s scripture we looked closely at the way in which God calls us to service, to ministry, service for him, doing his ministry.  It was appropriate that we did so, for last weekend saw the ordination of priests and deacons in Salisbury Cathedral by the Bishop including the deaconing of Mark Phillips from this very village and I add my congratulations and prayers to those of others as he and Claire settle in their new parish on Portland.

Last week Jesus was explaining to those who wanted to follow him what the conditions were that they would have to meet – not to delay in their actions to follow him; to leave everything behind – their comforts, family, possessions, jobs; to be prepared to live under the stars; to be prepared to rely solely on the hospitality of others; and as we know, to face persecution and misunderstanding from family, friends and those they were yet to meet.

In today’s passage from Luke we move on.  Jesus has clearly chosen his seventy followers (who are in addition to his 12 close disciples) from amongst those who had felt the call.  These instructions which he gives to them make it abundantly clear that having a call to follow is only just the beginning and that from that call we are expected to carry out God’s word by our actions in the world.  Even with seventy followers it is also clear that Jesus is expecting that the work will be intense.  This may have been because the sending out of the seventy occurred towards the end of his ministry and he realised that there just wasn’t a lot of time left.

How often have we heard those words in our daily lives? - The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few?  In these days of economic austerity it is often the cry of those who struggle in employment when they see the work increasing but the numbers of employees falling through redundancy.

In this passage I think Jesus is saying that there is so much work to be done in spreading the Good News of the Kingdom of Heaven but so little time left to do it.  Jesus would have known that he was only on this Earth for a short period and that he wanted his followers to utilise that time to the best advantage.  There is a really quick pace to this passage – a feeling of utmost urgency. 

I love the bit where he says “I am sending you as lambs into the midst of wolves”. One thing you can say about Jesus is that he never minces his word when talking to his followers”!  In the words of that famous song “[He] never promised [them] a rose garden”.

That well known writer and theologian Jeff Lucas tells a wonderful story about the first time, as a newly qualified preacher, he stood in the pulpit and announced that “If a Christian has a problem they only have to pray about it and God will take the problem away; but if they pray about it and it doesn’t go away then maybe they are not really a Christian which means that they now have a bigger problem than the one they started with!”

Jeff now readily admits that it was the most dreadful piece of theology he has ever uttered.

Jesus is at great pains to tell the seventy that following him along his path will be tricky and tells them to be prepared to be rejected; but he also emphasises that he is with them;  for when they are rejected him, Jesus, is also being rejected and when Jesus is rejected God the Father is also being rejected.  They are in good company. It is a powerful message of authority to be told that if one is being treated in a certain way then it is also being done to God himself. 

Interestingly enough, today’s reading as set out in the Lectionary misses out five difficult verses from this chapter of Luke’s – verses 12-15: -

“Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.”^{* 12}I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.

13 ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. ¹⁴But at the judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. ¹⁵And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven?     No, you will be brought down to Hades. ‘

Strong words indeed.  Last week you will recall that Jesus rebuked James and John for suggesting that Jesus should call down fire to destroy the Samaritan village which rejected them any hospitality but here Jesus is himself suggesting that those cities which reject his gospel will receive judgment more terrible than Sodom and Gomorrah – and that judgment is left to God.

What I think Jesus is saying here is that such judgment will be greater against those who have been given the opportunity to hear the message of God’s Kingdom and then reject, than those who have not. 

When Jesus sends out the seventy he is actually sending out his second mission - for earlier he had sent out just the twelve disciples with almost similar instructions.  The difference here appears to be that the seventy additional followers have been set specific tasks and specific places to go and evangelise.

Important amongst his instructions, as before, are that they should travel light and rely upon the hospitality of others.  Again time seems to be of the essence and he is expecting them to cover a large amount of ground very quickly.  Interestingly, he suggests that when visiting a town or place they should stay in the one lodging and not move around.  This suggests that their ministry was very public.  They should also not worry about observing strict food laws but eat whatever is offered to them.  This shows that Jesus’s ministry was being prepared for the time when the word would be spread amongst the non-Jewish world and all men, Jews and Gentiles, were to believe in the gospel.

For many Jews, the strict following of their food rules and regulations was an essential part of the religious observance but here, Jesus is making a clear statement that spreading the good news about the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven was far more important than worrying about observing ritual.

And this, I think, is the heart of the message from this scripture to us today.  Time is short in eschatological terms – we are in the end days – the days following Christ’s resurrection and ascension – and who would not agree that in terms of disciples the harvest is indeed plentiful but the harvesters few in number.  At Pentecost we were given the power, gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit to become his eyes, ears and in particular hands and feet.  Amazing gifts just for agreeing to follow him.

God calls us to his service just as JFK called the citizens of America - to think and reflect about what they could do for their country.   Having called us God will direct us to what he wants of us and we have to listen attentively.  He wants us to spread his word, his gospel, his good news. He will tell us how but we must be ready to listen and obey.

We read that through their obedience to Christ’s word, they returned with joy – with joy – describing how in the power of Jesus’s name even the demons submitted to them.  It reminds me of the hymn “You will go out with Joy” etc. etc. only here they came back with joy. Jesus remains calm and utters no surprise or disbelief. He remarks that the power they have they have been given by his authority and it is a foretaste of those words uttered by Jesus to Pilate when he answers the Roman governor with the words “You haven’t a shred of authority over me which was not given to you from heaven above” (John 19:11).

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, as you sent out first, the twelve and then, the seventy on those great missions to spread the word about the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven, so send us out with the gifts of the Holy Spirit to do likewise.  We pray that you will show us each what it is that you want us to do and where and how you want us to it.  We ask you Lord, not on this occasion what you can do for us but what can we do for you?

 

Amen