Sermon (14 May)
Abide in me and I in you .
In the name of the Father , Son and Holy Spirit .
The sun news paper last week suddenly took on a spiritual dimension in asking its readers to pray .
Wayne Rooney the England football striker known as Roo whose broken foot was plunging England into despair was to be the focus of their readers prayer . The sun provided its own suggestion how to set about this act of prayer for Roo “The moment you wake up , before you put on your make up , say a little prayer for Roo .
While combing your hair now and wondering what clothes to wear now , say a little prayer for Roo .”
The next day the paper printed a pullout poster for readers to put in their window with the words “I`m praying for Wayne” A clever pun for a country suffering from a drought .
Even Sven-Goran Erikson , talked of needing a miracle if Rooney was to play in the world cup .
Now what is this saying about prayer ? Do we believe in a God who at our requests reorders events to fit in with our desires ? Or do our prayers contribute another dimension to the concerns we place before God .
By this I mean that when we pray for someone we love who may be ill in hospital we are opening up a depth of meaning to the event . What on the surface may appear to be a tragedy and meaningless can be changed into something life giving . Our prayer sustains them and perhaps opens up for them a new way of seeing their situation.
There have been countless people who have borne witness to the sense that have been supported by the prayers of others . Their situation may not have changed , but their response to it has.
However if what we pray for happens to come to pass then our prayer also has contributed towards it . It might not have made it happen but it played a part in it happening .
Praying for others is central to the Christian tradition . Jesus himself said “ Which of you , if his son asks for bread will give him a stone” God does want to give what is best for us , bread rather than a stone .
But prayer is more than asking .
“Abide in me” says Jesus. Through prayer we are called to develop a closeness with God .Abiding , abode being at home with .But this closeness abiding will slowly change us. Prayer is about transformation, being remoulded , remade.
In this closeness with God our desires our wants and needs are reordered . A reordering of our priorities takes place through prayer. What might have seemed so important to us , our self image perhaps doesn`t seem so important after all .
We begin to let go of lesser goals . We begin to long for things in our lives that really matter and we start to pursue them . We are slowly being changed .
This is no easy task , we all find the road to prayer difficult . We use the lack of time as an excuse but in fact we are just avoiding meeting this transforming God we forget that he is pure love , that we are held constantly in His loving gaze .
What difference would it make to our lives if we really began to believe that despite all our anxieties our sin and failure - we are still subject to this loving gaze a love which cares for the whole tangled bundle that makes us who we are?
And what difference would it make if we began to see that everyone around us , waitresses , tourists , cleaners , immigrants asylum seekers businessmen the people next door were also held in the same overwhelming loving gaze ?
And what difference would it make if we believed that this love made no distinction between people more worthy or less worthy , no distinction of race , religion , age , innocence strength or beauty rather it was a lavish and indiscriminate love , like the sun sharing its warmth's with all creation .
It is easy to say these things but to believe them to let this truth percolate down through all our layers of resistance is what prayer is about .
In prayer , by just being still , not doing anything in particular just gently putting aside all our immediate pressing concerns and sharing in the company of God for his sake alone and not what we can get out of him we are opening ourselves to His loving gaze .
And the fruits of this prayer is that we will begin to see the world through God`s eyes . We begin to see ourselves through his eyes . Our vision is changed .
We begin to have a sense that we are called to gaze out into our world with the same disposition that God gazes out towards us . And this is not our activity or our work it is God`s activity his work in us .
In prayer we allow God to work on us we give him space to slowly chip away everything that prevents us from reflecting his love .
So time in prayer is not an option , it is life giving . It changes us and the world around us .
Well what about the Sun`s newspaper request for prayer .
Of course God loves Wayne Rooney but maybe the miracle God has in store is that England may still win without him .
In the name of the Father , Son and Holy Spirit .
The sun news paper last week suddenly took on a spiritual dimension in asking its readers to pray .
Wayne Rooney the England football striker known as Roo whose broken foot was plunging England into despair was to be the focus of their readers prayer . The sun provided its own suggestion how to set about this act of prayer for Roo “The moment you wake up , before you put on your make up , say a little prayer for Roo .
While combing your hair now and wondering what clothes to wear now , say a little prayer for Roo .”
The next day the paper printed a pullout poster for readers to put in their window with the words “I`m praying for Wayne” A clever pun for a country suffering from a drought .
Even Sven-Goran Erikson , talked of needing a miracle if Rooney was to play in the world cup .
Now what is this saying about prayer ? Do we believe in a God who at our requests reorders events to fit in with our desires ? Or do our prayers contribute another dimension to the concerns we place before God .
By this I mean that when we pray for someone we love who may be ill in hospital we are opening up a depth of meaning to the event . What on the surface may appear to be a tragedy and meaningless can be changed into something life giving . Our prayer sustains them and perhaps opens up for them a new way of seeing their situation.
There have been countless people who have borne witness to the sense that have been supported by the prayers of others . Their situation may not have changed , but their response to it has.
However if what we pray for happens to come to pass then our prayer also has contributed towards it . It might not have made it happen but it played a part in it happening .
Praying for others is central to the Christian tradition . Jesus himself said “ Which of you , if his son asks for bread will give him a stone” God does want to give what is best for us , bread rather than a stone .
But prayer is more than asking .
“Abide in me” says Jesus. Through prayer we are called to develop a closeness with God .Abiding , abode being at home with .But this closeness abiding will slowly change us. Prayer is about transformation, being remoulded , remade.
In this closeness with God our desires our wants and needs are reordered . A reordering of our priorities takes place through prayer. What might have seemed so important to us , our self image perhaps doesn`t seem so important after all .
We begin to let go of lesser goals . We begin to long for things in our lives that really matter and we start to pursue them . We are slowly being changed .
This is no easy task , we all find the road to prayer difficult . We use the lack of time as an excuse but in fact we are just avoiding meeting this transforming God we forget that he is pure love , that we are held constantly in His loving gaze .
What difference would it make to our lives if we really began to believe that despite all our anxieties our sin and failure - we are still subject to this loving gaze a love which cares for the whole tangled bundle that makes us who we are?
And what difference would it make if we began to see that everyone around us , waitresses , tourists , cleaners , immigrants asylum seekers businessmen the people next door were also held in the same overwhelming loving gaze ?
And what difference would it make if we believed that this love made no distinction between people more worthy or less worthy , no distinction of race , religion , age , innocence strength or beauty rather it was a lavish and indiscriminate love , like the sun sharing its warmth's with all creation .
It is easy to say these things but to believe them to let this truth percolate down through all our layers of resistance is what prayer is about .
In prayer , by just being still , not doing anything in particular just gently putting aside all our immediate pressing concerns and sharing in the company of God for his sake alone and not what we can get out of him we are opening ourselves to His loving gaze .
And the fruits of this prayer is that we will begin to see the world through God`s eyes . We begin to see ourselves through his eyes . Our vision is changed .
We begin to have a sense that we are called to gaze out into our world with the same disposition that God gazes out towards us . And this is not our activity or our work it is God`s activity his work in us .
In prayer we allow God to work on us we give him space to slowly chip away everything that prevents us from reflecting his love .
So time in prayer is not an option , it is life giving . It changes us and the world around us .
Well what about the Sun`s newspaper request for prayer .
Of course God loves Wayne Rooney but maybe the miracle God has in store is that England may still win without him .
posted by Father Paul at 8:38 AM
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