SERMON 24 JULY 2016 10th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

SERMON  24 JULY 2016

10th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Collect

Living God, you raise us to fullness of life in Christ: teach us to pray and grant us hopeful persistence in seeking your will and your way; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen

Readings:

Hosea 1:2-10 / Genesis 18:20-32

20 Then the Lord said, ‘How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! 21 I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know.’

22 So the men turned from there, and went towards Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord.[a] 23 Then Abraham came near and said, ‘Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?’ 26 And the Lord said, ‘If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.’ 27 Abraham answered, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?’ And he said, ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.’ 29 Again he spoke to him, ‘Suppose forty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of forty I will not do it.’ 30 Then he said, ‘Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.’ He answered, ‘I will not do it, if I find thirty there.’ 31 He said, ‘Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.’ 32 Then he said, ‘Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.’

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Psalm 85 / 138 

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Colossians 2:6-15 (16-19)

6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives[a] in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

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8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe,[b] and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision,[c] by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; 12 when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God[d] made you[e] alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, 14 erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed[f] the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

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(16 Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths. 17 These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling[g] on visions,[h] puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,[i] 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.)

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Luke 11:1-13

11 He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ 2 He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:

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Father,[a] hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.[b] 3 Give us each day our daily bread.[c]4And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.

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Perseverance in Prayer

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5 And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” 7 And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

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9 ‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for[e] a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit[f] to those who ask him!’

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Footnotes:

Luke 11:2 Other ancient authorities read Our Father in heaven

Luke 11:2 A few ancient authorities read Your Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us. Other ancient authorities add Your will be done, on earth as in heaven

Luke 11:3 Or our bread for tomorrow

Luke 11:4 Or us into temptation. Other ancient authorities add but rescue us from the evil one (or from evil)

Luke 11:11 Other ancient authorities add bread, will give a stone; or if your child asks for

Luke 11:13 Other ancient authorities read the Father give the Holy Spirit from heaven

Did you know, Jesus … “2 … called a child, who he put among them, 3 and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’.” [Matthew 18:2-4]? What do you think this means?

For me, Jesus is talking about children who don’t think they know better than God, and who trust God enough to throw themselves completely into God’s care, the way my children, when they were little, used to throw themselves at me, knowing I’d catch them…

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What do you think?

Jesus promises to give us good gifts, the gift of the Holy Spirit, if we ask…. What gifts has Jesus given you? Who is the Holy Spirit?

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THE BEST GIFT IS GOD, THE HOLY SPIRIT, LIVING IN US, GUIDING US, HELPING US…

I have a fun new prayer to share with you…

We really can learn about prayer from children….

I find it a bit sad when we take what Jesus teaches about prayer in this passage as meaning we must literally pray the Lord’s prayer, instead of looking at the spirit of Jesus’ prayer – how it shows His close relationship with God, where Jesus uses the Aramaic “Abba” or “Daddy” for God which is so much more personal than the usual translation of “Our Father”.

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Jesus’ prayer goes on in this intimate way – as he acknowledging God as heavenly, powerful, amazing, praiseworthy… Jesus really opens His heart to God, praying how He yearns most for God to be honoured and listened to, obeyed in love, seen as Lord by us on earth, as God is in heaven.

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Jesus prays for God to meet our needs, our daily bread, and for us to forgive, and be forgiven, remembering all glory, all power, all majesty belongs to God, for ever, and ever…. AMEN!

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Thomas Merton, one of my favourite mystics wrote a similarly heart-felt prayer “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” [Thoughts in Solitude]

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Doesn’t that resonate with you? It resonates with me, as I face my struggles, temptations, doubts….

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A friend of mine, a faithful Christian who I haven’t seen in a while popped in to see me at work on Friday morning, and told me he was in a very difficult situation – he described how, this last week, he had had to close his company that he had been running for 30 years…. I know how he has been persevering, guided by God, as we have journeyed together for 18 of these years, how he had never given up, always trusting God, giving each and every difficulty to God, and how God had always saved him, but this time, God didn’t…

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My dear friend, with tears in his eyes, described how confused he was, and how people had told him he should “let go, and let God take care of things”, but he asked “what does this mean?”

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There’s an old saying that we should “pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on you.” It’s been attributed to St. Ignatius (though there’s no evidence that he actually said it), yet many think it captures the Ignatian spirit: turning it all over to God in prayer and then working tirelessly and urgently to do God’s work. I told him about this saying, and comforted him with my heartfelt belief that God had known how hard he had worked, how he had done his best, honestly honouring God and “running with perseverance the race set before him”, and that surely God was saying enough, my good and faithful servant, I know am taking you to do something new”, and how God, who had faithfully been by his side all these years, would not forsake him now, and I believe it – I know God hears our prayers, and answers them as is best for us, but not always the way we think is best for us…. In tough times, one of my mantras is “God works to the good in all things for those who love Him” [Rom 8:28].

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I read an interesting twist on this St. Ignatius’ saying, where the author reverses it to be: “pray as if everything depends on you, work as if everything depends on God” …

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What does he mean? He explains it by saying the intention is for prayer to be urgent: God has to do something dramatic if everything depends on me.  It also puts our work in the right perspective: if it depends on God, we can let it go.  We can work hard, but leave the outcome up to God.  If God is in charge, we can tolerate mixed results and endure failure.

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Ignatius writes about work and human effort in a letter to an aristocrat named Jerome Vines, whom I imagine was a busy, hard-charging, Type A character (like my friend who has lost his business), who was getting upset about the fate of his many projects. Ignatius writes, “people must make up their minds to do what they can, without afflicting themselves if they cannot do all that they wish to do. We must have patience and not think that God, our Lord, requires what we cannot accomplish.”

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Ignatius concludes with this: “There is no need to wear yourself out, but make a competent and sufficient effort, and leave the rest to God who can do all God pleases.”

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Somehow, I find this comforting, and I hope my friend finds it comforting, and I hope you too find it comforting….

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We need prayer to be more about our relationship with God, more about learning to trust God more, more about discovering prayer as a way for us to align our desires and our perspectives with God’s eternal, perfect perspective and desires, in and through the Holy Spirit God so generously gives us, rather than trying to get God to give us what we want…. Jesus’ prayer is about aligning our desires and our perspectives with God’s, as is Merton’s pray, as is St Ignatius’….

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If our prayers too are about God, about us really seeking God’s path, seeking the good gift, the perfect gift of the Holy Spirit, who helps us align our desires and our perspectives with God’s, who whispers into our hearts and minds and souls, showing us the world, people, all creation through God’s eyes, then, surely, we shall not be disappointed, surely we’ll know peace that doesn’t depend on circumstances, but the true peace that can only come from trusting God, throwing ourselves into His care, like children throwing themselves into their Daddy’s arms, knowing God will work to the good in all things, because that is just God’s nature….…

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And our readings show it!

As sinful Sodom and Gomorrah are, for the sake of ten, God would save them…

Paul, exhorts us to continue to live our lives rooted and built up in Jesus, trusting Him, abounding in thanksgiving.

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Pauls warns us not to let anyone take us captive through deceit, as we have come to fullness in Him, who is the Head of every ruler and authority. Paul reminds us we are buried with him in baptism, and also raised with him through faith made alive together with Him, when he set all that is bad aside, triumphing over evil.

(Paul reminds us to not let anyone condemn us with rules, the mere shadow of what is to come, as the substance belongs to Christ, the head, to whom we need to hold fast, as he nourishes and holds us, his body on earth, as we grow and mature through God.)

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In our Gospel reading, Jesus himself tells us to Persevere in Prayer. He reminds us, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened... If we then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask!’

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Amen!

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Rev Gavin Smith