Sermon - Take care one's life does not consist in the abundance of ones possessions

“Take care one`s life does not consist in the abundance of ones possessions” In the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit. There is a story of a young girl on a world cruise having dinner one evening at the captain's table . She notices that seated next to her an elderly lady had on her finger the largest diamond ring she had ever seen . “What a beautiful diamond” she exclaims “its enormous” . “Are yes” the owner replies “it is the Gootennhiemer diamond” , “but it comes with a curse” “A curse? ” “Yes Mr Gootennhiemer” Wealth is not a curse , wealth is not a vice . What we are being warned about in this morning`s gospel is greed . The greek word , Luke`s uses here is “pleonexia” an insatiable desire to always want more and more and more and more . The ancient world likened “pleonexia” to an illness called dropsy . Those with dropsy always craved for more water to drink and yet the more they drank the worst they became. Wealth in itself is not wicked , the Good Samaritan used his wealth to good effect . In Bishop Richard Harries book “Is there a gospel for the rich?” he argues the economically successful are not barred from salvation what matters about my whopping city bonus is what I do with it” . “It is those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God” that concerns Jesus . The perilous human condition is not the well healed life but the unexamined life . Where do our priorities lie ? What do we really build our lives around ? Where in the end do we place our security our sense of self ? The builder of barnes in this morning parable is about to have his life examined , is about to discover what his life really consisted in. Was he rich towards God ? In last weeks Guardian there was an article entitled “Living with less has enriched me” The writer Kar Dunlop found herself in a situation where circumstances forced her to downsize to a flat 10 times smaller than her former home . “Its transformed me from a shopaholic to a minimalist” A small place forces you to pause , ask : Do I need it ? Where am I going to put it ? She no longer has a television , “but why should you need one” she writes “when all around you events unfold before my eyes from my vantage point I can see all that is going on in my street” . She has rediscovered her neighbours . She is becoming rich in other ways . Being rich towards God is being able to enjoy the world around us without wanting to posses it . Being rich towards God is being able to take delight in the world He has made because we are no longer anxious about loosing a part of it or wanting always to acquire it . And because we are no longer anxious about wanting something or loosing something we can give them our undivided attention and simply enjoy them for what they are . And of course this includes our relationships as well . True wealth is an inner disposition of trust that what we most need will always be given to us in our moment of need and not before .This inner wealth is not a possession I can hoard or gloat over and inspect as a miser hoards and counts his money . This inner wealth becomes accessible only as the occasion demands . It lies latent within us and it is only the circumstances of our lives that call it forth . It is when we face a crisis that we discover resources within ourselves we were until then unaware . We can not store or possess these resources they only surface when we need them and for the most part we are unaware of them . This richness towards God is trusting that He will always give us the resources , the wealth we need when the moment comes and not before . So we have no need to trust in what we posses , rather we can begin to live without worry and without fretting . “Do not be anxious about tomorrow, says Jesus “tomorrow will take care of it self ” . If we can truly live from this one statement of Jesus , not to be anxious about tomorrow then we are truly rich , rich towards God . Amen.

Sermon - Be persistent in prayer

Be persistent in prayer. There was in the Independent newspaper a few years ago an article about Barbara Cartland . She was asked how she began a new story . “I always pray for a good plot” she replied.”Yes I start by praying for a good plot” . The article ended with the statement . Barbara Cartland has written over 400 plots that is over 400 hundred unanswered prayers . In Keith Wards book “Christianity” “a guide for the perplexed” he writes “Prayer is love of the good and beautiful”. For Keith Ward prayer begins by loving what is good and beautiful around us . To love something is to contemplate it , pay attention to , appreciate and enjoy it . Part of prayer is to attend to and delight in all beautiful and good things - going to a concert handing ourselves over to the music is a form of prayer . Going to an art gallery and really paying attention to the pictures around us is a form of prayer . Last week I went to Tate Britain to see the Turner water colours I left the exhibition with a renewed sense of wonder and a positive feeling about life . Reading a good novel and thereby seeing the world through the imagination and sensitivity of its author is a form of prayer . The enjoyment of friends and shared activities be it rowing on the Thames early in the morning or simply spending time pottering in the garden being close to nature or practising Ti Chi is a form of prayer . In all these activities something of God`s beauty and light is reaching out towards us . The good and the beautiful wherever we find it has the potential to lift us out of ourselves and give us a renewed sense of hope and life. While on holiday we have the time to explore these avenues of prayer . But there is also another form of prayer , the desire to put ourselves at the disposal of God`s own spirit . In other words to be open to gifts of his Spirit . The first gift we can pray for is the gift of love . A love which both delights in the joys of others and shares in their sorrows . We should pray that we find real happiness in the happiness of others that their joy is our joy. There should be no envy or resentment in the happiness of others rather a real concern that others find the happiness they long for . We should pray never to harm others even when they harm us but always be concerned for their good. To pray for this gift of love is to share in the spirit of love , God`s own spirit transforming our spirit. His light and beauty enlightening us momentarily transfiguring us. We could pray for the spirit of joy . Joy is a gift of the spirit something of God`s own joy for which we can ask to have a share in .To have a joyful mind is always to think of things that will make human lives more beautiful and to be thankful for all good things however small . We could pray for the gift of peace . To be at peace is to be calm in all things , calm in the knowledge that we are grounded in God , who cannot be injured or destroyed by anything at all . We could pray for the gift of patience . Patience is that capacity not to insist upon things happening just when and as we wish . Patience is that ability to act as well as we can in any given situation and leave the outcome to God . The list is endless : kindness , generosity , faithfulness, gentleness , self-control . These are all gifts of God`s own Spirit , his life on offer to us . His desire to share something of himself with us , his kindness his generosity his gentleness his life . So often we see prayer as asking for things , rather than sharing in a life richer and deeper than our own , the life of God`s own spirit coming alive within us . Barbara CARTLAND was nearer to the truth than her critics realised . We can all pray for a good plot , the story line of our own lives that it may reflect something of the beauty and goodness of God himself . Lord of heaven and earth , as Jesus taught his disciples to be persistent in prayer , give us patience and courage never to loose hope but always to bring our prayers before you ; through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen