The following prayers were written for the Patronal Festival at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth celebrated on 5th September 2010. (Birthday of Blessed Virgin Mary, transferred from 8th September.) The prayers were used at an 11am "Family Eucharist" service, and were read by teenagers.
Heavenly Father,
We thank you for this church of St Mary’s.
We thank you for Mary our Patron.
We pray for the grace to live like Mary;
always trusting in the word of God
and living our lives according to the word of God.
Lord in your mercy
here our prayer.
Heavenly Father,
We pray for the world that you created.
We thank you for the beauty of nature
and for all the joys of life.
We pray for people who suffer at this time.
We remember especially people affected by floods in Pakistan.
May they be saved from their problems
and know your love and care.
Lord in your mercy
here our prayer.
Heavenly Father,
We pray for this parish of Lapworth.
We thank you for its beauty, prosperity and its peace.
We pray for those in particular need of our prayers,
especially….
May they trust always in your love,
and my they know your wholeness and healing.
Lord in your mercy
hear our prayer
Heavenly Father,
We pray for those who have gone before us
on the pathway to heaven.
We pray for....
who have died recently.
We pray for all who mourn their loss on earth.
We thank you for the fellowship we share with the church in heaven
with Mary and all the angels and saints.
May death be for us all a gateway to this most blessed life.
Merciful Father
Accept these prayers…
Showing posts with label Mary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mary. Show all posts
06 September 2010
18 July 2010
Jesus our Friend
Sermon preached at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth at 11am Parish Eucharist
Sunday 18th July 2010 – Trinity 7, Proper 11
Other versions of this sermon were preached at St Mary’s 8.30am Eucharist and at the 9.45am Eucharist at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton.
Readings: Col 1: 15-28 Luke 10: 38-42
In our gospel reading today we hear about Jesus staying with his friends Martha and Mary. Martha and Mary, together with their brother Lazarus get mentioned several times in the gospels. They lived at Bethany, which is just outside Jerusalem. It seems that they were very particular friends to Jesus and Jesus visited them a lot. Especially Jesus was there during the week leading up to his passion. That week Jesus would spend the daytime in the temple preaching to the crowds. Nobody could try to arrest him while there were crowds of people were listening to him. But at night Jesus would retreat to the safety of Bethany, well away from the chief priests and religious authorities.
And when we look at our gospel story, we do get the impression that Martha and Mary were very comfortable around Jesus. We are told that Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. Sitting at the teacher’s feet and listening; this is the typical behaviour of a “disciple” in the first century. It is not how a woman would normally behave, or how a host would normally behave. It seems that Mary was very comfortable around Jesus and felt able to behave very freely. Martha, whose behaviour was much more conventional, also felt comfortable enough around Jesus to raise a rather awkward point with him: “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself.” And Jesus’ response is full of love for both Martha and Mary. He acknowledges that Martha is worried and distracted by many things, when only one thing is needed. But he also commends Mary for choosing the better part and affirms that she should be allowed to keep it.
Let’s think about our friends for a moment. Who are our friends? What is it about those particular people that make them our friends? Well I think different people might have different answers, but I think friends are people who you are really comfortable spending time with. Probably they are people who you already know very well, and you don’t have to take a lot of trouble getting to know them. Probably they are people who you can say things to, without fearing that they might judge you, or misunderstand you, or get upset or angry.
And of course we are all invited to have Jesus as a friend. Jesus, the friend of tax collectors and sinners can be our friend too. Jesus is someone who walks alongside us through thick and thin, someone to show us the way, someone with whom we share the joys and sorrows of this earthly life, someone in whom we can confide our deepest hopes and our fears. Jesus is the ultimate friend, ever present, ever faithful, ever true. Jesus our friend shares with us encouragement, understanding and joy. He is with us always, until the end of the age (Matt 28: 20)
But what do we need to do, to develop our friendship with Jesus? Well, in John 15 Jesus speaks about the new commandment which he gives his followers, to love one another, and then he says, “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15: 14). So loving one another is certainly important if we want to be a friend of Jesus. Similarly in Matt 25 Jesus says, “What ever you do to the least, you do to me.” So being good to other people is the key to being good to Jesus. But it seems to me that prayer is also terribly important here. Just as we must talk to our friends, if they are really to be friends, so we must prayer to Jesus if we want to know his friendship and rejoice in it. And through these prayers we can stay in the company of Jesus all day. We might pray, “Lord, help me through this situation, which is a bit awkward,” or “Lord, give me grace to deal with this person, who can be so difficult,” or “Lord, help me to do this task well, for you, even though it’s so boring.”
Sharing our day with Jesus can certain help us to become more aware of our friendship with Jesus, but it seems to me that there is one thing, above all others, that really makes friendships grow, and that is sufferings shared. The people with whom we have shared difficult situations, people who have supported us in our troubles, or who we have supported. These tend to be our best friends. Remember the friends you were thinking of earlier. My guess is that, with many of them, there will have been some suffering shared, or a falling out and later reconciliation. Experiences like these give confidence that your relationship can withstand future difficulties. Often, it is the sharing of sufferings that really draws people together.
And the same is true in our experience with Jesus. From Colossians today we heard St Paul say that he rejoices in his sufferings because he sees them as his contribution, added to Christ’s great contribution, for the sake of the church. Sharing sufferings with Jesus really draws us close to Jesus. And of course the passion and death of Jesus brought about reconciliation and renewal and new resurrection life. So too, when we share our sufferings with the sufferings of Jesus they too can start to have these effects, for us and for the people around us.
And we have a particular opportunity to do this today in the Eucharist. Jesus said of the Eucharist, “Do this in remembrance of me” (e.g. 1 Cor 11: 24-25) and that act of remembrance makes present in our consciousness today the passion and death of Jesus which happened 2000 years ago. So as we come to receive communion today, let’s bring to Jesus our sufferings, small all large, caused by us or by others, and let’s share our sufferings with the suffering of Jesus in the passion. This will draw us closer to Jesus and draw our sufferings closer to his love which heals and reconciles and renews.
And so may we always be good friends with Jesus, the ultimate friend. Amen.
Sunday 18th July 2010 – Trinity 7, Proper 11
Other versions of this sermon were preached at St Mary’s 8.30am Eucharist and at the 9.45am Eucharist at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton.
Readings: Col 1: 15-28 Luke 10: 38-42
In our gospel reading today we hear about Jesus staying with his friends Martha and Mary. Martha and Mary, together with their brother Lazarus get mentioned several times in the gospels. They lived at Bethany, which is just outside Jerusalem. It seems that they were very particular friends to Jesus and Jesus visited them a lot. Especially Jesus was there during the week leading up to his passion. That week Jesus would spend the daytime in the temple preaching to the crowds. Nobody could try to arrest him while there were crowds of people were listening to him. But at night Jesus would retreat to the safety of Bethany, well away from the chief priests and religious authorities.
And when we look at our gospel story, we do get the impression that Martha and Mary were very comfortable around Jesus. We are told that Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. Sitting at the teacher’s feet and listening; this is the typical behaviour of a “disciple” in the first century. It is not how a woman would normally behave, or how a host would normally behave. It seems that Mary was very comfortable around Jesus and felt able to behave very freely. Martha, whose behaviour was much more conventional, also felt comfortable enough around Jesus to raise a rather awkward point with him: “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself.” And Jesus’ response is full of love for both Martha and Mary. He acknowledges that Martha is worried and distracted by many things, when only one thing is needed. But he also commends Mary for choosing the better part and affirms that she should be allowed to keep it.
Let’s think about our friends for a moment. Who are our friends? What is it about those particular people that make them our friends? Well I think different people might have different answers, but I think friends are people who you are really comfortable spending time with. Probably they are people who you already know very well, and you don’t have to take a lot of trouble getting to know them. Probably they are people who you can say things to, without fearing that they might judge you, or misunderstand you, or get upset or angry.
And of course we are all invited to have Jesus as a friend. Jesus, the friend of tax collectors and sinners can be our friend too. Jesus is someone who walks alongside us through thick and thin, someone to show us the way, someone with whom we share the joys and sorrows of this earthly life, someone in whom we can confide our deepest hopes and our fears. Jesus is the ultimate friend, ever present, ever faithful, ever true. Jesus our friend shares with us encouragement, understanding and joy. He is with us always, until the end of the age (Matt 28: 20)
But what do we need to do, to develop our friendship with Jesus? Well, in John 15 Jesus speaks about the new commandment which he gives his followers, to love one another, and then he says, “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15: 14). So loving one another is certainly important if we want to be a friend of Jesus. Similarly in Matt 25 Jesus says, “What ever you do to the least, you do to me.” So being good to other people is the key to being good to Jesus. But it seems to me that prayer is also terribly important here. Just as we must talk to our friends, if they are really to be friends, so we must prayer to Jesus if we want to know his friendship and rejoice in it. And through these prayers we can stay in the company of Jesus all day. We might pray, “Lord, help me through this situation, which is a bit awkward,” or “Lord, give me grace to deal with this person, who can be so difficult,” or “Lord, help me to do this task well, for you, even though it’s so boring.”
Sharing our day with Jesus can certain help us to become more aware of our friendship with Jesus, but it seems to me that there is one thing, above all others, that really makes friendships grow, and that is sufferings shared. The people with whom we have shared difficult situations, people who have supported us in our troubles, or who we have supported. These tend to be our best friends. Remember the friends you were thinking of earlier. My guess is that, with many of them, there will have been some suffering shared, or a falling out and later reconciliation. Experiences like these give confidence that your relationship can withstand future difficulties. Often, it is the sharing of sufferings that really draws people together.
And the same is true in our experience with Jesus. From Colossians today we heard St Paul say that he rejoices in his sufferings because he sees them as his contribution, added to Christ’s great contribution, for the sake of the church. Sharing sufferings with Jesus really draws us close to Jesus. And of course the passion and death of Jesus brought about reconciliation and renewal and new resurrection life. So too, when we share our sufferings with the sufferings of Jesus they too can start to have these effects, for us and for the people around us.
And we have a particular opportunity to do this today in the Eucharist. Jesus said of the Eucharist, “Do this in remembrance of me” (e.g. 1 Cor 11: 24-25) and that act of remembrance makes present in our consciousness today the passion and death of Jesus which happened 2000 years ago. So as we come to receive communion today, let’s bring to Jesus our sufferings, small all large, caused by us or by others, and let’s share our sufferings with the suffering of Jesus in the passion. This will draw us closer to Jesus and draw our sufferings closer to his love which heals and reconciles and renews.
And so may we always be good friends with Jesus, the ultimate friend. Amen.
09 May 2010
Bluebell Service at St Michael's
Sermon preached at the annual “Bluebell Service”, 3pm Evensong at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton.
Sunday 9th May 2010 – 5th Sunday after Easter
Readings: Psalm 8 Gen 1: 26-31 Phil 4: 4-7
Well obviously I am the new rector and I am very new, and I am still learning what we are about here in the Parish of Baddesley Clinton, and in this church of St Michael’s. And although I recognise that I still have lots to learn about this place it does seem to me that one of the things that we are about is harmony with nature. We have this beautiful church building, in this beautiful setting, surrounded by bluebells. And many people have worked very hard over very many years to maintain all this and to keep that harmonious balance between nature and our human needs for order and purpose.
And sometimes people say, “Yes, but would it not be more beautiful still if humans never got involved and it was just nature.” Well if that was the case then we would have no church building, no grass mowing, no bulb planting. It probably would still be beautiful, but it would not reflect our legitimate human needs. And our bible reading today made it quite clear that in both the Christian and Jewish understanding, human beings are encouraged by God to work with nature to bring about good human outcomes. Human beings are made in the image of God. We reflect God’s own nature and God encourages by God to be master of creation, to work with God on his creation to make it more beautiful and to meet our human needs.
Now the key phrase here is “in harmony with God’s creation”. When we do things in harmony with God and his creation then the outcome is beautiful, and hopefully that is what we see reflected here around us.
But the trouble is we know that human intervention in nature is not always guided by harmony with God. Sometimes it is driven by greed, or arrogance or selfishness and the results are very ugly. And as we meet today we have very aware of a huge oil slick in the Bay of Mexico, arising from human activity and which threatens to do enormous damage to nature. And we all have to be very humble about this, because we know that we all live western lifestyles which are very hard on nature and very demanding on the world’s resources.
When we think about harmony with nature, one of the saints who has most to teach us is St Francis of Assisi. He lived outdoors in extreme poverty. His carbon footprint must have been as low as they come. He celebrated all aspects of nature, writing the great canticle “Brother Sun, Sister Moon”. St Francis emphasised that all created things ultimately want and need to move in harmony with their creator. He is famous for preaching to the birds and to the fish. His followers thought he had completely lost it, but he preached to them nevertheless, and they appeared interested and then dispersed when he had finished. Francis rebuked himself for never having preached to the birds before!
Well, here at Baddesley Clinton I am not preaching to birds or fish, but I am almost preaching to bluebells. The nice thing about preaching to bluebells is that if there is a breeze then they nod gently up and down, as though they agree and appreciate what is being said. Not many congregations do that, or at least not when I am preaching, they don’t! But this not of agreement also reminds me of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who when approached by the Angel Gabriel gave her agreement, “Be it unto me according to thy word.” And the blueness of bluebells is another reminder of Mary, who has to be the ultimate example of co-operating with the creative power of the creator.
So as we go from here, let’s give thanks for the beauty we experience. Let’s seek to build on that beauty by living lives in harmony with the will of the creator. And let’s remember the example that we have in St Francis and also in Mary, and let’s say our yes to God, like a bluebell nodding in the wind.
Sunday 9th May 2010 – 5th Sunday after Easter
Readings: Psalm 8 Gen 1: 26-31 Phil 4: 4-7
Well obviously I am the new rector and I am very new, and I am still learning what we are about here in the Parish of Baddesley Clinton, and in this church of St Michael’s. And although I recognise that I still have lots to learn about this place it does seem to me that one of the things that we are about is harmony with nature. We have this beautiful church building, in this beautiful setting, surrounded by bluebells. And many people have worked very hard over very many years to maintain all this and to keep that harmonious balance between nature and our human needs for order and purpose.
And sometimes people say, “Yes, but would it not be more beautiful still if humans never got involved and it was just nature.” Well if that was the case then we would have no church building, no grass mowing, no bulb planting. It probably would still be beautiful, but it would not reflect our legitimate human needs. And our bible reading today made it quite clear that in both the Christian and Jewish understanding, human beings are encouraged by God to work with nature to bring about good human outcomes. Human beings are made in the image of God. We reflect God’s own nature and God encourages by God to be master of creation, to work with God on his creation to make it more beautiful and to meet our human needs.
Now the key phrase here is “in harmony with God’s creation”. When we do things in harmony with God and his creation then the outcome is beautiful, and hopefully that is what we see reflected here around us.
But the trouble is we know that human intervention in nature is not always guided by harmony with God. Sometimes it is driven by greed, or arrogance or selfishness and the results are very ugly. And as we meet today we have very aware of a huge oil slick in the Bay of Mexico, arising from human activity and which threatens to do enormous damage to nature. And we all have to be very humble about this, because we know that we all live western lifestyles which are very hard on nature and very demanding on the world’s resources.
When we think about harmony with nature, one of the saints who has most to teach us is St Francis of Assisi. He lived outdoors in extreme poverty. His carbon footprint must have been as low as they come. He celebrated all aspects of nature, writing the great canticle “Brother Sun, Sister Moon”. St Francis emphasised that all created things ultimately want and need to move in harmony with their creator. He is famous for preaching to the birds and to the fish. His followers thought he had completely lost it, but he preached to them nevertheless, and they appeared interested and then dispersed when he had finished. Francis rebuked himself for never having preached to the birds before!
Well, here at Baddesley Clinton I am not preaching to birds or fish, but I am almost preaching to bluebells. The nice thing about preaching to bluebells is that if there is a breeze then they nod gently up and down, as though they agree and appreciate what is being said. Not many congregations do that, or at least not when I am preaching, they don’t! But this not of agreement also reminds me of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who when approached by the Angel Gabriel gave her agreement, “Be it unto me according to thy word.” And the blueness of bluebells is another reminder of Mary, who has to be the ultimate example of co-operating with the creative power of the creator.
So as we go from here, let’s give thanks for the beauty we experience. Let’s seek to build on that beauty by living lives in harmony with the will of the creator. And let’s remember the example that we have in St Francis and also in Mary, and let’s say our yes to God, like a bluebell nodding in the wind.
16 August 2009
The Blessed Virgin Mary
Sermon preached at 11am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull
Sunday 16th August 2009, The Blessed Virgin Mary
Readings: Revelation 11: 19-end 12: 1-6 & 10 Galatians 4: 4-7 Luke 1: 46-55
Today we celebrate the festival of the Blessed Virgin Mary, transferred from its normal date of 15th August. There are many different festivals in the churches year when we remember different events in Mary’s life, but this is perhaps the festival where we think especially of her. It is a very important date; 15th August is a public holiday in many countries because of this festival.
And why is it so important to have a special day set aside for Mary? Well first of all we have to acknowledge that not all Christians think it is important. More protestant Christians tend to play down the significance of the saints and encourage us to focus on Christ and on God. But this kind of thinking is relatively modern. It has only been around in the church for 500 years or so. The much older and much more widely established tradition of the wider Church has been to place great importance on the saints and on the BVM in particular. And why is this?
Well I believe the saints are important because they show us what can and should be happening to us. God calls all of us to holiness (Matt 5: 48, Rom 6: 19-23, Eph 4:23, 1Peter 1:15-16). We are all called to become saints, to take up our own special place in heaven, fulfilling our own special function for the good of all.
But the holiness that we aspire to does not come from our own resources. Our human nature can be very base and ordinary. Rather our holiness comes from Jesus, it is a sharing in the holiness of God (Heb 12:10). We are co-heirs with Christ, destined to inherit his glory (Rom 8:17). So this pattern of shared life in Christ becomes very important and it is the saints who show us how to do it.
Looking at the saints, and studying their lives helps us to understand how all this can come about in practice. There are many, many saints and their lives are all very different. But some of them have personalities that we can identify with. Some of them have passed through situations that we can recognise. There are some extremely inspiring examples here.
And the Blessed Virgin Mary is probably the most inspiring of them all because her co-operation with God is so perfect, so intimate and so very important to the salvation of the world. I would like to highlight some of her qualities in particular.
The first quality is her readiness to follow God’s plans. At the annunciation Mary famously says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” Luke 1: 38. With great simplicity and humility she agrees to go along with God plans and to do her part, at great personal risk. Through her, Jesus is brought into the world, and by her Jesus is brought up and educated in the values of family life.
A second quality is her readiness to suffer with Jesus. Unlike most of the disciples, who ran away when Jesus was crucified, Mary stood near the foot of the cross and suffered in her own way alongside Jesus until he died. She was not able to do anything practical to help Jesus in that situation, but she stayed there in solidarity with him. We are left with a sense that she has a mother’s love, a great big heart overflowing with motherly love. She is ready to care for and to suffer for all her children, and in a certain sense this includes all of us.
A third quality is her ability to persuade Jesus to act. We see this most obviously at the wedding in Cena in Galilee (John 2: 1-11). The family who have run out of wine approach her. She approaches Jesus, and Jesus gives a couple of good reasons for doing nothing, but in the end he cannot refuse his mother so he performs an extraordinary miracle creating the equivalent of about 800 bottles of wine! And many, many Christians repeat this pattern in their prayers. Rather than pray directly to Jesus or to God, they pray to Mary, and invite Mary to somehow sort things out with God. And for reasons that are hard to understand this does seem to work. It seems to be a very powerful way of praying and it continues to be extremely popular.
Now I have to admit that, in the past, I personally have had a bit of a problem with this. I used to think that it must surely always be better to pray directly to God. But as I have got older I have come to realise that life doesn’t necessarily work like this. The kingdom of heaven is not just about God; we all share in it. Things happen by the mutual love and co-operation of a great many angels and saints. Just as we all have different roles in our local church, so different angels and saints have different roles in the life of heaven. Now you might be best mates with Fr Tim, so when you want a Baptism Information Pack sending out you telephone Fr Tim and ask for one. Well, Fr Tim, however pleased he is to talk to you, is eventually going to pass that request on to Paula in the Parish Office, because it is Paula who does that job of sending out Baptism Information Packs on behalf of Fr Tim and the whole parish. And if you were to regularly ring up Fr Tim asking for Baptism Information Packs he would certainly tell you to start telephoning Paula directly, and the truth is that the whole business would work much quicker and more efficiently if you did go directly to Paula. Well it is my belief that there are many things that we can ask for in prayer that actually get sorted quicker and more cleanly if we address them directly to Mary. That in no way undermines the authority of God. Rather it properly and respectfully recognises the way that God as ordered things, and the way that he wishes relationships to work. Also Mary knows how to approach God and to ask for things. So, it seems to me that very often God would prefer us to communicate in pray directly with is his servant Mary, and in my experience this does seem to work.
A forth quality of Mary is her ability to get things done very quietly and with no fuss and without blowing a big trumpet to announce all that is happening. This is to do with humility and simplicity and beauty and love. She has the absolute opposite attitude to our current day world where everybody has to seek to raise their own profiles, to publicise and promote their activities and to draw attention to themselves by shouting loader and more persistently than the other people. This very low key approach of Mary’s makes it very easy for us to overlook her, to fail to take her seriously, to judge her by the standards of this world. There is something very quiet and recessive about Mary, but in the kingdom of heaven this is not a weakness, rather it is a way of serving others that we are called to emulate.
So I would like to encourage all of us to develop our own personal relationship with Mary, by praying to her. We don’t worship Mary, because she is not God, but we do venerate her, because she is in very close relationship with God. She is a person and we can talk to her, in prayer, just as we can talk to any other person. Let’s talk to her, trusting in her motherly love for us. And let’s become students of all the relationships in heaven, so that when we ask for things in prayer we know who to ask, and how to ask, and so our prayers can become more effective. Amen.
Sunday 16th August 2009, The Blessed Virgin Mary
Readings: Revelation 11: 19-end 12: 1-6 & 10 Galatians 4: 4-7 Luke 1: 46-55
Today we celebrate the festival of the Blessed Virgin Mary, transferred from its normal date of 15th August. There are many different festivals in the churches year when we remember different events in Mary’s life, but this is perhaps the festival where we think especially of her. It is a very important date; 15th August is a public holiday in many countries because of this festival.
And why is it so important to have a special day set aside for Mary? Well first of all we have to acknowledge that not all Christians think it is important. More protestant Christians tend to play down the significance of the saints and encourage us to focus on Christ and on God. But this kind of thinking is relatively modern. It has only been around in the church for 500 years or so. The much older and much more widely established tradition of the wider Church has been to place great importance on the saints and on the BVM in particular. And why is this?
Well I believe the saints are important because they show us what can and should be happening to us. God calls all of us to holiness (Matt 5: 48, Rom 6: 19-23, Eph 4:23, 1Peter 1:15-16). We are all called to become saints, to take up our own special place in heaven, fulfilling our own special function for the good of all.
But the holiness that we aspire to does not come from our own resources. Our human nature can be very base and ordinary. Rather our holiness comes from Jesus, it is a sharing in the holiness of God (Heb 12:10). We are co-heirs with Christ, destined to inherit his glory (Rom 8:17). So this pattern of shared life in Christ becomes very important and it is the saints who show us how to do it.
Looking at the saints, and studying their lives helps us to understand how all this can come about in practice. There are many, many saints and their lives are all very different. But some of them have personalities that we can identify with. Some of them have passed through situations that we can recognise. There are some extremely inspiring examples here.
And the Blessed Virgin Mary is probably the most inspiring of them all because her co-operation with God is so perfect, so intimate and so very important to the salvation of the world. I would like to highlight some of her qualities in particular.
The first quality is her readiness to follow God’s plans. At the annunciation Mary famously says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” Luke 1: 38. With great simplicity and humility she agrees to go along with God plans and to do her part, at great personal risk. Through her, Jesus is brought into the world, and by her Jesus is brought up and educated in the values of family life.
A second quality is her readiness to suffer with Jesus. Unlike most of the disciples, who ran away when Jesus was crucified, Mary stood near the foot of the cross and suffered in her own way alongside Jesus until he died. She was not able to do anything practical to help Jesus in that situation, but she stayed there in solidarity with him. We are left with a sense that she has a mother’s love, a great big heart overflowing with motherly love. She is ready to care for and to suffer for all her children, and in a certain sense this includes all of us.
A third quality is her ability to persuade Jesus to act. We see this most obviously at the wedding in Cena in Galilee (John 2: 1-11). The family who have run out of wine approach her. She approaches Jesus, and Jesus gives a couple of good reasons for doing nothing, but in the end he cannot refuse his mother so he performs an extraordinary miracle creating the equivalent of about 800 bottles of wine! And many, many Christians repeat this pattern in their prayers. Rather than pray directly to Jesus or to God, they pray to Mary, and invite Mary to somehow sort things out with God. And for reasons that are hard to understand this does seem to work. It seems to be a very powerful way of praying and it continues to be extremely popular.
Now I have to admit that, in the past, I personally have had a bit of a problem with this. I used to think that it must surely always be better to pray directly to God. But as I have got older I have come to realise that life doesn’t necessarily work like this. The kingdom of heaven is not just about God; we all share in it. Things happen by the mutual love and co-operation of a great many angels and saints. Just as we all have different roles in our local church, so different angels and saints have different roles in the life of heaven. Now you might be best mates with Fr Tim, so when you want a Baptism Information Pack sending out you telephone Fr Tim and ask for one. Well, Fr Tim, however pleased he is to talk to you, is eventually going to pass that request on to Paula in the Parish Office, because it is Paula who does that job of sending out Baptism Information Packs on behalf of Fr Tim and the whole parish. And if you were to regularly ring up Fr Tim asking for Baptism Information Packs he would certainly tell you to start telephoning Paula directly, and the truth is that the whole business would work much quicker and more efficiently if you did go directly to Paula. Well it is my belief that there are many things that we can ask for in prayer that actually get sorted quicker and more cleanly if we address them directly to Mary. That in no way undermines the authority of God. Rather it properly and respectfully recognises the way that God as ordered things, and the way that he wishes relationships to work. Also Mary knows how to approach God and to ask for things. So, it seems to me that very often God would prefer us to communicate in pray directly with is his servant Mary, and in my experience this does seem to work.
A forth quality of Mary is her ability to get things done very quietly and with no fuss and without blowing a big trumpet to announce all that is happening. This is to do with humility and simplicity and beauty and love. She has the absolute opposite attitude to our current day world where everybody has to seek to raise their own profiles, to publicise and promote their activities and to draw attention to themselves by shouting loader and more persistently than the other people. This very low key approach of Mary’s makes it very easy for us to overlook her, to fail to take her seriously, to judge her by the standards of this world. There is something very quiet and recessive about Mary, but in the kingdom of heaven this is not a weakness, rather it is a way of serving others that we are called to emulate.
So I would like to encourage all of us to develop our own personal relationship with Mary, by praying to her. We don’t worship Mary, because she is not God, but we do venerate her, because she is in very close relationship with God. She is a person and we can talk to her, in prayer, just as we can talk to any other person. Let’s talk to her, trusting in her motherly love for us. And let’s become students of all the relationships in heaven, so that when we ask for things in prayer we know who to ask, and how to ask, and so our prayers can become more effective. Amen.
21 December 2008
Living the incarnation
Sermon preached at St Alphege, Solihull at 11am Eucharist, 21st December 2008
Advent 4, Year B
Readings: 2 Samuel 7: 1-11 & 16 Romans 16: 25-27 Luke 1: 26-38
In our gospel reading today we heard the extraordinary story of the annunciation; the moment when the angel Gabriel came to visit Mary and to give her the big news. Gabriel tells Mary that she is to be the mother of Jesus. He tells her that Jesus is to be the Son of God, the inheritor of the throne of his ancestor King David, and the one who will reign forever in a kingdom without end. This is a big deal. It’s a very big deal. It’s the biggest deal of them all. But Mary seems to cope with it extraordinarily well. She asks for clarification about how she is to become pregnant. The angel explains this point and tells her that her relative Elizabeth is also pregnant. Mary’s final comment is, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” And the angel leaves her.
It is an extraordinary encounter, but it is the news that is brought to Mary that is the most extraordinary thing; that God will take on human flesh in Mary; this is the extraordinary thing. It is the great mystery of God in flesh; the incarnation. God grows in flesh in Mary, from a thing so small that nobody knows it is there, to a embryo, to a foetus, to a baby. God takes on a human body and is born into the world. And this has huge consequences and repercussions.
And one of the consequences, it seems to me, is that a way is opened up whereby God can grow in us. Just as God, who is spirit (2 Cor 3: 17), became flesh, so we who are flesh can become spirit; we can grow into the divine, just as God in Jesus grew into the flesh. It is like the incarnation in reverse.
In our baptism we receive the Holy Spirit, and like a tiny invisible seed within us, this has the potential to grow and develop, so that something spiritual and Christ-like can grow in us and can come to maturity. [The way is opened up for us human beings to participate in the divine life of God (c.f. 2 Peter 1:4), to become children of God and co-heirs with Christ, sharing in his sufferings and his glory (Rom 8: 17). We have the opportunity to become children of God, destined to be like Jesus (1 John 3:2).
You might not be aware of it, but this same idea is expressed each time we celebrate the Eucharist, or certainly it is in churches with a more catholic tradition. At the Eucharist, when preparing the chalice of wine, the priest mixes in with the wine a few drops of water and says a quiet prayer, “By this mystery of this water and this wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” The mixture of water with wine is a powerful symbol. It reminds us of flesh and spirit or human and divine. In John’s gospel, Jesus’ first miracle is to turn water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee (John 2: 1-11). This miracle reminds us of the power of Jesus to turn humans into a sharing in the divine life of God. There are hints of the same idea when Jesus is pieced on the cross and water and blood flow out (John 19: 34)]
It is very desirable that the seed of spiritual presence of Christ within us grows and develops because this life of Christ in us is eternal life, the life which survives our earthly death. And what do we need to do to make the spiritual presence of Christ within us grow? Well in one way we do not need to do very much. A pregnant woman does not need to do too much to make her baby grow. She needs to keep herself healthy and well nourished and then the baby grows by itself. Similarly we need to keep ourselves spiritually healthy and spiritually nourished, and then the presence of Christ will grow in us, without us needing to worry about it.
And when it comes to keeping ourselves spiritually healthy and well nourished, the most obvious things to do are to come often to the Eucharist, and to set aside time to meditate on the scriptures and to pray. But today I would like to highlight another way of nourishing our spiritual lives and this is the way that we see in Mary in our gospel reading today. When Mary says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” she is accepting and cooperating with God’s plans for her. This is the crucial for us too, for our own spiritual health and nourishment. Accepting and co-operating with God’s plans for us, God’s vision for us, what God has created us for is so important. Only through this obedience can God’s creation in us come to fulfilment. And accepting God’s plans for us requires many things from us. It requires us to listen humbly in front of God in prayer, to understand the things he wants us to understand. It means being ready to lose our own ideas of what we might be or do. Often it can mean letting go of fantasies; the fantasy that all will be well when we are rich or famous, or a celebrity, or popular. Above all it means following God’s will for our lives. Following God’s will truly sustains and nourishes us. This was true even for Jesus. He said “My food is to do this will of him who sent me…” (John 4: 13). Following God’s will sustains us in each present moment of our lives, as we go about our daily business. If we listen to the still small voice of God in our heart, the voice of love, then this prompts us throughout the day. It shows us how to grow in love for God and for other people. God’s whisper in our heart might encourage us to stop and speak to a particular person, to set aside time for prayer, to visit a lonely neighbour, to complete some task, to come to Mass or whatever. And if we practice following the promptings of God all the time on the little things in life then we can be sure that we will know what to do when the big decisions come.
So let’s try always to listen for and to follow the promptings of God in our hearts showing us how to love. In this way let’s walk, in each present moment of our lives, in God’s will for us, in God’s plan for us. Then, by the grace of God’s incarnation we will find ourselves taking part in the spiritual equivalent of what Mary did. Jesus will grow spiritually within us, with wonderful consequences in this world, and eternal life in the next.
Advent 4, Year B
Readings: 2 Samuel 7: 1-11 & 16 Romans 16: 25-27 Luke 1: 26-38
In our gospel reading today we heard the extraordinary story of the annunciation; the moment when the angel Gabriel came to visit Mary and to give her the big news. Gabriel tells Mary that she is to be the mother of Jesus. He tells her that Jesus is to be the Son of God, the inheritor of the throne of his ancestor King David, and the one who will reign forever in a kingdom without end. This is a big deal. It’s a very big deal. It’s the biggest deal of them all. But Mary seems to cope with it extraordinarily well. She asks for clarification about how she is to become pregnant. The angel explains this point and tells her that her relative Elizabeth is also pregnant. Mary’s final comment is, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” And the angel leaves her.
It is an extraordinary encounter, but it is the news that is brought to Mary that is the most extraordinary thing; that God will take on human flesh in Mary; this is the extraordinary thing. It is the great mystery of God in flesh; the incarnation. God grows in flesh in Mary, from a thing so small that nobody knows it is there, to a embryo, to a foetus, to a baby. God takes on a human body and is born into the world. And this has huge consequences and repercussions.
And one of the consequences, it seems to me, is that a way is opened up whereby God can grow in us. Just as God, who is spirit (2 Cor 3: 17), became flesh, so we who are flesh can become spirit; we can grow into the divine, just as God in Jesus grew into the flesh. It is like the incarnation in reverse.
In our baptism we receive the Holy Spirit, and like a tiny invisible seed within us, this has the potential to grow and develop, so that something spiritual and Christ-like can grow in us and can come to maturity. [The way is opened up for us human beings to participate in the divine life of God (c.f. 2 Peter 1:4), to become children of God and co-heirs with Christ, sharing in his sufferings and his glory (Rom 8: 17). We have the opportunity to become children of God, destined to be like Jesus (1 John 3:2).
You might not be aware of it, but this same idea is expressed each time we celebrate the Eucharist, or certainly it is in churches with a more catholic tradition. At the Eucharist, when preparing the chalice of wine, the priest mixes in with the wine a few drops of water and says a quiet prayer, “By this mystery of this water and this wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” The mixture of water with wine is a powerful symbol. It reminds us of flesh and spirit or human and divine. In John’s gospel, Jesus’ first miracle is to turn water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee (John 2: 1-11). This miracle reminds us of the power of Jesus to turn humans into a sharing in the divine life of God. There are hints of the same idea when Jesus is pieced on the cross and water and blood flow out (John 19: 34)]
It is very desirable that the seed of spiritual presence of Christ within us grows and develops because this life of Christ in us is eternal life, the life which survives our earthly death. And what do we need to do to make the spiritual presence of Christ within us grow? Well in one way we do not need to do very much. A pregnant woman does not need to do too much to make her baby grow. She needs to keep herself healthy and well nourished and then the baby grows by itself. Similarly we need to keep ourselves spiritually healthy and spiritually nourished, and then the presence of Christ will grow in us, without us needing to worry about it.
And when it comes to keeping ourselves spiritually healthy and well nourished, the most obvious things to do are to come often to the Eucharist, and to set aside time to meditate on the scriptures and to pray. But today I would like to highlight another way of nourishing our spiritual lives and this is the way that we see in Mary in our gospel reading today. When Mary says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” she is accepting and cooperating with God’s plans for her. This is the crucial for us too, for our own spiritual health and nourishment. Accepting and co-operating with God’s plans for us, God’s vision for us, what God has created us for is so important. Only through this obedience can God’s creation in us come to fulfilment. And accepting God’s plans for us requires many things from us. It requires us to listen humbly in front of God in prayer, to understand the things he wants us to understand. It means being ready to lose our own ideas of what we might be or do. Often it can mean letting go of fantasies; the fantasy that all will be well when we are rich or famous, or a celebrity, or popular. Above all it means following God’s will for our lives. Following God’s will truly sustains and nourishes us. This was true even for Jesus. He said “My food is to do this will of him who sent me…” (John 4: 13). Following God’s will sustains us in each present moment of our lives, as we go about our daily business. If we listen to the still small voice of God in our heart, the voice of love, then this prompts us throughout the day. It shows us how to grow in love for God and for other people. God’s whisper in our heart might encourage us to stop and speak to a particular person, to set aside time for prayer, to visit a lonely neighbour, to complete some task, to come to Mass or whatever. And if we practice following the promptings of God all the time on the little things in life then we can be sure that we will know what to do when the big decisions come.
So let’s try always to listen for and to follow the promptings of God in our hearts showing us how to love. In this way let’s walk, in each present moment of our lives, in God’s will for us, in God’s plan for us. Then, by the grace of God’s incarnation we will find ourselves taking part in the spiritual equivalent of what Mary did. Jesus will grow spiritually within us, with wonderful consequences in this world, and eternal life in the next.
25 December 2007
Being like Mary, so that Jesus can grow
Preached at St Alphege, Solihull at 9.15am Eucharist on Christmas Day 2007
25/12/07 - Year A
Informal sermon at all-age worship, with drawing activity for children.
Readings: Titus 3:4-7 Luke 2:8-20
I would like to invite all the children to come to the front.
Now, I wonder if anyone has a Christmas present that they would like to show everybody? [We look at presents]
Tell me, what is the most exciting thing when you receive a present?
[Unwrapping it]
Well there is a big box here that needs unwrapping! Now I don’t want you to get two excited, this is not really a Christmas present. What does it say on the label?
[Activity for Christmas morning]
So its not really a present, it is an activity for this morning. So who is going to take the lid of? What can you see?
[Drawing materials]
So this is our activity for the younger ones this morning. It might be more interesting than listening to the sermon! I would like to invite each of you to draw a picture of Jesus as a child. And draw him at the age that you are now. So if you are four years old now, draw a picture of Jesus aged four, and if you’re six years old now draw Jesus, when he was six. And if you’re a baby, get your parent to help you to draw a picture of Jesus as a baby.
So does everybody know what they are doing? Right well while you are carrying on with that drawing the rest of us can carry on thinking about Christmas.
Christmas is such a wonderful event, because God came into the world as a human being. God shared our human life with us, and he transformed our human lives, bringing light and hope and peace for the whole world.
So let’s pause for a moment and think about how this wonderful event came about. What made it happen? Well it was God who made it happen. People didn’t really have to do anything. The shepherds were jus sat on the hill as usual, and suddenly they were told that God had already done this great thing. People didn’t do it; God did it.
But there was at least one person who had to do something, and that was Mary. What did Mary have to do?
Well she had to agree to co-operate with God’s will. When the angel Gabriel told her that she was to have a baby, she said, “Be it unto me according to thy word”.
She also had to trust God. It was a risky business betting pregnant without being married. She had to trust in God’s plan for her; trust that God would take care of her.
She accepted Jesus inside her; loved him and helped him to grow. Then after he was born she fed him and nurtured him continued to help him to grow. And because of this wonderful things happened. Jesus grew up among us and lived his life for us, and died for us and reconciled us to God.
So how are the drawings doing? We have got about another minute, so you need to be finishing off now.
Now I want to suggest is that we too, are called to be a bit like Mary. We are called to accept Jesus inside us and help him to grow. Not so much physically, but spiritually, so that we can grow to become like Christ. St Paul prays that we might all grow up into him who is the head, into Christ, into the full stature of Christ. (c.f. Eph 4:13-15).
Now it is God who makes Christ grow in us. It is not something that we can do ourselves. But if we behave like Mary then we allow God to do this work, without getting in the way.
So like Mary we are called to follow God’s will for us; to say with Mary “Be it unto me according to thy word.”
Like Mary we have to trust God. Sometimes God’s ways seem very strange, frightening even but it is important for us to trust God to bring about his work in us.
Like Mary we need to welcome Jesus, feed him and help him to grow. We can welcome Jesus by loving him in the people around us; we know Jesus is present in each person. We can nurture Jesus within us by listening to his word and by receiving his sacraments. This is how we make Jesus grow spiritually in us.
Now let’s have a look at these pictures of Jesus. Can we line them up so that we have the youngest Jesus at this end and the oldest one at that end. So then as we look along the line we see Jesus growing. So here at this end Jesus is just a baby. Let’s hold the pictures up high. How old is Jesus here? So slowly we can see Jesus growing to maturity. And at this end he is really very mature and the pictures are getting very good! So here before us is the pattern for our lives; Jesus growing. Let’s live our lives like Mary so that God will make Jesus grow within us. Amen.
25/12/07 - Year A
Informal sermon at all-age worship, with drawing activity for children.
Readings: Titus 3:4-7 Luke 2:8-20
I would like to invite all the children to come to the front.
Now, I wonder if anyone has a Christmas present that they would like to show everybody? [We look at presents]
Tell me, what is the most exciting thing when you receive a present?
[Unwrapping it]
Well there is a big box here that needs unwrapping! Now I don’t want you to get two excited, this is not really a Christmas present. What does it say on the label?
[Activity for Christmas morning]
So its not really a present, it is an activity for this morning. So who is going to take the lid of? What can you see?
[Drawing materials]
So this is our activity for the younger ones this morning. It might be more interesting than listening to the sermon! I would like to invite each of you to draw a picture of Jesus as a child. And draw him at the age that you are now. So if you are four years old now, draw a picture of Jesus aged four, and if you’re six years old now draw Jesus, when he was six. And if you’re a baby, get your parent to help you to draw a picture of Jesus as a baby.
So does everybody know what they are doing? Right well while you are carrying on with that drawing the rest of us can carry on thinking about Christmas.
Christmas is such a wonderful event, because God came into the world as a human being. God shared our human life with us, and he transformed our human lives, bringing light and hope and peace for the whole world.
So let’s pause for a moment and think about how this wonderful event came about. What made it happen? Well it was God who made it happen. People didn’t really have to do anything. The shepherds were jus sat on the hill as usual, and suddenly they were told that God had already done this great thing. People didn’t do it; God did it.
But there was at least one person who had to do something, and that was Mary. What did Mary have to do?
Well she had to agree to co-operate with God’s will. When the angel Gabriel told her that she was to have a baby, she said, “Be it unto me according to thy word”.
She also had to trust God. It was a risky business betting pregnant without being married. She had to trust in God’s plan for her; trust that God would take care of her.
She accepted Jesus inside her; loved him and helped him to grow. Then after he was born she fed him and nurtured him continued to help him to grow. And because of this wonderful things happened. Jesus grew up among us and lived his life for us, and died for us and reconciled us to God.
So how are the drawings doing? We have got about another minute, so you need to be finishing off now.
Now I want to suggest is that we too, are called to be a bit like Mary. We are called to accept Jesus inside us and help him to grow. Not so much physically, but spiritually, so that we can grow to become like Christ. St Paul prays that we might all grow up into him who is the head, into Christ, into the full stature of Christ. (c.f. Eph 4:13-15).
Now it is God who makes Christ grow in us. It is not something that we can do ourselves. But if we behave like Mary then we allow God to do this work, without getting in the way.
So like Mary we are called to follow God’s will for us; to say with Mary “Be it unto me according to thy word.”
Like Mary we have to trust God. Sometimes God’s ways seem very strange, frightening even but it is important for us to trust God to bring about his work in us.
Like Mary we need to welcome Jesus, feed him and help him to grow. We can welcome Jesus by loving him in the people around us; we know Jesus is present in each person. We can nurture Jesus within us by listening to his word and by receiving his sacraments. This is how we make Jesus grow spiritually in us.
Now let’s have a look at these pictures of Jesus. Can we line them up so that we have the youngest Jesus at this end and the oldest one at that end. So then as we look along the line we see Jesus growing. So here at this end Jesus is just a baby. Let’s hold the pictures up high. How old is Jesus here? So slowly we can see Jesus growing to maturity. And at this end he is really very mature and the pictures are getting very good! So here before us is the pattern for our lives; Jesus growing. Let’s live our lives like Mary so that God will make Jesus grow within us. Amen.
22 July 2007
Basking in the word of God
Sermon preached on 22/07/07 at 9.15am service at St Alphege, Solihull
Trinity 7 (Proper 11) – Year C
Readings: Genesis 18:1-10a Colossians 1:15-28 Luke 10:38-42
As I was walking to church this morning I was thinking about all the recent rain, and I thought how ironic it was that I intended to preach about sunshine! I had no sooner thought the thought that the sun came out and shone on me briefly, so let’s spend a moment thinking about sunshine.
My wife loves to sunbath. When the sun comes out she sets aside time to sit in the sun. She slows down and starts to relax. She catches up with herself and recharges her batteries. She also goes most beautifully brown. Now doctors warn us that too much sun can be bad for our skin, and Elaine is careful not to overdo it. Despite this it often seems that it is through soaking up the sun that she regains her equilibrium and is restored in who she is.
Now this idea of sitting in the light of the sun, absorbing its warmth and being restored to wholeness, is a little bit like listening to the word of God. Just as Elaine goes out of her way to sit in the sun, so we need to rest, listening to the word of God. Just as Elaine soaks up the warmth of the sun and allows it to recharge her batteries and make her go brown, so we need to soak up the word of God, allow it to transform us and to form in us the attributes of Christ.
In our OT reading today we heard about Abraham and Sarah listening to the words spoken by the Lord. The Lord mysteriously appears to Abraham as three men, standing near to his tent. Abraham brings them food and drink and sits by the three men as they ate. The three men announce that Abraham’s wife, Sarah, will bear a son for Abraham. This is remarkable, indeed unbelievable, news. If we had read a little further into the passage it would have been explained to us that both Sarah and Abraham were very old at this point and the thought of having a child was quite extraordinary. In fact Sarah, who was listening to the conversation from the entrance to the tent, laughed at the idea of having a child.
The effect of this conversation with the Lord was transformational. God had long promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation, and yet Sarah had never been able to have children. This huge paradox perplexed them for years. Perhaps it was the burden of this paradox that made Sarah suggest that Abraham should have a child through her slave-girl Hagar. But suddenly, when they were ridiculously old, Sarah becomes pregnant and has a son Isaac. God’s promises were fulfilled in a way that was much more direct and total than had ever seemed possible.
Our gospel reading is also about listening to the word of God. In this case it is about listening to Jesus. In the Christian tradition we think of Jesus as the word of God (e.g. John 1) so to listen to Jesus is particularly to listen to the word of God. The story contrasts Martha and Mary and their two different ways of loving Jesus. Martha seeks to love Jesus by performing many tasks; presumably she is preparing a meal for him and his friends. Mary loves Jesus by sitting at his feet and listening to what he says. Martha clearly thinks that Mary should be helping prepare the meal, but Jesus says that Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken away from her. Jesus clearly values people listening too him.
And Jesus’ words, or perhaps Jesus himself, also seems to have had a transforming effect on Martha and Mary. In John’s gospel, Jesus visits Bethany, where Martha and Mary live, many times in the weeks before his death. Martha and Mary show great faith when their brother Lazarus dies, and Jesus raises him from the dead. There is also a remarkable moment in which Mary washes Jesus’ feet with ointment and wipes them with her hair. Jesus recognises this as a preparation of his body for burial.
And so what about us? Do we spend time listening to the word of God? Do we allow it to enter into us and transform us? Well perhaps we read the bible at home. Certainly this is one way of encountering the word of God. If we come regularly to worship then we hear the scriptures read in our worship. Personally I find that when I listen to the scriptures read during worship then they sink into me much more fully than if I simply read the bible on my own at home. In worship I sometimes find that something from a bible reading strikes me, as though I am hearing it for the first time, or in a new way, even if I might already be quite familiar with that particular passage. I am not quite sure why I find a scripture readings during worship so much more helpful than bible reading at home. Perhaps my approach is more prayerful during worship. Perhaps my communion with other worshipers helps me to understand better.
When we read scripture it is important that we allow the Word of God to nurture our whole human person, body, mind and spirit. We need to prayerfully allow the words to enter into us. Spiritual advisers usually say that if something from a bible reading strikes us then we should stay with that thought or feeling and allow it to percolate through us. We should not be seeking to interrogate the text with our own analysis and questions. Rather we should be humbly allowing the text to invade us and question us about our attitudes and the actions of our lives. The Word of God is not a puzzle for us to solve, but rather it is a gift for us to receive.
During Lent last year, many of us followed the Life Source course on prayer. One of the technique of prayer that this covered (albeit rather briefly) was called Lectio Divina or “divine reading”. Lectio Divina is prayer based around the slow and repeated reading of scripture or some other text suitable for prayerful reflection. It allows the word of God to enter into us, to nurture us and to form within the attributes of Christ.
I would like to share with you a recent example where I have found that nurturing myself on the Word of God has helped me in my spiritual life. I spent a month reflecting on the phrase, “those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy” from psalm 126. This helped me to understand that I must not seek instant results or immediate payback when I try to do good. For example, if I try to love someone, and they don’t seem to love me back, then this is not a reason to stop loving them. Another example comes from one of my “hobbies” in which I spend time lobbying for better practice in the field of executive pay. My lobbying appears to have very little effect, and there is a temptation to lose heart. However the text from the psalm encourages me to persevere in doing what is right. When the sower sows the seed the first thing that happens is that the seed disappears into the ground and rots away. It is weeks before any growth can be seen, and months before anything that might be harvested becomes visible. Furthermore the text gives me courage when things are painful and difficult. I might sow in tears today, but can I hope one day to reap with shouts of joy.
So as we go on our summer holidays, and enjoy the warmth of the sun (let’s hope we get the chance!), let’s also make sure that be bask in the light and warmth of the word of God. Let’s let it sink into us, transforming our attitudes and behaviours. Let’s allow it to do its job, so that Christ can be formed within us.
Trinity 7 (Proper 11) – Year C
Readings: Genesis 18:1-10a Colossians 1:15-28 Luke 10:38-42
As I was walking to church this morning I was thinking about all the recent rain, and I thought how ironic it was that I intended to preach about sunshine! I had no sooner thought the thought that the sun came out and shone on me briefly, so let’s spend a moment thinking about sunshine.
My wife loves to sunbath. When the sun comes out she sets aside time to sit in the sun. She slows down and starts to relax. She catches up with herself and recharges her batteries. She also goes most beautifully brown. Now doctors warn us that too much sun can be bad for our skin, and Elaine is careful not to overdo it. Despite this it often seems that it is through soaking up the sun that she regains her equilibrium and is restored in who she is.
Now this idea of sitting in the light of the sun, absorbing its warmth and being restored to wholeness, is a little bit like listening to the word of God. Just as Elaine goes out of her way to sit in the sun, so we need to rest, listening to the word of God. Just as Elaine soaks up the warmth of the sun and allows it to recharge her batteries and make her go brown, so we need to soak up the word of God, allow it to transform us and to form in us the attributes of Christ.
In our OT reading today we heard about Abraham and Sarah listening to the words spoken by the Lord. The Lord mysteriously appears to Abraham as three men, standing near to his tent. Abraham brings them food and drink and sits by the three men as they ate. The three men announce that Abraham’s wife, Sarah, will bear a son for Abraham. This is remarkable, indeed unbelievable, news. If we had read a little further into the passage it would have been explained to us that both Sarah and Abraham were very old at this point and the thought of having a child was quite extraordinary. In fact Sarah, who was listening to the conversation from the entrance to the tent, laughed at the idea of having a child.
The effect of this conversation with the Lord was transformational. God had long promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation, and yet Sarah had never been able to have children. This huge paradox perplexed them for years. Perhaps it was the burden of this paradox that made Sarah suggest that Abraham should have a child through her slave-girl Hagar. But suddenly, when they were ridiculously old, Sarah becomes pregnant and has a son Isaac. God’s promises were fulfilled in a way that was much more direct and total than had ever seemed possible.
Our gospel reading is also about listening to the word of God. In this case it is about listening to Jesus. In the Christian tradition we think of Jesus as the word of God (e.g. John 1) so to listen to Jesus is particularly to listen to the word of God. The story contrasts Martha and Mary and their two different ways of loving Jesus. Martha seeks to love Jesus by performing many tasks; presumably she is preparing a meal for him and his friends. Mary loves Jesus by sitting at his feet and listening to what he says. Martha clearly thinks that Mary should be helping prepare the meal, but Jesus says that Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken away from her. Jesus clearly values people listening too him.
And Jesus’ words, or perhaps Jesus himself, also seems to have had a transforming effect on Martha and Mary. In John’s gospel, Jesus visits Bethany, where Martha and Mary live, many times in the weeks before his death. Martha and Mary show great faith when their brother Lazarus dies, and Jesus raises him from the dead. There is also a remarkable moment in which Mary washes Jesus’ feet with ointment and wipes them with her hair. Jesus recognises this as a preparation of his body for burial.
And so what about us? Do we spend time listening to the word of God? Do we allow it to enter into us and transform us? Well perhaps we read the bible at home. Certainly this is one way of encountering the word of God. If we come regularly to worship then we hear the scriptures read in our worship. Personally I find that when I listen to the scriptures read during worship then they sink into me much more fully than if I simply read the bible on my own at home. In worship I sometimes find that something from a bible reading strikes me, as though I am hearing it for the first time, or in a new way, even if I might already be quite familiar with that particular passage. I am not quite sure why I find a scripture readings during worship so much more helpful than bible reading at home. Perhaps my approach is more prayerful during worship. Perhaps my communion with other worshipers helps me to understand better.
When we read scripture it is important that we allow the Word of God to nurture our whole human person, body, mind and spirit. We need to prayerfully allow the words to enter into us. Spiritual advisers usually say that if something from a bible reading strikes us then we should stay with that thought or feeling and allow it to percolate through us. We should not be seeking to interrogate the text with our own analysis and questions. Rather we should be humbly allowing the text to invade us and question us about our attitudes and the actions of our lives. The Word of God is not a puzzle for us to solve, but rather it is a gift for us to receive.
During Lent last year, many of us followed the Life Source course on prayer. One of the technique of prayer that this covered (albeit rather briefly) was called Lectio Divina or “divine reading”. Lectio Divina is prayer based around the slow and repeated reading of scripture or some other text suitable for prayerful reflection. It allows the word of God to enter into us, to nurture us and to form within the attributes of Christ.
I would like to share with you a recent example where I have found that nurturing myself on the Word of God has helped me in my spiritual life. I spent a month reflecting on the phrase, “those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy” from psalm 126. This helped me to understand that I must not seek instant results or immediate payback when I try to do good. For example, if I try to love someone, and they don’t seem to love me back, then this is not a reason to stop loving them. Another example comes from one of my “hobbies” in which I spend time lobbying for better practice in the field of executive pay. My lobbying appears to have very little effect, and there is a temptation to lose heart. However the text from the psalm encourages me to persevere in doing what is right. When the sower sows the seed the first thing that happens is that the seed disappears into the ground and rots away. It is weeks before any growth can be seen, and months before anything that might be harvested becomes visible. Furthermore the text gives me courage when things are painful and difficult. I might sow in tears today, but can I hope one day to reap with shouts of joy.
So as we go on our summer holidays, and enjoy the warmth of the sun (let’s hope we get the chance!), let’s also make sure that be bask in the light and warmth of the word of God. Let’s let it sink into us, transforming our attitudes and behaviours. Let’s allow it to do its job, so that Christ can be formed within us.
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