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
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